News Archive - Page 6 of 13

Thermal management technologies and the economics of advanced manufacturing

sbondadmin February 11, 2013

In a recent article for Ideas Laboratory, Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, discussed the economic factors affecting innovation in today’s advanced manufacturing landscape.

Since the end of World War II, industries have been moving toward the “electrification of factories,” abandoning the steam- and water-powered mechanical systems of yesterday. As this paradigm shift took place, thermal management technologies became critical in facilitating this change and improving process efficiency.

Oftentimes, when we think of thermal management of electronics, we have in mind heat sinks that keep our laptop computers from overheating, or systems that allow each generation of smartphone to be more powerful than the last without dying in the midst of critical tasks. However, the consumer products we take for granted every day would never reach store shelves if it weren’t for the technologies that power the manufacturing facilities themselves.

“The recognition of the amount of energy that can be saved by replacing belt drives and hydraulic systems with electric drives equipped with power semiconductor controls is spawning many innovative new approaches,” Shih wrote. “One engineer at a factory I visited recently told me that higher vehicle fuel economy standards forced them to break out of their established way of doing things. New approaches were their only hope for hitting the target. This is driving major innovation in the automotive sector.”

Simply put, were it not for technologies developed specifically for dealing with thermally conductive materials, manufacturing facilities everywhere would be decades behind where they are today. Think of these breakthroughs as calculators, and their predecessors as the equivalent of solving every equation in your head. Which one is more efficient and allows you to focus your energy on new innovations?

Antarctic research station built to withstand harsh conditions, slide across ice

sbondadmin February 7, 2013

With the constant hammering snow and shifting ice, Antarctic scientific research stations are always being battered and beaten. But, with a little ingenuity and innovative metal joining methods, British researchers hope their new construct will succeed where others have failed.

Paul Seagrove, a spokesman for the British Antarctic Survey, told R&D Magazine that five stations, all located on what is described as a “floating sheet of ice about 10 miles from the edge of the South Atlantic,” have faced these extreme weather conditions over the years. Most of them were crushed under the weight of the unrelenting snow, while the last one had to be abandoned for fear that the ice sheet was about to split and the station would be lost in the frigid waters.

However, Halley VI, the designation of the latest facility to be built on the Brunt Ice Shelf, is a bit different than its predecessors. According to the news source, it “looks like something out of a ‘Star Wars’ movie.”

The station consists of a series of four-legged modules, each connected via enclosed walkways. The entire structure sits atop “ski-clad stilts” measuring roughly 13 feet tall. These serve to keep the station elevated above the level of the ice, and the whole facility can then be towed to a different location after disconnecting the modules if shifting ice or other factors threaten safety.

As the article explained, Halley VI took four years to complete because engineers only had a very limited window within which to work – the 9-week-long Antarctic summer. In such situations, cutting-edge joining methods for metal are critical for a project’s success. Workers have little room for error and must deal with severe time constraints. They rely on technologies that are efficient and can stand the test of time in harsh environments.

Without innovative ways of joining dissimilar metals, building a structure of this size that can be moved amidst savage snow and shifting ice would be impossible.

GPU Technology Conference focuses on design and engineering innovation

sbondadmin February 5, 2013

In a little more than one month, leading minds from a wide range of industries will come together for the annual NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference. The goal of the three-day event running from March 18 to March 21 in San Jose, California, is to discuss how GPU computing technologies can fuel innovation in design and manufacturing processes.

Everything from mobile computing to cloud solutions and the growing power of supercomputers will be on the table. Specific focuses will include improving efficiency throughout each leg of the product development life cycle and using photo-realistic renderings to minimize the need for building numerous physical prototypes.

However, there are several other innovative technologies without which such a conference would not exist. State-of-the-art thermal management of electronics techniques and active solder solutions are essential before any of the previously mentioned systems can be put to use. They allow products in all of these industries to be built and maintained in the first place.

Computers powerful enough to handle the high-quality, real-time visual simulations manufacturers would need to reduce their reliance on physical prototypes will generate significant amounts of heat – as will mobile devices tasked with increasingly complex functions. Thermal management technologies are the building blocks on which the innovations of countless industries stand.

Last week, Italy’s “Eurora” supercomputer set a record for data center energy efficiency, according to an NVIDIA GPU release.

“Advanced computer simulations that enable scientists to discover new phenomena and test hypotheses require massive amounts of performance, which can consume a lot of power,” said Sanzio Bassini, director of HPC Department at the Cineca facility in Bologna, Italy.

With more power typically comes more heat. For that reason, thermal management will always be critical in any sector reliant on electronics.

Aluminum soldering techniques help build anti-piracy robot

sbondadmin January 31, 2013

Thanks in part to highly effective aluminum soldering techniques, a state-of-the-art robot could help save the lives of Naval officers boarding vessels that are suspected of smuggling, embargo violations or piracy, according to Popular Mechanics.

The Stingray weighs about three pounds and can be used by U.S. Navy Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) teams to avoid potentially deadly booby traps or assaults by a ship’s crew. It is made of a carbon-fiber and aluminum chassis and can be tossed down the “ladder of death” into the depths of a vessel before sailors themselves make the descent.

