20 Autodesk 2011 product line-up highlights design beyond 3D.
30 Ford, Caterpillar adopting ‘cradle2cradle’ principles.
46 Canadian team boosts flexible
solar power material efficiency.
Publications mail agreement #40070230. Return undeliverable address blocks to: Design Engineering, Circulation Dept., 8th Floor – 1 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Toronto ON, M4Y 2Y5
$8.00 | May/June 2010 www.design-engineering.com
Where Science Hits the Road GM’s Automotive Center of Excellence to transform Southern Ontario into a haven of automotive research.
Contents | Volume 56, No. 3
IN THE NEWS
9
Bionic Handling Assistant mimics elephant trunk
9
PWC celebrates 500th PW308C delivery
10
Garlock’s solar wall cuts heating costs
11
CMW to get make-over
11
PEO installs new leader
12
Canadian PD&D investment to increase
Columns
9
16 CAD Beat Ottawa’s Wingspan wins 2010 Javelin Green Design contest and other CAD news
24
28 Fluid Power On the Broom: Bosch Rexroth Canada hydraulic system cleans up at 2010 Vancouver Olympic curling venue. 38 Fasteners & Adhesives Locked In: Locking fasteners secure exhaust manifold joints against vibration, joint fatigue and temperature extremes.
12
JMP acquires Soft Design Automation
28 Idea Generator Product news covering the latest in actuators, motors, sensors, etc.
14
Canadians dominate FIRST World Championship
46 Canadian Innovator Flexible solar power material gets further efficiency boost from Canadian team.
14
PTC names new CEO
30
Features 42
20 Beyond 3D
Autodesk 2011 product line-up highlights design software beyond 3D modeling.
READER SERVICES Annual Subscription Rate In Canada: $52.00 Outside Canada: $99.00
Single Copy & Directory Rates In Canada: $8.00; $26.00 directory issue Outside Canada: $22.00; $43.00 directory issue
Reader Service Contact Information rogers@cstonecanada.com T: Toronto (416) 932-5071 Elsewhere 1-866-236-0608 Mail: Design Engineering c/o Subscriber Service 111 Granton Drive, Unit 101 Richmond Hill, ON, L4B 1L5
Request New or Renew Subscriptions Online www.rogersb2bmedia.com/ dsen Printed in Canada
www.design-engineering.com
24 Where Science Hits the Road
GM’s ACE to transform Southern Ontario into haven of automotive research.
Transparent Packaging Transparent Electrode
30 Designing for Reuse
Ford and Caterpillar among companies adopting ‘Cadle2Cradle’ design principles.
46
Printed Active Material Primary Electrode
Light
Substrate Transparent Packaging
34 Choosing a Controller
Transparent Electrode
Matching controller to application can save design and programming time.
Online
Active Material (Polymer Blend)
Electrons External Load
Primary Electrode Substrate
WWW.DESIGN-ENGINEERING.COM
E-Newsletter: Keep up to date on the latest news and products with our bimonthly email bulletin.
Extended Coverage: Look for web throws throughout this issue for related images, video and online features.
Subscriber Services: Request new or renew subscriptions to the magazine and e-Newsletter. www.rogersb2bmedia.com/dsen
Canadian Manufacturing Careers: Search and apply for 100s of targeted engineering jobs across Canada, or find the skilled people you need. May/June | 2010
5
EditorialViewpoint 7
www.design-engineering.com Editor Michael McLeod (416) 764-1555 mike.mcleod@de.rogers.com Art Director Kathy Smith (416) 764-1542 Technical Field Editor Pat Jones, P. Eng. Publisher Alan Macpherson (416) 764-1534 alan.macpherson@de.rogers.com District Sales Manager Dean Walter (416) 764-1776 dean.walter@rci.rogers.com Production Manager Natalie Chyrsky (416) 764-1686 natalie.chyrsky@rci.rogers.com Circulation Manager Celia Ramnarine (416) 764-1451 deokie.ramnarine@rci.rogers.com Directory Editor Jessica Badali jessica.badali@de.rogers.com Junior Web Producer Jessica Mirabelli 416-764-1316 jessica.mirabelli@rci.rogers.com Rogers Publishing Limited President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Segal Executive Publisher of the Industrial Group Tim Dimopolous Senior Vice-President, Business & Professional Publishing John Milne Senior Vice-President Michael J. Fox Vice-Presidents Immee Chee Wah, Patrick Renard Rogers Media Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Anthony P. Viner Publications Mail Agreement #40070230 ISSN number: 0011-9342 Subscriber Services: To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information, please visit us at www.rogersb2bmedia.com/dsen. Subscription Price: Canada $52.00 per year, Outside Canada $99.00 US per year, Single Copy Canada $8.00. Design Engineering, established in 1955, is published 6 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues. Rogers Publishing Ltd., One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, ON, M4Y 2Y5. Montreal Office: 1200 avenue McGill College, Bureau 800, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 4G7 Return undeliverable items to: Design Engineering, Circulation Dept., 8th Floor-One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto ON M4Y 2Y5. Cornerstone Publishing Services Customer Service, 220 Yonge St., 8th floor, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 3G3 Mail Preferences: Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to reputable companies whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please contact us at rogers@cstonecanada.com or update your profile at www.rogersb2bmedia.com/dsen. DE receives unsolicited features and materials (including letters to the editor) from time to time. DE, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, re-publish, distribute, store and archive such submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort. DE accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported or advertised in this issue. DE is indexed in the Canadian Business Index by Micromedia Ltd., Toronto, and is available on-line in the Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.
Innovation or Bust
I
t’s been kicking around for some time now but the state of Canadian innovation came to a head in May. Early in the month, a report from TD Economics stated that Canadian companies could look forward to a steady economic recovery but that it wouldn’t make up for the “deep structural problems” in the country’s financial core—namely, woefully low productivity gains over the past decade. Between 2000 and 2009, the report says, Canadian productivity growth dropped to .7 percent annually, a rate that lowered Canada from the 5th highest income per person nation to the 10th slot over the last two decades. One major cause of this productivity drop, the report states, was a dearth of business investment in machinery and equipment and information and communication technology, between 2002 and 2007, despite falling corporate taxes, low interest rates and an appreciating dollar. In essence, Canadian businesses grew complacent and rejected all that newfangled gadgetry. The consequence, according to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, is that Canada’s GDP growth, as the economic recovery matures, could be as little as 2 percent per year, if not lower, for the next 10 to 15 years. If that weren’t sobering enough, a symposium hosted by the University of Waterloo’s Department of Engineering in May, made dire predictions for Canada’s economic future. As the global marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, participants agreed, economies that continue to rely heavily on raw materials will steadily lose ground to countries embracing knowledge-based industries. In contrast to China, South Korea and other emerging economies, Canada lacks knowledge-based superstars on the global stage, apart from high-tech poster child, Research in Motion. Unless the country starts to germinate more heavy-weight tech contenders, the symposium concluded, Canada could find itself significantly hampered by its commodity dependent past. On a brighter note, there are signs that the Ontario government has heard the siren’s call. For example, the winners of the Premier’s Innovation Awards ceremony were announced in May, following the Ontario Centre of Excellence’s (OCE) fifth annual Discovery trade show and conference. Hosted by OCE in partnership with MaRS institute, the awards annually invest $200,000 to $5 million in Ontario’s top innovators to advance their research and development. Similarly, as detailed in this issue’s cover story on the General Motors of Canada Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE), the province was pivotal in the funding and creation of this one-of-a-kind research facility. Leaving its technical capabilities aside, ACE and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology may well become a high-tech epicentre, in the same way Standford University sparked Silicon Valley, MIT anchors Boston’s Route 128 corridor and the University of Texas continues to bolster Austin’s growing tech sector. What’s yet to be seen is whether these efforts will be enough to shift the national manufacturing culture to embrace an inevitable future.
Mike McLeod
Our environmental policy is available at www.rogerspublishing.ca/environment
@
I enjoy hearing from you so please contact me at mike.mcleod@de.rogers.comand your letter could be published in an upcoming issue.
www.design-engineering.com
May/June | 2010
DesignNews
9
Bionic Handling Assistant mimics elephant trunk
A
t Hannover Messe 2010, Festo debuted the latest in its line of nature-inspired automation contraptions. Years past have seen the unveiling of the company’s Fluidic Muscles, flying jellyfish and eerily realistic robotic penguin, seemingly far removed from the company’s automation focus. This year’s animalistic creation, the Bionic Handling Assistant, has a more immediately applicable purpose by mimicking the fluid movement and gripping ability of an elephant’s trunk. The pneumatically actuated arm or “trunk” consists of three primary segments for general movements, combined with a wrist-like joint for more refined positioning of the arm’s “adaptive fingers” gripper. The segments are made up of three circularly arranged actuators, each supplied with compressed air at the interfaces. The actuators loop-like design acts like a spring when the compressed air is discharged and returns the arm to a neutral position. The Bionic Handling Assistant measures 0.75m but can extend to 1.1m. It incorporates 13 actuators that provide 11 degrees of freedom and handles weights up to 500 grams. In the wrist axis, three further actuators are arranged around a ball joint; their activation displaces the gripper by an angle of up to 30 degrees. The company’s SMAT sensors register the travel and make for precise alignment and its VPWP proportional travel valves are used for the overall control. Manufactured entirely by SLS rapid prototyping, the Bionic Handling Assistant is designed to interact with human operators. In the event of a collision with a user, the Assistant yields without modifying its overall behaviour. www.festo.com
PWC celebrates 500th PW308C delivery Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) celebrated the delivery of its 500th PW308C turbofan engine to France’s Dassault Aviation, a manufacturer in the mid- to large-size business aircraft market. The company held a ceremony during the 10th annual European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, to honour the milestone delivery, reached in March 2010. Dassault Aviation selected the PW308C for the Falcon 2000EX jet in 1999 and later picked the PW307A to power its Falcon 7X three-engine business jet, marking the extension of a growing business collaboration between the company and P&WC. The PW308C, a member of the PW300 family of engines, is rated at 7,000lbs thrust (ISA + 23C) and has accumulated more than 550,000 flight hours in service on the Falcon fleet. The PW300 engine family today powers 1,321 business jets in 71 countries and has accumulated a total of 8.5 million flight hours. www.pwc.ca www.design-engineering.com
May/June | 2010
10
DesignNews Up Front York U appoints new dean of science & engineering York University has appointed Janusz Kozinski as dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering. Kozinski will begin a fiveyear term at York on July 1, 2010. He has been dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan since 2007 but spent much of his career at McGill University. An expert in sustainable energy systems and immune building concepts (focused on anti-bioterrorism), Kozinski has created and led multi-disciplinary teams throughout his career, linking research on energy, environmental issues, public health and security. Kozinski earned his MEng and PhD degrees from AGH-University of Science & Technology in Krakow, Poland and did postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before joining McGill University in 1994. www.yorku.ca
®
Stephen Macadam, president of EnPro Industries, presents Garlock of Canada Ltd. with the President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship at the company’s Sherbrooke plant.
