Cobot Enables Production Leap with Automated Stacking

Mi Rancho has been delighting customers with authentic and fresh tortillas, chips, and salsas since its establishment in 1939. Originally founded as a grocery store in Oakland, CA, the business has evolved into a food provider for large nation-wide retail partners. To enable continued growth, Mi Rancho recently partnered with Formic to introduce robotic automation to their food processing and packaging production operations. Read on to learn more.

Solvent-Based Recycling Process

By reclaiming polymers in plastics, the process could cut down on millions of tons of plastic waste.

Process Turns Plastic Bags into Adhesives

A chemical process converts polyethylene plastic into a strong, valuable adhesive.

Novel Antenna Concept for CubeSat Platforms

While this technology was designed for CubeSats, it may be utilized in any technology that utilizes a structural frame, such as drones.

5 Ws of the Paper-Based Keypad

Users can take paper sheets from a notebook and turn them into a music player interface or make food packaging interactive.

Protecting the New Generation of Sensors and Electronics: Smarter and Smaller Requires Advanced Protection

For nearly 50 years, engineers in the electronics, aerospace, defense, medical device, and transportation industries have relied on Parylene coatings.

Layered Composite Insulation

This cost-saving piping insulation has uses in refrigerated containers that protect food, medicine, and other perishables.

Self-Cleaning, Non-Stick Coating

The coating can prevent the transfer of antibiotic-resistant superbugs and other bacteria in settings ranging from hospitals to kitchens.

Packaging for SiC Sensors and Electronics

This packaging provides protection for SiC sensors and electronics in harsh, hightemperature environments.

Robots Track Moving Objects with Sub-Centimeter Accuracy

A system was developed that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to help robots target moving objects with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The system could enable greater...

Laser Measurement Sensors Solve High-Speed Package Profiling

Banner EngineeringPlymouth, MNwww.bannerengineering.com Sorting parcels and packages prior to delivery is an essential step in shipping and handling. Order fulfillment applications...

Cryo-Fluid Capacitor (CFC)

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has created the Cryo-Fluid Capacitor (CFC) that capitalizes on the energy storage capacity of liquefied gases, and the relative simplicity of high-pressure gas bottles while...

5 Ws of The Sentinel Wrap

Who Food manufacturers, as well as manufacturers of medical supplies and instruments.

Efficient Packaging Process for One-Piece Deployable Thin Membrane

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is building a small CubeSat that uses an 85-m2 solar sail deployed from a central location to capture the push of photons from the Sun as...

Solid-State Humidity Sensing Element

Researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have developed a solid-state humidity sensing element that offers ultra-high sensitivity across a wide range of humidity levels. The sensing element is...

Products of Tomorrow

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that innovation.

Method for Inflating Uniformly Stiff Tubular Booms

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed a foam-rigidized, inflatable, tubular space boom that can be transported, deployed, and inflated at remote locations. The lightweight device...

Inflatable Airlock Technologies

An airlock used in space can provide the ability to leave a pressurized volume and enter free space. This is necessary to perform maintenance or make repairs to the pressurized volume or visiting spacecraft,...

Solder Bond Packaging for High-Voltage Pulsed Power Devices

The huge demand for switching components exceeding silicon's (Si) current density limitation of 200 A/cm2 has pushed the enhancement of alternative semiconductor materials such as...

Autonomous Vehicles Open Up New Roads for LIDAR Growth

Laser range-finding, or LIDAR, is a way of measuring distance, directly analogous to radar except using radiation in the near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum rather than...

A Modular Apparatus and Method for Attaching Multiple Devices

CERTIFICATES AND SIGNATURES: How to Ensure Authentication in the IoT

On October 21, 2016, the Internet saw a significant distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, conducted via a botnet comprising many co-opted Internet-connected devices....

Printed Electronics: The Future Is Flexible

Low-Cost Printable Electronics Fabrication The need for low-cost and environmentally friendly processes for fabricating printable electronics and biosensor chips is rapidly growing. NASA has...

Energy-Absorbing Beam Member

NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a novel design for a lightweight energy absorbing (EA) composite subfloor structure. The technology’s primary application is to increase occupant survivability in the...