Development and Prototyping Services Reference Materials

Description: Us city-slickers - and suburb-slickers - likely don't spend a lot of time thinking about new technology as it applies to agriculture. Yet few industries are more pervasive, or more critical to our ...

Description: There's been no escaping the news about the drastic heat being experienced throughout the Southwest and the South this summer. And if you live in those regions, there's been no escaping heat that's ...

Description: With the vacation season at its peak, it's time to take a look at the technology that's becoming more and more prevalent in the travel and hospitality industry. These days, it seems quaint to see ...

Description: Rapid electronic prototyping tools are software and hardware platforms that enable engineers, designers, and hobbyists to quickly create and test electronic prototypes of their ideas. These tools ...

Description: 6 Easily Overlooked Considerations in CNC Part Design ...

Description: If you allow the temperature of your board to fluctuate excessively, or rise to extremes, you can drastically reduce the lifespan of your design. This eBook will take a look at thermodynamic ...

Description: Choosing the right manufacturing process depends on several factors at different stages of the product lifecycle. This article compares Injection Molding, CNC Machining, and Urethane Casting, focusing ...

Description: Plastic extrusion is a common method of producing parts for many different industries and applications. From a basic approach, any part with a constant cross-sectional view is a potential candidate ...

Description: Unlock the world of non-destructive testing's future with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) - where high-resolution, non-contact 3D imaging revolutionizes industries. ...

Description: Plastic co-extrusion is a process in which two or more materials are extruded through a single die to form a single product. This technique is commonly used in industries such as building and ...

Description: The co-extrusion process is used to produce a part with 2 or more materials into a single plastic profile. Co-extrusion is a versatile processing technology that allows you to create custom profiles ...

Description: Plastic extrusion is a very cost competitive method of producing parts that have a constant cross-sectional shape. However, it is often desired to fabricate the parts so that they can be used as a ...

Description: When designing products for plastic extrusion, consideration must be given to the tooling that is required to produce the tools. In many cases, it is desirable to begin with prototype tooling instead ...

Description: When 3D printing is mentioned, it is probably most often associated with plastic. While polymers do represent the bulk of the materials used with this fabrication process, metals are quickly becoming ...

Description: The travel season is upon us, and those who will be flying somewhere are probably gearing up for the security hassle they'll find at the TSA checkpoint. There's getting your ID out, and (maybe) your ...

Description: We are well into the Internet of Things Era, and have reached the point where we (almost) take it for granted that so many objects that are part of everyday life - even objects we don't traditionally ...

Description: Since the first of the year, EE Times has been running a series on design challenges in the IoT era. While providing a general overview of these challenges, they've focused on a few more specific ...

Description: In this, our third post on EETimes series on trends around Embedded in the IoT Era, I'll be summarizing some of the articles devoted to security. (The other categories they consider the most critical ...

Description: By prioritizing simplified designs and fewer components, you can not only enhance the functionality and quality of your products but also significantly lower costs, and accelerate development ...

Description: CNC machining allows for the use of a wide range of plastics and metals, presenting a plethora of choices for your machined parts. Navigating this vast selection to find the ideal material that ...

Description: EV battery charging companies that support these developments are in a race to develop EV chargers quickly and cost-effectively. In order to gain a competitive advantage, one big way you can choose is ...

Description: When working to design and commercialize new products; it is critical that timing and costs are optimized so that the new product can be introduced as quickly as possible to help you achieve the goals ...

Description: Did you know that fasteners, while indispensable for product assembly, often add little value yet significantly increase production time and costs? From bolts to nuts, fasteners can be optimized to ...

Description: There are many advantages to using 3D prototyping to advance commercialization of new products and innovations. ...

Description: Attention product designers! Learn how to streamline your CNC machining process with these four key design tips: optimize parts for clamping, add essential features to holes and flanges, incorporate ...

Description: A critical step in the custom extrusion process is designing and building the tooling for a part. There are several advantages to a custom manufacturer designing and building their own tooling. ...

Description: This case study discusses the design of a high-performance objective lens for trapping and imaging single atoms. The lens was designed to have diffraction-limited performance for multiple laser beams ...

Description: Want to ensure your imaging system produces high-quality images? Identifying its resolution is crucial. A popular tool used for this purpose is a test target, consisting of groups of elements with ...

Description: AR, MR, and VR are immersive technologies that enhance our perception of reality, with AR overlaying digital content onto the real world, MR integrating digital content into reality for interaction, ...

Description: LiDAR is a technology that uses laser pulses to create a 3D understanding of an environment, providing highly accurate mapping for self-driving cars up to 400 meters away. It is not dependent on ...

Description: See beyond the surface with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) - a cutting-edge medical imaging technique that captures detailed cross-sectional images of biological tissues without invasive ...

Description: This article explores the differences between peak-to-valley (PV) and root-mean-square (RMS) measurements for quantifying deviations from an ideal optical surface. While PV has been historically used ...

Description: Sharp corners can hinder plastic melt flow, cause part flaws, and create stress concentrations that weaken your parts. Discover 3 crucial design tips to optimize your part design and enhance strength. ...

