bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Electrically Charged
Authors: Longston Lee
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on gas turbines that were produced in 2001 spanning a wide range of capacities. As the engineer's most versatile energy converters, gas turbines producing thrust power continued in 2001 to propel most of the world's aircraft, both military and commercial. The largest commercial jet engines today can produce as much as 120,000 pounds thrust, or some 534,000 Newton. More natural gas pipeline capacity will be added to feed the surge in gas-driven electric power plants that have been corning online in the United States and other parts of the world. The gas turbine may come to be used in a new, commercially promising closed-cycle configuration. A South African company has been working on plans to build and test a prototype of a closed-cycle electric power gas turbine, which uses helium gas as the working fluid and a helium-cooled nuclear reactor to provide heat to power the cycle. If the gas turbine-nuclear reactor power plant is successful, the gas turbine may be the key to yet another energy conversion device, as it has been with record-setting numbers of combined-cycle plants installed worldwide.
Earthrise
Authors: Reisz Aloysius I.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the Apollo program that was a remarkable feat of engineering and a heroic human endeavor. It proved that mankind is not bound to Earth. The Apollo missions endowed us with a new sense of confidence in our intelligence and an awareness of our existence. Above all, the view of the graceful Earth from the moon inspired us to engineer better systems for our home planet. Apollo’s engineering leaders showed how to envision solutions to achieve objectives in a required time. Green engineering is developing clean energy and life systems that conserve Earth’s ecology. Clean energy can be obtained from the first elements of the universe, light and hydrogen. Energy from nuclear fusion leaves no hydrocarbon pollutants. Clean energy is also obtained from wind, celestial heat, biomass, and hydrocarbon matter before heavier Earth elements are entrained. Engineering is the application of human intelligence for the betterment of life. Engineers must not be satisfied with a role of merely making rote calculations. Rather, vision and leadership in developing and implementing new technologies should be provided that will allow perpetual use of the Earth and its resources.
Supply Channels
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article discusses about a universal CAD language that would enable users to pass information freely back and forth between systems without a great deal of translation. Vital CAD information can get lost or botched when models are translated by means of initial graphics exchange specification (IGES) or standard for the exchange of product model data (STEP). Many small suppliers are more agile than their larger, bureaucracy-bound counterparts. BMW is experimenting with CAD conferencing technology that is similar to Harbec's software, although it has not yet brought a system in-house. Automakers must use CAD conferencing and other collaborative technologies more, but they are often held back by one very important issue: security. Collaborative technology allows OEMs to get design, document, and pricing information to their suppliers more easily, but it really does not change the true nature of the supplier and OEM relationship, which has historically included sharing documents and a level of trust.
Designing For Sabotage
Authors: Smith Emily M.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on a method that engineers have used to make designs failsafe. Safety has always been implicit in design, but without any scientific data to lead the way in countering terrorism, engineers will have to figure out who decides what the terrorists are going to do, and what loads are needed. Gaining an understanding of terrorist organizations combined with some standard risk factors will help engineers determine where counterterrorism applications must be made. Staying ahead of terrorism, on an engineering level, will require engineers to perform continual risk assessment as technology advances, and new applications for existing technology are practiced.
Treading Lightly
Authors: Sharke Paul
Published: July 2018

This article reviews the musical road in Paris that has drawn enough complaints from locals to force a partial paving over. Perhaps the tune, composed by Gaellic Guillerm, grew weary upon repeated hearings by area residents. People living alongside busy highways would probably empathize with the inhabitants of the Paris suburb. The pavement’s texture also plays an important role in the kinds of vibrations that develop in the tread and sidewall. Pavement texture can excite these vibrations. Vibration from the blocks accounts for low- to mid-frequency sound. Measured from a few inches out, a tire can sound as loud as a chainsaw. The average driver, ensconced in the soft, cushiony interior of a modern automobile, rides close to but completely unaware of the buzz saw sounds coming from beneath the carriage. Highway noise outside the car might not be much of a concern in rural states. It may be a bigger deal in Europe due to the closeness of people and roads there.
Staring Down the Divide
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article highlights that electrical and mechanical engineers work together on products like cell phones; on the contrary, their software programs do not work like this anymore. Like cellular telephones and computers, all products made up of a combination of printed circuit boards and shaped materials like plastics require a rather tight degree of cooperation among mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and finite element analysts. But today’s computer-aided design and finite element analysis technology is not advanced enough to let them work as skillfully together as they might. Engineers and analysts still need to translate their designs into a neutral file format in order to pass files between their different software systems, and much can be lost in translation. But a number of engineering software developers are refining products to break down some of those barriers. Electrical and mechanical engineers commonly use the software to work together on projects like the design of fan-cooled computer central processing units and how they are anchored using already-specified techniques that the mechanical engineer has programmed into the system.
The Noise that Annoys
Authors: Syner Dan , Smith Elisabeth
Published: July 2018

