End of the Line

Additive manufacturing: Ukraine's game changer?

Engineering.com — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0500

3D printing, or additive manufacturing as it’s known in the industry, have revolutionized warfare, as seen in the current Ukraine Russia conflict.

The ability to mass-produce first-person view drones in the thousands has created a new battlefield, where traditional doctrines about armor and logistics have been changed forever.

Not only do the drones make attacking armies more vulnerable, additive manufacturing allows production to be extensively decentralized, making it much harder for adversaries to degrade production capability.

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Scaled Composites’ Vanguard may be the 21st Century equivalent to the Cold War F-5

Engineering.com — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Northrup Grumman subsidiary Scaled Composites have created a small single-pilot fighter jet, the Vanguard. It could be the 21st century version of the the 1960's F-5 Freedom Fighter: low cost, but high-performance.

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Are there too many space launch providers?

Engineering.com — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0500

The market for orbital launch services is considerable, but limited. Is the room for all the players?

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Can AI fix Aviation, and Boeing?

Engineering.com — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0500

As software controlling everything from video games to jet airliners has become too complex to make completely error proof, the move to increasing flight automation continues to carry risk.

No one knows this more than Boeing, but the fundamental problem of systems that are too complex for humans to check means that safety may ultimately be handed over to artificial intelligence. First, for checking human generated code, then permitting the code itself, and finally, the piloting of the airplanes themselves.

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Boeing’s, and NASA’s Dilemma With Starliner

Engineering.com — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0500

There is plenty of talk in the mainstream media about the technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, but the real engineering issue is not rooted in pressure vessels, valves or lines. It’s management.

Starliner has launched previously to the international Space Station uncrewed, so the capability for fully autonomous flight exists at Boeing. The current flight was configured for human piloting, so the obvious option for Williams and Wilmore, which is to bring them back with a SpaceX capsule, may become necessary if NASA and Boeing can’t reconfigure Starliner to work around the thruster issues.

The zero risk option? Fly the astronauts back by SpaceX, then fly Starliner back empty, fix the issues, and launch it again. If Starliner returns unharmed, the decision will look like an abundance of caution, but all concerned will come out looking good.

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The Facetmobile Light Airplane: Why Didn't it Ever Take Off?

Engineering.com — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Barnaby Wainfan designed a radically different lifting body light aircraft over 30 years ago, that exhibited superior performance in almost every metric: speed, lifting capacity, interior volume, stall performance and centre of gravity tolerance. It’s also cheap and easy to build.

His designs are much talked about at the annual Oshkosh fly in for aviation enthusiasts, yet major aircraft manufacturers seem to be allergic to his innovations.

Despite advantages in almost every metric relevant to light aircraft design, the industry appears wedded to conventional wings and fuselage design.

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3D Printing: When Does This Technology Deliver on Its Promise?

Engineering.com — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Very few technologies in manufacturing have ever offered as much as 3D printing. Additive manufacturing is revolutionary in the way that computer numerical controlled machining was 50 years ago, and for some high-value industries, it’s a standard production tool.

But it’s been around for over 25 years in usable forms, and in the high-volume mass production consumer goods that we all use, additive manufacturing has yet to emerge as a production process.

Jim Anderson spoke with industry leader Glynn Fletcher, President of EOS North America at the 2024 RAPID/TCT additive show in the Los Angeles about the challenge and future of additive as a production technology.

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Tailgates were better in the 1970's

Engineering.com — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Before there were SUVs, there were station wagons, and millions of families loved the fake wood panelling, roof rack, but importantly, a comfortable ride with plenty of hauling capacity.

In the age before the SUV, this was a hotly contested market for the Detroit Three. Ford claimed to own this segment, and a major selling feature was their innovative two-way tailgate, which flipped down like a pickup truck, or could open like a car door, courtesy of a very clever hinge and latch arrangement.

And how did General Motors respond? With a system so clever and useful, that the gimmick laden tailgates of today’s SUV’s and light trucks don’t even come close.

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When will we get to ride into suborbital space?

Engineering.com — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:15:00 -0500

The dream of every space enthusiast everywhere has been that spaceships would be, Starliners - craft that you could climb into, buckle up, and fly into orbit, a little like the way we use jets and airports. Fuel the vehicle, light the engines and go.

This may happen someday, but not anytime soon.

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Tesla backs away from the giant “gigacasted” chassis

Engineering.com — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:30:00 -0500

The invention of gigantic diecasting machines has made it possible for Tesla to cast front and rear subframe assemblies as a single unit. But the predicted move to a single large diecast chassis for the upcoming small vehicle project appears to have been abandoned, according to a recent Reuters report. While technically possible, there are serious engineering questions about the practicality of a one-piece diecast chassis.

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Next Gen cars in NASCAR: it’s less about engineering and more about driving

Engineering.com — Thu, 30 May 2024 17:00:00 -0500

Technical innovation in NASCAR has been a feature of the sport since its inception in 1949. Finding a competitive edge meant pushing rules to their limits and beyond, making mechanics as much the stars of the sport is drivers.

Today’s next-generation NASCAR cup series cars however, are factory built, largely interchangeable and are no longer fabricated by race teams themselves. Similar cars means very close racing, creating a grand spectacle for fans. For many, putting the sport primarily into the hands of the drivers is a step forward, but for fans that love the engineering side of the sport, something has been lost.

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The EV market is in trouble. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Engineering.com — Fri, 24 May 2024 09:00:00 -0500

If you follow the electric vehicle market anywhere in the world today, it’s pretty much bad news these days. That’s especially true in America, where slowing production and layoffs at Tesla, Ford and GM are the inevitable result of dramatically softening sales.

The demand for lower-priced vehicles is high, but with current technology, so is the EV MSRP.

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To Get Robots in Every Home, It’s About Actuators, Not AI

Engineering.com — Thu, 16 May 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Everyone wants the universal household robot. According to Jim Anderton, for widespread adoption, they are going to have to have a price point that allows monthly financing or lease payments that are roughly similar to a car, suggesting that manufacturers will need to retail units in the neighbourhood of $ 40,000 to get widescale uptake.

If designed properly, the machines could be durable enough to carry a residual value, creating a secondary market for used equipment, to allow monthly payments that could be affordable for the majority of households.

To achieve this, the robot makers are going to have to stop thinking like NASA, and rethink things like titanium and carbon fiber. Commodity plastic resins, utility grade aluminum alloys and critically, affordable batteries will be the way forward.

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Only Three Technologies Matter Now. Here’s Why.

Engineering.com — Fri, 10 May 2024 09:00:00 -0500

The 20th century was defined by engineering. Mass production of consumer goods, atomic energy, and the development of computer data processing built the world we know today.

In the 21st century, three technologies will define the future: controlled nuclear fusion, artificial intelligence, and a specific class of robot: humanoid, general purpose, electrically actuated robots that operate without code, and function the way humans do.

The impact of these technologies is impossible to predict with certainty, but the latter two innovations, AI and humanoid robotics, will change the nature of work in ways that current makers of industrial SCARA robots can’t imagine.

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Iran's slow moving drones

Engineering.com — Thu, 02 May 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Iran launched a mass drone attack on Israel, with some of the slowest flying offensive aerial vehicles deployed since the Zeppelin raids of World War I.

The result was the loss of the majority of the drones, with very little damage inflicted on targets.

But the attack served a useful political purpose for Tehran, and it suggests that massed attacks of low cost drones against sophisticated defence systems can be stopped, but ironically, may also be useful politically for the attacking nation, even if the attacks fail.

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MacGyvering Drones: Ukraine Converts Light Aircraft into Missiles

Engineering.com — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0500

A Ukrainian made reduction light sport aircraft, the Aeroprakt A-22, appears to have been the platform for a drone attack on a Russian factory in Tataristan, only 800 miles behind the lines and deep inside Russia. While hardly a high-performance platform for drone conversion, these are light sport aircraft has several advantages.

The aircraft is cheap and simple, and uses mechanical flight controls that are relatively easy to automate. It uses no special materials and a commercially available engine, and in flight, is indistinguishable to radar from aircraft and helicopters. The attack was highly successful, and it’s likely that more will be seen on the battlefield in the future

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SpaceX Is Getting Closer to Success with Starship

Engineering.com — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0500

The third test flight of the SpaceX Starship system ended in in the loss of the vehicle as both booster and the orbital vehicle failed. But both booster and space vehicle were far closer to mission success than either of the first two test flights, and changes are underway for flight four.

According to Jim Anderton, the reaction of the engineering team at SpaceX mission control was rather strange. The celebratory atmosphere and cheering make for a stark contrast to the very serious tone of NASA mission control in Houston during Space Shuttle and Apollo Saturn flights.

Is this youthful exuberance, or is there a generational shift in what was once an almost religious reverence for space vehicle launch operations?

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No, Boeing is not in crisis

Engineering.com — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0500

In complex systems, especially in aviation, it’s rarely possible to single out an individual or corporate unit for failures like those seen on Boeing aircraft recently. Several media outlets have been talking about a “bad week for Boeing” with Boeing aircraft losing wheels, experiencing engine fires and dropping vertically while in cruising flight, causing passenger injuries.

On the heels of the Alaska Airlines door plug incident, the optics are bad — but the simple fact is, these incidents involve completely different aircraft models, built over a span of decades. With different failures, and different failure modes, it’s unlikely that Boeing is the sole cause of each one.

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Manufacturing quality assurance: what no one will talk about

Engineering.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0500

A recent CNN story about a former Boeing employee who refuses to fly on the Boeing 737 Max went viral, throwing fuel on the fire over quality issues at the company.

For manufacturing professionals, missing bolts — although serious — are not especially surprising. It’s not widely understood, but it is true that even 100% human visual inspection of a specification or attribute will not even come close to achieving zero-defect production.

Part of the reason is because of the natural limitations in human inspection, but a major issue is that inspectors are subject to the same personal issues that degrade their performance as any other employee. Legal and illegal substance use and abuse, physical illness, mental health issues and physical disability can all play a part.

