Engineering and Technical Services Reference Materials
Reference Articles 1 - 100 of 405
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How Can ISO 9001 Improve Your Business?
Description: A quality management systems (QMS) is a formal system that documents process, procedures and responsibilities related to quality policies and helps focus the organization towards customer and ...
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Common Problems Found During Field Evaluations
Description: Electrical, building and mechanical inspectors understand that electrical product safety laws protect our homes and our places of work. Manufacturers and employers must work with authorities having ...
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How to Ensure Machinery Safety and Compliance
Description: In the United States, any modifications made to a production line means that the system is no longer the same, and the mark applied by the Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) that ...
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FAQ's About the ISO 27001 Standard
Description: With an information security management system (ISMS) certified to ISO 27001, a business, its employees, and its stakeholders can all be assured that processes are in place to protect proprietary and ...
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Compliance Challenges with EV Safety Standards
Description: Electric Vehicles (EV) offer many benefits over their gas-powered counterparts, but their market appeal is currently tempered by their higher cost and new safety concerns ...
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Choosing a Compliance Partner for the Global EV Market
Description: The electric and hybrid vehicle industry is growing rapidly, with every car company and even the appliance company Dyson looking to release their own electric model within the next few years. ...
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Dismantling the High-Voltage Risks of Electric Vehicles
Description: Stronger and longer-lasting batteries in EVs increase the vehicle's market appeal, but the high-voltage energy systems are dangerous and even deadly if not handled correctly. ...
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ISO 45001: What Is It and Why Should You Transition?
Description: An occupational health & safety system allows a company to undeniably reduce the number of accidents through a systematic approach to aspects of health & safety. ...
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How to Prepare for Your Upcoming Remote Audit
Description: Remote audits offer many attractive benefits for companies, including flexibility, online scheduling, digital paperwork, and perhaps most appealing, reduced travel expenses. ...
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Validation In Accordance With ISO 13849-2
From: Schmersal Inc.Description: An important standard which gets too little attention is ISO 13849 part 2, which defines the validation process for the safety functions incorporated into the machine. This article summarizes the ...
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Supply Chain Education Teaches Tech
From: BinMaster, Inc.Description: The University of Nebraska at Omaha operates one of the state’s few programs dedicated to supply chain. Steve Schulz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Logistics & Supply Chain Management, said ...
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Five Steps to Digital Transformation
From: SICKDescription: So you’re ready to tackle a digital transformation project in your facility, but what’s the best way to start? Well, look no further: SICK has your back from beginning to end as a single ...
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With an Eye on the Future
Description: Mobile computing, IoT, 5G, Industry 4.0 and many other digital areas will be a part of us for a long time to come. ...
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RoHS and REACH Compliances
From: Lapp TannehillDescription: Learn more about U.S. and European Union restrictions and regulations on hazardous substances with RoHS, REACH, and other approvals and compliances. ...
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Sensors and Software Unite to Streamline the Supply Chain
From: BinMaster, Inc.Description: Truck driver shortages have been in the international spotlight since the pandemic began. The costs, and societal and supply impact have been widely publicised with examples including the United ...
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Climate Pledge Arena Combines Tech-Forward Sports & Sustainability
From: Belden Inc.Description: It may be home to the Seattle Kraken (NHL’s newest franchise) and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, but Climate Pledge Arena also represents something much bigger within the world of sports and ...
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A Bit of Silicon Valley History
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: In late 1971, Intel brought out the first microprocessor. A few months later, EE Times - long a go-to for news and insights on the semi-conductor world, embedded systems, AI, and other trends - ...
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Sustainability & Global Warming Potential
Description: Whether it's manufacturing industrial equipment or miniature electric devices, customers want the products they buy to function reliably. Premature failure can lead to costly recalls and loss in ...
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Mass Flow versus Volumetric Flow - Everything you need to know
From: ES SystemsDescription: What is mass flow and what is volumetric flow? What are their differences? Learn how to calculate volumetric flow rate to mass flow rate and vice versa. ...
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Get Started with Python: Why and How Mechanical Engineers Should Make the Switch
Description: Any engineer will have heard of Python by this stage. But if you are a typical mechanical engineer, it's unlikely you and your team will be using Python for your data analysis ...
