Design News January 2010 by Praveen Kumar Deepak Velayudhan

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BOOST RELIABILITY!

Design experts explain how, p25 SOLAR CELL MANUFACTURING Automation cuts costs, p39 PUTTING A PC IN YOUR APP? Three bugaboos to avoid, p44

JANUARY 2010 $15.00

ACCELERATING ENGINEERING INNOVATION www.designnews.com

Future

Shock

Cannondale unveils a new suspension concept, p34

New!

THE LAB RAT REVIEWS A PSOC DEV KIT, p16

Where Do I Go for Automation System Products?

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How do we turn more ideas into successful products?

The Siemens answer: PLM Software to build the right product — and build the product right. Escalating costs. Tighter schedules. Increased complexity. The challenge of turning more ideas into successful products has never been greater. You need a product lifecycle management solution that improves everything from design to manufacturing – and beyond. Find out how Siemens PLM Software can help your company stand out, no matter how tough the challenge. www.siemens.com/plm.

Answers for Industry. © 2009 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of Siemens AG. All other logos, trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

ACCELERATING ENGINEERING INNOVATION www.designnews.com

contents January 2010 volume 65 no. 01

Features COVER STORY

34 Future Shock Simon, Cannondale’s new active suspension system, is designed to automatically react to impacts, bumps in the road and vibrations, even before the rider feels them. BY KAREN AUGUSTON FIELD, Editorial Director F E AT U R E

39 Solar Nears Tipping Point New solar cell manufacturing lines target cost per watt, sustainable quality and higher speed. BY AL PRESHER, Contributing Editor CRAM SESSION

44 Three Bugaboos to Avoid When Designing a PC into Your Application A little upfront thinking about form factor, reliability and the supply chain will save you some headaches later in the design process. BY FRANKLIN FLINT, Dell OEM Solutions

Departments

GADGET FREAK

C A P TA I N H Y B R I D

12 What Would It Take to Make You Buy an EV? A new study, “Unplugging the Hype around Electric Vehicles” suggests EV and hybrid sales will struggle throughout the next decade. BY CHARLES J. MURRAY, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics RANT

13 Reducing Energy Waste in Automobiles

14 MECHATRONICS Fresh ideas on integrating mechanical systems, electronics, control systems and software.

SHERLOCK OHMS

20 TIPS FROM TITUS

18 The Riddle of the Elusive Peanut Butter Property

We review a PSoC dev kit

Unbelievably Useful Information from a Test Expert

With the gauntlet thrown down, a young engineer sets out to measure an electrical property of an important foodstuff. BY ANDREW BERDING, Contributing Writer

22 AT STAKE Visions for the Engineering Century

25 NEWS Trends, Developments, Breakthroughs

46 EXPO Best of the Engineering Marketplace

Three times was not the charm for a defective front door handle. BY KAREN AUGUSTON FIELD, Editorial Director

Why? Appliances are exempt from EMI/EMC requirements in the U.S., for starters. BY KAREN AUGUSTON FIELD, Editorial Director

Do you have a cool, useful backyard invention you think others might find handy? Want to make a quick $500? Turn to page 64 to get all the details on how to turn your one-of-a-kind gadget into cold, hard cash!

16 THE LAB RAT

9 If It’s Broke, Return It

10 EMI Mayhem: Smart Phone Switches on a Maytag Oven

John Graham’s Pinewood Derby cars simulate a two-tone police siren. Book ‘em, Danno!

Two traffic-related fixes are in order if the U.S. government wants to seriously improve vehicle fuel efficiency . BY WILLIAM KETEL, Contributing Writer

THE FIELD REPORT

MADE BY MONKEYS

64 Flip on Your Car’s Lights and Sirens!

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

CALAMITIES

62 The Case of the Phantom Forklift What caused a forklift to start moving on its own, pinning its operator between the machine and warehouse storage racks? BY MYRON J. BOYAJIAN, Contributing Editor

Read up on energy-efficient bearings, metering pumps, drive harmonics, simulation and rapid prototypes, and more in our fluid power/ power transmission special section. Look for it between pages 46 and 59. If your copy of Design News does not include this section, you can find it at http://designnews. hotims.com/27735-500.

COVER IMAGE: CANNONDALE DESIGN ENGINEER STANLEY SONG TEST RIDES THE SIMON SUSPENSION SYSTEM. DESIGN NEWS® (ISSN 0011-9407), (GST Reg. #123397457, C.P.C. Int’l. Pub Mail #0360120) is published monthly by Reed Business Information, 8878 S. Barrons Blvd., Highlands Ranch, CO 80129-2345, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc., 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010. John Poulin, CEO RBI-US; Jeff DeBalko, President, Business Media. Periodicals postage paid at Littleton, CO 80126 and at additional mailing offices. Circulation records are maintained at Reed Business Information, 8878 S. Barrons Blvd., Highlands Ranch, CO 80129-2345. Phone: (303) 470-4445. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DESIGN NEWS,® P.O. Box 7500, Highlands Ranch, CO 80163-7500. DESIGN NEWS® copyright 2008 by Reed Elsevier Inc. Rates for non-qualified subscriptions including all issues: U.S., $125.90 one year, $214.90 two years, Canada, $184.90 one year, $314.90 two years (includes 7% GST, GST #123397457); Mexico, $172.90 one year, $295.90 two years; Foreign surface $227.90 one year, $387.90 two years; Foreign air expedited surcharge add $323.90 one year, $579.90 two years. Except for special issues where price changes are indicated, single copies are available for $10.00 U.S. and $15.00 foreign. Please address all subscription mail to DESIGN NEWS® 8878 S. Barrons Blvd., Highlands Ranch, CO 80129-2345. DESIGN NEWS® is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties, Inc., used under license. Reed Business Information, a unit of Reed Elsevier Inc., is the publisher of more than 85 specialized business and professional publications as well as CD-ROM and online services. RBI, headquartered in New York, NY, serves the vital information needs of over 5.6 million business managers and professionals around the world. In addition to its publications, RBI also provides publication and industry-based research, economic forecasting, reprints, direct mail services, database marketing plus custom publishing projects in all its served markets. Reprints of articles are available on a custom printing basis at reasonable prices in quantities of 500 or more. For a specific quotation, contact Reprint Management Services; phone 800-290-5460; e-mail: designnews@reprintbuyer. com. (PRINTED IN U.S.A.) Publications Mail Agreement No. 40685520. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: RCS International, Box 697 STN A, Windsor Ontario N9A 6N4. E-mail: subsmail@reedbusiness.com.

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Follow Design News on:

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.com ONLINE RESOURCE CENTER

The Gadgeteer Steve Ravet recalls a day in 1979 when someone older and wiser showed him how to view the BASIC code for video games. http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-501

Captain Hybrid H20 H2 0

Is the recent global warming video shown CH at the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen too harsh? http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-502

The Weird and Wonderful World of Wireless Joel Young reveals his top pick for the coolest and most practical math equation. Go to http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-503 and tell us yours.

Gearo Wolfe An engineer comes up with a clever way to test claims that a redesigned product has a “heavy-handed touch.” http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-504

Calling All Gadget Freaks! Are you a backyard inventor? If so, show our readers how you build your stuff and win $500! Check out our Gadget Freak ﬁles for proﬁles of past and present projects, watch videos and learn how to submit your own at www.designnews. com/gadgetfreak.

2010 GOLDEN MOUSETRAP AWARDS — DEADLINE EXTENDED! Don’t miss out on the biggest product contest of the year! Enter the most spectacular product or tool for design engineers your company designed in the past year and it could be featured in our special Golden Mousetrap Awards issue in April 2010. Deadline for entries has come and gone, but because we’re still in the holiday spirit, we’ve extended it to Jan. 22, 2010. Get your entry in today! Go to www.designnews.com/mousetrap for an entry form and full contest details.

Microchip’s Devices Integrate USB, CAN and Ethernet Microchip Technology Inc. has rolled out three new microcontroller families — the PIC32 MX5, MX6 and MX7 — which are targeted at connectivity applications in such products are home theaters, ﬁtness equipment, sensor clusters and medical devices. Read about it at http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-505.

Designing with LEDs Workshop Santa Clara, CA, March 17 Spend the day with Design News and EDN to learn how high-brightness LEDs save power, reduce space, and shape light into unlimited colors and places. For this FREE event’s full agenda, speaker bios and to register, go to http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-506.

Webcast: Motion Control/ Automation Solutions for Solar Cell Manufacturing On-Demand Jan. 25, 2010 In this Design News webcast, design engineers will gain insight into how manufacturers in one of the hottest and fastest-growing technology areas today are leveraging the latest precision motion control technologies, robotics, networked automation inspection stations and automation solutions to make more units at a lower cost. This webcast will be available at www. designnews.com starting Jan. 25.

Webcast Load, Pressure and Torque: Sensor Selection, Technology Applications from Honeywell Honeywell manufactures one of the most comprehensive lines of pressure transducers, load cells, torque, electronic sensor instrumentation, and a full line of sensors for acceleration and position (LVDTs). Their experts show you how to select and install the correct product for your applications and simplify setup with instrumentation. http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-508 Reference Guide Light Matters: Cell Phone Projection from Avnet Imagine a cell phone that projects movies and animated graphics directly on walls — or viewing high-resolution, 24-bit color images through helmets or inside goggles. These are a few of the applications made possible through a family of miniature devices called FLCOS (ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon) microdisplays. http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-509 Case Study Direct Digital Manufacturing Reduces Fixturing Costs up to 65 Percent from Stratasys For every series of vacuum Oreck Manufacturing makes, it produces 40 to 50 identical assembly pallets. Oreck had used only silicone or epoxy molds and urethane castings with inserts. See why adding a Fortus 3-D Production System, which employs the FDM process, allowed Oreck to reduce costs signiﬁcantly by producing them in-house. http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-510

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Real life case studies are a click away: www.phillipsplastics.com/case_studies

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F IELD

R EPORT

If It’s Broke, Return It I GUESS I JINXED MYSELF BY BLOGGING

recently about the twice-replaced handle set on our front door. In that post, I wrote: “The thumb latch is a lever that sits on a set of little pins set on a die-cast zinc alloy, which Before allows it to toggle up and down. Unfortunately, die castings are often about making things fast, and such parts typically have sub-par structural performance and are prone to stress cracking. What probably happened is that a tiny crack formed on one side of the casting and propagated every time we squeezed up and down on the handle. One side failed (red circle, “before” image) and our door handle started twisting at an odd angle. That was pretty weird. The upside is that we replaced it with the backup landing plate before we were locked out of the house. After going through two plates, we After bought a new set (potentially unwisely). But we are happy to report that the manufacturer finally figured out it needed to reinforce the casting for the load by reinforcing the area where the pin sets (red circle, “after” image). Six months in, it’s still working like a charm.” After proclaiming happily that the third set was all hunky dory, the handle is starting to twist again. And “Who Knew” gets to tell me that he (or she) told me so in this response to my blog post: “Who Knew” writes: It appears as though the manu“As it is now, that pin cradle probably still facturer Baldwin reinforced the won’t last five years. It looks suitable for a area (red circle) where the pin sets on this die-cast zinc alloy float pivot in a carburetor, not a part that landing plate of a lockset. But secures/opens a residential entry door. It used unfortunately, the new lockset is to be that on “pot-metal” castings such as about to fail again in the same, these, wear bearing surfaces were cast in, or precise way.

a socket was cast in, and a wear bearing surface was pressed into the socket. These days, the fact that they added a few more thousandths to bolster that pin cradle was a significant decision given cost of retooling, plus adding a fraction of a material to each casting. Careful inspection of the new casting compared to the old may reveal a new void or change in some other dimension, which would have allowed the addition of material at that pin cradle by subtracting it from another location … Or, ever-so-slight subtraction from a variety of other locations.” The only thing “Who Knew” underestimated was the MTBF of the part. One thing is for sure: I’ll be hustling that part right back to Home Depot, where I purchased it, to get my money back. And when the products you buy don’t live up to your expectations, I urge you to do the same, because manufacturers can’t fix what they don’t know about. In the best case scenario, some design engineers will get their hands on it and change the design before too many other unsuspecting customers buy the product. Worst case, well at least you’ll have gotten your money back. If you’ve had a similar run-in with a product (and we hope you haven’t), we’d like to include it in our Made by Monkeys Blog at www.designnews.com/madebymonkeys. E-mail your examples, photos and accompanying theories on what went wrong and ideas on any possible fixes to me at kfield@ reedbusiness.com. Karen Field, Editor-in-Chief kfield@reedbusiness.com

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Made by Monkeys designnews.com/ »madebymonkeys

EMI Mayhem: Smart Phone Switches on a Maytag Oven A while back the New York Times ran an article about a guy’s smart phone starting up his Maytag Model CGR1425ADW oven (plus a couple of his neighbor’s units) in a Brooklyn apartment building. Read the full text: Hello Oven? It’s Phone. Now Let’s Start Cooking! A spokeswoman for Maytag said, “In our experience, this situation is highly unusual.” She went on to say that all of Maytag’s appliances are tested and meet safety standards set by Underwriters Laboratories and the American National Standards Institute. With the finger of blame pointing strongly at EMI, we wondered what requirements for EMI/EMC apply to kitchen appliances. So we turned to EMI Guru Daryl Gerke, co-owner of Kimmel-Gerke Assoc., an EMI/EMC consulting company. “Ah, the law of unintended consequences catching up with us. Yup, radio transmitters (such as cell phones) certainly can, and do, affect electronic control systems. This problem alone helped put two kids through college. I’ve chased down field problems with embedded controllers, medical devices, alarm systems and more. In one case, I even used a cell phone to force the problem, and kept adding fixes until I could no longer trigger the device with the cell phone right next to it. Thanks to some good lobbying by the appliance industry in the past, appliances are exempt from any EMI/EMC requirements in the U.S. — both emissions and immunity. In the article, the manufacturers tried to hide behind the UL requirements, but these are for safety (shock and fire), not EMI/EMC. The bottom line — these appliances are not subject to any rules in the U.S., and were likely never tested for EMI/EMC effects. Europe is a different story. After 1996, appliance controllers (like virtually all electronics) became subject to EMI/EMC requirements and testing for products sold in the European community. The normal RF immunity test level is 3V/m, but was recently increased to 10V/m for “protective electronic circuits.” My guess is that turning the oven on would be classified as a “protective electronic circuit” failure, but some might argue with that. Even passing these tests, however, might not be enough for a nearby cell phone. Using our tried and true, but quick and dirty, field level estimator (see below), I come up with a field level of 3V/m at a distance of about 1.5m, and a field level of 10V/m at 0.5m (based on a nominal power level of 600 mW). Thus, a cell phone at about 18 inches or less might still exceed the more stringent safety levels the Europeans now require for appliances. Here is the formula I used: E=(5.5 sq rt(p))/d, where E= Electric field in Volts/ meter. p = transmitter power at antenna in watts. d = distance from the antenna to the victim circuit in meters. This simple formula is widely used in the EMI/EMC community, and is pretty accurate for these conditions. Finally, I’ve seen evidence of this in my own office. No, I don’t turn on appliances, but I do hear the cell phone “ticking” (when communicating with the local towers) in my computer speakers. Yea, the are really expensive speakers, too — I probably paid less than $10, so I’m sure the manufacturer didn’t want to waste any money on RF filtering.”

THE COMPLETE SEASON WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. ALL EPISODES AND EXTRAS ARE ONLINE NOW.

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PUBLISHER

Russell E. Pratt 781-734-8417 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER H20

Al Schmidt 972-980-8810 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Karen Auguston Field 781-734-8188 Elizabeth M. Taurasi, Executive Editor Chuck Mackey, Senior Art Director Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor Regina M. Lynch, Web Editor Jennifer Roy, Production Editor

» designnews.com/blog/Captain_Hybrid/index.php BY CHARLES J. MURRAY, SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR, ELECTRONICS

What Would It Take to Make You Buy An EV? Study says the outlook for electrics isn’t rosy. Do you agree?

hese days, it might look like consumers are stampeding dealerships in search of electric cars, but a new study indicates otherwise. The study, “Unplugging the Hype around Electric Vehicles,” contends that battery-powered electric cars and plug-in hybrids will struggle in the next decade unless oil prices triple. The study reached its conclusions by examining “payback periods” and comparing the costs of operating a gasoline-burning car against the higher initial cost of electric vehicles. The author of the study, Jacob Grose, provided us with some sobering statistics about electric cars and their batteries. Grose says that an entire battery pack — battery cells, cooling and battery management systems — now costs an astounding $900/kW-hr. Over time, he says, those numbers will drop to between $420 to $470/kW-hr. But think about it for a minute. That means big 60 kW-hr battery packs would cost more than $50,000 today. And that’s just the battery, not the entire car. When production volumes rise, battery prices will drop precipitously, but a big one will still run in excess of $20,000. A smaller 16 kW-hr battery — like those used in plug-in hybrids — might eventually drop to about $6,000, but it’s likely to be about $14,000 today, according to Grose’s numbers. The bottom line is this: Lux Research believes that pure electrics will be very expensive, and therefore are in for low sales figures. The outlook for plug-in hybrids is better, but only if oil prices

climb dramatically. So here’s a question: How much would you be willing to pay for a pure electric car? Would you pay $50,000? $40,000? $30,000? And what would you expect for those prices? Would a 100mile range suffice on a pure electric? Is a six-hour recharge time acceptable? Also, tell us this: Do you see a pure electric as a second car or as a primary vehicle? If you see it as a second car, does that affect your willingness to pay a premium for it? Finally: If gas prices remain steady, would you be more willing to buy a $40,000 extended-range electric vehicle, like the Chevy Volt? We want to hear from you. Consumers have repeatedly told automakers that they’re inclined to purchase electric cars, but in truth, most consumers don’t know the difference between a Prius and an electric. Here, we have an advantage: As engineers, Design News readers understand the technology and have a better feel for what’s coming. So tell us what you think. We’ll print responses in an upcoming column.

