This Week in Engineering

Fish filets, industrial robotics, and the future of factory work

Engineering.com — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Industrial robots and their end effectors have demonstrated a remarkable dexterity, matching and often exceeding that of human hands. Combined with vision systems, many industrial robots can combine high-level dexterity with object recognition for pick and place applications, but most industrial systems, the things that robots manipulate are consistent in size and shape.

The food processing industry has a very different problem: individual portions of things like fish fillets are similar, but no two are alike. The technology however is rapidly improving, and modern systems can now handle complex food processing tasks that until recently have resisted automation.

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AI can be a game changer for manufacturing, if industry can develop a strategy

Engineering.com — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Artificial intelligence is not only widely anticipated but is expected to dramatically change the manufacturing landscape worldwide, forever. The promise is huge, but to deliver on that promise, manufacturers need to develop coherent strategies for implementation, and more importantly, understand where the use cases exist for AI implementation. New research from AI software provider IFS suggests that American firms are sceptical of artificial intelligence in its current form.

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Blended wing body: the future of air transportation?

Engineering.com — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0400

For the 100 years or so of air transport, the form factor of airplanes has been essentially consistent: a fuselage, usually cylindrical, with attached wings and tail. While relatively simple to build, with a good strength to weight ratio, aerodynamically, this form factor is not the most efficient.

Eliminating the fuselage and building the aircraft as a flying wing has long been recognized as a path to greater efficiency and performance, and since the late 1940s, multiple flying wing designs have been proposed. Very few have made it into hardware, but a form of hybrid concept, called the blended wing body, appears to be a practical way to reduce drag, and consequently fuel burn, and commercial aircraft.

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Hyperscale Defense Manufacturing in a Five Million Square Foot Plant

Engineering.com — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0400

If successful, Anduril’s new facility may become the prototype for a paradigm shift in armaments design, development, manufacturing and procurement. Swarms of low cost, AI driven and fully autonomous drone weapon systems in the air, on the ground and into the sea, may replace the crewed, highly capable but costly armoured vehicles, aircraft and submarines. Part of conflict in Ukraine may have shown us the way wars will be fought in the future.

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Boeing addresses quality control allegations, buys back Spirit AeroSystems

Engineering.com — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Boeing has reacquired their former subsidiary, Spirit AeroSystems, in any $8.3 billion debt plus equity deal. Spirit, maker of 737 fuselage assemblies for the 737 Max program, has been implicated in the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout incidents that caused an emergency depressurization at altitude.

The repurchase of some 737 manufacturing assets brings the major part of that program’s supply chain back under direct Boeing control, including quality procedures. Spirit AeroSystems also operated foreign plants building components for Boeing’s major competitor, Airbus.

In a separate agreement, Airbus will acquire assets building for their programs, effectively re-shoring major Airbus component production to Europe. With the disappearance of spirit, a major Tier 1 supplier to the commercial aircraft industry, the global major air-frame duopoly now has fewer points of engineering commonality.

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Why the Future of Gas Turbines Lies in 3D Printing

Engineering.com — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Additive manufacturing has been the hottest topic in part making for years, offering unprecedented design flexibility for engineers. Hollow parts, parts with complex internal support structures, and three-dimensional compound curvature that would be impossible to machine are all available with 3D printing, and the aerospace industry is all in with this technology. But what about the tough applications, in propulsion?

Donald Godfrey, gas turbine veteran with decades of experience at companies like Rolls-Royce and Honeywell, is Global Director of Business Development for Aviation and Defense with SLM Solutions and Is a global expert who has written a textbook on the subject.

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EV sales growth flattens. Time for hybrids to shine?

Engineering.com — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 16:15:00 -0400

Sales growth in electric vehicles, led by Tesla and BYD has long suggested the end of gasoline and diesel fuel in the transportation sector. While fuel cells are a viable clean option, lower costs in battery production have made pure electric vehicles the sales leader in green transportation.

But can the momentum of early adopters be maintained? Market surveys suggest that EV sales growth is flattening, as MSRP’s and a lack of public charging infrastructure dampen demand.

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Touchless scanning for metrology is easier to use than ever

Engineering.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0400

There are significant changes in how quality control is conducted, especially in the automotive sector. Traditional touch-probing methods have evolved into the use of handheld scanners, which allow for faster, more accurate and more efficient measurement of complex geometries directly on the shop floor.

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Japanese automakers caught in safety certification scandal

Engineering.com — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 13:00:00 -0400

In a shocking and wide-ranging scandal, Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha have been implicated in the falsification of crashworthiness data and engine power testing by the Japanese government.

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Human spaceflight: Boeing in orbit, Sierra Space moves forward

Engineering.com — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:15:00 -0400

Boeing’s entry into NASA’s commercial crew program for the International Space Station, has suffered multiple technical delays, but has launched with two astronauts soon. The test flight is critical both for Boeing and for NASA, who need a backup system to guarantee crew access to orbit with two redundant systems.

The fourth system besides NASA, Boeing and SpaceX, is the Sierra Space Dream Chaser lifting body vehicle. An uncrewed cargo version is now at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for testing and will be launched by a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket. Soon, there may be four separate ways to lift humans into orbit from US soil.

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Volvo’s Autonomous, Production Ready Class 8 Truck Rolls Out

Engineering.com — Tue, 28 May 2024 16:45:00 -0400

Volvo Autonomous Solutions has unveiled Volvo’s first-ever production ready autonomous truck at the recent ACT Expo in Las Vegas.

The Volvo VNL Autonomous combines Volvo’s commercial vehicle expertise with autonomous driving technology from Aurora to create a purpose-designed and purpose-built autonomous truck that will be able to operate on line haul routes across the United States.

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A new, massive V-16 for possibly the world’s most exotic sports car

Engineering.com — Wed, 22 May 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Bugatti, the maker of ultra high-performance cars is making what may be the last hypercar internal combustion engine: a monstrous V16 that is expected to generate over thousand horsepower. The car it will power may challenge the current hypercar speed record, which is over 300 mph.

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An Aviation First as AI-Powered F-16 Dogfights Human Pilots

Engineering.com — Wed, 15 May 2024 09:00:00 -0400

AI may finally replace pilots in combat aircraft.

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How AI Can Solve the Green Energy Challenge

Engineering.com — Wed, 08 May 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Argonne National Laboratory has a plan for big data teamed with artificial intelligence.

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Nuclear Fusion Moves Closer to Commercial Power Production

Engineering.com — Wed, 01 May 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Longview Fusion Energy Systems Inc., has signed a memorandum of understanding with civil engineering giant Fluor to build a commercial pilot plant for grid electricity generation, using Longview’s solid-state laser driven, inertial confinement technology.

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Fuel Agnostic Engines: The Death of Diesel Fuel?

Engineering.com — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Venerable diesel engine builder Cummins has introduced a fuel agnostic heavy truck engine that uses an interesting modular design to create a single internal combustion powerplant capable of operating on diesel fuel, biodiesel, and gaseous fuels such as hydrogen, biogas or natural gas.

Nonetheless, the fuel infrastructure will be dominated by kerosene type liquid fuels for the foreseeable future.

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Turning Waste CO2 into Low Carbon Methanol for Industry

Engineering.com — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Reducing the carbon footprint of the chemical industry requires a two-pronged strategy: reduction of fossil fuel use as an energy input, and capture and reuse of carbon dioxide generated by chemical processes themselves.

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Stratolaunch tests hypersonic uncrewed vehicle

Engineering.com — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Mojave, California-based Stratolaunch has announced the successful test of an air-launched, hypersonic uncrewed test vehicle, the Talon TA-1.

As a private company, Stratolaunch can be contracted to gather specific data in hypersonic flight in support of customer-specific aircraft and missile programs.

This proprietary data can form an important and valuable source of intellectual property for air framers and give them a competitive advantage in what will almost certainly be a crowded and lucrative hypersonic market space.

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Wind power returns to ocean shipping

Engineering.com — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Ocean shipping under sail may be making a comeback. Cargill, a very large global producer of bulk agricultural commodities, has partnered with BAR Technologies and MC shipping to retrofit a large cargo vessel with vertical airfoils to augment propeller propulsion.

The ship, Pyxis Ocean, has been retrofitted with what BAR Technologies calls WindWings, and has been under test at sea since August 2023. The 37m tall, solid, steerable sails are deployed electrically from the bridge, and once deployed, onboard sensors adjust the sails for an optimal configuration.

The goal is not to replace diesel propulsion, but to supplement it, allowing lower throttle settings to maintain a desired steady-state speed. Under optimum conditions, BAR reports that the Pyxis Ocean achieves fuel savings of 11 tons per day.

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New Satellite to Measure the Other Greenhouse Gas: Methane

Engineering.com — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0400

With over 150 countries signing a Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, tracking will be essential worldwide.

A purpose-built satellite, MethaneSAT, has been launched to do just that, with the satellite a project of the Environmental Defense Fund. Data will be available, to everyone, worldwide.

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US EV sales slow, and Apple abandons its EV ambitions

Engineering.com — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0400

According to Kelly Blue Book, 2023 was a record year for U.S. electric vehicle sales, with 1.2 million vehicles delivered, resulting in a 7.6% total U.S. market share, up from 5.9% in 2022. Fourth-quarter EV sales were up year-over-year by 40% — big numbers, but lower than the 49% year-over-year gain in the third quarter.

Cox automotive predicts that 2024 will see EV market share in the U.S. reach 10% of all vehicles. Growth is slowing and dealer inventories of electric vehicles in America are climbing, and some manufacturers such as Ford have begun offering incentives to move EVs. A fundamental reason in the reduction in electric vehicle sales incentives in America and Europe was a persistently high MSRP of electric vehicles, caused by the high cost of batteries.

With high interest rates making the financing of expensive purchases even more expensive, buying with persistent inflation in other consumer goods, but optional electric vehicles worldwide may be slower than predicted.

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Two important developments in Chinese aerospace

Engineering.com — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Two major developments in the Chinese aerospace industry were revealed at the recent Singapore airshow. United Aircraft Group announced a tilt rotor UAV in the six-ton class, capable of carrying cargo and passengers for both civilian and military applications, and the COMAC C919 airliner received another order for 40 aircraft for Tibet Airlines, in a special high-altitude configuration. The C919 is crucial for the success of the Chinese civilian aircraft industry, competing in the most important single aisle market segment in commercial aviation, currently dominated by the Airbus A320 series and the Boeing 737.

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How Taylor Swift flew Tokyo to Las Vegas, without a carbon footprint

Engineering.com — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Carbon capture technology company Spiritus used a novel adsorbent-based direct air capture technology for CO2 in a unique way: to offset the carbon footprint of Taylor Swift’s recent transpacific jet flight from Tokyo to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.

Can it be scaled to keep the internal combustion engine relevant?

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USAF and Xwing demonstrate fully autonomous cargo aircraft

Engineering.com — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0400

A joint program by the U.S. Air Force and Xwing Corporation has demonstrated fixed wing cargo carrying capability in a point-to-point flight between two airbases using a specially modified Cessna 208B Grand Caravan.

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A nuclear battery for your cell phone?

Engineering.com — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Beijing-based Betavolt New Energy Technology Company has developed an atomic energy source, miniaturized into a form factor approximately ½ inch square and less than ¼ inch thick.

The first production batteries, called BV 100, are expected to have a lifetime of 50 years, delivering 1/10 of a milliwatt of power at 3 Volts.

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Ford is slashing production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup. Why is demand down?

Engineering.com — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0400

In a significant and unexpected move, Ford Motor Company has announced production cuts of the all-electric F150 Lightning, assembled at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan.

Light trucks and sport utility vehicles are the most sold, highest margin vehicles in America, and industry analysts attribute slow EV adoption in this segment to several factors.

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NASA'S X-59 May Be the Key to Supersonic Air Travel

Engineering.com — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0400

NASA’s new X-59 supersonic research aircraft is poised to crack the most vexing problem of commercial faster-than-sound travel: Sonic boom.

The unique shape of the aircraft manages shockwave formation and is anticipated to reduce the window-rattling noise of sonic booms to a thump no louder than the slamming of a car door.

If it works, a new generation of supersonic commercial airliners may be free of current FAA restrictions over supersonic operations over populated areas.

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China Readies Commercial VTOL Air Taxi Services

Engineering.com — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0400

For a decade after the Wright Brothers’ 1903 flight, inventors, dreamers and entrepreneurs operating out of barns and sheds all over the world built radical prototypes to turn aviation from a dangerous hobby into a practical proposition.

Today, there’s a modern equivalent of that excitement in the electric vertical takeoff and landing space. The eVTOL industry has reached an important milestone, with the first commercial certification of a battery electric VTOL aircraft in China.

This summer’s Paris Olympics is expected to feature regular eVTOL service between Paris area airports, contingent on European aviation authority certification, which is expected. If successful, this may open the floodgates to low altitude, urban air mobility in cities worldwide.

