February 06, 2024 | Volume 20 Issue 05 |
Manufacturing Center
Product Spotlight
Modern Applications News
Metalworking Ideas For
Today's Job Shops
Tooling and Production
Strategies for large
metalworking plants
Greg Paulsen and Steve Zimmerman from Xometry present a comprehensive understanding of CNC design principles, what features are considered common, and what can drive costs. The experts also go through guidance to make great technical drawings to communicate design intent to manufacturers. Lots of good info here. Flip through now and take it all in later when you have the time.
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igus has a new and improved 24-piece iglide® sample box that engineers can request and receive gratis. All iglide components are self-lubricating, resistant to dirt and dust, and offer low rates of wear. The sample box contains bearings, gears, piston rings, and more, and includes many of the most widely used iglide materials. Nothing like having the materials in hand to really check them out.
Learn more.
Zero-Max's ServoClass-HSN Couplings address noise and vibration issues that can be experienced in high-gain, high-speed stepper/servo motor applications such as linear actuators, high-response gantry systems, pick-and-place systems, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Featuring a Highly Saturated Nitrile Rubber (HSN/HNBR) flex element, these couplings are specifically designed for maximum damping and performance. They incorporate the field-proven ServoClass clamping hub system and have a zero-backlash design.
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UK-based company Fyous is launching the world's first infinitely reusable molding technology that can shapeshift in under 20 minutes, producing zero tooling waste and making usable parts 14 times faster than 3D printing. Sort of like a kid's pin art toy, Fyous' PolyMorphic molding can be set, used, and then reset to help create parts from carbon fiber, polyurethane, PET sheet (thermoformed), foods like chocolate, and more.
Read the full article.
Stock Drive Products/ Sterling Instrument (SDP/SI) has expanded their selection of flexible couplings to include the single disk-type couplings (short-type) series S50XHSM and the double disk-type couplings (standard length-type) series S50XHWM. The disk-type flexible couplings are an economical option that provides greater torque capability and improved performance in a reduced size, with torque ratings of 0.6 up to 12 Nm -- an improvement over similar products.
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According to Parker Hannifin, "A Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger is a robust, corrosion-resistant, high-integrity plate-type heat exchanger manufactured using diffusion bonding." Learn about the technology and why Heatric, a Parker brand, "can manufacture a unit up to 85% smaller and lighter than traditional technologies such as shell and tube heat exchangers."
Read this informative Parker blog.
3M Friction Shims are small, thin steel shims with a big impact. They can increase maximum load and peak torque in bolted connections without additional fasteners or redesigns. What else makes them so popular -- and so useful?
Read the full article.
Smalley's customers for the highest-quality retaining rings and wave springs now have a new procurement option: the Smalley online store. This new service channel is a first for the renowned rings and springs provider. After creating an account, approved users gain access to: convenient 24/7 online ordering that includes more than 11,000 standard parts, real-time product pricing, easy reordering with saved history and wish lists, and a quick checkout. No more waiting for an RFQ response to purchase!
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TM Robotics has launched a revolutionary new robotic feeding system called Infinifeed™ to the North American market. Powered by Shibaura Machine's advanced THE series of industrial robots, the Infinifeed is an automated feeding system that addresses the common challenges of parts feeding and sorting. Designed by DOMA Automation and integrated by Tera Automation, Infinifeed uses a unique parallel belt conveyor system with opposing motion. This innovative design, equipped with diverters and a 2D vision system, ensures seamless part feeding and sorting.
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V-Conform™ Reinforced O-ring Belts from Dura-Belt are bi-modulus (rubber reinforced with elastic stretchy nylon), so they provide greater tension than solid polyurethane belts. These belts have soft, tiny ribs that conform to standard 3/16-in. roller grooves, so they can replace round elastic belts while maintaining grip and tension. Lots of benefits, including: energy savings, motorized drive roller (MDR) protection, bearing and shaft hole wear prevention, and more.
Learn more.
The new EXAIR AR Mobile App provides users with a handy compressed air reference tool for over 570 different EXAIR products. The app expedites the solution-finding process by allowing users to select their specific sizes and performance requirements, place a 3D version of the product in their actual workspace using Augmented Reality, and navigate to a page to purchase -- all from their mobile device. The app includes a library of conversion calculators. Available in both the Apple and Google Play Stores.
Learn more.
Designed as a unique alternative in assemblies for the automotive and consumer electronics markets, the ClampDisk Press-on Fastener is a new offering from PennEngineering that delivers a fast, simple way to achieve sheet-to-sheet clamped fastening while replacing the use of standard screws, nuts, and adhesives. The most common challenges that can be eliminated or reduced by using ClampDisk include over installation, cross threading, stripped screw heads, broken screws, and damaged product. This fastener can be removed easily with a sharp-edged tool.
Learn more and see how ClampDisk works.
Emerson's new Branson GLX-1 Laser Welder offers users flexibility to meet the growing demand for joining small, complex, or delicate plastic components and assemblies. Its compact footprint and modular design make it compatible for use in ISO-8 cleanroom environments, while an integral automation controller simplifies installation and interfaces with production robotics. The precise, servo-based actuation controls allow for greater freedom to design and join components with three-dimensional contours in small-part applications for the medical, electronics, automotive, and appliance industries.
Learn more.