T E C H N I C A L S P E C I A LT I E S

CAE Software & Hardware: Beth Stackpole Bstack@stackpolepartners.com Electronics: Charles J. Murray charles.murray@reedbusiness.com Fluid Power/Motion Control/Automation: Al Presher al.presher@reedbusiness.com Fasteners & Materials: Doug Smock doug.smock@reedbusiness.com Mechatronics: Jon Titus jontitus@comcast.net CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

CALAMITIES Myron J. Boyajian, mboyajian@sbcglobal.net Ken Russell, kenruss@mit.edu GREEN SCENE Robert Spiegel, robspiegel@comcast.net TIPS FROM TITUS Jon Titus, jontitus@comcast.net GRAPHICS

Norman Graf, Director of Creative Services Daniel Guidera, Illustrator PRODUCTION

John Blanchard, VP/Manufacturing Dorothy Buchholz, Group Production Director Linda A. Lepordo, Print Production Manager Adam Odoardi, CMS Business Analyst Shirley Surles, Graphic Production Manager BUSINESS OFFICE

Karen Norris, Strategic Marketing Manager Cara Barrett, Project Manager, Integrated Marketing Colleen Heckman, Senior Sales Associate David Perrotti, Online Client Service Manager DESIGNNEWS.COM

Brian McAvoy, Internet Sales Director 781-734-8191 Regina M. Lynch, Web Editor U . S . S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E S

IL/IN/MI/MO/ON Nicole Dalesandro 630-288-8636 FL/GA Jim Leahey 262-656-1064 NH/ME/VT Kathy McNamara 781-734-8421 IA/ND/MN/WI Doug Robertson 781-734-8182 CT/MA/NY/RI Julie Simoneau 781-734-8536 NC/NJ/OH/PA/SC/VA Dave Stanley 610-933-9186 AR/AZ/CA/CO/NV/OR/UT/WA

Todd Tidmore 512-477-3806 REGIONAL/SALES MANAGERS

CUSTOM PUBLISHING Mike Paul 781-734-8179 I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E P R E S E N TAT I V E S

UK Stephen Waddell 011 44 1322 437091 GERMANY Erhardt Eisenacher 011 49 2 28 65 0013 FRANCE Alain Faure 011 33 1 53 21 88 03 JAPAN Toshiyuki Uematsu 011 81 3 5775 6056 R E E D B U S I N E S S I N F O R M AT I O N

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

John Poulin PRESIDENT, BUSINESS MEDIA

Jeffrey G. DeBalko VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE

Jane Volland

Send responses to charles.murray@ reedbusiness.com or post a comment on our website at http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-514. Join DN’s discussion on the latest news in electric vehicles, batteries and hybrid cars at http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-515, and sign up for the RSS feed for this blog and get the posts delivered directly to your desktop at http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-516.

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WILLIAM KETEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Reducing Energy Waste in Automobiles ELIMINATING FOUR-WAY INTERSECTIONS, PUTTING TRAFFIC LIGHTS ON SENSORS IS A GOOD START TOWARD A SOLUTION WE ALL KNOW FUEL EFFICIENCY IS A

worthwhile goal, but changing things on a vehicle takes time and a lot of engineering, and it is costly, partly because of all the testing that must be done. And then, even after one vehicle has some gains, that leaves all of the others, unchanged. So the net improvement is small and arrives slowly. So perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider a different approach to reducing fuel consumption, which would be to reduce inefficiency in areas where we already know what the answer is and how to do it. One way is to reduce the fuel wasted by cars and trucks is to keep them moving. The math is so simple that even a senator can figure it out. A vehicle stopped at a traffic control is getting ZERO miles per gallon. That means that it is wasting 100 percent of the fuel consumed. This is true even at stop signs, where the stop may be for a very short time. The new crop of high-efficiency vehicles saves fuel by stopping the engine. The current fleet is not designed for that type of service. Next, consider that a vehicle accelerating up to speed requires several times as much energy as it takes to keep it at speed. Dragsters are the ultimate example of this, burning a gallon or more of fuel (gas) in a quarter mile. So now we know two least-efficient functional modes. So how can we reduce the time spent in these inefficient modes? Here is where I offer, for free, my plan to improve the fuel economy of most of the

vehicles in the U.S. It consists of two sets of actions — neither requires any new developments or “wonderful new science.” The first thing is to eliminate fourway-stop intersections. Remove two stop signs and change the others to “yield” signs. And on intersections with only two stop signs, exchange them for yield signs. I know that some will claim that all four sides must stop for “safety,” but they fail to acknowledge that too many drivers assume that the other one must stop, so they don’t. And if there are multiple vehicles stopped, who goes first may not always follow the prescribed rules. A second answer is to have traffic lights timed so that traffic can flow along the roadway, rather than being halted at every signal light. In some areas it would be better to remove the light and use yield signs. In locations where that would not be safe, a demand light that would only cycle when a vehicle arrived at the red light would be a better solution. So there are two simple and relatively inexpensive ways to reduce fuel waste for all vehicles. No new engineering required, but likely a huge amount of political resistance to be overcome. William Ketel is a hands-on electrical engineer who enjoys troubleshooting and diagnostics, and Ham radio, (Extra class). His industrial machine projects range from an evaporator valve calibrator to a brake drum inspection machine to crash-sled controls, and a package to calibrate developmental crash sensors.

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mechatronics Electromechanics

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FRESH IDEAS ON INTEGRATING MECHANICAL SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE IN DESIGN

S CT NSU MER PRODU

What’s Your Point of View? Time, frequency and modal domains offer complementary views, insight

ach of us is a critical-thinking problem solver. We have to be, as society’s problems are mounting, getting harder, broader, deeper and multidisciplinary. As basic engineering skills — analysis, hardware and software — have become commodities worldwide, America’s competitive advantage comes from being immediate, innovative, integrative and conceptual. Our innovation must be local — you can’t import it, you create it! It is a way of thinking, communicating and doing. It differentiates us from other engineers around the world. As multidisciplinary teams are formed to solve these problems, usually with a core group comprised of mechanical, electronic, computer and controls engineers, together with problem-specific experts in, for example, combustion, chemistry, structures, materials, anatomy and physiology, insight and communication are of utmost importance. We have all witnessed how engineers from different backgrounds describe the same concepts using different language and different points of view which often can lead to confusion and ultimately design errors. Being able to describe concepts with clarity and insight in a variety of ways is essential for the mechatronics engineer as the multidisciplinary team leader. The two domains — time and frequency — represent different perspectives. They are interchangeable, complementary points of view, i.e., no information is lost in changing from one domain to another, and together lead to better understanding and insight. Most signals and processes involve both fast and slow components happening at the same time. In the time domain

Frequency

Amplitude

Relationship between Time and Frequency Domains

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Time and frequency domains together give insight and enhance communication. 14

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Control Electronics

Digital Control Systems

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(temporal) we measure how long something takes, whereas in the frequency domain (spectral) we measure how fast or slow it is. No one domain is always the best answer, so the ability to easily change domains is quite valuable and aids in communicating with other team members. BY KEVIN CRAIG A third domain, the modal domain (not discussed in detail here) is Kevin C. Craig, Ph.D., particularly valuable in analyzing the Robert C. Greenheck behavior of mechanical structures. It Chair in Engineering breaks down complicated structural Design & Professor of vibration problems into simple vibra- Mechanical Engineering, tion modes. Unique insight into the College of Engineering, Marquette University. use of the modal domain in mechatronic system design has been provided in the work of Dr. Adrian Rankers, manager of Mechatronics Technologies, Philips Applied Technologies. The time domain is a record of the response of a dynamic system as indicated by some measured parameter, as a function of time. More than 100 years ago, Jean Baptiste Fourier showed that any real-world signal can be broken down into a sum of sine waves and this combination of sine waves is unique. By picking the amplitudes, frequencies and phases of these sine waves, one can generate a waveform identical to the desired signal. To show how the time and frequency domains are the same, the figure shows three axes: time, amplitude and frequency. The time and amplitude axes are familiar from the time domain. The third axis, frequency, allows us to visually separate the sine waves that add to give us the complex waveform. Note that phase information is not represented here. If we can predict the response of a system to a sine wave input, i.e., the frequency response, then we can predict the response of the system to any real-world signal once we know the frequency spectrum of that signal. The system’s frequency-response curves are really a complete description of the system’s dynamic behavior. Engineers who can bridge gaps among disciplines and articulate complementary points of view clearly and insightfully will certainly have a competitive advantage. Visit the Mechatronics Zone for the latest mechatronics news, trends, technologies and applications: http://designnews. hotims.com/27735-517.

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) for general illumination applications have arrived. You may have heard about OLEDs before—in fact, the basic underlying technology dates back at least fifty years. Let’s begin with a review of the principles involved.

An important step in bringing this “OLED area light” technology to the commercial market occurred last month. OSRAM announced their “ORBEOS” product line. The first devices provide warm white light spread over a 50 cm2 circular area. No thermal management is required.

OLEDs are constructed from a stack of thin films. One or more of the layers in the stack contain organic electroluminescent material. Unlike traditional LED production which requires metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactors to “grow” layers of atoms onto semiconductor substrates, OLEDs can be fabricated by printing (albeit with highly specialized equipment) on large sheets. Furthermore, OLEDs are area emitters; if you think of a common LED as a point source, then OLEDs are 2-dimensional light sources.

Cary Eskow is director of LightSpeed, the solid state lighting and LED business unit of Avnet

There are two general applications of OLEDs today. Some are used as graphic displays, replacing LCDs. These types of OLED displays are typically small, often monochrome (amber and green are common), and eliminate the need for backlights unit used with LCDs. Some TVs use large color active-matrix OLEDs as well. Personally, I think the other application of OLEDs is much more interesting—as large 2-D light sources. The active layer of a white OLED is typically a sandwich of a transparent cathode material like indium tin oxide, then red, blue and green organic light-emitting polymers and a hole transport layer serving as an anode. The complete stack is so thin, that without a back reflector, OLEDs are transparent in the off state (see Figure 1).

Figure 2 – The OSRAM “ORBEOS” unit

Compared to LEDs, the luminous efficiency of OLEDs is rather modest, about 23 lm/W. It’s important to keep in mind however that these devices fill a different niche, and are complimentary with high-brightness LEDs optimized for spotlights and other point-source-oriented applications.

ardent advocate of energy

The most serious challenge with OLEDs today is lifetime. The blue organic polymers degrade more rapidly than red and green, thus over time their color temperature gradually shifts towards increasingly warmer white. A tremendous effort is being undertaken to find longer-lived polymers; private and government-sponsored research continues to push the limits. OSRAM specifies the L50 (time to half-brightness) for ORBEOS at 5,000 to 15,000 hours, depending on drive current.

analog IC and secondary

I will also tell you in advance that these first devices are not inexpensive—the target for the initial wave of commercial OLEDs is high-end (read “expensive”) luminaires and other products. Over the next two years, prices will drop, lifetimes will increase, and many form-factors will be available. Since high-volume printing is much less costly than MOCVD processing, eventually OLEDs may prove to be the least expensive light source per square foot, and certainly the most flexible.

“Illumineers,” experienced

Figure 1 – Two OLEDs fabricated onto glass panels – one is off, the other is on (Foreground unit is off and transparent, background unit is illuminating)

I believe white and colored OLED material will eventually be integrated into wallpaper, deposited on glass windows and laminated onto table tops and floor tiles. The room you are sitting in now probably has bright glaring downlight fixtures. Why not have the entire ceiling, wall, window or other surface simply fill the room with light?

Electronics Marketing. An

I’ve placed the preliminary datasheets on OSRAM’s ORBEOS family on the LightSpeed website, www.em.avnet.com/LightSpeed. It is a new device, so check with Avnet for availability (part number CDW-031). As always, feel free to send me your questions, comments or inquiries at LightSpeed@Avnet.com

efficient LED-based illumination, he has worked closely with LED manufacturers, advanced optics vendors since his first patent using LEDs was issued two decades ago. LightSpeed works with customers through their national team of illuminationfocused engineers called in thermal, drive stage and optics design. Prior to LightSpeed, Cary was Avnet’s technical director and managed Avnet’s North American FAE team. To submit questions or ideas, e-mail Cary at LightSpeed@Avnet.com

To learn more about designing an LED-based illumination system, go to:

www.em.avnet.com/LightSpeed

2-MINUTE REVIEW BY JON TITUS, CONTRIBUTING TECHNICAL EDITOR

LABRAT

EVALUATION PSoC 3 First Touch Starter Kit EASE OF SETUP: QUALITY AND CLARITY OF DOCUMENTATION:

Simplify PSoC Programming The PSoC Creator software lets deThe PSoC 3 First Touch Starter Kit lets velopers move functional analog and developers learn about the Cypress prodigital blocks into a design window. By grammable embedded system-on-chip, connecting these blocks you avoid writor PSoC. The PSoC 3 family provides ing low-level code to control devices. I a wide array of internal capabilities and moved a counter block into the workperipheral devices. But unlike most mispace and clicked on it to open a configcrocontrollers (MCUs), PSoC devices uration window that let me set start-up use internal programmable logic that connects — under developers’ control — and operating conditions. Each component links to a data sheet that explained devices such as counters, timers, DMA the component’s operation, I/O signals channels, ADCs and an 8051 core. The and application program innovative PSoC Creator interfaces (APIs), and insoftware simplifies system OUICK FACTS cluded sample code. design and programming, KIT NAME: PSoC 3 First I aimed to create an 8-bit and helps ensure success. Touch Starter Kit binary counter that would I enjoyed working with display its count on the this kit and except for the MAKER: Cypress Semiconductor eight LEDs. But I couldn’t lack of a workbook or figure out how to relate the manual for the PSoC CrePART NUMBER: building-block schematic ator tools, it rates highly. diagram with the code to If you want to concentrate CY8CKIT-003 do something useful. An on solving problems rather PSoC application person at Cythan becoming enmeshed COMPONENTS: 3 First Touch Board, press suggested I watch the in the details of compliUSB Cable, 9-V Battery, video: “101 Introduction cated functions and I/O Wire, Quick Start Guide, to the Architecture” that ports, I highly recommend CD-ROM, PSoC Creator included a simple example. the PSoC chips and the software, Kit Projects and Documentation. But Cypress doesn’t yet PSoC Creator software. have step-by-step tutoriIn addition to the PSoC PRICE: $49 U.S. als that explain how to do chip, the board includes things with the PSoC a touch sensor, proximURL: http://designnews. Creator software. ity sensor, eight LEDs, a hotims.com/27735-518 Later I talked with a thermistor, an accelerommember of the PSoC eter, a USB interface and a Creator team who walked me through a push button. The board communicates 4-bit counter. Based on his explanation, directly with a host PC through a stanI quickly extended the counter to 8 bits. dard USB cable. My longer online kit review includes an After I tested the board (it worked), I printed the “PSoC 3 First Touch Starter 8-bit-counter tutorial. Use that to start your own hardware and software work. Kit Guide” and installed the PSoC Developing an application still requires Creator, PSoC Programmer and four some C code, though. sample projects. For a more complete, in-depth, hands-on review and an exclusive tutorial, go to: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-519. 16

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OVERALL EXPERIENCE: MEETS EXPECTATION: WHO NEEDS THIS KIT:

Engineers and designers who want a microcontroller that lets them work with functional blocks and operations rather than details of C code. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

How the PSoC Creator software simpliﬁes the design of a programmable embedded system-on-chip. TIME TO COMPLETE TEST PROGRAM:

About an hour to set up and run a demo project. Several hours to complete my own design. PREREQUISITE SKILLS:

Experience with C-language programming. OVERALL EVALUATION: What we liked:

Ease of setup. PSoC Creator tool’s building-block and code generation. Online video tutorials. What we didn’t like:

Lack of tutorial workbook and documentation for PSoC Creator.

LABRAT RATING KEY Unacceptable

Very Good

Needs Work

Excellent

Good

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» designnews.com/sherlock

The Riddle of the Elusive Peanut Butter Property

BY ANDREW BERDING, CONTRIBUTING WRITER Have you applied your deductive reasoning and technical prowess to troubleshoot and solve an engineering mystery that even the fictional Sherlock would find most perplexing? Tell us about it in 600 words and we’ll pay you $100 if we publish your case. E-mail Karen Field at: kfield@reedbusiness.com

At designnews.com: The Adventure of the Squealing Pins An ASIC test board is failing, and with more than 4,000 mechanical contacts on it, ﬁngers are pointing at the hardware team. http://designnews. hotims.com/27735-520

Sign up for the newsletter for this blog and get every Sherlock adventure delivered directly to your desktop at http://reg.designnews.com/newsletter/ subscribe.

