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Digital Engineering: How a private jet gets a high-end refurb

Ever wonder how private jets get overhauled from standard OEM layouts to exotic, artful interiors? It takes engineering expertise, specialty design skills, and true craftspeople. Increasingly, it also takes automation provided by middleware to weave a digital thread through CAD, BOM, ERP, and PDM software.
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How AI is quietly transforming simulation

Is AI really useful, or is it just a passing trend? Balavignesh Vemparala, an R&D Engineer II at ANSYS, lays out a compelling case for how artificial intelligence is already hard at work in the simulation world with real results for users. From faster solves to accelerated workflows, improved quality and traceability, generative models, and more, discover what you might be overlooking when it comes to real-world AI application. Worth the read.
Read this informative ANSYS blog.

All about photoelectric sensors

From counting boxes on a conveyor and ensuring precise packaging and labeling to the automatic doors you walk through daily, learn all about photoelectric sensors and the options available from AutomationDirect. Did you know there are four main types? Familiarize yourself with their constructions, capabilities, and their main pros and cons. A good basic primer or refresh.
View the AutomationDirect video.

Halex liquid-tight and FMC conduit fittings

Automation-Direct has added Halex liquid-tight metallic and non-metallic fittings that ensure a secure bond between conduits and enclosures, delivering a dependable seal that protects against moisture, oil, and contaminants. Available in trade sizes from 3/8 in. to 2 in. in both straight and 90-degree configurations, these fittings come with insulated and non-insulated options. Halex Flexible Metal Conduit (FMC) fittings provide strong, reliable connections between flexible metal conduit, or aluminum and steel AC/MC cable, and metal boxes or enclosures. Offered in trade sizes from 3/8 in. to 4 in., these fittings are available in straight and 90-degree styles with a choice of squeeze, screw-in, set screw, saddle, or specialty connectors. Corrosion-resistant zinc finish.
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Machine vision enforces zero-defect manufacturing of engine fans

Engine cooling fan failure in commercial vehicle applications can result in power unit overheating and catastrophic engine damage. To mitigate these risks, a leading manufacturer of engine components has deployed an advanced machine vision system based on SVS-Vistek cameras to enforce zero-defect quality standards. The implementation presented substantial technical challenges.
Read the full article.

Do-it-yourself board-level EMI shielding

ProtoShield sheets from Tech-Etch are depth-etched with a checkerboard pattern for folding, so they can be easily formed into many diverse configurations. In the product-development stage, fully functional shields can be created in minutes with just a pair of scissors and a straight edge for folding. Offered in two sizes: standard (.25-in. squares) and metric (5-mm squares). Both versions are solderable and corrosion resistant due to nickel silver material. Shield prototypes can be directly soldered to the board, or shield clips can be used for easy mounting. Samples available.
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New angle sensors designed for rugged applications

Novotechnik's new Vert-X 26 Series of non-contacting magnetic angle sensors use the Hall effect to track the position of the shaft and are designed for rugged applications like automotive and off-highway equipment where high humidity, dampness, dust, and/or vibrations are expected. They are plug-in sensors using an AMP MQ5 6-pole connector, with a measurement range from 0 to 360 degrees. Both single and fully redundant versions are available.
Learn more.

Cool Tools: Mobile surface measuring solution

With its lightweight, compact design and the smallest skidless probe system available on the market, the MarSurf M 510 Series is an ideal solution for precise surface measurement across a wide range of applications. The series offers convenient mobile testing of P, R, and W parameters with just one instrument, and users can create up to 1,000 measuring programs. This instrument can cover a broad spectrum of applications in sectors such as mechanical engineering, automotive, medical, and aerospace.
Learn more from Mahr.

Code-free LIN LED driver rewrites the rules of automotive LED design

Melexis has unveiled the MLX80124, a highly configurable, code-free LIN LED driver. It is designed to radically simplify the development of dynamic RGB-LED automotive ambient lighting applications for engineers of all backgrounds. The MLX80124's unique innovation enables engineers to configure behavior without writing or compiling a single line of code. Instead, a GUI provides access to configurable parameters, delivering the full lighting functionality expected by tier 1 suppliers and OEMs.
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EMI filters -- the first line of defense in military/aerospace electronics

When failure is not an option, high-reliability EMI filters deliver superior high-frequency EMI suppression for mission-critical applications in aerospace and defense. The experts at Johanson Technology run through your options and what makes each type beneficial for specific applications.
Read the full article.

Fastest workstation for SOLIDWORKS?

What's the fastest new workstation for SOLIDWORKS users? The experts at TriMech Group have done their testing and made their decision. It's the Dell Pro Max Tower T2. Dell's Precision Brand top-range PCs have a new name -- Pro Max -- and they are the only units certified for professional applications such as SOLIDWORKS and CATIA. Learn why TriMech thinks this PC, which replaces the best-selling Dell Precision 3680 model, is a winner.
View the video.

