Test & Measurement

Testing Aircraft Electric Propulsion Systems on NASA’s Modular Stand

As powered flight expands to include electric propulsion technologies, aeronautics designers need to understand the electrical, aerodynamic, and structural...

NASA Tests 3D-Printed Rocket Fuel Pump

NASA tested a 3D printed rocket engine turbopump with liquid methane – an ideal propellant for engines needed to power many types of spacecraft for NASA’s journey to Mars. During the full-power...

Flexible Silicone Sensors Enable Stepless Control Devices

Researchers have created flexible silicone sensors that make it easier to steplessly control devices such as a multifunction steering wheel that lets the driver control music,...

Beach Buoys Detect Water Contamination

Beachgoers may soon be able to know in a timely manner if the water is clean enough for swimming. The technology comes in the form of buoys that are deployed in the water near a beach. By combining...

Sensors Teach Dogs New Tricks

A team from North Carolina State University has developed and customized a suite of technologies that allows a computer to train a dog autonomously. Sensors in the custom harness monitor a dog’s posture, and...

Light-Powered 3D Printer Creates Terahertz Lens

Researchers from Northwestern University used a light-powered 3D printer to create a terahertz lens. The imaging component is made from a novel metamaterial that exhibits properties not readily...

Photonic Structures Act as Tiny Temperature and Humidity Sensors

Many machines such as turbines, oil drills, health monitors, and nuclear reactors require internal sensors to monitor physical states such as temperature. Researchers are...

New Technique Could Improve Detection of Concealed Nuclear Materials

A low-energy nuclear reaction imaging technique designed to detect the presence of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium in cargo containers arriving at U.S. ports was...

Advanced Capabilities of PXI-Based Semiconductor Test Systems

The ongoing challenge for today’s semiconductor test engineers is to identify and create new test solutions that can offer significantly lower test costs as well as address the...

Calibration Requirements for Testing Coupling-Decoupling Networks

Coupling-Decoupling Networks (CDNs) are the unglamorous workhorses that get “hitched up” to an impulse generator in order to perform impulse testing on powered equipment....

NASA Monitoring Technologies Shake Up Earthquake Prediction

The seconds to minutes of advance warning of an earthquake can allow people and systems to take actions to protect life and property from destructive shaking. Earthquake early...

Reducing Torque Measurement Uncertainty in Turbine Engine Testing

Torque is among the most important of all the measured quantities in applications ranging from characterizing high-power gas turbines, to determining the level of force...

Flow Meters

AutomationDirect (Cumming, GA) offers ProSense FMM Series magnetic-inductive flow meters (magmeters) for liquid flow monitoring in industrial processes. The magmeters, available with 1/2" to 2" NPT female process connections, are...

Pulsed Test Instrument

Instruments for Industry, a unit of AMETEK Compliance Test Solutions (Edison, NJ) introduced the S21-4KWP-2KWP FLEX solid-state micro wave pulse power amplifier with a frequency range of 1.0 GHz to 2.0 GHz. It...

Ground Bond Testers

Slaughter Company (Lake Forest, IL) announced the 260 Series Ground Bond testers with an improved interface that eliminates menus and redundant button pushes. The interface allows manufacturers to set up and run Ground...

Digital Multimeters

The U1280 and U1240C Series handheld digital multimeters from Keysight Technologies (Santa Rosa, CA) feature 60,000-count display resolution and 0.025 percent accuracy. The 4.5-digit handheld DMMs are suited for...

Multi-Function Instrument

National Instruments (Austin, TX) introduced a high-performance model of the software-based VirtualBench all-in-one instrument that combines a mixed-signal oscilloscope, function generator, digital multimeter,...

Strain Gauge Monitors

Bristol Instruments (Boston, MA) introduced the OM502T Series of monitors for strain gauge sensors. The 5-digit instruments are programmable for mathematical functions, including peak and tare, as well as digital...

Shaft Voltage Tester

The AEGIS® CAT II/III Shaft Voltage Tester™ digital oscilloscope from Electro Static Technology (Mechanic Falls, ME) enables testing of industrial motors controlled by variable frequency drives (VFDs). The tester is...

RF Signal Generators

Saelig Co. (Fairport, NY) announced Rigol DSG800 RF signal generators with output frequencies from 9 kHz to 3.0 GHz. They provide an RF signal source with a maximum output of +20 dBm and frequency resolution of 0.01 Hz...

Algorithm Makes Hyperspectral Imaging Faster

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Delaware have developed an algorithm that can quickly and accurately reconstruct hyperspectral images using less data. The...

Self-Test Kit Warns Soldiers of Biological Exposure

The U.S. Army’s newly developed biological self-test kit can quickly identify the presence of a pathogen of concern such as ricin, anthrax, or plague, and automatically send the result...

NASA Tests Life-Detection Drill in Earth’s Driest Place

The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project completed its first deployment after one month of field work in the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert in Chile,...

App Turns Smartphones into Earthquake Detection Network

UC Berkeley scientists released a free Android app that taps a smartphone’s ability to record ground shaking from an earthquake, with the goal of creating a worldwide seismic...

Researchers Charge Up ‘Water Batteries’

Researchers from TU Graz and the Wetsus research center in The Netherlands have produced electrically charged water by means of a floating water bridge. The electric charge of the "water battery"...

Executive Perspectives: Test & Measurement

DR. JAMES TRUCHARD
President, CEO, and Co-Founder
National Instruments
Austin, TX
www.ni.com

The world of technology has moved to software — it started in the PC...

Executive Perspectives: Test & Measurement

JAY ALEXANDER
Chief Technology Officer
Keysight Technologies, Inc.
Santa Rosa, CA
www.keysight.com

To travel back 40 years in test and measurement, I reached for the paper...

Water-Impact Testing Will Protect Future Astronauts

When astronauts return to Earth in the Orion spacecraft, they will reenter on an extremely hot and fast journey through the atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. To protect...