Many years ago I had a boss by the name of Dan Murphy. I often wondered if Murphy’s Law was named after him. (By the way, did you know that Murphy was an optimist?) Whenever an employee would go to him with a question (such as: “What happens if all logic outputs switch in the same direction at the same time?”), being a good manager he would habitually throw back the question to us with his own rhetorical question: “Well, what’s the dielectric constant of peanut butter?” This of course was frustrating. And annoying. And challenging. So I became determined to find out! As an experiment, I took a piece of copper-clad glass-epoxy board and made a transmission line by stretching a 12-inch piece of solid copper wire between a BNC connector and a ground post. Using a high-speed Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR), I carefully measured the transmission line’s characteristic impedance Zo and its propagation delay Td. For the second phase of the experiment I smeared the copper-clad glass-epoxy board, the BNC connector, the copper wire and the ground post with a whole jar of Skippy peanut butter (the smooth variety, of course — not the chunky style)! Then using the TDR, I carefully re-measured the characteristic impedance and the propagation delay of the peanut-butter-coated transmission line. Since the only thing that had changed between the two measurements was the peanut butter, I could now calculate the dielectric constant of the peanut butter with a couple of simple computations. Knowing that Zo = sqrt(L/C) and that Td = sqrt(L*C), I then found that C = Td / Zo. Therefore, since capacitance is proportional to dielectric constant, the elusive dielectric constant of peanut butter ƥpb = (Tdpb/Zopb) / (Tdair/Zoair).

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Then I wrote up the lab experiment in formal notation showing the various pieces of equipment used — their serial numbers, calibration dates, the “sell-by” date on the jar of Skippy peanut butter, raw data, calculations, photos of waveforms, results, significance of results, recommendations for follow-on experiments, etc. I even added a section on error analysis of results. Since the inductance L = Zo * Td, capacitance cancels out of the equation and Lair should be exactly equal to Lpb. Any differences can be used to determine possible measurement errors. Next time I went to see my boss and he replied to my question with his typical rhetorical question: “Well, what’s the dielectric constant of peanut butter?” I had an answer. I said: “I’m glad you asked.” And I produced the experimental setup and the formal lab report. Needless to say, being a good guy, he got a huge laugh out of it and complimented me on my “professionalism.” The peanut-butter-smeared experiment stayed on his desk for a couple of weeks then it migrated to the top of his bookcase for a couple of months before it got really nasty and rancid and began to grow a halfinch of gray fuzz. One day it disappeared — for good reason. He never asked that (or a similar) question again! By the way, in case you ever really need to know (and your job depends on it), the dielectric constant of Skippy smooth peanut butter is exactly 3.22! BSEE Andrew Berding is a serial entrepreneur, having founded six companies including Advanced Memory Systems (Intersil), and was a major participant in the founding of two others. He is an inventor with nine patents and has been a consultant to the industry for 30 years. You can reach him via our Sherlock Ohms blog comments at www.designnews. com/Sherlock.

What is the missing component?

Industry guru Forrest M. Mims III has created yet another stumper. The Ultra Simple Sensors Company assigned its engineering staff to design a circuit that would trigger an LED when a few millimeters of water is present in a basement or boat. What is the water sensor behind the puzzle piece? Go to www.Jameco.com/mystery5 to see if you are correct and while you are there, sign-up for our free full color catalog.

1-800-831-4242 | www.Jameco.com

T I Pfrom S

TITUS

Unbelievably useful info on data measurement, collection and analysis from the test expert

JON TITUS CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jon Titus, a former designer and chief editor of EDN and Test & Measurement World magazines, remembers when “fast” signals operated at 10 MHz and programs came on paper tape.

Nipping Noise in the Bud WHEN GOOD SHIELDING TECHNIQUES CANNOT KEEP

noise from affecting measurements, the following tips can help: • Use a spectrum analyzer to help identify noise frequencies and amplitudes. Look for harmonics of noise signals and line-power frequencies. This information can help you identify noise sources. • Separate digital and analog grounds. Use a single-point ground or cluster ground connections as close together as possible to eliminate ground loops. Do not cut off the earth ground (green wire) on a power plug or use a three-wire to two-wire power-outlet adapter to break a ground connection (see photo, below). If you cannot eliminate a ground loop, an isolation amplifier on your signal lines can help. • Suspect all connectors — even those from high-quality suppliers. Broken, highresistance or corroded ground connections cause problems and increase the noise on measurement signals. Do not mix high-power conductors and low-level signal conductors in the same cable or wire bundle. Separate measurement and control signals as much as possible. Check screw-terminal connections to ensure tight contact. Use high-quality cable and connectors. • Keep connectors clean. 3M’s Novec contact cleaner removes grease, silicones and dust, and the 407C audio/video head cleaner from MG Chemicals remove oil and dirt. Neither leaves a residue. • Switch-mode power supplies, motor controllers, electric welders and power-switching equipment can radiate noise. DischargeDo not remove an earth-ground connection or use a “ground” adapter to break a ground loop. Lack of this ground creates a safety hazard.

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lighting equipment and fluorescent-light ballasts can create radiated and conducted noise. You might need to replace old ballasts or install an in-line filter such as the Leviton XPF. • Use power-line EMI filters to attenuate noise conducted in and out of circuits. Some filters include a choke on the ground line to prevent it from conducting noise, too. I know of a portable-phone battery charger that caused considerable RFI over a wide area due to a faulty component and a poor design. • Look for coupling between measurement signals and electromagnetic devices such as motors, relay coils and SMPS transformers that have time-varying magnetic fields. Reorient signal leads perpendicular to magnetic fields or move wires away from these fields. • The electrolyte in aluminum capacitors used in power supplies can dry out and allow noise to pass through to sensitive measurement circuits. If you see line-frequency or SMPS switching noise, look for bad capacitors. It might cost less to replace a bad supply than its bad capacitors. • Look for slots in chassis and enclosures that can radiate RFI signals. If possible, decrease the slot width with conductive tape that connects to the conductive chassis. • Use wide-band ferrite cores, or ferrite noise suppressors, on signal cables to attenuate conducted RFI signals. For More

REFERENCES

information

1. “Field Wiring and Noise Considerations for Analog Signals,” http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-521 2. “Signal and Noise Measurement Techniques Using Magnetic Field Probes,” http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-522 3. “Electrolytic Capacitor Failure,” http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-523

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Learn how to simplify embedded design at ni.com/embedded

Enter xx ÂŠ2009 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. CompactRIO, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, at andwww.edn.com/info ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 2009-11041-305-101-D

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Leave Room for Serendipity Be open to it, it just might help you get the creative juices ﬂowing

Source: SMU

ometimes we are just too practical for our some real luck to make it all work out. own good. Maybe it’s our technical trainHere’s a recent example: I was organizing an ing that convinces engineers we really important conference wrapped around the chalcan control human variables, carefully lenge, “What will change everything.” I wanted planning nearly every aspect of our professional an object — something people could really and personal lives. hang their imaginations on — displayed on the But I have started to worry that we are becoming stage to capture the power of how a single idea too programmed. We are less open to serendipity can change the world. With just days until the than we used to be, and we just might be missing conference, it hits me: Why not get the podium out on a time-tested approach to invenused by President John F. Kennedy to tion. History is replete with examples of give his landmark “we go to the moon beakers accidentally spilling on the floor because it is hard” speech? and the next thing you know, some scienBig, hairy, audacious goal? Check. tist is stumbling onto Flubber. Crazy deadline? Check. What’s it going to take? Hard work and luck. The invention of the microwave oven Let me rip through the story. I have no is legendary: Percy LeBaron Spencer idea where to find this national treasure, discovered that the chocolate bar packed however, I am meeting with Anousheh in his clothing for a snack melted as he Geoffrey C. Orsak Ansari later that day. You’ve heard of was testing Anousheh — the first female space tourtechnology for a new radar system. The ist, and it’s her family behind the Ansari X-Prize. Can she help? Hmmm. Maybe. next thing you know, The next day I get an e-mail from the head we have a 750-lb procurator of the Fort Worth Museum of Science totype for the greatest who just happens to owe a favor to Anousheh. innovation in cooking His good friend is the curator at Space Center since fire. How does one go Houston, which apparently houses the podium looking for serendipin its archives. ity? You don’t — but I get him on the phone and he tells me that this you have to be in a national treasure has never been out on loan. But place where it can find then a crack of daylight emerges — he tells me that you. My approach is if it was to be loaned, it would take at least a $1 simple: Pick a day, pick million insurance policy. He probably thinks this a big hairy challenge, will shake me loose. pick a ridiculously Twenty-four hours later I am faxing the policy tight deadline and go to the museum. The art movers leave that morning for it. Stay with me for Houston. This picture is taken the following here: If the challenge day, from the edge of the stage at the conference. is big enough, I admit Luck? Innovative approach? Positive thinking? you are going to need Serendipity? Yes.

Photo from the stage at TEDxSMU, Oct. 10, 2009, Dallas, TX.

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Geoffrey C. Orsak is the Dean of the SMU Lyle School of Engineering. He can be reached at dean@lyle.smu.edu.

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INSIDE NEWS 29

Electronics

Materials & Fastening

Motion Control & Power Transmission

Software/Hardware

TRENDS BREAKTHROUGHS DEVELOPMENTS

NEWS

» ELECTRONICS IN THE LOOP The wind power industry is moving toward hardware-inthe-loop simulation, which is a good way to optimize embedded control systems before building the real thing. Page 29

» MATERIALS PUT YOUR MONEY ON DUPONT DuPont says it’s gearing up for a growth in demand of polyvinyl fluoride solar cells. Page 30

» MOTION CONTROL MEET THE DALLAS COWBOY’S NEWEST ACQUISITION The NFL team recently unveiled a new 600-ton video board hoist at its stadium. Page 31

» SOFTWARE/HARDWARE AUTODESK TAKES THE INITIATIVE Company President/CEO Carl Bass outlines Autodesk’s key technology initiatives during Autodesk University 2009. Page 32

Source: Ford Motor Co.

Ford stuck with the design of the Focus and eventually got high reliability in return. RELIABILITY

Eight Ways to Boost Product Reliability Engineers who study reliability offer their recommendations By Charles J. Murray, senior technical editor, electronics

Creating reliable products isn’t easy. If you don’t believe that, then consider North American automakers. In the past decade, GM and Chrysler have dedicated themselves to boosting quality. They’ve hired scores of full-time reliability engineers, many with Ph.D.s. Yet they’ve continued to play catch-up with the Japanese. The trouble is, reliability is a fast-moving, slippery target. In telecommunications design, for example, engineers have to allow for so-called “five nines” uptime, meaning that their equipment must work for all but five minutes per year. That even includes those minutes when maintenance workers are replacing circuit boards. If the engineers don’t accomplish that, their product is deemed a failure. Or consider the dilemma of automotive designers: Their products must run in temperatures ranging from -70F in Barrow, AK to 130F in the Arizona desert. They have to work while driving over gravel roads or washboard concrete. Worse, they have to operate reliably, even when they are poorly maintained by owners who seem oblivious to their D E S I G N N E W S J A N U A RY 2 0 1 0 [ w w w. d e s i g n n e w s . c o m ] 2 5

N EWS R ELI AB I LI T Y, C o n tinued

requirements. If the engineers don’t accomplish that, consumers complain. The bottom line is that design engineers have to know failure modes. They have to conjure up potential ways for users to abuse their products. They have to imagine ways for assemblers to misassemble their parts. “You hear people say, ‘This must be a Friday car,’” says Jake Fisher, senior automotive engineer for Consumer Reports. “Well, if you design it right, it shouldn’t matter what day it’s built on. You have to design it so it can only go together one way.” Here, we’ve collected recommendations from engineers who study reliability on a daily basis. We’ve also culled through some back issues of Design News and cited some strategies that have worked for engineering teams in the past. The following are a few of those strategies. 1. Don’t be too anxious to redesign good products. Earlier this year, Ford Motor Co.’s Focus and Fusion vehicles outperformed products from Toyota and Honda in Consumer Reports’ evaluations. How? Ford stuck with a model that was already competitive, then concentrated on its processes. Although the Focus has poor reliability in 2000, it got better every year. “Ford’s not redesigning them as fast as some of the other manufacturers are,” Fisher says. “When it comes to reliability, slow and steady often wins the race.” 2. Never assume anything is obvious. What appears to be obvious to a designer may not be so obvious on the factory floor.

When designers assume too much, products often get misassembled. “It’s hard for designers to imagine that everyone might not be thinking the same way they are,” says Paul Nickelsberg, president and CTO of Orchid Technologies, a consultant that specializes in electronic product design and development. “In actual fact, nothing is simple and obvious on the factory floor. The workers are not mind readers.” 3. Concentrate on perfect systems, not perfect components. After years of studying Japanese car makers, the Center for Automotive Research reached an amazing conclusion a few years ago: If you assume you’ll get better quality by demanding excruciatingly tight part tolerances, then you’re destined for second-class performance. High reliability, they learned, is dependent on perfect systems, not perfect components. “It’s counter-intuitive,” says David Cole, the Center’s chairman. “It doesn’t appear to make rational sense, but if you can build with repeatable, imperfect parts, you can solve a lot of quality problems at the systems level.” 4. Don’t pack more functionality into one button just because you can. The beauty — and the curse — of software is that it endows products with many capabilities. But users are often flummoxed by the multitude of features available in a single button or knob. As a result, they sometimes end up complaining that those buttons and knobs don’t work properly. “Today’s automotive cockpits are sleek looking,” Fisher says. “But

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they’ve replaced buttons with software, so the user has to go through a bunch of menus. Many consumers don’t like that.” 5. Know the appropriate standards. Especially in power systems design, standards are key. “In power electronics, there are standards that have to do with creepage, clearance, component ratings and de-ratings, and minimum distances between parts,” Nickelsberg says. “If you follow those, it could lead to other issues you haven’t thought of, and it could boost your reliability.” 6. Understand interaction failure modes. Mismatch two perfectly good components and you may create an unreliable system. If, for example, a starter motor lacks the necessary torque to start an engine, it will soon wear out. Why? Because longer cranking wears it out. Similarly, a car’s heavy glass window may reduce cabin noise, but it can also wear out the

power window motor regulator. The bottom line is that many components work fine by themselves, but they can cause problems if no one considers how they go together. 7. Track performance of all vendors. It’s not good enough to track the performance of your main suppliers, says Cole. You should also track your suppliers’ suppliers, as well. He recommends that manufacturers keep performance lists of all vendors, from tier-one on down. 8. Be aware of program timing. One of the biggest causes of poor reliability is missed schedules. Why? Because engineers who fall behind often find they don’t have enough time to fix potential problems. Are the dies on time? Are the sub-systems getting validated? Are system assemblies passing internal tests? If you don’t know the

Source: Ford Motor Co.

When it comes to the design of cockpit controls, simpler is better.

answers to those questions, reliability will suffer. See designnews.com for related content: • The art of system design: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-524 • Most reliable vehicles: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-525

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1-800-468-1516 • +1 715-294-2121 www.northwire.com/wind 28

» ELECTRONICS

Wind Power Industry Moves toward Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

By Karen Auguston Field, editorial director

A way to optimize embedded control systems before building the real thing

One big challenge plaguing wind power system design is that although it’s been around for nearly 25 years, it’s still very much a developing technology, particularly with the trend toward bigger capacity turbines in the 2-5 MW range and beyond. As a result, test periods are limited, and it is difficult and expensive to test and verify control algorithms on the real system. Following the lead of the auto industry, the wind turbine industry has begun moving toward adoption of hardware-inthe-loop (HIL) simulation as a method for real-time testing of embedded control systems during the development phase, says Chris Washington, National Instruments HIL and Real-Time Test Product Manager. “A major benefit of doing these simulations is that it allows design engineers to optimize the control system during the development stage, which is going to have a big impact on reliability,” he says. Moreover, he says, engineers can take exactly the same code that was used in the simulation and run it directly on the deployed target, saving time and effort in the design process. NI is currently partnering with a number of players in the wind turbine industry, including Siemens Wind Power. A manufacturer of wind turbines since 1980, Siemens Wind Power recently developed a HIL simulator for testing its wind turbine control system software. Washington says one of the secondary benefits of HIL simulation is the potential for it to allow design engineers of different backgrounds to work together more seamlessly. “One of the challenges with wind turbines is that there are so many different domains that you need to take into consideration — you have mechanical engineers and controls engineers and embedded engineers all working on these systems, which makes it really difficult to change things once you get to a certain point in the integration,” he says. “By combining these tools together, companies can now have all the design engineers working together during the development phase” The upshot? Better designs, and back to the original goal, more reliable wind turbines in the field.

To read a case study on Siemens Wind Power’s use of HIL for wind turbine control system software testing, go to http://design-

news.hotims.com/27735-526. For information on NI’s LabVIEW FPGA Module, go to http://www.ni.com/fpga/.