This article highlights the demand for quieter products, which has increased in recent years. Quietness adds value to consumer products, office equipment, and factory machines. Workers want equipment that makes less noise than even the levels mandated by OSHA; they want the same noiselessness in their appliances at home. Increasingly, quiet products equate to quality products. Noise does not always indicate a defect. A motor can run at a speed that matches the resonance frequency of one of its own parts or that of a driven component, such as a fan or pump, and cause vibration. Technicians can use the software to predict how housing will bend and deflect, to determine how the critical speeds of individual elements will affect system resonance, to specify fits for shafting and housings, to calculate the number of bearing elements in contact and loaded at any one time, and to select bearings that will meet criteria for emitted sound. The software can also be used as an analytical tool to pinpoint the source of noise in rotating machines. A company wanting to analyze a motor-driven equipment design provides SKF analysts with a drawing of the drive.
Current From Currents
Authors: Ehrenman Gayle
Published: July 2018

This article discusses that in the quest for renewable energy, the oceans’ tides and flow have gone largely untapped. Companies in the United Kingdom and Canada are trying to harvest the power of sea current through new application of an old technology: turbines. IT Power is using technology from its spin-off company, Marine Current Turbines, also in Hampshire. The technology consists of a pair of axial flow rotors that are roughly 50 to 65 feet in diameter. Each drives a generator via a gearbox, much like a wind turbine. Blue Energy Canada is also working the currents. Its approach differs from that of IT Power in two significant ways: orientation of the turbine blades and their arrangement. A study conducted in 2001 by Triton Consultants, based in Vancouver, BC, on behalf of BC Hydro (one of the largest electrical utilities in Canada), found that the cost to develop a current turbine site is rather high, but the cost of annual power generation would be low. The study considered a site at the Discovery Passage in British Columbia, which it speculated would run 7941-MW Marine Current Turbines spread over roughly 3922 acres.
Smart Cars
Authors: Sharke Paul
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on features and benefits of intelligent driver assistance systems. A combination of radar and vision systems helps a driver to better sense his/her crash envelope. Using a highway simulation model, research teams have found motorists tending to overcompensate for slowing traffic ahead. The model indicated that 10 percent of the cars fitted with driver assistance would reduce the problem by eliminating excessive braking. Twenty percent of vehicles using such systems would eliminate traffic jams altogether. Delphi aims its roll control system specifically at topple-prone SUVs. Active controls eliminate body roll in corners and during evasive maneuvers. A semi-active version removes the performance compromises that afflict dual-purpose, on-/off-road vehicles. Assist Ware Technology Inc., Wexford, PA, builds an alertness aid that combines lane position monitoring with a road-departure warning. A small video camera watches the road ahead from the dashboard. Any weaving or drifting off track triggers the alarm.
A Cooler Weld
Authors: Hansen Matt
Published: July 2018

This article provides details of a low-temperature joining technology called friction stir welding. Friction stir welding (FSW) uses a cylindrical, shouldered tool with a profiled pin that is rotated and slowly plunged into the joint line between two pieces of sheet or plate material. According to an engineer, stir welding eliminated 60 percent of the rivets that the plane would have otherwise required. Eclipse Aviation Corp., Albuquerque, NM, is building a separate plant to house its stir welding operations for commercial production, once its plane receives certification by the US Federal Aviation Administration. FSW is a solid-state process, more like forging and extruding than to fusion welding. Since the process is solid state, the joint is not subject to any shrinkage because of phase changes. The process also introduces minimal heat into the weld, so the heat-affected zone is relatively small in comparison to arc welding.
Look, Ma, No Pilot!
Authors: Degaspari John
Published: July 2018

This paper reviews history of unmanned aircraft that are making news today. A team led by the inventor Charles Kettering had developed the airborne contraption, conceived as a top-secret weapon to deliver explosives against enemy troops. The craft was the first practical unmanned airplane. Unmanned aerial vehicles such as this circa 1946 target drone were built by the Radioplane Co. to train antiaircraft gunners during World War II. Weary bombers, such as the radio-controlled B-17G Flying Fortress, were used with small success as flying bombs during the World War II. World War II era target drones preceding unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance in the coming decades. In 1999, Northrop Grumman boosted its presence in target aircraft further by acquiring Ryan Aeronautical, the company that built the Spirit of St. Louis for Charles Lindbergh in 1927.
Making a Mesh of Things
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

