Application Briefs

Laser-based System Achieves Noncontact Medical Ultrasound Imaging

Researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and their collaborators at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation have developed a new medical imaging device: the Noncontact Laser Ultrasound (NCLUS).

NASA’s Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission

As part of the NASA’s Perseverance rover, MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time, successfully completing its mission goal.

Wireless Sensor Networking for the IIoT

The Industrial Internet of Things — sharing, collecting, and analyzing information across a complete manufacturing enterprise — can significantly enhance the bottom line. Not only in monetary terms but also in the quality and reliability of the products and the ability to deliver them on time.

Turnkey Yet Versatile Cobot Design Improves Sanding, Grinding, Finishing

Manufacturing teams in multiple industries, from aerospace to oil and gas, are finding relief in the form of new collaborative robots (cobots), like Kane Robotics’ GRIT ST and GRIT XL, that can sand off coatings, grind welds, or polish metal finishes in half the time and more safely than humans.

How Simple Component Improvements Can Revolutionize Plant Processes

Since its introduction, dozens of steel mills — ranging from hot to cold and bar to sheet — have recognized the benefits of incorporating INSTAclamp Lock Rings into their operations. Despite a redesign with a new material, the product is not restricted by which mill types it can operate within.

Elevating Workpiece Handling During Plasma Surface Treatment Process

Plasmatreat recently unveiled a new plasma treatment unit. A key innovation with this treatment unit is that it uses XPlanar, a planar motor system from Beckhoff, to transport workpieces with high precision and flexibility.

Clean Technology Lasers: The New Tool in Surface Pre-Treatment for Superior Coating Adhesion

Given its effectiveness pretreating metal surfaces, industrial laser systems are increasingly being used in manufacturing facilities. The systems can be integrated into automated inline processing lines, or technicians can use mobile handheld units.

Quality Check for OLED and μ-LED Displays Amid the Race for Ever Higher Resolution

The race for very high resolutions places increased demands not only on display manufacturers, but also on the suppliers of light measurement technology.

LOFTID Atmospheric Re-Entry Program Paves the Way for Reusable Space Electronics

NASA’s successful Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) demonstration suggests that inflatable aeroshells can keep payloads safe during atmospheric entry.

A Cobot Spot Welder Promises Ergonomic Safety and Productivity Gains

Pro Spot International was founded in 1984 by Ron Olsson, shortly after coming to America from Sweden. Almost 40 years later, Pro Spot is one of the leading companies in automotive repair tools.

North Sea Rig Operators Discover a Solution for Frequently Tangled Service Loops

A company from Denmark found a problem with its oil rig, where wind caused service loops to swing, become entangled and snag, resulting in downtime. The company solved the problem with a 33.5-meter e-loop from igus, the Germany-based manufacturer of high-performance plastics.

Taking Industrial Robot Automation to New Heights

Combining an industrial robot, computerized vision system, AI, and machine learning, Skyline Robotics has succeeded in automating window washing for the world’s skyscrapers.

Magnetic Bearing Technology Enables Environmental Control for Human Space Exploration

Leveraging a high-speed permanent magnet motor, an environmental control system aboard the ISS represents a step change toward electrification and optimization.

Designing Shock-Mitigating Seats for Boat Operators

Products for nautical applications face an unusual set of design challenges. The corrosiveness of salt water can cause premature degradation, and the impact of fast-moving vessels bouncing up against forceful ocean waves can also damage equipment.

A Harvesting Robot Automates Apple Picking

“AurOrA” is a small autonomous vehicle, which in the future will move independently around fruit orchards and detect full fruit boxes, pick them up, and take them to a defined unloading point.

Multi-Pixel Magnetic Sensing Gives Robots the Gentle Touch

A reliable and cost-effective sense of touch now lets robots handle fragile objects to fulfill an even wider variety of tasks and interact more safely with humans.

MEMS-Based Inertial Switch for Event Detection

With advancements in microfabrication techniques, MEMS devices have become more readily available for many commercial applications.

How Artificial Intelligence Makes Quality Traceable Down to Component Level

Manufacturers can meet industry requirements thanks to the exact inspection of the individual components that is continuously improved using AI.

Controlling the Grind for Precision Photonics

As the tolerances for photonics systems become more demanding, controlling the grinding of optical components must also become more precise.

Predicting Buffet Onset on the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing

Through the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, Boeing is partnering with NASA to develop and flight-test a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) demonstrator aircraft.

High-Throughput Battery Cell Production

As battery manufacturers work to rapidly add new production capacity, they face a challenge in compressing the time it takes to build new production lines.

Metal 3D Printing Provides Design Freedom in Geothermal Energy Application

Houston-based startup Downhole Emerging Technologies used direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) as the additive solution to 3D print durable materials necessary for geothermal energy applications.

Lighting the Way to Sustainability with PoE

Commercial buildings are responsible for roughly 18 percent of the total energy consumed in this country.

Measurement Technology Drives Vehicle Development Forward

Thorough vehicle dynamics tests provide the data that will inform the final setup of the chassis and the characteristics of the control systems.

Inflatable Space Habitats Use Sensors Embedded in Webbing for Structural Health Monitoring

A novel approach is moving away from conventional structural health monitoring testing methods for inflatable space habitats in favor of using sensors embedded in the flexible structural restraint webbing layers.

How a UV-Visible-NIR Range Microscope-Spectrometer Works

Discussing the basic design concepts of a UV-visible-NIR range microscope-spectrometer in several different configurations.

Compact MEMS-Based NIR Spectroscopy for Mobile Applications

This measurement technique is particularly useful for, but not limited to, samples containing organic compounds.

Leveraging Metal 3D Printing for Manufacturing in Space

One promising metal-based additive technology for in-space 3D printing is Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM). Instead of fusing metal powders, UAM welds foil at (near) room temperature.

Compiler Selection for Functional Safety in Robots

A developer needs confidence that the compiler will not introduce errors into the design.