Machine Design 7 March 2013

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FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

The Lit Motors C-1 will be a motorcycle built with automotive unibody construction when it goes into production, hopefully

You can thank the Japanese for fostering the birth of the modern electric vative Rather than come up with their own e-bikes, they sat back and watched electric motorcycle racer Chip Yates.

Yates is in a position to know what he’s talking about In the first-ever nized race between an all-electric motorcycle and beefy, twin-cylinder, 1,150-cc set the world-speed record for electric motorcycles in 2011, hitting 190.6 mph during a one-mile, standing-start run in the California desert.

orga-The accomplishments of Yates and his crew personify the role garage preneurs have had in advancing e-bike technology E-bikes are now a hotbed far more manageable to bring a motorcycle to market than anything with four

entre-to build It is a much simpler undertaking than a car You can spend more of your time on new technology rather than on building a giant platform.”

In Yates’ case, some of that innovation went into coming up with a

patent-A speedy pace of innovation could make electric motorcycles and scooters more viable for four wheelers

Authored by:

Leland Teschler

Editor leland.teschler@penton.com

Key points:

• Electric motorcycles are much easier to produce than electric four wheelers, a fact that has attracted numerous entrepreneurs.

• The tough part: Kinetic-energy recovery during braking because the front wheel loads much more than the rear.

Resources:

Chip Yates Bonneville World’s Fastest

be/W_UlRWRfU88

Current Motor, www.currentmotor.com

EngineeringTV.com Current Motor

interview, http://www.engineeringtv.com/

Engineering-TV-Videos

video/Electric-Scooter-Cloud-Communic;Only-Lit Motors, www.litmotors.com Lit Motors C-1 on YouTube, www.

youtube.com/

watch?v=VkvvsRBSroA

Swigz.com Pro Racing

(Chip Yates) For another feature on electric motorcycles,

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com 73

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

Researchers at Volvo Construction Equipment are developing excavators and wheel loaders that handle simple digging and loading tasks without an model of its futuristic SfinX excavator.

The idea of using robots for arduous tasks like mining probably dates from the dawn of the industrial age, and it’s long been a mainstay of science fic- tion Isaac Asimov, for one, wrote of autonomous asteroid-mining robots in the 1940s.

The concept is now reality, with robotic haul trucks hard at work at several mines around the world Many experts expect their numbers to grow substan- Equipment manufacturers began discussing autonomous mining in the 1970s But commercializing it took numerous technology breakthroughs,

“perception” technologies: laser, ultrasonic, radar, and other sensors that can detect nearby stationary and moving objects.

There have also been advances in hardened electronics, processing speeds, and control algorithms And the acceptance of innovations such as electro- hydraulics — where electrical signals command powerful actuators — play a key role in “drive-by-wire” steering, braking, and work functions.

Even with all this, autonomous mining is only in its infancy and, today,

it centers around massive “ultraclass” dump truck trucks that carry several

in one place and delivering the material to another.

Autonomy’s benefits

Fueling commercialization of these driverless trucks are the potential efits they bring For example, they make production more efficient by letting The vehicles eliminate the productivity lost during shift changes from one crew to another, when conventional trucks sit idle.

ben-Another benefit is consistent performance Trucks can be programmed to

Authored by:

Kenneth J Korane

Managing Editor ken.korane@penton.com

Key points:

• Autonomous mining boosts productivity, cuts operating costs, and enhances safety

• Driverless haul trucks are currently working

at several mines around the world.

Flanders Electric, www.flandersinc.com

Hitachi Construction Machinery,

www.leica-geosystems.com/en/Mining-Rio Tinto, www.riotinto.com/

ourapproach/17203_mine_of_the_future.asp

Volvo Construction Equipment,

www.volvoce.com

Drones comedown to Earth

Driverless trucks foretell the future of mining.

