Application Briefs: Lighting
Philips recently unveiled what it claims is the world’s smartest web-enabled LED home lighting system. Philips hue allows you to create and control the light in your home...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Practical UAV Optical Sensor Bench With Minimal Adjustability
A multiple-pass optical platform eliminates essentially all optical alignment degrees of freedom, save one. A fourpass absorption spectrometer architecture is made rigid by firmly mounting dielectric-coated mirror prisms with no alignment capability to the platform. The laser diode...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Particle seeding is a key diagnostic component of filter testing and flow imaging techniques. Typical particle generators rely on pressurized air or gas sources to propel the particles into the flow field....
Products: Lighting
Light Efficient Design (North Barrington, IL) recently introduced its new LED-8025 Garage / Utility light. Designed for low bay applications in parking structures and warehouses, this patent pending lamp replaces...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
In many applications, an optical detector has to be located relative to mechanical reference points. One solution is to specify stringent requirements on (1) mounting the optical detector relative...
Articles: Motion Control
Productivity and accuracy are important attributes in the competition for machine tools. Five-axis machining provides considerable potential for increasing productivity. In...
Briefs: Medical
Dramatic improvements have been made in NASA’s Whole Blood Staining Device (WBSD) since it was last described in “Whole-Blood- Staining Device,” (MSC-22614) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 10...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Transpiration-Cooled Spacecraft-Insulation-Repair Fasteners
Transpiration-cooled fasteners are proposed that operate like an open-loop heat pipe (self-tapping screws, bolts, and spikes) for use in on-orbit repair of thermal-insulation of a space shuttle or other spacecraft. By limiting the temperature rise of such a fastener and of the adjacent...
Articles: Motion Control
Reducing design time is critical in engineering because the result is lower costs and faster time to market. Design time often includes a number of non-value-added activities such as re-design,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
HEXPANDO Expanding Head for Fastener-Retention Hexagonal Wrench
The HEXPANDO is an expanding-head hexagonal wrench designed to retain fasteners and keep them from being dislodged from the tool. The tool is intended to remove or install socket-head cap screws (SHCSs) in remote, hard-to-reach locations or in circumstances when a dropped fastener...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Cryogenic-Compatible Winchester Connector Mount and Retaining System for Composite Tubes
A connector retainer and mounting system has been designed to replace screw-mounting of Winchester connectors. Countersunk screws are normally used to secure connectors to structures, and to keep them from coming apart. These screws are normally put into...
Application Briefs: Motion Control
Pricing pressures, intense competition, and strict regulatory demands are challenging scientists and researchers in the fast-growing, highly-regulated pharmaceutical,...
Products: Lighting
The CL Series LED lighting fixture from Selco Products Company (Reno, NV) is designed for 12V-24V DC systems in a variety of transportation and outdoor lighting applications. The fixtures feature a wide operating...
Articles: Motion Control
In 1938, General Electric began producing a two-phase synchronous induction motor which, at 60 Hz, ran at 75 RPM. The low speed resulted from using a different number of rotors to stator poles or teeth, which...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
RuO₂ Thermometer for Ultra-Low Temperatures
A small, high-resolution, low-power thermometer has been developed for use in ultra-low temperatures that uses multiple RuO₂ chip resistors. The use of commercially available thick-film RuO₂ chip resistors for measuring cryogenic temperatures is well known due to their low cost, long-term...
Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Bal Seal Engineering
Foothill Ranch, CA
949-460-2100
www.balseal.com
When astronauts embarked on the latest mission to repair the Hubble Space...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Electric Actuators Deliver Energy Efficient, Low Maintenance Solutions
Machine designers and end users find themselves balancing sometimes opposing priorities such as improving energy efficiency while minimizing adverse impact on the environment, at the same time ensuring performance (e.g., precision, reliability) is not compromised. A key trend...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Students trained in classic mechanical engineering are taught to construct a system using conventional mechanical components to convert rotary into linear motion. Converting rotary to linear motion can be...
Application Briefs: Medical
Spiralock Fasteners Safeguard Reliability for Medical Lasers and Implants
Failure is not an option when it comes to medical equipment. From critical or sensitive devices like lasers, MRI scanners, knee joints, and implantable pacemakers to instruments as straightforward as stethoscopes, when life is at stake, medical equipment must be...
Articles: Motion Control
Slip clutches are commonly used to protect against overloads, but they can solve many other problems as well. Their applications include increasing machine speeds, applying constant tension to webs...
Articles: Medical
Kristina Irsch Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Amblyopia, commonly known as “lazy eye,” is the leading cause of vision loss in...
Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Heidenhain Encoders Help TRW Machine Ford SUV Parts
TRW has been making parts for the automotive industry for many years, but when Ford Automotive considered giving them the contract to manufacture the rear toe-links for their Navigator and Expedition SUVs, their traditional lathes were considered inadequate for the task. The solution was to...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An apparatus has been developed for measuring the low concentrations of liquid water and ice in relatively dry soil samples. Designed as a prototype of instruments for measuring the...
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Echo Hill Automation Inc., a Beamsville, Ontario, Canada company founded by mechanical engineers and brothers Dan and Harry Schellenberg, has grown from a small two-man operation...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Acceptance of telecom industry standards for rack-mounted server equipment — in the form of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturer’s Group (PICMG)...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Linear motors and actuators are now cost-competitive with ball screws and belt drives and offer distinctly superior agility and bandwidth for advanced positioning applications. New...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The figure depicts selected aspects of a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) stage for mechanical adjustment of an optical component. The six degrees of freedom are translations along the Cartesian axes...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The CubeSat standard (10 × 10 × 10 cm and weighing 1kg) has evolved into one of the most widely accepted families of picosatellite designs. A CubeSat...
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Traditionally, once they are shaped, but before they are mounted, diamonds are rated by the “4 Cs” — clarity, color, carat, and cut. Modern gemology, however, grades finished diamonds by a more...
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