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U.S. Steel’s New Japanese Ownership

Engineering.com — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0400

In a blockbuster takeover, Nippon Steel has bought the iconic American producer United States Steel in a $14 billion deal. The combined company will have a global steel output of 86 million tons and is part of Nippon Steel’s program to achieve 100 million tons of global annual production.

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New Tech Harnesses Energy from Ocean Waves

Engineering.com — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0400

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

Stockholm, Sweden based Corpower Ocean has developed a standalone generation source the company calls a Wave Energy Converter, a floating generator unit tethered to a seabed anchor. The converter is essentially a floating bouy, resembling a giant sport fishing float or “bobber”, containing a novel mechanism. As the converter rises and falls relative to its seabed anchor, the vertical motion is converted by a rack and pinion mechanism into rotation, driving generators. The technology has been tested in real-world conditions since 2018 and has little environmental impact on marine life. Ocean wave power resources globally are approximately 500 GW, enough to potentially supply 10% of the world’s electricity needs.

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Battery Makers Face Tough New Rules for Foreign Materials and Parts Supply

Engineering.com — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0400

A new set of Biden administration restrictions on foreign sourced EV raw materials and components may constrain production growth just as the need for zero emission vehicles to meet EPA requirements increases.

With China controlling several key minerals, the race is on to develop alternate sources, but current tax credit regimes have MSRP restrictions, putting engineers in a classic bind: increased input costs, without the ability to pass those costs on to the consumer.

The regulatory regime will be a pivotal factor in the rate of EV adoption in America, and the 2024 election will greatly determine where those EV batteries will be made.

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eVTOL Maker Partners with Medevac Operator for Emergency Rescue Aircraft

Engineering.com — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Two Québec, Canada-based companies, Limosa and Airmedic, have announced a partnership to develop an electric VTOL medevac aircraft that combines the benefits of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft for this time critical mission profile. The aircraft, made by Limosa, is called Limomedic and will be operated by medevac service provider Airmedic for emergency services in Québec. Canada has many isolated communities which are difficult to access with fixed wing aircraft and an electric VTOL solution with fixed wing speed could save lives in remote areas.

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Self-Driving Goes Off Road for Mining

Engineering.com — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The rapid, global push toward electric vehicles has put a premium on extraction of several critical minerals. Lithium is the most important, but others such as copper, cobalt, nickel and other metals will be needed in large quantities to facilitate large-scale battery production. Caterpillar and Freeport McMorRan have announced a project to automate the company’s fleet of ore hauling heavy equipment at the Baghdad, Arizona copper mine. A first in U.S. mining, the fleet of 33 CAT 793 machines will be converted, with electrification expected in the future.

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A New Chinese Competitor to SpaceX

Engineering.com — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Numerous government-supported and private launch providers are in the market today, and from a cost perspective, the current leader is SpaceX. But, on November 2nd, China’s iSpace launched and landed their Hyperbola-2 test stage in a successful hop that demonstrated the company’s throttleable engine technology and precision landing capability.

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NASA Testing Dream Chaser Spaceplane for ISS Shuttle Missions

Engineering.com — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0400

NASA is adding a fourth crewed spacecraft for ISS transportation with Sierra Space's Dream Chaser. Why? It’s part of a long-range NASA goal to increase competition in the commercial space industry and to provide redundancy to ensure uninterrupted station resupply and operations.

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Porsche Design and ABB Robotics Collaborate for Robot-Built Housing

Engineering.com — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Robotics maker ABB has announced a collaboration with Porsche Consulting to create a pilot project to develop new techniques for modular housing manufacturing. The market is wide open, with construction lagging other engineering sectors in the use of automation.

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Blended Wing Body Aircraft: The Future of Air Transport?

Engineering.com — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Blended wing body airframe design has long been known to be a high-performance solution to the traditional limits on payload, range and endurance in large aircraft. The USAF ordered flying wing bombers just after World War II, and while performance benefits were demonstrated, blended wing body designs have not been applied to large transport aircraft.

This may be changing, as the USAF are leading a NASA and industry team to develop a blended wing body transport prototype to be built by Long Beach, California based JetZero. 30% improvements in performance are anticipated, and the program will be accelerated, with a projected first flight of 2027.

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OpenAI May Design Their Own Chips

Engineering.com — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Artificial intelligence algorithms are incredibly complex, needing the enormous power of supercomputers to operate. OpenAI’s ChatGPT runs on a Microsoft-built supercomputer powered by 10,000 Nvidia GPU’s. It’s expensive, and power-hungry, and the company is aiming to improve performance and reduce reliance on a single chip supplier. The result may be a new in-house semiconductor design unit at the company, or possibly an acquisition of an existing chipmaker. OpenAI has also announced that they are open to a collaborative effort with existing suppliers, including Nvidia.

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In This Aerospace Market, Electric Is Really Taking Off

Engineering.com — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The electrification of aviation is a difficult challenge. The high weight of batteries, and the resulting short range and limited payload that results, have limited applications of electric drive to smaller, propeller-driven general aviation aircraft. But flight training, which typically uses smaller, short range piston powered aircraft, is ideal for electrification.

Denver-based Bye Aerospace has created a purpose-built two-seat electric trainer called the eFlyer2, which is in the FAA certification process right now. Four flight training companies have ordered 340 aircraft, a production run that may nucleate the first sustained mass production of electric light aircraft in America.

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Where Will EV Lithium Come From? In the Future, North Carolina

Engineering.com — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Critics of the transition from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles point out that many obstacles remain to full adoption. These include high costs, unknown electrical grid capacity and, importantly, access to the critical minerals necessary to create the all-important battery packs.

With car battery technology, lithium is the key metal, and like other strategic inputs, most of the world supply is a long way away from America’s auto manufacturers. That, however, may be changing, as Albemarle Corporation and Caterpillar have announced a deal to collaborate on zero emissions battery-powered mining equipment for deployment at Albemarle’s Kings Mountain North Carolina lithium mine.

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Why is LEGO Abandonning the Recycled Plastic Project?

Engineering.com — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0400

This summer, the legendary Danish toy manufacturer LEGO announced a breakthrough: lasting bricks made from recycled PET, derived from soda bottles. The research project was considerable, requiring a staff of 150 working through 250 different plastic compositions to create a recycled plastic brick that met LEGO’s tough quality standards.

Although an engineering success, the company announced the suspension of the project, as an analysis of the carbon footprint of the recycling process showed no net benefit compared to oil-derived plastic resin. The company is switching research efforts to versions of resin derived from e-methanol, feedstock made from waste CO2 and hydrogen. Made from hydrogen derived from electrolysis powered by clean energy, this could prove to be truly zero carbon polymer resin.

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DARPA To Develop Wireless Power Beaming Technology

Engineering.com — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Wireless optical power relays may revolutionize energy distribution.

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An Opposed Piston Engine with No Crankshaft

Engineering.com — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The perfection of the internal combustion engine has been sought for almost 150 years. In the process, some innovative and downright odd designs have emerged. Granada, Spain-based INNengine has developed an innovative opposed piston design that does away with crankshafts, replacing them with rotary cam tracks, the pistons functioning in a way similar to roller lifters in pushrod overhead valve engines. Mechanical simplicity and light weight are major advantages, as is a unique advantage offered by the cam system: variable compression ratio. The company has prototypes running now, and is developing engines for both automotive and aviation use.

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Space-Based 5G Networks: The End of Cellular?

Engineering.com — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Space-based Internet connectivity as a retail product was pioneered by Elon Musk’s Starlink and players such as Amazon, as well as dedicated space data startups, are clamoring to fill the skies with small sat networks to provide direct-to-home data. Barcelona-based Satelliot plans to take this concept to the next level, with 5G connectivity from orbit that operates seamlessly with existing terrestrial 5G networks currently using cell phone technology. In principle, the system will allow seamless high-speed data access to smart phones and handheld devices using existing carrier companies, Sim cards and the same smart phones in use today. The development of this 5G technology is spurred by autonomous vehicles, which are expected to be widely connected and generate staggering amounts of data: Nokia predicts that autonomous driving will generate data at 4 TB per hour.

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Cheaper, Mass Produced Hydrogen Fuel Cells, From a Familiar Technology

Engineering.com — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Hydrogen fuel cell stacks have been produced commercially since the 1960s, mainly for military and space exploration tasks. Handmade, delicate and expensive, the mass production problem has been a major inhibitor to the widespread adoption of fuel cells as a mass-market power source. U.K.-based Bramble Energy has developed a manufacturing technique for hydrogen fuel cell stacks that uses an existing and well-optimized technology in the electronics industry: printed circuit manufacturing.

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Boom Supersonic Nears Demonstrator First Flight

Engineering.com — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The XB-1 will pave the way for commercial supersonic flight, but challenges remain.

Regularly scheduled, commercial supersonic flight became a reality half a century ago with Concorde, but the high costs associated with supersonic aircraft technology doomed the project to commercial failure, despite its engineering excellence. Boom Supersonic is moving forward with an 80-seat composite faster-than-sound airliner using proprietary engines. Developing a novel airframe and engine both in-house is ambitious for any startup, but Boom h that is cheap that you help me of the sentence as commitments from three major airlines and has begun construction of a production facility in North Carolina.

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Vinfast Moves Fast on EV Production

Engineering.com — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

How long does it take to become a major automaker? Vietnam founded and Singapore-based Vinfast has rocketed from a well financed startup in 2017 to a significant producer of electric vehicles. Vinfast has now announced that the company has started construction of a four-billion-dollar US production facility in North Carolina. Production is expected to begin in 2025.

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Is the U.S. Power Grid Vulnerable to Chinese Attack?

Engineering.com — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:45:00 -0400

Cluster munitions, frequently called “cluster bombs,” have an engineering history that dates back to World War II, when the German Air Force used the weapon against Allied civilian and military targets.

As the name implies, cluster munitions are canisters of anywhere from a handful to several thousand small explosives which are designed to scatter widely and explode over a very large area. Unexploded submunitions, however, may remain dangerous for months or years after a battle.

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What Makes Cluster Bombs Controversial?

Engineering.com — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

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Was the OceanGate Sub Implosion an Engineering Failure?

Engineering.com — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The catastrophic loss of OceanGate’s Titan submersible with all hands aboard has triggered widespread speculation regarding the cause of the accident. Inadequate design, insufficient testing and the use of carbon fiber as a structural material have all been suggested as contributing factors.

Carbon fiber is a well-characterized material that is strong and light, making it a favourite for weight-critical applications in aerospace. Its use in the much less weight-sensitive application of subsea exploration may have more to do with the way composite pressure vessels are built, rather than weight or performance.

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Flying Cars Are Coming Sooner Than You Think

Engineering.com — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Flying taxis are one of the most widely anticipated technologies in aviation, but it’s a very difficult problem to solve. Safety, cost, range and environmental considerations have delayed development by decades, but a new generation of e-VTOLs, combined with advanced engineering tools and materials, suggests that this may be changing.

At the 2023 Paris Air Show, one of the companies developing this technology, Supernal, announced partnerships designed to develop the aircraft and the technology to mass produce the aircraft concurrently.

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New EV Battery Developments Add Range, Reduce Weight

Engineering.com — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Current lithium-ion battery technology is limited by physics and economics. Lithium-based batteries are heavy, expensive to produce and are relatively slow to charge. A new silicon nanowire anode technology developed by Amprius Technologies promises to deliver lithium-ion batteries with double the gravimetric and volumetric power density of current systems. The solution to the cost problem is to use an alternate battery chemistry. BYD battery business unit FinDreams plans to do just that with the first large-scale sodium ion battery production plant, planned for Jiangsu province in China. Sodium ion batteries are lower in performance, but are much more cost-effective compared to lithium alternatives.

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Automation, AI and Reshoring: Inflation and Interests Rates Won’t Stop Growth

Engineering.com — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

With a chronic industrial labor shortage in America, combined with climbing interest rates and high inflation, the challenges for American manufacturing are increasing. Geopolitical conflict with Russia, strained relations with China and the emergence of artificial intelligence are adding even more uncertainty. For the automation sector however, these challenges present a golden opportunity for a major revamp of the how, why and where of American manufacturing.

Association for Advancing Automation CEO Jeff Burnstein makes the case for a bright future, in conversation with Jim Anderton at Automate 2023 in Detroit.

https://www.engineering.com/story/automation-ai-and-reshoring-inflation-and-interests-rates-wont-stop-growth?fromID=267

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Uber Eats Rolls Out 2,000 Meal Delivery Robots

Engineering.com — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Autonomously guided vehicles, or AGVs, are now common in warehouses and factories. Soon, they may be on city streets, delivering fast food and gourmet meals to homes by Uber Eats, Pizza Hut, 7-11 and others. Can small delivery robots reliably get time-sensitive deliveries like fast food to consumers as efficiently as human delivery drivers? We’ll know soon.

