Stories
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Briefs: Data Acquisition
Conductive thread — embroidery thread that can carry an electrical current — often is combined with other types of electronics to create fabric that lights up or communicates. This thread...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This technology is a low-cost RFID-based torque and tension sensor for high-performance fasteners, such as bolts, that are used in sophisticated high-tech equipment and systems. It offers the...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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.
Briefs: Motion Control
The Yale-CMU-Berkeley (YCB) Object and Model Set provides universal benchmarks for labs specializing in robotic manipulation and prosthetics. About two years ago, Aaron Dollar, an associate professor of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Typical lighter-than-air vehicles utilizing a superpressure design such as balloons, aerostats, or blimps, have one or more fittings attached to the gas containment skin that can serve as load attachment...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
ESD Test Apparatus for Soldering Irons
ESDA (Electrostatic Discharge Association) ESD STM 13.1-2000 requires frequent testing of the voltage leakage from the tip of a soldering iron and the resistance from the tip of the soldering iron to the common point ground. Without this test apparatus, the process is time-consuming and requires several wires,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A high-strength, low-weight pressure vessel dome was designed specifically to house a high-pressure [2,000 psi (≈13.8 MPa)] electrolyzer. In operation, the dome is filled with an inert gas...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
In the world of precision motion control there is a continuous pursuit of higher performance, whether it’s resolution, speed, stability, accuracy or step size. Even if a specified device appears on...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Mount Protects Thin-Walled Glass or Ceramic Tubes From Large Thermal and Vibration Loads
The design allows for the low-stress mounting of fragile objects, like thin walled glass, by using particular ways of compensating, isolating, or releasing the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) differences between the mounted object and the mount itself....
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Small-Bolt Torque-Tension Tester
Current torque-tension measurement techniques involve using load washers as the force measuring transducer. The disadvantage of load washers is that they are too large to be used with fasteners smaller than about size #8. The device described here measures the torque-tension relationship for fasteners as small as...
Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
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 reliable.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Installing a Test Tap on a Metal Battery Case
A mechanical fitting and relatively simple and safe method of installing it on the metal case of a battery have been devised to provide access to the interior of the battery to perform inspection and/or to measure such internal conditions as temperature and pressure. A metal boss or stud having an...
Articles: Motion Control
For over a hundred years, machine parts composed of mechanical carbon have provided an alternative solution in applications where temperature and atmosphere conditions prevent the use of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A miniature latching valve has been invented to satisfy a need for an electrically controllable on/off pneumatic valve that is lightweight and compact and remains in the most recently commanded open or closed state when...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The variable-pressure washer (VPW) is a proposed device that is so named because (1) it would play the role similar to that played by an ordinary washer, except that (2) the clamping pressure applied by it would vary...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Fastener Starter
The Fastener Starter is a creative solution to prevent the loss of small fasteners during their installation. This is the only currently available tool that can firmly grip and hold a single screw, bolt, nut, washer, spacer, or any combination of these parts. Other commercially available fastener starters are unable to accommodate...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
For every challenge that may arise when attaching metal or plastic components, a hardware solution usually can be found. When permanently installed threaded hardware is...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Force-Measuring Clamps
Force-measuring clamps have been invented to facilitate and simplify the task of measuring the forces or pressures applied to clamped parts. There is a critical need to measure clamping forces or pressures in some applications — for example, while bonding sensors to substrates or while clamping any sensitive or delicate...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A mount has been devised to satisfy a requirement to suspend a highly precise, flat, circular, low-thermal-expansion glass mirror in a horizontal plane with its reflective side down...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Capacitive Sensor for Measuring Level of Liquid Nitrogen
The feasibility of a capacitive sensor for measuring the level of liquid nitrogen in a container has been demonstrated. The basic sensor design could also readily be adapted to measurement of the levels of cryogenic liquids other than nitrogen.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved electrical connections have been developed for thin-film thermocouples used to measure temperatures on the surfaces of ceramic-matrix composite-material specimens during...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Shape-Memory-Alloy Thermal-Conduction Switches
Variable-thermal-conduction devices containing shape-memory-alloy (SMA) actuators have been proposed for use in situations in which it is desired to switch on (or increase) thermal conduction when temperatures rise above specified values and to switch off (or decrease) thermal conduction when...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Engineers have designed a new device, called the Smart Washer, that can electromagnetically detect bolthole cracks in metal structures. The device is a metal washer that contains a...
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