Machinery
imec virtual camera delivers new angle on reality
April 12, 2010 4:48 am | Product Releases | CommentsImec Virtual Camera turns the input from fixed cameras into a 3D space where a director or cameraman has total freedom to choose any angle or distance to the action.
America’s Cup winner trounces “tradition” with technology
February 16, 2010 8:38 am | Blogs | CommentsA fine sail off the coast of Spain is hardly the reality for most Americans, who have been locked in a snowy wonderland for months. But that's apparently where the technology is: the USA 17 that brought home the America's Cup for the first time in 23 years could be the most advanced sailboat ever built.
Beyond Plug-and-Play
January 7, 2010 2:46 am | by Bill Kennedy | Application NotesComputer-based machining systems make basic metalcutting a largely plug-and-play process. In most cases, a 3-D CAD file run through a CAM package and posted to a CNC machine tool will produce a part that resembles the original model.
Robotics Brought to the Benchtop
December 21, 2009 9:56 am | by Lindsay Hock | Articles | CommentsIn life science applications, sample preparation is crucial to any research project. With that knowledge, Symyx (Sunnyvale, Calif.) created a benchtop platform system that excels in doing complex sample preparation for a variety of life science analytics.
A Micro Spectrophotometer
December 21, 2009 9:45 am | by Lindsay Hock | Articles | CommentsWhile some companies make the decision to take floor-standing instruments down to the benchtop, other companies market their analytical products for the benchtop initially. One such company is Shimadzu Scientific Instruments. Benefiting the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, environmental, biochemistry, and polymer industries, the new UV-1800 is part of Shimadzu’s natural progression of spectrophotometers.
Making SEMs More Micro
December 21, 2009 9:32 am | by Lindsay Hock | Articles | CommentsSmaller seems to be the trend in laboratories today. Because many laboratories are scrambling for space, or have become cramped due to large instrumentation, microscopes are getting smaller and more complex, being taken to the benchtop.
A desk we can count on
November 24, 2009 3:35 am | Blogs | CommentsThe one thing I enjoy after a day at work is a nice, long walk or jog. Once the endorphins kick in everything seems perfect. Anything that happened previously that may have stressed me out or affected me negatively gets wiped away, or at least decreases, and I get lost in the rhythm my feet make as they rush across the dark pavement of the road.
Unique Challenges to Measuring Microparts
October 26, 2009 5:20 am | by Patrick Lanthier, F25 Product Manager, Carl Zeiss IMT Corporation | Application NotesThere are several challenges that can arise when you start the process of measuring micro and meso scale parts. Some important factors to consider before you begin the actual part measuring are: part handling, cleaning, and fixturing. Using a coordinate measuring machine allows you the capability of measuring extremely tiny parts completely accurately by using touch (tactile) and optical techniques.
The Great Fume Hood Debate
October 21, 2009 5:18 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsFor decades the assumption was that a safer fume hood was one with high air flow. But air flow is expensive, and vendors and researchers are designing ways to save money while continuing to protect the operator.
R & D 100 Awards Highlights: The Power of Multiple Disciplines
September 16, 2009 10:27 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsAs you will probably note when reading through this R&D 100 Awards issue, the winning innovations are organized by category. Microscopes are grouped together, beam instruments have their section, and thin-film systems occupy another area of technology. These categories are largely for the convenience of the reader and the editors. We like to categorize things.
In the scanning probe world, large range is a good thing
October 10, 2008 8:05 am | Award WinnersThe XY HiPER-Nap: XY High Precision Extended Range Nano Positioning System from the Univ. of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.) is the largest nanometric motion range positioning system now available.
Diamond seals the deal for pump protection
October 8, 2008 10:35 am | Award WinnersUltrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) Mechanical Seals, researched and developed by Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc., and John Crane Inc., stands out as competition for SiC. The seal get its name from its grain size, which at 2-5 nm and 20 carbon atoms in diameter, is much smaller than microcrystalline diamond films.
Crawling with control
October 6, 2008 12:50 pm | Award WinnersBrake control systems are in common use to help drivers control steep descents, start uphill, and stay on the road when traction degrades. The Crawl Control vehicle brake system, introduced by Toyota Motor Corp. and ADVICS Co., LTD., is the only one to unite existing control measures in a comprehensive system for off-road driving conditions.
A new way to see the really small and really quick
October 2, 2008 2:29 pm | Award WinnersMany materials and biological processes occur far too quickly for a high-end microscope to witness, let alone the human eye. Observation of these phenomena, which can occur under extreme temperature and applied pressure, requires a tool like the Dynamic Transmission Electron Microscope (DTEM), developed by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, Calif.) and JEOL USA, Inc (Peabody, Mass.). The DTEM captures images with a high spatial resolution of less than 10 nm, using a laser-driven electron source to produce an extremely brief but intense pulse of 109 electrons.