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Ford EV’s to Charge at Tesla Superchargers

Engineering.com — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Standardization is important for the widespread adoption of any mass consumer technology. The Edison lamp base is an example, as is the standardized shape and form of gasoline and diesel fuel pump nozzles worldwide. Electric vehicle charging has yet to develop a single global standard, and the two largest currently are Tesla’s NACS and CCS, which are used by the majority of other electric vehicle makers. Ford has taken a significant step in incorporating Tesla supercharger locations into the company’s charging network for Mustang, F-150 and Transit electric vehicles.

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GM Recalls a Million Vehicles Over Airbag Inflators

Engineering.com — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recalled almost a million GM midsized SUVs due to defective airbag inflators. According to NHTSA, deployment of the airbags may propel metal shrapnel into the passenger compartment, causing possible injury or death.

The manufacturer of the modules, ARC Automotive, has rejected the government allegations. The company argues that single-digit failures in parts manufactured in quantities of million or more represent a sample size statistically too small to justify wholesale replacement.

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SpaceX Explosion: Was the Launch Pad a Factor?

Engineering.com — Mon, 01 May 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Since the V-2 rockets of World War II, it’s been axiomatic in large rocketry that a flame deflector is necessary below booster engines to reduce the risk of damage to the launch pad and the booster. Last week’s launch of the SpaceX Starship used no deflector, and post-launch pad damage was extensive. Several booster engines failed shortly after launch, possibly as a result of debris, thermal and acoustic effects. Future launches will likely feature a flame deflector, water deluge system, or both.

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NYC Garage Collapse Puts Spotlight on Construction and Materials

Engineering.com — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The collapse of a parking garage in lower Manhattan has thrown a spotlight on the structural integrity of older reinforced concrete buildings and bridges in the U.S.. The site is left with unstable partial walls and multiple damaged vehicles which represent an environmental hazard due to fuel, lubricants and coolants. Although the collapse occurred with little warning, a forensic engineering study should reveal the the cause in due time. But the building had been cited for cracks in concrete by municipal authorities a decade ago.

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Will New EPA Rules Kill the Internal Combustion Engine?

Engineering.com — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The Environmental Protection Agency has been setting U.S. motor vehicle emissions standards for over half a century, and in the process has reduced the output of unburned hydrocarbons, particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide by several orders of magnitude since the unregulated engines of the 1950s. Today, however, the Biden Administration is proposing a set of rules that include strict CO2 emissions limits. With no technical way to remediate CO2 emissions from internal combustion engines, the rules may set the stage for the eventual elimination of gasoline and diesel-powered cars and light trucks.

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Woven Micro Pumps for Wearable Fluid Technology

Engineering.com — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Circulating of fluid through woven into a garment was used successfully during the Apollo moon landings to regulate the astronauts’ body temperature. A new development by researchers at Switzerland-based École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne has resulted in miniature tube pumps in the form of fibers that allow high-pressure fluidic circuits to be woven into textiles without an external pump. Pressure and flow are created by electrohydrodynamics, propelling ions in a special dielectric fluid. No external mechanical pump is needed, so the system could be used to create advanced devices for simulation, or potentially as an assistive exoskeleton.

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Computational Lithography to Enable Faster AI Development

Engineering.com — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0400

As applications for artificial intelligence are developing rapidly, the need for ever higher computational power to train massive datasets for AI puts a premium on chipmaking technology. Conventional photolithography is increasingly difficult as gate density increases on modern semiconductors, and single digit nanometer devices are more time-consuming and difficult to fabricate.

Nvidia has developed a software package in collaboration with ASML, Synopsys and TSMC which is designed to run with Nvidia graphics processor units in a system that promises to eventually produce an order of magnitude faster wafer production. 2 nm devices are under study, which may represent the physics limit to PLC development with photolithography technology.

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Turkish Aerospace: High Tech and Growing

Engineering.com — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The Turkish aircraft industry is on a roll. With the excellent performance of Bayraktar TB-2 drones in Ukraine, and the development of the larger, more capable Akinci twin engine high-altitude drone, Turkish military aviation is moving into systems that are comparable in performance to industry heavyweights from America, China and Russia.

The new TF-X program will take Turkish aerospace to the next level, with the production of the first stealthy, fifth-generation air superiority fighter from a non-superpower. And it’s not just the airframes. The Turkish industries are capable of supplying a wide variety of munitions, sensors and critically, advanced active electronically scanned array radars. Stealth fighters are very expensive for smaller nations, but if the Turkish program can deliver fifth-generation fighters at something approximating fourth-generation prices, the global market will be enormous.

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Can Heat Pumps Save the Environment?

Engineering.com — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Carnot cycle refrigeration by mechanical compressors has been around for over a century, and it’s a mature technology. Since World War II, it has been used to heat and cool structures, but with increased urgency in reducing fossil fuel use, heat pumps are under renewed scrutiny as a low-emission climate control solution. Moving heat with this technology is significantly more energy efficient than electrical resistance heating but is more expensive than natural gas boilers for space heat applications. A wholesale switch to heat pump technology will require government subsidies, carbon taxes, direct regulation or some combination of the three unless some new, lower-cost way to compress the working fluid is discovered.

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East Palestine Derailment: It’s in the Bearings

Engineering.com — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 16:00:00 -0400

The recent derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, resulting in a toxic chemical spill was a rare but not unknown event on America’s railroads. Like every other wheeled vehicle in commercial service, rolling stock relies on anti-friction bearings. And like all ball and roller bearings, heat is the major cause of failure. For safety-critical applications in railways, thermography is used to check passing rolling stock for hot bearings, setting an alarm to alert the engineer about the problem. Modern systems can determine the exact car where a hot bearing is located, but predicting catastrophic failure is very difficult. More technology is needed to prevent a repeat of this disaster.

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Dow, X-Energy to Install Industrial Nuclear Plant

Engineering.com — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 10:30:00 -0400

60 years ago, nuclear energy was touted as a power source that would deliver electricity at prices “too cheap to meter.” Experience with large-scale nuclear generation to date has shown that large commercial nuclear power plants do not produce electricity cheaply; however, the new imperative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions has given nuclear new incentive to develop.

New, fourth-generation reactors are significantly safer, and cheaper to build and operate when compared to current designs. The new reactors are smaller, and their operating economics open the possibility for private power users to adopt the technology for industrial use, producing electricity and process heat.

Dow and X-energy Reactor Company recently announced that the company will deploy one of X-energy’s small modular reactors at Dow’s Gulf Coast chemical plant complex. The reactor will provide electric power and process heat for steam. If successful, the initiative will not only reduced Dow’s carbon footprint, but also set the stage for widespread commercial cogeneration outside of power utilities.

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Ukraine War: Artillery Shortages Affect Both Sides

Engineering.com — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 09:30:00 -0400

Since World War II, modern combat doctrine worldwide has emphasized wars of speed, maneuvers and mobility. Since the pioneering German blitzkriegs of 1939 and 1940, the notion of static battle lines, seen in the First World War, has been widely regarded as obsolete. Surprisingly, the current war in Ukraine has developed in a manner that looks very similar to the trench warfare of World War I.

A century ago, that war saw very high volumes of artillery fire—so much so that artillery shortages were a clinical problem in 1916. And today, as then, Ukrainian and Russian forces are looking for sources worldwide to maintain the very high rates of artillery fire common in this war phase.

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Why Do So Many Buildings Fall During Earthquakes?

Engineering.com — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 13:45:00 -0400

The recent earthquake near the Turkish-Syrian border has killed, at the time of writing, over 41,000 individuals and has collapsed over 6,000 buildings in Turkey alone. Turkey is a known region for serious seismic events and has endured significant earthquakes.

Turkish building codes from 2007, heavily revised in 2018, specify earthquake-resistant construction, and the city of Istanbul completed a $500 million project in 2015 to prepare that large city for a seismic event. While multiple and unconfirmed reports show that lax construction techniques and corruption resulted in many substandard buildings, the region contains many old, before-code structures.

The Turkish civil engineering sector is highly advanced and capable, so it seems unlikely that fault for this disaster will be found in the design process. Tighter enforcement of building codes plus enhanced disaster preparedness systems, as have been implemented in Istanbul, are logical paths forward in the aftermath of this disaster.

Retrofitting Coal Power Plants With Small Nuclear Reactors

Engineering.com — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 09:30:00 -0400

Nuclear energy is enjoying a resurgence. Some nations are deferring the retirement of reactors and other countries are developing new generation fission designs that are safer and more cost-effective than current technology. By retrofitting existing coal-fired power plants, new small modular reactors, or SMRs, are at the forefront of this development.

Copper, the Critical Material for Transportation Electrification

Engineering.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 15:30:00 -0400

Lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare-earth elements have been studied extensively, as have the supply bottlenecks and predicted production shortages that have driven battery prices higher in electric vehicles. Rarely discussed, however, is a critical input for not only electric vehicle batteries but also for the entire electricity infrastructure: copper. According to a new report by S&P Global, supply shortages of the world’s most crucial metallic conductor may seriously hamper the net zero emissions target of 2050. Can the world produce enough copper to meet demand?

West vs East Faceoff: The Abrams and Leopard 2 vs Russian Tanks

Engineering.com — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Tanks have been a game-changing technology in warfare for a century, and Ukraine was the site of major tank battles in World War II. In the current Russia Ukraine war, both sides have used Soviet-era tanks, with the most numerous being updated versions of the T-72. But as the war drags on, more modern equipment is making its way to the conflict, notably the Russian T-90 main battle tank.

Currently, European NATO nations and the Biden Administration have authorized the transfer of advanced Western main battle tanks, the German Leopard 2 and the U.S. M1 Abrams. It appears that a technological showdown is shaping up between NATO and Russia in tanks and the results will likely influence tank design for years.

Will Airlines Adopt Sustainable Fuels?

Engineering.com — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 08:07:00 -0400

In the drive to create a zero-carbon economy by the middle of the century, multiple engineering solutions for replacing fossil fuels are in development. Power generation through wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal and other carbon-free technologies are on the rise. But transportation, particularly air transportation, is a much more difficult problem to solve with alternates.

Aviation is driven primarily by jet fuel, essentially kerosene, a simple fossil fuel easily made from crude oil by vacuum distillation and catalytic cracking. When burned at high temperatures in efficient engines, it has all the hallmarks of a great fuel: easy to handle, energy dense, cheap and safe.

The production of CO2, however, is inevitable in any combustion process. In jet engines, there is no way to sequester that carbon dioxide stream, as there can be in ground-based power systems. Sustainable aviation fuel promises to remove 80 percent of fossil-fuel-created greenhouse gases by formulating jet fuel from non-petroleum base stocks.

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Sony & Honda’s Joint Venture and Other CES 2023 Updates

Engineering.com — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 13:12:00 -0400

The 2023 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show had its share of innovations, and many are far outside the strict realm of consumer electronics. Sony and Honda announced a major venture to produce electric cars that are as much entertainment platforms as personal transportation under the Afeela brand, and John Deere wins awards for self-driving tractors and develops a novel electric excavator batteries from Austrian-based manufacturer Kriesel.

The Last Boeing 747 Rolls Out

Engineering.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 09:30:00 -0400

The last of 1,574 Boeing 747s has left the company’s Everett, Washington plant, and will be delivered to Atlas Air early next year. That airframe wraps up a remarkable 54 year production program, with the 747 joining the Airbus A380 as the end of four engine wide-body airliner programs. 50 years ago, “Jumbo Jets” were seen as the solution to lower seat mile costs, enabling an entirely new industry, low-cost air travel. However, the relentless drive for lower seat mile costs, combined with high fuel prices, coincided with a change in the airline industry from hub and spoke operations to point-to-point travel using smaller airplanes. 747s will remain in service as a cargo aircraft for some years, but its days as a passenger carrier are numbered.

Hot Engineering Trends for 2023

Engineering.com — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 10:37:00 -0400

2022 was a busy year engineering, with important firsts recorded in space exploration, commercial aviation and energy. What’s in store for 2023? Engineering.com expects that the far-reaching impact of the war in Ukraine, combined with political pressure to de-carbonize will result in acceleration in the shift away from fossil fuels. But in the interim, ultra pipeline and LNG gas supply chains will be developed quickly. Electric vehicles will dominate the ground transportation space again, and with the supply chain crunch easing, EV production rates will ramp significantly in 2023. The delivery of the Tesla semi will shift some attention toward commercial vehicles, with adoption constrained by availability of battery materials and charging infrastructure.

Tesla Launches the Semi

Engineering.com — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:57:00 -0400

In 2017, Elon Musk presented a prototype of a battery electric Class 8 highway tractor, predicting that electrification will fundamentally change the American trucking industry. Trucking in America is a 700-billion-dollar annual industry, and with 4 million Class 8 vehicles registered on American roads, the fleet is considerable. While electrification looks promising, current lithium-ion battery technology suggests that 500 to 600 miles is the reasonable range that can be expected from a battery electric highway tractor. For long-haul with a single driver, this range corresponds roughly to the allowable hours of service mandated by U.S. Federal regulations, suggesting that short and medium distance intercity transportation with electric heavy trucks is feasible with current technology. With the first units now in the hands of PepsiCo, it will be possible to get real-world data on Tesla Semi performance.