How a corporation deals with underperforming quality control personnel is another factor. Automation of inspection processes will help, but can sometimes introduce a new level of uncertainty in quality assurance processes. Perfection will always be elusive, but statistically, the accident rate for air travel is at historic lows.

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High car MSRP? Japan has an answer

Engineering.com — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Kei cars are cute, fun, affordable and not available in America.

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Obsolescence is the real cause of e-waste

Engineering.com — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Things are becoming obsolete, faster. Why?

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What’s wrong with Boeing?

Engineering.com — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0500

It isn’t culture, profitability or accounting. It’s the nature of the business.

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Dude, where’s my spaceplane?

Engineering.com — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Hypersonic commercial space planes are just within reach using current technology, with a leading propulsion contender being Reaction Engines’ SABRE combined cycle power plant.

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Nuclear batteries are here. But they're about more than smart phones and smoke detectors.

Engineering.com — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0500

The Betavolt radioisotope-powered battery doesn't have great power output — but it is continuous, suggesting that this technology would be a complement to lithium-ion batteries in many applications such as industrial self-powered sensors.

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Electric Vehicle Demand Is Lagging, and There Is One Reason Why

Engineering.com — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0500

With Ford’s recent production cut for the F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup, many industry analysts are expressing doubt about the continued growth of demand for EVs in America.

With pickup trucks representing the highest volume and highest profit margin segment in the U.S. auto industry, why is demand for an electric version slowing?

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The Boeing Issue Isn’t About Bolts

Engineering.com — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0500

The recent failure of a plug door in an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 generated lots of speculation about the cause of this unusual failure. As is frequently the case when components fall off aircraft, fasteners were immediately brought into question.

Whether or not the plugs were positively fastened to the airframe is still in question, but the mainstream media refers to all aviation fasters as “bolts,” and frequently implies that fasteners are the primary restraining force against cabin air pressure.

While missing fasteners could definitely allow the plug to shift, screws don’t hold back the pressure; the design of the plug does.

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Is the Robinson R22 Helicopter Dangerous?

Engineering.com — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0500

The Robinson R22 and its larger sibling the R44, are two of the most widely produced light helicopters in the world. They are relatively cheap to buy, and have low operating costs, making them popular with flight schools, private pilots and law enforcement agencies. They also have a reputation for crashes.

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Why are so many EV Owners Unhappy?

Engineering.com — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0500

EV’s are the future of motoring. Quiet, smooth, no pollution and no gas. Performance? With both high horsepower and very high torque off idle, we know that electric vehicles are fast and quick. So what’s not to like?

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The PGA is Reining in Long Hitters With New Golf Balls

Engineering.com — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:15:00 -0500

*This is our last episode of 2023! We'll be back again the week of January 8th.*

Golf equipment, particularly golf balls, have seen significant impact of technological advancements, leading to longer driving distances. This trend poses challenges for golf course design as courses struggle to accommodate the increased length. To address this, the PGA, in collaboration with the Royal and Ancient, plans to implement new engineering criteria for golf balls by 2028, aiming to reduce driving distances for both professional and amateur players.

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The Rocket With the Perfect Record? Hint: It's not at SpaceX.

Engineering.com — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The Saturn 1 project originated with a U.S. Army requirement for a heavy lift launch vehicle in the late 1950s and was ready for initial test flights shortly after President Kennedy announced the Apollo moon landing program.

The timing was perfect, since the program needed launch vehicles to test Apollo flight hardware a fast as possible. Reliability of launch vehicle systems early 1960s was not good and explosions, guidance problems and propulsion failures were surprisingly common.

Saturn 1 however, in its first iteration, flew 10 times between 1961 and 1965, with no failures. And then the follow-on Saturn 1B flew 9 times, again with perfect reliability. Why? Great design and forward planning.

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This Pickup Could Be the Future, and Should Be

Engineering.com — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0500

If you live in Southeast Asia, you have multiple options for low-cost motor vehicles that are unavailable in North America. An example is the very utilitarian Toyota pickup, the IMV 0, which has a base price as low as as US$10,000. High style it isn’t, but as a utility vehicle, it combines a very practical form factor with economy and solid engineering.

A typical entry level half-ton pickup in the United States has a transaction price well into the $40,000 range, and Toyota’s own US product is frequently more expensive than that, much more expensive. Is there a market for very basic, rugged and inexpensive utility vehicles in America? With rising interest rates and inflation, the answer is” possibly", but to date, no manufacturer has tested the big American market with a low-priced vehicle.

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SpaceX Starship Test Flight Explodes, But Hot Staging Worked

Engineering.com — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:15:00 -0500

While the second test flight of the SpaceX Starship space launch system ended with the explosion of both booster and spacecraft, perhaps the most technically challenging aspect of the mission, hot staging, operated perfectly. Hot staging simplifies rocket design by eliminating ullage rockets and associated sequencers, but it’s hard on the booster stage, which at SpaceX, is expected to not only survive, but fly back for a soft landing for eventual reuse.

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Why There’s Nothing to Fear From AI

Engineering.com — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Fear that artificial intelligence will replace humans and create a miserable and dystopian world has been a staple of science fiction like the Terminator's Skynet.

But will it actually happen?

Faith in technology is the cornerstone of modern society and from the perspective of the average user, including engineers, computer software already operates as a kind of artificial intelligence. What matters are the answers, and the questions—and until AI learns to read minds, that will always be where humans dominate.

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Are Heat Pumps the Answer for Clean Heat? It Depends.

Engineering.com — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Heat pumps have been around for residential heating and cooling for decades, but the movement toward carbon-free energy has made them more relevant than ever. Compared to purely electric heat, heat pumps are four to five times more efficient. But can they actually replace the combustion of fossil fuels like natural gas, propane or kerosene?

That depends on multiple factors, including the sophistication of the heat pump, the ambient temperatures expected in winter, and whether or not an auxiliary combustion heater will still be needed. If the latter is true, the capital cost of two systems may argue for expenditures to reduce heat loss, rather than replacing the heat source.

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The Biden Administration Wants More EVs. Is It Willing to Use Emergency Powers to Get Them?

Engineering.com — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0500

On March 31, 2022, the Biden Administration announced several measures to address the spike in oil prices caused by the Ukraine war, and slipped in an unusual measure: the Defence Production Act. The DPA is normally used in times of war to authoritatively allocate raw materials and finished goods according to a priority system to ensure that the military has what it needs. But it’s unusual to implement the DPA for raw material production in peacetime.

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Everything is Aggregating Data. That’s Both Good, and Bad

Engineering.com — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0500

In the future, all consumer goods in everyday use will gather performance data, aggregated and transmitted through the cloud back to the products’ manufacturers. For the engineers that design those products, the result is a data set to determine the upper and lower limits of performance for critical components, allowing an iterative design process that lets each generation of component and assembly become optimized for performance.

The result is lower cost, and less environmental impact for each component. That’s good, but that data can also be aggregated by marketers to develop a very accurate profile of individuals in a household, to drive advertising. And it's surrendered to those marketers without compensation. Uploading motor performance data in a washing machine to a design engineer is a good trade for consumers, because they get better machines in return. But surrendering data to an advertising agency without compensation, is bad business.

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Latency is the Enemy: Why Aren’t We Fighting It?

Engineering.com — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Is latency a new issue? No, in fact, in the days before transistors, television sets operated with vacuum tubes, which required a warming up period before they worked. It could be five or 10 seconds before the picture tube lit up after turning the set on, something which was sufficiently annoying that many manufacturers built a system called “instant on”, which was a major selling feature.

To achieve this, the TV manufacturers simply kept the tubes warm at all times, drawing considerable energy, but allowing the picture tube to light up immediately when viewers flipped the switch.

Why would manufacturers put such an energy wasting feature into a product just to save the user from five seconds of inconvenience? Because five seconds is an eternity when you’re waiting for something to happen. Latency matters, yet it is still with us. Why?

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Honda, GM and Cruise Announce Driverless Taxis for Tokyo

Engineering.com — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Driverless taxi services have been under test in America and China for some time now, with perhaps the most famous being the Cruise autonomous vehicle ride hailing system on widespread test in San Francisco right now. In every case, the systems are based on conventional passenger cars, but truly autonomous ride hailing will use dedicated vehicles built as a passenger cabin without conventional controls like a steering wheel.

The Cruise Origin is such a vehicle and in a recent press release from Honda/GM and Cruise, there is now a firm start date for truly autonomous operations. Tokyo will be the city to see a fleet of cruise Origins on public roads, starting in 2026. The Tokyo urban fleet is targeted at 500 vehicles, with subsequent expansion to areas outside of the city centre.

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In Measuring the Economy, We Are Doing It Wrong

Engineering.com — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Measuring things is essential to both economics and engineering, and while engineers strive for both accuracy and repeatability, economists play by a different set of rules. Consider civil engineering. When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005, it surpassed Hurricane Andrew in 1992 as the costliest hurricane ever hit the United States.

When a civil engineer designs a structure, however, the design anticipates an expected lifetime that might be 30, 50 or 75 years. Some structures are designed with an indefinite lifetime, and the durability required to meet those targets comes at a cost, both in materials and labour to build the structures.

When a natural disaster, or war for that matter, destroys a large number of structures, the economic loss is not just measured in what it cost to rebuild those buildings, but in the economic value lost in the remainder of the original structure’s design life.

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BlackRock’s Larry Fink Tells an Inconvenient Truth

Engineering.com — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

In his annual letter to CEOs, investment heavyweight BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, addressed decarbonization as a major driving force in investment strategy going forward. But notably, he identified the problem of cost. Alternate energy is too expensive, and as long as it remains that way, the transition to green energy will be glacially slow. The solution, according to Fink, is investment in a new generation of alternate energy startups, similar to the manner in which Silicon Valley launched the modern software industry. The pooled investment capital available is at historic highs, and fund managers like Fink appear ready to write the check. All that’s missing are the engineering entrepreneurs to kickstart the revolution.