Garlock’s solar wall cuts heating costs Garlock of Canada Ltd. has installed a solar heating wall that has reduced natural gas consumption at its Sherbrooke manufacturing plant by more than 20,000 cubic meters a year. The project recently won the EnPro President’s Award of Excellence for Environmental Stewardship, presented by Garlock’s parent company, EnPro Industries, Inc. “The architectural integration of this new technology has had a positive impact on both our business and community,” said Christian Lauzier, manager of the Sherbrooke plant. “Not only has it dramatically reduced our natural gas consumption, but it has also improved the interior ventilation of the plant.”
CAPABILITIES • Manufacturer of Zinc die castings, aluminum die castings, plastic moldings, steel stampings and finished products/assemblies • In-house design/engineering • Rapid prototyping • On-going research & development projects • Use of 3-D simulations • Matching international competitiveness in capability, product development and quality • Work with customers to reduce costs through greater efficiencies to existing parts, less inventory (just-in-time)
Toll Free: 877 678 0846 Toll Free Fax: 877 678 0847 www.fasco.ca email: sales@fasco.ca May/June | 2010
www.design-engineering.com
DesignNews A wall-mounted collector preheats outside air that is drawn into the building. Connected to the building’s ventilation system, the solar wall takes in cold air through an opening under the cladding and warms it within the internal air plenum. While energy-efficiency was the primary factor in undertaking the project, innovation, clean energy and sustainability also played into the decision, the company says. www.garlock.ca
Canadian Manufacturing Week gets a make-over The Society of Manufacturing Engineers announced that Canadian Manufacturing Week (CMW) 2010, scheduled for October 5-7 at the Toronto Congress Centre, will feature a new format in a new location and with an improved program, the SME says. This year’s event features a three-zoned format to more clearly group manufacturing technologies and solutions into specific areas. Weld Expo Canada, for example, highlights everything required for sheet metal operations, from laser, arc and robotic welding to stamping, waterjet cutting and pressworking, to coating equipment, electroplating and automated finishing. The Advanced Manufacturing Zone focuses on automation and assembly, design engineering and software, additive manufacturing and reverse engineering and electronics manufacturing. The Physical Asset Management Zone will target efficient operation including green solutions for fluid and waste management or air quality control as well as products for asset tracking and management, plant engineering and maintenance, as well as lean manufacturing.
Up Front
PEO installs new leader Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) installed Diane L. Freeman, P.Eng., FEC, as its 91st president in May. An associate with Conestoga-Rovers & Associates Ltd., working in the area of air quality, Freeman is also a City of Waterloo councillor. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, she was elected a director of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and is a member of its Large Urban Caucus. She is also the secretary of the Air and Waste Management Association (Ontario section). In 2009, she was awarded the KW Oktoberfest, Rogers Women of the Year award in the Professional category. Freeman succeeds Catherine Karakatsanis, M.E.Sc., P.Eng. www.peo.on.ca
INNOVATIVE NANOSILICA REINFORCED UV CURABLE ADHESIVE MASTER BOND UV22 Outstanding strength, hardness & optical clarity ■ One-part compound ■ More than 40% reinforced with nanosilica particles assures low shrinkage & hardness ■ Exceptional light transmission ■ Easy to apply ■ Fast UV cure ■ Superior physical strength properties ■ Thermal stability ■ Low coefficient of thermal expansion ■ Convenient packaging ■
SCHUNK Linear Modules The entire range of linear technology for high speed automation from a single source. Linear Motor Axis Uniplace Belt + Ballscrew Driven Axis
Prompt Technical Assistance
While others talk, Master Bond delivers!
SCHUNK Intec Corp. · Tel. +1-905-712-2200 · Fax +1-905-712-2210 info@ca.schunk.com · www.schunk.com
154 Hobart St., Hackensack, NJ 07601 TEL: 201-343-8983 ■ FAX: 201-343-2132
SU PE RI O R! PR EC I S I O N F RO M T H E LE A D I N G E X P E R T.
www.masterbond.com ■ main@masterbond.com
www.design-engineering.com
May/June | 2010
11
12 DesignNews “Our improved format offers an unprecedented opportunity for networking and taking part in expert-led industry sessions, providing a comprehensive manufacturing resource that’s unparalleled in the industry today,” said Mark Tomlinson, executive director and general manager of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), organizer of the event. www.cmwshow.ca www.sme.org
Canadian PD&D investment to increase In partnership with Toronto’s Design Exchange and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), Industry Canada announced the findings of its “State of Design” report at the Design Exchange Business Forum in Toronto. According to Philippe Richer, deputy director, service industry and consumer product branch, Canadian manufacturers, during 2008, invested approximately $38 billion in product design and development (PD&D), an industry that employs 225,000 in Canada. While most PD&D work is conducted inhouse, the report projects that outsourced PD&D will increase by 20 percent or $10.2 billion by 2012. The report also states that Cana-
Benefits of advanced PD&D technology and process adoption15 % of firms that report improvement Motor vehicle Aerospace Motor vehicle body and trailer Industrial electronics Electrical equipment Motor vehicle parts Pharmaceutical 0
20
40
60
80
100
Improved satisfaction of client needs Reduced time to market
Up Front SKF Lubrication Solutions relocates SKF Lubrication Solutions division has relocated to a 22,000 square foot facility in Mississauga, Ontario. The lubrication division will have the team of sales, customer service, engineering and service operations together to better serve Canadian customer needs. The facility will also be home to the SKF Economos Sealing and Engineered Plastics team. www.skf.ca
JMP acquires Soft Design Automation JMP Engineering Inc. has acquired Soft Design Automation Inc. (SDA), a Bramptonbased industrial engineering firm known for providing system integration services for more than 20 years to customers in the greater Toronto area. SDA was established in 1985. Since then, it has designed, programmed and commissioned a variety of machines and equipment for customers around the world. JMP has continued to expand geographically in Canada and the U.S., building capability in new sectors and adding new lines of business over the past five years. “The acquisition of SDA marks another milestone in our 30 year growth strategy” says Scott Shawyer, president and CEO of JMP. “JMP’s Vaughan branch office along with SDA will continue providing controls, automation and information solutions to our customers in the Toronto area with the same high standards of service and commitment they’ve come to expect.” www.softdesignautomation.com www.jmpeng.com May/June | 2010
www.design-engineering.com
14 DesignNews Up Front PTC names new CEO PTC announced that James E. Heppelmann, the company’s President and COO, will succeed C. Richard Harrison as PTC’s CEO, effective October 1, 2010. Harrison will become the company’s executive chairman. “With his background as an engineer, Jim is one of those rare individuals who can understand our customers’ business requirements and couple that with a unique vision for the industry, a passion for technology and the leadership qualities to drive the company to deliver solutions that provide measurable business value,” said Harrison. Heppelmann, 45, joined PTC in 1998 as a senior VP when the company acquired Windchill Technology, a company he founded. He was promoted to executive VP and CTO in June 2001, and two years later was named executive VP of the software and marketing group and chief product officer. He joined PTC’s board of directors in May 2008 and was named president and COO in March 2009. Heppelmann has worked in the information technology industry since 1985 and is widely credited with driving many of the company’s technology advancements in product lifecycle management (PLM). www.ptc.com
Arctic moving to larger Oakville location Arctic Snowplows announced it is moving its facility in Oakville, Ontario, to a larger location within the city on June 1, 2010, to support the company’s growing network of dealers and customers. Over the past two years, the company has experienced close to a 30 per cent growth in sales. Arctic experienced its strongest year in 2009 and continues to see its business prosper this year. The goal for 2010, says Daniel Armstrong, president of Arctic Snowplows, is to increase Arctic’s business by another 20 per cent. www.arcticsnowplows.com May/June | 2010
dian manufacturers, across all sectors and company sizes, are taking greater advantage of advanced PD&D technologies, including virtual product development (CAD, analysis); electronic exchange and data management (PLM/PDM); and additive fabrication (rapid prototyping). Over 50 percent of Canadian manufacturers surveyed reported CAD adoption and 44 percent said they use data management. Conversely, only 14 percent of all manufacturers surveyed reported use of rapid prototyping. Sector by sector, motor vehicle, aerospace and motor vehicle parts companies were the strongest adopters of advanced PD&D followed by industrial electronics and electrical equipment. In addition, 80 percent of Canadian manufacturers who use advanced PD&D technologies reported that adopting it significantly improved client satisfaction, product quality and new product features as well as reduced time to market. www.ic.gc.ca
Canadian schools dominate FIRST World Championship Students from fifteen Canadian high schools and six elementary schools took part in the FIRST Robotics Competition world championship held last April at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. At the event, more than 500 teams from 30 countries competed in three levels of FIRST competition: FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition. Eleven Ontario and two Quebec high schools took part in the flagship FIRST Robotics Competition for high school students. Teams from St. Catharines and Stoney Creek were respectively the team captain and a member of the winning alliance in their respective divisions and moved on to the championship finals. Teams from Toronto and North Bay also participated in their divisional finals. Simbotics, the team from St. Catharines’ Governor Simcoe Secondary School and their alliance partners made it to the final round of the championship, thus ending the competition as silver medalists. Participating teams had six weeks to design and build a robot From left: Simbotic team members Taylor to compete in this year’s event, Nicholson, Matthew Coffey, Kyle Willick and which featured a soccer-like game, Jessa Pruniak with their robot “Simbot Quatchi”. “Breakaway”, in which robots had to climb obstacles as well as score goals. Robots competed not as individual teams, but as part of alliances with other schools’ teams. In addition to competing in “Breakaway”, teams vied for judged awards, which recognize significant accomplishment by individual teams. The Excellence in Engineering Award, sponsored by Delphi Automotive, was awarded to the team from Stoney Creek. Another award, the Gracious Professionalism award, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, was awarded to the team from North Bay. In addition, Ian Graham, a member of the team from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario was one of ten recipients of the Dean’s List award, recognizing exceptional individual student accomplishment. www.firstroboticscanada.org
www.design-engineering.com
16 CADBeat
Wingspan’s wireless Internet-enabled Energate Thermostat monitors time-of-day electric pricing and allows utilities to manage peak demand.