Models need to be meshed and made acceptable for analysis before finite element analysis (FEA) can be run. Software providers that make pre-processing applications must keep up with changes in FEA technology to remain competitive. The mesh contains the data on material and structural properties that define how the part will react to certain load conditions. Today's closely integrated computer-aided design (CAD), pre-processing, and FEA applications allow CAD and entry-level FEA technologies to work together within a common user interface and give design engineers a quick, effortless way to see if their designs will meet specifications. Simplifying the FEA programs so a design engineer can use them limits the intricacy of the mesh as well as the depth of analysis. HyperMesh prepares CAD geometries for analysis. The meshed geometries are then exported to Procter & Gamble's customized package analysis system called Virtual Package Simulation. Today, engineers use mesh technologies and attendant FEA programs for an array of analyses. Some are related to manufacturing, but as often as not they've found their way into other industries.
Zapping the Record
Authors: Hutchinson Harry
Published: July 2018

The Buckeye Bullet, a student project at Ohio State University, is the first electric car to exceed 300 mph. It set a new US record of 315 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The vehicle is 10 meters long and is powered by a 250-kW motor supplied by a 900 V battery system. The new record holder, the Buckeye Bullet, travelled 272 mph over the Bonneville Salt Flats on one desert-bright October day. Later in the same week, it was clocked at 315 mph for a new U.S. record. According to Dan Warner, the association representative who certified the times, the international record allows unlimited run-up distance and then times the vehicle through a flying mile. The record is based on the vehicle’s best average time in both directions over the same mile.
Rough Water
Authors: Hutchinson Harry
Published: July 2018

This article reviews about the new landing platform dock (LPD) that is an Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor system, a composite material structure that protects radar and communication antennas from weather, and helps reduce the ship’s vulnerability to detection by hostile radar. The San Antonio has hydraulically controlled gates at the stem, where the landing craft and assault vehicles leave the ship and return. The hydraulic system underwent several design changes in virtual prototype before it ever rocked in the water. Northrop Grumman is building three more San Antonio-class vessels, LPD 18 through 20. The Navy is planning to incorporate into the New York some of the steel that was recovered from the World Trade Center as a memorial to victims of the attack on September 11, 2001.
Picture This
Authors: Wicks Frank
Published: July 2018