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This Valve is in Every Home, And It’s Pure Engineering

Engineering.com — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Sometimes, the most brilliant engineering manifests itself in simple mechanisms. The dual, single acting solenoid valves that control hot and cold water flow in consumer washing machines as an example. Small and lightweight, the unit uses commodity grade polypropylene, handle water flow of widely varying pressure and temperature, and cycle repeatedly to regulate wash temperature. It’s one of the simplest solenoid valves in service, yet it functions for years in a difficult environment, and costs a little to manufacture. Unchanged in decades, it’s a design that has evolved to near perfection.

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EVs Are Starting to Kill the Auto Parts Industry

Engineering.com — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 16:30:00 -0500

Internal combustion engine valves, or poppet valves, are conceptually simple components that have been around for well over a century. Producing them in mass quantities is done with special-purpose machine tools and interesting friction welding technology to meet stem with head. But as internal combustion engine demand is predicted to flat-line and eventually fall with the advance of electric vehicles, the science and art of valve making would appear to be on the way out.

A recent auction of the assets of a technical valve making facility in Germany chose special-purpose machine tools for valve making on the block at prices a tiny fraction of what they cost new. Valves may be on the way out, but more significantly, the concept of highly specialized, single-purpose machine tools for mass production is on the block as well.

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The Small Thing That Can Kill Great Products

Engineering.com — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Devices are useless if the instructions can’t teach users how to operate them.

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Why Barbecue Lighters Don’t Work

Engineering.com — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Millions of people use this technology to light the barbecue grills: a butane lighter. It works by the piezoelectric effect, applying pressure to a crystal of lead zirconium titanate to create a potential of several thousand volts, creating a spark. It’s low in cost, but spark ignition is a very poor way to ignite fuel air mixtures, especially when the mixture stoichiometry is uncontrolled, as in a gas grill. Better solutions are flame ignition or stratified charge, with the spark igniting a locally rich mixture and the resulting flame front lighting off the main vapour volume.

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The Hundred Dollar Gas Cap

Engineering.com — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:30:00 -0500

Keeping equipment running in the field has always required a sensible service parts organization. A century ago, automobiles would frequently be laid up for weeks waiting for replacement parts—sometimes for something as common as tires. Today, consumers expect rapid access to maintenance and repair components, and supply chains have evolved to reflect this. Pricing of those replacement parts, however, is another matter. Cost of manufacture is only one component of MRO parts pricing, and the result for consumers is eye-watering cost for relatively simple replacement parts. Jim Anderton describes one example: a simple gas cap.

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Transonic Flight

Engineering.com — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

In the early 1950s, Convair—now General Dynamics—built a prototype of a very high-performance jet fighter for the U.S. Air Force. It promised to bring supersonic speed, but the prototype XF-102 had one problem: it couldn’t break the sound barrier. The reason was because of the shape of the airframe, and the solution involved the application of the theory that seems counter intuitive by the standards of non-compressible flow dynamics: area rule.

Based on World War II German research, NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb developed it into “area rule” and the waspwaisted look of supersonic aircraft fuselages of the 50s and 60s were a direct result. Area rule is still effective today, and Boom Supersonic’s new Overture airliner is an elegant, modern example.

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The End of the Beginning for EVs

Engineering.com — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

In the 1950s, brands like Nash, Packard, Studebaker, Hudson and Kaiser were significant players in the automotive industry. All eventually disappeared, as scale economies forced automakers to get bigger to stay price competitive. In those days, automakers used proprietary bodies, engines and transmissions to differentiate the product, but the modern electric vehicle market is going in a different direction.

Entire EV drive lines as well as batteries are now outsourced, and few EV buyers make a purchase based on the technical excellence of a motor or battery. With outside suppliers doing the heavy engineering lifting, multiple EV manufacturers have surfaced. It’s unlikely that all will survive going forward.

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A Future of Space Exploration Without Astronauts?

Engineering.com — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 15:45:00 -0500

Space is intrinsically dramatic, but there’s a little secret to human spaceflight that few understand: machines went there first. By the time humans orbited the Earth in the early 60s, satellites had already measured a great deal about the near-Earth environment. Even 50 years ago, machines did the trailblazing for the people. And If AI continues to develop as fast as it is right now, we will rapidly reach a point where risking humans in space exploration will become pointless.

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Air Taxis? Drone Cargo May Be More Important

Engineering.com — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Cargo airplanes are traditionally derived from two sources: passenger aircraft designs and military airlifters. The advances in drone flying, however, suggest an interesting possibility: simplified fixed-wing cargo airplanes without pressurization. Operating from secondary airports, these specialized cargo airframes could lower the cost of air freight and create a new class of large airplane.

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Carbon Composites: What The Titan Sub Implosion Can Teach Us

Engineering.com — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The recent tragic loss of all hands aboard the OceanGate Titan submersible has generated a great deal of criticism over the choice of carbon fibre as a structural material for the vehicle. Carbon fiber has a long history in aerospace and high-performance automotive applications, and it is a proven, durable and safe material in everything from racing cars to space satellites. It can be used for submersibles, as well, but composite materials in general behave differently from metals. Both ultimate and cyclical loading is important and like many aerospace structures, a fatigue life based on number of pressurization cycles may be essential, regardless of the design safety factors.

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Why EV Structural Batteries Are a Bad Idea

Engineering.com — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Structural batteries have been touted by many experts as a way to decrease electric vehicle weight, an application where every ounce is critical. Incorporating large masses like engines and batteries into the vehicle structure does reduce weight, but it makes it difficult or impossible to cost-effectively replace those units when they fail. If the economic and business model supports disposal of the entire vehicle, it’s a sensible weight and cost reduction strategy. But the environmental costs may be bigger than simple disposal of end-of-life EVs.

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The End of the Manual Transmission

Engineering.com — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The automatic transmission has been mass produced since the 1940s, but until the ‘60s most people changed gears manually. Why? The clutch and gearbox was, and is, a simple, robust and reliable power transmission technology that costs less, weighs less and engages the driver with the vehicle in a way no automated system can. But modern automatic transmission technology delivers superior performance, and few drivers want the inconvenience of manual shifting. That’s a shame, because it's an experience that everyone should enjoy at least once in their driving life.

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Is Depleted Uranium a Health Risk?

Engineering.com — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

With the ongoing war in Ukraine, the potential health effects of depleted uranium in antitank shells are in the spotlight again, as they were during the Gulf War. While depleted uranium is not an immediate health hazard to crews handling it, the small amount of residual radiation remains long after the battle is over carries a specific cancer risk. That risk is small compared to the other risks coming from war, but it is nonzero. So why the fuss?

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Farmers, Hackers or Both?

Engineering.com — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 02:30:00 -0500

The backlash against complexity starts with agriculture.

Today’s farmers are facing a significant technical challenge: larger, more expensive machines that can only be serviced by factory-trained technicians. With an urgent need to keep equipment running, many farmers are hacking equipment software to do the repairs themselves. Equipment manufacturers can monitor system access and may void warranties or even brick the equipment. Will right to repair legislation return control to the equipment owner?

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Will AI Replace Us?

Engineering.com — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The annual trade show on industrial automation - Automate 2023 - showcased a wide variety of advanced automation solutions, and many of them were branded as “AI enabled.” While there is no external manifestation of artificial intelligence in industrial robotics, the implementation of AI will have a profound effect on American industry. Low-code and no-code robot programming is rapidly becoming the norm, and in the not-too-distant future, we can expect robots that can do multiple tasks on the shop floor and be trained to do those tasks in much the same way that we train human workers.

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New EV Factory Subsidies Cause OEM Blowback

Engineering.com — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

With the Canadian government announcing a $13 billion subsidy program to entice VW to build EV batteries in southern Ontario, a similar joint venture project in Canada from Stellantis and LG has been stopped. According to the automaker, the reason is a lack of government subsidies. Has EV manufacturing now become an entirely government-financed industry?

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Was the SpaceX Explosion a Failure? Yes. Unexpected? Not Really.

Engineering.com — Thu, 18 May 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The recent launch of SpaceX Starship, one of the biggest rocket ever built—bigger than even the legendary Saturn V from the days of Apollo—ended in failure. However, much was learned. The gigantic booster got the stack 24 miles up, to the point of staging, before the vehicle failed catastrophically. Although the mass media labelled the loss of the launch vehicle as a success, the simple fact is that it wasn’t. It was a failure—a spectacular failure, but not an unexpected one. Testing complex engineering systems, especially those where multiple systems interact with each other, is expensive and time-consuming business. The next test flight will be the critical one.

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Is It Time to Rethink Steel Reinforcement of Concrete?

Engineering.com — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The steel reinforcement of concrete has been around for centuries and was standardized around 1950. Steel reinforcing bar—known as rebar—has a convenient property: a similar thermal expansion coefficient to the concrete surrounding it, making it a natural system to add tensile strength to concrete beams and columns. Unfortunately, steel is prone to corrosion, especially when moisture seeps inside columns and beams through cracks. That rust causes spalling and eventual failure of reinforced concrete structures. Is there a better way?

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Will Automous Trucks End The Truck Driver?

Engineering.com — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Autonomous driving capabilities have been well-demonstrated in millions of Tesla cars, as well as in robotaxis fielded by companies such as Cruise, Waymo and Baidu. But the most economically powerful use case for self-driving isn’t in taxi service, it’s in the trucking industry. 3.5 million Americans drive trucks, earning an average of over $40,000 a year. It’s good money for a craft that requires minimal formal education and upfront training. Those skills are not likely to be easily transferable to some other line of work once the robots take over. California is proposing a law that would effectively prohibit self-driving trucks. Many pundits feel that this is only a delaying action, and the robotrucks are an inevitability. What then?

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Why Robots With Only Two Legs?