Wingspan wins 2010 Javelin Green Design contest Ottawa’s Wingspan Design was named the winner of Javelin Technologies’ 2010 Green Design Contest for its Energate Thermostat, a residential thermostat with built-in powersaving intelligence and remote control capabilities. For homeowners, these devices allow detailed set-up of heating and cooling schedules for their homes to reduce superfluous energy consumption, while the onboard software works behind the scenes to optimize furnace and central air conditioners to ensure they are cycled on and off efficiently, which is often a hidden source of extra energy costs. With homeowner support, utilities gain the ability to make 1 or 2 degrees adjustments in temperature to streets, neighborhoods and cities to prevent power surges, brownouts and even blackouts with minimum impact. With the advent of time-of-day pricing, the wireless Internet connected devices are also equipped to deliver color coded pricing and can be programmed to self-adjust to keep energy costs low. For example, if an air conditioner is set for maximum comfort when the price of electricity spikes into the red, the smart thermostat will enter price control mode to run equipment as little as possible. The company says the architecture of the device also is designed to be future-proof. Wireless connectivity allows remote software upgrades and web connection to online power management and learning tools. The soft-key interface allows for new menus and features to be added for future application. The OS also permits thirdparty software integration and on-screen graphics use to enable non-standard functionality such as weather forecast information. The physical enclosures were designed for disassembly and material recovery. All components are a single material and clearly identified for recycling. www.energateinc.com www.javelin-tech.com May/June | 2010
Dassault and IBM expand global alliance At IBM’s IMPACT 2010 event in May, Dassault Systèmes and IBM announced an expansion of the companies’ long-standing partnership. The announcement followed the completion of Dassault’s $600 million acquisition of IBM’s PLM sales division in April. As part of the alliance, the companies’ demoed a DS PLM V6 software cloud computing technical proof of concept. The platform is designed so that customers can take advantage of DS PLM V6 software via a range of delivery options, from on-premise to a cloud powered by IBM hardware and middleware. In addition, the expansion will see the creation of a PLM competency center staffed by a team of IBM and DS personnel focused on optimizing V6 solutions for performance, reliability and scalability on an IBM infrastructure. IBM also unveiled its global financing portfolio to provide payment options, ranging from simple loans to custom leases with terms up to 60 months. www.3ds.com www.ibm.com/software/plm
Altair cuts full-vehicle crash sim to a day At the 2010 Americas HyperWorks Technology Conference, Altair Engineering announced that it has compressed the time required to mesh, assemble and simulate a full-vehicle crash finite-element model to 24 hours—a two-to-four-week reduction in the time typically required. The record time follows the company’s November 2009 announcement that RADIOSS, the solver in the Altair HyperWorks CAE software suite, was the first in the industry to solve a full-vehicle crash model, which contained more than 1 million elements, in less than five minutes. Dubbed the “CAD2CRASH24” initiative, the process ran on a 64 CPU cluster in the company’s compute center. While automotive in focus, the company says the CAD2CRASH24 process can be customized and implemented for manufacturers globally, offering weeks of additional simulation time annually. www.altair.com
Altair’s “CAD2CRASH24” initiative rips through mesh, assembly and FEA simulation of a full-vehicle crash in 24 hours. www.design-engineering.com
18
CADBeat Maplesoft releases MapleSim 4 Maplesoft released MapleSim 4, the physical modeling and simulation tool, that features a new 3D construction environment that lets engineers add and manipulate multi-body components directly in the 3-D workspace. MapleSim provides realistic feedback of multibody systems by dynamically rendering the model as it’s built. Other new features include flexible probe management tools, including an easy way to add new probes to previous simulation results without having to rerun the simulation; a new semi-stiff solver that provides results for stiff systems without the overhead formulation costs of a true stiff solver; and new and enhanced analysis tools, including tools for working with multibody equations. MapleSim is built on a foundation of symbolic computation technology, which manages the mathematics involved in the development of engineering system models. At its core is Maple, the technical computing software that contains a symbolic computation engine, numeric solvers and a technical document interface. The company also released Maple 14, which contains increased math capabilities for engineering applications,
MapleSim is a drag-and-drop physical modeling tool that applies advanced symbolic computation techniques to produce high-performance simulation models of multi-domain systems.
including new control system design tools, linearization tools and new solvers that allow engineers to apply advanced techniques to control design problems. www.maplesoft.com
ZBuilder Ultra due in July Z Corporation announced the ZBuilder Ultra, a rapid prototyping machine the company says builds functional prototypes at one-third the price of machines with comparable performance. Similar in concept to SLA machines, the ZBuilder Ultra creates plastic parts from liquid photo-sensitive polymers cured with visible light from a Digital Light Processor (DLP) projector. However, since the layer is cured all at once with visible light rather than a thin SLA laser, the process is much faster. The result is a model that matches the accuracy and detail of SLA but at a fraction of the time required. According to Z Corp., models from the ZBuilder can have a minimum feature size of 0.005 inches. In addition, part
Accuracy Is Nothing Without Repeatability
Specify The Position Sensors With True Precision T/TR family of absolute position sensors feature repeatability to 2µm. They are ideal for machine automation and control applications where precise repeatability and long life are requirements. These sensors offer a proven solution for applications with alignment errors. T/TR position sensors are available with a return spring too for use in auto-retraction systems.
Novotechnik’s T/TR family shares these key specs: • • • • •
Repeatability to ±0.002 mm Stroke lengths from 10 to 150 mm Long life of >100 million movements Linearity to ±0.075% Plug or cable connection
For complete information, visit www.novotechnik.com/ttr Novotechnik U.S., Inc. 155 Northboro Road • Southborough, MA 01772 Telephone: 508-485-2244 Fax: 508-485-2430 May/June | 2010
Due for release in July, Z Corp’s ZBuilder Ultra uses visible light from a DLP projector to cure photosensitive polymers to quickly produce highly accurate plastic models.
feature accuracy is to within +/- 0.008 inches—depending on geometry and part orientation. Due to its high level of detail, finished parts don’t suffer from stair stepping. Available in July, the ZBuilder Ultra has a build space of 10.2 x 6.3 x 7.5 inches and will retail for US$34,900. DE www.zcorp.com www.design-engineering.com
20 CADReport
Beyond 3D Autodesk’s 2011 product line up emphasizes complete ‘virtual prototyping’ process.
By Ralph Grabowski
E
ach year as Autodesk rolls out its annual software, it invites the media to tech days. The theme this year was “3D is not enough,” a phrase meant to emphasize that today’s design software has to go beyond 3D design to handle pre-design, analysis, simulation and documentation—everything that Autodesk formerly called “digital prototyping.” Indeed, Autodesk had so much software to talk about that its flagship Inventor software was relegated to a rather small slice of time, with the day dominated by presentations on analysis, sketching and even AutoCAD. Several times Autodesk speakers made the controversial point that you don’t need to purchase software from anyone else. For mechanical designers, a workflow is now possible with all-Autodesk software: 1. Begin the design as concepts drawn with Alias Sketch. More than just an expensive paint program, it treats raster shapes like intelligent 2D vectors in that it can adjust their properties and shapes at any time. Versions of the software are now available on iPhone and iPad (named SketchBook), and as a $500 plug-in for AutoCAD, as well as stand-alone. I asked about the experimental 3D version we were shown last year, but Autodesk had nothing more to say about it. 2. Bring the Alias sketch into AutoCAD as an image underlay, and then construct a 3D model from it with AutoCAD 2011’s new NURBS splines and associative surfaces.
