May 8, 2008

Power Ott Jakob drawbars from Advanced Machine & Engineering, Rockford, Ill. (ame.com), use hydraulics in a modular system to hold cutting tools securely in place.

Engineers at alpha gear drives Inc., Bartlett, Ill. (alphagear.com), have applied an old principle, feedback control, to a traditional piece of hardware, the gearbox, to come up with the alphaIQ gearbox.

It is long past the time when inventors only needed to worry about protecting their ideas in the U.S. Global patent protection is a must.

The U.S. Bowling Congress wanted a way to measure friction or, more exactly, the coefficient of friction, on bowling lanes to make sure the lanes in tournaments met its standards and were uniform over their entire surface.

Screw-driven linear slides let Deena, a robot, quickly prepare samples to be tested for mercury and other metals.

Making analysis a design feature

If you love fresh seafood and own a wet suit, the sQuba could be the perfect car for you.

How to manipulate 3D almost anywhere

June 8-12 — The 2008 World Congress on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials (PM2008 World Congress) attracts powder metallurgists and industry leaders from more than 40 countries.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories must hate batteries: They heat them to extreme temperatures, overcharge them, drive nails into them, and generally do whatever they can to destroy them.

10 YEARS AGO — MAY 7, 1998 Virtual development for aircraft: Lockheed Martin will perfect the Joint Strike Fighter and other advanced aircraft with the help of visualization software from Engineering Automation Inc.

CFLs make cents In regards to all the letters bashing CFL’s in the March 20 issue: I have been using CFLs for the last 7 years or so.

Remember when motocross was a loud, dirty sport?

HydraForce Inc. in Lincolnshire, Ill., says software from Caterpillar OEM Solutions, Peoria, Ill., helped it program the electrohydraulics controls for the Multi-hammer Processor.

Scanning technology, hardware, and software have advanced such that more and more firms can make use of digital representations of physical objects in production workflows.

The U.S. gained 91,400 high-tech jobs last year, bringing the total to 5.9 million, according to a report by AeA, a high-tech trade association.

Steering-angle sensors from Bosch in Germany provide information about the position of the steering wheel for the electronic stability programs that help keep vehicles steerable during skids.

Electronic commands passed from machine to machine over data networks drive many modern production lines.

During the second half of the 20th century, strong demand in the U.S. for trained science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals fueled significant growth across all of science and its allied fields.

Sabic Innovative Plastics, Pittsfield, Mass., has opened a major production line at its Chung-Ju, Korea facility.

There is a lot of handwringing in the press these days about the need for an educated workforce.

Metal detectives investigate Titanic sinking In "What Really Sank the Titanic," metallurgist Timothy Foecke and materials scientist Jennifer Hooper McCarty recount their investigation into what brought about the loss of the world's most advanced ocean liner, as well as 1,500 passengers and crew - the deck-plate rivet.

The global market for materialhandling equipment will reach $104 billion by 2010, according to a report by market researcher Global Industry Analysts Inc.

EasyLock shaft collars from Amacoil Inc., Aston, Pa., (amacoil.com) can exert 90 to 1,124 lb of holding force on case-hardened shafts (Rockwell 55 or higher) using a flat metal ring canted at an angle along the shaft.

The growing number of plug-in hybrid electric cars and trucks may or may not require new electrical plants in the U.S., depending on when they’re charged.

With projected annual growth of about 5.3% for the 2001-2010 period, the world bicycles market could surpass $61 billion by 2010, according to a report by Global Industry Analysts Inc.

IT guys, programmers, industry analysts, visionary entrepreneurs, software company CEOs, and on-the-job engineers filled the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Arizona for the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software.