Description: Bringing in a Subject Matter Expert (SME) early in the design process can provide numerous benefits. Key benefits are listed below. ...

Description: With the major league baseball season now underway, I was interested to read that all of baseball's Triple-A teams - that's the highest-level league before the majors - will be using an electronic ...

Description: Discover the key design considerations and differences between smart mirrors and heads-up displays (HUDs) ...

Description: Superconductivity has long been the Holy Grail of materials science. Superconductive materials have the ability to convey electricity with next to no resistance. This decreases energy loss, making ...

Description: There's been plenty of buzz in the last month or so about AI chatbots. And there's no doubt about it, AI is making chatbots more human-like. Still, it looks like we still have a bit of time before the ...

Description: Combining multiple parts into a single part can bring several benefits in terms of efficiency and cost savings. Here are some of the key advantages. ...

Description: Check out how RPWORLD quality control brings you with higher quality and consistent parts that meet your precision specifications. ...

Description: I recently picked up the current issue (Jan-Feb) of the MIT Technology Review, which focused on ten breakthrough technologies that they're keeping an eye on for 2023. Overall, an interesting list. ...

Description: Although I don't attend CES, the mega consumer tech show held each January in Las Vegas, I'm always curious to read about the products/gadgets that are on display there. Year after year, it seems to ...

Description: One of my favorite things to do when the new year is starting is to roam around looking at what the tech prognosticators are prognosticating for the coming year. There's no end to the prediction ...

Description: Almost any plastic or metal can be manufactured by CNC machining. It means that you have more options when selecting the right materials for your CNC machined parts, and it is quite a challenging work ...

Description: Most years, as we enter the height of the holiday gift-giving season, I take a look around to see what's interesting when it comes to tech-toys for kids (which I posted on a couple of weeks back). ...

Description: The plastics industry often gets a bad name in regards to the environment. Every other day there seems to be an article published about how much plastic is ending up in landfills, or simply dumped in ...

Description: Wood is everywhere, it’s a cheap renewable resource that humans have relied on for centuries. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best material for the job. PVC is being used more ...

Description: If you're a plan ahead sort of person, you may have your holiday shopping all done. If not, and you're looking around for gifts on the techie side of the toy aisle, I found a few suggestions for you. ...

Description: Today’s world demands lighter parts that can make the difference in the performance of your products. Consumer products can use a lighter part for a more ergonomic experience. Automotive ...

Description: In the demanding world of manufacturing; how you measure your parts can be one of the most challenging opportunities to overcome. There are dozens of different ways to measure the same part and if the ...

Description: As part of EE Time's 50th anniversary celebration, they've created a virtual "Hall of Fame" for engineers "who have helped make the industry safer and cleaner!" In my last post, I wrote about two of ...

Description: This year, EE Times turns 50, and to celebrate the occasion, they're publishing a lot of interesting content on the history of the electronics industry. One thing they've done is a series of articles ...

Description: With more than 20 million electric vehicles expected to hit the market by 2030, the automotive industry alone is significantly increasing demand for new products and technologies in the battery cell ...

Description: Manufacturing battery cells is a complex, demanding process with significant challenges. In part 1 of our series, we highlighted the key challenges in developing a fully automated battery ...

Description: Spraydown is a unique aero guard system that contributes towards fuel efficiency and safety in the heavy-duty trucking industry. By separating the water from the air and directing it down towards the ...

Description: The medical industry requires that components be made using extremely tight tolerances because people’s lives depend on the results. Even something as simple as a bracket to hold trays needs to ...

Description: A customer of Engineered Profiles required a specific profile to fit a need their portfolio did not meet. This part had never been purchased or produced by the customer. The only known element in the ...

Description: The customer has a large number of SKUs and a wide range of optimal inventory levels. In order to fulfill their sales commitments to their customers, they require a short inventory replenishment lead ...

Description: Ringling Brothers folded its tent in 2017, but it's coming back next year. And when it does, "the greatest show on earth" will be animal-free. ...

Description: The sharp corners should be avoided in the plastic parts, as it can impede from plastic melt flow, causing flaws on parts. 3 design tips about adding radii you should keep in mind during part design. ...

Description: As autonomous and electric vehicles evolve, automotive interior design faces new challenges. Digital manufacturing services-like CNC machining and injection molding-can help reduce costs and speed up ...

Description: With a turnkey assembly service, the client simply submits the design files and the assembler handles the rest. ...

Description: 6 best design practices that are sure to speed up your next design. ...

Description: Break out or "fan out" is a process used for getting traces out from underneath the board when working with BGAs. There are a number of different methods for breaking out traces, so of which can ...

Description: In this eBook, learn the importance of part selection, how to work with BGAs and small parts, and the pitfalls of component selection ...

Description: I will not be applying for an Astro. I have better things to do with $1,000 $999.99. But I will say one thing. If I did get my hands on it, it would be a fun teardown to see what all cameras and ...

Description: Writing on EDN, Joshua Norem recently offered his thoughts on IC's vulnerability to security threats. ...