Are Helicopters Dead?

Engineering.com — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:23:00 -0400

Bell Helicopter has won a major contract to supply the Pentagon with a new, multirole and speedy light attack aircraft. It’s a tiltrotor, and it defeated a competing coaxial compound helicopter from a Lockheed/Boeing consortium. Tilt rotors aren’t new, with V-22 Osprey variants operating in U.S. military service for years, but detractors of that program have pointed to high early accident rates and maintainability issues as evidence that tiltrotors can’t replace pure helicopters for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) assault and light cargo applications. The new Textron Bell V-280 Valor is a smaller and lighter aircraft than the Osprey, and with modern technology, promises to address the shortcomings of the older platform. If it delivers reliability and safety in service, it will allow fixed wing speeds with helicopter-like vertical lift capability, a game changer for military aviation—and perhaps urban civilian aeronautics, too.

Two Important Developments in Nuclear Energy

Engineering.com — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 09:15:00 -0400

Nuclear energy for electricity generation has been the standard application for civilian nuclear power since the industry began seven decades ago. Heat produces steam, which spins a turbine—technology which uses readily available processes developed in coal, oil and gas burning power plants for over a century. Space and process heat, however, are major energy demands for cities and in industry, and a demonstration nuclear district heat plant has powered up in Dalian City, China. In the United States, a development program for scalable, truck-transportable small modular reactors may have encountered a restraining force more powerful than physics: inflation.

Artemis 1 Launch Success Vindicates Legacy Hardware Approach

Engineering.com — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:26:00 -0400

With the successful launch of Artemis 1, NASA is back in the crewed space exploration business, with the largest rocket successfully launched anywhere. The combined 8,000,000 pounds of thrust at launch exceeds the power of the Saturn V launch vehicle that carried a dozen astronauts to the moon. The new system uses developments of legacy Space Shuttle engines and solid rocket boosters, with a booster structure derived from the Space Shuttle external tank. Development of advanced hardware from proven components was controversial, with some NASA critics stating that the approach would prove as expensive and lengthy as clean sheet designs, but with a successful launch, the new Space Launch System appears set to be NASA’s heavy lift launch vehicle for the foreseeable future.

Boeing CEO: No New Airliners This Decade

Engineering.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 09:45:00 -0400

The commercial aircraft business is a brutal one. The cost to develop and certify a new airframe is enormous, and any major technological advance carries risk that can be existential for the developing company. Boeing famously gambled the company on the 747 and was rewarded for success with a production program that has run for half a century. Today, costs are even higher, but in the critical midsize commercial airliner market, Boeing has recently announced that the firm will not be developing a new airplane to replace passenger versions of the 767 and 757 this decade. Some analysts feel that this will give Airbus a distinct advantage. Boeing feels that engine technology is not ready to support the development of a new airliner in this class and will continue to offer development versions of the 737 and 787 for the mid-size market. It’s a controversial decision.

It’s On! The Bezos-Musk Rocket Engine Battle Begins

Engineering.com — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 09:08:00 -0400

In the race to truly commercialize orbital space launch, the guidance problem has largely been solved. Light and heavy lift orbit is relatively routine, but the cost of lifting every ounce to even low earth orbit is still an inhibiting factor in widespread exploitation of near-Earth space. Several companies are working to reduce these costs, notably Elon Musk's SpaceX. But there are competitors, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

A critical factor in reducing launch costs is the development of a new generation of high-performance rocket engines. Blue Origin's new BE-4 closed cycle engine has been delivered for use on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket. Blue Origin intends to use the engines on their own launch systems as well. With two major heavy lift launch companies operating in the American market, competitive pressures to launch reliably at ever-lower costs are mounting.

Have Drones Made Combat Pilots Obsolete?

Engineering.com — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:41:00 -0400

The use of drones for military purposes has a long history. The concept dates to World War I, and pilotless explosive-laden aircraft were used extensively by Germany in World War II. Remotely controlled precision attack drones were developed by the United States near the end of World War II, but despite predictions in the many decades after that war, crewed combat aircraft continued to rule the combat zone. The experience in Ukraine this year, however, suggests that there may be a radical change in that military doctrine. Swarms of accurate, low-cost combat and reconnaissance drones may now make it possible for a warring nation to overwhelm even sophisticated air defence systems, including piloted fighter aircraft. This shift in the definition of air superiority would be the first change in the doctrine of aerial warfare in a century. And cost engineering is key.

Decarbonizing Chemical Production with CO2 Sequestration

Engineering.com — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 10:27:00 -0400

The combustion of fossil fuels is widely thought of as the cause of global CO2 emissions. While it is the major contributor, many process industries are large emitters as well, and many of those have few alternative technologies to reduce CO2 production. CF Industries, a large manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil to capture and store CO2 generated by the company’s large Louisiana manufacturing complex. The development of this large-scale blue ammonia system may make ammonia a viable alternative as a motor fuel as well as an important chemical feedstock.

Bell, Sikorsky-Boeing in a Winner-Take-All U.S. Army Helicopter Contest

Engineering.com — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 17:09:00 -0400

In the aerospace industry, big military contracts can come in two ways: low-volume, high value platforms, and the opposite, multirole aircraft with enough development potential to sustain production over decades. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is an example of the latter, in production since 1979 and still on the line today, with about 4000 produced so far. The replacement rotorcraft for such a successful program has to deliver outstanding performance, and it represents a massive production commitment for the winning airframer. Bell and Sikorsky – Boeing have produced radically different aircraft in the competition for this lucrative contract. The winner may establish the standard for VTOL military aircraft for decades to come.

Launch Escape Systems Saves Lives in Space Flight

Engineering.com — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:15:00 -0400

Spaceflight is hard, and dangerous. From the beginnings of crewed spaceflight in the early 1960s, ejection seats and launch escape rockets were designed to carry astronauts and cosmonauts away from the fireball of an exploding booster. Launch escape rockets can be carried on top of the spacecraft and lift it off tractor-style or be mounted under the capsule and push it free of the upper stages. Ejection seats have fallen out of favour after the second Space Shuttle flight, but both tractor and pusher type launch escape rockets are human rated today. Blue Origin and SpaceX use the pusher type, while NASA prefers the traditional tractor type. Which is better?

LG Makes 6G Progress in Terahertz Communications

Engineering.com — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 09:00:00 -0400

Each generation of wireless communications technology has triggered significant and important social and economic changes. The telegraph, the telephone, microwave relays and satellite medications all made distances effectively smaller and local operations national in scale. Wireless is done the same, with each generation of service offering more bandwidth and faster download speeds, enabling new services to develop by the thousands. But each new technology generates a demand for yet more bandwidth, and faster speeds, with less latency. Six G, the next wave of terahertz frequency data transfer, is the next wave. 60 is widely expected to be the critical enabling technology for widespread adoption of VR/AR, the Internet of Things and global scale cloud computing. LG has announced a milestone test of six G transmission over 320 metres outdoors. The test used hardware developed by LG in association with the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin.

Additive Initiative Brings Big OEMs and Suppliers Together

Engineering.com — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0400

It’s no secret that the state-of-the-art in manufacturing technology varies widely by industry sector and by enterprise scale. Large, R&D-heavy OEMs in the automotive, aerospace, energy and defence sectors have access to and implement the latest technologies, such as advanced additive manufacturing. The supply chain that supports those companies, however, have varying abilities—from capability that matches that of their customers’, to reliance on third-party and frequently offshore expertise.

The AM Forward initiative, backed by the Bipartisan Innovation Act, aims to commit large U.S. companies to purchase 3D printing parts from smaller U.S.-based suppliers, as well as train those suppliers on new technologies and provide technical assistance. If successful, the program could change the traditional relationship between large manufacturers and the entire supply chain.

This Chinese New Regional Jet May Be the Most Important First Flight in Decades

Engineering.com — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0400

Commercial aviation is growing rapidly in China. The emergence of a relatively affluent middle-class, plus new more maintainable and fuel-efficient airliners are making China the must win market for air-framers worldwide. To date, this has been good news for Boeing and Airbus, but Chinese maker COMAC has started production of an efficient small jet that is aimed squarely at the sweet spot in the market, currently dominated by the Airbus A320 series. Although it makes extensive use of Western engines and avionics, the emergence of a credible locally made competitor in the huge Chinese market is a shot across the bow for Boeing and Airbus. Will the global market support three major airline manufacturers?

What is a Hypersonic Missile?

Engineering.com — Tue, 24 May 2022 15:59:00 -0400

Hypersonic missiles were used for the first time in combat last month in Ukraine, as Russian jets launched Kinzhal missiles from jet fighters. Hypersonic missiles are fast, flying at speeds of Mach 5 or faster, and when combined with a flat trajectory compared to ballistic missiles and maneuverability, they present a difficult problem for defense.

Hypersonic missiles are under development as long-range strategic weapons, but the most intense research is in air-launched standoff systems launched from conventional military aircraft. The Kinzhal system uses conventional rocket engines, but more advanced propulsion under development in China and the U.S. uses air breathing supersonic combustion ramjets to use air as the oxidizer, adding longer range compared to rocket systems. Heat is the primary technical challenge to “scramjet” development, but test systems with run times that could allow a 300-mile range have been demonstrated.

Can 3D Printing Solve the Housing Problem?

Engineering.com — Mon, 09 May 2022 15:58:00 -0400

Housing affordability all over the world has been closely tied to traditional supply and demand equilibria. Nations with growing economies and growing populations need more housing, yet the combination of cost, land availability, regulatory and environmental considerations has resulted in a significant lag between the time that housing is needed in the time that it is built. In America, Freddie Mac has reported that the housing deficit in America increased 52% between 2018 and 2020. One solution to the problem may be 3D printing, with a new generation of very large footprint machines which in the future may collapse the cost of new housing while simultaneously increasing build speed.

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Precise, Accurate Aircraft Navigation Without GPS

Engineering.com — Tue, 03 May 2022 15:58:00 -0400

Navigation aircraft used to be a simple business. Early pilots often used roadmaps and flew low enough to read the names of towns from water towers and grain silos. Longer-range aircraft brought with them the need for a dedicated navigator, who used the sun and stars just as shipboard navigators did for centuries.

The development of satellite-based global positioning systems, however, automated the process and effectively removed the navigator from the cockpit of modern commercial aircraft. Unfortunately, GPS is vulnerable to system attack and jamming, especially since GPS signals are used for military purposes—their original purpose.

Can robust, low cost and accurate aircraft navigation systems be built without reliance on GPS? Honeywell has tested a prototype system that promises to do just that.

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Opposed Pistons Offer New, Clean Life for Old Diesel Technology

Engineering.com — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 15:55:00 -0400

Internal combustion engines are all about volumetric efficiency. Like all heat engines, higher combustion temperatures mean greater efficiency, but those high combustion chamber temperatures and pressures form an ideal process for creating oxides of nitrogen in the exhaust gas stream. NOx has long been known as a major contributor to photochemical smog, and the state of California has had uniquely stringent NOx emission standards for decades. Upcoming standards set for 2027 appeared impossible to meet, but a test of opposed piston diesel built by Achates Power as part of a CALSTART research project has met the 90 percent reduction requirement without novel exhaust gas aftertreatment technologies. The engine is running in a test truck and promises better fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions as a bonus.

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Generative Design: Ready for Prime Time?

Engineering.com — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 15:44:00 -0400

Generative design is widely regarded as the Holy Grail of design engineering automation. Simply press a button, and have artificial intelligence create an optimized part. It's a supremely difficult challenge, and, like autonomous driving, is much more difficult than it appears. Engineering.com's design engineering expert Roopinder Tara discusses the state-of-the-art in generative design with Jim Anderton.

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Finland Opens the First European Nuclear Plant in 15 Years

Engineering.com — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 15:44:00 -0400

The Finnish power utility TVO has open the first new European nuclear plant in 15 years. The pressurized light water reactor is the product of a French/German design team and promises to deliver as much as 15 percent of the nation’s total electricity needs. Although it is a decade behind schedule and billions of Euros over the original cost estimates, the plant promises to deliver clean power for decades—along with ground-breaking deep storage of nuclear waste, and an interesting experiment in the use of waste heat for agriculture.

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The Longest Suspension Bridge in the World Connects Asia to Europe

Engineering.com — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:21:00 -0400

The recently opened 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey is an engineering marvel. The world’s largest suspension bridge, the project was thought to be technically impossible as late as the mid-1990s but has emerged as a key link between Europe and Asia.

The bridge required very high towers and large, submerged caissons built on-site, as well as advanced project management and planning. Some 4,000 workers built the bridge which—despite COVID-19—was completed ahead of schedule. A consortium of two Korean and two Turkish engineering firms handled the construction, and will operate the bridge for 16 years before turning control over to the Turkish government. The estimated cost of the project is $2.7 billion, and it is expected to carry as many as 45,000 vehicles per day.