Combined with Autodesk Moldflow 2011, Showcase now helps designers spot mold design problems by displaying photo-realistic renderings of surface shrinkage marks and other imperfections. May/June | 2010
3. Import AutoCAD’s 3D DWG file into Inventor, where the 3D model is developed further, such as adding ribs and part lines, making it suitable for plastic injection molding. If the model has electrical connections, these can be designed by AutoCAD Electrical and then imported into Inventor as wiring harnesses. Autodesk calls the combination of mechanical and electrical design “mechatronics.” 4. Test the model’s strength with ANSYS finite element analysis, and check the model's compatibility with mold making equipment through MoldFlow. 5. Display the final product with Showcase. Coupled with MoldFlow, Showcase can now display the surface shrinkage marks caused by imperfectly designed molds. 6. Create assembly and maintenance documents with the company’s new Publisher software. The technical documents can be output as movies or as static PDF and Word documents. Making Incompatible Data Compatible One of the problems Autodesk faces is that much of its core software is incompatible. Revit, AutoCAD, AutoCAD add-ons, Inventor and Alias store their data in different formats, making data reuse difficult. The company is the midst of a multi-year process of getting these programs talk with one another. For instance, in a demo that transferred an electrical schematic from AutoCAD Electrical to Inventor, I noticed that DWG wasn't used. Instead, AutoCAD exported the electrical data to an Excel spreadsheet file, which was then read by Inventor. On the other hand, Inventor can now store its data in DWG files that can be read by AutoCAD, and in ADSK exchange files for use by AutoCAD MEP, Architecture and Revit. I asked Robert Kross, senior VP of the Manufacturing Solutions Division, how the tough job of data compatibility was coming along. In some cases, he noted, there is no need for exact compatibility. For instance, Revit building models need only know the overall size and some positioning details of mechanical products, like production lines. He mentioned that the ADSK format still needs more work. Another solution to the data exchange problem is to build in technology from other programs. Each year, more parts of the ALGOR and MoldFlow analysis programs are integrated into Inventor. As of this year’s releases, all Autodesk software employs the same technology for defining materials and textures. No Fear of FEA Autodesk is working to make analysis easier, and so usable by more designers. Even AutoCAD 2011 now contains www.design-engineering.com
22 CADReport
rudimentary analysis commands: AnalysisZebra (for visualizing continuity between multiple surfaces), AnalysisDraft (for checking draft angles of parts meant for plastic molds), and AnalysisCurvature (for coloring areas of positive and negative curvature). I see this as Autodesk’s attempt to head off competition from SpaceClaim, which has been successful in co-selling its concept of pre-design analysis with ANSYS. For Inventor, the primary analysis tools are ALGOR for finite element analysis and MoldFlow for mold design and analysis. In addition to slowly integrating with Inventor, the company is also cutting prices on some analysis modules and adding more functions. Autodesk really wants its customers to do both primary tasks, design and analyze. To make analysis more accessible, Autodesk added wizard-like step-by-step instructions to guide neophytes through the analysis process. There are explanations of terms and procedures, such as how to set up constraints, apply boundary conditions and test for different kinds of loads, such as stress and thermal. As a former professional engineer, I am concerned, however, by Autodesk’s ease-of-access for analysis, a field that is deadly serious. It is no task for neophytes; as another editor put it, we don't want to see an “ALGOR for Dummies” book. When I asked about this danger, an Autodesk spokesman merely repeated the apparent ease-of-use benefits. Autodesk’s efforts in this area are a puzzle, for engineers with experience don't need the terms defined for them; engineers without experience shouldn’t be allowed to follow the hand-holding wizards. Inventor 2010 While Inventor keeps getting new features, the most interesting of them is not part of the program. Fusion is Autodesk’s direct-modeling/editing response to CoCreate from PTC, V6 from Dassault Systemes, Synchronous Technology from Siemens, and SpaceClaim. I thought it would be integrated into Inventor 2011, but Fusion remains a technical preview, the long way of saying “beta.” When asked directly about it, Kross said Fusion’s shipping date is still unknown; I suspect this is because Fusion still only handles simple editing tasks. At this tech day, we were shown an Inventor part being edited directly (no history, no parametrics) in Fusion; when the modeled part was brought into Inventor, the additions, changes and deletions were shown in green, yellow, and red. Once accepted, the changes were automatically merged into May/June | 2010
AutoCAD Inventor 2011’s user interface moves away from the ribbon menu toward an “in-canvas display” in which context sensitive commands pop up following feature selection.
Inventor’s history tree. While Inventor doesn’t do direct editing yet, Autodesk continues to move the user interface away from ribbon/ dialog boxes and toward direct manipulation, known as “in-canvas display.” Inventor places tiny toolbars, selection tags, input boxes, dropdown menus and model manipulators near the cursor to maximize the drawing area and minimize the cursor travel time. Some of these are also found in AutoCAD 2011. We each receive a copy of Inventor Professional Suite 2011, a fat plastic DVD case containing nine DVDs and very little printed information. Autodesk recommends a minimum of 100GB disk space for an Inventor installation with Vault. AutoCAD Mechanical is meant for 2D mechanical design, and is bundled with Inventor (at no extra cost) or available separately for US$4,500. None of the day's presentations mentioned cloud computing, the topic that was so hot at SolidWorks World months earlier. Also not discussed was Autodesk’s previous hot topic of sustainable design. As for a Mac version, Kross would only tease, “Why would anyone want to run Inventor on a Mac? But seriously, a Mac version of Inventor would be interesting.” With the wide expanse of software now available from Autodesk, its next logical step might be to expand to a broad range of operating systems. DE www.autodesk.com/mcad www.design-engineering.com
24
Where Science Hits the Road
GM’s Automotive Center of Excellence set to transform Southern Ontario into haven of automotive research. By Mike McLeod
N
o matter how far computer-based analysis may advance, there’s no substitute for real world product testing. Fact is, there’s no way to anticipate and virtually simulate all the circumstances that may cause a mechanical/electrical system to perform to spec in dry Arizona heat yet fail in the cold and damp of a Manitoba winter. However, subjecting a prototype to every environmental condition prior to launch, especially a product as complex as a car, is often economically impractical if not impossible. Only a handful of OEMs have the resources to finance automotive proving grounds in “extreme” locations. Although such conditions can be replicated in environmental chambers and/or wind tunnels, many such North American facilities are either privately owned, narrowly designed to test a specific vehicle class or perform only a May/June | 2010
limited battery of tests. Consequently, most automotive manufacturers, suppliers and researchers have few options to perform comprehensive testing. Enter the General Motors of Canada Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) presently under construction in Oshawa on the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) campus. Scheduled to open in January 2011, the multi-level, 16,300-square-metre facility will offer a comprehensive range testing capabilities including one of the largest and most sophisticated climactic wind tunnels available anywhere. “There are only a few facilities in the world like ACE, but they aren’t as unique,” says John Komar, director of engineering and operations for ACE. “Fundamentally, they are just wind tunnels and not full research facilities with heavy lab areas, four-post shakers and garage bays, as well as environmental and anechoic chambers. Combine that with the opportunity to collaborate with top researchers from the university and you have a one-stop-shop for automotive research.” Announced in 2005, ACE grew out of General Motor’s Beacon Project, a CAD$2.5-billion reinvestment in the automaker’s Canadian operations and the largest automotive investment in Canadian history. As part of Beacon, GM, the www.design-engineering.com
25 government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and UOIT conceived ACE as the cornerstone of a broader Canadian Automotive Innovation Network comprised of universities in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Although ACE carries GM’s name and has signed the automaker as anchor tenant, Komar says the facility will be operated independently, making it available to any and all Canadian and international manufacturers, start-up companies and researchers. “Now, manufacturers of any size can play in the same sandbox as the big players without having to make a huge capital investment,” he adds. “Of course, automotive development is one of the core mandates of the facility, but it isn’t restricted to that. It can be used for any kind of development where you simply want to make sure your product is going to hold up.”
it’s ACE’s core research facility, and return-flow climactic wind tunnel (CWT) at its heart, that’s already garnering international attention. Capable of generating wind speeds in excess of 240 km/h, the CWT’s most attractive feature will be its broad range of climactic simulation capabilities. In addition to producing humidity between five to 95 percent, the CWT’s test chamber is equipped with overhead and forward facing snow guns to generate blizzard conditions down to -40 º C and a 12-nozzle rain system to replicate anything from a common downpour to freezing rain. For the opposite extreme, banks of metal halide solar arrays with automatic azimuth, altitude and intensity control will provide researchers with simulated sunrise to sunset exposure and desert heat up to 60 º C. “Our climactic wind tunnel can create snow storms in July and desert heat in February,” Komar says. “That can be Christmas in July critical for OEM’s looking to compress their development When construction completes later this year, ACE will be cycles yet still perform comprehensive design validation.” comprised of two main facilities. Half the complex will be a Also central to CWT’s singular status in the industry will five-story integrated research and training building, complete be its 4-wheel independent chassis dynamometer, which with offices, laboratories and common work areas. However, provides vehicle road load. In combination with the chamber’s climactic controls, the dynamometer will be capable of putting vehicles through extreme conditions, such as pulling a Turning vanes at each of the trailer uphill in desert heat or downhill during a snow storm. CWT’s four corners direct and In addition, the unit sits within an 11-meter diamenhance the airline’s laminar flow, eter turn table and is suspended on six large air thereby removing turbulence At 4.85m in diameter, the CWT’s bearings, which allow test vehicles to smoothly yaw from the closed-loop circuit. axial fan is driven by a 2.5 MW ± 30 degrees to simulate cross winds. motor, capable of 6000 RPM and While either the CWT’s climactic controls or its wind speeds up to 240 km/h in chassis dynamometer would make ACE’s facilities under 15 seconds. uncommon, possibly its most distinctive feature is its variable nozzle—the structure that shapes the wind stream as it passes into the test chamber. Typically, wind tunnel nozzles are static, but ACE’s can expand from 7m2 to over 13m2, allowing it to test a broad range of vehicle sizes. “The one-two punch that makes
Two wire screens in the settling chamber further condition the geometry of the high volume/low speed air flow before it’s accelerated by the contraction cone.
www.design-engineering.com
Singular in the industry, ACE’s variable nozzle adjusts from 7.0-14.5m2 to provide symmetrical flow contraction and high testing flexibility—from A-sized cars to large coaches or small commuter jets.
Seated in an 11-meter diameter turntable, ACE’s 4-wheel independent chassis dynamometer rides on large air bearings that allow it to smoothly yaw ±30º. Combined with the variable nozzle, frontal and cross wind testing is possible.
May/June | 2010
26
3D ENGINEERING SERVICES
TM
Over 5000 Engineering Projects Completed
3D SCANNING • Objects of any shape, size, color and texture • Long-range surveying • On location
REVERSE ENGINEERING • Full 3D model reconstruction delivered to your software platform specifications
INSPECTION • Traditional metrology • Non-contact inspection • In-house quality control management
TRAINING
Your engineering team needs extra hands? We can supply experienced engineers and technicians to help out, on-site or off, for long or short mandates!
www.creaform3d.com 418.833.4446 May/June | 2010
In addition to the Core Research facility (left), ACE will offer five floors of research and training space (right) including lab and machining areas.
