Browse Topic: Tools and equipment
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have consolidated their place in the technology market for the energetic transition, with global manufacturing capacity exceeding 1 TWh in recent years and costs falling in this competitive environment. At the same time, the number of end-of-life LIBs is increasing, stimulating the recycling industry to process battery streams, thus promoting the circular economy to meet the increased demand for strategic raw materials and decarbonization. Vehicle electrification is the main driver of battery production, but their end-of-life will take some time to be significant in volume in the next years. Consumer electronics such as smartphones, laptops and power tools are now available at an appropriate volume enabling the preparation of recycling industry for the moment. In this scenario, recyclers are looking for sustainable routes to absorb all these streams and the different LIBs chemistries (LFP, NCA, NMC, LCO, LMO) to recover the critical metals (Ni, Co, Cu, Mn
Custom electrohydraulic solutions can address unique demands not satisfied by standard components. As mobile equipment is pushed to perform in increasingly demanding and challenging environments - ranging from frozen construction sites to harsh marine applications - some OEMs are discovering that customized solutions can provide significant advantages. Standard electronic controls and hydraulic components are carefully engineered to meet the requirements of a broad range of typical applications. For many OEMs, these components provide a dependable and cost-effective foundation, especially in environments and duties that don't push operational boundaries.
As I'm wont to do come December, with work well underway on the first issue of the new year, I like to take stock of upcoming venues for innovative product reveals and thought-provoking presentations on emerging trends and technologies. Come the first week of January, that means CES in Las Vegas. Traditional equipment manufacturers have increasingly used the event to demonstrate to the broader public that they not only deal in metal but also the digital realm. For example, earlier this year at CES, John Deere revealed its second-generation tech stack featuring camera pods, Nvidia Orin purpose-built processors and Deere's VPUs (vision processing units), along with four new autonomous machines including the 9RX 640 tractor for open-field ag operations. The company is exhibiting again this coming year.
When manufacturers seek to leverage specialized expertise, advanced processing capabilities, or proprietary technologies without assuming the financial burden of acquiring and maintaining dedicated equipment or facilities, they often turn to toll processing.
Combining simulation with probabilistic ML enables engineers to chart the full design landscape, quantify uncertainty and uncover viable options that intuition and brute force alone would miss. Components and systems are routinely designed and validated virtually through tools like CFD and FEA before any physical prototype is built. The benefits are obvious: faster iteration, reduced cost and better products. But simulation is not cheap. Each run can take hours, consume costly GPU/CPU resources and require highly skilled engineers who are already in short supply. Licenses and compute costs can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars per seat, and most teams can complete only a few runs per day.
For any supplier in the medical device manufacturing industry, sustainable success requires an ability and a willingness to bring customers’ ideas to reality. There are often innovative, potentially life-saving projects that are delayed or even abandoned due to limitations on the manufacturing end. However, many specifications that seem impossible to meet can be achieved with persistence, collaboration, and dedication to customers’ ideas.
In today’s medical equipment market, reliability is not a luxury — it is a necessity. Every adjustment, every movement, and every interaction with the equipment must be performed flawlessly to ensure patient safety, caregiver efficiency, and long-term service life. Behind this design and precision are highly engineered motion control components, such as gas springs, electric linear actuators, and dampers, that ensure safe, ergonomic operation of medical equipment across a wide range of healthcare applications.
Virtual reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed reality (MR) are advanced engineering techniques that coalesces physical and digital world to showcase better perceiving. There are various complex physics which may not be feasible to visualize using conventional post processing methods. Various industrial experts are already exploring implementation of VR for product development. Traditional computational power is improving day-by-day with new additional features to reduce the discrepancy between test and CFD. There has been an increase in demand to replace actual tests with accurate simulation approaches. Post processing and data analysis are key to understand complex physics and resolving critical failure modes. Analysts spend a considerable amount of time analyzing results and provide directions, design changes and recommendations. There is a scope to utilize advanced features of VR, AR and MR in CFD post process to find out the root cause of any failures occurred with
Earthmoving machines are equipped with a variety of ground-engaging tools that are joined by bolted connections to improve serviceability. These tools are made from heat-treated materials to enhance their wear resistance. Attachments on earthmoving machines, including buckets, blades, rippers, augers, and grapples, are specifically designed for tasks such as digging, grading, lifting, and breaking. These attachments feature ground-engaging tools (GET), such as cutting bits or teeth, to protect the shovel and other earthmoving implements from wear. Torquing hardened plates of bolted joint components is essential to ensure uniform load distribution and prevent premature failure. Therefore, selecting the proper torque is an important parameter. This study focuses on analyzing various parameters that impact the final torque on the hardened surface, which will help to understand the torque required for specific joints. Several other parameters considered in this study include hardware
NASA has developed a new technology to track the status of, and changes to, enterprise level programmatic operations. Enterprise decision making and operations rely on management of non-traditional configuration management (CM) components like estimates, agreements, goals, policies, etc. Additionally, enterprise operations have unique and diverse contexts/ environments such as reviews, workshops, fire drills, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congressional actions, procurements, etc.