Cool Tools: HandySCAN BLACK Elite handheld 3D scanner

Optimized to meet the needs of design, manufacturing, and metrology professionals, FARO's HandySCAN BLACK Elite provides an effective and reliable way to acquire accurate 3D measurements of physical objects anywhere.
Read the full article.

Rotary sensor counts to 44 turns -- even when you lose power!

Novotechnik, U.S. introduces the MC-1 2800 Series of 44-Turn multi-turn sensors with several new output interfaces. These sensors feature patented, non-volatile technology that retains turn count even when power is lost and reports correct count when power is restored. In addition to the IO-Link interface, the MC-1 now features an analog ratiometric, CANopen, and CAN SAE J1939 interface options. Mechanical life is more than 50 million movements. Applications include automotive and off-highway vehicle steering and driveline, agricultural and construction machinery, medical equipment, and gate drives.
Learn more.

How to cut EMI gasket costs for military projects

Specialty Silicone Products (SSP) says it is enabling defense contractors to reduce EMI gasket costs without compromising quality or performance. In addition to cost-effective nickel-graphite materials, SSP provides molded or bonded EMI frame gaskets that maximize yields and reduce waste. SSP also makes continuous rolls that are less expensive to produce and faster to fabricate into finished parts.
Read the SSP blog.

Great Resources: Flexible circuit design guide

Tech-Etch uses advanced techniques to manufacture flex and rigid-flex circuits to exacting customer specs. Special processes include selective plating a single circuit with two different finishes, contoured circuits with variable metal thickness, semi-additive and subtractive techniques, open window or cantilevered contact leads, plus SMT for component assembly. Tech-Etch specializes in flexible circuits for medical, telecommunications, aerospace, semiconductor, and other high-reliability electronic applications.
Learn about flex circuits and get the guide (no registration required).

New chip-sized, energy-efficient optical amplifier can intensify light 100 times

Close-up of an optical amplifier chip, similar to the one detailed in this study, that is being developed in the lab of Stanford physicist Amir Safavi-Naeini. A red laser light shines from an optical fiber on the left to help with aligning the fiber to the chip. [Credit: Jim Gensheimer for Stanford University]

Light does a lot of work in the modern world, enabling all types of information technology from TVs to satellites to fiber-optic cables that carry the internet across oceans. Stanford physicists recently found a way to make that light work even harder with an optical amplifier that requires low amounts of energy without any loss of bandwidth -- all on a device the size of a fingertip.

Similar to sound amplifiers, optical amplifiers take a light signal and intensify it. Current small-sized optical amplifiers need a lot of power to function. The new optical amplifier, detailed in the journal Nature, solves this problem by using a method that essentially recycles the energy used to power it.

"We've demonstrated, for the first time, a truly versatile, low-power optical amplifier, one that can operate across the optical spectrum and is efficient enough that it can be integrated on a chip," said Amir Safavi-Naeini, the study's senior author and associate professor of physics in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences. "That means we can now build much more complex optical systems than were possible before."

The Stanford-developed device achieves about 100 times amplification, or increase the intensity of a light signal, while only using a couple hundred milliwatts of power -- a fraction of what is typically required for existing optical amplifiers of similar size. That efficiency, coupled with its small size, means the amplifier could be powered by a battery and used in laptops and smartphones.

Less power and less noise
Just like sound amplifiers, optical amplifiers tend to add unwanted noise when they boost a signal. The researchers demonstrated that this amplifier adds as little noise as possible. It also has a broader bandwidth than current amplifiers, meaning it supports a greater optical spectrum. Together, this indicates it has greater data-carrying capacity with less interference.

This kind of optical amplifier is powered by the energy stored in a light beam acting as a type of "pump," and its performance depends on the intensity of that light beam.

"By recycling the energy of the pump that powers this amplifier, we made it more efficient, and this doesn't come at a cost to its other properties," said Devin Dean, co-first author on the study and a doctoral student in Safavi-Naeini's lab.

The team accomplished this by using a resonant design, which is already used by lasers as an "energy recycling trick," according to Dean. This involves doubling light back on itself, which increases its intensity, as happens when light gets caught between two mirrors.

Stanford doctoral student Devin Dean (right) prepares to measure an optical amplifier chip in the lab of Amir Safavi-Naeini, (left) associate professor of applied physics. Dean, Safavi-Naeni, and Taewon Park (middle) are co-authors of the study describing a new low-power optical amplifier chip that can fit on devices as small as a smartphone. [Credit: Jim Gensheimer for Stanford University]

In this particular amplifier, the pump light is generated inside a resonator -- it travels in a circular loop like a racetrack and builds to higher intensities and therefore can better boost the desired beam. The design provides more intensity for less input power, making it more efficient.

Because of its small size and lower energy requirements, the optical amplifier could be powered by a battery -- and be something used in a device as small as a smartphone.

"When you can do that, then the possibilities are really quite broad because they are so small that you can mass produce them and power them with batteries," Dean said. "They could be used potentially for data communications, biosensing, making new light sources, or a host of different things."

Source: Stanford University

Published February 2026

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