The sharper image
October 2, 2008 2:26 pm | Award WinnersThe latest beam-based microscope from Carl Zeiss SMT (Peabody, Mass.) might look similar to a scanning electron microscope, but under the hood it’s a much different animal. Instead of electrons, the ORION Helium Ion Microscope projects a beam of much heavier helium ions, which scatter less at the sample surface and help produce a crisper image.
Raman and atomic force, together at last
October 2, 2008 2:24 pm | Award WinnersThe Automated Confocal Raman & Atomic Force Microscopy–alpha 500 from WITec GmbH (Ulm, Germany) is the first to blend the chemical 3-D imaging capability of confocal Raman microscopy with the structural surface analytical ability of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in an automated system for large samples.
Extreme UV lasers bring the nanoscale to the benchtop
October 2, 2008 2:14 pm | Award WinnersWhat constitutes the perfect microscope? Is it the resolution? Flexibility for examining a wide variety of samples? One that can be used quickly and often? The Extreme Ultraviolet Light Table-Top Microscope (EUVM-1) from the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology, Colorado State Univ. appears to strive for all of these qualities and meets them efficiently.
Magnetic actuator declares freedom from camshafts
September 26, 2008 12:54 pm | Award WinnersVariable valve systems on modern internal combustion engines represent sophisticated engineering, with multiple sensors and computers providing variable control functions to a mechanical system that injects fuel and air and removes exhaust gas. The Fully Flexible Electromagnetic Valve Actuator (FFEVA), produced by Engineering Matters, Inc. (Newton, Mass.), represents a new philosophy in valve control.
Mesoscale calibration goes high profile
September 26, 2008 12:49 pm | Award WinnersTo achieve high accuracy at mesoscale, the Silicon Micromachined Dimensional Calibration Artifact for Mesoscale Measurement Machines, produced by Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, N.M.), feature a nanometrically sharp yet microscopically long edge that can be located using a tactile probe on high-accuracy coordinate measuring machines. Chrome-on-glass grid artifacts can only be calibrated optically because they are essentially 2-D.
Gateway transformation
September 26, 2008 11:25 am | Award WinnersGates control the opening and closing of these transistors, which are insulated from the gate by a dielectric. Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) saw an opportunity to reduce this transistor leakage and developed the Intel 45 nm High-k Metal Gate Transistor Technology for its new 45-nm process chips.
Setting the pace
September 26, 2008 11:18 am | Award WinnersRevisions to high vacuum pump design typically proceed in an evolutionary fashion because of the high demands placed on existing design. The HiPace 80, HiPace 300, and HiPace 700 line of high vacuum turbopumps from Pfeiffer Vacuum (Asslar, Germany) represents a significant blend of computing advancements and mechanical revisions that produces across-the-board performance improvements.
Electrolysis powers these scrubbing bubbles
September 25, 2008 12:19 pm | Award WinnersWater electrolysis generates two streams of water: alkaline and acidic—but most commercial cleaning applications use just one of the two. The Tennant Co. has come up with a floor scrubbing method that uses both streams of water to electrically activate water, making it act like a detergent. Called ech2o – Electrically Activated Water, the technology is now used in a line of walk-behind automatic floor scrubbers.
Microscopy Drives Analytical Instrument Changes
August 11, 2008 7:27 am | by Tim Studt | Articles | CommentsMany different types of microscopes and applications are used in today's research laboratories, as shown by an R&D Magazine survey.
Simpler, better valves
August 31, 2007 8:00 pm | Award WinnersThe single largest maintenance cost for a natural gas reciprocating compressor is its valves. Most current valves are passive and utilize springs for damping. By replacing these springs with electromagnetic coils that are activated by the motion of the valve plate, researchers at the Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, Texas) and the Gas Machinery Research Council (Dallas, Texas), created a Semi-Active Compressor Valve that operates at its peak efficiency regardless of the operating condition.
Kitchen in a carton
August 31, 2007 8:00 pm | Award WinnersThe U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center (NSRDEC), in conjunction with collaborators, have devised an innovative way to provide a hot meal to military in the field: The Unitized Group Ration-Express (UGR-E). The UGR-E, also known as a kitchen-in-a-carton, is a modular, compact, self-contained unite that automatically heats shelf-stable group sized meals for up to 18 people, independent of field kitchens, cooks, fuel, and power.
