Process Engineering

Alexander Pines and his colleagues have discovered a remarkable new way to improve the versatility and sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the technology upon which it is based, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

Pines, a pioneering NMR researcher, is Faculty Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. The latest details of the new techniqu

Member of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Public University of Navarre, Jesús Mª Corres Sanz, has suggested a new method which enables, amongst other applications, response enhancement to perturbations in electrical machines such as those experienced by an electric vehicle. These techniques, moreover, can be applied to any type of industrial robot.

In this thesis the design of velocity observers and perturbation par is studied for their application to mechatro

Every manufacturing process, from casting and forging, to machining and finishing, induces residual stresses in components. For critical components, such as aircraft wings and turbine blades, these stresses affect the durability and lifetime of the structures and assemblies. Current methods are either destructive (e.g. hole drilling), limited to the surface (laboratory X-ray), or rely on large facilities (synchrotron and neutron sources). The new method uses a laboratory source of high energy polychr

Using rigorous statistical analysis, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers identified a potential source of error in the surface roughness data used in the automotive industry to predict how friction affects production of metal parts during forming.

With this improved analysis, automakers should be able to more easily incorporate lighter weight materials in their products and improve fuel efficiency.

The NIST scientists presented their findings at the Soc

Choosing the best chops, steaks or other fresh meat products is a tough job. It’s a delicate balancing of leanness, juiciness, taste, marbling and more. Increasingly, meat processors use electronic devices and equipment—such as optical probes, ultrasonic sensors and digital cameras—to evaluate critical fat to meat ratios. In 2003, for instance, electronic devices determined pricing for more than 80 percent of the almost $7.5 billion worth of swine processed in the United States. Multiple dev

SC researchers present new electric pulse technology

A new technology that uses electric fields to alter the “guts” of a cell may lead to improved methods of treating diseases such as cancer and leukemia, according to researchers in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

The technology, called electroperturbation, exposes cells to electric pulses just tens of nanoseconds (tens of billionths of a second) long, said electrical engineer Thomas Vernier, an investigator on a coll