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NASA’s Return to the Moon Accelerates

Engineering.com — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:12:00 -0400

For the first time in half a century, NASA is preparing to launch a moon rocket. After multiple delays and redesigns, the giant Artemis 1 vehicle has rolled to the launch pad for the first in a series of final rehearsals for an unmanned Orion spacecraft mission around the moon. The combination of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft has been in development since the end of the space shuttle program and shares several key technologies with the earlier vehicle, including main engines, airframe structures and segmented solid rocket boosters.

The use of proven design elements in the Artemis program is hoped to grant the system capabilities that exceed the Apollo program’s Saturn 5 launch vehicle, with better reliability and lower relative costs. And there is another similarity to the 1960s: a space race. The race today is with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose giant Starship is already on the launch pad undergoing tests. A firm launch date has not been set for either vehicle, although it is generally expected that Starship will likely launch first.

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Modern Digital Twins Give New Life to Legacy Aircraft

Engineering.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:28:00 -0400

In the aerospace industry, airframe programs can last for decades. The 747, for example, has sustained a fifty-year production run, but maintaining legacy airframes presents a significant engineering problem: aircraft designed on paper blueprints and early CAD systems are still in service, and replacement parts and modifications are still needed.

Translating old renderings into forms that can be used by modern aviation companies and operators is expensive and ad hoc. To address this problem, a USAF sponsored program by the Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research has created a digital twin of an entire B-1 Lancer airframe, a large and complex strategic bomber. The results so far demonstrate enhanced, lower cost maintenance, suggesting that digital engineering may be the way forward for the many global operators of older aircraft.

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This Strange Air Vehicle May be the Future of Heavy Lift

Engineering.com — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:26:00 -0400

Lighter than air flying machines predate the invention of the airplane, and open so the 1930s, were the only practical way to carry passengers are significant payloads over transatlantic distances. The combination of the 1936 Hindenburg disaster and the development of longer-range fixed wing aircraft ended the age of the rigid airship, but a new hybrid type aircraft that combines features of airships and fixed wing aircraft shows promise for heavy lift, long-duration and low carbon flight. Bradford, UK-based Hybrid Air Vehicles has developed a production ready aircraft and as recently establish a basis for certification with European aviation authorities, a critical step toward type certification. The company expects their Airlander 10 vehicle to be service ready by 2025.

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Blue Hydrogen for CO2-Free, Fuel Agnostic Diesels

Engineering.com — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 16:23:00 -0400

Decarbonization of transportation is a high priority in the battle to reach Paris Accord CO2 targets, but in heavy trucks and industrial power, there are few alternatives to fossil fuels with current technology. Cummins Inc., a large diesel engine maker, has developed a series of fuel agnostic diesel engines for commercial use that can run on diesel fuel, natural gas, or hydrogen gas. If run on blue hydrogen, CO2 emissions can be reduced or eliminated, and a new project at the world’s largest oil refinery will demonstrate blue hydrogen with low-cost carbon capture. The Reliance Industries Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, India, will make blue hydrogen from syngas production, part of a coke gasifier process. Reliance expects carbon capture at 30 percent of the cost of atmospheric capture.

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A Different Approach to Fusion Power

Engineering.com — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:22:00 -0400

There are several technologies under development to harness the almost unlimited potential of nuclear fusion. Tokomaks, stellarators, and even mechanical compression in liquid metals are underactive development, but a California-based firm, TAE Technologies, is developing a novel, linear approach that combines plasmas with linear particle accelerator physics. TAE projects that this unique approach to hydrogen – boron fusion so pathway to practical, commercial power reactors.

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Boeing Bets on Autonomous Air Taxis and GM Makes a Massive EV Investment

Engineering.com — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:16:00 -0400

Flying taxis have been dreamed about for decades, but the combination of several technologies available today may make them a reality soon. Boeing has announced a $450 million investment in eVTOL aircraft developer Wisk, who intend to make mass producible, autonomous and electrically powered light aircraft for air taxi service. Wisk has flown prototypes under FAA’s Experimental certification, and the company sees no insurmountable technological hurdles that prevent safe flight operations with passengers. Pending FAA approval, Wisk anticipates that a fleet of autonomous air taxis could be flying in as little as five years after certification.

General Motors recently announced a major redevelopment of the company’s Hamtramck assembly operations to accommodate electric vehicle production. GM has dramatically expanded that EV investment with a plan to spend more than $7 billion in four Michigan sites to increase battery cell and electric light truck manufacturing capacity. The investment represents a record for General Motors. Centrepiece of the plan will be Orion Assembly, site of much of GM’s pioneering work in flex line technology, which will receive $4 billion of the overall investment. Light truck production is expected to begin in 2024.

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5G Threatens Aircraft Systems and Fourth-Generation Micro Reactors Move Forward

Engineering.com — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 16:15:00 -0400

5G is the enabling technology for a new generation of smart phones and IoT connected devices, promising low latency, high-bandwidth communications. The commercial potential for the technology is massive, and as it rolls out in the US, an unexpected consequence of 5G has emerged: interference with aircraft radar altimeters. Radar altimeters are safety critical, basic flight instruments for commercial airliners, and the use reflected beams of radiofrequency radiation there similar to the signals emitted by wireless service providers. 5G towers operating the vicinity of airports could jam radar altimeters signals during final approach to a runway, which in low visibility conditions could be safety critical. The FAA is scrambling to certify which radar altimeter models and aircraft are safe for use in 5G environments, but not all airplanes have yet been approved, and regional jets are still under study.

Small modular reactors represent the new wave of nuclear fission technology which promises to deliver clean, carbon free power at low cost. Compared to traditional light and heavy water reactor designs, SMRs are designed to operate without large containment structures or the complex and layered safety systems necessary for traditional reactors. Hyundai Engineering has taken a $30 million equity stake in Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, were building a test reactor to demonstrate the company’s novel single pass uranium fuel cycle. Using encapsulated TRISO fuel, the design will deliver 5 MW-e in HR transportable form factor that can be deployed almost anywhere. The reactors pre-fuels at the factory and is simply replaced after 20 years of operation. The high-temperature gas cooled design requires minimal human monitoring and shows interesting possibilities for process and space heating applications as well as thermal power generation. The test unit is scheduled to go online in 2026 at Chalk River in Ontario, Canada.

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Goodyear’s Low Carbon Tire Project Makes Progress and U.S. Steel bets $3B on America

Engineering.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:14:00 -0400

Pneumatic tires have been a fundamental technology in Western civilization for well over a century. They are essential for modern transportation, and their manufacturing has a significant CO 2 footprint. In 2020, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. launched a project to develop an entirely carbon neutral tire, a very difficult task. The company has unveiled a test tire demonstrating progress to date, and it has achieved a 70% reduction in net carbon emissions. To achieve this, the Goodyear team substituted biological materials such as rice husk derived silica and soybean oil as synthetic compund substitutes, and significantly, has developed alternate methods for producing the most critical tire additive, carbon black. Several different methods of low-impact carbon black production have been explored, including combustion of biological materials and synthesis directly from carbon dioxide itself.

The global steel industry is dominated by Asian producers, particularly China. But steel can be cost-effectively made in America through mini mills which use scrap as the primary input to produce higher value products such as high strength sheet and strip for the automotive and consumer goods industries. U.S. Steel, following up on the company’s recently acquisition of Big River steel in Arkansas, is investing $3 billion on an advanced mini mill with two electric arc furnaces capable of producing 3 million tons per year.

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Robot Tractors Hit the Field and Will Sony be the Next Major EV Manufacturer?

Engineering.com — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:11:00 -0400

Sony Corporation became famous for innovation in the consumer electronics space, developing the first truly popular transistor pocket radio and of course the Walkman series of portable cassette and CD players. The company has expanded considerably from that consumer sector to include technologies such as electronic materials and smart phones, but much of the company’s recent strategy is centred on entertainment, specifically feature films and gaming through the PlayStation platform. The company has revealed their second electric vehicle prototype, following a year of road testing in Europe and appears to be ready for series production. EV sector is crowded with multiple startups, but Sony appears to be using a slightly different strategy from other startup automakers: they plan to use self driving electric vehicles as delivery systems for an immersive user experience that includes Sony’s entertainment products. If successful, the project may change the fundamental economics of the auto industry from that of selling transportation, to delivering data.

Self driving cars and trucks are reality today with companies such as Cruise, Waymo, Argo AI and TuSimple fielding autonomous vehicles on public roads today. Autonomously guided vehicles are also common sight in factories and warehouses around the world, but what about agriculture? What prototypes have been built and tested, at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, John Deere unveiled a production ready optionally driven tractor based on the companies 8R design. The tractor uses a hybrid approach to autonomy, using multiple sensors for obstacle detection and geo-mapping for location to within 1 inch. Operators drive the tractor to the field, then move on to other tasks. In a tight labor market in the agriculture sector, autonomy be essential for sustained productivity and cost control.

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New Tech Decarbonizes Gas Production and Toyota Builds Big Battery Plant

Engineering.com — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 16:10:00 -0400

Decarbonization of the economy is a primary goal of nations worldwide to reduce the effects of global warming. Efforts so far have focused on reducing the burning of fossil fuels through alternates like hydrogen, solar, wind and nuclear energy. But demand for oil and gas are still increasing, and will do so for some years before new technologies render them obsolete. And oil and gas production themselves are large carbon emitters. Paris-based Technip Energies, an oil industry process engineering firm has partnered with Vancouver-based Svante, a CO2 remediation technology company, to develop carbon sequestration systems for the oil industry in turnkey packages. The Svante technology uses a proprietary adsorbent with mechanical CO2 extraction and recycling system to pull CO2 out of flue gas to be compressed and stored or reused. A candidate project is a new, very large gas field near Abu Dhabi.

Toyota has been notably quiet during one of the most revolutionary periods in the automotive industry: the switch to electrification. Many analysts attribute this to Toyota’s very public experiments with hydrogen fuel cells, notably the Mirai series of small sedans, but in fact the company has funded significant research into battery technology, notably solid-state batteries with Panasonic. But a new announcement this week suggests that Toyota may be moving in a new direction. The company will create a $1.3 billion lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility near Greensboro North Carolina, with an initial production capacity sufficient to support 200,000 vehicles, rising to 1.2 million vehicles per year when fully completed. The operation is in close proximity to Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky assembly complex, and the company has not ruled out selling batteries as a Tier 1 supplier to other companies. Does this mean that Toyota is shifting away from fuel cell technology? The company has not announced any slowdown in hydrogen technology development and may now pursue both carbon free technologies simultaneously.

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NASA throws a DART at an Asteroid and Green Hydrogen for Ammonia Energy

Engineering.com — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 16:07:00 -0400

NASA has launched the DART mission to intercept an asteroid and deflect its path. The purpose is to demonstrate how satellites can be used as kinetic energy impactors to alter the course of asteroids and comets that may be on a collision path with Earth. The European Space Agency is collaborating, and the Italian national space agency has supplied a ride along cubesat to photograph the impact. The mission also contains an important development, a test version of an Aerojet Rocketdyne built xenon ion thruster that may form the basis for a new class of deep space satellite propulsion for missions with durations of a decade or more.

Fuel cell technology has been around for decades but has been overshadowed by battery storage and electric motors for transportation purposes. But the field is far from obsolete, and a new way to power them they remove many of the obstacles created using pure hydrogen. New York-based Plug Power has opened a Rochester giga factory to produce hydrogen from electrolysis of water in support of fuel-cell technology and is supplying systems to multinational fertilizer consortium Fertiglobe for an Egyptian plant that will pioneer large-scale green ammonia production. Ammonia is a promising carrier for hydrogen and can itself be a green fuel for combustion engines and in fuel cells.

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The World’s Fastest Electric Airplane and GM Invests in Electric Boat Technology

Engineering.com — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:06:00 -0400

Aviation industry stalwart Rolls-Royce has announced that a joint program of the UK Aerospace Technology Institute, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Innovate UK called ACCEL, has set new records for speed and time to climb for electric powered aircraft. The single seat aircraft called ”Spirit of Innovation” travelled a 345 mph for 3 km, achieving a peak speed of 387 mph. The records were set with a bespoke 6000 cell triple battery pack built by electric aviation specialist Electroflight and a 500 hp axial flux motor developed by automotive EV supplier YASA.

Electrification of cars and trucks is ongoing, but electric watercraft are only now developing. This may accelerate as General Motors has announced a 25% stake in Seattle-based Pure Watercraft, a maker of electric outboard motor systems. Pure watercraft’s current technology uses a 50 hp equivalent power unit mounted on a conventional transom, powered by one or more modular batteries that can be fitted anywhere in the hull of most recreational watercraft. GM expects to help Pure Watercraft scale production with the automaker’s assembly line expertise and supply chain management knowledge.

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IBM Approaches Quantum Advantage and a Liquid Sodium Next Generation Reactor Gets the Go Ahead

Engineering.com — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 16:03:00 -0400

Moore's Law famously predicted the rapid rate of increase in integrated circuit gate density. As gate sizes are falling into the low single digit nanometre range however, physical constraints on future development are likely. Quantum computing promises to deliver orders of magnitude better performance than conventional binary devices, and IBM has launched a new quantum processor called Eagle, which promises to approach quantum advantage, the point at which quantum computers clearly outperform their conventional counterparts.

