Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Process for Making a Noble Metal on Tin Oxide Catalyst
To produce a noble metal-on-metal oxide catalyst on an inert, high-surface-area support material (that functions as a catalyst at approximately room temperature using chloride-free reagents), for use in a carbon dioxide laser, requires two steps: First, a commercially available, inert,...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Corrosion-Resistant Container for Molten-Material Processing
In a carbothermal process, gaseous methane is passed over molten regolith, which is heated past its melting point to a temperature in excess of 1,625 °C. At this temperature, materials in contact with the molten regolith (or regolith simulant) corrode and lose their structural...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Pipe Creek, TX
BreezeRite, an indoor air modular filtration system, attaches to new or existing ceiling fans,...
Application Briefs: Lighting
Proto Labs, Maple Plain, MN
Richard Sant, Chief Designer at OceanLED, sought a fast and flexible way to make low-cost, high-quality components for the firm’s latest LED...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Graphene-Based Reversible Nano-Switch/ Sensor Schottky Diode
This proof-of-concept device consists of a thin film of graphene deposited on an electrodized doped silicon wafer. The graphene film acts as a conductive path between a gold electrode deposited on top of a silicon dioxide layer and the reversible side of the silicon wafer, so as to...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Over the past 20 years, additive manufacturing technology has migrated from use in rapid prototyping to a full-fledged manufacturing solution, which is referred to as “direct digital...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Reactivation of a Tin-Oxide-Containing Catalyst
The electrons in electric-discharge CO2 lasers cause dissociation of some CO2 into O2 and CO, and attach themselves to electronegative molecules such as O2, forming negative O2 ions, as well as larger negative ion clusters by collisions with CO...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Military and aerospace industries use Mil-Spec type electrical connections on bulkhead panels that require inline access for mate and demate operations. These connectors are usually in tight...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Bulk shape memory alloys, such as Nitinol or CuAlZn, display strong recovery forces undergoing a phase transformation after being strained in their martensitic state. These recovery...
Briefs: Materials
A method was developed of synthesizing agglutinates as components of simulated Lunar regolith. The method is needed for further development of Lunar-exploration capabilities...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A holographic vortex coronagraph (HVC) has been proposed as an improvement over conventional coronagraphs for use in high-contrast astronomical imaging for detecting planets, dust disks, and other broadband...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Lightweight Heat Pipes Made From Magnesium
Magnesium has shown promise as a lighter-weight alternative to the aluminum alloys now used to make the main structural components of axially grooved heat pipes that contain ammonia as the working fluid. Magnesium heat-pipe structures can be fabricated by conventional processes that include extrusion,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A simple design concept for check valves has been adopted for microfluidic devices that consist mostly of (1) deformable fluorocarbon polymer membranes sandwiched between (2) borosilicate float...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
In a perfect imaging system, light exists as a spherical wave that converges to form a point image. However, in practice wavefront aberrations act to perturb the wavefront from its ideal...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Foil Gas Thrust Bearings for High-Speed Turbomachinery
A methodology has been developed for the design and construction of simple foil thrust bearings intended for parametric performance testing and low marginal costs, supporting continued development of oil-free turbomachinery. A bearing backing plate is first machined and surface-ground to...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
The computing press is full of discussions about multicore systems, defined here as single-chip computers containing two or more processing cores each connected to a common shared memory...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An adaptive-nulling method has been proposed to augment the nulling-optical-interferometry method of detection of Earth-like planets around distant stars. The method is intended to...
Briefs: Materials
Optimized Li-Ion Electrolytes Containing Fluorinated Ester Co-Solvents
A number of experimental lithium-ion cells, consisting of MCMB (meso-carbon microbeads) carbon anodes and LiNi0.8Co0.2O2 cathodes, have been fabricated with increased safety and expanded capability. These cells serve to verify and demonstrate...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A technique for reducing in-flight loss of closed-cell foam insulation has been devised. In the original application, foam is used for thermal insulation on the external tank of the space shuttle. As the space...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Increasingly competitive markets make efficient and accurate processes more critical than ever before. To meet the demands of manufacturers, machine builders...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
In the process of connecting widely distributed antennas into a coherent array, it is necessary to synchronize the timing of signals at the various locations. This...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An improved class of formulations for PMR polyimide resins retards the imidization that undesirably occurs during handling and storage. While imidization is desired at the final...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Integrated Spacesuit Audio System Enhances Speech Quality and Reduces Noise
A new approach has been proposed for increasing astronaut comfort and speech capture. Currently, the special design of a spacesuit forms an extreme acoustic environment making it difficult to capture clear speech without compromising comfort. The current system, called...
Application Briefs: Software
Vistagy
Waltham, MA
781-250-6800
www.vistagy.com
When NASA originally considered employing composites in...
Briefs: Materials
A further improvement has been made to reduce the high-temperature thermal conductivities of the aerogel-matrix composite materials described in “Improved Silica Aerogel Composite...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Pressure-energized seal rings intended to withstand flows better than do conventional pressure-energized seal rings have been conceived. The concept applies, more specifically, to seal...
Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
For 3D viewing to be convenient on small, portable devices, it must be autostereoscopic, thus eliminating the requirement for 3D “glasses.” The display devices must also provide 2D and 3D...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Light-driven polymeric bimorph actuators are being developed as alternatives to prior electrically and optically driven actuators in advanced, highly miniaturized devices and systems exemplified by...
Briefs: Software
MAGIC: Model and Graphic Information Converter
MAGIC is a software tool capable of converting highly detailed 3D models from an open, standard format, VRML 2.0/97, into the proprietary DTS file format used by the Torque Game Engine from GarageGames. MAGIC is used to convert 3D simulations from authoritative sources into the data needed to run...
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