When design engineers think about slip clutches, they first think of using them for overload protection. While this is certainly a valuable application, there are a surprising number of other applications that solve many engineering problems. See real-world applications of Polyclutch slip clutches, from conveyors and military robots to vending machines, printers, and more. There's a good Selection Guide here too.
Learn more.
Need steel products with a special edge? NIPPON KINZOKU CO. of Japan offers its Fine Profile cold-rolled technology that produces metal pieces with irregularly shaped cross-sections of different thicknesses. By rolling the uneven pattern on the roll surface, it is possible to process various designs and functions such as unique designs, oil grooves, gloss prevention, identification grooves, etc. Final products can be delivered in a variety of forms such as record rolls, oscillate rolls, fixed-length products, and secondary processing. An interesting alternative to machining processes such as cutting and grinding.
Learn more.
A new process converts carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into valuable carbon nanofibers. Using tandem electrocatalytic (blue ring) and thermocatalytic (orange ring) reactions to convert the CO2 (teal and silver molecules) plus water (purple and teal) into "fixed" carbon nanofibers (silver), it makes hydrogen gas (H2, purple) as a beneficial byproduct. [Credit: Zhenhua Xie/Brookhaven National Lab and Columbia University; Erwei Huang/Brookhaven National Lab]
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, into carbon nanofibers, materials with a wide range of unique properties and many potential long-term uses. Their strategy uses tandem electrochemical and thermochemical reactions run at relatively low temperatures and ambient pressure.
As the scientists describe in the journal Nature Catalysis, this approach could lock carbon away in a useful solid form successfully to offset or even achieve negative carbon emissions.
"You can put the carbon nanofibers into cement to strengthen the cement," said Jingguang Chen, a professor of chemical engineering at Columbia with a joint appointment at Brookhaven Lab who led the research. "That would lock the carbon away in concrete for at least 50 years, potentially longer. By then, the world should be shifted to primarily renewable energy sources that don't emit carbon."
As a bonus, the process also produces hydrogen gas (H2), a promising alternative fuel that, when used, creates zero emissions.
Capturing or converting carbon
The idea of capturing CO2 or converting it to other materials to combat climate change is not new, but simply storing CO2 gas can lead to leaks. Additionally, many CO2 conversions produce carbon-based chemicals or fuels that are used right away, which releases CO2 right back into the atmosphere.
"The novelty of this work is that we are trying to convert CO2 into something that is value-added but in a solid, useful form," Chen said.
Such solid carbon materials -- including carbon nanotubes and nanofibers with dimensions measuring billionths of a meter -- have many appealing properties, including strength and thermal and electrical conductivity. However, it's no simple matter to extract carbon from carbon dioxide and get it to assemble into these fine-scale structures. One direct, heat-driven process requires temperatures in excess of 1,000 C.
"It's very unrealistic for large-scale CO2 mitigation," Chen said. "In contrast, we found a process that can occur at about 400 degrees Celsius, which is a much more practical, industrially achievable temperature."
The electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic tandem strategy for CNF production circumvents thermodynamic constraints by combining the co-electrolysis of CO2 and water into syngas (CO and H2) with a subsequent thermochemical process under mild conditions (370 to 450 C, ambient pressure). This yields a high CNF production rate. [Credit: Zhenhua Xie/Brookhaven National Lab and Columbia University]
The tandem two-step
The trick was to break the reaction into stages and to use two different types of catalysts -- materials that make it easier for molecules to come together and react.
"If you decouple the reaction into several sub-reaction steps, you can consider using different kinds of energy input and catalysts to make each part of the reaction work," said Brookhaven Lab and Columbia research scientist Zhenhua Xie, lead author on the paper.
The scientists started by realizing that carbon monoxide (CO) is a much better starting material than CO2 for making carbon nanofibers (CNF). Then they backtracked to find the most efficient way to generate CO from CO2.
Earlier work from their group steered them to use a commercially available electrocatalyst made of palladium supported on carbon. Electrocatalysts drive chemical reactions using an electric current. In the presence of flowing electrons and protons, the catalyst splits both CO2 and water (H2O) into CO and H2.
For the second step, the scientists turned to a heat-activated thermocatalyst made of an iron-cobalt alloy. It operates at temperatures around 400 C, significantly milder than a direct CO2-to-CNF conversion would require. They also discovered that adding a bit of extra metallic cobalt greatly enhances the formation of the carbon nanofibers.
"By coupling electrocatalysis and thermocatalysis, we are using this tandem process to achieve things that cannot be achieved by either process alone," Chen said.
Recycle-ready, carbon-negative
"Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis conducted at CFN revealed the morphologies, crystal structures, and elemental distributions within the carbon nanofibers both with and without catalysts," said CFN scientist and study co-author Sooyeon Hwang.
The images show that, as the carbon nanofibers grow, the catalyst gets pushed up and away from the surface. That makes it easy to recycle the catalytic metal, Chen said.
"We use acid to leach the metal out without destroying the carbon nanofiber, so we can concentrate the metals and recycle them to be used as a catalyst again," he said.
This ease of catalyst recycling, commercial availability of the catalysts, and relatively mild reaction conditions for the second reaction all contribute to a favorable assessment of the energy and other costs associated with the process, the researchers said.
If these processes are driven by renewable energy, the results would be truly carbon-negative, opening new opportunities for CO2 mitigation.
Source: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Published February 2024