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com 58

VOLUME 85ISSUE 3MARCH 7, 2013

Access our Reader Service Web site to quickly find and request information on the products and services found

in the pages of M ACHINE D ESIGN www.machinedesign.com/rsc

73

58

Drones come down to Earth

Haul trucks that drive themselves offer a glimpse at the future

A project to perfect prosthetics

A DARPA-funded effort pushes the state of

the art in biomedical engineering

The future of additive

manufacturing

Companies, government agencies, and even

tinkerers are using additive manufacturing to

make production parts

The future of robotics:

Crowd-sourced code

Open-source software is giving rise to

emerging breeds of quasicommercial,

prosthetic, and industrial robots

2

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v &RQQHFWWKHVFDQQHUWRRQHRIWKH3URGXFWLYLW\ v &RQoJXUHWKHSRUWWKURXJKWKH)5((3URGXFWLYLW\6XLWH SURJUDPPLQJVRIWZDUH,QWXLWLYHGLDORJER[HVOHW\RXVHW SDUDPHWHUVVXFKDVEDXGUDWHVWRSELWVDQGWKHSURWRFRO LQWKLVFDVH$6&,,&XVWRPXVLQJVHOHFWLRQPHQXV v &RQoJXUHWKHODGGHUORJLFLQVWUXFWLRQk$6&,,,1yGHoQH QXPEHURIFKDUDFWHUVDVVLJQWKHGHVWLQDWLRQPHPRU\ DQGXSGDWHWKHSURJUDPLQWKHFRQWUROOHU

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SCANNING FOR IDEAS

See-through housing enables visual check of filter and fluid

Electronic access for new and old enclosures

Will OSHA’s Injury Illness Prevention Program

give you a headache?

Facts about Blowers

Energy conscious plants might think

a blower to be a better choice due to its slightly lower electrical consumption compared to a compressor In reality,

a blower is an expensive capital expenditure that requires frequent downtime and costly maintenance

of fi lters, belts and bearings.

Here are some important facts:

Filters must be replaced every one to three months.

Belts must be replaced every three to six months.

Typical bearing replacement is at least once a year at a cost of nearly $1000.

t
Blower bearings wear out quickly due to the high speeds (17-20,000 RPM) required to generate eff ective airfl ows.

t
Poorly designed seals that allow dirt and moisture infi ltration and environments above 125°F decrease the one year bearing life.

t
Many bearings can not be replaced

in the fi eld, resulting in downtime

to send the assembly back to the manufacturer.

Blowers take up a lot of space and often produce sound levels that exceed OSHA noise level exposure requirements Air volume and velocity are often diffi cult

to control since mechanical adjustments are required

To discuss an application, contact:

EXAIR Corporation

11510 Goldcoast Drive Cincinnati, Ohio 45249-1621

(800) 903-9247

Fax: (513) 671-3363

email: techelp@exair.com www.exair.com/14/423a.htm

See the Super Air Knife in action www.exair.com/14/akvideo.htm

Compare these Blowoffs

Th ere are a variety of ways to blow the water from the bottles shown in the photo below, but which method

is best? To decide, we ran a comparison test on the same application using four diff erent blowoff methods:

drilled pipe, fl at air nozzles, Super Air Knife (each using compressed air as a power source), and a blower

supplied air knife (using an electric motor as a power source) Each system consisted of two twelve inch

long air knives Th e following comparison proves that the EXAIR Super Air Knife is the best choice for

your blowoff , cooling or drying application.

Th e goal for each of the blowoff choices was to use the least amount of air possible to get the job done

(lowest energy and noise level) Th e compressed air pressure required was 60 PSIG which provided

adequate velocity to blow the water off Th e blower used had a ten horsepower motor and was a centrifugal

type blower at 18,000 RPM Th e table at the bottom of the page summarizes the overall performance

Since your actual part may have an odd confi guration, holes or sharp edges, we took sound level

measurements in free air (no impinging surface).

Drilled Pipe

Th is common blowoff is very inexpensive

and easy to make For this test, we used (2)

drilled pipes, each with (25) 1/16" diameter

holes on 1/2" centers As shown in the test

results below, the drilled pipe performed

poorly Th e initial cost of the drilled pipe

is overshadowed by its high energy use

Th e holes are easily blocked and the noise

level is excessive - both of which violate

OSHA requirements Velocity across the

entire length was very inconsistent with

spikes of air and numerous dead spots.

Flat Air Nozzles

As shown below, this inexpensive air nozzle

was the worst performer It is available in

plastic, aluminum and stainless steel from

several manufacturers Th e fl at air nozzle

provides some entrainment, but suff ers

from many of the same problems as the

drilled pipe Operating cost and noise

level are both high Some manufacturers

off er fl at air nozzles where the holes can

be blocked - an OSHA violation Velocity

was inconsistent with spikes of air

EXAIR Super Air Knife

Th e Super Air Knife did an exceptional job of removing the moisture on one pass due to the uniformity of the laminar airfl ow Th e sound level was extremely low For this application, energy use was slightly higher than the blower but can

be less than the blower if cycling on and

off is possible Safe operation is not an issue since the Super Air Knife can not be dead-ended Maintenance costs are low since there are no moving parts to wear out.

