Materials & Manufacturing

Manufacturing & Prototyping

Explore innovations supporting advances in manufacturing and rapid prototyping. Access the developments and solutions that have an impact on applications in 3D printing and automation.

Stories

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
3D printing via direct laser writing involves a computer-controlled focused laser beam that acts as a pen and creates the desired structure in the printer ink — a photoresist. In this way,...
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Briefs: Materials
A method was developed that enables information to be contained in simple plastic foils with a thickness of less than 50 μm, which is thinner than a human hair. Organic luminescent molecules...
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Briefs: Materials
Materials with controlled porosity have found diverse applications in separation, catalysis, energy storage, sensors and actuators, tissue engineering, and drug delivery. Multiple...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Between walking and running, human gaits can cover a wide range of speeds; for example, at low speeds, the metabolic rate of walking is lower than that of running in a slow jog. The...
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Briefs: Materials
3D printers that build small parts layer by layer from melted plastic can take up to an hour to produce a pocket-sized piece. This process is far too slow for the mass-production of components...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A set of five tiny fundamental parts can be assembled into a wide variety of functional devices including a tiny “walking” motor that can move back and forth across a surface or...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Systems such as magnetic data storage devices and MRI body scan machines rely on magnets made from solid materials. Now, using a modified 3D printer, scientists have made magnetic devices from liquids.
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Special Reports: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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Additive Manufacturing - October 2019
AM/3D Printing is fundamentally changing how products are prototyped and produced in aerospace, medical, automotive, and many other fields. To help you keep pace with the latest advances, we present this...

Question of the Week: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Are You Encouraged by the Increasingly Sophisticated Capabilities of Today’s Robots?
Researchers from Boston Dynamics have stuck the landing and created a robot that can perform a full gymnastics routine. Watch the performance on Tech Briefs TV.
Blog: Medical
Learn more about ULiSSES, a life-saving device for organ and limb transport.
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Question of the Week: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Would You Customize a Product with PhotoChromeleon?
An MIT team came up with a new way of producing a multicolor part: “PhotoChromeleon.” The system’s reprogrammable photochromic ink enables objects to change colors when exposed to ultraviolet and visible light. Watch the demo on Tech Briefs TV.
Question of the Week: Materials
Are You Lightweighting with Plastics and Composites?
A Tech Briefs webinar this month focused on the idea of lightweighting – or replacing traditionally metal parts, like engine components, with plastics and composites.
INSIDER: Imaging
Along with flying and invisibility, high on the list of every child’s aspirational superpowers is the ability to see through or around walls or other visual obstacles. That...
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INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics
Diffraction-Limited Aspheric Lenses Optical Surfaces Ltd. (Surrey, UK) is an international supplier of diffraction-limited aspheric lenses for nuclear research laser facilities. Over the last 40 years, Optical Surfaces has...
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Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A new NASA challenge asks university teams to find new ways to drill down to the ice on the Moon and Mars.
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Blog: Materials
How do thermoplastic composites compare to the thermoset composites already in use for several decades? A Tech Briefs reader asks.
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Question of the Week: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Have You Considered Using Collaborative Robots?
Collaborative robots are part of Ford Motor Company’s assembly line. One cobot performs the greasing of the camshaft followers, another fills the engine oil, and a third uses a camera and UV light to check for leaks.
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The key to acceptance and adoption of a "smart home" will be enhancing total ease of ownership.
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Articles: Motion Control
We interviewed an industry expert about the role of inductive position sensors in the IIoT.
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Application Briefs: Regulations/Standards
Some of the most common applications for hazardous duty sensors are in the oil and gas industry.
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Application Briefs: Defense
There is increasing demand in many high-end commercial and industrial markets for precision motion sensing for a diversity of applications.
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Application Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Industries are constantly searching for new approaches to advance operational efficiency and product quality. With unplanned downtime estimated to cost...
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Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
People-Counting Sensor FLIR Systems, Inc. (Wilsonville, OR) announced the latest generation of the FLIR Brickstream 3D Gen 2 people-counting sensor. This new version includes a unique employee filtering feature designed to...
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Articles: Photonics/Optics
Each passing year, machine vision is finding its way into applications that were not commercially feasible — and in some cases, impossible.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Although smartphones and other consumer cameras are increasingly used for scientific applications, it's difficult to compare and combine data from different...
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Products: Motion Control
Micromachining Subsystem SCANLAB GmbH (Puchheim, Germany) has introduced a new member of its precSYS product line. Five-axis precSYS subsystems enable industrial ultra-short-pulse (USP) laser micromachining of flexible, definable...
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Application Briefs: Materials
Optical coatings are critical for enhancing the transmission, reflection, polarization, and phase of light incident upon and passing through optical components. There are many different technologies used to fabricate...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
The production of precision products depends on robot control systems knowing the location of the adhesive bonding head or welding head to the nearest millimeter at all times. This means the robot...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers have created 3D-printed flexible mesh structures that can be controlled with applied magnetic fields while floating on water. The structures can grab small objects and carry water droplets, giving them...
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