ACE the most unique climactic wind tunnel on the planet is its indexing dynamometer along with a large test space and the variable nozzle,” Komar says. “The combination provides absolute flexibility such that we can do development for a bus company one shift and a small electric A-sized vehicle on the next.” Shake and Bake For researchers who don’t require aerodynamic analysis, the core research facility houses two additional climactic chambers or “soak rooms”, the larger of which can accommodate a standard bus or three large SUVs and is equipped with its own 4WD eddy-current dynamometer. Both static cells will be able to perform tests such as cold start, extended idles and hot soaks under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. In addition, the core facility houses a 4500kg-rated, 4-post hydraulic vehicle shaker to simulate everything from minor road vibrations to hitting pot-holes at high speed. With it, researchers will be able to test vehicles for production quality, ride comfort and structural durability. Lastly, a semi-anechoic chamber equipped with a 2-meter, 6 DOF Multi-Axis Shaker Table (MAST) will provide durability, climactic and acoustical testing on a smaller scale. “All the walls are sound proofed,” Komar says, “so any squeak, rattle, or vibration harmonics could be picked up through instrumentation, accelerometers or simple microphones. You could also put a flight simulator in there or you might be a consumer electronics company and you want to make sure your latest product will survive five years of rough handling.” Beyond the immediate benefits for UOIT and North American manufacturers, Komar says ACE is the cornerstone of far sighted strategy, one that may transform the region into the Silicon Valley of automotive research. “For Southern Ontario, ACE will mean that you can get development done without having to cross a border; you can transfer your virtual engineering ideas into physical and still be home for dinner,” he says. “In the longer term, it also provides the kind of infrastructure that attracts high-tech, knowledge-based industry to the region. Eventually, the hope is Oshawa and the GTA will become a focus of manufacturing innovation for North America.” DE www.ace.uoit.ca www.design-engineering.com
28 FluidPower
On the Broom Bosch Rexroth Canada hydraulic system cleans up at 2010 Olympic curling venue.
D
uring the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the Canadian men’s curling team won a Gold medal and the women’s team a Silver medal. With each rock thrown, Bosch Rexroth Canada’s engineering capability played a key role. The scene was the new $39.5 million Vancouver Olympic Centre at Hillcrest Park, which was used for curling. Operated by the Vancouver Park Board, the facility is built to high environmental standards, targeting LEED Gold certification. In early 2009, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee (VANOC) engineering group (in charge of construction of the Vancouver Olympic Centre curling facility) contacted Bosch Rexroth Canada's Burnaby, BC office. One feature at the curling venue was a melt pit built into the floor in the maintenance area. Ice was taken from the curling surface by the grooming machine and disposed of. There was a requirement to open and close the doors to the pit. Cleaning Up A prime consideration for the VANOC engineering group was that the melt water would drain into the civic sanitary Hydraulic System Facts: • • • • • • •
5-gallon reservoir; 2-HP electric motor; Gear pump; Control valves; Stainless steel cylinders; Built-in limit switches; Electrical package (i.e. control panel, starters, push-buttons, relays and alarms).
sewer system. For this reason, Bosch Rexroth Canada recommended a custom-built hydraulic system using an environmental fluid. “Part of the design was to dispose of the ice taken off the curling surface with the ice resurfacer,” says Christoph Neuscheler, BC regional manager, Bosch Rexroth Canada.
To provide a way to remove waste ice from the curling surface during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Bosch Rexroth Canada designed this environmentally-safe hydraulic system to open and close the melt pit doors.
“To do this, they built a pit right into the cement. And the ice was dumped into the pit. Then the waste heat from the chillers melted the ice. The VANOC engineering group wanted a system that would open and close the doors of the pit. We set up a meeting to talk about the water draining away and into the sanitary sewer system.” The hydraulic system itself consisted of a power unit, cylinders and electrical package. Engineers in Rexroth’s Burnaby office designed and installed the hydraulic system, including start up. The company’s head office in Welland, ON, manufactured the power unit. “Our solution was the design of a hydraulic system using an environmental fluid,” Neuscheler says. “We did engineering to determine what it would take to lift these doors and close them safely. Our own local Bosch Rexroth Canada in-house engineers developed a design, it was accepted, the contract was given to us and the power unit was built at our head office. The unit was then shipped out here. The hydraulic system was started up and away we went. The project was a complete success.” DE www.boschrexroth.ca
May/June | 2010
www.design-engineering.com
30 ShopTalk
Designing for Reuse Ford and Caterpillar among companies adopting ‘cradle2cradle’ design principles.
By Treena Hein
A
s oil and electricity prices climb – and concern for the environment becomes standard business practice – companies are looking at how they can recover and re-use materials from their products. Enter the concept of ‘cradle to cradle’ (C2C), an idea that goes beyond looking at how a product’s components and materials can be handled at end of life. Instead, it involves both the materials chosen and a design that facilitates the recovery, recapture, reuse or return to nature of the materials. “Design is the central way to change things if you’re truly looking to go C2C, to have a positive outcome in terms of the environment and all other factors,” says John Gamble, president of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of Canada. “After the design is complete, the ability to make changes later diminishes exponentially. The benefits of effective design pay for themselves many times over during the life cycle.” That’s why, he adds, it’s so important that employers or clients view engineering as an investment to be leveraged, rather than just another cost.
Ford’s Model U incorporates a soy-based resin exterior, corn biopolymers in the roof and a modular interior for easy disassembly.
“The focus of manufacturers has been to make products as quickly and cheaply as possible,” adds Jay Bolus, who applies his chemistry and engineering background as VP of technical operations at MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC) in Charlottesville, VA, a consulting company which provides C2C certification. “However, if we shift business models so that a company owns its products – they are only used by customers and retrieved by the company to be used in new products – it’s a whole new ball game.” May/June | 2010
Bolus points to fuel cells as an ideal example. “A fuel cell of any sort is a complicated and expensive bit of technology,” he says. “Once you go to the trouble of producing it, it’s much smarter to get it back rather than ‘losing’ it forever to landfills or disassembly/recycling companies. You can use components and materials again.” Caterpillar Inc.’s ‘Upgrade-to-New’ (UTN) Program is a prime example of this business model. While not applicable to the company’s entire line, UTN allows customers to replace end-of-life components with new ones. The cores are inspected, disassembled and every part is remanufactured to print specifications, incorporating all applicable engineering updates. “The remanufactured parts, supplemented by new parts where required, are assembled into finished remanufactured products, tested, packaged for sale and warranted the same as new products,” says Caterpillar spokesperson Kate Kenny. According to Kenny, the company’s received core material increased from 100 million pounds in 2002 to 142 million pounds in 2008. “Nearly 70 percent of this recovered material was remanufactured and reused to produce Cat Reman products,” she says. These include everything from air inlet and exhaust, engines, engine components and cooling systems to electrical and starting systems, fuel systems, hydraulics, powertrains and undercarriages. “The remaining material was recycled either by Caterpillar or one of our approved foundries, mills or recycling centers,” she adds. “We provide remanufacturing services to not only Caterpillar, but also more than 30 OEMs worldwide.” UTN is part of Caterpillar’s Remanufacturing Division, established in 1973. The Division has also instituted the ‘design for remanufacturability’ concept into the company’s new product development process, says Kenny, ensuring that product life cycle assessment principles are a fundamental component of Caterpillar’s equipment, engine and service parts design. To help accomplish this, Caterpillar has developed ‘Remanufacturability Design Guides,’ that let engineers view specifications and remanufacturing requirements when both developing and designing new products as well as changing existing products. C2C automotive design Another important aspect in the C2C shift is a greater emphasis on the intended use period of a product, says Bolus. “It’s about matching the lifespan of the product to its use in terms of materials.” Cars, for example, feature new significant safety and fuel efficiency advances every six to 12 months. “With new technologies and new fuel efficiency levels, no one can make a case for consumers wanting a car for 20 years, or even 10 years,” www.design-engineering.com
32
ShopTalk he adds, “so the engineering, the parts, should be made for this lifespan.” The European ‘End of Life Vehicles Directive,’ instituted in 2003, was a significant step in global C2C thinking. This regulation requires that vehicle manufacturers and importers must cover all or most of the cost of vehicle recovery and sets higher reuse, recycling and recovery targets and limits the use of hazardous substances in both new vehicles and parts. Similarly, the European Union’s ‘Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment’ directive mandates minimum reuse/recycle propor-
Caterpillar’s Upgrade-toNew’ (UTN) Program urges customers to return endof-life parts so they can be remanufactured to ‘like new’ specs and resold.
tions in consumer electrical appliances. Ford’s ‘Model U’ concept car (named to remind the public of Ford’s famous Model T car) is perhaps the most wellknown example of C2C progress in the auto sector. Designed by Cradle2Cradle guru William McDonough, the concept car’s seats, dash, steering wheel, headrests, door SLICK? SLICK? trim and armrests are made from recyclable polyester. Similarly, the body is [ maybe ] DEFINITELY. composed of lightweight, recyclable aluminium. In addition, the retractable canvas U.S. Patent No. 6,872,039 roof and carpet mats are made from a Foreign Patents Pending corn-based biopolymer. Corn-based NEW fillers were used in the tires as a partial ™ substitute for rubber. The car also incorporates a soy-based composite foam for With a Self-Locking Implanted Cotter, it’s a pin and cotter all in one! COST SAVING. QUICK LOCKING. seating and soy-based composite resins SECURE. If you’re using labor intensive pins, cotters form the rear tailgate and side panels. or clips, try something SLIC. The interior also features a modular design that can be easily reconfigured RUE RING™ BOW-TIE or disassembled at end of life. Locking Locking Cotters™ In Bolus’ view, easy disassembly of automobiles, and all other products, is Cotters WORKS LIKE A HAIR PIN U.S. Patent COTTER BUT LOCKS ITSELF ON. essential and should be made possible No. 4,592,689 SURROUNDS THE SHAFT with common hand tools. “Connections AND LOCKS ITSELF ON. U.S. Patent No. 6,135,693 and D431,181 should be reversible, such as screws and snap fits instead of permanent adhesives and welds,” he notes. “Standardize your Positive Lock Pins Nylon Lanyards™ fasteners, and mark the parts so that it NYLON TETHER IS 1/3 THE PUSH BUTTON, U-Lock Style is easy to determine what they are made COST OF STEEL DUAL BALL SECURITY. U.S. Patent No. 5,784,760 of. This is already becoming standard LANYARDS. Now available with practice in injection moulding.” All these optional T-handle. practices allow disassembly to be quick – and therefore cost-competitive. Which materials are used is also imporSteel Lanyards tant. “Pure materials are best, because if Ball Detent Pins AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY materials aren’t pure, there’s an extra MEANS WE CAN OFFER WE’RE THE EXPERTS IN BALL processing step,” notes Bolus. “It’s a quesPRICING COMPETITIVE WITH IMPORTS! DETENTING TECHNOLOGY! Numerous styles and configurations available. tion of the worth of that material versus the time it takes to recover it.” DE
SLIC Pin
SPECIALS - Our Specialty!
www.acec.ca www.cat.com www.ford.ca N O N - T H R E A D E D FA S T E N E R S O L U T I O N S
May/June | 2010
920-349-3251
www.pivotpins.com
800-222-2231
HUSTISFORD, WI, USA
Treena Hein is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. www.design-engineering.com
MotionControl
Choosing a Controller While PCs, PLCs and PACs each have their advantages and disadvantages, matching the controller to the application can save design and programming time.