This article highlights that the adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, is a flawed understatement. Our memories, knowledge, and opinions rely heavily on pictures. Words can only provide an explanation to information contained in a good picture. Time always moves forward, but a picture allows us to look back to some prior moment in time. Photography, which means writing with light, would require replacing the artist’s paper with a chemically coated screen, exposing the screen to the image, and then stabilizing the resulting picture. The first practical photographic process was announced in France in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, who had achieved fame as a designer of theater stages and lighting effects. George Eastman built a magnificent Colonial Revival Mansion on East Avenue in Rochester in 1905. It is a National Historic Landmark and is chartered by the State of New York as the International Museum of Photography and Film. It displays a rare collection of photographs, cameras, projectors, books, and motion pictures.
No Gear is an Island
Authors: Zychinski Steven M.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses Coin Acceptors Inc.’s designs and manufactures’ vending machines, control systems, bill acceptors, and coin changers for the snack and beverage industry. The company, based in St. Louis, sells its products through branch companies as far away as Europe and Australia. To improve the industry’s machines, the firm set out to offer a high-capacity coin changer, which would operate a bit differently. It was during the design of this device that our engineering team at Coin Acceptors was reminded of an important design principle: No gear operates alone. With the production date for their coin changer looming, they needed to come up with solutions fast. The company decided to bring the design in-house. Load analysis suggested a benefit from a material change for the ring gears. They chose a reinforced nylon from Ticona of Summit, N.J. The material offers more strength without increasing wear. It also has a reduced coefficient of thermal expansion, which meant 25 percent less fluctuation in backlash and contact ratio throughout the wide operating temperature range.
The Trail to the Leading Edge
Authors: Walker James D. , Grosch Donald J.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on SwRI that had conducted impact experiments, experiments of the sort that would be needed now, on the orbiter's thermal protection system. Studies had included the effects of foam insulation, ablator, and ice striking both carbon-carbon materials similar to those that line the shuttle's leading edges and the silica thermal protective tiles that cover most of the rest of the craft. Concurrently, SwRI developed detailed analytic and numerical models of foam insulation's impact on thermal tiles. The models provided a curve for distinguishing between damage and no damage, based on speed and impact angles. Given an impact speed and angle for an incoming piece of foam insulation, the model determined whether or not tile material would sustain damage. The SwRI model agreed extremely well with previous tile impact tests and would agree with the five tests performed during the Columbia accident investigation of foam insulation impacting tiles.
Space Calls
Authors: Noor Ahmed K. , Cuts James A.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the exploration of our solar system that has, in a very literal sense, extended the reach of mankind. Developing the technology of that exploration has extended immensely the capacity of engineering. The new technologies and key capabilities being developed include intelligent robotics, advanced propulsion systems, power generation, avionics, telecommunications, and instruments. Technology for sample acquisition and return encompasses power and propulsion, robust landing, sensors, handling and packaging systems, ascent vehicles, and autonomous rendezvous and capture systems. Measures are needed to ensure that the samples are not contaminated during collection or the return to Earth, and that samples cause no harm to the Earth's environment. Some of the future solar system missions will experience extreme environments. The extreme cold and intense radiation around Europa, or the searing heat and crushing pressure of Venus, would limit the lifetime of systems built with present technology to just minutes. Improved pressure vessels, thermal control, environmentally tolerant electronics, and low-power systems are needed to prolong the lives of vehicles and instruments for these missions.
Tutankhamen's Tribology
Authors: Woods Robert O.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses that wheels on the earliest vehicles were fixed to the axles rather than rotating independently. The axles themselves were supported in transverse grooves in some kind of chassis, which constituted the bearing. Much later, elsewhere, simple grooves were supplemented with inverted U-shaped iron retainers. The axles, which must have initially been at least roughly circular in cross-section, probably wound up becoming symmetrical after use had knocked the corners off. Tutankhamen’s chariots give us an opportunity to study the details of wheels and axles. The aspect that is most striking to a present-day engineer is that the axles were made of wood and the wheels had wooden journals. The favored materials were elm and birch, which were imported because neither wood was native to Egypt. Modern wheels turn faster than ancient ones, the power train drives them farther than horses can go, and the wheels seldom fall off—even when wet.
Freedom of Choice
Authors: Sharke Paul
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on fuel cell vehicle that has a long way to go. Maybe those part electric-powered, part gasoline-burning cars will help clear the way. Computer diagnostic tools, such as computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis, are helping to uncover the ways in which the various media that make up fuel cell stacks compress and how they respond to bipolar plate stresses, to name but two examples of research. Experimental measurement tools were helping researchers to visualize flow, measure temperatures directly, and understand compression distribution. Fuel cells have not become the simple solid-state devices that were predicted initially. Hydrogen has not become any more readily available than it was five years ago. Bridges weigh little compared with the land masses they ordinarily connect. Hybrids may never reach the sales volume that traditional internal combustion engine cars now enjoy, or that fuel cell cars may one day reach.
Virtually Edison
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article highlights modern analysis technology that allows engineers to answer what-if questions that would have been impractical or perhaps impossible to manage in Edison’s day. Edison pushed engineers to test their designs as thoroughly as they could. No one is about to suggest that physical prototyping and real-world testing will ever become a thing of the past, but building prototypes has become more expensive over the years as products have become more sophisticated. Successful companies today allow for experimentation that strikes the right balance between computerized simulations and Edison’s hands-on prototyping method. Engineers and analysts work closely with reliability engineers, who are also in the loop. The latter group ensures that the machines are as reliable as possible. They are the engineers who perform in-house accelerated and component testing, working mainly with already-built machines. Experimentation, analysis, and prototyping—both physical and virtual—cannot be sidestepped. But engineers need to strike the right balance between physical and virtual experimentation appropriate to their companies.
Information in Order
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article discusses various aspects of product lifecycle management (PLM). Medical device makers constantly seek innovative technologies; some use product lifecycle management systems to smooth the road to food and drug administration approval. Engineers at superDimension manage hundreds of design changes flying around the company by using the manufacturer’s product lifecycle management technology. Keeping close track of the overwhelming number of documents that a regulatory agency might ask to see is one of them. The Air Force will soon use the technology for a different purpose-to give personnel wireless access to maintenance records and technical manuals where they service aircraft. In order to organize the flow and head off chaos, superDimension implemented its PLM software from the very beginning. The manufacturer uses SmarTeam from the vendor of the same name. The company is now owned by IBM. The company engineered its PLM technology to suit its needs.
On-Machine Inspecting
Authors: Sharke Paul
Published: July 2018