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» MATERIALS

DuPont Bets on the Future of PVF in Solar Cells Capacity will expand despite growing competition from new bio-based plastics

DuPont is building new capacity to make polyvinyl fluoride resin as part of a major corporate bet on the future of the photovoltaic market. Capacity to produce

Tedlar® PVF will be increased by more than 50 percent due to its increasing use to provide long-term durability as a back sheet of solar panels.

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PUMP AND COMPRESSOR SOLUTIONS FOR OEMS WORLDWIDE

Source: DuPont

By Doug Smock, contributing editor, materials and fastening

Polyvinyl ﬂuoride is expected to play a major role in solar cells due to its strength and weather resistance.

While installation of solar cells dipped in 2009 due to the weak economy, suppliers such as DuPont are gearing up for vigorous growth in demand. New installations provided about 5 GW in 2009 and are expected to grow to more than 17 million GW by 2013. Factors driving the growth are a push to reduce reliance on hydrocarbon fuels, the improving efficiencies (and economics) of photovoltaics and government subsidies. Construction for this phase of the Tedlar capacity expansion has begun for new monomer and resin facilities at DuPont sites in Louisville, KY and Fayetteville, NC, respectively. They are scheduled to open this year. “This investment supports the significant increase in the global market demand for clean, renewable energy,” says David B. Miller, group vice president, DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. DuPont says it expects overall sales of its family of products in the photovoltaic industry to exceed $1 billion by 2012. PVF films have been an important component of photovoltaic back sheets for more than 25 years because of their strength, weather resistance, ultraviolet resistance and moisture barrier properties. One of the ironies of PVF and most other plastic films used in solar cells, however, is that they are made, at least in part, from hydrocarbon feedstocks — the very material their use is intended to reduce. As a result, a veritable cottage industry has emerged to develop bio-based materials for photovoltaic applications, particularly back sheets. PLA is being tested for solar cell applications, but a small, start-up company in California has another, potentially more durable, candidate. BioSolar is now producing back sheets using plastics based on cotton cellulosics and castor-oil-based nylons. To learn more about BioSolar’s back sheets, see “Low-Cost Bioplastics Emerge for Solar Cells,” at http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-528.

» MOTION CONTROL

Dallas Cowboys Unveil New Video Board Hoist Networked automation lifts and lowers the 600 ton device

By Al Presher, contributing editor Automation and motion control play a pivotal role in raising and lowering the massive video board at the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium. The hoist system uses 24 cable drums, 80 7.5 hp motors, 40 ABB ACS800 drives and two master/follower networks to safely lift and position the 600-ton board. Thirty-two hoist drives lift the board, and eight stay cable drives keep it from swaying when the end zone doors and retractable roof are opened. ABB worked on the project with Uni-Systems, the OEM supplier of both the video board hoist and retractable roof. Brad Cobo, ABB’s Dallas District regional application engineer for low voltage drives, says the hoist is split into two groups of 16 drives to independently lift either end of the board and automatically keep it level. Within each group, one drive serves as the speed master and the other 15 drives operate as torque followers. Cobo says using a master-follower fiber optic network allows the system to share the load equally between all drives. The stay cable drives all operate in torque control mode to create and hold a specified amount of tension on the stay cables as the board moves up and down. The Siemens PLC in the system uses Profibus networking to provide each of the drives the same torque reference. Strict sequencing controls in the software guarantee each drive is ready before releasing the brakes. The software sets a low speed reference of just a few hertz which causes the drives to build torque. As actual torque values are

communicated back to the PLC, the program can confirm that the hoist drives are generating torque before releasing the brakes and increasing the speed reference. If any part of the system should malfunction, it automatically shuts down and sets the brakes. Uni-Systems selected ABB for the direct torque control feature of the ACS800 drives. Additional drives control the stadium’s retractable roof that consists of two panels, one on each side, that weigh about 1.68 million lb each and travel 215 ft on what is essentially railroad tracks. The roof can open and close in just under 12 minutes. Each panel uses 64 7.5 hp motors to generate about 800,000 lb of pulling force and move the panels up the 24-degree incline. The motors are powered by ABB ACS800-U11 line regen drives, and 32 motors driven by eight separate drives on each side of the panel. The line regen drives allow regenerative braking energy to be fed back to the utility instead of being wasted as heat through traditional dynamic braking resistors. They are connected using Profibus and a fiber optic network architecture to form a master/follower system similar to the hoist. The master drive receives a speed setpoint from the PLC, and the other seven drives get a torque setpoint from the master. For more information: • ABB ACS800 Drives: http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-527 • Siemens PLC: http://designnews.hotims. com/27735-511

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» SOFTWARE/HARDWARE

Autodesk CEO Describes Key Technology Initiatives As Web-based computing changes how engineers work, development efforts focus on analysis, access and collaboration

By Karen Auguston Field, editorial director “It’s clear the world is changing, and the way we do our work is changing.” That’s how Autodesk President and CEO Carl Bass kicked off the General Session at Autodesk University 2009, held in Las Vegas in December, noting design engineers are facing tremendous global competition and pressure to work more efficiently. More than 5,500 people attended the three-day, live event, along with 16,000 people from around the world who logged in to the first Virtual Autodesk University. “What can you do to stay competitive?” Bass asked the audience who had presumably come to do just that — by attending classes and hands-on training sessions from Autodesk instructors and experts. He noted although one of the best ways to be competitive is through the use of technology, that technologies go along a continuum — from impossible to impractical to possible to expected to required — and the right timing is the critical factor. Too early, it’s impractical, too late and, well, you’ve missed the boat. “If you think about it, the Newton was ahead of its time. And everybody knows about the Prius, but who remembers the EV1?” he asked. Get the timing just right, though, and you’ve hit the sweet spot. Bass noted CAD, too, traveled along this continuum from impossible in the 1960s to now 2D and even 3D being required. He outlined five new capabilities that are now moving into the sweet spot, aided in large part by the availability of cheap, Web-based computing that gives people access to their data virtually anywhere, anytime, and the complementary development efforts at Autodesk. The first capability Bass discussed is Exploration. “Design is all about looking at alternatives, but it often isn’t very practical. When people have to spend days or weeks exploring different solutions they won’t explore so many,” Bass said. With the ability to embed information, for example regarding the manufacturability of various parts, into the geometry, he said new tools are giving engineers constant feedback

on what actually can be built, winnowing down the number of options to a credible few for them to focus on. A second capability is Analysis, which Bass noted should be happening at every stage of the design process from concept to finished product. But it is often too onerous. New tools, he added, will help engineers generate and analyze hundreds of options in the same amount of time it now takes to analyze just one. “Ongoing analysis with real-time feedback about different aspects of the design will allow the user to explore the design space freely while respecting the parameters of the process,” he said. Storytelling is a third capability, said Bass, noting there is a story behind every creation and that visualization helps companies and design teams win support for a project. “We at Autodesk are researching new ways to help project teams by leveraging things like character technology developed for games and simulations that help engineers understand how people interact with a design,” he said. A fourth and increasingly important capability is Access, which Bass says Autodesk is committed to and is actively developing products for a range of platforms so that users can access their data and projects in multiple ways. “We’ve released several products for the Mac and are working on quite a few more,” he said. Notwithstanding the positive reaction from Apple fans, Bass said a nice side benefit of developing for multiple platforms is that you wind up with much more flexible technology that can be employed in new environments. Bass also described an initiative called Project Twitch, for which Autodesk is testing remote delivery of applications like AutoCAD and Inventor over the Web. “I am talking about the exact same software you are used to running on your desktop machine, but now it’s running on a machine that’s much more powerful.” He noted users can test drive it at Autodesk Labs online. Autodesk also has extended its Sketch-

book digital sketch product with an app for the iPhone called Sketchbook Mobile. Bass says the $3 app has been downloaded 1 million times, and people are using it in some unbelievably cool ways. “People used to sketch on napkins because they were readily available; now carrying around tools like this allows you to make a digital sketch anytime, anywhere and take these sketches and integrate them directly into your workflow,” he said.

“IT’S CLEAR THE WORLD IS CHANGING, AND THE WAY WE DO OUR WORK IS CHANGING” Autodesk President/CEO Carl Bass Collaboration is the fifth and final capability, and Bass concluded by saying Web-based computing opens up entirely new ways for engineers to work together, from enabling markups and edits that are shared with everyone in real time to multiple people marking up and editing at the same time. If that sounds slightly nightmarish, it does have the benefit of eliminating all those multiple versions of designs floating around. Of course, data must also be shared, and Autodesk is working on ways to route the information to all participants without the need for extra manual steps. Just in the way that Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools allow people to selectively follow what other people are doing that is of relevance, Autodesk is exploring this feature for applications in the design space. “Say you change something in your design and a message goes out to all team members automatically,” said Bass. “What this allows you to do is to focus on what really matters, which is better design.” • Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-529 • Project Twitch: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-530

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COVER STORY

Future SHOCK

An electro-hydraulic servo valve directly driven by a linear force motor is at the core of Cannondale’s revolutionary new active suspension system

STORY_KAREN FIELD, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

AT THE INTERBIKE 2009 SHOW IN SEPTEMBER, CANNONDALE UNVEILED

the design for a new active suspension system quite unlike anything else in the mountain bike world. Though not officially on the market yet, the system, called Simon, is designed to automatically react to impacts and vibrations — even before a rider feels them in the handlebars. A drawback of suspension systems with a fixed damping rate is that they force the rider to balance the need to absorb impacts against the need to control the bike by smoothing out accelerations on the seat and handlebars. But common wisdom in the industry was that a fully active suspension was the Holy Grail — a long way off, at best. In fact, in the summer of 2006, a chief designer at a competitor forecasted the possibility of an electronically controlled suspension — within 20 years. Meanwhile, Cannondale and its partner Enfield Technologies had secretly made a fully functioning prototype of just such a technology. What sets Cannondale’s real-time damping system apart is that it incorporates a series of sensors to monitor the ride conditions and adjusts specific damping on-thefly based not only on fork velocity and position, but also impact and rider inputs such as weight. In all, Simon offers more than 10,000 combinations of damping profiles. Matt Timmerman, a former professional mountain bike racer and now an engineer at Cannondale, has tested Simon and is enthusiastic about its potential. “In downhill racing I’ve experienced the shortcomings with other suspension systems. My reaction here was ‘Wow, this is really exciting.’ When you hit something really fast, you have a tiny displacement, and you basically want the damping to open up and not provide too much resistance,” Timmerman explains. “But when you hit something and retain shaft velocity — like jumping off a ledge — you don’t want the valve to open up as you’ll go flying through all your available travel. You want some resistance. So even though shaft velocity is the same, damping requirements are not.” Given the thousands of different terrain responses and the fact that Ed Howe, President and CEO of Enﬁeld Technologies, took Simon out for a recent test drive, declaring the technology ideal for riding the petriﬁed oatmeal Canadian roads he took a pounding on a decade ago while on a 980-mile bike tour. Photo: Steve Edson/Getty Images

even little washboard bumps require lots of processing and valve activity, the design effort wasn’t trivial. Moreover, engineers had to figure out how to fit the entire system inside the narrow confines of Cannondale’s Lefty Headshok fork tube, with a 36.5 mm outer diameter and 90.0 mm length. Five years in development — actually make that 12 years if you count back to when Cannondale first patented a concept for an active suspension (U.S. Patent 5,971,116) — the technology was brought to life by Cannondale Design Engineer Stanley Song and a team of engineers at Enfield Technologies headed up by Principal Engineer Dan Cook. Song first contacted EnfieldTech in 2006, because of the company’s expertise in proportional servo valves and control/drive electronics primarily for industrial markets.

“When we first got the call, Stanley was having some difficulty describing what he was interested in doing without giving away his project,” recalls George Haithwaite, VP sales & applications engineering, EnfieldTech. “We had a very broad discussion about whether we could come on board as a technology partner to develop an electro-mechanical suspension system. I am also a mountain biker, so fortunately it was an application that I actually knew quite a bit about.” How Simon Works

In a suspension system, a spring absorbs the energy from a force input (like hitting a pot hole or rock) and a damper controls how the energy is dissipated. As the spring shock of the bike compresses or rebounds on impact, oil is forced through

Simon’s Simulations 0.14

2,500

DamperPosRel2Frame (m)

0.12

SuspensionAccel (m/s^2)

2,000

0.10

1,500

0.08

1,000

RiderAccel (m/s^2)

500

0.06

0.04

-500

0.02

-1,000

0 0

-1,500 0

0.25 TerrainHeight

0.20

RiderHeight (m)

0.15

0.10 0.05 0 -0.05 -0.10 -0.15 0

SuspensionAccel (m/s^2)

100 80 60 40 20 0 -20 -40 -60 -80 -100

RiderAccel (m/s^2)

6,000 ActiveDamperRequest (N-s/m)

5,000

4,000

bumpy terrain by incorporating a non-linear stiffener toward the end of the fork’s travel to preclude bottoming out, by sending a signal to the valve to close down and dramatically increase damping. The system also responds to acceleration sensor inputs such that impulse inputs from the terrain back off of the damping dependent on the magnitude of the impact.

3,000 2,000 1,000 0 0

The set of five plots here show the results of simulations conducted using a mathematical model based on first principles and a pseudo-active suspension controller over a simulated terrain that includes a steady rise of 20 cm followed by a steep drop, then several bumps, and finishing with a 1-inch ledge. Plot 1 shows the damper position relative to the frame, and Plot 2 shows the rider position relative to the frame. While it may not be obvious from the plots that there is an improvement by using an active system, the parameters that engineers wish to control for are dynamic response to terrain and adequate stiffness for pedaling. The controller allows for a softer feel on

Plot 3 shows the forces requested by the system to manage the damper relative to the frame. It is important to note how even little bumps require lots of valve activity. It simply isn’t possible for a rider to turn a manual knob that quickly and accurately, or even have the information to decide on the settings. Plots 4 and 5 show the acceleration of the suspension vs. the acceleration of the rider (5 shows the detail of the small moves). Note two large accelerations from the terrain during the fall and ledge. The wheel and fork experience huge accelerations (2,000 m/s2) for the rock. Once the suspension does its job, the rider only experiences approximately 2 g’s, a comfortable experience for a rider when the impulse is of short duration. D E S I G N N E W S J A N U A RY 2 0 1 0 [ w w w. d e s i g n n e w s . c o m ] 3 5

COVER STORY

High Speed Microcomputer

The system accommodates temperature-related changes EFCS Body in viscosity both mechanically Magazine and electronically by directly Linear Force Motor measuring temperature and incorporating this into the valve control algorithm. High Bandwidth EFCS Precision Valve Aperture Sensor When the damping fluid exMechanism pands due to the temperature rise caused by the energy conOuter Fluid Path version, a pre-charged, spring (to top damper chamber) piston apparatus inside the Inner Fluid Path damping chamber expands to (to bottom damper chamber) accommodate the additional Damper Stem volume. A temperature-independent encoder on the fork Valve response time from closed to fully open on the selfcontained, ﬂuid control system is approximately 8 ms; all delivers velocity and position moving parts are completely immersed in dense oil. information to the master damping control algorithm. Of considerable concern to Linear Motor Delivers High Force engineers was the fact that the valve body is itself a structural The precision valve is directly driven by a high-speed, linearmember required to withstand forces up to 1,000 lb. Engiforce motor, which is a permanent-magnet motor consisting neers addressed this concern by maximizing the strengthof a floating coil and set of high-energy, rare-earth magnets. to-weight ratio of the materials. They selected AL7075 and “Overall we needed a low-mass, high-force, extremely fast, linear electro-magnetic actuator that could generate the high- conducted a stress analysis in concert with internal component design to ensure stress points were identified early on and est forces in the smallest space,” says Cook. “We chose this managed. Once the first design freeze was reached, prototype motor over a typical solenoid because the force-to-mass ratio bodies were manufactured and a tensile stress rig designed and is high, the linearity of force versus position and current is used to conduct physical testing to achieve maximum confibetter, and the moving mass is low to dissuade impacts from dence in the body design. affecting valve position, as it’s vertically oriented.” Cost has been a concern all along the way, says Cook, notThe static field motor housing employs radial magnet seging that a custom servo valve for a comparable aerospace apments that allow for a more intense field strength while at the plication can run several thousand dollars, which is close to same time not increasing the valve OD, which was a major design constraint. The coil was also encased in aluminum to assist the entire cost of a high-end bicycle. Due to time constraints and limited volume, as well as the in mechanical rigidity while enhancing dynamic performance. materials, engineers decided it was beneficial to design comPower was a major concern, as the requirements called for ponents for CNC machining centers. Additional tooling costs eight hours run time on a 14.8V/2,600 mA-hr lithium-ionwere eliminated by working with the vendor of the rare earth cobalt battery. “A rider isn’t going to want his battery to die magnet to design toward materials and dimensions with existin an hour,” says Cook. “Our design consumes less than 1W ing tooling. The internal design meets all of the design requirecontinuously, compared to 11W to hold open our off-thements while making the assembly operation a simple, cartridgeshelf industrial valve. Small solenoids are typically 3 to 4W.” The valve incorporates a light-force spring to force the valve type insert — thereby reducing assembly time by 90 percent. Cannondale has been cagey on the topic of when Simon will closed upon loss of power. Rather than using a mechanical hit the market, though VP of R&D Peck is positive about the spring, which would degrade battery life since a constant curdesign efforts on the tricky fluid control system thus far. “It’s at rent is required to maintain valve position, engineers used the the heart of Simon, as the fork’s performance hinges on the speed existing magnetic components to effect a magnetic spring. Using as many off-the-shelf components as possible to avoid and precision of fluid flow, “ he says. “EnfieldTech delivered an electro-hydraulic control valve that surpassed our requirements. cost and risk, EnfieldTech engineers incorporated the best Several standard deviations above the mean when it comes features from existing valve designs and combined them with to testing in an industry that’s obsessed with it, Cannondale is a precision-manufactured, annular sliding gate to manage the size of the aperture. The design provides infinitely variable and currently doing field evaluations with the elite teams it sponsors. The feedback will help engineers tweak the design and linear proportionality with near-zero hysteresis. nail the performance, pricing and competitive positioning. Using the magnetic spring as a target, the temperaturecompensated Hall Effect sensor independently monitors the valve stem position so its accuracy is not affected by fluid • To see a block diagram and photo gallery, and listen to former mountain bike professional Matt Timmerman talk about Simon go temperature inside the valve. However, since fluid viscosity to: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-531. is dependent on temperature and viscosity affects differen• For more information on EnfieldTech’s servo valves and control/ tial pressure and therefore damping rate, temperature is a drive electronics, go to: www.enfieldtech.com. critical variable in the valve control algorithm. apertures in a valve and piston assembly. Since how quickly the spring shock is allowed to compress or rebound is directly proportional to the viscosity of the fluid, the size of the restriction and the velocity of the piston, Cook and his team integrated a highprecision, electro-hydraulic servo valve inside the fork tube. The servo valve is actively changing the aperture opening (and therefore fluid flow rates) every 5 μsec with a resolution of 0.01 mm based on an algorithm that calculates the required response using recent rider data, a series of integrated sensors and ride map variables.