Engineering.com — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500

From the earliest days of science fiction, robots have often been depicted as bipedal and humanoid. That’s still true today, even though industrial robots have never followed this pattern. For true mass adoption of robots as consumer devices, however, major players such as Elon Musk are actively developing devices that stand on two legs. But is this really the best way forward for mass production consumer devices?

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Seven Core Principles in Manufacturing Quality

Engineering.com — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese engineer and quality control expert, is less well known in the West compared to legendary quality pioneers like Shewart, Juran and Deming, but his lifelong work to promote manufacturing quality was instrumental in launching the post WW2 Japanese manufacturing economy. He is most well-known for the development of quality circles, but his seven basic principles of quality are still the core of modern quality management.

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The Last Muscle Car? The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170

Engineering.com — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Way back in the 80s, the general consensus about muscle cars was that the Golden Age was over. Small foreign six-cylinder engines, front-wheel drive and crippling exhaust emission controls length of the days of the Chevelle SS, the GTO, the big black Mustang—and the king of them all, the Hemi Superbird—were over. We were wrong.

Inconceivable advancements in engine technology mean that today, internal combustion engines produce incredibly specific output, with full emissions regulatory compliance. But one thing that advanced ICE technology cannot solve is CO2. Gasoline engines are going away, and with them that uniquely American phenomenon, the muscle car. Dodge has decided to end the muscle car era with one last fling: the Challenger SRT Demon 170. Like the last truly outrageous muscle cars, Chrysler’s 1970 Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona, the Demon 170 is over the top.

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Dreamliners, Scrapped. The Commercial Aviation Business is Broken

Engineering.com — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0500

The airline industry has always been challenging. Very high fixed and variable costs and extreme sensitivity to external events as varied as a conflict between nations and lousy weather conspire to make profitability thin and risks increased. In commercial airplanes, high equipment costs mean that dispatch reliability is critical for profitable operations. Planes don’t make money in the hangar, meaning any disruption to spare parts logistics has serious consequences. Breaking up older airframes for spare parts has a long history.

Still, the combination of global shortages and a recovering airline industry means that some midlife aircraft are worth more as a source of spares than functioning airplanes. Eirtrade has scrapped a pair of barely 10-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliners in Prestwick, Scotland, to provide replacement parts. Does this make economic sense from a global perspective?

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Everyone Wants EVs, But Where Will the Metals Come From?

Engineering.com — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 11:00:00 -0500

With the runaway success of Tesla and the rapid rollout of competing electric vehicle models from major automakers, the switch away from fossil fuels and transportation seems a certainty. The automotive technology is in place, as is the tech needed to safely charge the vehicles at home and on the road.

However, electric vehicles—particularly EV batteries—are different with respect to material inputs compared to internal combustion engine cars and trucks. In particular, lithium, cobalt and nickel are in high demand, and it’s unclear where supplies of these vital minerals will come from, and if there is enough worldwide at reasonable prices to drive the electric vehicle transition in the time frames required to meet climate change goals. What if this turns out to be impossible?

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Will China Beat the USA to Commercial eVTOL Services?

Engineering.com — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Personal air mobility is a concept as old as the helicopter itself. Bell Aircraft, in fact, promoted early Bell helicopter prototypes as personal air vehicles, suggesting a future with a helicopter in every driveway.

That never happened, but the development of lightweight batteries and electric motors that allow distributed lift through multiple rotors has created a new gold rush as small garage startups—and major players like Boeing and Airbus—race to develop electric eVTOL passenger-carrying vehicles.

The goal is for autonomy, but it’s now widely believed that piloted vehicles will be the first in the air, and the Chinese want to pioneer this new form of aviation. Will they? And just as significantly, will eVTOL travel really revolutionize intracity transport?

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Accuracy Versus Precision: The Most Important Concept in Quality and Metrology

Engineering.com — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0500

As metrology industry experts will agree, it’s surprising how many engineers misunderstand the difference between accuracy and precision. To laypeople, accuracy and precision are synonyms, both descriptors of how close an attribute is to an ideal.

In manufacturing, however, the advent of statistical process control meant that no dimension or attribute is ever considered to be “right” or “wrong.” Attributes that are both accurate and precise file within upper and lower control limits, but it’s possible for a dimension or measured attribute to be highly precise, yet not accurate.

Ford CEO Jim Farley on the Auto Industry: Structural Problems Abound

Engineering.com — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 13:45:00 -0500

Ford CEO Jim Farley says that Ford has a problem. Several problems, in fact. The Ford Motor Company isn't alone in this given automakers' multiple challenges today: crippling supply chain shortages, especially of semiconductors, and a costly switch to electrification, one with uncertain profitability, loom large in 2023. Everyone is complaining about high costs and low margins. Yet cars are less and less affordable for the average American. Why?

One reason is the reluctance of American consumers to embrace simpler machines. Chrysler had a brilliant idea decades ago called the China Concept Vehicle, an injection-molded car assembled like a giant plastic model kit. It could have revolutionized the industry, but the automotive space is dominated by government regulation and marketing conservatism, which weigh heavily on engineering. Jim Anderton comments.

60 Years Ago, There Was a Small, Modular Reactor

Engineering.com — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 13:45:00 -0500

Today, we are all talking about small modular nuclear reactors for power—and in some places on Earth, they are an ideal solution. In Antarctica, it’s literally thousands of miles to any logistics support, and ships can visit only briefly during the summer months. You can fly in diesel generators and fuel, and that is being done today, but think of the cost of moving heavy liquid fuels by transport plan. What if there was another way?

GM Bets Big on Big V-8’s

Engineering.com — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Is the internal combustion engine dead? General Motors thinks otherwise and the company announced an $854 million investment in four U.S. plants to manufacture the company’s sixth generation of small block V-8 gasoline engines.

Why Is An Average New Car So Expensive?

Engineering.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0500

According to Kelly Blue Book, the average price of a new non-luxury car in the U.S. at the end of 2022 was about $45,000. In 1926, a typical manufacturing worker earned about $1,500 annually and could buy a Ford Model T for about $500.

Today, the average annual income of that manufacturing worker is $31,000, so an equivalent car today should cost around $12,000. But today’s vehicles are roughly three to four times more expensive than cars from the beginning of the mass production era, adjusted for inflation. So where is the $10,000 car? Jim Anderton comments.

What if Greta Thunberg Were An Engineer?

Engineering.com — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Every year at the end of January, the World Economic Forum holds its annual meeting. It’s believed that much of the planet’s future is decided by the conference attendees, and in the era of climate activism, Greta Thunberg has become a highly quotable and increasingly influential presence. Her concern for the future of the planet is genuine and she speaks for millions of people worldwide. In Jim Anderton’s opinion, however, what she and climate activists worldwide are calling for is not only irrational but may also be counterproductive on the path to a cleaner planet.

The Most Important Application for 3D Printing: Conformal Cooling

Engineering.com — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Much of engineering is about putting heat in and taking heat out. Anyone who has studied heat engines knows that efficiency is determined by the Delta T between combustion temperatures and ambient, and this has driven designers to build hotter and hotter engines in everything from automobiles to jet aircraft. This has driven the development of heat resistant materials such as nickel-based superalloys, but additive manufacturing is offering another way to achieve high heat transfer rates without very expensive materials: conformal cooling. This build strategy allows everything from rocket engine nozzles to plastic injection moulds to be optimized for heat transfer rates with high efficiency at low cost and promises to improve performance and lower unit costs in everything from space satellites to bottle caps.

Three Simple Concepts to Understand Fusion

Engineering.com — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 14:15:00 -0500

Nuclear fusion is all over the news these days, with the announcement of the Lawrence Livermore breakthrough using the laser ignition method. Fusing two nuclei to produce net energy is the way stars operate, and the desire to duplicate this on earth has fascinated scientists since the dawn of the nuclear age 80 years ago. Stars, however, use enormous gravitational forces to create the conditions of temperature and pressure necessary to fuse atomic nuclei. Humans must use other techniques, and there are several under development, from laser ignition to magnetic confinement and even a mechanical technique using shockwaves generated by hydraulic rams. No one knows which will allow the creation of a usable power reactor, but regardless of the technology, three basic concepts define whether any technology will become a practical source of power.

ABOUT END OF THE LINE:

Manufacturing veteran James Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the state of the manufacturing sector. He shares his thoughts and insights to help engineering and manufacturing professionals navigate through the challenges of world events, the blending old with new technologies, evolving processes, gaps in skilled labour, in an effort to help maximize productivity of their daily operations.

James is a former editor of trade publications in the automotive, metalworking and plastics industries with contributions to a wide range of print and on-line publications. He also brings prior industry experience in quality and manufacturing for a Tier One automotive supplier.

Will Germany Freeze This Winter?

Engineering.com — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0500

With most Russian energy supplies to Germany cut off as a consequence of the Russia/Ukraine war, the ability of Germany and other nations in Europe to survive the upcoming winter is very much in doubt. The choices facing Europe in the absence of Russian gas are simple: alternate fossil fuel supplies, alternates, conservation or new domestic fossil fuel production. All have financial and economic costs, and all have political detractors who want to simultaneously achieve net zero CO2 emissions targets, while keeping the lights on this winter. Is it possible? Jim Anderton comments.

ABOUT END OF THE LINE:

Bell’s Big Tiltrotor Win May Be a Turning Point in Aviation

Engineering.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 14:00:00 -0500

With Bell’s recent win over the Lockheed Martin/Boeing consortium in the U.S. Army’s future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program, the long-awaited replacement for the venerable Sikorsky Black Hawk will be the Bell V-280 Valor. The Valor is a tiltrotor, and like the V-22 Osprey, combines vertical takeoff and landing with turboprop-like air speeds in horizontal flight. That’s good for the Army, but it also may herald a new era in civil aviation. Will helicopters be consigned to history? Jim Anderton comments.

Will There Ever be a Hyperloop?