This article discusses about on-machine inspecting. This type of inspecting has helped to turn around business for at least one machine shop, Tech Machine in Colorado Springs, Colo., where it is made a big dent in scrap rates. Tech Machine manufactures tight-tolerance stainless steel and titanium medical parts that have many complex curves and very smooth finishes. On-machine inspecting has helped to turn around business for at least one machine shop, Tech Machine in Colorado Springs, Colo., where it is made a big dent in scrap rates. Tech Machine manufactures tight-tolerance stainless steel and titanium medical parts that have many complex curves and very smooth finishes. A part that can be measured at the machine and corrected there is one that avoids moving between the numerically controlled machine and the coordinate measuring machine. Small cuts can be made and then checked immediately.
Pumped Up
Authors: DeGaspari John
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on microelectromechanical systems that have been one of the hot topics of the engineering world for years now. Tire-pressure monitoring systems have been available on select passenger vehicles since the late 1990s. Tire-pressure sensor modules contain several components. A MEMS pressure sensor is the key element, but the package may also include a temperature sensor, voltage sensor, accelerometer, microcontroller, radio-frequency circuit, antenna, and battery. Some suppliers of MEMS tire-pressure sensors are seeking to eliminate batteries and power the tire-pressure sensing module by an alternative power source. In the sensor module, packaging must expose the sensor to air pressure and protect the rest of the components. Freescale, for example, protects its sensor with a Teflon filter, which makes sure that only dry air can enter and pressurize the diaphragm.
A Field bus that Chooses
Authors: Sharke Paul
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the process involved in machinery health monitoring. Operators need know only about certain things for which they can take immediate action: a cavitating pump, an overheating motor, a severely vibrating train, a failing bearing. They do not need knowledge of longer-term concerns like imbalance or misalignment, the domain of maintenance gurus. Likewise, management needs information about overall plant health and the priorities of various repairs, but it does not want to know that a circulation water pump is exhibiting mild axial misalignment or another pump elsewhere is beginning to cavitate.
Fourier
Authors: Adiutori Eugene F.
Published: July 2018

This article reviews profile of Joseph Fourier, a French mathematician, who was a true father of modern engineering. Concepts that engineers use every day—as fundamental as the homogeneity of equations and the heat transfer coefficient—were pioneered by Fourier. Fourier’s contributions to engineering science, many of which were presented in his 1822 book, The Analytical Theory of Heat, include the original view of dimensional homogeneity. The heat transfer science it presented has been handed down to us virtually unchanged, and has served as a model for other branches of engineering. Fourier’s contemporaries forestalled the general publication of his work for 15 years while they claimed to find fault with it. They ultimately accepted his revolutionary view of homogeneity, solely because he was able to solve many practical and theoretical problems that had never been solved. He attributed his success to the homogeneity in his equations.
Managing Across Cultures
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on managing motivated engineers means having to tell them it is time to stop tinkering with one design and move on to the next. Managing means knowing when to say what, as after all, the equipment will never meet the engineers’ exacting specifications. Volunteers sometimes travel to a location to figure out how a piece of equipment might be used. Oftentimes, however, the budget doesn't allow for overseas trips. Committees meet monthly, and during the interim, committee members experiment alone or in groups with parts of a project. Management is best accomplished when a project with a particular need is attached to a competent volunteer who has an interest in that need. Projects sound easy in execution: highly trained engineers and food scientists—many with an illustrious career are worth of experience to contribute—volunteer to design fairly straightforward tools. But sometimes the simplest tools are the most difficult to design.
Life, Meet Engineering
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the fact that as biosciences and engineering that continue to blend and merge, the technologies and methods used by professionals in both fields have come to overlap as well. There are plenty of mechanical engineers already engaged in developing devices and in other biomedical roles. Advances in the life sciences require that mechanical engineers get on board to help solve complicated biological problems. A mechanical engineer working on a CAD system cannot readily replicate the intricacies of the human body digitally. A bone designed on a BioCAD system needs to have its basis in a patient scan. Each model will be unique. As mechanical engineering creeps into bioengineering and other life sciences, and vice versa, trades like those described by Chen and Sun will become more common and ever more viable. CAD and other engineering technologies will mutate and change until students of tomorrow may have a hard time recognizing the tools of today.
Fast and Secure
Authors: Sharke Paul
Published: July 2018