The Super Air Knife is the low cost way to blowoff, dry, clean and cool.

If you think compressed air is too expensive and noisy - read this The facts will surprise you!

Blower Air Knife

Th e blower proved to be an expensive, noisy option As noted below, the purchase price

is high Operating cost was considerably lower than the drilled pipe and fl at air nozzle, but was comparable to EXAIR’s Super Air Knife Th e large blower with its two 3" (8cm) diameter hoses requires signifi cant mounting space compared

to the others Noise level was high at 90 dBA Th ere was no option for cycling

it on and off to conserve energy like the other blowoff s Costly bearing and fi lter maintenance along with downtime were also negative factors.

The Truth About Compressed Air!

Blowoff Comparison

Comp Air Horsepower

Required

Sound Level dBA Purchase Price

Annual Electrical Cost*

Approx Annual Maintenance Cost

First Year Cost Type of blowoff PSIG BAR SCFM SLPM

Drilled Pipes 60 4.1 174 4,924 35 91 $50 $4,508 $920 $5,478

Flat Air Nozzles 60 4.1 257 7,273 51 102 $208 $6,569 $1,450 $8,227

Blower Air Knife 3 0.2 N/A N/A 10 90 $5,500 $1,288 $1,500 $8,288

Super Air Knife 60 4.1 55 1,557 11 69 $534 $1,417 $300 $2,251

*Based on national average electricity cost of 8.3 cents per kWh Annual cost reflects 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year.

RS# 104

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Cisco Systems Inc. as articulated by its CEO John Chambers in 2004.Chambers’ comments are indicative of attitudes found among those heading multinational companies And those attitudes have become a hot button in this era of big corporate bailouts and sending U. S jobs to foreign countries.

There is no question that company managers have changed their views over the years about where they owe allegiances Corporate lead-ers were once expected to fulfill obligations to society and particularly

to the country in which they resided But globalization has eliminated any such sense of duty In fact, it has increased the chance that heads of

U. S companies are advocating policies that aren’t in the overall interest

of Americans

The situation is illuminated by Clyde Prestowitz, a one-time U. S trade negotiator in the Reagan administration He points out that U. S CEOs may be influential in the U. S., but have no political clout in authoritarian countries like China or Russia CEOs who do business there must main-tain good relations with the powers that be, which often means being more responsive to the wishes of authoritarian countries than to those elsewhere

Prestowitz says this is why in 2009 a group of big-name American CEOs advised against including any “buy-American” provisions in the economic-stimulus package then being voted into law (All of which

would have been allowed under World Trade Organization rules.) The

irony was that China, Japan, and many European countries were in the process of enacting buy-domestic policies themselves “The CEOs were,

in effect, arguing for sending more of our stimulus money to help create jobs overseas, while our trading partners were doing the opposite,” he writes

No wonder, then, that people who have been paying attention to these events increasingly distrust corporations “We must be alert that when American CEOs advise the president or lobby Congress today, they may unwittingly be acting, in effect, as emissaries of foreign governments In any case, we cannot be sure that they are speaking on behalf of America’s overall prosperity,” says Prestowitz Participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement couldn’t have said it any better

Epitomizing the kind of cockeyed view of the world many CEOs have today is a comment from one who Prestowitz declines to name The man opined that he ran an international company that just happened to be based in the U. S Its headquarters, he claimed, could as easily be situated

in a Boeing 747, from which he could comfortably run the company while circling the globe

This is the kind of remark U. S legislators should keep in mind the next time a multinational company comes looking for favors There are increasingly few reasons not to drive the same kind of hard bargains as countries less “enlightened” about trade One bargaining point that im-mediately springs to mind is that companies wishing to sell goods in the

