Professional printers use magnets as nifty closures for brochures, binders, boxes, and other presentation pieces. Magnets can be entertaining for children and adults once used in toys and other gift materials. If you need to hold two or more pieces of metal in place, a few of our cube or block magnets can be invaluable, whether it be for welding, drilling or machining.

Vespel is a group of high performance polyimide-based plastics that are often utilized in technologies that pertain to semiconductors, transportation, and aerospace. It is primarily used in application where friction and wear factor into a machine’s usability. This material is made up of a combination of many amazing characteristics, such as heat resistance, creep resistance, chemical resistance, lubricity, and dimensional stability, making it incredibly versatile and practical in a variety of environments, including extreme working conditions.

While Vespel is a very impressive polyimide-based polymer, it’s not the only one on the market, nor is it always the best choice for the applications it is primarily used for. One material that has actually been used instead of Vespel for certain machine parts is Celazole PBI (Polybenzimidazole).

Examples of where Celazole has replaced Vespel to achieve improved results include:

• High heat insulator bushings – Celazole bushings last longer, and are easier to clean because hot molten plastics do not stick to PBI.
• Electrical connectors – provides additional safety in circumstance where connectors are exposed to temperatures that exceed 400° F.
• Clamp rings – Polybenzimidazole parts last longer than parts made from polyimide because of decreased high energy erosion rates. Thus, they need to be replaced less frequently.

Hence, while Vespel is one of the most widely used engineering plastics, Celazole is considered to be the highest performance engineering thermoplastic currently available.

]]> http://engineeringintent.com/?feed=rss2&p=827 http://engineeringintent.com/?p=821 http://engineeringintent.com/?p=821#comments Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:00:17 +0000 admin http://engineeringintent.com/?p=821 Engineering Structure development involves the investment of huge capital. Real Estate companies collect investment capital from financial organizations based on defined conditions and contracts. When the question of returning the money as payments comes, different settlement policies are accepted. The advantages of structured settlement payments are described here.

The advantage of having these structured settlement payments on the package is that you actually pay your current and future expenditure to be. However, given the continuous rise of prices, you need some more money, due especially when unexpected expenses such as costs for health care and other fees. Or do you need money for a college education or for a new company. You can choose, your Structured Settlement payments sale.

Many people choose to make their structured settlement payments for an immediate need to sell. Even if these payments to offer enough, the long-term financial security. If you urgently need to pay something, you have to sell , get a fixed amount. But one must take note that it is not easy to make payments to this sale. You have cited to a court order first secure, before you start looking for brokers to you.

Talking to your lawyer is the first thing you should do if you are considering selling your structured settlement payments. Your lawyer can help you determine whether it really a wise move. If there is indeed a necessity, then the lawyer can help you process of securing a court order to go through, so that the structured settlement payments sell can.

Properties: liquid epoxy meets the specifications for Grade 1, Class C of ASTM C-881. Specifications: Type IV (union of old concrete) and Type V (new to old concrete). The bond strength at the critical angle, verified according to ASTM C-882 for each as follows: in particular new 220 kg / cm ² and old concrete 220 kg / cm ². Reach the force binding the two days, with a compressive strength of 650 kg / cm ² are 100% waterproof, resist spills of acids, alkalis and solvents. Not recommended for immersion service unless they are coated with aquacreto.

Application: Mix the ratio indicated on the container and shake until the mixture is uniformly applied with a caulking gun with nozzle closed thinner, starting to inject from the bottom up. Do not prepare more than they will use in 30 min.
Performance: As adhesive 3-4 m² / lt. To fill cracks depend on the size of them.

A new study from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science answers the question: In behaviors in which you have to move to get information, when should the animal spend more energy on locomotion versus spending more energy on getting more information?

The study is published by the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Malcolm MacIver, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and of biomedical engineering at McCormick, led a team that analyzed the hunting behavior of the weakly electric black ghost knifefish, native to the Amazon. It hunts at night using a self-generated electric field to sense its surroundings, like a bat uses sonar. This particular animal has become the fruit fly of studies on how animals process sensory information. (The fruit fly has been used extensively to study genetics and developmental biology.)

The fish hunts while its body is tilted downward, which, much like standing up on the pedals of a bicycle while going downhill, causes more than twice as much resistance to movement than if the fish were swimming with no tilt. However, this posture allows the fish to scan a wider area of fresh water and encounter more prey. The researchers found that the increased cost of movement caused by body tilting was more than counterbalanced by increased sensory performance. Past a certain angle of tilt beyond what was naturally observed, the additional cost of moving with the body tilted was greater than the energy gained by sensing more prey.

Neelesh Patankar, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern, worked with MacIver to develop a hydrodynamic simulation code to calculate the drag forces of the fish when it’s hunting and when it’s just cruising.

“Once we do simulations we can analyze the hydrodynamics of the fish and come up with an understanding as to why it has to spend energy in this scenario and what is the optimal situation where it can spend minimum energy, for example,” said Patankar, a co-author of the study.