This article highlights the beauty of an early tamper-proof design of how it can be installed with almost any straight-bladed screwdriver, as opposed to many tamper-resistant screws that came later, which required special drivers for turning them in either direction. A drawback of the one-way, slotted variety is that it is difficult to remove with any tool save maybe a drill. Hence, Tamperproof sells a tool for removing them that uses two prongs to cut notches in the head. Unlike the one-way, slotted style, other tamper-proof designs are meant to be taken out occasionally. Unfortunately, there is not much control anymore over distribution of the driver bits for designs like the Torx tamper-proof screws, so they go only as far as making vandalism inconvenient. Prisons are big users of tamper-proof fasteners. In such places, even innocuous shower drain covers are honed into knives by convicts who, between working on their pecs at the gyms and their cases in the law libraries, find time to work on their projects in the prison machine shops.
Working Backward
Authors: Jean Thilmany
Published: July 2018

This article reviews how reverse engineering is used in detecting and preserving. Engineers across many disciplines find reverse engineering an invaluable tool to discover and learn about a product’s structure and design. A good forensic engineer will glean relevant information through meticulous investigation and by taking a reverse-engineering approach. Texas Tech University, the National Park Service, and the Historic American Buildings Survey are now creating digital architectural drawings to detail the 120-year-old statue’s every curve, cranny, and dimension. They are doing this through reverse engineering. The university is capturing the statue's unique architecture with three-dimensional laser scanning technology tied to geometry processing software, which automatically generates an accurate digital model from the scan data. To help align the scans and to fix the holes, the team turned to technology that creates surface models from scanned data. The software is Geomagic Studio, from Raindrop Geomagic of Research Triangle Park, NC.
A Short Stroll
Authors: Tillman Jean
Published: July 2018

This article highlights Boeing that is making a big investment to get engineers and manufacturers speaking face-to-face. Design engineers communicated mainly with the manufacturing side, including mechanics, builders, and manufacturing engineers, bye-mail and fax. When e-mails bounced back and forth, much was lost in translation. Mechanical engineers did not have hands-on access to parts they had designed. Change orders cropped up more than managers liked. Manufacturers had difficulty picking engineers’ brains, or asking them why they had designed a certain part just so. Boeing executives decided that the workspace should make interaction as easy as possible. Engineers did not have to lose the private cubicles where they felt most comfortable, but the cubes are now located a short stroll from the plant floor, in buildings that flank the assembly line. Boeing’s communication plan included posting updates on the company intra-net and posting fliers in prominent locations. Having managers speak to employees both in teams and one-on-one helped alleviate some of that anxiety.
Invention on Demand
Authors: Hippie Jack
Published: July 2018

This article reviews a system that lays down tools for creative problem-solving and product-design. Altshuller identified a number of inventive principles and also discerned patterns of technological evolution. He regarded these ideas as generic principles that could be used not only to solve problems in product design, but also to forecast and plan product and business development. As people have continued to study the patent literature, they do not find much in the way of any new inventive principles, and the ratio of really breakthrough patents continues at less than 5 percent. Theory of Solving Inventive Problems (TRIZ) began to migrate to the West after perestroika, partly because many of its proponents in the Soviet Union were frustrated at not being able to implement their technology in the private sector. Systems and products become more dynamic over time. Systems evolve by the matching and mismatching of components and properties.
First in Mass Production
Authors: Woods Robert O.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on mass production that is generally seen as an achievement of the 20th century based on roots in the 19th century. The developing art of printing was aided by contemporary innovations in technology. The magnifying lens arrived in northern Europe just in time to be useful. Gutenberg’s introduction to printing via religion probably led to his decision to go on to produce a Bible. The proceeds from the famous Bible printing, which was done in 1456, went only to his collaborators after he was forced to cede his business to them. Today, the idea of pressing inked metal into paper is quaint. Fonts are made of electrical impulses. But the legacy of the Renaissance printers remains with us.
Ephemeral Warehouse
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article highlights how can companies archive their 3D CAD files as their software races toward obsolescence. Digital designs, though, are created on software and computers that are outdated when they are delivered. Computer files can be hard to retrieve in as little as five years down the road. This is a big problem for the engineering community and, of course, for corporations, government agencies, and organizations that store information digitally—in short, for everyone. Most information today—not just engineering data—is created and stored digitally on computer systems that become outdated sooner than bread gets stale. Companies may also store blueprints or CAD documents as portable document files (PDFs) or as tagged image files (TIFs). These are 3D digital files that can be accessed fairly universally from any computer. Again, much is lost, including geometry, when swooshing a 3D file as flat as a pancake.
Reach for the Sky
Authors: Varrasi John
Published: July 2018

