What do baseball gloves, running shoes, space shuttle cameras, and the Liberty Bell have in common? All use this visco-elastic urethane polymer for shock absorption. The wide-temperature, low creep solid that acts like foam is now filling a broad industrial potential, including duty in bushings and vibration dampers in machinery.

Professional conservatism keeps engineers from trying polymeric materials in critical components. This article recommends tabling the hesitation while being wary of disadvantages. Look harder at the benefits that high-performance plastic bearings have. These include lower coefficient of friction and cost over metal and bronze parts.

Volatile commodities prices make scrap recycling a tight margin business. Operations seek fast, accurate metal sorting to stay profitable. Help comes from recent sorting technology advances, as in this handheld X-ray fluorescence analyzer. Silicon drift detectors increase processing capacity and lower detection limits, even for light elements.

Manufacturing directly from 3D printing is changing parts testing. Baldor relies on it to produce ABS plastic models of motor parts, suitable for testing, in a matter of hours. Besides spending $15 for in-house models instead of hundreds with service bureaus, it also gives them the ability to test innovations much faster.

Imagine an explosive that spark or flame can't ignite, but can be turned on or off electrically. One company developed a class of electrically controlled propellants, voltage-controllable combustibles that could make Hollywood stunts, space technology, and oil exploration safer. And they're perchlorate-free, making them environmentally-friendly.

These wheels weren't on your father's Oldsmobile — production wheels would be cast. For a racing edge, Ferrari uses forged aluminum wheels. Casting allows air to mix with molten metal and results in a grainy finished structure. By contrast, forging at 450 C and under pressure produces a lighter weight, stronger structure.

If you're designing the system for moving bottles, cans, cases, or barrels, there's a new supplier to consider. A long-time roller chain maker widened its repertoire by developing flat top chains and belts. In plastic or stainless steel, metric or inch widths, the chains are aimed squarely at food and beverage packaging.

If you find this subject interesting, subscribe to GlobalSpec's e-Newsletter DirectU2 The world of Food & Beverage Technology.

Don't defeat special enclosures without proper security or access control. These locks and handles, with polyurethane injected foam gaskets on escutcheons, are designed for enclosures such as roadside and electrical cabinets, and motor control centers. Modular, screw-in assemblies provide up to IP 65 rated protection against dust and liquids.

The following comes from a recently archived article on lean manufacturing; but its timeliness is still current. How are companies preparing to become more competitive? Manufacturers have tried to develop methods to reduce time-to-market and increase quality of produced goods. But efforts have largely fallen short, at least compared to Toyota's processes, still seen as the world's standard in speed to market and quality. This commentary examines where U.S. processes went off track.

You can't buy them for your Expedition or Hummer, but NASA and Goodyear have developed airless tires to transport large, long-range vehicles across the Moon's surface. Improving on wire mesh tires used on Apollo mission rovers, the new woven spring tires will support vehicles over 10x heavier and travel thousands of kilometers instead of hundreds over rough, rocky lunar surfaces. Air-filled tires might not work on the moon, but these woven spring tires just might work here on earth.

Which Way on Workforce Training?

Does employee training improve a company's market standing during or after a recession? Is skill-building important enough on your engineering teams when there are so many budget-saving priorities?