Fastening Technology & Bolted Joint Design Seminar
February 27-28, 2007
Detroit, Michigan USA

This two-day seminar gives engineers and technical personnel current specifications for, and a better understanding of, the complexities of mechanical joining with fasteners. Featured topics include bolted/screwed joints, elastic interactions and preload stress, loosening causalities, tightening methods, calculating safety factors and limitations, selecting optimal fasteners for your design, evaluating dissimilar materials for thermal expansion and galvanic properties, and insights into materials, threads, and product standards.

For full details and to register click here, or call 1-877-755-2272 (USA) or 973-560-9092, or contact info@SeminarsForEngineers.com.

Bill Sheredy heads NASA’s Smoke Aerosol Measurement Experiment (SAME), implemented to design smoke detection devices operable in the micro-gravity environments found in the International Space Station and space shuttle. Fire is deadly and unpredictable on Earth; in an enclosed space vehicle in orbit, its presence takes on even more serious implications. Micro-gravity smoke also has different properties than terrestial smoke. SAME is a part of the larger Fire Prevention, Detection, and Suppression Program at NASA, developing smoke sensors for space and terrestrial applications.

Read the “Who’s Who at NASA” interview with Bill Sheredy on page 10 of the January issue, or here.

“Micro-needles” have been disclosed that are characterized by their sharpness and side holes that prevent the coring phenomenon seen in standard needles. The needles can be several hundreds of microns in length and avoid most pain receptors in the skin. The sharpness ensures minimal damage to the skin.
Click here to view this technology.

A needle design has been disclosed featuring four strategically-placed lateral perforations to allow fluid dispersion over a large, localized surface area, thereby reducing or even eliminating distension pain.
Click here to view this technology.

The Technologies of the Week describe inventions offered for license through the yet2.com marketplace. Search over $2.5 billion of licensable technologies at http://www.techbriefs.com/techsearch.

Scientists at Hematech (Sioux Falls, SD) have genetically engineered a dozen “prion-protein-knockout” cows to be free from the proteins that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Prion protein is a natural cellular protein that can become misfolded into infectious particles and cause BSE and a lethal variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans. Healthy prion-protein-free calves should be useful in investigating the function of normal cellular prion protein and the nature of prion diseases. Additionally, the cows should be useful as a source of prion-protein-free products.

Symptoms of BSE can take as long as two years to diagnose; the Hematech team expects key results later this year from calves injected with BSE. The experiment does not aim to produce new disease-resistant herds, rather, to develop medical procedures and medicines for people infected with brain-wasting conditions thought to be caused by misfolded prions.

Click here for more information.

Nanotech Briefs(R) magazine has announced a “Call for Nominations” for its third annual Nano 50 awards competition. The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products with the greatest potential to advance the commercialization of nanotechnology.

There is no cost to submit a nomination. All nominations must be submitted by March 16, 2007.For complete rules, and to submit a nomination, visit the official Web site.