Description: Quaise Energy is using technology that produces fusion power to bore deep down into the earth to tap the vast store of geothermal energy that lies below. ...

Description: Overdoing it on salt can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. So researchers at Japan's Meiji University and Kirin, a major food and beverage company, have tackled this problem ...

Description: access to safe water isn't universal, and while estimates vary, there are likely well over a billion people who lack clean water. ...

Description: At one point or another during our driving lives, most of us have had the dreaded experience of noticing that we're pretty much running on empty, and we make it into the gas station on fumes. Gas ...

Description: The other day, I was browsing Embedded.com and came across Trends in embedded development: a Mouser perspective by Mark Patrick, who's a UK-based technical marketing manager for Mouser, a major ...

Description: Spurred on by the explosion of interest in the Internet of Things, there's been an explosion of interest in embedded systems. Because of this, Embedded.com is running excerpts from Embedded Computing ...

Description: Embedded.com is running excerpts from Embedded Computing for High Performance, the highly informative (and, yes, educational) book by João Cardoso, José Gabriel Coutinho, and Pedro ...

Description: Not all problems are created equal. Some problems are easy to solve, and some are impossible. Figure out which category your problems fall in, prioritize them, and tackle them in a logical order. ...

Description: This blog explains three important credentials that help ensure manufacturing vendors will keep your IP secure. ...

Description: I'm always on the lookout for novel and interesting gadgets, so I was happy when a friend in Boston pointed the Wave from Embr Labs my way. ...

Description: I'm a dog person. I was going to say that I'm also a robot person, but that would sound like I'm saying I'm a robot. So not true! But I have been interested in robotics for a long time, dating back to ...

Description: When you've been blogging as long as we have - and we're coming up on nine years now - you tend to develop a few traditions. One of ours is doing holiday tech toy shopping for kids and grownups. ...

Description: Of the great pleasures of being part of the wonderful world of technology is seeing the many brilliant uses that people make of it. When I look at the types of applications our clients are working on, ...

Description: We don't often do crime-related posts, but this story is an important one, and underscores how vital supply chain management is to us and our customers. ...

Description: If prototypes help bridge the gap between product ideation and physical production, digital product models extend this bridge to business development scenarios where physical prototypes aren't ...

Description: Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a car guy and an electronics guy. So I've developed a keen interest in autonomous vehicles, and have posted on them a number of times over the past few years. I ...

Description: There was a recent article in the EE Times on some research funding that's been awarded to a team Belgian researchers who are developing "a new chip to study the mechanisms of Parkinson's disease." ...

Description: As a new year begins, I'm always interested in seeing what the prognosticators are prognosticating will happen over the next twelve months. So I was more than happy to wander around seeing what ...

Description: Accurately assembling PCBs is not an easy task; it takes experience, technology, and, above all, dedicated people to ensure your projects are done right. ...

Description: EE Times recently had a provocative article by Carnegie Mellon associate professor Philip Koopman, whose specialty is AV safety. While Koopman definitely sees the potential benefits of AVs, he argues ...

Description: In order to stop my head from spinning, I decided to focus on the roundup in USA Today, which took a look at Amazon's hottest tech gifts. ...

Description: Embedded Vision is a hot topic in many industrial spaces. The integration of data processing on board a camera without the need for a back-end PC, server, or other costly system has system developers ...

Description: The design stage of a product's life cycle is arguably one of the most crucial decision-making periods, as 70 to 80 percent of the overall manufacturing cost can be projected at this stage. Engineers ...

Description: Laminates form the foundation of printed circuit boards. Even the best designed boards can be ruined by the wrong laminate. In this article, learn the different variables to consider when selecting ...

Description: Machine vision systems have traditionally consisted of stand-alone cameras tethered to PC-based boards or frame grabbers using highspeed interfaces such as Camera Link, CoaXPress and Gigabit Ethernet. ...

Description: To the untrained eye, there is not much variation in how different finishes look or perform on a circuit board, but, with time and experience, subtle and not-so-subtle differences emerge. ...

Description: When considering the long term reliability of a PCB, you must take into account the vias that you have on your board. While an invaluable and essential part of board design, vias introduce weaknesses ...

Description: Even though my kids are grown, and there are as yet no little tech grandkids running around, as the holiday season approaches each year, the kid in me still likes to take a look at what's hot when it ...

Description: It's that time of year when many of us take a look back on what's happened in our lives, in society, and - in my case - in technology during the past twelve months. I was taking just such a look when ...

Description: Accelerating your product development process can drive faster time to market, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Faster product development means more time to iterate, more refined products, and ...

Description: Accelerating your product development process can drive faster time to market, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Faster product development means more time to iterate, more refined products, and ...

Description: Quick-turn PCB prototypes are a timely solution for companies who require PCB models before the final manufacturing process. With the ability to produce a prototype within a specific timeframe, this ...

Description: For established companies and up-and-coming entrepreneurs alike, outsourcing your PCB assembly is always a good idea. From navigating the complexities of circuit board manufacturing to keeping up with ...