Engineering.com — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Hyperloop technology is one of the most novel innovations in surface transportation. The concept is similar to the message tubes used in hospitals and large office buildings, with passenger or cargo pods operating at jetliner speeds inside evacuated tunnels. Hyperloop promises low emissions and downtown to downtown transportation between cities, but is it practical? After much hype, Richard Branson’s Virgin enterprise is divesting itself of hyperloop investment, and Elon Musk’s prototype tunnel in California has been dismantled. Is there a future for this technology? Jim Anderton comments.

Is There an Alternative to Diesel Fuel?

Engineering.com — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Diesel fuel is the true driving force on this planet. The ships, jets, trains and trucks that carry the goods that everyone uses every day are powered by some kerosene-type fuel like diesel. Recent shortages and price spikes have driven considerable debate in America about supply, demand and the future of fuel oils in an age when CO2 emissions must be reduced. It’s relatively easy to electrify passenger cars, but the challenge will be much greater in replacing fuels for the critical goods carrying transportation sectors. For trucks and trains, it will be difficult. For cargo ships and aircraft, it may be impossible.

After 125 Years, Diesel May Be Dead

Engineering.com — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 15:30:00 -0500

Diesel engines have been around for over 120 years, and in that time, they have proven to be the most efficient form of internal combustion engine for applications as varied as large cargo ships, trucks, trains and even airplanes. Compared to spark ignited gasoline engines, they are more thermally efficient and deliver lower fuel burn per horsepower. Like all internal combustion engines, however, increasing stringent environmental regulations and the need to reduce CO2 emissions means that their days are numbered in many applications. That’s especially true in light trucks. They’re still available, but won’t be for long. Jim Anderton comments.

Automakers Have Lost Their Minds. 400-Plus Horsepower?

Engineering.com — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0500

In 1964, NASCAR legend Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 in a Plymouth powered by the legendary 426 Hemi V8. It produced a little over 400 horsepower in race trim. Today, it’s possible to buy a Dodge with a Hemi V8 as well. The Hellcat produces over 700 horsepower, as a production engine, and does it on pump gasoline, with a factory warranty and full emission control compliance. That’s a tremendous engineering achievement, but is there any point in producing engines that powerful for street use? The same technology that produced high levels of volumetric efficiency and low friction in today’s high-performance engines could be used to produce a smaller displacement, powerful and economical engines suited to everyday driving. But consumers insist on hundreds of horsepower for street use. Why? Jim Anderton comments.

NASCAR Has an Injury Problem. There are Engineering Solutions.

Engineering.com — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0500

NASCAR stock-car racing has evolved from cow pasture competitions between bootleg alcohol runners into a billion-dollar national sport in the U.S. Part of its popularity is built into the nature of the sport: closed-bodied cars that allow very close racing with occasional incidental contact. That contact does produce accidents, and over the years, the governing body has added regulations to improve driver safety. The new cars used today are a major departure from the shop-built chassis of the past. They are a spec car, purchased from a single manufacturer, and use significantly higher technology than any past generation of car in the sport’s history. Safety was a factor in the design from the beginning, but concussion remains a serious risk in the sport. The cars are safer, but closed head injuries are still damaging, even ending driver careers. Why? Jim Anderton comments.

Does Toyota Have an EV Strategy?

Engineering.com — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Both America and Europe have created incentive for the switch from internal combustion engine power to battery electrics drive in passenger cars and trucks. Tesla began the movement a decade ago, and today every major automaker has announced major investments in EV production, with one exception: Toyota. Regarded by many as the world’s leading automaker and a pioneer in the development of hybrids, many expected Toyota to take that expertise and use it to make a play for EV leadership. Is Toyota lagging in EV development, or does the firm have a longer-term strategy in play? Host and commentator Jim Anderton discusses the issues.

What’s the Best Car Ever Made?

Engineering.com — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 09:00:00 -0500

What’s the greatest automobile of all time? And how do you measure greatness? This has been an argument going on for generations, and in answering this question, there will be as many possible answers as there are experts. Jim Anderton is asked this question often and having observed the automotive industry from inside and out for several decades, he has a unique choice for greatest automobile of all time.

Exactly What is an Assault Rifle?

Engineering.com — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0500

With an active debate currently ongoing regarding gun-control in America, the term “assault rifle” has been used indiscriminately by the media and by legislators. However, the term has a specific, technical definition, and a history that goes back to World War II. The most commonly known assault rifles today are the AK series that originated in Russia, and U.S. military equivalents based on Eugene Stoner’s original AR 15 design. Both are marvels of mass production mechanical engineering, but the rifles sold on the civilian market are a different thing, describes Jim Anderton.

Ammonia as Jet Fuel?

Engineering.com — Thu, 12 May 2022 09:00:00 -0500

The recent UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, reaffirmed CO2 reduction targets by the major signatories to the Paris Climate Accords. De-carbonizing transportation is a cornerstone of these efforts, but aviation is difficult to wean from fossil fuels for technical reasons.

Kerosene is cheap, energy dense and easy to carry on aircraft, but research is ongoing into alternate propulsion technologies, bio-fuels and alternate fuels such as ammonia. Ammonia has sparked recent interest as a jet fuel, but Jim Anderton comments on how the disadvantages may outweigh the advantage.

It’s Not a Ship, or a Plane—But It May Be Better Than Both

Engineering.com — Wed, 11 May 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Back in the ‘80s, the Soviet Navy operated a very unusual vehicle called an Ekranoplan. Combining some of the features of both a seagoing vessel and an airplane, it operated out of the water, in ground effect, and essentially defined an entirely new class of vehicle.

The Lun-class Ekranoplan was large, about the size of an Airbus A380, and weighed over 300 tons, but could travel in excess of 340 mph just skimming the surface of the water. Although the design promised long-range, heavy payload and high-speed, curiously little development of this concept occurred in the West. This appears to be changing, however, and the Virginia-based Flying Ship Company has designed an autonomous, electrically powered wing in ground effect drone for light cargo delivery.

Both commercial customers and DARPA have shown interest, and modern materials combined with advanced engineering design tools may make the wing in ground effect vehicle the cargo-carrying solution that combines high-speed with low cost.

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Why Shipbuilding is Key to Post-COVID Supply Chains

Engineering.com — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Broken supply chains have emerged as the primary economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis. As Covid-19 fades and war in Ukraine threatens further disruptions, little discussed is the fundamental reality behind global trade: it needs ships. And containers. As the United States has relinquished leadership in shipbuilding, China is rising.

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Can Nuclear Reactors Be Open-Source?

Engineering.com — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Traditional nuclear reactor technology is robust and efficient—and unfortunately, expensive. Major cost overruns, sometimes in the billions of dollars, and significant construction delays are typical in large nuclear facility construction. Projects carry risk for investors, and more than once have threatened the ordering power generation utilities with bankruptcy. Nuclear power generation has moved from a technology that carries safety risks to one that carries financial risks. The Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Energy Impact Center has developed a nuclear reactor design that promises to de-risk nuclear power production in a novel way: with an open-source design.

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Why Governments Need to Stop Throwing Money at EV Buyers

Engineering.com — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0500

The slow pace of CO2 emissions reductions in the face of global uncertainty and COVID has driven a frenzy of fresh political activity as Paris Accord deadlines loom.

Drastic reductions in fossil fuel use—over timelines on the order of half a decade—are now required to even come close to the levels specified by the Accords. On the ground, however, the necessary infrastructure and alternate energy products are not available, not affordable or both.

Electric vehicles are one way to tackle the transportation component of the emissions issue, and governments around the world are anxious to convince motorists to make the switch. One of the tools they are using are generous subsidies for EV buyers. But are those subsidies an effective way to tackle the issue? Jim Anderton doesn’t think so.

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What a Two-Dollar Capacitor and a Crashed Drone Can Tell Us About Engineering

Engineering.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Bell’s prototype for an autonomous pod transport cargo drone suffered a failure during a recent test flight at Fort Benning, Georgia. No one was injured, although the aircraft sustained substantial damage. According to the NTSB report, a cracked ceramic capacitor in the circuitry of one of the motor controllers caused one of the four electric lift motors to fail, leading to the crash. All flight test programs have failures, but multi-motor, multirotor drone designs have different failure modes and reliability problems compared to conventional helicopters. It’s a tough challenge. Jim Anderton comments.

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Why Vladimir Putin has Decided the Future of German, and European Energy

Engineering.com — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0500

With the outbreak of the first serious European war in 75 years, Germany finds itself in a situation similar to that faced in World War II: an energy crisis. Then, it was due to failure to secure the oil resources of the Caucasus; today, Russian fossil fuels are similarly at issue. The invasion of Ukraine is likely to end the era of Russian-supplied natural gas to Germany. As Europe’s largest economy, the outcome of a transition to alternate sources and technologies is important. What will they do? Jim Anderton comments.

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This Critical Metric About Russia Matters More Than Ever

Engineering.com — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0500

There are standard metrics that economists use to gauge the health of a nation. GDP, median income and balance of trade are common. To measure the health of a manufacturing economy, production of semi-finished goods like steel and aluminum are a common measurement. Today, software is an important factor as well, but consumption of a few key inputs is a good proxy for the economic health of a modern nation. Semiconductors are one of those key inputs, and a recent, low-key statement from the Semiconductor Industry Association about Russia revealed something important about that nation’s economy. Jim Anderton explains.

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Why Error Matters in Engineering, Global Warming and COVID-19

Engineering.com — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0500

No measurement is absolute. In fact, finding and accounting for error in measurement is frequently harder and more important than the base measurement itself. In important social and medical issues such as global warming and COVID-19, however, figures are presented as absolute and without uncertainty. No engineer would declare a critical dimension or measured attribute as absolute, but the practice is common among policy makers and mass media. That’s simply a bad idea, says Jim Anderton.

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Humans in Space: Mars or the Moon?

Engineering.com — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0500

In 1961, when United States was well behind the Soviet Union in the space race, then Pres. John F. Kennedy had a crazy idea: to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. The success of the Apollo program in achieving that goal was an engineering achievement on par with the Manhattan Project and mass production, but despite much higher technology today, it will be a challenge to repeat that success. Jim Anderton explains why.

