Design World articles

By Dr. David Rizzo The F-35 Lightning II is an all-weather stealth combat aircraft built to perform warfare strike missions and electronic surveillance capabilities at speeds up to 1.6 Mach. Composites comprise 35% of the airframe weight, with the majority being bismaleimide, as well as some carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy — which has a tensile strength…

By Charles Tschaggeny, Tschaggeny Design In 1984, Lockheed ceased production of the L1011 TriStar airplane and exited the world of commercial aircraft for good. For Lockheed, its latest passenger jet had been heralded as a technological marvel but was, in fact, a business disaster. The TriStar is a fascinating story that clearly illustrates fundamental concepts…

In January, I talked about how engineers and scientists really are kindred spirits, as they play on the same team of knowledge seekers. And hopefully you read the fascinating “Leadership in Engineering” feature article on Dan Arvizu, the Chancellor of New Mexico State University, who has been a leader and a trailblazer his whole career.…

The first time Dan Arvizu thought about anything related to science or engineering was in the sixth grade. His teacher, John Price planted the seeds about a pathway that Arvizu hadn’t anticipated when he assigned the young student to write a paper on what matter was. Price was “one of the first people who gave…

Although I am a degreed engineer, I’ve always felt a kinship with scientists; I suppose it’s that we’re playing for the same team of knowledge seekers. As a kid, I was attracted to subjects like meteorology and astronomy, and on many nights, you could find me in the backyard or at a star party with…

By Timothy McCrea, Market Segment Manager – Aftermarket, Hägglunds – Bosch Rexroth Corp. Hydraulic systems are proven, versatile and dependable technologies used in mining operations on equipment such as auger drives, drilling machines, mobile crushers, apron feeders, breakers, belt conveyors, and more. In particular, radial-piston, direct drive hydraulic motors are well-suited for these applications because…

At last month’s NFPA International Economic Outlook Conference, John Manzella, of the Manzella Report, spoke on “Labor, International Trade, and What’s Ahead,” an insightful talk to the 200-ish attendees, many of whom were manufacturing executives in the fluid power realm. Manzella had few kind words for politicians on either side of the aisle, and I…

At the National Fluid Power’s annual International Economic Outlook Conference, Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics spoke on “U.S. & Global Macro Trends and Impacts,” and the overall outlook is positive for the manufacturing world. In examining the U.S. economic leading trends, it seems clear that there will be a slowing ascent in the next calendar…

After a full 15 months of being homebound, it was exciting — and a little daunting — to take my first business trip since the COVID-19 pandemic began. But it was great to see other fully vaccinated people meeting and networking at the NAHAD Annual Convention in Scottsdale, and wonderful to feel even a little…

By Leslie Langnau Early in the 3D printing industry, there were efforts to take wood byproducts and use that material to make parts. These early efforts were interesting for the novelty. Today, however, there’s a more serious effort to turn wood into a usable 3D printable material. Desktop Metal launched Forust, a process to sustainably…

As we move through our careers, it’s often interesting to watch the trajectory of our peers and compare their paths to our own. In many companies, there’s a natural corporate ladder we all climb, sometimes in stops and starts, depending on the overall structure. But we’ve all seen coworkers who rise faster, deftly navigate past…

When it comes to sustainability, plastics have a bad reputation among many consumers. “The problem here lies less in the explicit use thereof, for plastic has a number of positive material properties. It’s not just unbreakable and flexible, for instance, but also effectively protects the packaged item from various damaging factors,” said Martin Thyssen, packaging…

By Chris Noble, Business Development F&B/IIoT Consultant Emerson Automation Solutions Today’s packaging machines are becoming better equipped with sophisticated automation systems that often include some type of pneumatics technology for actuation, filling, positioning, palletizing, depalletizing, etc. However, the digitalization and IoT benefits that can be realized from modern pneumatic systems are often overlooked. The packaging…

The news has been filled with cyberattacks on a number of companies’ networking systems, several of which are critical to the U.S. economy. As the IoT, IIoT, Industry 4.0, and similar networks inch forward, recent digital events on networking held sessions on how to secure the transmission of data. One of those sessions was at…

Pneumatic solenoid valves make it possible to remotely operate and automate equipment, with a range of product and technology options available for upgrading designs. By Kevin Kakascik and Pat Phillips, AutomationDirect Pneumatic systems provide one of the essential methods designers can employ to create motion and force for equipment and manufacturing systems. These systems are…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor [email protected] I once worked for a company whose business was a mix of publications and trade shows. The trade shows made a lot of money. The publications were profitable, but not nearly as much as the shows. That made those of us writing for the company’s magazines…

Public health concerns have put a new emphasis on contactless credentials. The blossoming variety of reader formats complicates the task of reading and verifying IDs. Kiran Vasishta • ELATEC, Inc. Contactless credentials can be divided into two categories: soft credentials that include mobile phone apps transmitting data via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) or NFC (Near…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor [email protected] On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler There once was a lot of hand-wringing in the U.S. technical community about the number of engineering students who never practice engineering once they graduate. Much of this angst was directed at engineers who went into Wall Street finance jobs where the…

Linear position sensing is a specific and common industrial automation need — with many options for solving application challenges. By Andrew Waugh, AutomationDirect Industrial equipment and machinery usually involve a good amount of rotating and actuating parts. Effective automation of these elements calls for sensors to reliably detect the position of actuators and associated mechanisms.…

Here’s a novel way to create more environmentally friendly manufacturing facilities across the world: remanufacturing robots. This practice, being instituted by manufacturer ABB, enables existing robot users to sell inactive or legacy robots with an attractive buy back service, rather than scrapping them or leaving them unused in a corner of the factory. Over the…

Leading industrial companies from the automotive, pharmaceutical and food industries have clear CO2 targets for their products. These require machine builders to make significant energy savings in new machine generations compared with previous machines. Festo’s energy efficiency module MSE6-C2M offers a smart solution for the compressed air system market. When it comes to condition monitoring…

While this is an opinion column, I generally stay away from things of a political nature. Instead, here I mostly focus on engineering, manufacturing and management topics. But the social upheaval and protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have surely caused many of us to think about these issues in our…

Leland Teschler • Executive Editor [email protected] On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler A study by the nonpartisan think tank Pew Research Center made headlines recently when it concluded that almost 90% of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the state of the country. Before we get too discouraged over current events, it might be good to consider…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor [email protected] On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler Ever heard of the K890 sub-machine gun? A a prototype came out during the 1950s, but there were hardly any made. The reason was its awkwardly shaped stock which made the gun difficult to shoot accurately. It also had a weirdly short…

Recently, while listening to the excellent Freakonomics Podcast, one of the guests provided some great insight into our current situation. Marshall Burke, an Associate Professor at Stanford University explained that many times it takes an outside event to force society to move in directions that it had been technologically ready for, but not psychologically ready…