E
ngineers and machine builders are under increasing pres- components used and the software to program them. sure to differentiate their machines, provide new capaPLCs are specialized industrial computers first introduced bilities, decrease operational costs and produce systems in the 1960s to replace relay banks for digital control. Proquickly. Although a mechatronics-based design process with grammed with vendor-specific software, they have a fixed emphasis placed on up-front simulation helps create sophis- execution model with a reliable and easy-to-use scanning ticated machines in less time, a critical decision is the selection architecture where the control engineer is concerned only with of the embedded controller. the design of the control code because the input cycles, output Though time-to-market pressure makes it tempting to use cycles, and housekeeping cycles are all performed automatically. the same controller installed in previous systems, selecting This rigidity also allows PLC designers to optimize their designs the appropriate controller with the right software support and select lower-cost processors and memory architectures. not only increases machine capabilities but also can reduce However, the strict software architecture can also make it design time by helping engineers and machine builders reuse inflexible for custom applications such as communications, work done in the original design steps and by eliminating the data logging, or custom control algorithms. need to rework control strategies. For instance, in a steel rolling application, an initial simulation may show that placing the sensor used for gauge thickness close to the roller nip leads to faster press hydraulic control and more accurate steel component production. During component selection, designers find that a gamma sensor is necessary to get the required bandwidth for the control rate. However, the gamma sensor has a nonlinear output that requires computationally intensive algorithms to convert the Ruggedness and reliability signal to a thickness. By selecting a controller with the ability to run complex floating-point opera- While industrial PCs offer stronger floating point performance and programming flexibility tions and still meet the cycle times of the and PLCs are known for reliability and ease of use, Programmable Application Controllers machine, the designers are able to retain (PACs) can combine the benefits of both traditional control options. their original control strategy. Had they automatically selected the controller used on previous designs, Compared to a PLC, a typical PC uses a more powerful they may have been forced to either add separate hardware floating-point processor and includes more memory, making to perform the signal processing or change their control it suitable for more intensive data processing applications. PC strategy to allow for slower loop rates. applications are developed with a wide variety of common programming languages and tools, unlike the relatively Traditional Options restricted and specialized set of languages used on PLCs. The In the past, designers have had three classes of control systems, lack of a predefined software architecture and physical rugwith distinct advantages and disadvantages: programmable gedness makes PCs less usable for “standard� control applicalogic controllers (PLCs), PCs or custom hardware. PLCs and tions. However, a PC is much more able to adapt and PCs share the same basic electrical components: a microproces- incorporate different types of control and processing functions sor and associated memory to run the control code, I/O mod- for custom or complex applications. ules to convert sensor signals to digital data, a bus to pass data Also, the greater I/O and connectivity of a PC make it between the modules and the processor, and communications much easier to integrate disparate, even proprietary, devices ports to program the controller and pass data between net- into systems. Because of their powerful processing capacity, worked devices. Where these devices differ is in the actual networking capability and graphical interfaces, PCs play a
Software capabillities
34
May/June | 2010
PACs
PCs
PLCs
www.design-engineering.com
MotionControl key role for supervisory and advanced control, human machine interfacing, data logging and enterprise communication. Custom hardware, by definition, is specialized circuitry designed to meet a specific need. Because it is expressly designed for each application, it may use any hardware architecture. Typical custom hardware uses include providing add-on functionality to a larger system, offloading high-speed control loops, or completely controlling high-volume applications such as embedded electronic control units (ECUs). Although in theory these devices could be designed to use almost any programming language, in general, the focus on high volume and low cost pushes most designers to use low-level programming tools and to write these applications in ANSI C or VHDL. Today, the availability of high-performance PC components suitable for industrial environments makes it possible to create controllers with PLC ruggedness and PC architectures for performance and openness. Examples are processors with -40 to +85 째C operation and mass storage without moving parts. Additionally, the inclusion of real-time operating systems (RTOSs) such as Phar Lap from Ardence (formerly Venturcom) or VxWorks from Wind River provide reliability and determinism, which are often not available in a generalpurpose operating system such as Windows. These RTOSs offer the capability to control all aspects of the control system, from the I/O read and write rates to the priority
www.design-engineering.com
of individual threads on the controller. Individual vendors add abstractions and I/O read/write structures to make it simpler for engineers to build reliable control applications. The result is flexible software suited for multidomain applications that mix discrete, process, and motion custom control, as well as the capability to perform other tasks such as signal processing, data logging, and communication. Industry analyst Automation Research Corporation has coined the term programmable automation controller, or PAC to describe this new class of controller that combines the advantages of PLCs and PCs. Although PACs represent the latest in programmable controllers, the future for PACs hinges on the incorporation of embedded technology to eliminate the need for custom hardware. One way to eliminate this need is to use software to define hardware. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are electronic components commonly used by electronics manufacturers to create custom chips that engineers can use to place intelligence in new devices. These devices consist of configurable logic blocks that perform a variety of functions, programmable interconnects that act as switches to connect the function blocks together, and I/O blocks that pass data in and out of the chip. Engineers use software to define the functionality of the configurable logic blocks and the way they are connected to each other and to the I/O. FPGAs are comparable to having a computer that literally
May/June | 2010
35
36 MotionControl rewires its internal circuitry to run a specific application. FPGA technology has traditionally been available only to hardware designers who were proficient in low-level programming languages such as VHDL. However, controls engineers today can use LabVIEW FPGA to create custom control algorithms that are downloaded onto FPGA chips built into NI PACs. With this capability, engineers can incorporate sensor-level signal processing and time-critical control functions such as motion control and sensor health monitoring. Because the control code runs directly in silicon, engineers can quickly create applications that incorporate custom communication protocols or high-speed control loops including up to 1 MHz digital control loops and 200 kHz analog control loops. Software Reuse One barrier that prevents machine designers from selecting the appropriate controller for a specific application is the learning curve associated with mastering new software and the ability to reuse algorithms and designs among projects. This is especially problematic when incorporating advanced
May/June | 2010
NI’s LabView simplifies programming even FPGA-based controllers, such as this CompactRIO PAC.
functionality into machines such as machine condition monitoring, custom motion control or enterprise integration. For efficiency, machine shops must standardize on a core set of software tools than can cover all of their application needs such as logic, process, motion, HMI, vibration, vision, IT integration, communications, and logging. To address this problem, National Instruments developed LabVIEW and its integration with NI PAC platforms. LabVIEW is designed to be open, allowing connectivity to databases, third-party PLCs, and serial devices and encouraging code reuse from programming and design languages such as ANSI C and The MathWorks, Inc. Simulink environment. DE www.ni.com
Article provided by National Instruments
www.design-engineering.com
38
Fasteners&Adhesives
Locked In Locking fasteners secure exhaust manifold joints against vibration, joint fatigue and temperature extremes. By Del Williams
K
eeping exhaust manifold joints secure to keep engines running has been an age-old issue for engineers due to the severe vibration, joint fatigue and temperature extremes present. When turbo mounting nuts vibrate loose and fall off, this can lead to engine failure and unscheduled downtime that can upset production schedules and delivery commitments. To keep its industrial engine customers productively on the job, Cummins Inc., a group of complimentary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, sought a solution to secure exhaust manifold joints when developing its Off-Highway Tier 3 QSX engine. “Our industrial customers rely on our engines to get the job done, often for decades, so our engines must be up to the task,” says Dale Gibby, a Cummins mechanical development engineer at the company’s technical center. “Our goal was to design the QSX engine for rock-solid, realworld reliability in industrial applications ranging from farm tractors, road graders and rock crushers to generators, air compressors and drill and concrete pumpers.” To assure engine reliability in the field, Gibby was tasked to keep the QSX engine’s exhaust manifold joints secure despite the severe vibration, joint fatigue and temperature extremes present. Standard fasteners were less than satisfactory due to their susceptibility to vibration, thermal distortion, loosening due to thermal cycles and wide variability in initial pre-load. Overcoming Extremes “For the exhaust manifold joint application, we avoided adhesives and nylon plugs because the high temperatures involved would burn them off,” explains Gibby. “We avoided split washers and deformed threads because their stress concentration is a big concern for fatigue failure. Split washers, in fact, can cause more problems than they solve if they gouge surfaces and start fatigue cracks.” A tall spacer and a tall capscrew can add stretch in the bolted joint, which can help in some joint applications, according to Gibby. But for many engines, including the QSX engine, there is not enough package or under-the-hood space for this approach so it was not an option, he says. May/June | 2010
Traditional locking fasteners do not address a basic design problem with the standard 60-degree thread form: that the gap between the crest of the male and female threads can lead to vibration-induced thread loosening. Stress concentration and fatigue at the first few engaged threads is also a problem, along with an increased probability of shear, especially in soft metals, due to its tendency toward axial loading. Temperature extremes can also expand or contract surfaces and materials, potentially compromising joint integrity. Engineers, however, have successfully attacked these challenges while reducing component weight and enabling reusability with the Spiralock locking fastener. This re-engineered thread form adds a 30-degree wedge ramp at the root of the thread which mates with standard 60-degree male thread fasteners. To protect against vibration and thermal distortion, the exhaust manifold on Cummins Inc.’s QSX engine is secured with Spiralock locking fasteners.