“Big iron” instruments, aka diagnostic radiology equipment such as x-ray, ultrasound, and CT scanners, are indispensable for diagnosing and guiding treatment for an array of conditions from tumors to arthritis to fractures. While a tremendous asset for hospitals, these instruments are traditionally large, heavy, power hungry, and expensive. They are also difficult to acquire, install, and use.
Northwestern engineers have developed a new system for full-body motion capture — and it doesn’t require specialized rooms, expensive equipment, bulky cameras, or an array of sensors. Instead, it requires a simple mobile device.
In today’s digital age, the use of “Internet-of-Things” devices (embedded with software and sensors) has become widespread. These devices include wireless equipment, autonomous machinery, wearable sensors, and security systems. Because of their intricate structures and properties there is a need to scrutinize them closely to assess their safety and utility and rule out any potential defects. But, at the same time, damage to the device during inspection must be avoided.
In the commercial and off-highway sectors, equipment reliability isn't just a maintenance target but a business imperative. Whether it's a long-haul truck on the interstate or a dozer working through dust and rock, these machines operate in some of the most demanding environments on Earth. And while engine design and fuel choice often dominate conversations about performance, the role of grease is just as critical, particularly as equipment is pushed harder and longer under more variable conditions. Over the last decade, heavy-duty grease development has undergone a quiet evolution. Performance expectations have risen sharply. So have the environmental and regulatory considerations that influence formulation decisions.
Thermal or infrared signature management simulations of hybrid electric ground vehicles require modeling complex heat sources not present in traditional vehicles. Fast-running multi-physics simulations are necessary for efficiently and accurately capturing the contribution of these electrical drivetrain components to vehicle thermal signature. The infrared signature and heat transfer simulation tool, “Multi-Service Electro-optic Signature” (MuSES), is being updated to address these challenges by expanding its thermal-electrical simulation capabilities, provide a coupling interface to system zero- and one-dimensional modeling tools, and model three-dimensional air flow and its convection effects. These simulation capabilities are used to compare the infrared signatures of a tactical ground vehicle with a traditional powertrain to a hybrid electric version of the same vehicle and demonstrate a reduction in contrast while operating under electrically powered conditions of silent watch and
As weather-related catastrophes and urban vulnerabilities intensify, there is a growing interest in AI-driven tools for predicting weather patterns and disaster response. Engineers at Texas A&M University have developed CLARKE (Computer vision and Learning for Analysis of Roads and Key Edifices) — a system that uses drone imagery and artificial intelligence to rapidly assess damage after hurricanes and floods.
Air Force Research Laboratory Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH 937-522-3252
BAE Systems Arlington, VA veronica.bonilla@baesystems.us
For years researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have been developing tools to accelerate the materials discovery and development of new energy storage technologies, including those that can predict the performance of the batteries systems for long-term grid services.
Medical tubing is an essential component of countless healthcare applications, from intravenous (IV) and oxygen lines to catheters and diagnostic equipment. These tubes, often made of clear flexible polymers, must be produced to exacting standards: free of contaminants, strong under pressure, and biocompatible. However, the joining process to connect these tubes can introduce significant manufacturing challenges.
MIT researchers have used 3D printing to produce self-heating microfluidic devices, demonstrating a technique which could someday be used to rapidly create cheap, yet accurate, tools to detect a host of diseases.
Solar panels are composed of dozens of solar cells, which are usually made of silicon. While silicon is the standard, producing and processing it is energy-intensive, making it costly to build new solar panel manufacturing facilities. Most of the world’s solar cells are made in China, which has an abundance of silicon. To increase solar cell production in the U.S., a new, easily produced domestic material is needed. “We’re developing technologies that we can easily produce without spending a ton of money on expensive equipment,” said Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, an Associate Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
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