Made to be extremely durable and waterproof, the Stingray can be tossed from one compartment to the next without being damaged, so its video camera can alert the VBSS team of any obstacles or hostiles in the area. It is even equipped with a strobing light that can be used to simulate the visual disorientation one would feel with a flashbang grenade.Then, the team would have a tactical advantage over any adversaries planning to engage them in combat.

“It functions similarly to flashbang grenades, without the audio portion, but is reusable,” Hoa Nguyen, one of the Stingray’s developers from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, told the news source. “It is meant to temporarily blind the hostile personnel in a confined, dark space.”

By understanding advanced techniques of how to bond aluminum to other materials, researchers were able to build a robotic system that will help save American military lives and make international waters safer from pirates, smugglers and their ilk.

As we continue to innovate new ways of joining dissimilar metals and various other substances, the potential for saving lives will grow exponentially.

New satellite initiative hinges on thermal management technologies

sbondadmin January 30, 2013

Cutting-edge thermal management technologies are being sought by the research and development arm of the Pentagon in an effort to salvage usable components from decommissioned satellites currently orbiting the Earth.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is spearheading the program known as Phoenix.

“The goal of the Phoenix program is to develop and demonstrate technologies to cooperatively harvest and reuse valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in [geosynchronous orbit] and demonstrate the ability to create new space systems at greatly reduced cost,” the agency said in a press statement. “Phoenix seeks to demonstrate around-the-clock, globally persistent communication capability for warfighters more economically, by robotically removing and re-using GEO-based space apertures and antennas from decommissioned satellites in the graveyard or disposal orbit.”

According to DARPA’s official outline of the Phoenix program, there are a number of areas in which they are looking for innovative technologies that can help the project succeed. This includes a wide range of extremely powerful micro-electronic components and memory storage systems. These must be able to withstand the various forms of radiation commonly found in space.

Between the radiation and the heat generated by the components themselves, DARPA is placing significant emphasis on the need for thermal management of electronics technologies that are up to the challenge. Then – equipped with a series of sensors, diagnostic and robotic tools – very small satellites, dubbed “satlets,” can assess parts of decommissioned satellites and recover them for use in other active ones.

If successful, we could see myriad benefits, from improved connectivity for military personnel in the field to drastically reduced costs associated with global satellite communications.

Qualcomm head talks future of wireless and mobile technologies

sbondadmin January 30, 2013

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs recently sat down with Bloomberg Businessweek’s Charlie Rose to discuss the past, present and future of mobile computing. According to Jacobs, 5 billion smartphones will be sold worldwide between now and 2016 – and none of that would be possible without innovative thermal management technologies.

Jacobs reminisced about the early days of mobile computing and how Steve Jobs, the late co-founder, CEO and visionary that built the Apple empire, served as its catalyst. Now, the future potential of such personal electronic devices is staggering.

“Then I look out even farther into the future and I say, boy, this wireless technology is going to be an enabling technology for a lot of other industries,” he told the news source. “And one of the areas that we’re really focused on is [healthcare]. The idea is that the phone is going to sit at the center of a web of sensors that you’ll have on your body. You may actually even have them inside your body.”

Jacobs went on to offer some hints at a new technology being worked on that would actually place sensors inside a human being’s blood stream and provide early warnings of possible health complications like heart attacks.

Whatever the future holds, Jacobs is right about at least one thing. Wireless technology is indeed an enabling technology. The paradigm-shifting innovations that have been made in the development of semiconductors and the soldering solutions that allow them to be pack a powerful punch into such small devices affects virtually every industry today.

Cutting-edge thermal management of electronics allows them to deliver unparalleled computing power in the palm of one’s hand. As leading minds in the industrial sciences continue to make breakthroughs, wireless and mobile technology will not only continue to enable advancements in existing markets, but likely lead to the creation of entirely new industries.

Naval researchers use new sensors to detect explosives, dangerous chemicals

sbondadmin January 28, 2013

In the modern combat arena, United States military personnel are under constant threat from an enemy lying in wait. IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, are strategically placed along roadsides and in buildings where they can cause the most destruction and take as many lives as possible. But, thanks to the development of new state-of-the-art sensors, scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory are hoping to help the armed forces defeat this menacing foe.

As Dr. Chris Field explains in a video for Tech Briefs TV, the SiN-VAPOR sensor is about the size of a quarter and could be attached to mobile devices, like smartphones, and carried onto the battlefield. SiN-VAPOR stands for silicon nanowire vertical array with a porous electrode. While sensors of a decade ago struggled to detect certain chemical vapors in the parts per million range, the SiN-VAPOR routinely picks up chemicals in the parts per billion range.

“If every soldier has one of these sensors, and they are on some sort of communication network such as a cell phone, they can all talk to each other,” Field says. “All the sensors can communicate with each other and you can begin to map the area from a chemical [perspective]. We do a lot of work in doing topography and mapping of landscapes and such. We’d like to do the same thing with chemical vapors.”

