There’s an old saw that if bumblebees were aeronautical engineers they would know they can’t fly. Quite apart from the miracle of their flight, bees also happen to make a lightweight structure of surprising strength, just the sort of thing you’d want if you were building aircraft: honeycomb.
Carbon fiber is a magical material. That or similar comments were heard over and over from Roosevelt High School (Seattle) students attending a Composites 101 Workshop held at the National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education (MatEdU), a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (ATE)-sponsored program at Edmonds Community College (Lynnwood, WA).
As inventive and imaginative as 3D printer technology is, so are the materials that R&D labs have come up with to build parts, including conductive thermoplastics.
Scientists at Rice University (Houston) are smashing tiny silver cubes into a hard target in order to make these metallic microcubes ultrastrong and tough by rearranging their nanostructures upon impact.
Entrepreneurs and existing manufacturers are making 3D printers that automate production of composite parts, and are unique in their design.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) a $9.6 million contract, with options up to $40.5 million, to produce the Transducer Array/Nose Shell Assembly of the MK 48 heavyweight torpedo.
Materials science has opened new possibilities for designers of cars, planes and other products. Metal alloys are now as precisely engineered as they are machined. The result is longer lasting, stronger parts. But with a wider selection of materials comes risk—how can you be sure that one piece of gray metal stock is different than another? Careful warehousing procedures and paperwork only go so far.
VKS [Visual Knowledge Share] develops an electronic work instruction solution designed to improve quality, productivity, and efficiency.
According to CIMdata’s latest report, Mastercam is the No. 1 CAM software used worldwide. CIMdata also ranked Mastercam’s global support network as the largest in the field of CAM.
I’m among the first to dive into the latest manufacturing innovations and see how they can improve our customers’ operations. Yet, I’m also among the first to advise them to pause and ensure that the fundamentals of their manufacturing processes are in place before adding something new into the complex mix of functionality and desired outcomes.