This article highlights that for centuries although space was the realm of wonder and fascination, of fiction and children’s bedtime stories, of shooting balls of fire and faraway heavenly bodies; still it was less than 50 years ago that things began to change in earnest. Enormous engineering resources were invested in the US space program during the 1960s. By the end of the decade, engineers had gained a sufficient level of knowledge about chemical rockets and storable propellants and turned their attention to other technologies, such as noise control and advanced computer systems. In its tradition of recognizing technological achievement, ASME has bestowed honors and awards on numerous engineers and scientists associated with the nation's space program. ASME’s publications and conferences have been important vehicles for disseminating technical information on aerospace and aeronautics technology. The Society’s Aerospace Division, which predates the lunar program, has been one of the most active sectors of ASME's technical divisions.
Like Life
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

A research group at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, is at work on a scheme to devise robots that would evolve both their electronic brains and their bodies to meet each user's prescribed needs. The robots would then build themselves by a rapid production method like 3D printing or rapid prototyping, a method of manufacturing objects, usually by depositing and curing successive layers of material. According to the researchers, the machines would not have to be built on an assembly line and thus have the potential to replicate exponentially, bringing down their production costs and making them more readily available. The research program at Brandeis is called the Genetically Organized Lifelike Electro Mechanic, or Golem, Project. A robot in the Golem Project starts out as a computer program. The software iterates its mechanism through matching parts, looking for the combination that will allow the robot to best move on its own for its intended application {CE: Please check whether this edit suits well for this sentence.}. The successful matches continue to mutate and improve. The computer search can be compared roughly to the process of natural selection.
Fair Game
Authors: Brown Alan S.
Published: July 2018

This article highlights the benefits of conducting a fair to increase business visibility. Many emerging industrial nations are using fairs to increase their visibility. Russia used more than 7000 square meters at the 2005 fair to display the country's skills in fields ranging from aerospace, energy, and metallurgy to materials, transportation, and automation. Eighty-one companies competed for the prestigious Hermes Award for pioneering technology. The Hermes finalists were selected by a jury, but the people's choice was clearly the Airacuda, a pneumatically powered fish that dived, turned, and swam like its biological antecedents. In addition to Chancellor Merkel, it drew a steady stream of engineers who came to watch it swim in its 60,000-liter aquarium at the Festo AG & Co. KG exhibit. The article concludes that the objects are playful; however, they have a serious purpose-the advancement of industrial technology and perhaps of medicine as well.
No Hurry to Recycle
Authors: Von Hippel Frank N.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the promotion of Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) by US Department of Energy. GNEP is a strategy for dealing with the accumulation of radioactive waste from power plants by reprocessing some of the spent fuel. The primary domestic benefit of this initiative would be to reduce the quantity of plutonium and other transuranic waste that would have to be buried in Yucca Mountain, the Nevada site identified as the national depository for nuclear waste. The objective of GNEP is to fission all of the transuranics, aside from process losses. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study scaled its cost estimate to 62,000 tons of spent fuel because that is approximately the amount of spent fuel that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act allows to be placed in Yucca Mountain before a second repository in another state is in operation. The huge cost of the GNEP would likely be more of a burden than a help to the future of nuclear power in the United States.
Translation Time
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This paper describes an automated system to address disconnect between the design and analysis programs. The disconnect between computer-aided design (CAD) and analysis occurs because one system is powered by geometrical information and the other is not. One system is meant to handle geometry, while the other creates a mesh and does not rely on geometry in the same way that CAD does. Engineering software developers coming up with a design-analysis workaround by building design automation into their CAD packages. This method gives engineers vital information about the part from the get-go. The information is gleaned from the past designs for similar parts and can be automatically included in the new model. Such automated systems capture expert knowledge and reapply it to other models. The system might ask engineers to answer several questions about what they intend to design before they even start. The automated system would help engineers build parts upfront that would meet criteria for phenomena from varied disciplines, including fluid, structural, or thermal analysis.
Re-Engineering Healthcare
Authors: Noor Ahmed
Published: July 2018

This article reviews a system that is in need of repair in the United States, and engineers are uniquely equipped to help fix it. Although the expenditure per capita on healthcare in the United States is higher than in any other country, the current US healthcare system cannot be sustained, and major improvements are needed. Lives unnecessarily lost each year in the United States due to medical errors are estimated to be as high as 98,000 and injuries over a million. The healthcare system is currently facing many problems and challenges, including rapid changes in medical technology and practice, severe shortages in skilled healthcare workers, and an aging population with increased incidence of disease and disability. The cyber infrastructure will facilitate technology-based, distributed delivery of health services, as well as training and lifelong learning for healthcare workers. It can evolve into an electronic care continuum with pervasive access to global, accurate, and timely medical knowledge for individuals about their health needs in an era of rapid change and expanding knowledge.
Power Window
Authors: Winters Jeffrey
Published: July 2018