The wedge ramp allows the bolt to spin freely relative to female threads until clamp load is applied. The crests of the standard male thread form are then drawn tightly against the wedge ramp, eliminating radial clearances and creating a continuous spiral line contact along the entire length of the thread engagement. This continuous line contact spreads the clamp force more evenly over all engaged threads, improving resistance to vibrational loosening, axial-torsional loading, joint fatigue and temperature extremes. Gibby decided to test the Spiralock locking fastener against standard fasteners in a test-to-fail, thermal cycling test. The test compared how long typical stainless steel nuts vs. Spiralock stainless steel nuts stayed securely fastened on the exhaust manifold joints of a QSX industrial engine. Four nuts each were tested, with the Spiralock nuts silver plated for more consistent pre-load. To heighten the test’s challenge, a warped, worn-out exhaust manifold was used with over 1,250 hours of thermal cycles, and many gasket failures and turbo removals. The engine ran an abusive thermal cycle test, cycling from 400 °F to 1400 °F and back every 6 minutes. Besides the huge thermal swings, the engine www.design-engineering.com
40
Fasteners&Adhesives was run past redline and at high idle, according to Gibby. “In our test, we decided to stress the exhaust manifold joint fasteners much harder than any customer would in the field,” he says. “The goal was to provide reliable industrial engine performance that gets the job done without unscheduled downtime.” Because the test was designed to be real-world practical, all the nuts were significantly under-tightened to nominal load minus 3.5 sigma, a statistical measure of standard deviation. “Ideally mechanics would work on industrial engines in an air conditioned garage with plenty of space and time,” says Gibby. “But in the real world, if an industrial engine unexpectedly fails in the field, mechanics rush to get it back in service and production going, often while the engine and weather is hot. In those conditions, mechanics may not measure or fully torque exhaust manifold nuts. That’s reality, and we wanted a fastener designed to reliably perform in the conditions our customers often face.” Putting it to the Test Under the vibration and extreme thermal cycles, three of the four typical stainless steel nuts worked loose and fell off within 2 hours, leading to blown joints and a stopped engine. “The Spiralock nuts never fell off and were still secure over 18 hours after installation with no signs of backing off,” Gibby says. “We stopped the test at that point. Had the nuts been tightened
to nominal torque, who knows how long they would have lasted? It’s amazing that we could under-tighten the nuts that much on a warped, worn-out manifold – yet they didn’t fall off.” Another advantage of the Spiralock nuts is that installers can spin them on just like a regular nut, according to Gibby. Split nuts, on the other hand, cannot spin so installers must turn them with a wrench the entire thread length before clamping them down. Since Cummins put the QSX industrial engine into production with the Spiralock nuts several years ago, there have been no issues with the turbo mounting nuts on exhaust manifold joints to Gibby’s knowledge. At the suggestion of the chief engineer at a Cummins plant, the use of the locking fasteners has expanded to many Cummins heavy-duty engines, including on-highway and offhighway applications. “On industrial engine applications with vibration, thermal or joint fatigue issues, the Spiralock locking fasteners are one of our top options,” concludes Gibby. “As engines get more sophisticated and emission standards more stringent, they’ll undoubtedly play a role in helping Cummins to assure joint reliability and industrial engine performance for our customers.” DE www.spiralock.com
Del Williams is a technical writer based in Torrance, California.
Find your way to the NEW Canadian Manufacturing Week. New Technologies. New Location. New Format. Attend or exhibit: www.cmwshow.ca or 888.322.7333 October 5-7, 2010 | Toronto Congress Centre | Toronto, Ontario
May/June | 2010
www.design-engineering.com
DesignSolutions
41
Vibration Sensors for Process Monitoring V-Sensors from ACE Controls have been designed to detect vibrations in industrial automation applications such as linear modules, rotary actuators, grippers and more. Reliable and versatile, ACE Vibration Sensors are particularly valuable for signaling when an industrial shock absorber is nearing the end of its life-cycle. If the vibration of the unit exceeds the pre-set level, a red light will appear on the sensor, signifying a malfunction. V-Sensors are available in PNP, NPN and analog versions. Contact: shocks@acecontrols.com Visit us at: www.acecontrols.com
Clippard Offers Miniature Pneumatic Products Catalog for Scientific/Medical Applications Clippard, a manufacturer of the most complete line of miniature fluid power products, has a 48-page catalog featuring products and services for professionals in the medical, pharmaceutical analytical and dental fields. Some of the many products include electronic valves for Oxygen-enriched environments, check and control valves, proportional valves, regulators, fittings, tubing and more. Request your free copy today! Contact: sales@clippard.com Visit us at: www.clippard.com/scientific-a
Dust Collectors Full Line Literature Guide This impressive guide outlines dozens of N.R. Murphy dust collectors, installations, capacities, styles and models. A must for any reference library. N.R. Murphy Limited has been in business over 65 years and has thousands of satisfied customers. “Dust Collectors are all we do; so get it done right the first time. Just Ask the Experts.” Contact: 4nodust@nrmurphyltd.com Visit us at: www. nrmurphy.com
DILBERT™ BLUE CAT® NEW HORIZONS® IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS V. No. 26 Contains 68 full color pages of cutting-edge technology showcasing our top-selling Wireless Sensors, Transmitters and Receivers, Ethernet Web Based Measurement and Control Devices for Monitoring & Recording Data over the Internet. Top selling products include the OM-84 Series of compact wireless RFID temperature data loggers, the OS530-W9 Series of Handheld infrared thermometers with built-in Wireless transmitter and the CTXL Series of circular chart recorders with wireless sensor. Contact: info@omega.ca Visit us at: www.omega.ca/literature/7thedition/
Reid Supply Redesigns Its 2010-2011 Catalog Reid Supply has launched its redesigned and improved 2010-2011 full-color industrial products catalog. The new catalog is color-coded and packed with information to make the shopping experience much more intuitive. It is also integrally linked to the company’s web site, ReidSupply.com, which offers even more product as well as customer tools including FREE CAD downloads. As a distributor of industrial products since 1948, Reid Supply focuses on Customer Service on both their web site and their new catalog. To request a FREE catalog: Contact: 800-253-0421 Visit us at: www.ReidSupply.com
Ideas To Improve Production Efficiency! Look to Seal Master® Inflatable Seals. Sealing is just one of many tasks for custom-built, fabric-reinforced elastomeric inflatable seals. Simple, versatile and with close tolerance capability, they’re ideal for use as actuators, brakes, valves, clutches, wipers and for other innovative applications. Backed by in-depth technical/customer service, they’ll replace cumbersome, hard-to-maintain proccessing and handling components to lessen downtime. Ask about our RSVP Design Assistance program Contact: info@sealmaster.com Visit us at: www.sealmaster.com
To advertise your solution in this section call Alan Macpherson at 416.764.1534 www.design-engineering.com
May/June | 2010
42 IdeaGenerator Actuators Linear Actuator Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions added a 20mm 19000 Series stepper motor linear actuator to its G4 Can-stack line. According to the company, technical enhancements include optimized stator tooth geometry, high energy neodymium magnets, custom engineered plastics and larger ball bearings for greater rotor support and high axial loading capability. In addition, the company says the G4 19000 series provides a high linear force-to-size ratio and is available in three configurations: captive, non-captive and external linear. www.haydonkerk.com
Miniature Actuator Steinmeyer, Inc. announced a miniature precision actuator that doesn’t require external bearings or couplings. The actuator includes a precision ball screw, a Faulhaber DC motor with graphite commutation and a gearless coupling for high speed, backlash free positioning, as well as an in-drive motion controller. The actuator is available in travels ranging from 10-300 mm, resolution of 1 micron with integrated rotary encoder, speeds up to 120 mm/s, and axial loads up to 800 newton. Options include Steinmeyer ball screw with alternate diameter and pitch (standard is 8 mm diameter with 2 mm pitch). www.steinmeyer.com
Motors Integrated Stepper Motors Applied Motion Products announce that it has expanded its line of Integrated Step Motors to include CANopen and Ethernet communication versions. The STM is a drive+motor+control unit, fusing step motor and drive technologies into a single device. All STM Series models feature dynamic current control; anti-resonance; torque ripple smoothing and microstep emulation. Communication options include RS232, RS485, CANopen, Ethernet and Ethernet/IP. www.applied-motion.com
Brush DC Motors Portescap introduced its Athlonix Encoder Following high-power density brush DC motors. The company says the motors deliver high speed “generic” HMI compatibility-to-torque performance in a compact package (15-53 grams depending on frame size) with output power up to 9 watts. Athlonix motors feature a May/June | 2010
coreless design with a self-supporting coil and magnetic circuit that delivers energy efficiency approaching 90%. They are available in 12, 16 and 22 mm frame sizes, with maximum continuous torque up to 16.5 mNm. www.portescap.com
Fluid Power Safety Shut-Off Valves ASCO Numatics has introduced a new family of modular gas safety shut-off valves with a compact double valve footprint and the industry’s highest flow rates, the company says. The valves are designed for boilers, furnaces, ovens, heating equipment, gas generators and kilns used in commercial and industrial applications. Engineers can downsize their fuel trains by connecting two of ASCO’s safety shut-off valves. The valve’s very low pressure drop and extremely high flow capacity provide greater performance. www.ascovalve.com
Lever Valves Clippard’s new manuallyoperated 3- or 4- way spool valves have 1/4-inch NPT ports for easy access. The operation is either detented or momentary. Offering pressure ranges from 0 to 150 psig, plus an operating temperature of 32 to 140°F, these lever valves can be used in many applications. The valves are available with either a base or panel mount providing for ease of installation. www.clippard.com
Sensors Digital Force Gages Omega’s DFG41 features user selectable units of measure and selectable display languages along with advanced operating modes with statistical calculations. The compact gage is designed for basic and complex applications for automotive, lab, R&D testing and is also designed for handheld or test stand applications. The DFG41 may be equipped with integral load cells or smart remote sensors for load or torque measurement. www.omega.com www.design-engineering.com
44
IdeaGenerator Inductive Proximity Sensor Pepperl+Fuchs has expanded its family of miniature 3 mm and 4 mm diameter Inductive Proximity Sensors, that feature a smooth or threaded barrel and deliver a sensing range up to 1.0 mm. The inductive proximity sensors feature an all-stainless steel housing, LED indication and a 2 meter PUR cable. In addition, they come with 3-wire, 10-30 VDC connectivity, have a maximum switching frequency of 1300 Hz and are available with normally open NPN or PNP outputs. www.pepperl-fuchs.us
Linear-Position Sensor MTS Systems Corp. has improved its Temposonics linear-position sensors by adding a super shield housing option. Ordered as an integrated package with R-Series and G-Series sensors, the SSH housing is hermetically sealed and made of stainless steel, meeting the requirements of protection modes IP 68 and IP 69K. MTS’ R-Series sen-
Advertisers Index Advertiser
Website
Asco Valve Canada Autodesk Canada Inc. Automation Direct Baldor Electric Company Beckhoff Automation Clippard Instrument Laboratory Cords Canada Ltd. Creaform Inc. Dassault Systemes Dimension 3D Printing Fasco Die Cast Inc. Festo Inc. Franke Bearing & Linear Guides Inc. Great West Life Henkel Canada Corporation Master Bond Inc. Myostat Motion Control Inc. Nord Gear Ltd. Novotechnik Omega Engineering Inc. Pivot Point Inc. Proto Labs Inc. Quickparts Reid Tool Supply Company RotoPrecision Inc. Schaeffler Canada Inc. Schunk Intec Corp. Scotiabank SME Canada Swagelok Company Williams Fluid Air Corp.
