-1
8160
30
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Injection of working fluid into a centrifugal compressor in the reverse tangent direction has been invented as a way of preventing flow instabilities (stall and surge) or restoring stability...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Capacitors Would Help Protect Against Hypervelocity Impacts
A proposal investigates alternatives to the present "bumper" method of protecting spacecraft against impacts of meteoroids and orbital debris. The proposed method is based on a British highvoltage- capacitance technique for protecting armored vehicles against shapedcharge warheads.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A diaphragm pump driven by a piezoelectric actuator is undergoing development. This pump is intended to be a prototype of lightweight, highly reliable pumps for circulating cooling liquids in...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Improved Quick-Release Pin Mechanism
An improved quick-release pin mechanism supplants a prior such mechanism in which the pin bears a shear load to hold two objects together. The prior mechanism, of a ball-locking design, can fail when vibrations cause balls to fall out. The load-bearing pin is an outer tube with a handle at one end (hereafter...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An anodizing process, at an early stage of development at the time of reporting the information for this article, has shown promise as a means of fabricating alumina nanotemplates...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Fluorine-Based DRIE of Fused Silica
A process of deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) using a fluorine-based gas mixture enhanced by induction-coupled plasma (ICP) has been demonstrated to be effective in forming high-aspect-ratio three-dimensional patterns in fused silica. The patterns are defined in part by an etch mask in the form of a thick,...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An economical room-temperature mechanical alloying process has been shown to be an effective means of making a homogeneous powder that can be hot-pressed to synthesize a thermoelectric...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An automated flying-insect detection system (AFIDS) was developed as a proof-of-concept instrument for real-time detection and identification of flying insects. This type of system has use in public...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A laboratory blackbody cavity has been designed and built for calibrating infrared radiometers used to measure radiant temperatures in the range from about 200 to about 273 K. In this...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Calligraphic poling is a technique for generating an arbitrary, possibly complex pattern of localized reversal in the direction of permanent polarization in a wafer of LiNbO3 or other ferroelectric...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Composite Pulse Tube
A modification of the design of the pulse tube in a pulse-tube cryocooler reduces axial thermal conductance while preserving radial thermal conductance. It is desirable to minimize axial thermal conductance in the pulse-tube wall to minimize leakage of heat between the warm and cold ends of the pulse tube. At the same time, it...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Photometric Calibration of Consumer Video Cameras
Equipment and techniques have been developed to implement a method of photometric calibration of consumer video cameras for imaging of objects that are sufficiently narrow or sufficiently distant to be optically equivalent to point or line sources. Heretofore, it has been difficult to calibrate...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A study of four previously published computational criteria for identifying vortices in high-pressure flows has led to the selection of one of them as the best. This development can be...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The risk of premature failure of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), typically composed of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), compromises the reliability of TBCs used to provide thermal protection...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A class of proposed thermionic cooling devices would incorporate precise arrays of metal nanowires as electron emitters. The proposed devices could be highly miniaturized, enabling removal...
Briefs: Information Technology
A method of approximating a scalar function of n independent variables (where n is a positive integer) to arbitrary accuracy has been developed. This method is expected to be...
Briefs: Information Technology
A method of automated recognition of three-dimensional (3D) features in images generated by ground-penetrating imaging radar (GPIR) is undergoing development. GPIR 3D images can be analyzed to...
Briefs: Information Technology
An algorithm has been developed to enable a computer aboard a robot to autonomously plan the path of the manipulator arm of the robot to avoid collisions between the arm and any...
Briefs: Information Technology
A recently conceived method of automated diagnosis of a complex electromechanical system affords a complete set of capabilities for hybrid diagnosis in the case in which the state of the...
Briefs: Information Technology
State-Estimation Algorithm Based on Computer Vision
An algorithm and software to implement the algorithm are being developed as means to estimate the state (that is, the position and velocity) of an autonomous vehicle, relative to a visible nearby target object, to provide guidance for maneuvering the vehicle. In the original intended application,...
Briefs: Information Technology
Accumulate-repeat- accumulate-accumulate (ARAA) codes have been proposed, inspired by the recently proposed accumulate- repeat-accumulate (ARA) codes. These are error-correcting codes suitable for...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Electroform/Plasma-Spray Laminates for X-Ray Optics
Electroform/ plasma-spray laminates have shown promise as lightweight, strong, low-thermal-expansion components for x-ray optics. The basic idea is to exploit both (1) the well-established art of fabrication of optical components by replication and (2) plasma spraying as a means of reinforcing a...
Briefs: Medical
Ultraviolet-Resistant Bacterial Spores
A document summarizes a study in which it was found that spores of the SAFR-032 strain of Bacillus pumilus can survive doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, γ radiation, and hydrogen peroxide in proportions much greater than those of other bacteria. The study was part of a continuing effort to understand the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A generic design has been conceived to suppress the Raman effect in whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) optical resonators that have high values of the resonance quality factor (Q). Although it is...
Briefs: Medical
Effects of Bone Morphogenic Proteins on Engineered Cartilage
A report describes experiments on the effects of bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) on engineered cartilage grown in vitro. In the experiments, bovine calf articular chondrocytes were seeded onto biodegradable polyglycolic acid scaffolds and cultured in, variously, a control medium or a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Two procedures have been devised for tuning a photonic filter that comprises multiple whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) disk resonators. As used here, “tuning” signifies locking the filter...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Launching Payloads Into Orbit at Relatively Low Cost
A report proposes the development of a system for launching payloads into orbit at about one-fifth the cost per unit payload weight of current systems. The system would be based on the formerly secret PILOT micro-satellite-launching system developed in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik-1....
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A proposal has been made to exploit the special wavelength-dispersive characteristics of devices of the type described in “One-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Superprisms” (NPO-30232)...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Telescope Formation at L2 for Observing Earth’s Atmosphere
Two documents describe a proposed Earth-atmosphere observatory to orbit the Sun at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point — a point of unstable equilibrium in the shadow of the Earth, about 1.5 million km from the Earth along an outward projection of the Earth-Sun axis. The observatory would...
Top Stories
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
2025 Holiday Gift Guide for Engineers: Tech, Tools, and Gadgets
INSIDER: Research Lab
Scientists Create Superconducting Semiconductor Material
Blog: Software
Quiz: Materials
Blog: Aerospace
Tech Briefs Wrapped 2025: Top 10 Technology Stories
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: AR/AI
The Real Impact of AR and AI in the Industrial Equipment Industry
Upcoming Webinars: Motion Control
Next-Generation Linear and Rotary Stages: When Ultra Precision...
Upcoming Webinars: Energy
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
Podcasts: Medical
How Wearables Are Enhancing Smart Drug Delivery
Podcasts: Power
SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries
Podcasts: Power