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Gartner's Latest Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Gartner has an interesting way of looking at emerging technologies. In their Hype Cycle, they place new technologies along a somewhat amusing continuum that extends from the inception of a technology ...
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What is Vertical Integration?
Description: In recent times, supply chain issues have hit many industries, leading to long lead times and unsatisfied customers. One way of combatting this is through vertical integration. Vertical integration is ...
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Lean Lab Optimizes Flow in Pharma Production
From: Mettler-Toledo GmbHDescription: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a preeminent player among pharmaceutical companies, and maintains a significant presence in more than 93 countries worldwide. A leader in the discovery of therapeutic ...
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The Top Emerging Technologies of the Past Decade - Part Two
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: In my last post, I covered the first four items on the World Economics Forum's list of major technological trends of the past decade - technologies that have "changed the world." Here I'll summarize ...
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5 Ways to Improve the Sustainability of Your Next Data Center Project
From: Belden Inc.Description: We’ve asked this question before: What does “sustainability” mean when it comes to data centers? The industry has different definitions—and every organization has its own ...
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Critical Link Customer Story: Teletronics Technology Corporation
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: To be successful in increasingly competitive markets, companies must be ready and able to seize opportunities when they arise. That’s exactly what Teletronics Technology Corporation of Newton, ...
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Manufacturing in Space
From: Technetics GroupDescription: Manufacturing in Space - It's a thing and there are several companies now working to figure out the complexities and solve the challenges of manufacturing and assembling products in low-earth orbit ...
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Mayne Pharma, Metrics Contract Services, Designate their new Stability Storage Facility a Center of Excellence
Description: The Stability Center of Excellence, which is 17,000 square feet in size, triples the company’s previous stability storage capacity. The center is fully validated and operational. When designing ...
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Optimum Product Quality - Trust Weiss Technik
Description: Engineering large CFRP components requires high precision in the heat treatment temperature controls to ensure the finished parts have the correct material properties ...
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Weiss Technik and W.L. Gore Unveils World Class Fabric Testing Facility
Description: W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (Gore), known for its scientific approach to product development and ensuring products perform as promised in the intended end use, advanced its product testing ...
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Sanitary and Hygienic Design Standards
From: Schmersal Inc.Description: An overview of US and Canadian standards for food industry ...
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"The Science Behind the Boom"
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I posted about celebrating the Fourth a few years back, but I thought it was a topic that's worth revisiting. So - thanks to an article by Kevin Clemens I found on DesignNews - here goes with Kevin's ...
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Technology That's Strictly for the Birds
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: When I think of birding, I picture someone with binoculars around their neck, a field guide to birds in their hand, and a birdcall in their pocket. As with so many aspects of life, technology now ...
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Case Study: 3D Printing Manufacturer
Description: With the ever-expanding 3D printing industry, client ensures they will be in market compliance around the world ...
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Case Study: Product Safety
Description: Moore Industries chose TÜV Rheinland as a source for international safety approval due to the company’s strong quality reputation and recognition as a globally accepted certifying body. ...
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Case Study: TUV Rheinland Industrial Solutions Leads ASME N-5 Documentation Regeneration Effort to Benefit Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant
Description: The N5U team underwent on-site training on the data retrieval methods using TVA QA legacy document archives ...
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The Silicon 100: "The Building Blocks of Future Wonders"
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Of late, we've been focusing so much on stories around technology and the pandemic, that I ended up putting EE Times' Silicon 100: The Class of 2020 on the backburner. But I finally got the ...
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MarShield Launches Specifiers & Architects Resource Hub
From: MarShieldDescription: MarShield is proud to announce the launch of its Specifiers and Architects Resource Hub. The hub providers specifiers, architects, and engineers have easy access to MarShield product information, ...
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Guess the Contact Angle
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: In today's blog post, we are going to have a bit of fun using video to learn more about contact angles. We will show you a contact angle and will ask you to "guess" the contact angle measurement. The ...
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5G Loss Measurement
From: IntertekDescription: 5G allows for unparalleled cellular connectivity and speed. One reason is the use of higher frequencies, where there are larger chunks of contiguous spectrum available to provide wider bandwidth and ...