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We’re always working to understand your business. That’s why we’re changing ours.

Stephanie A. Burns, Ph.D. Chairman, President and CEO Dow Corning Corporation

“A spirit of innovation and passion for solving customer problems has always set Dow Corning apart. So as we enhance our global Dow Corning ® brand, keep counting on us for smart solutions to your biggest challenges. Through our collaborative, proven process, we can deliver custom silicon-based solutions like no one else. And it’s this kind of working partnership that we’re focusing on now more than ever with Dow Corning branded products and services.”

“Your needs for more options and convenience led us to develop the XIAMETER® brand, a more ef¿cient way to buy standard silicones directly. Through this innovative online model, you still get Dow Corning quality and reliability at market-based prices. Now we’ve expanded the XIAMETER brand to offer you more standard silicones, volume alternatives, and the option to order through your distributor. It’s another way we’re changing to give you more options and value.”

See how we’re changing to better meet your needs at dowcorning.com/transform

Dow Corning is a registered trademark of Dow Corning Corporation. We help you invent the future is a trademark of Dow Corning Corporation. XIAMETER is a registered trademark of Dow Corning Corporation. ©2009 Dow Corning Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Reasons to Specify Bishop-Wisecarver ” 1. We invented guide wheel technology. Nobody knows it like we do. 2. Material and drive options to excel in any environment. 3. Our accessory options simplify your gantry design. 4. Motor mounts available to fit any manufacturer’s motor or gearbox within 5 days. 5. Our design support, 3D CAD, and FEA tools save you time and money. 6. Custom designs and assemblies are our unique ability; we’re an extension of you. 7. Freedom to realize your engineering potential and design outside-the-box.

“Call or visit us online today and discover how our world-class engineering and manufacturing team can turn your application into a linear motion success.”

Belt, Lead/Ball Screw and Chain Driven Options

Complete Gantry Systems

Ariel Oriel, Bishop-Wisecarver Applications Engineer arielo@bwc.com

888.580.8272 www.bwc.com

Solar Nears

TIPPING POINT STORY_AL PRESHER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Source: Beckhoff Automation

OLAR CELL MANUFACTURING PROCESSES ARE BENEFITING FROM NEW MOTION CONTROL AND AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGIES

that are delivering higher efficiencies and sustainable quality. “We have seen a huge investment in the development of solar products over the last five years,” says Joe Campbell, vice president of marketing and sales for ABB Robotics. “A lot of these products are either coming into the pilot manufacturing stage or are starting to accelerate in volumes. More than ever, there is a lot of interest and activity in automating the whole process.” Campbell says cost is a bigger issue than it ever has been as the solar industry is starting to approach the tipping point where the cost comes down and solar becomes mainstream and economically viable, which he believes will put further pressure on the manufacturing process. “What we see with solar cell manufacturing is that a lot of the processes are much better understood and well-characterized,” says Campbell. “Typically what that means is that the pace of automation deployment will go up. Risk is out and costs are starting to come down.” Solar products, whether they are photovoltaic or concentrator technology, are requiring automated manufacturing processes. A second wave of automation is being applied to components such as frames, structure and the mechanical building blocks around the cell. Campbell says it is also interesting to watch the U.S. manufacturers who are very concerned about how their manufacturing footprint is going to extend globally. They are all thinking global footprint because they know that to be a major player they need to manufacture on at least three continents. A key development for ABB is the introduction of its smallest-ever multipurpose robot, the IRB 120. The new six-axis robot has all the functionality and advanced design features of ABB’s larger robots in an economical, lightweight model that will provide agility, accuracy and speed to a broad range of applications where a smaller footprint and profile are required. The robot weighs only 55 lb, so it can be easily mounted in a variety of configurations. Campbell says the IRB 120 is a unique combination of a very small footprint and an efficient work envelope that is easily embedded inside other process machinery. Most of the applications for the 120 are embedded in other process equipment, wafer handling and placement equipment, or in

Sou

rce:

Aero

tech

Aerotech’s specialized SolarScribe scan axis uses multiple linear motor drives to maximize throughput and minimize downtime.

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MOTION CONTROL

Addressing Technology Imperfections

According to Joe Ottenhof, general manager for Beckhoff Canada, motion control and automation technologies are making a big difference in areas where solar cell production is still labor-intensive or where manufacturing now includes non-traditional components such as quality inspection. He says many new manufacturing lines are incorporating 100 percent “in situ” quality inspections using nondestructive testing (NDT) and vision systems instead of doing a sampling product or offline inspection of wafers. That requires high-powered control systems because typically the control system has been involved with the handling and manufacturing of the cell itself, and other more data-intensive tasks were handled offline. “The whole trend to doing operations ‘in situ’ is to address the fact that this is not a perfect technology. By being able to do the quality online 100 percent inspections, manufacturers have an opportunity to ‘grade’ the product according to its quality level. The quality level of the product determines its selling price,” says Ottenhof. One solar cell manufacturer does “virtual tracking” through its motion control system on every wafer produced. Hundreds of thousands of wafers a day are tracked using the encoder counts from the servomotors in the system. So if at any manufacturing point a test is done on a wafer, the data system knows that the wafer at position X in carriage 23, silicon wafer 4, has a certain quality level. The goal is to collect data on every wafer at virtually hundreds of positions through the manufacturing process, and create a Source: Adept Robotics record of all its quality Vision processing for solar cell applicacharacteristics. Cells tions is advancing and is increasingly being used with robotic handling to quickly are degraded or rejected if they don’t pass locate and orient solar cells. certain quality parameters. But also from a tracking perspective, it is a manufacturing differentiator to be able to go back and analyze issues that may develop after field testing and installation. Being able to go back not only to a panel but to an actual solar cell within an installed panel allows solar cell manufacturers to know with a great degree of confidence that they have a well-defined process. Robotics and Vision Advance

“One very important and established trend in solar cell manufacturing is companies moving from manual labor to automated technologies,” says Hai Chang, director, Solar Industry Business for Adept Technology Inc. 40

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Source: ABB Robotics

a dedicated cell that is going to do interconnect placement and soldering. Designed with the solar photovoltaic (PV) cell and module manufacturing industry in mind, the IRB 120 is targeting applications such as string assembly, wafer handling and wafer sorting, providing more flexibility than Scara Robots often used for these functions.

The focus on reducing solar cell manufacturing costs has resulted in a second wave of automation applied to components around the cell.

Chang says that Asian manufacturers in particular are now recognizing the importance of automation and following the best practices of Western manufacturers as a way to lower overall costs by reducing wafer breakage and increasing yields. Chang says Adept’s Quattro s650H robot is extremely fast, but you are never going to be able to handle solar cells as fast as you can handle chocolate, food or other smaller, less delicate items. Even so, breakage rates at customer sites have been reported to be less than 0.03 percent, compared to breakage rates of 1 to 3 percent with manual handling That may be one reason why one trend in robotics technology is smoother handling. Precise control over acceleration/ deceleration rates and the rate of change of those accelerations and the use of S-curve algorithms allow users to fully optimize all motions for maximum speed and smoothness while carrying the delicate wafers. Todd Reynolds, an applications engineer for Adept, says that when you are carrying a wafer, it essentially acts like a very small, delicate wing. The goal is to minimize the stress and deflection of the wafer while maintaining speed. Optimization requires a trade-off of these two variables. Reynolds says that vision processing for solar cell applications is also continuing to advance and is increasingly being used with robotic handling to quickly locate and orient solar cells before placing them into loading trays or nests. When trays and nests are loaded into PECVD equipment, for example, there is often less than 1 mm of spacing between the product and the edges of the nest they are placed into. Without the use of integrated vision-guidance technology, wafers can be damaged as they are placed. As vision technology continues to advance and faster algorithms are developed, Reynolds says he believes the advances can boost throughput, and applications incorporate more numerous and increasingly complex inspections. “With a single image we can define the wafer’s location and orientation and run some simple inspections such as checking for edge/corner chips, cracks, breaks and physical dimensions before handling,” he says. Modern vision inspection technology also creates greater consistency compared to manual inspection elsewhere in the line and helps eliminate the subjective judgment of human operators while performing quality inspections. Hue inspection of anti-reflective coatings on silicon cells is an example of an operation that is still commonly performed using manual inspection with a chart that includes a range of acceptable hues. It is a perfect example of where machine vision delivers a superior solution.

MOTION CONTROL Better Feature Geometry, Repeatability

According to John Lindell, product manager for Aerotech’s photovoltaics product line, the trends in solar cell manufacturing are continuous improvement in application of materials, better feature geometry and better overall process control. Instead of a “throw it away” mentality, the focus is finer and straighter features over the length of the panel and how to squeak out that last little bit of power. An example of improving throughput is the SolarScribe, a device for selectively and precisely removing material from solar panels that have had individual layers applied. With the move to thin film coatings applied on photovoltaics, each layer is laid down and scribed. Lindell says an important technology that boosts throughput is referred to as a split axis system. One axis down below moves the panel back and forth, and a separate axis mounted to a bridge up above carries multiple laser scribe heads. As the panel passes underneath, the lasers turn on and scribe those materials. “The split axis arrangement lowers the moving mass of the scan axis, which means we can go faster,” says Lindell. Typically incorporating four or more scribe heads, the split axis configuration provides much higher throughput because the number of passes the panel makes to create all of the required scribe lines is much less. The reduced number of motions per panel also helps increase the life and lower manufacturing costs. Beyond lowering the moving mass, the split axis arrangement produces scribe lines which are now only dependent on the dynamic straightness of the bottom axis. With a traditional stacked XY system, the load is offset, and accelerating and decelerating

affects straightness. But by splitting the two axes, operation is very repeatable and produces lines that are straight and parallel. Another significant technology in these systems is direct drive solutions using linear motors. Applications for scribing devices are often accelerating at 5g’s and moving at 2.5 m/sec in plants that operate 24/7 which puts high requirements on the motion system. Lindell says the use of the linear motors is important to get the speed and trouble-free long life desired when systems are moving masses which can be on the order of 50 kg. Another key advantage is that the linear motors can be stacked together in parallel where other solutions would require a bigger, heavier, higher horsepower motor. Because linear motors are direct drive and non-contact, and typically the encoders used are also non-contact, the only mechanical contacts are the mechanical bearing rails. The result is very good dynamic straightness and dynamic straightness repeatability.

Related Webcast:

Motion Control/Automation Solutions for Solar Cell Manufacturing In this Design News webcast, design engineers will gain insight into how manufacturers in one of the hottest and fastest-growing technology areas today are leveraging the latest precision motion control technologies, robotics, networked automation inspection stations and automation solutions to make more units at a lower cost. This webcast will be available at www.designnews.com starting Jan. 25.

Our innovative electric systems are being used to upgrade gas spring and manual operations, and due to their simplicity and state of the art designs, are rapidly replacing hydraulic and pneumatic systems. LINAK has a selection of reliable actuators to provide your application the movement you desire.

Visit our website for our complete product range: www.linak.com

LINAK U.S. IInc. n • North and Sou nc. South outh American Headqu Headquarters • 2200 Stanley Gault Parkway Louisville, KY 40223 • P. 502 253 5595 • F. 502 253 5596 • info@linak-us.com

Avoid Accidents!

Carr Lane’s New Toggle Clamps Provide Safety Locks

Knobs, Handles, Hand Wheels. Need to take hold? A variety of industrial knobs, handles and hand wheels, in metal or plastic, are available from Carr Lane. Many new items in our online catalog. Carr Lane Mfg. Co., www.carrlane.com

Vertical-Handle Toggle Clamps 500 to 1000 lbs holding capacity CL-350-LVTC CL-450-LVTC CL-550-LVTC CL-650-LVTC CL-750-LVTC CL-850-LVTC

Latch-Action Toggle Clamps 360 to 7500 lbs holding capacity CL-100-LPA CL-200-LPA CL-300-LPA CL-400-LPA CL-500-LPA

Horizontal-Handle Toggle Clamps 500 to 750 lbs holding capacity CL-450-LHTC CL-550-LHTC

Quick Release Pins. Carr Lane pins come with L, T, button or ring handles. Choose from ball lock pins, lifting pins, detent pins, or the ball lock mounting clamp. Many sizes available. Carr Lane Mfg. Co., www.carrlane.com

MADE IN USA

Push / Pull Toggle Clamps 300 to 2500 lbs holding capacity CL-100-LPC CL-200-LPC CL-300-LPC CL-100-LSPC CL-350-LSPC

Visit the online catalog at carrlane.com. Go to New Items, then Toggle Clamps to see these new clamps.

Get added safety in your shop! New toggle clamps with safety locks come in four types: latch-action, vertical-handle, horizontal-handle, and push/pull toggle clamps. The safety lock automatically engages when the clamp is closed, then remains locked until manually disengaged by pressing the lever before opening. This prevents the clamp from being accidentally opened by bumping the handle.

Hoist Rings. What an assortment! Pivoting, swivel, and side-pull swivel hoist rings, along with lifting eyes. Choose from low profile versions to heavy-duty, extra large hoist rings with load capacities up to 250,000 lbs. Carr Lane Mfg. Co., www.carrlane.com

Carr Lane provides dozens of different types of toggle clamps, all with a comfortable handle grip, and made of durable high-grade steel (many also available in stainless steel). Find out more about locking versions. Click on the “New Items” tab in the online catalog at www.carrlane.com.

MANUFACTURING CO.

4200 Carr Lane Ct., P.O. Box 191970 St. Louis, Missouri 63119-7970 Phone: 314-647-6200, FAX: 314-647-5736 Web Site: www.carrlane.com ISO 9001-2008 CERTIFIED R

CRAM session STORY_ F R A N K L I N F L I N T, DELL OEM SOLUTIONS

Franklin Flint is a systems consultant and technology evangelist in the Advanced Systems Group supporting Dell OEM Industry Solutions.