Nuclear energy startup TerraPower and GE Hitachi Energy Systems have chosen the site for the first demonstration reactor of Natrium liquid sodium fission technology. The pilot plant will be built in western Wyoming on the site of a coal plant nearing decommissioning. The Natrium concept uses a simplified reactor design that uses substantially less material and low enrichment uranium fuel to produce power more cost-effectively than current pressurized water designs. A prominent investor is Bill Gates, and the pilot plant should be ready in seven years.

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Zero Emissions Mining Goes Electric and GE Becomes Three

Engineering.com — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 15:57:00 -0400

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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Another New EV Automaker Launches Three, and Driverless Electric Trucks Coming to America

Engineering.com — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 11:57:00 -0400

Swedish technology company Einride has inked a deal with Haier owned GE Appliances to grid a network of SAE level for self-driving electric cargo carriers for intracompany use. The units include a box truck and a flatbed capable of carrying standard 20-foot shipping containers. Einride expects to hire 2000 as the firm expands from its New York-based to include technology centres in California and Texas and in the Southeast.

Two Taiwan based major manufacturers have teamed up to launch a new line of electric vehicles. Hon Hai Technology Group and Yulon Motor Group have launched three new EV's under the Foxtron brand. The lineup includes a crossover SUV, a luxury sedan and an urban route bus. Technology was designed entirely in-house, and the Foxtron joint venture is itself teaming with Japanese electric motor maker Nidec to create a line of electric vehicle powertrain components as a Tier 1 supplier to the industry. Hon Hai is no stranger to mass production. In the West, it is better known as Foxconn, the maker of Apple iPhones.

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Tesla Talks Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Micro-Reactors for the USAF

Engineering.com — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 14:07:00 -0400

The U.S. Air Force has announced that Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska will be the site of the services’ first micro-nuclear reactor. The vendor has not yet been announced, but the selection represents the first firm commitment for production type transportable nuclear power systems for base use. The Pentagon is operating a joint force development program for micro-reactors called Project Pele in parallel, with an eye toward a mass producible reactor design by 2022. If successful, the programs may create a new generation of shipping containers sized, truck and air transportable intrinsically safe power systems in the single digit megawatt output range.

The road to self driving has proven much more difficult than many developers in the computer industry originally thought. Tesla is using a unique approach, with cameras only and the lack of radar or lidar images requires systems that must understand video images at a very high level of reliability. To achieve this, Tesla has developed an in-house artificial intelligence system called Dojo. The company has just released a white paper describing a new framework for coding in dojo that replaces an older IEEE standard that was notoriously heavy on processor and memory capacity. Google Brain, Google’s similar in-house AI unit, has their own standard. This could be a VHS versus Beta moment.

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Stellantis & LG Energy Announce a Major Battery Venture for America and a Former Boeing Test Pilot is Indicted in the 737 Max MCAS Affair

Engineering.com — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:06:00 -0400

LG Energy is General Motors partner of choice for the firm's broad new Ultium battery program, but the company has just announced a new joint venture with Stellantis to produce EV batteries at a yet undisclosed American location. The project is substantial in size and will supply multiple Stellantis brands. LG has a relationship with Stellantis going back to 2014 when the firm supplied batteries and control systems for the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid.

Former Boeing engineering test pilot Mark Forkner has been indicted in a Fort Worth, Texas Federal Court on multiple charges stemming from his involvement in the development of the MCAS system used in Boeing 737 Max airplanes. Prosecutors allege that Forkner deliberately concealed details of the MCAS system from FAA regulators, resulting in the exclusion of it from Boeing pilot operating manuals. Allegations claim that this omission was an important contributory factor to the crashes of two Max airplanes with the loss of all aboard. This is the first indictment of an individual in the Boeing MCAS saga.

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Samsung IC Production in Texas and GM Raises the Stakes in Battery Innovation

Engineering.com — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 10:05:00 -0400

With much of the world’s auto industry now crippled by a serious shortage of integrated circuits, the search for a solution to the dual problems of Covid related supply chain breakdown and limited global foundry capacity is on, in earnest. The stakes are high, with some analysts estimating that production of popular models could be cut by 1/3, with billions of dollars in lost revenue. Samsung, already a major foundry and contract manufacturer for fabless IC firms, has chosen central Texas for a very large facility that will likely produce single digit nanometre scale devices. While this will stabilize supply in the future, best estimates of facility start up are about two years, typical for large, complex foundry operations. Auto shortages may persist.

While integrated circuits are an immediate problem for the auto industry, finding ways to make electric vehicles affordable and profitable is a larger, longer-term issue. General Motors has announced a new technical center in Warren, Michigan for cell and battery development that will include manufacturing techniques for use in GM plants and at GM/LG joint-venture operations in Tennessee and Ohio. Targets are aggressive, a 60% reduction in battery cost compared to GM’s current generation Ultium devices. The research center will encompass all aspects of cell and battery production, from basic chemistry to fabrication and durability testing.

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Ford Makes a Massive EV Investment and a Hypersonic Missile Breakthrough for the US Military

Engineering.com — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 14:27:00 -0400

With the race to replace internal combustion engines with electric vehicles heating up, the question of where this new production will come from is the pressing issue for the industry. Will it be new facilities or the conversion of existing plants? Ford appears to be doing both, with a major conversion of the existing facilities and the announcement of two very large new operations, an assembly plant in Tennessee and a joint venture with SK Innovation for battery production in Kentucky.

Sustained hypersonic flight has been a hot topic of research in aerospace for decades, and hot on the heels of recent Chinese advancements in scramjet technology, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have announced the successful test of an air breathing hypersonic missile built for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. While current scramjet technology is suitable only for short duration use in weapons, similar technologies are under development that could be scaled to allow true single-stage to orbit performance with hybrid engines.

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Autonomously Guided Vehicles on the Farm, and Lucid Motors Rolls Out Their First EV

Engineering.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 07:46:00 -0400

While large-scale farming of crops such as grains and pulses lend themselves readily to automation, a major portion of the global agriculture industry is based on orchard and nursery crops. These industries are still highly labour-intensive, but small Philadelphia-based startup called Burro has developed an autonomously guided vehicle that’s designed to assist human pickers in fruit, vegetable and nursery operations. The devices shuffle the crops of the fields or orchards, freeing humans to pick, and pack.

There are many luxury electric vehicle offerings on the market today, and a new, high-performance rival has just entered production. Lucid Motors has rolled the first vehicle off the firm’s Casa Grande, Arizona assembly line, with customer deliveries expected to begin in late October. The $77,000 Lucid Air carries an EPA estimated range of over 500 miles and can be charged to 300 miles of range in 20 minutes. The company is already expanding production facilities to produce a new SUV product in 2023.

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World's Largest Two-Wheeler Futurefactory and Boeing's Drone Refuelling Tanker

Engineering.com — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 12:54:00 -0400

Electric vehicles are the highest topic in mobility today, with the primary focus on automakers like Tesla as well as legacy manufacturers. But for much of the world today, two wheeled mobility, specifically scooters and small motorcycles are the vehicles of choice, especially in urban areas. The segment is ripe for electrification, and Indian company Ola has announced a world first: a massive, 10,000 employee mass production facility employing entirely women. The facility is expected to produce 15% of all the world's electric scooters and is expected to start production next year.

In a different form of transportation news, Boeing has announced a new production facility at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Illinois, where the Navy's new drone tanker, the MQ-25 Stingray will be assembled. The heavily automated factory is expected to employ 300 at peak production building an initial U.S. Navy order of 70 airframes. Both new factory announcements note advanced systems engineering, Industry 4.0 and automation as keys to production.

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MIT Develops the World's Strongest Magnet and Manufacturers Want Flexibility Post Covid-19

Engineering.com — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 12:53:00 -0400

A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has achieved a breakthrough in electromagnetics, producing the most powerful magnet in the world. Working with MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the high temperature superconducting magnet can generate a sustained magnetic field of more than 20 T, which the team believes is enough to allow Commonwealth’s compact tokamak to achieve net energy from fusion. If successful it will be a historic first for fusion energy.

Industry advocacy group the Manufacturer’s Alliance has released a survey of US manufacturers about their challenges during Covid-19 and beyond. With strained supply chains and rising costs, flexibility is the watchword, and workers agree. Novel labor arrangements and new ways to organize production processes will be needed for manufacturers to staff their operations optimally in a labor short US market.

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Mechanical Neurons for AI and Can AI be a Person Under the Law

Engineering.com — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 14:20:00 -0400

A French research team has proposed a radical innovation in artificial intelligence: electromechanical artificial neurons. The team has developed technology that mimics the function of mammalian neurons closely, using graphene to trap water molecules in a similar way to the internal flow of ions within nerve cells. Simulations suggest that the water molecules will assemble themselves under the influence of electric fields in ways that show a memristor effect, very promising for both storage and information processing applications.

In a different yet similarly significant AI development, the US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected an inventor’s application that a neural network be named as inventor on a patent application. That rejection was upheld by a federal court, but the appeals process is ongoing. The situation in Australia is exactly the opposite, with lower courts ruling that AI can be named inventor, with that nation’s patent authorities appealing that decision. The outcomes may have a profound effect on how we define invention and innovation in the 21st century.

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IBM Launches a Fraud Fighting Chip and the Outer Space Threat to Quantum Computers

Engineering.com — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:48:00 -0400

IBM has launched a novel processor that is optimized for a special application: finance. The new Telum processor is built for AI integration, which with the right software, can perform real-time analyses of financial transactions and stop fraud as it happens. IBM predicts that the technology will similarly be useful for real-time credit approval for online banking and transaction settlement with very little latency. The processor is built around eight 5 GHz cores and contains an incredible 22 billion transistors.

A global team of university and industry researchers have discovered the root cause of a serious problem in the development of quantum computers: correlation. Detecting and correcting errors is a major roadblock in quantum computer development, and the team’s discovery that single errors can affect a large number of qubits simultaneously is a significant step forward in developing practical quantum computers. Just as significant is the discovery that a major source of these errors are cosmic rays, highly energetic and difficult to screen. Future quantum computers may require heavy radiation shielding for optimum performance.

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Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Tackles Parkour and the Tesla Android

Engineering.com — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:47:00 -0400

Advanced robot maker Boston Dynamics is famous for four and two-legged robots that mimic the movement of dogs and people respectively. The bipedal humanoid robot, Atlas is a YouTube sensation with the capability of very sophisticated motion that mimics advanced human movements such as dancing. In its latest development, the company puts Atlas through a parkour course, demonstrating how the sensor suite and algorithms adapt to the local environment.

Elon Musk’s much-anticipated AI day was held August 19, and two key announcements were noteworthy. One is the development of a scalable and modular processor array for the company’s Dojo supercomputer program, but the other is perhaps more significant: a humanlike robot program. Musk announced that the firm is hiring talent for the robotics program immediately, and expects to produce a human -sized, bipedal and useful machine the prototype ready in 2022. It’s a very ambitious timeline and much depends on the success of Dojo.

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Two Nuclear Fusion Breakthroughs and First Steps to Atomic Cargo Ships

Engineering.com — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 09:46:00 -0400

Two significant developments in fusion technology were announced this week. At the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the US, the National Ignition Facility announced that their laser compression device achieved greater than 1 MJ fusion energy output, six times higher than the team’s previous best and a strong indicator that the technology can be scaled to make practical levels of power. A much older fusion technology, the stellarator, is enjoying a new lease on life with recently published experiments from the Max Planck Institute in Germany which show dramatically higher efficiencies, consistent with conventional tokamak devices.

Nuclear propulsion for commercial cargo ships has been expected since the birth of naval nuclear propulsion in the mid-1950s, but with the exception of the experimental NS Savannah, no cargo ship has been powered by atomic energy. With the increased urgency of CO2 reduction however, the technology is under assessment again and shows promise both for environmental reasons and because of higher oil prices. Earth 300 Ventures, a Singapore-based environmental group, plans to launch a large research vessel in 2025 which is designed to accept an advanced reactor, possibly a molten salt design, some 5 to 10 years later. In the meantime, the UK is revamping Maritime regulations to be ready for commercial atomic vessel traffic.

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Super Clean Water from Cooling Towers and Grid-Scale Battery Storage Doubles as Frequency Control

Engineering.com — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 09:31:00 -0400

Electrostatics have long been a high-efficiency technology for removing pollutants from the air, from residential air cleaners to the electrostatic precipitators in coal-fired power plants. A new use for this technology has been developed by an MIT spinoff that promises to capture water vapour emitted by industrial and commercial cooling towers. Captured water is pure enough to be practical for human consumption or as boiler feed water for generating plants.