U. S had better figure out how to make them here

— Leland Teschler, Editor

Living on a jet plane

RS# 107

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RS# 108

EDITORIAL STAFF

1300 E 9th St Cleveland, OH 44114-1503

EDITOR Leland E Teschler leland.teschler@penton.com

MANAGING EDITOR Kenneth J Korane ken.korane@penton.com

SENIOR EDITORS Elisabeth Eitel elisabeth.eitel@penton.com Stephen J Mraz stephen.mraz@penton.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lindsey Frick lindsey.frick@penton.com

INDUSTRY COVERAGE: AUTOMOTIVE, PACKAGING,

MEDICAL Stephen J Mraz

CAD/CAM, MANUFACTURING

Elisabeth Eitel Lindsey Frick

FASTENING & JOINING, MATERIALS Lindsey Frick

FLUID POWER Kenneth J Korane

MECHANICAL Elisabeth Eitel Lindsey Frick Kenneth J Korane

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Denise Greco Editorial Production Manager Randall L Rubenking Art Director

RS# 110 RS# 109

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

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RS# 111

only felt pens and a few overhead projectors — that seemed to be the norm for all levels of education in the U. S. A just a few decades ago

Now our personal computers have taken over and left us with instant gratification but little reward for thinking the problem out first We are all guilty of using the best and greatest — MathCad, CAD/CAM, and CNC — and need to use these tools, but it sure makes a difference

if we had learned what it felt like to cut a piece of metal or wood with

a file or saw somewhere along the line in our education

James Johnson

Anecdotally, this is nothing new

Feynman wrote about this from

his time at MIT in the 1940s Some

students were astounded when he showed them that certain classes of curves always had a horizontal tan-gent at their lowest point Is it getting worse? I am skeptical, but I’d like to see some data comparing students now with students of yesteryear

Carl Herrmann

My best professor in college, who I was lucky enough to have for both statics and dynamics, structured most of his exam problems in a way that didn’t require students use a calculator to solve them Instead, the problems contained similar tri-angles, 3-4-5 right triangles, and simple ratios and sums He wanted

us to focus on the concepts and not get bogged down in the math

I remember him saying, when showing us how to solve the prob-lems after the exams, things like,

“Four equations, four unknowns, you’re home free.” If you had got-

Math? We don’t need no

stinking math

Your blog on the prevalence of

cal-culators in math classes (“We Are

Turning Out Engineers Who Don’t

Understand Math,” Nov 14) and

how they were dumbing down

en-gineering students struck a chord

with me It reminded me of a

cal-culus professor who was asked if

calculators would be permitted for

exams His response was, “Yes, but

I will accept no approximations of

pi or e.” This forced some people to

look at the problems and discover

they could frequently be reduced

to a fairly simple complex number

and a function — the correct

an-swer — without using a calculator

The other classes which forced

you to really understand the

princi-ples were materials courses where

atomic distances were frequently

less than 10-99 m, the limit of

cal-culators at that time There were

a number of students who wrote

on the exam that problems could

not be done The professor simply

replied: “Incorrect, your calculator

cannot do the problem.”

Don MacGregor

Knowing math and having a “feel”

for it are two different things Rote

learning can give you a

knowl-edge of math, enough to solve

most common problems using a

calculator But in engineering you

need more than just rote

knowl-edge You need a feel for the math

involved, especially in design And

the only way to get that feel is by

solving problems, lots of problems,

applying the math knowledge you

have learned in different ways to

suit the information you have to

work with Hand calculations and

aids such as a slide rule, trig tables,

and log tables help develop the

feel for the math in engineering

problems

This has always been an issue in

engineering education and always

will be

L Gradwell

No chalkboards, protractors,

com-passes, or even graphite pencils,

ten that far on the exam, he would give you almost full credit

Still, there would be many dents frantically punching away at their calculators as they scrambled for an answer Prior to going to col-lege, I had only used a slide rule and trig tables Five years later it was all different, but I think that back-ground stood me in good stead both in college and ever since I still

stu-do estimating and calculations in

my head and usually arrive at the answer before my coworkers can find their calculators

