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Stock spiral- and straight-tooth bevel gears

Stock bevel gears from QTC Metric Gears are available with spiral or straight teeth, Modules 0.5 through 8, and gear ratios of 1.5 through 5. Designed to transmit motion between intersecting axes, straight bevel gears are the most common and are used in machine tools, food packaging equipment, and industrial automation. QTC Metric Gears is known for precision products, consistent quality, and dependable performance -- all key to keeping your machines running.
Learn more.

Robotic tape system automates key bonding applications

The RoboTape System for 3M Tape allows industrial manufacturers to take advantage of the benefits of 3M Tape in their assembly processes while maximizing production throughput, improving quality, reducing or re-tasking manual labor, and limiting re-work. This collaboration between 3M and Innovative Automation provides an improved way to apply 3M Tapes precisely for high-volume applications at production speeds that aren't achievable with manual tape application.
Learn more from 3M.
Watch how it works from Innovative Automation.

Linear guide rails provide long-running precision

Linear guide rail systems from JW Winco provide precise, quiet, and dynamic linear movements -- even for extremely demanding applications. The company has now produced its modular system in stainless steel (linear guide rails GN 2492 and matching cam roller carriages GN 2494). Also available are the C-shaped guide rails GN 2422 that come in four heights and are made of nonwarping, zinc-plated, hardened and ground steel. Simpler variations for standard applications are available as GN 1490 in two heights.
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Plastic bevel gears are a cost-efficient alternative to metal

igus has expanded its gear offering with bevel gears made of its iguform S270 and igutek P360 high-performance plastics. These abrasion-resistant, self-lubricating gears are a lightweight and maintenance-free alternative to traditional metallic gears. All bevel gears are available in six different transmission ratios, plus seven modules for power transmission.
Learn more.

Design Guide: Automotive electronics fasteners

The Penn-Engineering PEM Automotive Electronics Fastening Design Standards catalog showcases the company's extensive portfolio of standard fastening solutions. It includes illustrations showing where their self-clinching fasteners, threaded inserts, and compression limiters are typically used within automotive electronics applications and provides performance data and technical specifications. A very good resource. PDF download with no registration.
Get your Design Guide today.

2022 Stampings & Washers catalog

Have you requested your copy of Boker's latest Stampings and Washers catalog? This 72-page reference is a valuable industry resource for design engineers and purchasing teams. It showcases the company's vast stamping and washer capabilities, offering an all-inclusive guide to over 32,000 stock tools for flat washers, spacers, and shims -- including 369 new sizes recently added.
Get yours today.

Sheet metal finishing options from Xometry

Xometry now offers expanded options for sheet cut and sheet metal parts. Parts fresh off the waterjet or laser often have a burr on their bottom face, marks from handling, frosting near the cut line from overspray, and/or vestigial tabs from being held in place during cutting. Applying a finishing process post-cutting will help you get parts that need minimal cleanup before installation.
Learn more.

Engineer's Toolbox: All about lead screws and how to apply them

Lead screws use the helix angle of the thread to convert rotary motion to linear motion. Learn all about their benefits, performance characteristics, design choices, lifecycles, and more in this in-depth article from Thomson Industries.
Read the full article.

NSK develops world's fastest ball bearing for EV motors

Bearing manufacturer NSK claims that it has created the world's fastest grease-lubricated deep-groove ball bearing for electric vehicle (EV) motors. The development includes special cage and materials design, along with a special grease.
Read the full article.

Self-lubricating toothed belt axis for clean use in food technology

igus has introduced a maintenance-free toothed belt axis specifically designed to improve sanitation in food manufacturing systems. The new drylin ZLW toothed belt axis is based on hygienic design principles and uses FDA-compliant materials. It can be cleaned quickly and thoroughly using high-pressure steam jets, chemicals, or by simply running water, which also increases product safety.
Learn more.

Overload safety devices for corrosive and washdown applications

Providing both torque-limiting and coupling functions in a compact design, Zero-Max Overload Safety Devices can operate as a coupling and an overload safety device connecting two inline shafts in a power transmission system. Power Take-Off models are also available for use with chain or belt drives. These Overload Safety Devices protect motor and drive systems from excessive overloading and potentially expensive system jam ups. They also offer easy re-engagement, allowing the system to be running again as quickly as possible.
Learn more.

