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On the site now: 53717 articles from 4638 suppliers!
...from 22 articles and news releases just added to the site:
EXCLUSIVE: Viscosity monitoring aids chocolate tempering
A UK manufacturer of chocolate products recently installed Hydramotion XL7 on-line viscometers on pipelines to its mixing tanks as part of a global automation project.
Exclusive article from Hydramotion
Reducer gearbox provides weight savings
The Dodge MagnaGear XTR family offers a choice of eight sizes, rated for output torques from 11,300 to 103,950Nm.
Product/Service News from Baldor UK ( 9 May 2008)
Seminar focuses on machinery safety
Understanding Functional Safety is essential for anyone involved in the design, commissioning, management, maintenance, litigation and assessment of devices, machines and plants.
Company news from TUV Rheinland of North America ( 9 May 2008)
Torque analysers and bolt auditing
Chris Morris explains why his company's new PTT torque analyser is ideal for checking/auditing pipe flanges, pressurised connections and other critical fastened joints.
Background article from Mountz
Cooling system cuts energy costs for scientists
Engineers at Affiliated Engineers (AEI) used Flomerics' Flovent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to optimise the cooling system and maximise the energy savings.
User application article from Flomerics ( 9 May 2008)
All 22 technical articles, news releases, and user applications today...
From the Engineeringtalk Editorial Newsletter this week
Dave Wilson, Editor writes:
Lyndon White, Managing Editor, writes:
Researchers from University of California Riverside's Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering are studying ocean animals with an eye on future human applications (see (Link) for the original story).
Research group leader Professor David Kisailus said: "My hope is that we can truly learn from these organisms how to design, optimise, and synthesise engineering materials that display properties that we as engineers can only dream of." This sounds plausible and even rather seductive, fitting in as it does with a whole slew of contemporary ideas that elevate notions of what is 'natural', 'organic' etc.
This backdrop, rather than the particular notion of studying ocean animals, makes me reticent to take such projects at face value. The problem of elevating the 'natural' (and so much of 'nature', not least the idea of 'nature' itself, bears a distinct human stamp) in this manner is that one could envisage a future where human engineers have their potential curtailed by having to fit into some kind of pre-ordained 'natural' pattern.
And we are talking about fundamentally different processes here. For example, the red abalone, a marine snail, may be an excellent architect in constructing its shell. On the other hand, a human architect may be awful at his or her job but still has the advantage over the red abalone in being able to conceptualise a projected building in imaginary terms before construction begins.
So I'm actually more with Professor Kisailus when he talks of utilising nature "as a platform for our inspiration". True, I am less inspired at the thought of the red abalone aiding in the construction of lightweight armour to help soldiers become more proficient in the pursuit of future wars, but then that's just me. However, the idea of nature as a font of inspiration is much more appealing than the idea of nature as a source of design templates.
Dave Wilson is away on his holidays. He'll be back at the forge next week.
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