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There's an Engineering Fix for the Economy

Engineering.com — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Computer chip shortages have crippled the automotive industry, but they’re not the only one affected by broken supply chains. Empty store shelves are visible everywhere in the Western world, with the combination of pandemic induce labour shortages adding to demographic challenges to create the classic drivers of inflation. Is there an engineering solution to this problem? Jim Anderton argues, yes, but workable solution may require a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. Will we willingly pay more for locally made products?

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What You Need to Know About the 5G Risk to Aircraft

Engineering.com — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0500

5G is the much-anticipated high-frequency wireless technology that delivers high-bandwidth data with very little latency. It’s a popular technology that delivers high value services such as video streaming directly to handheld devices but operates on frequencies that are very close to those used by critical aircraft systems, notably radar altimeters. Radar altimeters measure the height of aircraft above ground level, and they’re a fundamental instrument for both autopilot operation and piloted flying of airplanes to safe landings. Today’s commercial airplanes can land in reduced or even no visibility thanks to high levels of automation. Interference from 5G signals has caused significant flight disruptions in US airspace, despite the years of lead time before the actual rollout of 5G services. Why? Jim Anderton comments.

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Artificial Intelligence is Here. Will Anyone Have a Job?

Engineering.com — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Artificial intelligence has historically been the most predicted development in information processing technology. Man-made intelligence has been a part of folklore since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein and has been a staple of science fiction for decades. While true AI remains elusive, the state-of-the-art has progressed far enough to have major disruptive effects on economies worldwide. Will the engineering professional of the future even understand how AI does what it does? Jim Anderton comments.

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Has Sony Gone Over the Edge?

Engineering.com — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Few industries are as difficult, expensive and risky to enter than auto making. Despite decades of futile attempts by many companies to take on the majors, the success of Tesla has spurred many to start EV enterprises. Surprisingly, Sony Corporation has joined the fray, announcing a new electric crossover SUV at this year’s consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. This is the second electric vehicle that Sony has shown in prototype form, and with considerable real-world testing now complete, it looks clear that Sony is serious about entering the car business. But why? The company may have ulterior motives. Jim Anderton has a theory.

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Don’t Fall for Gas-saver Scams

Engineering.com — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0500

For decades, individuals and corporations have sold devices that claim to improve automotive engine efficiency. Some plug in to the car's 12 V power outlet, and some are wired to the car’s battery, but they all have one thing in common: they don’t work. The reason they don’t work is based in physics, but despite multiple independent tests that confirm that these devices don’t work, they are still popular and are still widely sold at multiple retailers. Jim Anderton wonders why.

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The Jetsons’ Flying Car Is Finally Happening

Engineering.com — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0500

In the early 1960s, the Hanna-Barbera animated television series, The Jetsons predicted a future world of flying cars and homes in the sky. Flying taxis have been predicted for decades, but physics dictated that vertical takeoff and landing meant the cost and complexity of helicopters. Today, high-capacity batteries combined with lightweight, high-efficiency electric motors promise to make passenger carrying drones similar to small-scale hobby drones: multiple motors, multiple rotors and microprocessor control for stability. The technology will be ready soon. But will the regulatory framework be ready when hardware is?

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Are You an Engineering Whistleblower?

Engineering.com — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0500

There is a little-known law called the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which includes a provision to compensate whistleblowers for revealing safety critical auto flaws to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Former Hyundai engineer Kim Gwang-ho is the first to receive an award under the system, taken by NHTSA from a large fine paid by Hyundai to resolve an engine fire issue. The large amount will insulate Kim from the potential loss of his career, but the larger issue for engineers everywhere is, "should I be a whistleblower?" Engineering ethics are fairly straightforward but doing the right thing may have career altering consequences. Under what circumstances should you be a whistleblower? Engineering.com’s Jim Anderton has a definite opinion on the subject.

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Railways Have Survived for 200 years. But Their Time May Be Over.

Engineering.com — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Commercial railways have been around for 200 years in America. And for most of that time, they represented a low cost, high speed and reliable way to haul large tonnages of freight across a very wide country. As private passenger cars and air travel drove passengers away from rail service, freight took up the slack and railways remained unchallenged on a cost per ton mile basis for many kinds of freight up to the present. But a new generation of self-driving diesel and electric trucks may drive the metaphorical nail into the coffin of the American railway industry.

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Zero Emissions Mining Goes Electric and GE Becomes Three

Engineering.com — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Mining is both an essential human activity, and a surprising contributor to global CO2 emissions, at 4 to 7 percent of global production. Caterpillar is working with Canadian mining firm Nouveau Monde Graphite to create a fully carbon neutral mine using electric vehicle technology. Access to zero carbon hydroelectric power at the miner’s Québec site is a major enabler, and other firms are working to help the industry transition from diesel technology.

Iconic engineering firm General Electric has announced that the 129-year-old company will split itself into three separate corporations, one each serving the healthcare, energy and aviation industries. This move follows years of divestment from GE’s formerly very wide portfolio of divisions, including the entertainment industry, nuclear weapons technology, finance, computing, automation and plastics. The three remaining industries are all in profitable sectors and are all engineering related.

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A Workable Fix to Decarbonize Energy Is Here. And No One is Talking About It.

Engineering.com — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Nuclear energy has many, many detractors but one fact that no one disputes is that it’s capable of producing a lot of electricity and a lot of process heat without CO ₂ emissions. A new generation of extremely small, road and even air transportable micro reactors promise to take the key benefits of nuclear and add flexibility and reliability as well as considerable redundancy to global power grids. Yet few have heard of them, and progress in development is only now picking up speed. Why is such a workable technology been ignored for so long?

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Steel Without Coal: This is Big

Engineering.com — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Steelmaking is possibly the most important single technical innovation of the last thousand years. Almost all modern technology can trace its roots back to the unique properties of iron with carefully controlled amounts of carbon. Steel allowed everyone from James Watt to the village blacksmith alter the hardness of the material at will, creating the ability to cut and shape steel into everything from bridges to submarines. But it generates a lot of CO ₂ . A modest industrial truck from Volvo Group is the prototype for what may be entirely new, carbon free way of making this essential material.

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The First Individual Has Been Charged in the Boeing 737 Max Disaster. His Fate will Impact Engineering in More Than Just Aerospace

Engineering.com — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Mark Forkner is in big trouble. The engineering test pilot for Boeing is alleged to have misled the FAA about the MCAS stability control system used on Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the major contributor in two crashes with the loss of all aboard. Boeing as a corporation has negotiated a deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution in exchange for a large compensation payout to multiple parties. Individual prosecutions, like those of Forkner, are still at play. No single cause is responsible for an aviation accident. Usually, they are multiple small things which aggregate to create a safety failure, either in hardware, software or in crew operations. What Forkner says at trial may have real implications for the way engineering personnel deal with regulators in industries such as aerospace, automotive and medical devices.

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Should You Force Your Employees to Get Vaccinated?

Engineering.com — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

As Covid 19 drags on, most nations in the world of opted for a mass immunization strategy, rather than natural immunity to control the pandemic. In America, the issue has morphed into a multidimensional political battle, with issues such as the efficacy and safety of vaccines on the table, as well as the age-old argument about public good and personal liberty. But for your business, whether you should compel employees to vaccinate will not come down to politics. Jim Anderton explains.

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Airliners Are Slower and Less Comfortable Than They Were Half a Century Ago. Why?

Engineering.com — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

If you’re old enough to have flown on a Boeing 707, or a Douglas DC-8, or even a Lockheed L-1011, you remember a time when jets were fast, comfortable and often both. Today, there are slower and are less comfortable, at least in Economy. Did it have to be this way? Jim Anderton argues, “No”.

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New Car Shortage? That’s Just the Short-Term Problem

Engineering.com — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

If you’re shopping for a new car right now, you’re in for a shock. New and used car prices are up, way up in short term the situation isn’t going to get better. Covid 19 is one reason why, but the fact is, the supply chain issues that are crippled the auto industry, although triggered by Covid, aren’t the long-term industry challenge. Jim Anderton explains why.

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Traditional Design Engineers Work in a Straitjacket. There is a Solution.

Engineering.com — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

The design and manufacturing of complex projects has always been a challenge in engineering. Several novel management techniques evolved over the last 60 years to cope with the problem of keeping projects on time and on budget, but early tools rarely tackled the problem at its root cause: the lack of truly collaborative engineering design. Documents are necessary in engineering, but they have had the effect of handcuffing engineering teams and de-incentivizing real creativity. Model based systems engineering promises to remove those handcuffs and profoundly improve product and project performance.

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Manufacturers Demand a Flexible Workforce. But Are They Flexible Employers?

Engineering.com — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

A new report from the Manufacturer’s Alliance Foundation and business consultancy Aon has analysed the major issues facing US manufacturing as the Covid pandemic approaches its end. Worker flexibility is universally identified as an important issue for manufacturers, particularly in an era of broken and disrupted supply chains and production schedules that are difficult to match with consumer demand. But there’s another side to the story.

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The Real Cause of E-Waste

Engineering.com — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

With environmental issues now at the forefront of government policy and media coverage, reducing waste, particularly nonrecyclable waste is more important than ever. E-waste, discarded electrical and electronic devices are a persistent problem in landfills worldwide. They are difficult to recycle, often contain toxic substances and in consumer goods, have a surprisingly short service life. The reasons for this are different from consumer perception, explains Jim Anderton.

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Why Do Pickup Trucks Use 19th Century Structures?

Engineering.com — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

A century ago, a pickup truck buyer would purchase a vehicle engineered with a sheet steel box and a stamped steel body bolted to a ladder frame. Today, a pickup buyer is purchasing exactly the same technology. In Europe, the auto industry explored lighter, stiffer and more modern technology, monocoque construction, as far back as the 1930s and in America a steady shift away from body-on-frame in passenger cars began in 1960 and is now complete. Unit construction makes a vehicle lighter, stiffer, with better ride quality and handling than body on frame construction. Yet most pickup trucks and large SUVs still use the older technology. Why?

