Blog

Kerk Motion Products (Hollis, NH) released the Linear Actuator, designed to accept NEMA size 17, 23, and 34 motors. Leadscrew driven, the unit does not need lubrication and is designed for electronics, semiconductor, and medical applications. For more information, click here.

Norfolk Southern Railway (NS, Norfolk, VA) and BNSF Railway Company (BNSF, Ft. Worth, TX) will begin testing a new braking system that may reduce the amount of time it takes to stop a train. The project, authorized by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), calls for NS and BNSF to equip and test certain locomotives and freight cars...

Motion Control Technology is a bimonthly supplement to NASA Tech Briefs magazine, providing engineers the latest advances in motion control products. One section, Applications, highlights how a particular motion control component is utilized by an end-user. Here is one of the technologies featured in the April issue's...

Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA) have successfully constructed a new method of robotic propulsion based on the movement of amoebas. Called "Whole Skin Locomotion" (WSL), the mechanism works similarly to a pseudopod, or cytoplasmic "foot," of an amoeba. With its elongated...

Antennas, filters, amplifiers, and mixers are building blocks that are utilized in many existing defense weapons and Department of Defense (DoD) systems. In this white paper from Emerson & Cumming, new and emerging transceiver technologies as well as military applications are discussed.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) have made rhenium diboride, an “ultra-hard material” in a process that does not require applying pressure. Ultra-hard materials are used in the construction of new roads, for drills that bore for oil, and for scratch-resistant coatings. While diamond is the...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) have cured malaria-infected mice with single shots of a new series of potent, long-lasting synthetic drugs modeled on an ancient Chinese herbal folk remedy. The drugs mimic artemisinin, the active agent in a Chinese herbal drug used to treat malaria and other fevers for...

A sintered silicon nitride ceramic has been disclosed that has high fracture toughness, strength, and stress rupture resistance at high temperature. View this technology here.

The European Space Agency (ESA, Paris, France) is conducting trials into helping guide airplane pilots via signals from satellites. Flight trials are being conducted to demonstrate the new possibilities offered by the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), which has been launched by ESA, the European Commission,...

NASA has awarded a contract to Manhattan Construction Company of Fairfax, VA, for the construction of the Exploration Sciences Building at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. NASA has determined that all new facilities projects will reach the Silver rating, signifying a commitment to designing, procuring, and installing...

Because the cost of building and maintaining cleanrooms is very expensive, the physical size of components is always critical. We define the cleanroom industry here broadly to include semiconductor manufacture, laboratory equipment, medical devices, nano- technology, and biotechnology applications, to name a few. This...

Each month, the editors of NASA Tech Briefs (NTB) select a Product of the Month, and from those 12, we ask our readers to select a Product of the Year. On April 23, at a special reception and dinner in New York City, the top three products that were chosen by our readers as the most significant in 2006 will be...

Photomicrographers have less than two weeks to enter the 33rd Annual Nikon Small World Competition, the world's pre-eminent photographic competition celebrating photography through the microscope. April 30th is the last day to submit entries into the pool of amateur and professional images taken through a light...

An engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has successfully performed the first test of wireless sensors in the simulated structural control of a model laboratory building. The demonstration is the first step toward implementing wireless sensors for structural control in real buildings and structures, enabling less manpower...

A method is needed to determine the cloud ceiling height up to at least 3,000' cloud coverage and visibility up to at least 5 miles using a small, low-power automatic sensor. The device would operate periodically to provide cloud and visibility measurements for these assessments. To respond to this Tech Need, click here.

The winners of the fifth annual Emhart Teknologies "Create the Future" Design Contest have been announced. The awards will be presented on April 23 during a dinner reception at the beautiful Water Club in New York City. The contest, co-sponsored by NASA Tech Briefs, COMSOL, and SolidWorks Corp., attracted...

On June 6, 2007, NASA Tech Briefs will present a FREE webinar on "Virtual Testing at the CAD Stage with Simulation Software," sponsored by Noran Engineering. In order to successfully compete in the global marketplace, your product design process needs to be the best in its class, delivering innovative products of...

ALGOR (Pittsburgh, PA) has released ALGOR V20 integrated CAD/FEA modeling software. New features include design scenarios, allowing a single FEA model to contain numerous analyses; a software wizard for creating bolts and fasteners; design studies and size optimization; and improved meshing capabilities. Click...

By 2020, NASA plans to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, which means that necessities such as fuel, food and oxygen, and spare parts would have to get from the Earth to the Moon as predictably as an Earth-based delivery system - especially when the delivery point is 240,000 miles...

At NASA, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a vital resource for scientific research aimed at understanding and protecting Earth. NASA employs the band of GPS satellites for mapping Earth's ionosphere and developing earthquake-prediction tools. But traditional GPS still can't communicate...

Come to MIT this summer and choose from 36 short courses designed especially for professionals. Earn a certificate and CEUs. Offerings include biotechnology, chemical engineering, data modeling and analysis, IT, lean fundamentals, mechanical & electrical engineering, nanotechnology, lasers & optics, technology policy, and other...

Engineers at the Biomimetic Devices Laboratory (BDL) at Tufts University (Medford, MA) are developing biologically-based technologies that use soft materials to incorporate them into a new type of highly flexible robot. These machines could have applications in biomedical diagnosis and surgery, emergency rescue, exploration, and...

Defense Tech Briefs (DTB) provides engineers with a one-stop source for the latest advances and tech transfer opportunities from Defense Department R&D programs. Commercially promising inventions resulting from this work are reported in DTB magazine, published bi-monthly and mailed with NASA Tech Briefs. Here are some of the...

A fabric (non reflective) is available that can emit its own light. It is created with threads of every type and nature and can emit light in different colors. View this technology here.

Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh, PA) have developed a method of speeding up the transfer of large data files over the Internet by configuring peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services to share not only identical files, but also similar files. By identifying relevant chunks of files similar to a desired file, the...

The ScanWorks(R) hand-held 3D laser scanner from Perceptron (Plymouth, MI) was named Photonics Tech Briefs Product of the Month for April. The instrument features a scanning rate of up to 458,000 points per second and can maintain a dense point resolution of approximately 14 microns. The device projects the sensor's field of...

Company is seeking industry support for further testing and development of its carbon nanotube (CNT) adhesive. Developed in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the University of California-Berkeley, this company is looking for industry investment to support tests on the adhesion strength and...

Each month, the editors of Photonics Tech Briefs (PTB) select a Product of the Month. At the end of the year, we ask our readers to choose the Product of the Year -- the one product from those eight nominees that they feel was the most significant new product introduced to the photonics engineering community in...

A new counter-flow heart pump being developed by researchers at Australia's Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is based on a double-output centrifugal model that pushes the blood in a counter direction to ensure correct flow through both sides of the heart. "The counter-flow pump is a bi-ventricular assist device (BVAD),...