Magazine

Researchers Develop Efficient Lithium Extraction Method, Setting Stage for Sustainable EV Battery Supply Chains

In the race to meet the growing global demand for lithium, a team of researchers from Rice University’s Elimelech lab has developed a breakthrough lithium extraction method that could reshape the industry. Read on to learn more about it.

Leading the Charge to Better Batteries

A team led by Kelsey Hatzell, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, has uncovered insights that could help power a new type of battery, called an anode-free solid-state battery, past lithium-ion’s limitations.

A Successful Catalyst Design for Advanced Zinc-Iodine Batteries

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries have attracted extensive attention due to their high safety, abundant reserves, and environmental friendliness. However, the low electrical conductivity of iodine hinders the redox conversion for an efficient energy storage process with zinc. Read on to learn how a research team addressed the existing issues in Zn-I2 batteries.

Better Texture for Better Batteries

To create the new batteries needed for EVs, mobile devices, and renewable energy storage, researchers have explored new materials, new designs, new configurations, and new chemistry. But one aspect — the texture of the metals used — has been historically overlooked. Read on to learn more.

New Products

See the new products, including Intellias' “Smart Charging Portable Kit,” a comprehensive solution accelerator designed to address the most pressing challenges in the EV charging sector; Marposs' solutions for testing prismatic battery cells; a new Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate (LMFP) cathode active material developed by Integrals Power; and more.

Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation Enhances BESS Design

Electrical grids and data centers around the world use battery energy storage systems (BESS) as a power source, and the adoption of BESS is only continuing to grow. Read on to learn more about we can enhance BESS.

Wire Feed Laser Welding for Battery Pack Aluminum Enclosure Manufacture in EVs

Lightweight aluminum is a top choice for designing and manufacturing battery pack enclosures due to its durability and ability to enhance vehicle performance. While welding 6000-series aluminum alloys can be challenging, advanced methods like laser welding with filler wire effectively create strong, airtight joints while addressing issues like porosity and cracking. Read on to learn more.

Open to Possibilities: How Controls Have Evolved to an Open Architecture

While there may be some manufacturers who are hesitant to transition to a more open control landscape for fear of abandoning a proven method of operation, it’s clear that a collaborative approach through apps is the future. Read on to learn more.

How SmartCap Uses AI-Powered Robots to Manufacture Steel Truck Cap Systems

For the team at SmartCap, building top-notch gear for outdoor adventurers isn’t just a business — it’s a passion driven by their own love for the wild. But as demand for their rugged, modular truck caps soared after their move to North America in 2022, they hit a snag: How do you ramp up production without sacrificing the meticulous quality you are known for, all while navigating a tough labor market? Their answer? Read on to find out.

Cobots Repair and Refurbish Electronic Appliances for a Sustainable Future

Repartly, a startup based in Guetersloh, Germany, is using ABB’s collaborative robots to repair and refurbish electronic circuit boards in household appliances. Three GoFa cobots handle the sorting, visual inspection and precise soldering tasks enabling the company to enhance efficiency and maintain high quality standards. Read on to learn more.

A Hopping Robot That Can Leap and Land Like a Squirrel

University of California Berkeley biologists and engineers have designed a hopping robot that can stick a landing on a narrow perch. The feat is a big step in the design of more agile robots, ones that can leap among the trusses and girders of buildings under construction or robots that can monitor the environment in tangled forests or tree canopies. Read on to learn more.

A Lightweight Floating Robot Replicates Nature

Researchers have developed a compact and versatile robot that can maneuver through tight spaces and transport payloads much heavier than itself. Smaller than a credit card and weighing 6 grams, the nimble swimming robot is ideal for environments with limited space like rice fields, or for performing inspections in waterborne machines. Read on to learn more.

Tape-Based Robot Reaches Far When Extended

It’s a game a lot of us played as children — and maybe even later in life: unspooling measuring tape to see how far it would extend before bending. But to engineers at the University of California San Diego, this game was an inspiration, suggesting that measuring tape could become a great material for a robotic gripper. Read on to learn more about their robot, GRIP-tape.

