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What's a SLIC Pin^®? Pin and cotter all in one!

The SLIC Pin (Self-Locking Implanted Cotter Pin) from Pivot Point is a pin and cotter all in one. This one-piece locking clevis pin is cost saving, fast, and secure. It functions as a quick locking pin wherever you need a fast-lock function. It features a spring-loaded plunger that functions as an easy insertion ramp. This revolutionary fastening pin is very popular and used successfully in a wide range of applications.
Learn more.

Engineering challenge: Which 3D-printed parts will fade?

How does prolonged exposure to intense UV light impact 3D-printed plastics? Will they fade? This is what Xometry's Director of Application Engineering, Greg Paulsen, set to find out. In this video, Paulsen performs comprehensive tests on samples manufactured using various additive processes, including FDM, SLS, SLA, PolyJet, DLS, and LSPc, to determine their UV resistance. Very informative. Some results may surprise you.
View the video.

Copper filament for 3D printing

Virtual Foundry, the company that brought us 3D-printable lunar regolith simulant, says its popular Copper Filamet™ (not a typo) is "back in stock and ready for your next project." This material is compatible with any open-architecture FDM/FFF 3D printer. After sintering, final parts are 100% pure copper. Also available as pellets. The company says this is one of the easiest materials to print and sinter. New Porcelain Filamet™ available too.
Learn more and get all the specs.

Copper foam -- so many advantages

Copper foam from Goodfellow combines the outstanding thermal conductivity of copper with the structural benefits of a metal foam. These features are of particular interest to design engineers working in the fields of medical products and devices, defense systems and manned flight, power generation, and the manufacture of semiconductor devices. This product has a true skeletal structure with no voids, inclusions, or entrapments. A perennial favorite of Designfax readers.
Learn more.

Full-color 3D-printing Design Guide from Xometry

With Xometry's PolyJet 3D-printing service, you can order full-color 3D prints easily. Their no-cost design guide will help you learn about different aspects of 3D printing colorful parts, how to create and add color to your models, and best practices to keep in mind when printing in full color. Learn how to take full advantage of the 600,000 unique colors available in this flexible additive process.
Get the Xometry guide.

Tech Tip: How to create high-quality STL files for 3D prints

Have you ever 3D printed a part that had flat spots or faceted surfaces where smooth curves were supposed to be? You are not alone, and it's not your 3D printer's fault. According to Markforged, the culprit is likely a lack of resolution in the STL file used to create the part.
Read this detailed and informative Markforged blog.

Test your knowledge: High-temp adhesives

Put your knowledge to the test by trying to answer these key questions on how to choose the right high-temperature-resistant adhesive. The technical experts from Master Bond cover critical information necessary for the selection process, including questions on glass transition temperature and service temperature range. Some of the answers may surprise even the savviest of engineers.
Take the quiz.

Engineer's Toolbox: How to pin a shaft and hub assembly properly

One of the primary benefits of using a coiled spring pin to affix a hub or gear to a shaft is the coiled pin's ability to prevent hole damage. Another is the coiled pin absorbs wider hole tolerances than any other press-fit pin. This translates to lower total manufacturing costs of the assembly. However, there are a few design guidelines that must be adhered to in order to achieve the maximum strength of the pinned system and prevent damage to the assembly.
Read this very informative SPIROL article.

What's new in Creo Parametric 11.0?

Creo Parametric 11.0 is packed with productivity-enhancing updates, and sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest impact in your daily workflows. Mark Potrzebowski, Technical Training Engineer, Rand 3D, runs through the newest functionality -- from improved surface modeling tools to smarter file management and model tree navigation. Videos provide extra instruction.
Read the full article.

What's so special about wave springs?

Don't settle for ordinary springs. Opt for Rotor Clip wave springs. A wave spring is a type of flat wire compression spring characterized by its unique waveform-like structure. Unlike traditional coil springs, wave springs offer an innovative solution to complex engineering challenges, producing forces from bending, not torsion. Their standout feature lies in their ability to compress and expand efficiently while occupying up to 50% less axial space than traditional compression springs. Experience the difference Rotor Clip wave springs can make in your applications today!
View the video.

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 toggle clamps, shaft collars, concealed multiple-joint hinges, and hygienically designed components.
Get your Standard Parts Handbook today.

Looking to save space in your designs?

Watch Smalley's quick explainer video to see how engineer Frank improved his product designs by switching from traditional coil springs to compact, efficient wave springs. Tasked with making his products smaller while keeping costs down, Frank found wave springs were the perfect solution.
View the video.

Top die casting design tips

You can improve the design and cost of your die cast parts with these top tips from Xometry's Joel Schadegg. Topics include: Fillets and Radii, Wall Thicknesses, Ribs and Metal Savers, Holes and Windows, Parting Lines, and more. Follow these recommendations so you have the highest chance of success with your project.
Read the full Xometry article.

What's the latest from 3D Systems? Innovations for different industries, processes

3D Systems unveiled several new solutions at the RAPID+TCT 2025 show in April designed to change the way industries innovate. From new 3D printers and materials for high-mix, low-volume applications to marked improvements in how investment casting can be done, learn what is the state of the art from the original inventors of 3D printing.
Read the full article.