Three Bugaboos to Avoid When Designing a PC into Your Application By doing a little upfront thinking about form factor, reliability and the supply chain, you can save yourself headaches later in the design process

or more than eight years I have been working with designers and product managers in choosing, developing and managing PC hardware platforms that get built into larger solutions. These often take the form of embedded hardware, integrated standalone computing platforms or appliance-style hardware running an embedded single-purpose application. It is surprisingly common for the designers of these solutions to run into some problems due to lack of planning or misguided expectations concerning several aspects of the design not directly related to the features and capabilities of the PC hardware itself. These three common “gotchas” so often show up too late to affordably get past and remain on deadline: • Planning for the PC form factor that best fits your requirement. • Considering the reliability options available to the solution. • Taking into account the long-term consistent supply of the PC hardware.

will sit on or under a desk in a typical working environment, nearly any standard form factor will get the job done. If embedding the PC into a chassis for a larger machine, in tight spaces or with specific mounting requirements, then the form factor plays a major role in the decision process. Common Off The Shelf (COTS) computer enclosures can vary widely, but the form factor you choose also limits the capabilities of the unit, including the performance of the CPU, amount of RAM, number and size of the hard drives, number and size of PCIe expansion slots, quantity of I/O ports and the size and number of the power supplies. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have seen design engineers get very frustrated with their lack of choices in embedded PC systems due to the fact they designed the enclosure destined to be filled with an embedded PC without planning ahead for the required system. I will get a list of very specific features which often cannot be provided in the physical or reliability limitations predetermined by the chassis accepting the PC. In those cases, the requirements need to be altered, the chassis needs to be modified or a system must be designed from scratch and built by an ODM — all of which are usually considered far from ideal. Reliability

Form Factor

An often overlooked yet critical aspect for choosing a system is taking into account where the unit(s) will be installed. If the PC 44

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Sometimes designers don’t know about or forget about the reliability features offered in many PC products. While not the absolute rule, it is generally accepted that highly engi-

neered, tested, qualified and mass-produced professional-class PC platforms sold by a large scale Tier-1 manufacturer are going to be more reliable over the long haul to similar platforms assembled from bits and pieces at the same price point. But does that mean the only way to achieve high reliability is to buy from one of the handful of top-tier PC manufacturers? Probably not, but achieving the same reliability achieved by the top systems manufacturers could require significant testing and development resources and an involved QA process that can provide the level of regression and failure analysis testing that most companies not already in the PC business are willing or able to invest in. It makes sense to at least consider mass-produced PCs to ensure reliability, serviceability and troubleshooting capabilities. Choosing the right components for a PC system can help increase reliability. Items like Solid State hard Drives (SSDs) can vastly improve the reliability of a PC during its useful life, but there are a ton of caveats with SSDs to consider. Flash memory has a known fixed write limit. After a specific number of writes to the same bit cell, the cell will fail and eventually enough will have failed for the drive to be useless. If the application your solution uses will be constantly writing to disk 24/7, then a SSD may be a less than ideal solution. In this case, the type of SSD you choose can become extremely important. One can also choose a platform with built-in reliability enhancers that address the potential failure of certain technologies common in most PCs like power supplies, fans, traditional hard drives and other components. Options such as redundant and hot-pluggable power supplies may appear to be a simple solution, but are not extremely common, will cost more and require more physical volume to implement. There are several reliability options which are commonly offered on certain COTS platforms: • Redundant Power Supplies • Hot Plug Power Supplies • RAID-Enabled Hard Drives • Hot Plug Hard Drives • Redundant and/or Hot Plug Cooling Fans • Hardware System Management for hardware status, failure alerts and predictive failure alerts. These features can bring better reliability when the uptime of the application running on the PC is critical to the overall solution. When application uptime is critical, there are even more comprehensive solutions such as hardware clustering, distributed computing and virtualization which can provide up to 99.999 percent uptime. These solutions are typically very costly and require extensive development time. Consistent Supply

Another often overlooked aspect of hardware choice is the life cycle consistency of the hardware. Once you choose a PC platform, ask yourself: • How long does that core platform need to be available

for purchase? • Can your solution run on that platform if any single component changes? • What is the impact on the solution when the platform does need to change? We have all seen the wild advancement of PC technology over the past several decades, and the pace of change hasn’t slowed in recent years. A PC purchased two years ago is often considered a relic and the parts that made up that PC are likely not available today. It is possible to get a PC platform that can be purchased today and not experience any change to that platform for up to 30 months. However, it takes a massive logistical effort to ensure the supply of parts is reliable and consistent. Be sure to discuss change management with your suppliers before committing to a PC platform. While maintaining the supply of a consistent platform is very important during its life cycle, one must also consider what the impact of switching to a new platform when the old one is discontinued. All platforms will be discontinued at some point. Extending the availability beyond the point where the components are being manufactured can be very costly, because those parts will have to be purchased based on your forecasts and stored somewhere until needed. It is most often advantageous to move to the next generation platform when it comes out. Planning in advance to move to a new PC platform is critical to the design process. Life cycle management is critical and should never be ignored, as many companies are caught offguard when their platform is unexpectedly discontinued and they have to transition to a new platform. Ultimately, a designer can get whatever they want in a PC platform if they are willing to pay any price to get it. However, maintaining the lowest possible cost is very often a high priority in most companies’ solutions. If a designer can plan accordingly and not skip straight to the basic features and capabilities requirements of their PC platform, they can reduce costs, improve reliability and get the longest shipping life with the fewest changes. For more information: • Franklin Flint’s OEM Whitepapers: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-541 • Case studies, white papers and product information for OEMs: www.dell.com/oem • Follow Flint’s blog at Direct2Dell: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-542 Design News’ new Cram Session articles are short tutorials contributed by engineers that provide information on technical topics that are highly useful to design engineers. If you would like to submit an article, please visit our website to review our submission guidelines at http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-543 or e-mail Editorial Director Karen Field at kﬁeld@reedbusiness.com.

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BEST OF THE ENGINEERING MARKETPLACE 46

E l e c t ro n i c s

Fluid Power

Materials/Fastening

M o t i o n C o n t ro l

Compiled by Elizabeth M. Taurasi

ELECTRONICS

CIT’S RT SERIES ILLUMINATED PUSH-BUTTON SWITCH With 10 standard legend choices CIT Relay & Switch’s RT Series switch offers latching or momentary switch function and soft, silent actuation. This versatile, illuminated pushbutton switch offers six choices of single LED colors plus six dual-LED color choices including blue and white. Three cap styles are available in numerous colors with semi-transparent, transparent and opaque styles. Electrical rating is 100 mA @ 30V dc, electrical life is 300,000 cycles, contact resistance is <50m maximum, and dielectric strength is 250 Vrms minimum with insulation resistance of >100m minimum. Actuation force is 160 ± 50 gF and travel is 1.4 ± .2 mm. Operating and storage temperature is -40 to 85C.

Vent honeycomb panels are a solution for controlling unwanted release of RF interference through ventilation holes when designing an electronic enclosure. TechVent shielding panels are shipped from the factory completely assembled and ready to install, reducing OEM manufacturing costs and lead times. The rigid aluminum vent frame is available in multiple thicknesses and can be specified with captive fasteners or pre-drilled holes to accommodate specific mounting requirements. The honeycomb panels are engineered for both indoor and outdoor applications and provide a shielding effectiveness up to 125 dB for E-field and 70 dB for H-field emissions. Multiple finish plating options are also available to enhance shielding effectiveness and environmental protection. Leader Tech Inc.

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-602

CIT Relay & Switch

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-600

SDYTRAN INSTRUMENTS’ 3097AT SERIES OF ACCELEROMETERS

SLEADER TECH’S RF SHIELDED VENTILATION PANELS With multiple ﬁnish plating options Leader Tech’s complete line of standard and custom-manufactured Tech46

Offered in three different sensitivities Dytran Instruments’ new 3097AT series of accelerometers features IEPE operation, TEDS and a small cubic design. Designed for use in modal analysis applications, it has a 5-40 stud mount and an industry-standard four-pin connector. These sensors are offered in three sensitivities: 3097A1T is 10 mV/g, 3097A2T is 100

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mV/g and 3097A3T is 500 mV/g. Packaged in a 0.4 cubic-inch titanium housing, the 3097AT series weighs just 4.3 gm. Their robust, laser-welded titanium design includes a ceramic shear sensing element coupled to an ultra-low-noise JFET electronics package.The 3097AT series is now offered in addition to the 3097A family of miniature accelerometers for modal analysis. The only difference between the 3097A and 3097AT series is the TEDS feature in the 3097AT series. Priced at $350. Dytran Instruments Inc.

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-601

FANLESS, MAINTENANCE-FREE ETHERNET SWITCHES EXPAND MEN MICRO’S MIPIOS LINE Feature eight Fast Ethernet ports MEN Micro Inc. has expanded its new MIPIOS line of rugged embedded modular computers and components to include two new IP67-compliant Ethernet switches — the managed RS1 and the unmanaged RS2. Each features eight Fast Ethernet ports on standard M12 connectors with support for both full- and half-duplex operation, as well as high-speed non-blocking and store-andforward switching with auto-negotiation. Layer 2 switching (IPv4/IPv6), quality of service (QoS) support with four trafﬁc classes IEEE 802.1p and three-level 802.1q security and an 8K MAC lookup table with automatic learning and aging are also standard on the switches. Two redundant power supplies provide a nominal 24V dc, with a 9 to 36V input voltage range. As part of MEN Micro’s MIPIOS line, the new switches are fanless, maintenance-free and extremely rugged, allowing them to perform reliably in the most demanding environments. Typical applications include extreme and mobile applications found in commercial and industrial environments. MEN Micro Inc.

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-603

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

Simulation and Rapid Prototypes Boost Construction

Equipment Efficiency As proportional hydraulic controls evolve, engineers rely more on software, allowing them to quickly go from design concepts to ﬁnal products

Photo: JLG Industries

INCOVA Technologies manufactures intelligent electroSolenoid hydraulic poppet valves and proprietary control algorithms Patented Pressure used in off-road construction equipment such as backhoes, Compensation Method excavators and cranes built by JLG, John Deere and others. Before the development of these valves and their controls, equipment manufacturers relied on standard spool valves to operate hydraulic actuators. An INCOVA electro-hydraulic poppet valve (EHPV) maintains a constant opening, or flow area, proportional to the current command it receives, regardless of the pressure across the valve. According to Corey Quinnell, systems engineer at INCOVA, the company places its valves in an Pilot Poppet Main Poppet H-bridge configuration similar to that used to control a The intelligent control valve (top) goes by the name electrobidirectional dc motor. “Each proportional valve in the bridge hydraulic poppet valve. The cut-away diagram (bottom) shows operates independently,” says Quinnell. “A traditional spool the spring-loaded components that offer proportional control. valve has a fixed relationship between the inlet and the outlet valve-control functions in C and then used an Excel spreadflow area.” sheet to “line up” the sequence of function calls. An Excel “The EHPV lets us independently meter the inlet and the macro then produced the final application code in C. But outlet,” says Quinnell. “This independence lets us make mathis slow method consumed too much time and effort. “We chines easier to control and more fuel efficient. Each actuator needed to minimize the time between developing a controls workport — inlet or outlet — has a sensor that measures the concept, testing it on a machine, and then analyzing the data hydraulic pressure, a key input to the controllers.” to see what went wrong and what worked properly.” Initially, Quinnell and his colleagues wrote a library of “After doing some research, we concluded the combination of Simulink tools and a Speedgoat computer — our real-time target — would give us a way to quickly and easily make iterative changes to control algorithms,” says Quinnell. The team used an xPC Target real-time computer from Speedgoat (Murten, Switzerland). Thus, the computer became known within INCOVA as “the Speedgoat.” “Only a few people at HUSCO, our parent company, used The MathWorks Simulink software and none of them had experience using Simulink they way we intended to,” says The JLG model G12-55a “telehandler” relies on hydraulic Quinnell. “We took advantage of The MathWorks’ support accuPlace technology that lets operators place loads with better team as we worked with Simulink. We knew our goal and it precision. The linear motion of the boom takes the guesswork out of landing loads in high places. was just a matter of ‘How do we get there?’” [ w w w. d es ig n n e ws.c o m]

JA N U A RY 2 0 1 0 F LUID P O WE R / P O WE R T R ANS MIS S IO N / A S P E CIAL E DIT O R IAL S E CTI ON F1

Photo: INCOVA

BY JON TITUS, CONTRIBUTING TECHNICAL EDITOR

As a proof of concept, the team took simple control functions, modeled them in Simulink, and ran the models with test vectors to check them. “When we started we just wanted a joystick value to go into the Speedgoat and another value to come out — nothing complicated,” says Quinnell. “After confirming that our realtime computer handled the joystick information correctly, we moved on to test basic control functions on the Speedgoat. Again, we knew the joystick values going in and could match the computer’s outputs with what we expected from the control algorithm. These images of Simulink screens show how engineers can start with a high-level design such as a powertrain (left) and work down to a detailed clutch control module (right). That’s how we verified the control functions worked properly.” After the team better understood flow to each actuator and thus match the flow demand with the capabilities of Simulink, it created new control functions the pump’s capability.” and test vectors to use for simulations. “We used Excel to creQuinnell noted that as the team became more proficient ate the test vectors and brought the vectors into MATLAB so with Simulink, the way team members handled design conSimulink could read them and ‘play’ the test vectors through straints and their ideas about how the models worked evolved. the simulator,” says Quinnell. “We used Excel so we had a Thus the library of function blocks changed as the team conknown-good baseline against which we could verify the new tinued to refine the controls concepts. control functions. The simulation outputs should match Although INCOVA uses a Speedgoat computer for testing, those in our Excel document. After we verified the models it uses its own controller in commercial equipment. “During worked properly, we used Simulink to create the C source development and rapid prototyping, we use the Speedgoat code. We then compiled the code and put the executable to do all the math involved with the control algorithms,” program into the Speedgoat that sent flow commands to our says Quinnell. “This rapid prototyping arrangement sends a EHPVs on a prototype machine.” CAN-bus message with numeric results to our controller that “When we first used Simulink, we created a large ‘flat’ layout and we couldn’t easily find thing on it,” says Quinnell. “So converts the numbers to an electric-current value.” Each valve controller provides four independent current sources for the we created separate Simulink subsystems for machine inputs, EHPVs. In a commercial product, the INCOVA controller controls, machine outputs, machine initialization, data achandles all control operations, pressure-sensor reading, curquisition, constants and so on. This was part of our learning process. The organizational aspect of Simulink made a ‘design’ rent drivers and CAN-bus communications. Team members include Quinnell — a computer engineer, easier to read and understand.” two electrical engineers and a mechanical engineer. “We are all “We also set up our own design rules and applied them to well rounded — that’s the best way to portray our team,” says our Simulink controls model,” says Quinnell. “This ‘coding’ standard made it easier for everyone to understand the model. Quinnell. “We know about mechanics, electronics and hyWe also used color codes to differentiate between inputs, out- draulics, so we can speak the same ‘language.’ When anything new comes along, everyone gets up to speed quickly.” puts, constants and so on.” One added benefit of using Simulink: A dramatic decrease Creation of easy-to-maintain control functions within in total development time. The original process for prototypSimulink quickly became a goal for Quinnell and the team. “We defined functions that encapsulated only one task or idea ing new controls required repeated hand offs between application engineers and a dedicated software group. By using and then used multiple functions in series or parallel to transSimulink, the application engineers can do the majority of the late a joystick command into a valve-control command. New day-to-day prototype work themselves. function blocks became part of a library that we will reuse in new applications.” • For an animation of a spool valve, go to http://designnews. “Here’s an example of a function block,” says Quinnell. “Suppose an operator tries to move a piece of construction hotims.com/27735-544. equipment in a way that requires more hydraulic-fluid flow • To view an EHPV animation, go to http://designnews.hotims. than the pump can provide. In that case, a function block com/27735-545 and select Components -> EHPV -> Theory of translates the operator flow commands (function inputs) into Operation. valve-control commands (function outputs) to reduce the • Matlab Simulink: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-554 F2 FL UI D PO WER/ P O W E R T R A N S M I S S I O N / A S P E C I A L E D IT O R IAL S E CTIO N J ANUARY 2 0 1 0

[www.designnews.com]

Photo: The MathWorks

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

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FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

Festo Corp. Introduces Tubular Linear Motors BY AL PRESHER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

ew electric cylinders that utilize patented tubular linear motor technology are electrically driven, drop-in alternatives to their pneumatic counterparts, offering similar dimensions and mechanical interfaces. The cylinders offer fully programmable, closedloop position, acceleration and speed control, and are designed for extremely fast and accurate positioning applications. The heavily patented linear motors are based on an innovative tubular design that uses high flux annular magnets on the actuator rod, surrounded by a series of specialized windings on a long stator coil. The approach effectively turns conventional linear motor design inside out because, in most linear motors, the fixed stator contains the permanent magnets and the moving element contains the coil windings. The design offers a number of significant advantages including low moving mass and a complete absence of flexible cabling to the moving parts, both of which improve reliability and dynamic performance. “The advantage of this technology is its scalability and its modular and stackable design,” says Nuzha Yakoob, a product manager for Festo. “The linear motors are also flux-free because there is no external magnetic field which is usually an issue with linear motors.” Linear motor technology offers a distinct advantage when very high dynamic and precise motion is required. Yakoob says Festo’s newly patented design offers higher performance, in terms of force density, compared to other manufacturers of tubular linear motors. The linear motor employs a stack of annular magnets to form a tubular core which is embedded in a coil arrangement which is fixed and the magnetic stack moves. Depending on the position of the tubular magnetic core in relation to the outer coils measured by the read head of the measuring system, current injected through the coils using sinusoidal commutation generates a force and creates linear motion. Yakoob says the coil and magnet arrangement was designed with a very compact cross section that allows the motor to be used in existing pneumatic actuator profiles offered by Festo. The coils are produced in a flat flexible membrane and then rolled around the tube. The assembly is then coated in resin to form a seal. The linear motors have no external magnetic fields, as the tube itself creates a magnetic return path. This allows the motor to be used with other instruments and devices that might be sensitive to external magnetic interference and also suitable for applications where there is iron ferrite dust and metal particles. Linear motors typically show a reduction in force when approaching the end of stroke as the magnetic field exposed to the coil arrangement reduces toward the end of stroke.

