Process Engineering

Desktop manufacturing for home desks seen

A University of Southern California inventor has created a machine that can produce 3-dimensional “printouts” in plastic and even metal more quickly and cheaply than widely-used existing systems.

The new machine is a significant improvement on the laser sintering machines now widely used around the world to build complex 3D forms from computer files, according to its creator, Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis of the USC School of Enginee

The building community soon may have radio vision—a new way to “see” moisture inside walls. Building researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have joined forces with Intelligent Automation Inc. in Rockville, Md., to develop a way to use ultra wide-band radio waves to non-destructively detect moisture within the walls of a building. As any homeowner who’s suffered with leaky plumbing or mold problems will tell you, the current state of the art for pinpointing moi

New technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm is teaching a household robot a more efficient way to get around a house, for example. The method was recently awarded a prize for the best contribution among 500 others at IROS, one of the world’s largest robot conferences.

Philipp Althaus describes the concept in his dissertation, to be defended on November 21. Robots are making their way into our homes, toy robots and simple household robots. This is a clear trend, a

Backhoes are widely used machines with hydraulic shovels and buckets operated by mechanical controls. That combination can give rise to some unexpected vibration problems, according to a recent study by UC Davis mechanical engineering professor Don Margolis and Taehyun Shim, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.

In some backhoe designs, a small movement of the mechanical controls leads to a rapid vibration that shakes the vehicle so hard the operator c

New fabrication results

The paper describes research at the Georgia Institute of Technology on fabricating hollow and solid microneedles in a variety of sizes and shapes from metals, biodegradable polymers, silicon and glass. It also reports on testing with cadaver skin and animals that demonstrates the ability of the micron-scale needles to deliver proteins, nanoparticles, and both small and large molecules through the skin.

“We’ve opened up the potential use of micron

One of the largest robots ever constructed will also be one of the most agile, thanks to technology derived from ESA space missions. Known as Roboclimber, this new climbing machine is designed to prevent landslides without endangering human lives.

Expertise from manoeuvring satellites into correct orbit has been used to develop the Roboclimber, which will be remotely controlled by a system originally built for ESA to control space robots and a robotic satellite arm.

Landslides are