Clever! Indexing plungers with chamfered pins

JW Winco has developed a new type of indexing plunger -- GN 824 -- that can independently latch into edges and grooves. This is made possible by a chamfered plunger pin. When the chamfered pin encounters a raised latching geometry, it retracts and then springs back out again once it reaches the latching point. This new indexing plunger can be ordered with axial thread for fastening and a black plastic knob for operating the indexing plunger. In a clever design, the plunger pin can be adjusted by 360 degrees to ensure that it encounters the mating surface perpendicularly. This hardware is well suited for transport frames, mechanisms, or covers that need to be locked in place quickly and securely, especially without the need for manual intervention.
Learn more.

UCLA scientists discover places on the Moon where it's always 'sweater weather'

Researchers found that shadowed areas of a pit (pictured above) in the Mare Tranquillitatis region stay consistently cool during the day and night. The pit likely leads to a similarly temperate lava cave. [Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]

 

 

 

 

By Holly Ober, UCLA

Future human explorers on the Moon might have 99 problems, but staying warm or cool won't be one. A team led by planetary scientists at UCLA has discovered shady locations within pits on the Moon that always hover around a comfortable 63 degrees Fahrenheit (F).

The pits, and caves to which they may lead, would make safer, more thermally stable base camps for lunar exploration and long-term habitation than the rest of the Moon's surface, which heats up to 260 degrees F during the day and drops to 280 F below zero at night.

Pits were first discovered on the Moon in 2009, and since then, scientists have wondered if they led to caves that could be explored or used as shelters. About 16 of the more than 200 pits are probably collapsed lava tubes, said Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student in planetary science, who led the new research. Two of the most prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to some sort of cave or void, and there is strong evidence that another's overhang may also lead to a large cave.

Lava tubes, also found on Earth, form when molten lava flows beneath a field of cooled lava or a crust forms over a river of lava, leaving a long, hollow tunnel. If the ceiling of a solidified lava tube collapses, it opens a pit that can lead into the rest of the cavelike tube.

Horvath processed images from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment -- a thermal camera and one of six instruments on NASA's robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter -- to find out if the temperature within the pits diverged from those on the surface.

Focusing on a roughly cylindrical 100-m-deep depression about the length and width of a football field in an area of the Moon known as the Mare Tranquillitatis, Horvath and his colleagues used computer modeling to analyze the thermal properties of the rock and lunar dust and to chart the pit's temperatures over a period of time.

The results, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed that temperatures within the permanently shadowed reaches of the pit fluctuate only slightly throughout the lunar day, remaining at around 63 F. If a cave extends from the bottom of the pit, as images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera suggest, it too would have this relatively comfortable temperature.

A good place for a base? Scientists predict that some lunar pits lead to lava tubes like the one seen here in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Moon has similar tunnels, which were left behind after molten lava flowed beneath the surface. [Credit: Frank Schulenberg/Creative Commons]

 

 

 

 

The research team, which also included UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige and Paul Hayne of the University of Colorado Boulder, believes the shadowing overhang is responsible for the steady temperature, limiting how hot things get during the day and preventing heat from radiating away at night. Meanwhile, the sunbaked part of the pit floor hits daytime temperatures close to 300 F, some 40 degrees hotter than the Moon's surface.

"Because the Tranquillitatis pit is the closest to the lunar equator, the illuminated floor at noon is probably the hottest place on the entire Moon," said Horvath.

A day on the Moon lasts nearly 15 Earth days, during which the surface is constantly bombarded by sunlight and is frequently hot enough to boil water. Unimaginably cold nights also last about 15 Earth days. Inventing heating and cooling equipment that can operate under these conditions and producing enough energy to power it nonstop could prove an insurmountable barrier to lunar exploration or habitation. Solar power -- NASA's most common form of power generation -- doesn't work at night, after all. (NASA currently has no plans to establish an exploration base camp or habitations on the Moon.)

Building bases in the shadowed parts of these pits allows scientists to focus on other challenges, like growing food, providing oxygen for astronauts, gathering resources for experiments, and expanding the base. The pits or caves would also offer some protection from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorites.

"Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the Moon," said Paige, who leads the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment.

Diviner has been mapping the Moon continuously since 2009, producing NASA's second largest planetary dataset and providing the most detailed and comprehensive thermal measurements of any object in our solar system, including Earth. The team's current work on lunar pits has improved data from the Diviner experiment.

"Because nobody else had looked at things this small with Diviner, we found that it had a bit of double vision, causing all of our maps to a be a bit blurry," said Horvath. The team worked to align the many images taken by the instrument until they could achieve an accurate thermal reading down to the level of a single pixel. This process yielded much higher resolution maps of the Moon's surface.

Data from the early stages of this lunar pit thermal modeling project were used to help develop the thermal management system of the rover for NASA's proposed Moon Diver mission. Horvath and Hayne were part of the science team for this mission, which aims to have the rover rappel into the Tranquillitatis pit to research the layers of lava flows seen in its walls and to explore any existing cave.

Horvath and Paige are science team members for a new lunar-bound thermal camera (led by Paul Hayne) named L-CIRiS, which will head to the lunar south pole in late 2023 to get the first ground-based thermal images.

Published August 2022

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