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Are Androids About to Become Reality?

Engineering.com — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

When Elon Musk talks, people listen. A serial entrepreneur has pulled forward the adoption of electric vehicles by at least a decade and launched several other ventures, including satellite launch and orbital Internet provider SpaceX. What’s the next frontier? According to Musk, it’s humanlike general-purpose robots, development of which will relay on Tesla’s in-house Dojo supercomputer. Is this for real?

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Why Are There No Atomic Cargo Ships?

Engineering.com — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 09:00:00 -0500

In 1959, an attractive cargo passenger vessel ordered by the US Maritime Administration was launched, the NS Savannah. As a demonstration for civilian use of the nuclear power plants than used in atomic submarines, the vessel operated well for over a decade and demonstrated safe, reliable operation. But since 1972, no other commercial cargo vessels have been built with nuclear propulsion. The economics of the 1970's, with relatively low oil prices made it impractical, but today the combination of higher oil prices, larger ships, more global trade and the need for lower CO ₂ emissions means that nuclear propulsion for commercial shipping has finally come of age.

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Why Do Automotive Connectors Fail?

Engineering.com — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Wiring harnesses are the central nervous systems of modern vehicles. They’ve evolved far beyond simple bundles of wires and encroach on every system and every panel in both body and chassis. Conductors now carry data as well as power, but the common element is the need to terminate those conductors in some kind of electrical connector. They are normally trouble-free, but when they fail, the result is at best inconvenient and at worst, crippling to the motor vehicle. Why do they fail? Jim Anderton shows us one connector that simply didn’t measure up.

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How Long Should New Infrastructure Last?

Engineering.com — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:00:00 -0500

As we finally emerge from the Covid pandemic, kickstarting Western economies means infrastructure: large public works projects. Delivering projects such as bridges, highways and utilities on time and on budget has always been a challenge, but when the imperative is to throw money at the problem immediately, it becomes essentially impossible. Much American infrastructure is built by the lowest bidder, a process that rarely delivers long-term durability. Would American ratepayers and motorists be prepared to pay a little more for infrastructure that lasts a century or more? We don’t know, but maybe it’s time to find out.

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EU Antitrust Law Handcuffs Automotive Engineering

Engineering.com — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 09:00:00 -0500

A recent, hefty European commission fine against German auto industry heavyweights Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen Group has the potential to severely impact the way professional engineers design automotive and other products in the future. The commission ruled on and engineering collaboration between the three companies regarding exhaust emission technologies for diesel engines between 2009 and 2014. It seems like a simple antitrust case, but the implications run far deeper.

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The Florida Condo Collapse

Engineering.com — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 09:00:00 -0500

It will be some time before forensic engineering teams determine the cause of the failure of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, but speculation is rife that the building was not constructed according to specifications and contained less than the required amount of rebar. If true, there will be a major shift in the way construction projects are inspected and in the way that older structures are maintained and recertified. Costs will be significant, and which stakeholders will bear that expense has yet to be determined. One solution may be highly penetrating extreme nuclear inspection technologies look inside reinforced concrete for flaws, but these technologies are too expensive for routine use. Development of lower cost, highly portable systems could save many lives as American infrastructure ages in the 21st century.

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Five Important Things to Know About Hydrogen

Engineering.com — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Hydrogen is widely touted as an important route to a carbon neutral future. The amount of disinformation and sheer ignorance about hydrogen however, is significant, and persistent, despite efforts by the scientific and engineering press to educate the public about what hydrogen can, and can’t do and the switch from fossil fuels as energy sources. Jim Anderton explains the five key things everyone should know about hydrogen.

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Why is Fusion Power is Always 50 Years Away?

Engineering.com — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 09:00:00 -0500

The old joke has always been that nuclear fusion is 50 years away. And always will be. The sad reality is that it’s true. No technology has offered so much, absorbed so much research and development and delivered so little progress toward usable hardware. Why? Jim Anderton discusses the subject and his opinions may be controversial.

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Why Fuses are Still the Ultimate in Circuit Protection

Engineering.com — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Development of low cost, mass-produced semiconductors has transformed one of the oldest and most important functions in electrical circuits: overcurrent protection. Modern systems may use algorithms to actively manage current flow, and even report on power or signal quality through the protected circuit. But Jim Anderton believes that there is still a role for the oldest and simplest overcurrent protection device: the fuse.

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One Solution to The Auto Industry Chip Shortage

Engineering.com — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Global automakers will cumulatively lose $110 billion as a result of a worldwide shortage of integrated circuits. Auto manufacturing has evolved into a global, just-in-time enterprise with extended and complex supply chains. Very vulnerable to external shocks. Covid 19 was the biggest shock imaginable, and now automakers are struggling to source critical components at a time when demand is roaring back post pandemic. Could this issue have been avoided? Jim Anderton thinks so and explains one way how.

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Supersonic, Quiet, Clean. What Happened to Aerion?

Engineering.com — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 09:00:00 -0500

It’s incredibly hard to develop a new aircraft. Do it without the resources of a major airplane company and to simultaneously develop radical new technologies in aerodynamics, propulsion and fuels would seem an almost impossible task. For Reno, Nevada based Aerion Supersonic, it was.

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Model-Based Engineering Will Revolutionize Aircraft Production. Finally.

Engineering.com — Wed, 26 May 2021 09:00:00 -0500

The Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk military jet trainer will be built using model-based engineering principles. Model-based engineering is proving to be a perfect fit for the aerospace industry: more accurate, precise parts and assemblies that fit better and faster on the assembly line. Model-based engineering also offers a hidden bonus that few in the industry talk about.

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When We Need Speed in Vaccines, We Call Governments to Help. Why?

Engineering.com — Wed, 19 May 2021 09:00:00 -0500

A year into the Covid pandemic, and Western nations are finally making enough vaccines. For the rest of the world is still suffering. Why can’t anyone manufacture enough?

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NASCAR leaps into the 21st century, Baidu launches robotaxis in Beijing and Paying hackers to crack the Pentagon

Engineering.com — Tue, 11 May 2021 09:00:00 -0500

NASCAR is America’s favorite motorsport, but it has been historically resistant to change. With the launch of their Next Gen car, the sanctioning body has moved in a single leap from steel bodied, solid axle 1980s technology to full modern race car technology.

Baidu’s Apollo AI business has launched a robotaxi system in Beijing, using factory equipped luxury cars in one of the future venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Combined with a larger, integrated traffic control system, Baidu hopes to take the lead in self driving technology.

With millions of lines of code in most systems, making websites and databases secure is a major headache for the Pentagon. A new initiative from the Department of Defense aims to use a different approach: pay hackers to attack systems to find weaknesses.

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As EV Technology Matures, its Looking More Like the Internal Combustion Engine it Replaces

Engineering.com — Wed, 05 May 2021 09:00:00 -0500

One of the addicted impacts of the global shift to electric vehicles is the death of the major internal combustion engine related technologies. Plain bearings, pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts engine blocks will disappear, along with valves, timing year and fuel delivery systems. But if you work in powertrain engineering, will still find familiar technology in the EV space. Jim Anderton describes an example.

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Is Waste-To-Energy a Better Alternative to Recycling?

Engineering.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Recycling of post-consumer waste is a cornerstone of environmental movements worldwide. But new technologies like high temperature pyrolysis promise to make incineration of solid waste a clean and viable alternative that creates heating and electricity. It compares very favourably to recycling in efficacy, efficiency and cost, yet can’t shake the old image of 20th-century pollution-causing incinerators. Why?

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Artificial Intelligence? It’s a Contradiction in Terms

Engineering.com — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Artificial intelligence has been predicted in popular culture for over a century. The idea that human beings can make thinking machines is so popular, and so pervasive that we tend to call any sophisticated algorithm, intelligent. There is no artificial intelligence, at least not yet, it’s possible that there will never be. Coming to terms with this however, isn’t easy.

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If You’re a Coder, Please Listen Carefully

Engineering.com — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Almost everything we use in daily life is software control. Mechanical and analog actuation and feedback control systems are rapidly disappearing, and everything from a smartwatch to a turbofan engine relies on thousands, sometimes millions of lines of code to function properly. Traditionally, the people that write the code have operated in a sort of vacuum, free to generate algorithms as they wish, and able to impose significant constraints on what the systems’ algorithms control, and on the humans that have to interface with them.

Increasingly, the friction between the “wetware” of the human user and the needs of the machine is building excessive complexity and cost into everything from using a ridesharing service to planning a lunar trajectory. What can be done? Jim Anderton has some definite opinions.

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Back to the Future at SpaceX

Engineering.com — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

65 years ago, the Eisenhower Administration authorized a number one priority missile program to develop an ICBM as fast as humanly possible. That program, Atlas, combined R&D;, design, development and manufacturing into one process, compressing a decade of engineering into a couple of years. It worked, but was very expensive and the prime contractor, Convair, blew up a lot of equipment getting there.

Today, SpaceX is using a similar doctrine of concurrency, engineering, testing, building and flying rockets almost before the dust settles on the company’s Texas launch pad. It’s fast, but the last four test flights have ended in explosions. Can this build fast, break fast, iterate fast methodology turn out to be the best way forward? Jim Anderton comments.

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What’s Really Holding Back Flying Cars

Engineering.com — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0500

We were all promised the future would be like the Jetsons, with pushbutton flying cars. What happened? Well, multiple firms are developing flying cars right now, but the inhibiting factor for widespread adoption may not be in the hardware or software: but due to an unlikely source: insurance. These vehicles are expected to be radically different from either helicopters or fixed wing aircraft, and as such insurance industry has little baseline data on which to assess risk. The obvious implications of vehicle falling a crowded downtown street make this a serious issue. What can be done? Jim has a definite opinion on the subject.