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The Advantages of Modular Construction
From: IntertekDescription: With skilled labor shortages, economic pressure, rising material costs, and the urgent need to reduce climate impact, the construction industry is ripe for disruption. One promising way to shake ...
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BTG Labs Earns ISO 9001:2015 Certification Demonstrating Commitment to High Quality Standards
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Cincinnati, OH - BTG Labs, the industry leader in industrial cleaning, surface treatment, and adhesion process control, has earned ISO 9001:2015 Certification. Internationally recognized as the ...
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A Brand New Mayflower is "Setting Sail", and It's a Technological Marvel
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Thanks to the pandemic, we missed out last year on the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower left port in September 1620 and ...
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From EE Times Europe: Five Critical Trends in Embedded Technology
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Wireless connections: the growth is nothing short of explosive ...
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MIT Tech Review's Breakthrough Technologies for 2021 - Part 1
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Each year, the MIT Technology Review publishes a list of the most important technologies on the scene. This year, they lead off with what, by anyone's reckoning, has to be THE technology of the year, ...
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MIT Tech Review's Breakthrough Technologies for 2021 - Part 2
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Here's a summary of the final five. ...
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Roadkill
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Sensors in humans aren't all that new. They've been used in devices like pacemakers for years. And while it's not widely in practice, humans can get microchipped in the same way that they chip their ...
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When the Chips are Down...
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Even if you haven't been directly impacted - at least not yet - if you're reading this post, you're most likely aware of the current chip shortage. And, if nothing else, you're most likely to have ...
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3 Challenges Collaborative Robots Need to Overcome
Description: As the market for collaborative robots expands, the industry faces challenges in developing safety regulations as well as some other key areas. ...
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3 Robotics Predictions for the Remainder of 2020
Description: When human workers have to social distance, what are robotics bringing to the table? ...
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Is Your Collaborative Robot as Safe as You Think?
Description: Automate 2019: We learn how TUV Rheinland inspects the force generated during collaborative robot collisions. ...
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Mobile Robots Poised to Become Safer, More Common
Description: Test Engineering Manager Ryan Braman talks about the push to develop safety standards for heavy-duty mobile robots, and where the market might go from here. ...
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Robotics Predictions: The Impact of IoT, Collaborative Robots and Startups
Description: Start-ups must consider regulatory regulations from the start of design, which rarely happens. A wonderful product doesn't sell very well if many companies will not purchase because they to not meet ...
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Harnessing the Power of Water to Achieve Precise Results
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Nature is miraculous. Living entities, be they plants, animals, marine life or humans, can perform an amazing array of complex tasks. As scientists, inventors, and engineers, we at BTG Labs take ...
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The Mars Perseverance Rover's Touch Down on the Red Planet
From: Technetics GroupDescription: With the world watching via live stream, the Perseverance Rover landed on Mars on Feb. 18. Maneuvering down amongst the Martian atmosphere, the Mars 2020 Spacecraft deposited the rover on the planet ...
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Surface Energy Measurement is the Key to Process Control and High Performance
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: When manufacturing companies take adhesion seriously it can have a remarkable effect on their ability to achieve their business goals. The key is to take a strategic look at adhesion processes early ...
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What is the Difference Between Surface Free Energy and Surface Energy
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: When it comes down to it, this is another purely semantic question much like the one we dealt with in another article comparing the terms "surface tension" and "surface energy." Surface free energy is ...
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What is the Difference Between Surface Tension and Surface Energy
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Using adhesives in manufacturing is becoming increasingly common for building everything from massive machines to everyday tech devices. But companies' reliance on the science of adhesion to make sure ...
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SUCCESS STORY: Oil Refinery Delayed Coker
From: PanametricsDescription: An oil refinery in Turkey needed to revalidate the inline flow meters in the delayed coker unit on the cold/hot feed lines. ...
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A Timely Primer on Wind Power
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Wind is a big part of that grid, and accounts for a bit under one-quarter of Texas energy use. The adverse weather conditions have put a crimp in the wind supply, as turbines have frozen up, but wind ...
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Customer Story: Developing Drive Electronics for Senseeker Engineering
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: "The customers who come to Senseeker are also often looking for other specialist electronics, and that's where Critical Link fits in. They have a reputation for quality, and a long track record of ...