“That the fish tilts to be able to scan a larger area for prey despite the energy expense is a very interesting result,” MacIver said. “To better understand the way animals are the way they are, we need to not look only at neurological function or only at sensory function — we have to look at mechanics. We need to think of the intelligence of the body as a central component to our overall intelligence and think of energy saving as cleverness.”

The results of the study also suggest that hunting at a drag-inducing position could be the basis for fish’s unusual, elongated body.

These findings give insight into certain patterns in animal evolution, such as why we and most other animals have moveable sensory systems like eyes, fingers and arms, MacIver said. “If the fish was able to swivel its region of prey sensitivity, like a vision-based animal can shift its gaze, it would save even more energy,” he said. “This conclusion helps us understand why animals like us can move our eyes.”

The title of the paper is “Energy-Information Trade-Offs Between Movement and Sensing.”

In addition to MacIver and Patankar, the other author of the paper is Anup Shirgaonkar, a former postdoctoral fellow who worked in both MacIver’s and Patankar’s labs.

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

Being outside in nature makes people feel more alive, finds a series of studies published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology. And that sense of increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world, the studies show.

“Nature is fuel for the soul, ” says Richard Ryan, lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. “Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature,” he says.

The findings, adds Ryan, are important for both mental and physical health. “Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses. One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings,” says Ryan.

In recent years, numerous experimental psychology studies have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being. For example, research has shown that people on wilderness excursions report feeling more alive and that just recalling outdoor experiences increases feelings of happiness and health. Other studies suggest that the very presence of nature helps to ward off feelings of exhaustion and that 90 percent of people report increased energy when placed in outdoor activities.

What is novel about this research, write the authors, is that it carefully tests whether this increased vitality associated with the outdoors is simply the feel-good spillover from physical activity and people-mixing often present in these situations. To tease out the effects of nature alone, the authors conducted five separate experiments, involving 537 college students in actual and imagined contexts. In one experiment, participants were led on a 15-minute walk through indoor hallways or along a tree-lined river path. In another, the undergraduates viewed photographic scenes of buildings or landscapes. A third experiment required students to imagine themselves in a variety of situations both active and sedentary, inside and out, and with and without others.

Two final experiments tracked participants’ moods and energy levels throughout the day using diary entries. Over either four days or two weeks, students recorded their exercise, social interactions, time spent outside, and exposure to natural environments, including plants and windows.

Across all methodologies, individuals consistently felt more energetic when they spent time in natural settings or imagined themselves in such situations. The findings were particularly robust, notes Ryan; being outside in nature for just 20 minutes in a day was enough to significantly boost vitality levels. Interestingly, in the last study, the presence of nature had an independent energizing effect above that of being outdoors. In other words, conclude the authors, being outdoors was vitalizing in large part because of the presence of nature.

The paper builds on earlier research by Ryan, Netta Weinstein, a psychologist at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and others showing that people are more caring and generous when exposed to nature. “We have a natural connection with living things,” says Ryan. “Nature is something within which we flourish, so having it be more a part of our lives is critical, especially when we live and work in built environments.” These studies, concludes Ryan, underscore the importance of having access to parks and natural surroundings and of incorporating natural elements into our buildings through windows and indoor plants.

The paper was coauthored by Weinstein; Jessey Bernstein, McGill University; Kirk Warren Brown, Virginia Commonwealth University; Louis Mastella, University of Rochester; and Marylène Gagné, Concordia University.

Based on their research, these sensors could be used for improving optical sources, detectors and modulators for optical interconnections and for creating biomolecules, such as plastic explosives for the Air Force.

Brongersma’s work is based on the unprecedented ability of nanometallic or plasmonic structures to concentrate light into deep-subwavelength volumes.

“Currently photodetectors, modulators and other chipscale devices are limited in their size by the fundamental laws of diffraction, but with plasmonics, we can make much more compact devices with one to two order of magnitude better performance parameters,” said Brongersma. “As the size of these devices determines their operation speed and power, it’s hard to make much more efficient devices.”

Maier has demonstrated plasmon waveguides on a silicon platform operating in the telecom band, and under AFOSR support he has realized some of the first plasmonic devices operating at THz frequencies.

“The telecom band is important since that’s where data communication is taking place by means of optical fibers and the Internet; the silicon platform is significant because most chips are made of that material,” said Maier. “THz frequencies are vital for their sensing of dangerous substances, including plastic explosives and anthrax.”

The study of plasmonics is bringing these scientists together as each works on fundamentals, information and biotechnology.

“Our team is working on demonstrating plasmon waveguides and cavities for a wide variety of applications spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from the visible to the microwave regime,” said Maier.

Brongersma’s group has worked on the basic concepts behind plasmonics-enabled light concentration and manipulation and is exploring a wide range of applications including faster computer chips, nanostructures synthesis, solar cells, water splitting using photoelectrochemistry, quantum optics and sensing.

Dr. Gernot Pomrenke, a program manager for the AFOSR Physics and Electronics directorate has overseen the research of these scientists for many years and Brongersma credits him with being one of the first program managers in the U.S. to realize the potential importance of plasmonics.