This article highlights that there are plenty of hysterical headlines about how the world is about to run out of oil, and it is just as easy to find spokesmen who will say that there is petroleum enough for everyone, now and in the future. Indeed, while oil production may be approaching a peak, there are probably at least a trillion barrels left to be pumped. In contrast, no matter how much oil is around, it is found in increasingly difficult and expensive places to exploit. A more troubling pattern can be seen in the oil production and consumption figures for Indonesia. Overtime, a greater and greater share of oil produced is being used by the producers, and less is available for export. Even so, the international trade in petroleum is 50 percent bigger now than it was in 1980. But if, as seems likely, there will be fewer exporting nations in the coming decades, this could become a problem.
Beyond Step
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article reviews modern-day computer numerically controlled machines are no longer modern enough. The 50-year-old G and M codes that drive those machines cannot transfer valuable geometric information from CAD and CAM systems, according to a group of experts who are advocating for widespread use of the recently approved STEPNC standard. With the new standard, CAD and CAM applications have the capability to send product information to CNC machines. Today’s global engineering companies commonly pass CAD files back and forth. There are a number of ways for suppliers to translate their own CAD files into a format that original equipment manufacturers can read. The STEP and IGES translation programs have the same problems as human translators. Sometimes, there just is not a one-to-one correlation between words or, in the case of CAD systems, pieces of product data, like geometry features or attributes. IGES and STEP standards have to evolve as fast as today’s engineering technologies are evolving.
The Creative Impulse
Authors: Brown Alan S.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on how engineers prize creativity, and for good reason. Innovation powers corporate success. Henry Ford’s low-cost mass production line, the Wright brothers’ airplane, and Thomas Edison’s phonograph all launched new businesses and created fortunes for their developers. The same is true for such creative breakthroughs as personal computers, biomedical implants, composite aircraft, and cell phones. Engineers may work at individual desks and workstations, but teams almost always create the vision that guides their work. Teams have grown increasingly diverse. In large companies, in particular, few designs make it into production without early input from manufacturing, purchasing, finance, marketing, and sales. There are ways to improve team creativity, although much of it sounds like common sense. Team members should spend time getting to know and trust one another and learning how to share information. Managing creativity is not always easy. The predilection of creative thinkers to stray outside corporate boundaries, their willingness to fail while trying something new, and the uneven quality of their output make them hard to manage in corporations that thrive on control.
Right the First Time
Authors: MacCleery Brian , Mathur Nipun
Published: July 2018

This paper discusses development of new tools that can help mechanical engineers avoid common pitfalls in designing complex mechatronic motion control systems. To help facilitate a more integrated design process for electromechanical systems, software developers are partnering with electrical and control design companies to add motion simulation capabilities to computer-aided design (CAD) environments to create a more unified mechatronics workflow. Integrating motion simulation with CAD simplifies design because the simulation uses information that already exists in the CAD model, such as assembly mates, couplings, and material mass properties. Simulations also simplify evaluating engineering trade-offs between different conceptual designs. The paper also highlights that several web-based motor-sizing tools have been designed to help sort through the thousands of choices, and some include motor data from multiple vendors. Using realistic multiaxis motion profiles to drive simulation can provide more accurate torque and velocity requirements, which depend on the acceleration characteristics of your motion profiles and the mass, friction, and gear ratio properties of the transmission.
Offshore analysis
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article discusses design equipment built to withstand rigors of life in the ocean. Equipment called upon by the offshore industries undergoes hard use in the face of nature. Engineers in the offshore industry rely on finite element analysis (FEA) because of the demands of their business. Many engineers call upon the analysis technique to ensure that the equipment they design can withstand the unique ocean rigors and the dangers inherent in the offshore environment. Many offshore companies run FEA analysis to calculate that their equipment will function properly under conditions unique to the industry, like lifting heavy equipment in confined areas. Engineers rely on simulations and analysis to ensure that they have the basis of their design correct and that the equipment they create will function for two decades. While simulation will never totally replace the need to verify results by testing a prototype, analysis is useful in a number of ways. A prototype may run successfully, but actually be very close to failing. Engineers have no way to know that unless they also look at analysis numbers.