DNCE-LAS tubular linear motors (top) are designed for loads up to 1 kg that do not exert twisting forces on the actuator. For higher load capacities and resistance to twisting forces, DFME-LAS cylinders (bottom) use two ball race guide assemblies to provide extra rigidity.

Source: Festo Corp.

Although incomparable to the forces produced by a pneumatic cylinder, Yakoob says the DNCE and DFME linear motors maintain a consistent force along the full stroke with negligible drop at the ends. The SFC-LACI drive and position controller is a compact package of both the power and control electronics usable with both the DNCE-LAS and DFME-LAS linear motors. The drive is configurable with 31 user-defined motion profiles. These pre-configured motion profiles can be linked to form a sequence which significantly reduces PLC programming, thereby reducing engineering time and cost. A complete single-axis package comprises the motor, controller and connecting cables. The controller is configurable and is parameterized using the company’s standard configuration software platform called the Festo Configuration Tool (FCT). The controller could be interfaced to a PLC using discrete I/O or popular industry-standard fieldbus interfaces such as Profibus, DeviceNet or CANopen. Festo’s new DNCE-LAS tubular linear motors have the same form factor as the DNC series of piston rod pneumatic cylinders. The DNCE and DFME come in two sizes (32 and 40 mm profiles) and stroke lengths (100, 200, 320 and 400 mm). The largest DNCE-LAS model can accelerate at up to 125 m/sec2, handle a velocity of 3 m/sec and is capable of a thrust force of 202N peak and 55N continuous.

F4 FL UI D PO WER/ P O W E R T R A N S M I S S I O N / A S P E C I A L E D IT O R IAL S E CTIO N J ANUARY 2 0 1 0

[www.designnews .com]

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION DNCE-LAS cylinders are designed for loads up to about 1 kg that do not exert twisting forces on the actuator and applications such as small parts unloading, sorting and packaging machines. For applications requiring higher load capacities and resistance to twisting forces, DFME-LAS cylinders are equipped with two ball race guide assemblies to provide extra rigidity. The DFME provides a different mechanical configuration. If you were to split open the DFME and DNCE-LAS, the core or magnetic architecture is the same. The difference is the type of guiding system. The built-in guide in the DFME is more of a mechanical guiding system and is targeting applications where the single rod would not be suitable. The new linear motors have the same mechanical profile and footprint as the company’s pneumatic cylinders, and share the same mechanical components and accessories. However, usage depends on the specific application requirements. Linear motors are suitable for applications where dynamics and precision are required, along with positioning flexibility in comparison to discrete pneumatic component that offer high forces but lack flexibility. “This is Festo’s first line of linear motors,” says Yakoob. “Considering all of the positioning technologies from basic pneumatics to electromechanical axes, servo pneumatics and now linear motor technology, we can now provide solutions to a wide range of positioning applications.” Targeted applications are machines using discrete pneumat-

ics and small cylinders that want to introduce increased flexibility. “If an engineer wants higher accuracy and the requirements for feed forces are within the capabilities of the linear motor, now we can take out that cylinder and drop it into the same footprint as a linear motor system that can provide that flexibility. Now you can do multiple positions and control dynamics, so there is better control of the system and more flexibility in terms of the machine,” Yakoob says. In addition to the DNCE-LAS and DFME-LAS, Festo has also recently released an ELGL-LAS flatbed linear motor package. This linear motor axis employs a magnetically preloaded air cushion bearing to provide precise positioning and excellent linearity. As with the tubular linear motors, the unit does not generate strong external magnetic fields, and comes in three different sizes with an option for multiple sliders. Strokes are available up to 1,750 mm offering peak forces of 450N with a repeatability of ±10 microns. The ELGL-LAS can be used in applications with larger loads up to 40 kg, where the tubular linear motors are targeted for applications with smaller loads. Festo is also in the process of developing a hybrid linear motor which brings together the best of pneumatics (force density) and linear motor technology (accuracy and dynamics) packaged in a single compact actuator. For technical information on Festo’s new tubular linear motor actuators, go to http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-546.

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JA N U A RY 2 0 1 0 F LUID P O WE R / P O WE R T R ANS MIS S IO N / A S P E CIAL E DIT O R IAL S E CTI ON F5

ADVERTORIAL

USE PROPER TORQUE VALUES WHEN TIGHTENING COUPLINGS An over-tightened hydraulic coupling may be just as apt to leak as an under-tightened coupling. Why? Over-tightening may result in overstressing and/or cracking of the seat or the staked nut. When attaching a coupling, it’s best to use the torque values supplied by the coupling manufacturer. The minimum value will create a leak-proof seal under most conditions. Applying torque values greater than the maximum recommendation will distort or crack the fitting. When tightening couplings, make sure that the hose does not twist on the adapter. Twisting will shorten hose life and scar the sealing surfaces of swivel-type couplings (JIC, 45°, etc.), which can create leaks. For straight couplings, use a torque wrench on the hex-swivel nut and a standard box-wrench on the stem hex. When a crowfoot wrench is used with a torque wrench, adjustments to the torque readings must be made, otherwise over-tightening will occur. By replacing staked- and tube-nut JIC style couplings with Gates Full-Torque Nut™ hydraulic couplings, design engineers can dramatically reduce hydraulic leaks due to over-torquing.

Gates Full-Torque Nut coupling is designed to increase productivity and uptime by eliminating nut cracking that can occur during installation of high-pressure hydraulic hose assemblies. For more tips on proper coupling torquing techniques, visit www.gates.com/fulltorque

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

Eliminating Drive Harmonics Active ﬁlter, variable-speed drive combine to deal with harmonic disturbances BY AL PRESHER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

ewly introduced low-harmonic drive technology integrates an active filter with the drive rather than using an active front end to deal with system harmonics. New VLT® low-harmonic drive technology from Danfoss uses active filtering to eliminate disturbances on the supply grid by actively imposing currents to restore and insure the highest possible quality sine waves. “In essence, the filter portion of VLT low-harmonic drives has the same working principle as a set of noise-canceling headphones, where the noise or distortion is measured and a computer phase signal is imposed to compensate for that noise,” says Gregers Geilager, a product manager for Danfoss. He says that as a matter of scale, noise-canceling headphones can inject 100 mW at 50 to 1,000 Hz, while the drives can inject several hundred watts at 250 to 2,000 Hz. Geilager says active filters and active front ends are often falsely recognized as one and the same, but the difference is significant and the optimal mitigation solution requires in-depth technical knowledge. He says the Danfoss product is unique because it combines an active filter and standard variable-speed drive in one box. A paralleled filter that is only used to compensate the drive harmonics (40 percent of full load current) also offers a programmable value to go into sleep mode when mitigation is not needed to increase efficiency. Because motor current has unhindered passage to the drive and is inherently not producing heat in the LCL coils, this energy is saved. And because the dc-link is not boosted, the technique used to deal with harmonics in active front-end (AFE) designs, motor voltage is not affected. Plus, the dc-voltage in the parallel filter can be boosted to provide better harmonic mitigation performance under non-ideal grid conditions. Geilager says the trade-off with an active front-end design is that, to mitigate harmonics in the system, the voltage on the dc-link needs to be bigger than the grid voltage. This “boost voltage,” which is typically 15 to 20 percent higher, creates better harmonic performance under non-ideal conditions such as pre-distorted grids or phase imbalance. But the bigger the boost, the higher the motor winding stress, motor bearing currents and EMC noise on the motor wire. Passing the full motor current through two IGBT modules and a LCL magnetic circuit also leads to high IGBT switching losses and LCL coil losses (efficiency typically 93 to 94 percent). A unique aspect of the design is that it uses a ducted back-channel to pass cooling air over the heat sinks with minimal air passing through the electronics area. This allows 85 percent of the heat losses to be exhausted directly outside of the enclosure, improving reliability and prolonging life by dramatically reducing temperature rise and contamination of the electronic components. The unit has an IP54 seal between the back-channel cooling duct and the electronics area of the low-harmonic drive. A key advantage of the new low-harmonic drives is that they share the same modular technology platform as Danfoss VLT high-power drives. By sharing common system components compared to active filters that are typically supplied in low volume, Danfoss claims it has created the world’s first mass-produced low-harmonic drive. The active filter is also provided as a stand-alone product, which creates an ability to retrofit drives if system harmonics prove to be an application issue after the initial installation. For more information, go to http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-547.

FOR THE GORILLAS

ON YOUR PRODUCTION LINE One of the most common causes of hydraulic leaks is a cracked coupling nut or seat due to over-torquing. Gates has engineered a solution – Full-Torque Nut™ technology now available on Gates MegaCrimp® and GlobalSpiral® couplings. Over-Torque Protection Robust swivel joint allows for maximum torque

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Full-Torque Nut couplings are stronger and more durable than traditional staked-nut fittings. A large holding shoulder evenly distributes stress forces at the nut for higher resistance against cracking, even when inadvertently over-torqued. Increase productivity and equipment uptime, on the assembly line or in the field, by eliminating damaged couplings and unsightly leaks from too much torque. For more information, visit www.gates.com/fulltorque-dn

Simply the Toughest Nut to Crack ™

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

Energy-Efficient Bearings Focus on Reducing Friction Lower energy consumption, reduced temps result in longer service life BY AL PRESHER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Source: SKF

Temperature (oC)

Source: SKF

of 30 percent less power consumption from the perhe trend toward energy-efficient bearings spective of the bearing losses in small electric motors. has produced a shift in the traditional design This is accomplished using internal design changes, focus of increasing capacity to a higher pria special polymer cage and a low-friction, long-life ority on reducing friction. For specific beargrease. The end result is lower energy consumption and ing types and key applications, the goal is lower fricreduced bearing temperatures resulting in extended tion bearings designed for operating energy efficiency. grease and bearing service life. For equipment end us“The change in focus has made energy efficiency ers, this translates to an overall lower cost of ownership. goal number one for certain bearing types,” says The focus on E2 tapered roller bearings are targeting a different William Bonis, an applications engineer for SKF. In energy-efﬁciency series of applications with a focus on large industrial the past, designs have targeted increased service life, places a higher premium on transmissions in applications such as wind energy, power density or machine downsizing using ultrarailway and mining equipment. The initial size range clean steel and optimized internal geometries with a reducing the friction of new includes tapered roller bearings with an outside diamprimary focus on capacity. bearings such eter from 220 to 600 mm. The E2 tapered roller bear“But now we are taking an alternate approach with as this SKF E2 ings’ reduced energy consumption of 30 percent is acan environmental focus and the impact bearing endeep groove complished through an optimized roller count, roller ergy consumption has on industrial applications since ball bearing. and flange guidance topography, raceway profile and bearings impact nearly all types of rotating machina special polymer cage. ery,” says Bonis. Since surface topography and raceway profile is critical One bearing type, the deep groove ball bearing, is used in nearly all electrical motor-driven equipment including pumps, to roller bearing performance under loaded conditions, sigfans and compressors. Since this equipment accounts for a large nificant analytical work using internally developed software was performed to help define the profiles and finishes of the portion of consumed industrial power, even a small improverolling contact area that contributes to bearing friction. Exment in bearing energy efficiency can account for huge benperimental testing has validated the improvement predicted efits to annual energy savings, not to mention the total cost of through analysis. These internal modifications do not affect equipment ownership over the life of an electric motor. With its E2 deep groove ball bearing, SKF achieved the target boundary dimensions of the bearing, enabling direct replacement of an existing bearing by an E2 bearing. Operating Temperatures at Different Speeds It’s important for design engineers to realize there are specific target applications for each type of E2 bearing, as well as 125 available sizes depending on the bearing type. The intention is 120 Standard SKF Bearings to achieve the reduced bearing friction while meeting the apo 15 C Energy-Efficient SKF Bearings 115 plication requirements specific to the particular application. The E2 bearings are not replacing SKF’s standard product line, 110 rather they are intended as a complement for targeted markets. 105 SKF continues to focus on alternate bearing types such as 100 the spherical roller bearing, cylindrical roller bearing, CARB 5oC and angular contact ball bearing for energy efficiency. These 95 E2 designs will also target specific application parameters 90 such as higher speed and/or lighter loading. 85 “From a design engineer’s perspective, one needs to have those intended application conditions in mind,” says Bonis. 80 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 “You would not apply this technology to extremely high-load RPM or slow-speed applications as those design requirements can New energy-efﬁcient bearings operate at lower temperatures be better met with the standard range of bearings.” than standard bearings, but are not designed for heavily loaded For more information on SKF’s energy-efficient bearings, go to applications. http://www.skf.com/files/774060.pdf. F8 FL UI D PO WER/ P O W E R T R A N S M I S S I O N / A S P E C I A L E D IT O R IAL S E CTIO N J ANUARY 2 0 1 0

[www.designnews .com]

FLUID POWER/ POWER TRANSMISSION

Metering Pumps Dispense at

Low Volumes

Unique design provides precision, accuracy across applications BY AL PRESHER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

The FMI valveless ceramic piston pump is a positive displacement, rotating and reciprocating design that eliminates the random problems of check, poppet and solenoid valves that typically wear, leak or hang up. The design offers infinite variability, reversibility, positive displacement and viscosity independence, as well as precision and accuracy of better than 1 percent over 100 million cycles or more. “The uniqueness of our piston pump design is that it takes a totally different approach,” says Hank Pinkerton, president of FMI Pump. “Industries such as medical diagnostics and precision assembly demand long-term accuracy and precision to assure that dispense number one and one million are the same. They want speed, but accuracy and precision are by far the most critical requirements, and valved-type pumps cannot provide that level of reliability.” The key advantage is that the technology offers single-shot or repetitive dispensing for very low volumes (microliters) and +1 percent accuracy (0.5 percent CV or better). Flows can be as small as 500 nanoliters per dispense to as high as 1.2 mȱ/ single shot and with flow rates up to 30 gal/hour. Valves are normally the most critical part of most precision pumps because they control accuracy and precision over time. But Pinkerton says all valves eventually wear and/or leak depending on fluids being pumped and back pressure. FMI achieves valveless pumping function by synchronous rotation and reciprocation of the ceramic piston in a precisely mated, Basic Operation of Valveless Metering Pump

Source: FMI Pump

Suction Stroke

Discharge Stroke

Crossover Point

Ceramic Piston Ceramic Liner 100%

100%

Operation of the valveless metering pump is simple. With each stroke, the piston rotates and reciprocates, and suction is created, filling the pump chamber with fluid. As the rotation continues, the inlet port is sealed and crossover occurs. Dispensing of very precise amounts is possible as the piston is forced down and the piston flat opens to the outlet port.

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

As the piston reaches the highest point in the reciprocation cycle, the pump is at its maximum volume capacity. Continuing the rotation, the inlet port is sealed and crossover occurs. As the inlet port is sealed and the pump chamber is full, the outlet port opens. But only one port is open at any time and at no time are both ports interconnected.

Source: FMI Pump

ceramic cylinder liner. One complete piston revolution is required for each suction/discharge cycle, and the piston always bottoms for maximum fluid and bubble clearing. At the beginning of each suction stroke, the piston rotates and reciprocates. As the piston is pulled back and opens to the inlet port, suction is created and fluid fills the pump chamber.

The unique design of the valveless pump provides accurate metering of ﬂows as small as 500 nanoliters per dispense.

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During the discharge stroke, the piston is forced down and the piston flat opens to the outlet port. Discharge is created and fluid is pumped out. The piston bottoms for maximum fluid and bubble clearing. Continuing the rotation, the outlet port is sealed and crossover occurs. As the outlet port is sealed and the pump chamber is empty, the inlet port opens to start another suction stroke. Incorporating the same valveless design, FMI developed and patented the Chloritrol® system to precisely inject sodium or calcium hypochlorite solution 24/7 into potable water to assure purity of the water supply. The unique part of the system is its utilization of two separate pumps coupled to a single drive motor. One pump continuously pulls a gas/liquid mixture past a liquid separation column and returns the mixture to its supply vessel. A second pump (pressure-injection pump) draws degassed liquid, flooding the input, and provides gas-free chlorine to the injection point. Pinkerton says the design is self-priming against 100 psi pressure without the priming procedures necessary with other pump designs. No recalibration is ever needed, which Pinkerton says is impossible with valved piston and diaphragm pump systems that lose prime because compression/expansion of the gas slug causes valve float and air lock. For more information and to see how the FMI valveless ceramic piston pump works, go to http://www.fmipump.com. [www.de signnews .com]

FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

IN THE MARKETPLACE CLIPPARD’S NEW AIR JETS LINE T

EXAIR’S LONG SUPER AIR KNIVES

With a wide range of nozzles, bases and mounting hardware Clippard’s all-new line of Air Jets is designed to deliver a concentrated ﬂow of air or liquid to a designated location. Featuring a unique ball nozzle design, it is available with a wide range of nozzles, bases and mounting hardware. The ball nozzle accepts a variety of tube conﬁgurations that can be aimed and locked into position. This capability enables the Air Jets to deliver the air or liquid with precision, and at an affordable price.