www.ascovalve.ca www.autodesk.ca www.automationdirect.com www.baldor.com www.beckhoff.ca www.clippard.com www.cordscanada.com www.creaform3d.com www.3ds.com www.dimensionprinting.com www.fasco.ca www.festo.ca www.frankebearings.com www.engineerscanada.ca www.loctite.com www.masterbond.com www.coolmuscle.com www.nord.com www.novotechnik.com www.omega.ca www.pivotpins.com www.protolabs.com www.quickparts.com www.reidsupply.com www.rotoprecision.com www.ina.com www.schunk.com www.getgrowingforbusiness.com www.sme.org www.swagelok.com www.williamsfluidair.com
May/June | 2010
sors provide absolute linearity deviation down to +/- 0.01% full stroke, resolution of 1 micrometer and repeatability of min. +/- 2.5 micrometer. www.mtssensors.com
Power Transmission Shaft collars and couplings Ruland Manufacturing Co., Inc. is offering a selection of shaft collars and couplings designed for harsh environments. Ruland’s product line includes a variety of zincplated steel, aluminium and stainless steel collars in both 303 and 316 grades. Ruland shaft collars and rigid couplings are designed for tracking and positioning systems, as well as structural supports. A wide selection of standard sizes for one and twopiece designs in clamp and set screw styles is available in both inch and metric dimensions. www.ruland.com
Page 17 2 31 48 19 8 23 26 27 21 10 15 29 13 39 11 36 6 18 3, 43 32 33 35 9 12 4 11 47 40 37 45
Aluminum Couplings Zero-Max introduced its aluminum CD model coupling, a low inertia, lightweight coupling with high torsional stiffness for servo motor applications. The component combines aluminum hubs and a composite disc. According to the company, the composite disc design withstands the stresses of a servo motor’s high acceleration rates and high torque capacity. This results in lower energy requirements and longer life of the motor and other operating components while ensuring uninterrupted system operation. The single flex models have a torque capacity range from 40 Nm to 1436 Nm and beyond with speed ratings from 4400 RPM to 17,000 RPM. www.zero-max.com www.design-engineering.com
IdeaGenerator
45
Motion Control Stepper Motor Controller Beckhoff Automation has introduced the EtherCAT Motion Box. Using the EP7041 stepper motor box, the compact EtherCAT module features class IP 67 protection and allows connection of Beckhoff stepper motors up to 50V DC and 5 A. Measuring 5-in x 1.2-in x 1-in (126 x 30 x 26.5 mm), the EP7041 contains an encoder connection, two digital inputs for limit switches and a digital output for a brake. In addition, the module features 64-fold micro-stepping, for precise motor rotation. www.beckhoff.com
Solid State Relay Weidmuller is expanding its MICROOPTO family of optocouplers or solid-state relays with four new versions. The MICROOPTO SOLENOID is designed for control of inductive loads such as solenoid valves and contactors of up to 24VDC and 10A. It switches the maximum current of 10A up to 55°C ambient temperature. The MICROOPTO 1CO is a high frequency electronic switch that provides an isolated output which can either repeat or invert it’s input. Two MICROOPTO TTL models are designed to convert to and from 5V TTL signals and higher direct current levels and standard 24VDC. All Weidmuller MICROOPTO devices are CE and cULus approved. www.weidmuller.ca
momentary circuits, engineers can specify gold, silver or gold over silver contacts. These devices are rated at 3A at 125V AC with silver contacts, 0.4VA maximum at 28V AC/DC with gold contacts or both ratings when gold over silver contacts are specified. Terminal options include solder lug or straight PC. www.nkkswitches.com
Pressure Switches World Magnetics has released its Dietz Models 170D and 171D Low Differential Pressure Switches that combine low pressure actuation and rugged construction to deliver precise and repeatable performance in harsh environments, the company says. A resistant epoxy finish provides protection where corrosive fumes or acids are present, such as in chemical plants, plating rooms and sewage treatment plants. The Dietz Model 171D is vibration resistant and conforms to MIL-STD-167-1 and MIL-STD-901-D. A number of models with factory set actuation points ranging from 0.05-inch H2O (Model 171D) to 40.0-inch H2O are available. www.worldmagnetics.com
METRIC HYDRAULIC PIPING PRODUCTS
Switches Miniature Pushbutton NKK Switches announced its MB2400 Series of miniature, snap-acting, snap-in mount pushbuttons. The series, which features a short stroke, light touch and audible feedback, also provides mechanical life rated at 200,000 operations minimum. Available in single pole or double pole, ON www.design-engineering.com
BUILD US INTO YOUR DESIGN Williams Fluidair proudly announces its exclusive Canadian distributorship of VOSS Fluid Power. A leader in metric hydraulic piping product distribution and manufacturing in Canada for over 35 years, Williams Fluidair stocks 40 product lines including steel and stainless steel tubing, tube fittings, hose fittings and assemblies, pressure test fittings, tube supports, in-line valves, threaded adapters, benders and tube working tools. For those needing custom parts, our manufacturing division provides CNC turning and machining of custom hydraulic fittings, adapters, manifolds and more in steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and nylon. 905.831.3222 service@williamsfluidair.com
w w w. w i l l i a m s f l u i d a i r. c o m May/June | 2010
46 CanadianInnovator
Catching some rays Flexible solar power material gets further efficiency boost from Canadian team.
By Treena Hein
N
ot many of us are able to catch some rays while at work, but for Mario Leclerc, that’s the goal. As Director of the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Research Center of Université Laval and the Quebec Centre on Functional Materials, Leclerc is continuing to build on a major contribution he’s already made in boosting the efficiency of a solar technology called Power Plastic. Containing a polymer fi lm capable of capturing enough light energy to charge small electronics – even a laptop – Power Plastic is among the hottest solar industry technologies on the market. Its panels are currently integrated into products such as Neuber’s ‘Energy Sun-Bags’ and the PowerBrella patio umbrella, and they’re also being evaluated as a portable means to charge batteries by the US Army. In addition, Massachusettsbased Konarka hopes Power Plastic will help boost quality of life for those in developing nations. Photovoltaic (PV) polymers are third generation solar energy technology—the first being crystalline silicon wafers, developed more than 50 years ago. While these systems are reliable, silicon wafers are fragile, which makes processing difficult and limits applications. The manufacturing process is labour and energy intensive, and factory capital costs are high, limiting scale-up potential. About 15 years ago, PV polymers entered the solar scene, achieving higher efficiencies and lower costs than anything that has come before. “Many people saw that these polymers Transparent Packaging Transparent Electrode
Printed Active Material Primary Electrode
Light
Transparent Packaging Transparent Electrode Active Material (Polymer Blend)
Electrons External Load
Primary Electrode Substrate
Developed by Université Laval’s Mario Leclerc, Konarka’s Power Plastic offers solar power in a flexible and cheap to manufacture form factor. May/June | 2010
could be used as solar cells,” says Leclerc. “Being similar to silicon, they were already being used in transistors and lightemitting diodes.” Although PV polymers aren’t perfect – their shelf life is much shorter than silicon wafers – their use in Power Plastics has created a product that’s light-weight, flexible and versatile. With silicon conductors, you need pure, clean-room conditions to evaporate silicon and then cool it onto the substrate through a lot of steps, but producing PV polymers is much simpler and cheaper. “Konarka can print Power Plastic at ten feet per second,” says Leclerc. Efficiency boost Leclerc’s current efforts to boost the efficiency of Power Plastic builds on strong past success. Beginning in 2008, he spearheaded a collaboration between Université Laval, Konarka Inc., the National Research Council and St-Jean Photochemicals Inc. under the Sustainable Development Technology Canada program wherein a family of PV polymers called polycarbazoles was developed. “These polymers are especially efficient electrical conductors,” says Leclerc. “We needed to find the optimum mixture in the active layer of the polymer and one other molecule to achieve maximum efficiency in light absorption and electricity conduction. It also had to be stable.” The work was mostly diligent trial and error and Leclerc is first to admit that luck played a certain role. Right now, Power Plastic boasts an efficiency of seven percent, but Leclerc is confident he and his team of graduate students will be able to get to ten percent in the next two years. “As an added bonus, as you increase the efficiency, you also reduce cost by the same factor, so boosting efficiency by two times means the price is halved,” he says. While Leclerc’s team works to improve light absorption, transport of electricity must also be boosted. Then there’s the need for improved solubility to aid in Substrate substrate application, while maintaining properties that provide good stability, shelf-life, recyclability and removability. “We also want to avoid the use of chlorinated solvents and improve efficiencies of manufacturing,” Leclerc says. “We know where we have to go and what’s promising, but to tell you exactly what we need to do is impossible.” DE www.intelligentplastics.ca www.konarka.com www.design-engineering.com