A synthetic leather material delivers a durable touch-feel. The design is based on the way that the human fingertip interacts with surfaces along four different axes of material properties. The fingertip determines whether a surface is soft or hard, smooth or coarse, wet or dry, and warm or...

The PACE Hf, a high-flow proportional valve utilizing a Parker Advanced Technology actuator, delivers 180 slpm of air at 30 psi. The product has low power requirements: steadystate 0.6 Watts max, cycling 15 Hz, 1.2 Watts. The Viva piezoelectric actuator provides repeatability...

An organization seeks innovative processes or coatings for steel. The application requires that a normal force be applied between two lubricated steel surfaces. Excessive normal force results in system power losses and increase in wear; the desired solution will permanently increase the coefficient of friction so...

A company must achieve standard, non-halogenated fire retardancy on cabling. Methods may include plastic compounds, coatings, polymers, or additives. The UL tests define the fire-retardant properties that the cable must exhibit after treatment — notably, ignition resistance, flame spread resistance after ignition,...

The most accurate astronomical data is available from space-based observations that are not impeded by the Earth’s atmosphere. Such measurements may require spectral samples taken as long as decades apart, with the 1 cm/s velocity...

This software allows one to down-sample a measured surface map for model validation, not only without introducing any re-sampling errors, but also eliminating the existing measurement noise and measurement errors.

Thin, lightweight mirrors are needed for future x-ray space telescopes in order to increase x-ray collecting area while maintaining a reduced mass and volume capable of being launched on existing rockets. However, it is very difficult to determine the undistorted shape of such thin mirrors because the...

An interferometric Rayleigh scattering system was developed to enable the measurement of multiple, orthogonal velocity components at several points within very-high-speed or high-temperature flows. The velocity of a gaseous flow can be optically measured by sending laser...