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In the Market for a New TV?
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As I suspect is true of many folks, since the pandemic hit, I've been watching more TV than is my norm. So I'm grateful that there are so many options to choose from - you really can't ever say that ...
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The (Smart) Puck Starts Here
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Hockey, like most other sports, has been introducing increasingly sophisticated tracking technology for a number of years now, and there've been pucks in play with some level of "intelligence" since ...
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What I Missed at CES This Year
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: A couple of weeks ago, CES2021 was held. This is the mega consumer electronics show (that's where the CES comes from) held annually in Las Vegas. It's attended by 100,000 folks, and the exhibits ...
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What's Trending in Technology for 2021
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: It's still not too late to take a look at the technology trends for the new year. ...
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eFPGAs are Coming of Age
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Last month, I did a post entitled "There's a lot happening on the FPGA front." As a shop that does an extensive amount of work with FPGAs, we're always interested to hear talk about even more stuff ...
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The New Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: It's probably safe to say that most apps being developed these days are connected - they're part of the Internet of Things. To some extent, a lot of IoT development has been the Wild West in terms of ...
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There's a Lot Happening on the FPGA Front
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: It was the title of the article on EE Journal that caught my eye: "FPGAs Race for the Bottom," which rounds up recent FPGA releases. Writer Kevin Morris claims this occur when the "bleary eyed ...
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What a Difference a Decade Makes
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As the year ends, I always find it interesting to look back at what's happened during the past year in terms of technology. While I was wandering around looking for ideas, I came across an article by ...
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Don't Let This Process Gap Ruin Your Polymeric Powder Coating
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Powder coating is a widely used painting and coating technique to create protective and aesthetic barriers on products from vending machines at municipal pools to washers and dryers, or cars sitting ...
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How Surface Sensitive Measurements Help Medical Device Manufacturers Avoid Regulatory Bottlenecks
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: The pathway to zero defect manufacturing through implementation of quality control procedures is found right there in the name. Quality control requires the control of variables to ensure quality ...
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Document Destruction Relies on Vecoplan Shred Trucks
From: Vecoplan, LLCDescription: HOMETOWN SHREDDER GROWS WITH VECOPLAN SHRED TRUCKS ...
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Mobile Shredding - From Past to Present
From: Vecoplan, LLCDescription: WHAT IS MOBILE SHREDDING? ...
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A Great Idea to Help Save the Aerospace Industry
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: The great idea to help save the aerospace industry is: For manufacturers to cut costs and remain resilient, they must employ surface quality management programs that offer high-resolution, data-rich, ...
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Better Consumer Electronics Reliability: Coatings and Adhesives
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: In a recent study conducted by Instrumental, the top ten most common manufacturing defects were examined. The number one defect that manufacturers fight against is a deficiency in glue. It's a simple ...
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Manufacturing Best Practices for Business Continuity Plans
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Even though coming to the end of 2020 has not at all meant the end of the impact of Covid-19, manufacturers are pushing forward to make sure 2021 is not marred by the setbacks of this year. This has ...
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Reliable Wire Bonding Through Quality Data Collection for Industry 4.0
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Wire bonding and sintering are critical processes involved in the manufacture of a majority of electronic devices. These processes are used to connect silicon chips, integrated circuits (ICs), and ...
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Keep Your Distance! Technology for Maintaining Social Distancing.
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: If you've been in a grocery, pharmacy, or big box store recently - or lined up outside a Starbucks - you've seen the duct-taped X's telling you where to stand to keep your social distance from the ...
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Keep Your Distance: The Electronics Industry Responds to COVID, Part 3
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Over the summer, EDN Aspencore published a series of articles on how the electronics industry has responded to the COVID pandemic. In term, I'm doing a series of blog posts summarizing these articles. ...
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Keeping Hackers Out of Industrial Control Systems
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: It seems that there's always a hacking story in the news, the most recent being a hack of Twitter accounts which you've likely read about. Hackers had managed to con a couple of Twitter employees into ...
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On the Road to Autonomous Vehicles
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: When it comes to Active Driving Assistance, we're still in the early development stage. So proceed with caution. ...