For their outstanding AFOSR-funded experimental and theoretical research in nano-plasmonics and nano-photonics, Brongersma and Maier were awarded the 2010 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences.

“We are very excited that our fields of research have gained sufficient visibility for us to become the topics of such a prestigious prize, and we are excited and honored to share the prize equally,” said Brongersma.

NEC PaPeRo

PaPeRo (short for “Partner-type Personal Robot) is an adorable pet robot, created by Japanese company NEC. PaPeRo was created to facilitate interaction with the Internet - can recognize and speak 3,000 words, to announce its owner receiving messages, to provide updated information, recognize faces, to send video messages, dance and control by remote electronic devices.

PaPeRo’s eyes are composed of two rooms, four microphones ears and feet of three wheels. PaPeRo change its “personality” depending on how it treated people. For example, if people ignore and do not interact with it will become lazy and apathetic.

PaPeRo is not currently for sale, being a parent.

EMA Robot

The robot from Sega Toys EMA (Eternal Maiden Actualization) flirting, is interactive and can behave like a person in love - if you approach head he will “kiss”. You guessed it, EMA is a stylish ladies.

15 inches high, the EMA can steal any man looks when he goes because of how they glide thighs. The robot can sing, dance, you may face or to give cards.

Has also infrared sensors, to avoid colliding with objects in its path. EMA was created specially for adults and cost about $ 175.

Sony’s Aibo

The Sony’s help to get rid of dirt and germs, but while we have a dog, Aibo’s creation.

Aibo dog looks like a bright space, available in several colors, from black and silver to red, green or white. For about $ 1500 you can enjoy the affection of a dog that should not be walked or fed.

A team of planetary scientists has used radar and a high-resolution camera to reveal the subsurface geology of Mars’ northern ice cap. The findings – based on data from SHARAD (the surface-penetrating radar) and HiRISE (the high-resolution camera) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – were published May 27 in two papers in the journal Nature.

The group studying a canyon feature called Chasma Boreale included Shane Byrne from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Jack Holt and Isaac Smith of The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics are the papers’ lead authors. “The ice sheet on Mars’ northern polar region is about the size and thickness of the Greenland ice sheet,” said Byrne. “Just like Greenland, the layers of ice on Mars preserve a climate record that reaches back probably a few million years. Studying this ice sheet and its internal layers tells us about Martian climate and how it has varied in the past.”

On Earth, large ice sheets are shaped mainly by ice flow. But on Mars, according to this latest research, other forces have shaped, and continue to shape, the polar ice caps. The northern ice cap is a stack of ice and dust layered up to two miles deep covering an area slightly larger than Texas. Analyzing radar data on a computer, scientists can peel back the layers like an onion to reveal how the ice cap evolved over time. Chasma Boreale is one of the most distinctive features of the northern ice cap – a canyon about as long as the Grand Canyon but deeper and wider. Some scientists have suggested Chasma Boreale was created when volcanic heat melted the bottom of the ice sheet and triggered a catastrophic flood. Others have suggested strong polar winds, called katabatics, carved the canyon out of a dome of ice.
Other enigmatic features are troughs that spiral outward from the center of the ice cap like a gigantic pinwheel. Since they were discovered in 1972, scientists have proposed several hypotheses for how they formed. One suggested that as the planet spins, ice closer to the poles moves slower than ice farther from the poles, causing the semi-fluid ice to crack. Another used an elaborate mathematical model to suggest how increased solar heating in certain areas and lateral heat conduction could cause the troughs to self-assemble. It turns out both the spiral troughs and Chasma Boreale were created and shaped primarily by wind. Before this research, conventional wisdom held that the northern ice cap of Mars was made of many relatively flat layers like a layered cake. It was assumed some climate information would be recorded in the layers, limited to what could be gained from layer thickness and dust content.

This research, however, reveals many complex features – including layers that change in thickness and orientation, or abruptly disappear in some places – making it a virtual gold mine of climate information.

“In the past, it was thought the Chasma Boreale canyon formed by melting the bottom of the ice sheet and having the floodwater carve the canyon, or perhaps having winds erode the canyon into the ice sheet from above,” said Byrne. “In this study, we’ve figured out that the canyon has actually always been there and the ice cap grew up on either side of it.”

“The arrangement of the internal layers we see with the radar instrument and the layers exposed on cliffs that we see with HiRISE have allowed us to reconstruct the history of this feature.”

“Nobody realized that there would be such complex structures in the layers,” said Holt, the lead author of the paper focusing on Chasma Boreale. “The layers record a history of ice accumulation, erosion and wind transport. From that, we can recover a history of climate that’s much more detailed than anybody expected.”

According to Byrne, the radar data also revealed that a second, equally large canyon existed in the ice sheet in the past, but that this twin feature was later filled in with ice and no trace of it now exists.

The spiral trough results vindicate an early explanation that had fallen out of favor in parts of the Mars scientific community. Alan Howard, a researcher at the University of Virginia, proposed just such a process in 1982 based solely on images of the surface from the Viking mission.