Ideal for use on wide parts, webs and conveyors EXAIR’s new Long Super Air Knives produce a uniform sheet of air to blow off, dry or cool wide surfaces up to 96 inch (2,438 mm). The compact, energy-efficient design minimizes compressed air use by entraining 40 parts room air to one part compressed air and is ideal for use on wide parts, webs and conveyors. The Long Super Air Knives provide a uniform, highvolume, high-velocity curtain of air that is infinitely adjustable from gentle blowing force to a hard-hitting blast of air. The compact profile measures 1.75 x 1.44 inch with compressed air inlets located on each end and the bottom to permit easy mounting in tight spaces. They are available in 60 inch (1,524 mm), 72 inch (1,829 mm), 84 inch (2,134 mm) and 96 inch (2,438 mm) lengths that are fully assembled. They ship from stock in a choice of aluminum, Type 303 stainless steel or Type 316 stainless steel.

Clippard Instrument Lab. Inc. http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-549

EXAIR Corp. http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-550

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FLUID POWER/POWER TRANSMISSION

Free design guide to fluid power motion control [www.deltamotion.com/designguide]

by Peter Nachtwey Get the Second Edition of this popular, practical 64-page application design guide. Sixteen helpful and practical topics including: s #LOSED LOOP #ONTROL s 3IZING #YLINDERS AND 6ALVES s 3ELECTING !CCUMULATORS s 4RANSDUCERS AND 2ESOLUTION s 4UNING FOR /PTIMAL 0ERFORMANCE

IN THE MARKETPLACE

OMEGA’S PNEUMATIC AND ELECTRIC ACTUATED BALL VALVES Designed to operate using an air supply of 3.5 to 8.6 bar The compact, lightweight BVP70/BVP80 series features a stainless-steel external trim and FKM o-rings standard. It is designed to operate using an air supply of 3.5 to 8.6 bar (50 to 125 psi), and the direct valve stem coupling to actuator shaft minimizes backlash. Electric actuators feature two ½ NPT conduit ports and integral thermal overload protection. This product is reliable, guarantees long-lasting performance and is ideal for water, chemical industries, automotive testing and process control applications. Price starts at $356. OMEGA ENGINEERING INC. http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-551

KNF DIAPHRAGM PUMPS WITH BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS Beneﬁt from integrated “feature-packed” controls KNF diaphragm pumps, equipped with brushless dc (BLDC) motors, offer advanced OEM control solutions for handling air, gases or liquids. Their integrated “feature-packed” controls deliver precise pump performance in direct response to system requirements. The BLDC motors are designed and manufactured to handle the high stresses associated with the reciprocating forces of a positive displacement pump and are consistent with the highest standards of engineering, reliability and quality. These BLDC pumps provide safe, oil-free operation without maintenance and can accommodate the widest range of OEM applications.

For a free copy go to www.deltamotion.com/designguide

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KNF Neuberger Inc. http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-552

[www.de signnews .com]

FLUID POWER

TMIZAIR® ENERGY SAVINGS DEVICE Saves up to 50 percent of energy used by an AODD pump The new MizAir® energy savings device for Air Operated Double Diaphragm (AODD) pumps will save up to 50 percent of the energy used by AODD pumps. AODD pumps use a tremendous amount of compressed air to operate and are notoriously inefficient. The most effective way to make AODD pumps more energyefficient is to better manage the air they consume. The obstacle has always been that no two AODD pumps are the same, making it nearly impossible to design a product that consistently works. MizAir is a patent-protected, electro-pneumatic “smart” device. It uses “fuzzy” logic to analyze each stroke of the pump and “learns” the pump’s unique characteristics. MizAir then automatically makes internal adjustments to reduce the air consumption of the pump by as much as 50 percent, reducing the energy required to run it by the same amount with little to no effect on pump throughput, fluid flow or flow rate. On approved pumps, no pump modification is necessary. MizAir is literally plumbed to the air input side of the pump and provided with 24V dc power. Proportion-Air Inc.

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TSAUER-DANFOSS’ H1 60CM³ BENT-AXIS MOTOR Provides improvements in efficiency, reliability, flexibility Sauer-Danfoss’ new H1 60cm3 bent-axis motor is the next size in a series of motors designed to complement the growing range of H1 axial piston pumps. With the introduction of the H1 bentaxis motors, Sauer-Danfoss offers a complete H1 transmission system, optimized around electrical control. The H1 motors not only provide OEMs with improvements in reliability and flexibility, but also provide higher overall efficiency, resulting in lower fuel consumption and reduced life cycle costs. Typical applications that will benefit from the new H1 bent-axis 60cm³ motor are rough terrain forklifts, combines, sprayers, road rollers, wheel loaders and road-building equipment. The new H1 bent-axis variable displacement motors have been designed to ensure outstanding reliability and high quality. Optimized for electrical control, they are fully PLUS+1 compli-

Monitors Damaging Unit Vibration Levels Signals When Industrial Shock Absorber is Nearing End of its Life-Cycle Recognizes and Localizes Malfunctions in the Automation Process Available in PNP, NPN and Analog

Red light indicates fault

Product Information Available Online Farmington Hills, MI 48335 tel: 800-521-3320 fax: 248-476-2470 e-mail: shocks@acecontrols.com

acecontrols.com

FLUID POWER, Continued

ant, enabling seamless integration with Sauer-Danfoss’ electronic machine control architecture. To withstand the harshest working environments, the electrical controls are designed with an IP67 and IP69K rating. The H1 60cm³ bent-axis motor is an evolution of proven technologies centered on a high displacement ratio of 32 degrees, zero-degree capability and higher overall efficiency. This combination provides a unique range of benefits that fit any OEM’s requirements for machine design. Sauer-Danfoss Inc.

Model 780 dispense valve is ideal for fluid packaging operations, including filling vials, bottles and other specialty containers, and is easily integrated into robotics and automated production processes. To maintain the precise accuracy of the volume dispensed, the Model 780 spool valve possesses adjustable material suckback and flow control. Once the exact volume is dialed in during initial qualification, repeatable performance is assured. The standard Model 780 spool valve is supplied with hard-coated aluminum components and Teflon® seals. It is also available in stainless steel and Teflon construction for applications involving unique materials. The Model 345 Valve Controller is ideally suited to actuate this valve. Tridak™ LLC

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-606

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-605

XMODEL 7800 HIGH-FLOW SPOOL VALVE FROM TRIDAK™ Reduces costs in fluid packaging Tridak™’s Model 780 spool valve provides a higher rate of fluid flow during dispensing for faster cycling and greater production throughput. This valve is designed to accommodate a broader range of fluids, including those possessing high viscosities. The

M AT E R I A L S / FA S T E N I N G

TAMSP CONTROL KNOBS Feature four standard options All Metric Small Parts (aMsp) recently announced the availability of the MMAHOFM Series of control knobs. They feature four standard conﬁguration options for speciﬁc applications and are stocked with and without

handles and 0-100 scales, plus with and without handles and/or scales. These control knobs are available in diameters of 50, 60 and 70 mm. 3-D CAD models are available for download at the aMsp website. The aMsp online eStore allows customers to choose from a selection of control, knurled, dimpled, wing, triangular, scallop and spherical knobs. Many more are also available. Customers can browse the knob selection and buy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All Metric Small Parts (aMsp)

http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-607

DIRAK’S ELECTRO-MECHANICAL OUTDOOR SWINGHANDLES Added protection against vandalism DIRAK’s two new Electro-Mechanical 2102 and 2-126 (RS 105) Swinghandles are designed for applications where security is a concern, speciﬁcally in cabinets that are exposed and accessible to the general public and for outdoor applications where cabinets are exposed to weather elements. The 2-102 EL Swinghandle RS 105 is available with a single lock cylinder and the 2-126 EL Swinghandle RS 105 offers dual cylinders for added security. The swinghandles comply with the European DIN V ENV 1630 Class II standard security test. This standard describes the resistance level of doors and windows against burglar attempts using tools of class WK2 (screwdrivers, pliers and

M AT E R I A L S , C o n t i n u e d

wedges). Both swinghandles also provide protection from dust and water penetration in accordance with IP65 and EN 60529 standards. DIRAK GmbH http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-608

MOTION CONTROL

SAUTOMATIONDIRECT’S PROGRAMMABLE CONTROLLER Modular, rack-based system AutomationDirect’s Productivity3000 Programmable Automation Controller combines features and capabilities of a PC-based control system with that of a typical programmable logic controller (PLC). Productivity3000 is a modular, rackbased system of up to 116,000 I/O points with local, expansion and remote I/O bases and a full lineup of discrete, analog and specialty I/O modules. The high-

performance CPU has 50 Mb memory, fast scan times and industry-leading seven communication ports for $599. The P3-550 CPU features a four line x 10 character LCD ideal for displaying system alarms and information or user-deﬁned messages. Seven onboard communications ports support USB, Ethernet and serial devices. A USB plug-and-play connection is available for programming and online monitoring. AutomationDirect http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-609

BECKHOFF’S COMPACT, ENERGYSAVING INDUSTRIAL DISPLAYS With 5.7-inch screens To deliver space-saving and energy-efﬁcient industrial display solutions, Beckhoff Automation has introduced new Control Panels and Panel PCs with ultra-compact 5.7-inch displays. These panels feature rugged aluminum fronts with IP65-rated protection. Space-saving display dimensions of 7.2 x 5 inch (WxH) facilitate use wherever compact displays are required for machinery or automated buildings. These efﬁcient panels with resolution of 640 x 480 pixels are available in different versions: from a “basic” control panel display without processor to a compact PC controller with an integrated, energysaving Intel® Atom™ CPU. Beckhoff Automation GmbH http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-610

SLIN ENGINEERING’S LINE OF NEMA 23 BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS Available in four stack lengths Lin Engineering’s new line of NEMA 23 Brushless dc (BLDC) motors are best for applications where high speed and high dynamic torque are a must for the user’s application. Lin’s NEMA 23 BLDCs provide extremely quiet and smooth operation regardless of speed range, although the optimal performance speed range is 300 to 4,000 rpm. Lin Engineering’s NEMA 23 BLDC’s are available in four stack lengths: 2, 2.80, 3.60 and 4.53 inches. Depending on the stack length, these motors are able to produce up to 190 oz-inch of peak torque. Lin Engineering http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-611

From the Newswire Blog Updated daily with press releases and product announcements, this blog augments our popular Expo section: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-553 Send your press releases and product announcements to Executive Editor Liz Taurasi: elizabeth.taurasi@reedbusiness.com

CALAMITIES

Tr u e S t o r i e s

THE CASE OF THE PHANTOM FORKLIFT Flawed operation causes injury ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO, I WAS RETAINED TO HELP

investigate a forklift that allegedly started moving on its own as the driver climbed into his seat. The lead mechanical engineer requested my expertise in electric forklift controls to help determine the cause of the accident. The driver said that he drove forward and stopped in a narrow aisle between storage racks. He dismounted the truck to pull components from the storage rack to place on a pallet on the truck’s forks. As he climbed back into the driver’s seat, the truck unexpectedly moved backward, pinning him against the rack beams. His cries for help brought co-workers running. They disconnected the battery to stop the truck as it continued to back into the driver, who was hospitalized with leg fractures. We went to the plant to perform tests to see if there was any factual basis for the driver’s claim. The seat switch tested OK; control power off with the seat empty and power on with the seat occupied. There was another similar driver complaint against that forklift, so our tests focused on operation when getting into the seat with the key switch turned “on” and the direction switch set to “forward.” We raised the drive wheels off the ﬂoor to prevent accidents. Repeatedly pushing down the seat cushion to close the seat switch, we observed that, at random times, the reverse direction contactors closed and the drive wheels accelerated in the reverse direction. This seemed to conﬁrm the driver’s statement, but the task now was to determine if this behavior was due to issues of control design, control breakdown, or improper maintenance or adjustment. 6 2 D E S I G N N E W S J A N U A RY 2 0 1 0 [ w w w. d e s i g n n e w s . c o m ]

MYRON J. BOYAJIAN PRESIDENT ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS

The subject forklift was one of a small fleet of identical units brought over from another of this company’s plants, so we drove the subject and one of the sister trucks for comparison. I expected identical operating characteristics, but it wasn’t so. The sister truck simply coasted, power off, to a stop when the accelerator was released. However, on the subject truck, when the accelerator was lifted, the reverse direction contactors closed briefly and the truck decelerated forcefully! With company-supplied schematics, I checked the circuit wiring, but soon found that the reference numbers on the schematics didn’t match the control part number in the subject vehicle, but did match the control part numbers in the sister truck. The subject truck had a control system that was unique from the other trucks in the fleet, both electronically and operationally. It automatically “plugged” the drive motor when the accelerator was released. “Plug” is an industrial term that describes applying reverse power to a motor. Most electric forklifts gradually coast to a stop when the accelerator is released. However, in the subject forklift, the control actually reversed electric power to the drive motor to provide a slowing effect that is much like the slowing one feels in an automobile when the gas pedal is released. When the forklift slowed sufficiently, the slowing function ceased and normal operation resumed. This is the auto-plug function. At the time of the accident, the driver stated that his forklift was parked with the direction switch in forward. When he began to climb aboard, he moved the seat, closing the seat switch, and the forklift moved in reverse, striking him. Except for being parked and the seat raised, this action mimicked automatic plugging, i.e., forward direction selected and reverse contactor closed, powering the drive motor in reverse! This seemed to indicate a control malfunction. Despite repeated requests, I was never supplied with correct schematics or shop manuals to facilitate checking the control board for correct operation. I was repeatedly stonewalled by the control manufacturer and its franchised re-builder, leaving me with no way to check correct control operation. I surmised that the auto-plug feature was troubleprone and it was withdrawn from the market. This case made me very uneasy. I did not render an opinion report and eventually withdrew my services. I called the insurance adjuster about a year later and found that all parties had reached an unspecified settlement. Calamities is picked up regularly in our Sherlock Ohms blog. Go to www.designnews.com/Sherlock to comment on this article and read more cases.

Myron J. Boyajian, P.E., (mboyajian@ sbcglobal.net) is president of Engineering Consultants, a consulting service for forensic and design activities. Cases presented here are from his actual ﬁles. Illustration: Daniel Guidera

ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE Page

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ACE Controls Inc.

Numatics Inc.

60,61

Airpot Corp.

OMEGA ENGINEERING Inc.

C-3

Allied Electronics

Paneloc Corp.

Avnet Electronics Marketing

PennEngineering

Baldor Electric Co.

Phillips Plastics Corp.

Bird Precision

Proto Labs Inc.

Bishop-Wisecarver Corp.

Siemens PLM Software

BOKERS Inc.

Smalley Steel Ring Co.

Carr Lane Mfg. Inc.

SolidWorks

Clippard Instrument Lab.

Sorbothane Inc.

C-2

Digi-Key Corp.

Thomas Division

Dow Corning

C-4

Yaskawa Electric America Inc.

Enfield Technologies

EXAIR Corp.

HaydonKerk Motion Solutions

F-12

Beswick Engineering

igus bearings inc.

F-12

C-Flex Bearing Co. Inc.

Jameco Electronics

F-12

Delta Computer Systems Inc.

LINAK

F-6, F-7

Gates Corp.

Maxon Precision Motors

F-5

Peninsular Inc.

Mouser Electronics

F-11

Pyramid Inc.

National Instruments

F-10

Ringfeder Corp.

New Scale Technologies

F-3

Swagelok

Northwire Inc.

F-9

Thomas Products Ltd.

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GADGET FREAK ONLINE

THE GADGET FREAK® FILES CASE #156

Check Out Gadget Freak Case #154: Table Saw Quick Cleanup John didn’t get sucked into a simple switch circuit when connecting his table saw to his Shop-Vac®: http://designnews.hotims.com/27735-548

Flip on Your Car’s Lights and Sirens! o you’re not “Hawaii Five-O’s” Steve McGarrett, but wouldn’t it be cool to have flashing lights and a siren on your car? John Graham’s circuit makes it all possible — if you have a Pinewood Derby car made out of wood and plastic wheels. In John’s car, coin-cell batteries power a microcontroller that flashes blue and red LEDs on the car’s top and a buzzer simulates a two-tone police siren. “Book ‘em, Check out the Sights and Sounds of the Pinewood Derby Car at Danno — grand theft auto.” www.designnews.com/GadgetFreak

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Design News and Allied Electronics would like to send you a check for $500 to spend on Allied’s website at www.alliedelec.com/gadgetfreak or anywhere you please. And don’t forget to supply us with a video file of your gadget in action. E-mail Design News your proposed project (must incorporate electronic components and involve sensing, motion, timing and/or networking elements) to jontitus@comcast.net, along with a description of how it works, a parts list, schematic, photos and video. If your project is featured, you’ll receive a $500 check from Design News and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the magazine or at designnews.com with your invention.

ADVERTISEMENT “GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES” Amt

Part Description

Allied Part #

Microcontroller, PIC10F200-I/P, DIP8

383-0259

Piezoelectric Buzzer, Mallory Sonalert PT-1240PQ

854-0138

Push-Button Switch, Normally Open

821-1578

1.5V Coin-Cell Battery

729-1003

Blue LED, 5 mm

431-0157

Red LED, 5 mm

431-0148

390 1/4W Resistor

296-6501

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