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The Truth About United Airlines' Exploding Jet Engine

Engineering.com — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0500

That exploding Boeing 777 engine that rained parts all over a Denver suburb last month looked dramatic. The fix involves a unique, proprietary inspection system that uses heat generated by soundwaves to detect cracks not visible with surface inspection techniques.

In each episode of End of the Line, manufacturing veteran Jim Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the state of the manufacturing sector. He shares his thoughts and insights to help engineering and manufacturing professionals navigate through the challenges of world events, the blending old with new technologies, evolving processes, gaps in skilled labour, in an effort to help maximize productivity of their daily operations.

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The Most Important Part of New Machine Integration: Documentation

Engineering.com — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Major manufacturers routinely support production equipment with extensive online documentation. But smaller integrators and makers of bespoke production systems may rely on pass-through documents from their vendors. It isn’t enough.

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Three Things to Keep in Mind About Sensors

Engineering.com — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0500

With the Industrial Internet of things, everything is sensor equipped. And with wireless, cloud connected production equipment, the amount of data that can be aggregated is immense. But are those sensors telling the truth? Jim Anderton relates that with increasing sophistication, industrial sensors are surprisingly misunderstood on a fundamental level. There are three things to keep in mind.

In each episode of End of the Line, manufacturing veteran Jim Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the state of the manufacturing sector. He shares his thoughts and insights to help engineering and manufacturing professionals navigate through the challenges of world events, the blending old with new technologies, evolving processes, gaps in skilled labour, in an effort to help maximize productivity of their daily operations.

Access all episodes of End of the Line on Engineering TV along with all of our other series.

When Will We See Electric Jets?

Engineering.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Battery electric vehicles appear poised to take over ground transportation in the form of passenger cars and trucks. With the increasing capability of better electric drones, work to create personal air vehicles using similar technology is underway worldwide as well. None of this however will replace jet aircraft as we know them. Here’s why.

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COVID-19 is Changing the Way We Talk Engineering

Engineering.com — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0500

COVID-19 has forced engineering teams to collaborate through video meeting software. Many engineering professionals privately admit that it’s a lot more difficult to get an idea across than it should be. Here’s why.

The IIOT and Industry 4.0 Promise to Revolutionize Manufacturing

Engineering.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0500

New combinations of AI driven monitoring and control systems and cloud connectivity promise to change the way manufacturers design, produce and service the things they make. We know what works for multinationals. But will it benefit SMEs?

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The Chip Shortage and The Five Stages of Auto Industry Supplier Grief

Engineering.com — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0500

A global shortage of integrated circuits is hobbling auto production just as the industry is poised to rebound from a Covid caused sales slump that’s the worst seen since the 2008 recession. But the root cause isn’t a shortage of silicon.

"Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics": What Covid Can Teach Us in Manufacturing

Engineering.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Statistics are the backbone of both industrial quality control and epidemiology. Engineering professionals use statistics to gain meaningful insight into how defects occur in production systems and where. There are similarities to the current Covid 19 pandemic and government response to it. Can government take a page from the manufacturing experience?

Delta Air Lines, Amazon and why air freight is the supply chain wild card in 2021

Engineering.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0500

The air freight industry has been disrupted by COVID, but 2021 may give manufacturers a much needed break.

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How Vulnerable is the Connected Factory?

Engineering.com — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0500

The AMNESIA:33 attack is just the latest of a series of malware assaults on connected systems around the world. Control of industrial systems from anywhere is useful, but can it exist in the shadow of a determined and skilled hacker community? Jim Anderton comments.

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Things They Don’t Tell You About Electric Motors

Engineering.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0500

AC induction motors are the backbone of industrial production worldwide. MRO operations for large firms are data driven, but what about smaller companies? Jim Anderton talks about some simple things engineering SMEs can do to keep motors turning.

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Some Surprising Truths About Manufacturing, From MIT

Engineering.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Covid 19 is nominated in the media in 2020, but in American manufacturing there are seminal forces at work which now decide future of this critical sector in the 21st century. Jim Anderton comments on how vertical integration, finding and developing a skilled workforce, and the challenge of automation are issues that must be resolved to keep the US economy vibrant.

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Is the Future Fixtureless?

Engineering.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Jigs and fixtures form a considerable part of the cost and time to production for many manufacturing processes. But what if advanced robotics could reduce or eliminate jigs and fixtures in production? For complex assemblies and large weldments, the technology already exists and promises to reduce unit costs in both high mix low volume, and mass production applications. Jim Anderton looks at how it works.

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Four Key Things Every Manufacturer Needs to Know About Electric Cars

Engineering.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Electric vehicles are everywhere in popular media today, led by the spectacular growth of Tesla. Many in the mass media and on Wall Street predict that the coming EV revolution will be the death knell for legacy automakers. Will the end of the internal combustion engine mean the end of Toyota, Volkswagen, GM and Ford? In this episode, Jim thinks that the story is a lot more complicated than the non-engineering community realizes, and that big players are well placed to do well in a fossil-fuel free automotive world.

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Robotics was Supposed to Make Manufacturing Easier. What Happened?

Engineering.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0500

In this episode, Jim discusses that what makes robots different was that they were programmable and general purpose and could be adapted to multiple in plant uses. Overall, the idea was to let the machines to the complex tasks and simplify the manufacturing process overall. But has it?

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After COVID, Will it Be Business as Usual?

Engineering.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Bad as the Covid 19 pandemic is, it’s heartening to see that US and global manufacturing is starting to look at what the world will look like after it subsides. We're a consumption economy, and in mass-market of consumer goods; convincing people to open their wallets and make significant purchases may be a struggle. Or it may be easy. But if the past is any indication of the future, it will be innovation driven.

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The Big Gamble on Self Driving Cars

Engineering.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0500

In this episode, Jim discusses the self-driving car, a staple of sci-fi books and movies and predicted by automakers as far back as the 1930's, as was shown in a 1935 Chevy promotional film. With Cruise Automation’s application with the California DMV for a permit to operate autonomous vehicles in the city of San Francisco with no safety driver board, the future is about to enter the present.

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When is the Steel Rule Better Than the Vernier Caliper?

Engineering.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0500

In this episode, Jim discusses the Vernier caliper vs the steel rule - common tools in the engineer's pocket, but are they being used correctly in the right setting?

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What Should the Optimum Quality Level for Your Operation Be?

Engineering.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0500

In this episode, Jim discusses how perfection in manufacturing may be the sign of highly imperfect manufacturing system. In general, defective parts should not be celebrated, but he argues that defective rates that are on target every time should.

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Tesla's Large-Scale High-Pressure Die Casting

Engineering.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Tesla’s concept is to diecast the entire rear subframe and suspension carrier assembly for the Model Y crossover, consolidating the previous six part design into one. In this episode, Jim discusses the pros and cons of consolidating these mulit-part pieces into one assembly.

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OSHA in the Covid Pandemic World

Engineering.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

For the economy to run, factories have to produce. But from a regulatory standpoint, 2020 hasn't been business a usual. In this episode, Jim explores how are manufacturers and their employees share in the responsibility of mitigating the potential spread of Covid-19 in their factories to keep them running, and how to navigate it should it occur to help stave off shutdowns, and ultimately to keep the economy working.

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Ethernet or Wireless on the Shop Floor? It’s Like Big Mac versus Whopper

Engineering.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Even if a factory floor isn't collecting data from machine operation in real-time, modern control systems require conductivity for safety and maintenance reasons. Jim discusses the pros and cons of wired vs wireless connectivity on the shop floor, cabling considerations and speeds, as well the challenges of connecting legacy equipment in modern facilities.

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Electric Cars Are on the Move, but Has the World Gone Mad?

Engineering.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

The world’s largest automakers, Toyota and Volkswagen, make about 10 million vehicles a year. But if you measure it by market cap, Tesla leads by greater than both of those companies’ combined. How can the world’s largest automaker by market cap make so few motor vehicles?

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Think You Know ISO 9001?

Engineering.com — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

The ISO 9001 standard has become the “seal of approval” for American manufacturing. But how many really understand what ISO 9001 is? It's a quality management standard but that’s completely different from a manufacturing quality standard.

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Secure Your Control Systems or Your PLCs May Be DOA

Engineering.com — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Claroty, an operational technology security firm, has a biannual risk and vulnerability report studying industrial control systems. The first iteration shows that manufacturing is highly vulnerable to attack, both targeted and opportunist.

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Automotive Industry Looking to Rebound Post Covid-19

Engineering.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 09:00:00 -0500

We know that COVID-19 has disrupted American manufacturing, but how is it affecting small and medium sized operations? We hear a lot about Boeing, GM and the other majors, but three quarters of American manufacturers employ 20 people or less.

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The Affect of Covid-19 on the Supply Chain and its Impact on Small & Medium Manufacturers

Engineering.com — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 09:00:00 -0500

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In Manufacturing, It’s Not as Simple as China Versus America

Engineering.com — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 09:00:00 -0500

This election cycle has a focus on manufacturing, particularly from the Trump Administration, who have made reshoring a major plank in the president’s re-election platform. It’s a low risk “motherhood” issue, and it’s great that someone is emphasizing the importance of manufacturing to the American economy, but is it actually achievable today?

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Space X Fails Faster to Move Forward

Engineering.com — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:00:00 -0500

At SpaceX, blowing up hardware is a normal part of their “fail faster” development process. In the rocket business, it has a long history.

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How to Restart Manufacturing After Covid-19

Engineering.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Now that we're past the first wave of the pandemic, it's time for the "big restart." But how and where do manufacturers begin? Jim discusses processes and best practices to get the production lines rolling again.

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Is Nikola a 20 Billion-Dollar Company?

Engineering.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Jim Anderton discusses the rocket rise in market cap for alternate energy truck maker Nikola. CEO Trevor Milton says fuel cells are the future. Elon Musk says they’re "fool cells". Who's right?

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