Jim McKim

This is worrisome I was in lege during the slide-rule age and learned to know a long list of math-ematical relationships very well Calculators are only as accurate as the information keyed in, and the answers have to be understood, not just accepted as correct We need people who can estimate, reason, and discern, not just mind-lessly enter garbage The old say-ing garbage in/garbage out was never more apparent

col-Tom Kenfield

This is nothing new My dad told

me a story about how, back in the 1950s, his employer did not want

to hire any more unqualified tract help It was decided to make

con-up a simple math test to screen plicants Nobody could pass the test Then they started giving it to the people that already worked there The less-than-stellar results explained a lot of problems they were having getting things to go together

ap-Mike McGinty

Math spoken here

Leland Teschler blogged about the wide use of calculators in engineering colleges and the lack of math knowledge in engineering grads Readers see the connection and bemoan the disconnect between solving engineering prob-lems and what is taught in colleges Meanwhile, one reader asks for more math, not more calculations, to explain a problem

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

12

RS# 112

Therefore the reaction module of the group of points, which is equivalent

to the section module in the bending stress problem, is:

F
M

Z in.-lbf
 in.
lbf

— Moo-Zung Lee

Maybe we need some math

I am working on a tank problem

that relates to a recent article

(“How Bolt Patterns React to

Ex-ternal Loads,” Sept 8) In doing so

I have seen the formula: F = 4M/

ND numerous times and wondered

how it was derived Your article has

shown me this and I appreciate

that

However, I do have a question:

how F = M/Z comes out in pounds?

Typically this is stress (psi) For

some reason I am not seeing this

Michael Weyand

Thank you for your interest in the

ar-ticle Engineers use the term moment

of inertia loosely for convenience

Generally, it means the second

mo-ment of something Or the momo-ment-

moment-arm-square multiplied times

some-thing It could be a moment of

iner-tia of masses, areas, lines or points.

In treating bending stress in a

cross section, moment of inertia

ac-tually means the “moment of inertia

of the cross-sectional area,” which consists of A i elements.

),

And the section module of the sectional area is:

3 )

For moment load M in (in-lbf ), the maximum reaction stress in the cross section is:

Z in.-lbf
 in 3
psi

In the article, we were interested in the reaction of bolts as a group of points The points have no physical unit Therefore, the second moment

or “the moment-of-inertia of the group of points” is:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number Letters may

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Mail: Letters, M ACHINE D ESIGN ,

1300 E 9th St., Cleveland, OH

44114-1503, Fax: 216-621-8469 E-mail, Editorial:

mdeditor@penton.com

RS# 113 MARCH 7, 2013

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RS# 114

SCANNING FOR IDEAS

Clear window

Air fitting for emptying fluid out of the filter

Mounting fasteners

Filter top

Reusable filter element

Mounting studs

Filter base

Filter-element bypass valve

Fluid outlet

Fluid inlet

Machined slots

Edited by Stephen J Mraz See-through housing

enables visual check of filter and fluid

Request free information vi

a our Reader Service Web site at

www.machinedesign.com/

rsc

Engineers at Clear View

Filtra-tion, Spokane, Wash (www.

clearviewfiltration.com), designed

their patent-pending fluid filter so

that race teams can visually check

the fluid pumping through the

filter This lets them quickly

deter-mine the fluid’s condition A quick

blast of compressed air or CO2

into a convenient inlet valve clears

away the fluid and lets the team

inspect the filter element and

what it has collected, which can

re-veal excessive engine-component

wear These two checks cannot be

made with conventional filters

The filter’s housing is machined

out of 6061 T6 aluminum for

dura-bility The sight window is a

high-grade plastic that resists

chemi-cals, heat, scratches, and impacts

And the filter is a stainless-steel

mesh (60 or 115-micron holes)

that can be easily cleaned and

reused The filter base has 12

ma-chined slots If contaminants clog

one or more of the slots, the oil

or other fluid can still pass freely

through the remaining clear holes

If too many of these slots or the

filter element gets clogged, a relief

valves opens, letting unfiltered

fluid pass through This prevents

motor failure due to a completely

clogged filter

The filter withstands

work-ing pressures of 150 psi at 200°F

The company builds five

differ-ent types of filters for use with

engines, transmissions, hydraulic

units, and other fluid systems The

company can also adapt filters

for custom applications to handle

specific pressures, volumes, or

types of fluids

The filter measures 6-in long

and 5-in wide, weighs 3.5 lb, and

costs about $385

RS# 401

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

16

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RS# 115

ìPDLQŴPDVWHUERQGFRP

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have an open mind

…and fill it with info

Pump Selection Guide

Rugged Liquid Solenoid Pump

advanced diaphragm pump technology - why settle for less?

FREE!

