Spray-formed tooling is a new approach for the making of stamping
dies and molds. The new rapid-tooling process involves spraying molten steel
over ceramic casts, which eliminates machining and other processing steps. Ford
is using spray-formed tooling for making torque-converter blade dies for
lift-gate brackets, wiper-motor brackets, instrument brackets, and inner-hood
reinforcements. "The spray-formed tooling process will shave millions of dollars
and several months off of the production process," says Dr. Charles Wu, director
of the Ford Manufacturing Systems and Vehicle Design Research Laboratory. The
technology is an all-inclusive rapid-tooling process that includes die
development, design, and construction. Envelope size for the initial dies was 1
sq ft, but the size is expected to grow to 8 x 8 ft. For more information,
contact Henry Fradkin, Tel: (313) 594-1993, Fax: (313) 323-2647 or Joseph A.
Szuba, Tel: (313) 845-8226, Fax: (313) 323-1129.
Artificially created metamaterials are already appearing in niche applications like electronics, communications, and defense, says a new report from Lux Research. How quickly they become mainstream depends on cost-effective manufacturing methods, which will include additive manufacturing.
Sharon Glotzer and David Pine are hoping to create the first liquid hard drive with liquid nanoparticles that can store 1TB per teaspoon. They aren't the first to find potential data stores, as Harvard researchers have stored 700 TB inside a gram of DNA.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.