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TECHNOLOGYSPOTLIGHT

Advances in technology across industry

Siemens helps NASA usher in a new era in space exploration

The latest Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’ – designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) using Siemens software – is an example of how modern software technology is being employed to enhance competitiveness in the aerospace industry.

‘Curiosity’ is the most sophisticated rover ever sent to Mars, and will further enhance our understanding of the Red Planet, while paving the way for future human exploration,” said Doug McCuistion, NASA director of the Mars Exploration Program. “The team of scientists and engineers at NASA’s JPL has employed the latest in software technology to design the Mars Rover to withstand the impossible extremes of launch, space travel, atmospheric reentry, and landing a 2000 pound operational vehicle on the surface of Mars.”

JPL used product lifecycle management (PLM) software from Siemens throughout the development process to digitally design, simulate and assemble the Rover before any physical prototypes were built. The software helped ensure all components would fit together, operate properly and withstand whatever environment the mission would require. Visit: www.siemens.com/industry

Print your Drone: EADS presents ALM technologies

AT July’s Farnborough Airshow, EADS Innovation Works presented the prototype of a portable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) produced by Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) technology, also known as 3D-printing. The plane with a wingspan of approximately. 1.5 metres has been designed by students from the University of Leeds. The small, portable drone will be capable of being controlled via wireless video communication over a short distance. Powered by batteries, it could serve as a tool for surveillance, search and rescue or disaster control.

Using ALM technology in the production of such a small drone opens new possibilities for aerodynamic optimisations such as wing twist, which would otherwise be difficult and expensive to realise for an aircraft of this scale.

The revolutionary manufacturing process known as Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) is based upon the principles of rapid prototyping and allows single products to be grown from a fine powder of metal (such as titanium, stainless steel or aluminium), nylon or carbon-reinforced plastics. EADS has developed the technology to the extent that it can manipulate metals, nylon, and carbon-reinforced plastics at a molecular level, which allows it to be applied to high-stress, safety critical aviation uses. Compared to a traditional, machined part, those produced by ALM are up to 65% lighter but still as strong as those would be. Visit: www.eads.com

Professor Magnus Willander

White LEDs directly on paper

Imagine a white luminous curtain waving in the breeze. Or wallpaper that lights up your room with perfect white light. The applications are not very far away. White LEDs, made from zinc oxide and a conducting polymer, can be manufactured directly on paper, as shown by Gul Amin in his doctoral thesis at Linköping University.

In his thesis, Gul Amin shows how it is possible to grow white LEDs directly on paper and also to print them on wallpaper for example. This method has a patent pending.

The active components are nanorods of zinc oxide on a thin layer of polydiethylflourene (PFO), a conducting polymer. But the paper has first been coated with a thin, water-repellent, protective and levelling layer of cyclotene, a resin.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to build electronic and photonic inorganic semiconducting components directly on paper using chemical methods,” says Professor Magnus Willander, who is leading the research. Visit: www.liu.se