Stories
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Briefs: Software
Innovators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center have designed a circumferential scissor spring mechanism, that when incorporated into a hand controller, improves the restorative force to a control stick’s neutral position. The design also provides for operation on a more linear portion of the spring’s force deflection curve, yielding better feedback to the user.
Briefs: Design
The innovation can provide a wide range of damping forces, a linear damping function and/or an extended dynamic range of attenuation, providing broad flexibility in configuration size and functional applicability.
NASA Spinoff: Green Design & Manufacturing
An organism that astronauts are studying as a possible protein source for long-duration missions is also informing a project to introduce sustainable fungal proteins to low- and moderate-income communities around the world.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
This testing method ensures that an exoskeleton and the person wearing it are moving smoothly and in harmony.
Articles: Motion Control
Specially designed brake controls are a critical factor of brake performance in any application.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Applications include absorbers, tuned mass dampers, harmonic absorbers, and seismic dampers.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Applications include valves, tubes, and other gas and fluid system components.
Technology Leaders: Test & Measurement
Learn about the latest measurement technology designed to ensure accurate testing of helical compression and extension springs.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Fluid-Filled Frequency-Tunable Mass Damper
Innovators at Marshall Space Flight Center developed the fluid-filled Frequency-Tunable Mass Damper (FTMD) technology that allows for significant distribution of loads while also providing a simple mechanism that allows for the capability to change its frequency of mitigation with negligible impact on the...
Briefs: Data Acquisition
In order to qualify miniature springs, manufacturers of these systems rely on commercially available testers that are designed for large-scale springs (>0.5" diameter). Commercially available spring test...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
In discussing fatigue life, it is important to distinguish between disc springs and conical spring washers, as they differ by design and intended usage. Conical spring washers are designed...
Briefs: Aerospace
Typical butterfly valves cannot seal at both ambient and cryogenic temperatures. At cryogenic temperatures, valves grow and shrink, changing critical dimensions such as distance between the disc and seat. Ideally,...
Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
When choosing a gas spring for a particular application, it’s imperative to have a basic understanding of the workings and terminology used when specifying gas springs. This article offers...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Check valves are traditionally designed as a simple poppet/spring system where the spring is designed to equal the force created from the sealing area of the valve seat multiplied by the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
In designing a hand-actuated microspine gripper, a ratcheting locking mechanism was required that had discrete points of locking engagement. The mechanism had to actuate smoothly...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Materials scientists are looking to nature — at the discs in human spines and the skin of ocean-diving fish — for clues about how to design materials with both flexibility and stiffness. The solution...
Briefs: Medical
LightCensor Software for Optimized Viewing of Medical Images
Because of improved display quality, the smartphone has been advocated by medical imaging vendors for viewing medical images in specific conditions that require urgency of results, or when full-sized workstation displays are not readily available. As a handheld device, the viewing...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
CAD models have been developed that enable objects to be 3D-printed out of commercially available plastics; these objects can wirelessly communicate with other smart devices, including a...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center scientists have invented a novel valve actuator where the primary actuating system and return spring system are arranged non-collinearly. In the past, valve actuators...
Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Contact design is critical to the performance of any connector — especially for devices that must function in harsh environments where extremes of temperature, shock, and vibration are to...
Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Proto Labs Maple Plain, MNwww.protolabs.com
As products get smaller, their components need to follow suit, and springs are no exception. In a variety of industrial...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Tuned mass dampers are used worldwide to mitigate vibrations in structures like buildings and bridges where excessive movement can be alarming or even sickening to occupants. The vast...
Application Briefs: Motion Control
A manufacturer of low and high-rise elevators faced a challenge when customers began calling for a flexible elevator to meet the needs of the growing mid-rise, mixed-use building...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Roboticists at the University of California, Berkeley, have designed a small robot that can leap into the air and then spring off a wall, or perform multiple vertical jumps in a row, resulting in...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Mechanisms for Achieving Non-Sinusoidal Waveforms on Stirling Engines
The current state-of-the-art Stirling engines use sinusoidal piston and displacer motion to drive the thermodynamic cycle and produce power. Research performed at NASA Glenn has shown that non-sinusoidal waveforms have the potential to increase Stirling engine power density, and...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a portable device to simulate low-velocity impacts on a material or structure. As composite materials are highly susceptible to damage caused by low-velocity impact, they must...
Briefs: Aerospace
The AeroPod, developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility, is a passive device that uses aerodynamic forces to stabilize an instrument package suspended from a kite or...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A magnetically retained pressure-relief valve enables quick-open on/off operation when overpressure is reached.
Inventors at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center have developed a magnetically retained, fast-response pressure...
Briefs: Materials
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed composite elastic skins for covering shape-changing (morphable) structures. These skins are intended especially for use on advanced aircraft that change shapes in...
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Quiz: Software
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Energy

2025 Battery & Electrification Summit
Upcoming Webinars: Software

A Fork in the Road: The Potential of Debian Linux for...
Upcoming Webinars: Connectivity

Enhancing Security in Connected Medical Devices
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Accelerate Battery Simulations with Surrogate Models
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Optimizing Electric Powertrains: Advanced Materials for...
Upcoming Webinars: Defense

Breakthrough in Infrared and Visible Imaging: One Dataset with...