Any manufacturer of complex machines or vehicles that include a human machine interface (HMI) must face a crucial decision: should you build your own human machine interface or should you buy these vital components ready-made or customized from an outside source? QSI addresses this important issue in the white paper, "Rugged Operator Interfaces: Build versus Buy". This white paper provides readers with pros and cons to tough questions to consider when deciding whether to build a human machine interface solution in-house or buy a third-party HMI.

Many key tasks in the manufacture of products, including inspection, orientation, identification and assembly, require the use of visual techniques. Human vision and response, however, can be slow and tend to be error-prone either due to boredom or fatigue. Replacing human inspection with machine vision can go far in automating factory operation, but implementers need to carefully match vision options with application requirements.

For the latest technical information in the area of high precision motion control, check out these white papers developed by R&D experts at HEIDENHAIN Corporation. HEIDENHAIN is a premier manufacturer of linear encoders, angular encoders, rotary encoders, digital readouts, and numerical controls. These products are delivered to manufacturers of machine tools and manufacturers of automated facilities and machines.

• Mechanically Driven Diaphragm Pumps for Use with Gases (52 pages)
• Self-Cleaning Vacum Pumps... A Solution for Applications Producing Condensation
• Transferring and Metering Liquids with High-Speed Diaphragm Pumps
• Guidelines for Selecting Small Pumps
• Metering Pump Designs
• The Logical Path - The Application of Ceramics to Diaphragm Pumps
• Selecting the Right Pumping System for Your Device
• Sample Pump is Key to Instrument Reliability
• Compressors and Vacuum Pumps that Meet Medical Demands
• Selecting the Right Pump for the Job
• It’s the Diaphragm that Does It
• The Structure of a Diaphragm

Download technical white papers, and more, at the Minco E2E - Engineer to Engineer - Community. Our educational white papers help spur design ideas for thermal prototyping and temperature sensing. Also get valuable tips on the E2E Discussion Forum, and special offers on Minco design kits. Join the E2E Community at: www.minco.com/e2e/

With the availability of higher performance plastics and newer manufacturing techniques, plastic enclosures can be used to protect electrical and electronic equipment in a wider range of applications. Before enclosure selection, the design engineer must consider factors relating to his application. This white paper discusses these factors, including enclosure size, plastic material, gasket material, environmental rating, and enclosure customization.

Request this FREE 20-page Guide to help you evaluate and compare your ideal hardware options for more accurate, smooth, pinpoint positioning control. Learn how torque, detent, stored energy, bi-stable and damping hardware devices can make heavy panels feel light, display screens tilt and swivel into versatile viewing angles, touch- screens accommodate optimum user interaction, and more.

When MTS Systems built its ISTIR Advanced Friction Stir Welding developed system, it kept its sensor selection in the family by choosing MTS Sensors' Temposonics linear-position sensors to ensure the precision and repeatability of its machines. ISTIR PDS is the first fully instrumented friction stir welding system capable of performing load-controlled welds along three independent axes.

This case study discusses the history of the friction stir welding process, the creation of the ISTIR Process Development System (PDS) and the MTS Systems products that were chosen for use in the ISTIR Process Development System.

With manufacturing teams dispersed worldwide, effective design collaboration is paramount to the success of the product development efforts. Today’s 3D design tools enable users to make design changes quickly, shorten design cycles, reduce physical prototyping, collaborate more efficiently, and better control and leverage their CAD data. 

This paper discusses the benefits of: 
o Speeding up design changes
o Facilitating design collaboration 
o Improving data management
o Leveraging value of 3D models 
o Reducing costly prototyping
o Get to market faster 

Delta Computer Systems’ electronic motion controllers excel at moving multiple hydraulic or mechanical axes and controlling force to generate flexible, precise testing scenarios that emulate real-world stresses and operating conditions on production units. The whitepaper shows how closed-loop motion control can simplify the setup and tuning of non-destructive testing scenarios.