New Products

See the new products, including PI's V-141 linear motor stage family; Applied Motion's STF Stepper Drives and SSDC StepSERVO Drives, which are now UL Certified by Underwriters Laboratories; Arnold Magnetic Technologies Corporation's Brushless DC Permanent Magnet Motors; ICONICS's release of GENESIS, a new platform that leverages ICONICS’s decades of software development expertise; and more.

Making the Jump to Electric

From greater energy efficiency to more flexible motion profiles, there are many reasons to make the switch to electric actuation technology. Read on to learn more about them.

Gaining a Competitive Edge with Functionally Integrated Components

Machine builders are under intense pressure to keep engineering time in line with shorter delivery schedules and materials, assembly, and inventory cost considerations. Machine builders are also striving to make equipment smaller, lighter, higher-performing, and easier for their customers to maintain. While functionally integrated products have been available for a long time, they are more vital today than ever. And there are more options available to provide solutions. Read on to learn more.

HydRON: Transforming How Data-Collecting Satellites Communicate

In this in-depth interview, Antonio Sturiale, Director of Telecom Domain in Italy at Thales Alenia Space, discusses HydRON and the company’s approach to optical communications as well as the role it will play in upcoming lunar, Martian, and deep-space exploration missions.

Fast Steering Mirrors: Enabling Stable Laser Communication in Satellite Networks

As optical systems become more integrated into communication, sensing, and imaging technologies, FSMs will remain a key enabler of speed, precision, and stability in next-generation photonic applications. Read on to learn more.

Wearable Sensors Provide Real-Time Measurements of Sweat Rate and Electrolytes and Metabolites in Sweat

Researchers developed wearable skin sensors that can detect what’s in a person’s sweat. Using the sensors, monitoring perspiration could bypass the need for more invasive procedures like blood draws and provide real-time updates on health problems such as dehydration or fatigue. Read on to learn more.

Ultra-Sensitive Sensor with Gold Nanoparticle Array

Researchers have developed a new type of sensor platform using a gold nanoparticle array. The sensor is made up of a series of gold disk-shaped nanoparticles on a glass slide. When an infrared laser is pointed at a precise arrangement of the particles, they start to emit unusual amounts of ultraviolet light. Read on to learn more.

Using Flying Insects to Drop Sensors

Researchers have created a 98-milligram sensor system — about one tenth the weight of a jellybean or less than one-hundredth of an ounce — that can ride aboard a small drone or an insect, such as a moth, until it gets to its destination. Then, when a researcher sends a Bluetooth command, the sensor is released from its perch and can fall up to 72 feet — from about the sixth floor of a building — and land without breaking. Once on the ground, the sensor can collect data, such as temperature or humidity, for almost three years.

Fast-Charging, Long-Running, Bendable Supercapacitor

This technology has potential as a portable power supply in several applications, including electric vehicles, cellphones, and wearable technology.

High-Performance Hybrid Solar Energy Converter

Researchers have developed a hybrid solar energy converter that generates electricity and steam with high efficiency and low cost. The hybrid converter utilizes an approach that more fully captures the whole spectrum of sunlight. Read on to learn more about it.

Anode-Free Solid-State Batteries: Beyond Li-ion’s Limitations

A team led by Kelsey Hatzell, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, has uncovered insights that could help power a new type of battery, called an anode-free solid-state battery, past Li-ion’s limitations. Read on to learn more about it.

Single-Step 3D-Printing Process to Build Robots

The piezoelectric “meta-bot” is capable of propulsion, movement, sensing, and decision-making.

Robotic System for Infrastructure Reconnaissance

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a robotic system whose primary structural platform, or “orb,” can be injected into a pipe network and perform reconnaissance of piping infrastructure and other interior volumes. When deployed, this technology uses throttled fluid flow from a companion device for passive propulsion. Read on to learn more.

Tiny Magnetic Robot Can Take 3D Scans from Inside Your Body

Researchers have developed a tiny magnetic robot that can take 3D scans from deep within the body and could revolutionize early cancer detection. The team, led by engineers from the University of Leeds, said this is the first time high-resolution 3D ultrasound images taken from a probe deep inside the gastrointestinal tract, or gut, have been generated. Read on to learn more.

Soft Sensing, Self-Healing Materials for Robotic Hands and Arms

These materials can detect when they are damaged, take the necessary steps to temporarily heal themselves, and then resume work.