Manufacturing & Prototyping

The World’s First Wood Transistor

Transistors are considered by some to be an invention just as important to humanity as the telephone, the light bulb, or the bicycle. Today, they are a crucial component in modern electronic devices, and...

Sensors that Operate at High Temperatures and in Extreme Environments

Extreme environments in several critical industries — aerospace, energy, transportation, and defense — require sensors to measure and monitor numerous factors under...

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: A highly intuitive human-machine interface (HMI). The PACSystems RXi HMI has projective capacitive touchscreen technology that allows users to interact with the visual display with 10-point multitouch capabilities.

New on the Market

See the new products on the market, including a ruggedized portable HMI mount, a high-efficiency power amplifier, embedded antenna models, and much more.

Making High-Performance Parts Inexpensive and Durable

Idaho National Laboratory has developed world-class capabilities to help industry design efficient SPS manufacturing processes. The lab’s newest addition makes it possible to manufacture new materials at industrially relevant scales.

Using 3D Printing to Strengthen Jet Engines

Skoltech engineers have used a 3D printer to fabricate — and investigate the mechanical characteristics of — samples of bronze-steel alloys previously unknown to materials science.

Multi-Material Digital Light Processing 3D Printing

Researchers from Japan and Singapore have developed a new 3D-printing process for the fabrication of 3D metal–plastic composite structures with complex shapes.

Flow-Through Transducer for Wind Tunnel Analysis

To enable key aerospace R&D applications, NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a single-piece flow-through transducer design capable of measuring all six components adding in the Axial force measurement.

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.

Key Design Considerations for Automated Production of EV Batteries

Examining an EV battery degassing automated cell that is widely installed across the industry exemplifies many design features.

Enabling Ambitious Battery Production at Scale

The battery industry is forecasted to grow tenfold by the end of the decade. This growth is driven by increasing demand for Li-ion cell batteries, predominantly for electrified transportation and energy storage.

Trial, Error, Repeat

When you're working to develop something new, something really innovative, you're going to fail — over and over. The difference between finally succeeding, or not, is whether you keep on going anyway, so you can learn something new from each failure.

Self-Folding Origami Machines Powered by Chemical Reaction

A Cornell-led collaboration harnessed chemical reactions to make microscale origami machines self-fold — freeing them from the liquids in which they usually function, so they can...

New Transfer Process Moves 2D Materials from Growth Substrate to Device Substrate

Purdue University engineers have developed a patent-pending tool to make the manufacture of ultrathin semiconductors more consistent, controllable, and...

The History of Mars Missions

The Red Planet continues to fascinate future space explorers — engineers who have been developing landers and rovers for Mars exploration. Test your knowledge of the successful missions to Mars launched by the U.S.

3D Printing a Mini Vacuum Pump

The technology would be pivotal in a portable mass spectrometer that could help monitor pollutants, perform medical diagnoses in remote areas, or even test Martian soil.

How Much Do You Know About the History of Digital Twins?

How much do you know about the history of digital twins? Find out with this quiz.

Wavelength-Multiplexed Diffractive Optical Processor Computes Hundreds of Linear Transformations in Parallel

Computing using light can potentially provide lower latency and reduced power consumption, benefiting from the parallelism of optical systems.

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.

Condition Monitoring Comes to Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Now, broader availability of sensors, evolving capabilities, and new digital platforms and tools are making IIoT capabilities more readily available and easy to manage with small teams.

Low-Cost Device Can Measure Air Pollution Anywhere

Air pollution is a major public health problem. Now, an MIT research team is rolling out an open-source version of a low-cost, mobile pollution detector that could enable people to track air quality more widely.

MEMS-Based Inertial Switch for Event Detection

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

3D Printing Creates High-Performance Metal Alloy

Scientists used a 3D printer to create a high-performance metal alloy with an unusual composition that makes it stronger and lighter than state-of-the-art materials currently used in gas turbine machinery.

3D-Printable Nanocomposite Polymeric Ink Could Replace Epoxies

Researchers have created a way to make a 3D-printable nanocomposite polymeric ink that uses carbon nanotubes — known for their high tensile strength and lightness. This revolutionary ink could replace epoxies.

Crack Image Quality Indicator

Engineers have developed a modeling and manufacturing technique that generates unique verification tools which simulate cracks in metals within X-ray setup part-testing geometries.

Printing High-Fidelity Sensors

Printed radio frequency (RF) surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor devices are a promising technology for providing highly reconfigurable, cost-effective, and multi-parameter sensing.