Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is home to one of the largest buildings in the world — the massive Vehicle Assembly Building — and also hosts a number of one-of-a-kind facilities. The...
Application Briefs: Test & Measurement
Millions of gallons of crude oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico during the seabed oil drilling catastrophe of 2010. Numerous strategies to stop or stem the oil flow...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Deployable Emergency Shutoff Device Blocks High-Velocity Fluid Flows
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a device and method for blocking the flow of fluid from an open pipe. The device plugs, controls, and meters the flow of gases and liquids. Anchored with friction fittings, spikes, or explosively activated fasteners, the device...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA Kennedy Space Center seeks partners interested in the commercial application of the Quick Disconnect for High Pressure Mate/De-Mate. Designed at KSC, this technology is intended for use in...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A component leak test apparatus investigates the performance of fittings at low temperature and/or high pressure. Its performance was quantified by measuring the ability to hold cold pressurized gaseous helium...
Briefs: Propulsion
NASA's Langley Research Center is seeking to improve upon stock stainless steel flame holders. Researchers at NASA Langley have developed a new ceramic design with a service temperature of 4000 °F. The combination of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Eddy-Current-Minimizing Flow Plug for Use in Flow Conditioning and Flow Metering
Innovators at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have developed a suite of prototype fluid plug technologies with an array of capabilities for fluid flow metering, mixing, and conditioning. Each innovation within this suite is based upon a core technology that...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Connection and Repair Techniques for Capillary Tubing in Restrictive Areas and Gas Chromatography Applications
Capillary columns offer challenges in gas chromatography (GC) work due to their small size and fragile nature. Typical repair techniques to join two capillary columns require cumbersome metal fittings. This solution is not applicable in...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Vacuum-Jacketed Cryogenic Flex-Through
A vacuum-jacketed, cryogenic flex hose was designed with an integrated flange to be able to pass through a vacuum chamber wall. This design increases the quality of the cryogenic fluid at the exit of the hose (i.e., more liquid, less vapor) by extending the hose vacuum-jacket through the chamber wall, where...
Application Briefs: Motion Control
Deep-sea remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) present motion control design engineers with some difficult challenges. Applications may include ROV propulsion, position thrusters, dive vanes, rudders,...
Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Counterfeit parts and materials pose a serious threat to the United States defense supply chain. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 (Section 818) laid out strict...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Multipath, multistage, erosion-resistant flow control valves have been developed that can sustain the extremely high pressure of deep oil wells. Fitting in the...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
RoboSimian Software System from the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals
A software architecture to allow semi-autonomous mobile manipulation of highly dexterous robots under degraded communications was developed to enable remote operation of a mobile manipulation robot as a first responder in a disaster-response scenario. The software architecture...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Manufacturing reliable, high-performing parts and components that have extended lifecycles is crucial for the pneumatics and hydraulics industry. From springs to fittings, the performance of each...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Novel Feedthrough for Instrumentation Lead Wires
This invention is a method and design for the conveyance of instrumentation lead wires from one pressure boundary to another pressure boundary in cryogenic process systems. Such a device or article is commonly referred to as a feedthrough. The novelty of the present invention is the extreme...
Briefs: Information Technology
Tracking a Scene on Earth from Space Using the Adaptive Cross-Correlation Algorithm
A software program enables a user to track a scene or a spot on Earth from space (such as from the ISS) using an innovative algorithm. This robust and highly accurate software allows a scene to be tracked that can be not only the shifted version of a previous...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Over the past several years, controls engineers have become adept at applying control systems to machine safety applications. The issue is that safety is a moving target....
Products: Lighting
DELO (Windach, Germany) now offers a new, high-intensity LED spot lamp with a wavelength of 400 nm. The DELOLUX 50 allows for fast, reliable, pinpoint curing of adhesive layers with thicknesses up to 10 mm, making it suitable...
Articles: Data Acquisition
Joe Spruce’s last name is a fitting one: Spruce is a research scientist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center working with the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service to monitor forests and other...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
Efficient and accurate operations are vital to the success of today’s manufacturer. Newcomb Spring, a manufacturer of custom springs, wire forms and stampings, is continually working...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Swan Seal
This seal features dual sealing capabilities: a face seal and an axial seal. The name swan seal is derived from its cross section, which resembles a swan. Most injector designs require fuel to be delivered from an inlet fitting, through a feed arm, to the injector tip. Temperature variation from the inlet to the tip, from the cool fuel...
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: Information Technology
Adaptive Periodic-Correlation Algorithm for Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensing
Conventional Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensing requires a point source such as a star to perform wavefront sensing. This software allows one to conduct such sensing using an extended-scene or scene-based image. The software allows a Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Self-Aligning Lug for Adapting Carbon Fiber Rods to a Bolted Metallic Connection
The enormous strength of unidirectional carbon fiber composite rods is difficult to take advantage of at their ends because of inadequate joining technology. Bolting does not work with unidirectional composites, and bonding is difficult due to stiffness mismatches...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
In order to study atmospheric or evolved gases, it is highly advantageous for an instrument (e.g. mass spectrometer (MS), thermal conductivity detector (TCD)) to simplify the gas stream with a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Oxygen used for extravehicular activities (EVAs) must be free of contaminants because a difference in a few tenths of a percent of argon or nitrogen content can mean...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A 5×5 silicon microlens array was developed using a silicon micromachining technique for a silicon-based THz antenna array. The feature of the silicon micromachining technique enables...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Miniaturized, High-Speed, Modulated X-Ray Source
A low-cost, miniature x-ray source has been developed that can be modulated in intensity from completely off to full intensity on nanosecond timescales. This modulated x-ray source (MXS) has no filaments and is extremely rugged. The energy level of the MXS is adjustable from 0 to more than 100...
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