Battery storage of electrical power is an essential part of intermittent clean energy systems like photovoltaics and wind turbines. But batteries can have a secondary and equally important purpose: grid forming. Frequency control of large AC grids can be difficult with multiple generating sources and varying loads across a system. With advanced computer control of inverters, battery storage systems can act as a frequency regulator in large grid systems, forming an electrical equivalent of the large rotating inertial mass of a mechanical generator. Technology makes battery storage for grid purposes both more useful and cost-effective.

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New Nuclear Breaks Ground and Ford, Argo and Lyft Team UP for Self Driving

Engineering.com — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 09:30:00 -0400

Thorium is long been considered a safer, better alternative than uranium for fission based nuclear power projects. Molten salt designs promise all the nonproliferation benefits of thorium, plus simpler, more cost-effective reactor designs combined with intrinsic safety. But the Chinese and the US have started work on molten salt reactor projects the promise to take this promising technology out of the lab and onto the grid.

The autonomous driving space is fluid and dynamic, but a few major players are surfacing as leaders in the race to Level 5. Cruz, Waymo and Tesla are the most quoted, but a new partnership between Ford, Lyft and Argo AI to deploy self driving cabs in American cities promises to shake up the race. The combination promises synergies similar to the Tesla approach: Ford supplies the vehicles and service support, Argo AI the court technology, and Lyft provides scheduling, billing and cloud connected data infrastructure. The result may be more than just self driving, but a new way for automakers to monetize Level 4/5 systems.

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Branson Beats Bezos and Musk to Space and German Automakers Guilty in Collusion Scheme

Engineering.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:33:00 -0400

In the billionaires’ space race, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson, SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos have been vying to be the first to fly into space. Branson has won the impromptu contest, flying into suborbital space aboard the VSS Unity, as part of a test crew to validate Virgin Galactic’s commercial flight service before public operations. Bezos is scheduled to fly on a Blue Origin rocket on July 20, and although SpaceX has been flying astronauts to the International Space Station since 2020, Elon Musk will not make his first trip to space aboard a Falcon 9, but will be one of the first paying customers for Branson’s new service.

In a landmark ruling, the European commission has levied a substantial fine, over $1 billion, to three major German automakers over a scheme to collude in engineering development of selective catalytic reduction emissions systems for diesel engines. Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen were involved, although Daimler’s fine was waived because the firm came forward in the case. There are potentially serious legal implications for automotive and engineering design in general if the ruling becomes a precedent.

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New Tabletop Fusion Technology, Mobile Robotics Standardizes and Contact Lenses for the Ears

Engineering.com — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 12:31:00 -0400

Nuclear fusion has been the Holy Grail of power generation for over half a century. The promise is considerable: clean, essentially limitless energy. Multiple approaches to sustained nuclear fusion have been tried and are currently in research, from giant multibillion-dollar tokomaks to mechanically induced shockwave driven liquid metal devices. Colorado-based Electric Fusion Systems claims that a new proprietary fuel combined with a relatively simple electric discharge device can create very low-cost electricity directly from fusion reactions, without nuclear waste.

Hearing loss is a serious global problem, one that is growing as Western populations age. Conventional hearing aid technology is limited by the fundamental part of his system: the transducer. Speaker technology based on coils has distinct limitations, but a Mannheim, Germany based startup, Vibrosonic, has developed a piezoelectric speaker element the firm calls a “hearing contact lens” which rests directly on the user’s eardrum. Direct stimulation combined with a very wide frequency response means enhanced understanding of speech for wearers of the new device.

Mobile robots are now commonplace in large industrial and warehousing operations but are still largely limited to the jobs formally performed by forklift trucks. A major problem in widespread adoption is finding a way to get robotics from different vendors to communicate with each other, allowing different robots doing different functions to operate seamlessly in a complex factory environment. Industry incubator MassRobotics has released a preliminary set of industry standards that will form a basis for future open-source communications protocols to enable effective use of mobile robotics across multiple industries. The development team included engineers from major robot manufacturers as well as influential end-users such as Procter & Gamble and DHL.

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GE Supplies Turnkey Powerplant to Australia, New Solar Manufacturing in Ohio, and Mazda’s One-Size-Fits-All Platform Strategy

Engineering.com — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 12:41:00 -0400

General Electric has announced an Australian project to supply a turnkey powerplant with unique multifuel capability. The gas turbine plant will be capable of operating on natural gas and hydrogen blends, with hydrogen enrichment ranging from 5% to 100%. The novel powerplant will be supported by state and federal programs and the power utility has committed to purchasing green hydrogen gas with the goal of full decarbonization by 2050.

First Solar is a grid scale photovoltaic manufacturer that specializes in cadmium telluride thin-film technology. The company has announced a huge 1.2 million square-foot factory to be built in Ohio to manufacture the modules using advanced automation, machine to machine communication and the Industrial Internet of Things to ultimately make modules a rate of one every three seconds. The investment comes at a time when continued importation of Chinese made crystalline silicon modules is uncertain.

Mazda has traditionally done things differently in the automotive industry, and the firm’s new implementation of the company’s long-range plan, Sustainable Zoom- Zoom 2030, uses a daring approach: a common platform for hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EV’s.

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GE Aviation & Safran to Develop Open Fan Jet Engines, Chinese EVs in Norway, and GM Hydrogen Fuel Cells Power Clean Trains

Engineering.com — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 13:17:00 -0400

The General Electric/Safran partnership CFM International has been renewed to 2050, and the company has announced a game changing engine program that promises to deliver 20% lower CO2 emissions compared to current state-of-the-art turbofans. The engine will use advanced materials and notably, an open rotor design. High bypass turbofans may yet give way to propellers.

BYD has made the first move in the long-awaited entry of Chinese electric vehicle makers into Western markets. 100 Tang SUVs have been shipped to Norway, which is emerging as the European testing ground for new vehicles on the continent. If BYD succeeds, they may open the floodgates for multiple Chinese brands in an already crowded market.

General Motors and railway equipment heavyweight Wabtec have joined forces to build a hydrogen fuel cell powered locomotive. The green initiative will use GM Ultium batteries currently under development with LG and slated for production at a joint-venture factory in Tennessee. Fuel-cell modules be produced by a GM Honda JV. If it works, the new powerplant might change the paradigm in electric railway and urban transit design.

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VW Diesel Scandal Strikes Back, Boeing's Drone MQ-25 Refuels F/A-18 Hornet in Flight and is Keystone XL Dead Forever?

Engineering.com — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 13:16:00 -0400

Volkswagen has taken the unusual step of going after the firm’s former board members involved in the diesel emissions scandal. Several key figures, led by former chief executive Martin Winterkorn, will pay millions of euros to Volkswagen to settle claims around their involvement in the emissions cheating scheme. Volkswagen’s insurer will take the biggest hit, over €270 million.

In an aviation first, a Boeing MQ – 25 Stingray drone has operated in an air-to-air refuelling role, offloading fuel to a manned F/A-18 Hornet. The buddy tanking procedure used standard Navy equipment and the transfer was made at what Boeing calls “operationally relevant altitudes and speeds”.

The on-again, off-again Keystone XL pipeline project, intended to carry Canadian oil sands derived crude to American refineries, has been officially cancelled by the Canadian firm spearheading the project. The formal cancellation comes after the January revocation of Pres. Biden’s presidential permit, reversing Pres. Trump’s prior reversal of Pres. Obama’s 2016 cancellation. Is Keystone dead? It would appear so, but the project has been through this before.

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JBS Meat Processor Cyber-Attacked, Sustainable Pirelli Tires and Auto Chip Shortage Worsens

Engineering.com — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:15:00 -0400

In another cyber-attack on critical American industry, meat processing major JBS suffered an attack which shut down several meat processing plants in the US, Canada and Australia. At its worst, the attack stopped 20% of US beef production. Russian hackers are suspected.

Italian tire maker Pirelli has introduced a low rolling resistance tire for hybrid SUVs that uses latex harvested with sustainable forestry practices, signaling a new definition of “green” in the tire industry.

And as the semiconductor shortage becomes a full-blown crisis in the auto industry, the major auto manufacturers association has teamed with a major semiconductor industry association to call on the Biden Administration the speed passage of the Chips for America Act. In the meantime, the industry will likely be affected until the third quarter at least.

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Graphene Reinforced Concrete, Denso and Honeywell Team Up for Electric Air Taxis and Peloton Opens a US Factory

Engineering.com — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:12:00 -0400

The UK-based University of Manchester and Nationwide Engineering have test poured a commercial concrete slab using a mix reinforced with graphene instead of the usual rebar, and the results show 30% better strength per unit volume, and an unexpected benefit: lower CO2 emissions.

Automotive Tier 1 heavyweight Denso Corporation has formed an alliance with aerospace systems supplier Honeywell to develop electric propulsion systems for a new generation of urban air mobility vehicles. The partnership is expected to combine Denso’s high-volume automotive mass production expertise with Honeywell’s extensive experience in aircraft power systems to produce certified hardware at unit costs low enough to make autonomous air vehicles a practical proposition.

Exercise equipment maker Peloton has announced that the firm will open its own US manufacturing facility in Troy, Ohio. Built on a 200-acre campus, combined facilities will cover over 1,000,000 ft.² and will give the company supply certainty at an unusual time for the company: unprecedented demand, combined with disrupted supply from the firm’s traditional Asian manufacturing base. The new plant will join two other smaller factories acquired by Peloton in December of 2020.

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Nord Stream 2 is Go For Natural Gas, Mahle Changes EV Motor Technology and Boeing Builds Faster, Digitally

Engineering.com — Mon, 24 May 2021 20:17:00 -0400

The Biden Administration has quietly dropped a key sanction that both Democrats and Republicans have been using to block the completion of the Russia to Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. While the administration has announced that their opposition to the line continues, it’s scheduled to be completed by mid-summer.

Automotive Tier One major Mahle has developed a new type of electric traction motor for EV use, one that promises low cost, very high efficiency and critically, no expensive permanent magnets. The technology does away with slip rings or brushes using an AC inductive pickup to pass power to rotor mounted electromagnets.

Boeing has demonstrated the superiority of model-based engineering with a lightning fast 30-minute splice between fuselage sections on the new T–7A Red Hawk jet trainer. Dramatic improvements in build quality and assembly time suggest that match drilling and splicing may become as obsolete as dope and fabric.

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Hackers Cripple Gasoline Supplies, Covid Vaccine IP in Question and Commercial Robotaxi Operations are Ready to Go

Engineering.com — Tue, 18 May 2021 20:16:00 -0400

The mysterious cyber-attack on the Colonial gasoline pipeline this week created something unseen in America since the late 1970s: gas lines at filling stations. Panic buying appears to have made the problem much worse, and critical infrastructure that’s cloud connected is now under the microscope.

With the Biden Administration and other world governments examining the possibility of removing intellectual property protection from Covid vaccine makers, a WTO agreement that has existed for 25 years has been widely ignored. It may offer a way to increased production.

Cruise is now joined Waymo in a formal request from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to operate paid Robotaxi services in the Bay Area. If approved, this could be the beginning of the end for the taxi driver.

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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 20:15:00 -0400

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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How Star Wars Inspires Engineers to Design Medical Devices and Radar Technology

Engineering.com — Tue, 04 May 2021 20:14:00 -0400

Engineers can find inspiration anywhere. Past designs, nature and scientific breakthroughs are great fodder for these new ideas. However, one of the oldest sources for the dreams we have of tomorrow is the art of science fiction.

On today’s special May the 4th episode, we see how engineers can dream up future technologies to expand the quality of life for the differently abled. Obvious examples are prosthetics, like Luke Skywalker’s hand. But Vader’s suit reminds us that not all disabilities are visible. These conditions can also benefit from new technologies.

Then, we learn about Jared Hansen, manager of Electronics Engineering Solutions at Rand Simulation. He was inspired to discover if the Rebel Alliance could use ground radar to track Tie Fighter attacks. In doing so, he stumbled upon something that correlates to the technology behind a famous stealth bomber! See what he found in this video.

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Chip Shortages Continue, Heavy Equipment Makers Post-COVID Optimistic and the EV Battery Arms Race

Engineering.com — Tue, 04 May 2021 20:14:00 -0400

With the combination of Covid 19 related supply chain disruptions and a major fire at a critical supplier, Ford Motor Company is reporting that the shortage of semiconductors will result in 50% production setback in the second quarter. To compensate, the company is moving to an online sales model with lower dealer inventory levels.

The heavy equipment industry is an important leading indicator for overall economic health, and a new survey of senior management in the off-the-road sector shows high levels of optimism for 2021, especially if the Biden Administration follows through on infrastructure spending plans.

And industry heavyweight ABB has commissioned a report on electric vehicle battery supply chains that suggests a global arms race is developing between Asia, Europe and America. The winner may determine the future of global automobile production.

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Self-Flying Cargo Planes, GM Builds Another EV Battery Factory and Manufacturing Roars Back

Engineering.com — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 20:10:00 -0400

Robotic drone delivery for small parcels and last mile applications are in development everywhere these days, and major air framers like Boeing have been working on cockpit automation for decades, but what about the space in between? California startup Xwing has demonstrated fully autonomous gate to gate operation of a Cessna 208 cargo aircraft, a type commonly used for short intercity light cargo operations. The technology may fill the gap between heavy lift between major hubs and local door-to-door delivery.

