Grieve announces 550°F floor-level cabinet oven

Grieve Corp., Round Lake, Ill., announces the No. 1030 cabinet oven, a 550ºF floor-level electric cabinet oven, currently used for heating large gears at the customer’s facility.  Workspace dimensions of this oven measure 48 x 48 x 60 in. The 40 kW heating system is installed in Incoloy-sheathed tubular elements to heat the oven chamber, while a 2000 CFM, 2-HP recirculating blower provides horizontal airflow across the workload.   This oven features 6 in.

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FW Gartner licenses technology for laser cladding of steel rolls from South Africa’s CSIR

FW Gartner Thermal Spraying, Houston, and South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have signed a licensing agreement on a laser cladding technology developed at CSIR.  The agreement follows the earlier development of a novel laser-based process for the cladding of steel processing rolls, a key component in steelmaking, CSIR said. The technology was tested and proven at ArcelorMittal’s Vanderbijlpark plant over the past five years.

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Alfe helps design and heat-treat chassis and suspension for solar-powered car

Alfe Heat Treating, Fort Wayne, Ind., sponsor of the University of Texas Austin’s Solar Power Team, helped design and build the TexSun, a vehicle with an aluminum sub-frame and chassis. The 35-pound design is much lighter than the previous model’s 80-pound steel sub-frame and chassis. “The aluminum chassis was great because it is so much lighter,” said Alfe Vice President Dan Andersen.

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AFM/SEM/FIB system receives Innovation Award

Nanonics Imaging Ltd. (Jerusalem, Israel) announced that its triple beam integrated AFM/SEM/FIB system, the Nanonics 3TB4000, was judged one of the ten best microscopy innovations in 2013 and is the recipient of the prestigious 2013 Microscopy Today Innovation Award.

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Peacock-colored polymer is flexible and thin

A synthetic material that mimics the brightest and most vivid colors in nature and changes color when twisted or stretched was developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK. It could have important applications in the security, textile, and sensing industries.   Instead of through pigments, these “polymer opals” get their color from their internal structure alone, resulting in pure color which does not run or fade.

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Shape-memory polymer repeatedly reverses deformation

Researchers from the Institute of Biomaterial Science of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht,  Germany, have developed shape-memory polymers that can repeatedly change from one shape to another and then back again when temperatures fluctuate within a selected range. This enables their use as actuators. Until now, polymers with temperature-controlled shape memory could change form only once.

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No pilot, no problem for 3D printed parts

Stratasys Ltd., Minneapolis, a leading manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping and manufacturing, announced that remote control systems manufacturer, Survey Copter, is successfully using its 3D printing technology to produce prototype and short-run component parts for mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems, also known as drones.   France-based Survey Copter, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V.

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Test gauge measures very high pressure

Responding to the need for high-pressure products, Crystal Engineering, San Luis Obispo, Calif., a leader in high-end portable pressure calibrators and digital test gauges, introduced a 15,000 psi version of its popular XP2i test gauge. The ultra-rugged, intrinsically safe, easy-to-use test gauge joins the recently released GaugeCalHP Pressure Comparator and nVision Reference Recorder among other  instruments offered by the company.   The one-year XP2i accuracy specification is 0.

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Azzurro sets volume production for GaN-on-Si high-voltage wafers

Azzurro Semiconductors, Germany, has successfully achieved superior electrical performance and established a volume production track record for large size high-voltage GaN-on-Si high-voltage wafers. Unlike silicon, which has inherent limitations for fast switching at high voltage, GaN can meet these performance requirements with its excellent breakdown voltage and low leakage characteristics.   At present, the availability in the industry is still limited for production-suitable 6 in.

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Optomec launches low-cost 3D printer for metal additive manufacturing

Optomec Inc., Albuquerque, N.M., launches a low cost metal 3D printer named the LENS 450. The system was developed specifically in response to growing industry interest in 3D printing of metals, including the need to train a new generation of workers in metal additive manufacturing technology. The first delivery will be to the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science at the University of Pittsburgh, where it will be used in its new Advanced Manufacturing education program.

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