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Superior fastening solution for securing rotating components to a shaft

Shaftloc^® fasteners offer distinct advantages over other fastening methods when securing rotating components to a shaft. The key to this compact, efficient design is its asymmetric thread geometry that produces a greater clamping force -- outperforming other fastening methods. Shaftloc is a patented fastening system manufactured by SDP/SI.
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Print 316L stainless steel on Markforged printers

316L Stainless Steel is now available for use with Markforged FX10 printers, allowing users to manufacture high-strength, accurate parts for demanding applications such as food and beverage processing, automotive, chemical and petrochemical processing, medical devices, and marine environments. This filament is safe and easy to handle. It makes machinable and polishable parts that have excellent corrosion resistance.
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10 best updates from the last 5 years: SOLIDWORKS

Follow along with the experts at TriMech Group as they chronicle the top feature updates in SOLIDWORKS. Are you still using SOLIDWORKS 2020 -- or an even older version? Find out what you are missing, such as: enhanced rendering and new technical drawing tools; improved file sharing, collaboration, and workflows; advanced customization and UI improvements; faster and more efficient assemblies and simulations; and more.
View the TriMech video.

Engineer's Toolbox: How to design the optimum hinge

Although many pin styles are available, Coiled Spring Pins are particularly well suited for use in both friction- and free-fit hinges. To achieve optimum long-term hinge performance, designers should observe these helpful design guidelines from SPIROL.
Read the full article.

Innovative new robo welding gun

Comau's newest N-WG welding gun is designed for high-speed spot welding for traditional, hybrid, and electric vehicles, in addition to general industry sectors. It features a patented, single-body architecture that enables rapid reconfiguration between welding types and forces, and it delivers consistent performance across a broad range of applications, including steel and (soon) aluminum welding. It supports both X and C standard gun configurations, has fast arm exchange, and universal mounting options. It is fully compatible with major robot brands and represents a significant advancement in spot welding performance and cost efficiency.
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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.
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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.
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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.

Nanofibers yield stronger, tougher carbon fiber composites

By Greg Cunningham, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed an innovative new technique using carbon nanofibers to enhance binding in carbon fiber and other fiber-reinforced polymer composites -- an advance likely to improve structural materials for automobiles, airplanes, and other applications that require lightweight and strong materials.

The results, published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, show promise for making products that are stronger and more affordable, opening new options for U.S. manufacturers to use carbon fiber in applications such as energy and national security.

Here, a carbon fiber is prepared for mounting in a device to test its adhesion to a polymer matrix. ORNL researchers are using polymer nanofibers to increase the adhesion, and thus the performance, of carbon fiber composites. [Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy]

"The challenge of improving adhesion between carbon fibers and the polymer matrix that surrounds them has been a concern in industry for some time, and a lot of research has gone into different approaches," said Sumit Gupta, the ORNL researcher who led the project. "What we found is that a hybrid technique using carbon nanofibers to create chemical and mechanical bonding yields excellent results."

Carbon fiber is a type of composite in which strands of pure carbon are embedded in a polymer matrix, making the resulting material stronger and lighter than steel. The challenge is that the matrix polymer does not cling strongly enough to the carbon fiber, reducing the performance of the composite material. To improve the fiber-matrix interfacial bond, industry has tried texturing the exterior of the fibers or injecting chemicals into the process -- with limited success.

The ORNL approach combines both mechanical and chemical bonding to yield a 50% improvement in tensile strength and a nearly two-fold increase in toughness, essentially the durability of the material, through use of carefully tailored nanofibers.

"We developed this process in 2023 but have been focused lately on optimizing it and fully understanding the physical processes that enable these improvements," said ORNL researcher Chris Bowland. "We found that by carefully controlling multiple variables, we can create nanofibers that greatly enhance the performance of carbon fiber composites and potentially other types of composites."

The key to the improvements is an innovative technique known as electrospinning in which a carbon fiber precursor, polyacrylonitrile, is extruded into fibers, much like a spider extrudes silk from its abdomen. The polyacrylonitrile is extruded through a strong electric field to produce strands about 200 nanometers wide, or one-hundredth the width of a typical human hair. The strands land on a spinning metal drum overwrapped with carbon fiber fabric.

By varying the strength of the electric field, the speed of the drum, and other factors, the researchers can create fibers that chemically bond to the matrix and mechanically bond to other carbon fibers, essentially creating "bridges" between the two dissimilar materials. The researchers were also able to control the types of chemical bonding and the orientation of the fibers by tweaking the electrospinning conditions.

ORNL researchers, from left, Sumit Gupta and Chris Bowland, inspect carbon fiber materials as part of their effort to improve the performance of composite materials. [Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy]

The research team has applied for a patent on the technique and plans to seek out industrial partners to license the approach in hopes of improving the competitiveness of commercial carbon fiber composites, which are already used extensively in applications such as automobiles, aerospace, and energy. They see potential for the reinforcing technique to open new applications for the use of carbon fiber, such as civil infrastructure or defense and security.

A key limiting factor to broader carbon fiber deployment is cost. By improving fiber adhesion, manufacturers can use less of the material and even use shorter carbon fibers, known as discontinuous fibers, that might otherwise have been discarded.

To ensure the new technique is as impactful and flexible as possible, the team wanted to deeply understand the forces at play at the most fundamental levels. They first turned to ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science user facility, and its vast array of characterization and imaging tools. These tools allowed the researchers to see what was happening at the sub-micron level. They also used techniques such as X-ray scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging to understand how the fibers and matrix interact. Finally, they accessed the Frontier supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility, to fully model and simulate how the fibers form and interact with the matrix.

"The characterization and computational science really required the resources of a place like ORNL," Gupta said. "By accessing expertise and capabilities from across the lab, we gained a deeper understanding of this technique, along with the ability to improve it and make it more flexible for industry to use in multiple applications."

The research team plans to continue refining the electrospinning technique to provide greater control and better results while exploring potential applications for other fiber-reinforced composites. Ongoing research is looking into integrating the new technique with prior research on developing self-sensing composites that can monitor their own health through embedded particles of semiconducting or piezoelectric materials.

Read more about this project: "Simulations reveal the secret to strengthening carbon fiber."

Published July 2025

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