General Motors has pressed the gas pedal on electric vehicle development with the announcement of second large battery factory in conjunction with LG. The big new plant, located next to the Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly operation will create packs for automobiles and light trucks, and will support Spring Hill as GM’s third electric vehicle assembly complex.

And, over a year into the Covid 19 global crisis, supply chains everywhere are strained. American manufacturing however is enjoying steady growth, and this week the Institute for Supply Management reports that April is the 10th consecutive month of steady growth, despite serious issues in commodity pricing and logistics.

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Geosynchronous Satellite Servicing, Cryo Keeps CMOS Chip Technology Alive and Level 4 Autonomous Delivery Services Street Ready

Engineering.com — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 20:09:00 -0400

Communication satellites orbit 22,000 miles above the earth to provide wide area coverage as the earth rotates. That’s a long way up, and once solid propellants are depleted, orienting the spacecraft becomes impossible and the satellite is retired. Northrop Grumman has demonstrated a new robotic service satellite that attaches to communication satellites to provide orientation and extend their service life. The result could be lower broadband costs for millions of users.

Moore’s Law has been around for half a century, in the end of transistor density and computer chips has been predicted for decades. Real physical limits do exist, but a new project from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency promises to give CMOS technology new life in high-performance computing applications. The key is cryogenics, with new forms of MOSFET operating at liquid nitrogen temperatures. The agency is opening the research to commercial participation.

Autonomous driving technology continues to advance, with Intel’s Mobileye inking a deal to create a large fleet of autonomous delivery vehicles with Silicon Valley-based Udelv. The project promises to create a large fleet of self driving delivery vehicles optimized for last mile service, in response to the dramatic increase in online shopping brought about by Covid 19. The project plans on 35,000 vehicles in use by 2028.

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Rolls Royce Builds the World’s Biggest Turbofan, Additive Replaces Landing Gear Forgings and New Life for Space Shuttle Engines

Engineering.com — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 20:08:00 -0400

Rolls Royce has started construction of the world’s largest turbofan engine, called UltraFan. The 140-inch diameter fan of the engine is not only a record, but will help the engine achieve a 25 percent lower fuel burn than existing designs of similar thrust. Reduction gearing keeps blade tip velocities manageable and advanced digital twin technology tracks the history of each blade.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Main Engines were state of the art thirty years ago, and today, they’re the basis for the upgraded power plants that will lift the Space Launch System to the moon. Modern technology at Aerojet Rocketdyne has reduced the manufacturing cost of the engines by 30 percent while increasing power.

Additive manufacturing is making bigger and bigger parts today and SAFRAN has built an entire jet nose landing gear rough casting using an SLM process in titanium powder. The big part is 15 percent lighter than conventional forging and promises to change the way this critical part is made in the future.

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Saab Flies the First 3D Printed Battle Damage Repair Part and New Technology for Grid Decarbonization: Artificial Intelligence

Engineering.com — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:28:00 -0400

Swedish airplane maker Saab has tested a new application for 3D printing: aircraft battle damage repair. Using a Gripen jet fighter as a test subject, the company has flown an external access panel 3D printed from an engineering grade of nylon, with good results. The company worked from a part scan, rather than a CAD file and hopes to make the process portable for field use in austere conditions.

Energy is also in the news this week. The World Economic Forum is a bellwether institution for the impact of future technology, and they are reporting that artificial intelligence is the inevitable technology for electric grid decarbonization, as systems move away from large central power plants and towards energy consumers who also generate power. According to the report, what’s lacking is a well understood regulatory framework that will allow millions of electricity generators to use national grids as a form of virtual storage battery. Grid scale storage won’t disappear, but real time load and capacity control is coming, whether the world is ready, or not.

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Piggyback Aircraft for Inter-City Travel, VW Doubles Down on EV Batteries and Blue Ammonia from CO2

Engineering.com — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:26:00 -0400

Two former SpaceX engineers have formed a startup to develop a composite, piggyback air transportation system that combines vertical takeoff drones with fixed wing aircraft for downtown-to-downtown intercity transportation. It’s all electrically powered, but can it really work?

Also this week, Volkswagen has placed a massive 14 billion-dollar order with Sweden’s Northvolt that will result in a major expansion in EV cell production. The deal will involve a deeper investment from VW in Northvolt and a takeover of battery manufacturing by Volkswagen.

And finally, reducing atmospheric CO2 can be approached in two ways: emit less or reduce what’s already in the atmosphere. A major oil exploration services company and a new energy tech firm have joined forces to convert CO2 into useful ammonia and do it profitably. The results could work hand-in-hand with electrification and keep the fossil fuel industry relevant without worsening climate change.

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GE Makes a Massive Turbine Blade, the World’s First Liquid Hydrogen Cargo Ship, and Hybrid Power for Airplanes

Engineering.com — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 16:18:00 -0400

Thermal power generation is all about converting heat into rotational motion, and for grid scale generation that means steam turbines. Scaling factors matter in turbine efficiency, and General Electric has delivered a new record in single blade low pressure turbine technology with a 75-inch blade. It will be used in very large steam turbines to be installed in the British Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

Liquid hydrogen is notoriously difficult to store and transport, both due to the extremely cold temperatures required, and the propensity of the tiny hydrogen molecule to diffuse through most barrier materials. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has commissioned the world's first bulk LH2 carrier, which will be used in a new green supply chain initiative to deliver coal derived hydrogen from Australia to Kobe Japan. Could this be the start of a new renaissance for coal, with a green twist?

Battery electric aircraft are hobbled by very poor range performance with current battery technology. Could hybrid power plants bridge the gap between turboprops and pure electrics? Honeywell has developed a lightweight turbogenerator system that may give small regional airliners and vertical takeoff air taxis the range and reserve requirements needed to make electric flight a practical proposition.

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SpaceX Lands Then Burns, Hyundai Doubles Down on Fuel Cells and Europe Gets Serious About Tech

Engineering.com — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:14:00 -0400

SpaceX’s torrid lunch rate continues, and last week the test vehicle was Starship serial number 10, which rose to 10 km before settling down on his landing pad. A post landing fire destroyed the vehicle, but SpaceX has already rolled out the next test vehicle for possible flight this week. The speed with which SpaceX flies is unprecedented in the space launch industry. If it works, the company may have a credible competitor to NASA’s more conventionally developed space launch system.

Whatever happened to fuel cells? Well, despite the rapid development of pure electric vehicles worldwide, there is still interest, development and production of hydrogen fuel cells for transportation use. Hyundai has broken ground on their first foreign fuel cell production facility, HTWO Guangzhou, in China. At over 2,000,000 ft.², it’s big and will handle both R&D; and series production for light vehicles, trucks and buses.

The European Union perceives a growing gap between Europe and the rest of the world in several critical 21st century technologies. The European Council has released a plan for a continental digital strategy called the Digital Compass, a strategy to rapidly increase the penetration of high-tech hardware and software across all European states with surprising speed, by 2030. It’s broad in scope, and with a very aggressive timetable, and it includes a goal that Europe manufactures 20% of the world’s critical semiconductors.

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The Loyal Wingman Flies, the Semiconductor Shortage Gets Serious and Big Pharma Rivals Collaborate for Vaccine Production

Engineering.com — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 15:29:00 -0400

Boeing Australia has announced the first flight of the company’s new Loyal Wingman unmanned combat aircraft as part of the Royal Australian Air Force’s Airpower Teaming System.

The ongoing global semiconductor shortage has taken a toll on auto production, and now it’s affecting consumer goods as well.

In a rare collaboration between two major players in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry, Merck will produce Johnson & Johnson’s Covid 19 vaccine.

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Multiple Space Launches While NASA Lands on Mars, Turbofans Fly Apart, and Biden Reverses Trump on Apprenticeships

Engineering.com — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 15:09:00 -0400

Besides NASA’s spectacular delivery of the perseverance rover to the surface of Mars, there was a lot going on in spaceflight this week. The ISS received two visitors, Starlink continues to build their constellation, and Paraguay joined the satellite club.

Closer to Earth, Pratt and Whitney turbofans suffered uncontrolled blade failures on Boeing 777 and 747 aircraft in two separate incidents, prompting a grounding pending investigation.

And the Biden administration controversy only reversed a Trump administration ruling, giving labour unions more control over US apprenticeship programs.

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End of the Line for Learjet, ITER Fusion Reactor Reaches Milestone and Texas Grid Fails

Engineering.com — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 15:57:00 -0400

The Learjet brand, currently owned by Bombardier, announced that in the fourth quarter of this year, Wichita Kansas based Learjet production will end forever.

A project milestone was reached this week for the ITER nuclear reactor in France as critical component manufacturing began in Europe, specifically the vacuum vessel blanket that isolates the reactor from superhot nuclear plasma.

Texas power infrastructure is not designed to accommodate extreme cold experienced in the continental US, resulting in widespread power failures plunging millions in the dark. Will extreme weather events force the state to redesign the power system?

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SpaceX Wins Big NASA Contract, Transparent Wood, and Moving to Model Based Design in Aerospace

Engineering.com — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 15:56:00 -0400

On today's episode, NASA’s Gateway program will create the first long-term lunar orbiting space station, to support lunar missions under the Artemis program. The agency has announced that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been chosen to launch the two core elements of the Gateway complex.

When architects or engineers need transparency, they choose glass or polymers. That may be changing, however. Newly developed transparent composite material based on wood might have multiple applications in civil and mechanical engineering.

For centuries in engineering, and millennia in civil engineering, drawings have been the basis for design. Computer-aided design made those renderings virtual. The Aerospace and Defence PLM Action Group has released a report that defines how the industry can move from renderings to 3D model-based representation for type design certification.

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New, Speedy Helicopters for the U.S. Army, Supercold CMOS for Quantum Computing and Rapid Unexpected Disassembly at Space X

Engineering.com — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 12:19:00 -0400

On today's episode, The U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program, intended to create a new generation of multipurpose combat rotorcraft, has selected two finalists: Lockheed’s Raider X, and Bell’s 360 Invictus.

A team from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Physics at the University of Sydney in Australia has created a novel IC that uses circuit cells based on switched capacitors to create static and dynamic voltages for the parallel control of qubits.

The SpaceX team continues it’s a very fast, iterative development program for the company’s massive Starship booster program, with rapid production of test vehicles and a very aggressive flight test program.

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President Biden Says "Buy American," Alphabet's Balloons Burst and GM Partners for Clean Trucking Without Batteries

Engineering.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 12:17:00 -0400

On today's episode, Biden signed an executive order that the administration declares is a substantial update of “buy American" legislation.

Loon was a Google X R&D project begun in 2011 to use a network of balloons operating in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 16 miles to create a wireless network with up to 1 Mb per second download speeds. The project was promising enough to be spun off as a separate company in 2018. Now it’s all over, as Alphabet announced that the project and the company will be wound up.

General Motors has announced a collaboration with heavy truck maker Navistar International Corporation to create a zero emission long-haul freight transportation system

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Chip Shortage Impacts Auto Manufacturing, U.S. Takes on Climate Change and Microsoft Enters Self Driving Technology

Engineering.com — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:30:00 -0400

On today's episode, there's a new headwind for automakers worldwide: a shortage of integrated circuits. ICs have proliferated in modern automobiles, with some models containing up to 150 chips, and multiple automakers have begun shutdowns due to the supply crunch.

Newly inaugurated Pres. Joe Biden spent his first day in office by signing a flurry of executive orders, 17 in all. Two of the orders have direct implications for the engineering sector in United States. The first is the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project, intended to bring Canadian oil from the province of Alberta into the US distribution network for transport to US refineries.

Microsoft is joining General Motors and Honda as part of the Cruise self driving program. The $2 billion investment brings the market value of Cruise to proximally $30 billion. Microsoft brings their Azure cloud and edge computing platform to the table, which Cruise describes as essential for commercializing autonomous vehicle systems at scale. Microsoft will use the collaboration to optimize the Azure platform for transportation industry customers worldwide.

End of the Line for the 747, E-Commerce Invades the Chinese EV Space and Biden Infrastructure Plans Focus on the Environment

Engineering.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:29:00 -0400

On today's episode, after half a century, the most iconic program in aerospace engineering history is drawing to a close. Atlas Air Worldwide has ordered four Boeing 747-8 freighters for delivery through October 2022, representing the last 747s to be built in the program.

With the success of Tesla and the rapid introduction of competing electric vehicles from mainstream auto manufacturers, it looks like there’s new competition coming from an unlikely source: e-commerce. Chinese heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding is launching a new electric sedan.

President-elect Joe Biden is days away from inauguration, and clean energy and infrastructure companies are enjoying notable gains on Wall Street in anticipation of the new administration’s programs. Biden plans to re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement, reversing the Trump administration withdrawal.