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Oura Rings Enlisted in the Fight Against COVID
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Remember mood rings? They were a 70's fad that recycles every once in a while. The rings contained liquid crystal, which changes colors when the temperature of your finger changed. Red means you're ...
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The Electronics Industry Replies to COVID - Part One
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Since the pandemic hit our shores earlier this year, we've been keeping our eye out for ways in which the electronics industry has responded. Several of our earlier posts have addressed this. In Tech ...
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The Electronics Industry Replies to COVID - Part Two
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Two weeks ago, we kicked off a set of blog posts focused on a series of articles from EDN/AspenCore on how the electronics industry has been responding to the pandemic. (These articles appeared in EE ...
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The Electronics Industry Responds to COVID - Part 4
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Summary of EDN Aspencore's series of interesting and informative articles on the response that the electronics industry has been making to the coronavirus crisis. ...
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The Perseverance Rover is Headed for Mars. Safe Journey, Percy!
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Somewhat lost in all the pandemic and political news is NASA's launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover (nickname: Percy), which on July 30th headed off on its seven-month trip to the Red Planet, ...
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Underwater Energy Harvesting
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm always bookmarking articles of interest, and in going through my backlog, I just came across one on underwater energy harvesting that appeared in EETimes this past February. (And speaking of ...
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Your Smartphone's Getting Even Smarter
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: When the pandemic hit, I'm sure I wasn't alone in making sure I knew where the thermometer was, replacing the battery on the pulse oximeter, and checking the expiration dates on the cold medicine in ...
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Where to Look to Achieve Operational Visibility in Manufacturing
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Enterprise manufacturing operations are made up of interlocking, overlapping and critically interdependent processes. Each process in this symbiotic web consists of a series of steps that are only ...
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Domain Control Units, a Critical Step for Safer and Autonomous Driving
Description: Domain Control Units - or DCUs - are a breakthrough on the path towards integrated systems, assisting the driver in his search for a smooth and safe ride. ...
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Xylon Case Study
Description: Instrumentation Technologies helped the Xylon team solve design issues on their data logging product, allowing them to deliver to their end customer on time. Our team identified the core problem and ...
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3 Things You Need to Know to Create Strong, Reliable Bonds With Laser Cleaning
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Manufacturers are always looking to create stronger, more durable, more reliable and, in the automotive and aerospace sectors, lightweight products. In this pursuit they've often upgraded and swapped ...
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COVID-19 Makes Remote Quality Monitoring Crucial for Manufacturers
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Since COVID-19 has reshaped the economic landscape for the foreseeable future and there are many questions about how to safely and effectively respond to it, now is a good time for manufacturers to ...
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How to Bond Fiber Reinforced Plastics for Harsh Environments
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: Many manufacturers have a dual performance concern when their products are out there in the world being used in whatever capacity they were designed for. These parallel interests are: how to maintain ...
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Single vs Multi-fluid Contact Angle Techniques Part 1: Surface Energy and the Attractions Between Substances
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: This is part one of a two-part series explaining the finer points of BTG Labs' approach to helping companies build reliability into their cleaning and adhesion processes through consultation and ...
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EMC Compliance
Description: In order to make sure that your products are compliant with regulations we help you plan your device from the idea onwards. The sooner in the development process, we start planning, the more certain ...
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Greenwood Fuels Case Study
From: Vecoplan, LLCDescription: VECOPLAN TECHNOLOGY PRE-TREATMENT SYSTEMS FOR PELLETIZING ...
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Proposed ASTM Standard Will Ease the Pain of Manufacturers
From: Brighton ScienceDescription: An exciting development is taking place to make surface quality and cleanliness inspection technology more available to all manufacturers. We have collaborated with ASTM International and other ...
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More Than a Software Company, That's for Sure
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I know, I know. There's plenty of evidence that Microsoft is more than a software company, even if old guys like me who remember when Windows was just becoming a force, and when everyone was beginning ...
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20 Technology Forecasts for 2020 (Part One)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Whenever a new year rolls around, I always like to look back - and look forward. I did some looking back on 2019 in my Thanksgiving post, so now I'm taking a look forward with a roundup of some of the ...