New Standard Parts Handbook from JW Winco

JW Winco's printed Standard Parts Handbook is a comprehensive 2,184-page reference that supports designers and engineers with the largest selection of standard parts categorized into three main groups: operating, clamping, and machine parts. More than 75,000 standard parts can be found in this valuable resource, including the company's most popular sellers as well as brand new products such as toggle clamps, shaft collars, concealed multiple-joint hinges, and hygienically designed components (including ones made of metal-detectable plastics or antibacterial materials).
Get your Standard Parts Handbook today.

Low- and high-volume injection molding production

Scale your 3D-printed prototypes into high-volume production parts with Xometry's injection molding service featuring a wide variety of materials, colors, cosmetics, polishes, and surface textures. Low costs and fast lead times are offered for molded parts, and they are all backed by Xometry's Quality Service Guarantee. Insert and overmolding are available too. "7 Ways to Save on Injection Molding" design video featured on this linked page.
Learn more.

Perfect coupling solution for almost every situation

Couplings from JW Winco transmit rotary motions and torques from shaft to shaft. They also even out tolerances and mechanical deflection that would otherwise result in damage to drive or measurement configurations. Winco's portfolio includes the perfect coupling solution for practically every situation, including for torque and power transmission as well as position and motion control. Learn features, standards, installation, and use as well as speeds, temperatures, torsional stiffness, and moment of inertia.
Learn more about coupling options.
Get the JW Winco couplings technical leaflet (PDF). Very informative.

All about slip rings -- how they work and their uses

Rotary Systems has put together a really nice basic primer on slip rings -- electrical collectors that carry a current from a stationary wire into a rotating device. Common uses are for power, proximity switches, strain gauges, video, and Ethernet signal transmission. This introduction also covers how to specify, assembly types, and interface requirements. Rotary Systems also manufactures rotary unions for fluid applications.
Read the overview.

Researchers take a deep dive into how to protect EV charging stations from cyberattacks

As the number of electric cars on the road grows, so does the need for their electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and the Internet-based managing systems within those stations. However, these managing systems face their own critical issues -- a central one is the threat of cybersecurity attacks.

Elias Bou-Harb, director of the University of Texas at San Antonio's (UTSA) Cyber Center for Security and Analytics, and his colleagues (Claud Fachkha of the University of Dubai and Tony Nasr, Sadegh Torabi, and Chadi Assim of Concordia University in Montreal) are shedding light on the vulnerabilities of these cyber systems. The researchers are also recommending measures that would protect them from harm.

The systems built into electric cars perform critical duties over the Internet, including remote monitoring and customer billing, as do a growing number of internet-enabled EV charging stations.

Bou-Harb and his fellow researchers wanted to explore the real-life implications of cyberattacks against EV charging systems and how to utilize cybersecurity countermeasures to mitigate them. His team also assessed how exploited systems can attack critical infrastructure such as the power grid.

The team identified 16 electrical vehicle charging managing systems, which they divided into separate categories such as firmware, mobile, and web apps. They performed an in-depth security analysis on each one.

"We devised a system look-up and collection approach to identify a large number of electrical vehicle charging systems, then leveraged reverse engineering and white-/black-box web application penetration testing techniques to perform a thorough vulnerability analysis," Bou-Harb said.

The team discovered a range of vulnerabilities amongst the 16 systems and highlighted the 13 most severe vulnerabilities such as missing authentication and cross-site scripting. By exploiting these vulnerabilities, attackers can cause several issues, including manipulating the firmware or disguising themselves as actual users and accessing user data.

According to a recent white paper by the researchers, "While it is possible to conduct different attacks on various entities within the electrical vehicle ecosystem, in this work, we focus on investigating large-scale attacks that have severe impact on the compromised charging station, its user, and the connected power grid."

During this project, the team developed several security measures, guidelines, and best practices for developers to mitigate cyberattacks. They also created countermeasures to patch each individual vulnerability they found.

To prevent a mass attack on the power grid, the researchers are recommending that the developers patch existing vulnerabilities but also incorporate initial security measures during the manufacturing of the charging stations.

"Many industry members have already acknowledged the vulnerabilities that we uncovered," Bou-Harb said. "This information will help immunize these charging stations to protect the public and provide recommendations for future security solutions in the context of EVs and the smart grid."

The researchers plan to continue analyzing more charging stations to further understand their security posture. They are also working with several industry partners to help shape new security products from the design phase and to develop security resiliency measures that protect vulnerable charging stations from exploitation.

See "Power jacking your station: In-depth security analysis of electric vehicle charging station management systems" in Computers & Security, January 2022.

Source: University of Texas at San Antonio

Published January 2022

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