Silicon bonding techniques make such sensors possible in the size and form factor that allow them to be affixed to mobile devices. Then, an individual can walk into a room and immediately detect explosives present, potentially saving the lives of everyone in the area.

As sensor technology continues to improve and is coupled with advancements in thermal management of electronics, U.S. military personnel around the world – and even law enforcement officials at home – will be able to use mobile devices as critical field operational tools.

The right thermal management technologies could correct the course of Boeing’s Dreamliner

sbondadmin January 21, 2013

As this blog discussed last week, the woes that have beset Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners appear to be related to problems with thermal management technologies used in lithium ion batteries onboard the craft.

Several airlines operating Dreamliners have reported swollen and leaking batteries and subsequent fires. Such incidents have prompted emergency landings, flight cancellations and aviation regulatory bodies in several countries issuing orders grounding the jets until their investigations can be completed.

These are the latest in a series of technical difficulties Boeing’s newest 787s have encountered since they were first used in late 2011, not to mention numerous production delays prior to that. So, is the 787 Dreamliner the aviation industry equivalent of a lemon? A recent article in The Verge says that it is not, and makes a compelling argument as to why.

“Government regulators, manufacturers like Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer, airlines, and pilots operate out of an abundance of caution because the stakes are so high with every flight that leaves the ground, and you’d be hard pressed to find a single model of airliner that hasn’t been beset with numerous upgrades and retroactive fixes designed to make them safer,” the article says.

The news source goes on to cite a bevy of difficulties other manufacturers and commercial aircraft have faced throughout the years. In the case of the Dreamliner, there doesn’t seem to be a particularly vexing problem that has Boeing engineers scratching their heads. Dealing with thermally conductive materials and innovating the appropriate battery and active solder technologies is something that companies like S-Bond have been doing for years.

Does Boeing have some adjustments to make? Sure. But, thanks to industry leaders that are never caught resting on their laurels, they are far from having to scrap the more than $30 billion The Verge reports Boeing spent on research and development for the Dreamliner.

DARPA underwater capsule would store sensors on ocean’s floor

sbondadmin January 18, 2013

In the middle of the vast ocean, an unmanned craft lays on the surface of the seabed, prepared to deploy non-lethal weapons against enemy watercraft and sensors with the ability to communicate certain conditions to recipients in faraway locations. These don’t exist, but they could, if the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) proceeds on its Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program.

This project, details of which DARPA will announce in a January 25 briefing, would allow the U.S. Navy to send capsules to strategic positions across the ocean’s floor. These craft would rest at the bottom of the sea for months or even years, ready to burst from the depths whenever called upon. Ultimately, the objective would be to surprise enemy naval forces with non-lethal attacks – such as lasers or strobe lights – while communicating key information to friendly combatants via sensors.

It’s not an easy project to consider. Constructing a cache that would be able to withstand years of steady ocean pressure and resist corrosive deterioration is a significant challenge. It could be an expensive endeavor, though the benefits are important. With unmanned craft providing reconnaissance and critical resources, the U.S. Navy might be better prepared for the unexpected.

A report from Gizmag notes that DARPA has the benefit of years of deep sea work conducted by the telecommunications and the oil and gas exploration industries, which for years have had to engineer underwater infrastructure. However, the undersea capsules – and the sensors stored within – would need to find a way to communicate across significant expanses of ocean, with the high risk of interference, in unusual conditions. Those challenges are a steep mountain to climb for DARPA’s researchers, and it will be interesting to see if they deliver on these efforts.

Battery thermal management problems plague Boeing Dreamliners, force emergency landing in Japan

sbondadmin January 18, 2013

In recent weeks, the newest Boeing 787 passenger jets have encountered several problems that have prompted aviation officials across the globe to ground them until these issues can be resolved. Paramount among the concerns seems to be thermal management technologies used in the lithium ion batteries onboard the aircraft.

One such jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan Thursday due to a swollen and overheated battery beneath the cockpit, according to the Associated Press. Crew members detected a burning smell, which was later traced to an electrical room where there were visible burn marks and electrolyte fluids that had leaked from the battery.

GS Yuasa Corp., which manufacturers the batteries for Boeing, told the AP that it has not been officially determined if the problem lies with the battery, the power source or the electrical system. In the meantime, nearly all of the 50 Boeing 787s, dubbed Dreamliners, have been taken out of commission around the world. Authorities in the United States, Japan and several European nations have mandated that the jets be grounded until their investigations are completed.

We often talk about thermal management of electronics when it comes to smartphones and computers. In those devices, overheating is an inconvenience. But, in a passenger jet, hundreds of lives may literally hang in the balance if the most efficient technologies are not employed.

Francesco Ciucci, a mechanical engineering professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, expressed his surprise to the news source that such “thermal mismanagement” could happen on board a Boeing jet in this day and age – especially considering the advancements that have been made in recent years.

S-Bond Technologies has developed active solder technology to bond many advanced thermal management materials that have application for cooling batteries, electronics and LEDs, which are all being used more and more in aircraft like the Boeing Dreamliner.

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