Dispenses from 30 to 80 μl/stroke of liquid volume

Compact size, lightweight, it mounts in any position

Operated from 0-10 Hz with flowrates to 48 ml/min.

Flowtight at rest in both directions to 14.5 psi

Small quantities available for OEM prototype evaluation

KNF applied its 20 years of diaphragm pump experience to bring you a

new, solenoid-driven pump It is designed to accurately dispense a

repeatable, adjustable volume using a variety of corrosion-resistant

materials and head connections, including manifold mounting.They run

quietly, and patented construction ensures over 500,000,000 cycles

Compact • Adjustable Dose • Long Lifetime

DiaphragmType • Quiet Operation

Model FMM80

SCANNING FOR IDEAS

RS# 117 RS# 116

Thermoplastic housing

Fasteners

Electrical connection for power- control and output signals

Electromechanical drive includes controls and communications

Spring-loaded slide bolt replaces existing striker/keeper

Mechanical drive can be rotated for installation flexibility

Electronic access

for new and old enclosures

The EM Electronic Keeper from Southco,

Con-cordville, Pa (www.southco.com), lets

compa-nies put electronic access and push-to-close

features on new or old enclosures, both large

and small The remotely actuated electronic

keeper replaces existing frame-mounted static

keepers (or strikes) A signal causes the keeper

to release and unlatch the door And the door

can still be pushed closed and locked Wiring to

the keeper is routed in the frame, so repeated

opening and closing of the enclosure does not

put wear on the wires

More than one E-Keeper can be installed on

larger enclosures and operated from a single

remote, numeric keypad, RF keyfob,

mag-stripe card, or networked security network

When installed, the device can be used to

moni-tor and audit when enclosures are opened, or

to activate alarms when a specific enclosure is

opened The device can use a 12 or 24-V power

Newark element14 makes it easy to fi nd all your electronics products and solutions – fast newark.com

RS# 118

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

To save energy, engineers mount

pneumatic valves as close as

pos-sible to the actuator This reduces

the length of tubing between the

valve and actuator, so it takes less

compressed air for

each actuator

cy-cle This can

common pneumatic valves are

usually too large and heavy to

mount near actuators in handling

applications, where cylinders,

grip-pers, or suction cups sit on

mov-ing arms or gantries The added

mass of a valve bank could reduce

the arm’s speed and load

capac-ity, and possibly affect

position-ing accuracy Or it might require

more-powerful drives and beefier

structures This would increase

energy consumption of the overall

machine and negate the benefits

of decentralized pneumatics

Engineers at Bosch Rexroth,

Charlotte, N. C., have reportedly

overcome these issues with a

valve called the AV03 The AV03

offers high flow rates in a package

that is lighter and more compact

than traditional air valves This

makes it well suited for handling

equipment and other applications

where the pneumatic hardware

moves

The new valves have about half

the weight of conventional valves,

and are about 45% smaller thanks

to the use of high-performance

polymers, fewer parts, and

orient-ing the spool at an angle within

the housing, explains Marchelle

Forish, a senior product specialist

at Bosch Rexroth Pneumatics,

Lexington, Ky

The valve housing is

glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide, which is

substantially lighter than

alumi-num and other common valve

ma-terials The polymer also improves chemical resistance, compared to aluminum manifolds

Mounting internal components

on a diagonal makes better use of internal space, says Forish Engi-neers can, thus, pack more func-tions into a smaller space Working ports are only on the side where needed, and the valve has a smaller footprint for base-plate mounting

The design also uses fewer parts than previous versions For example, it needs only a single tie rod for manifold assembly, and

a single screw for valve mounting

This eliminates one or two tie rods, depend-ing on the series,

as well as one fastener for each valve It also speeds installation and replacement

The AV03’s built-in pilots further re-duce the amount of mounting hardware

Despite the smaller size, the AV03’s flow capacity actually matches or exceeds that of most competing valves That’s because arranging internal components at

an angle let developers streamline the supply and exhaust channels and reduce flow losses

The angled design enables larger air channels, which permits more flow in less space, explains Forish “Every return, throttle, and constriction reduces pressure And the sharper a return, the greater the reduction in working pressure

“Improved channel geometry helps avoid turbulent flows and pressure losses, as it uses only the pressure needed As a result, a

lower ing pressure can be set up-stream of the valve,” says Forish Users get the same cylinder force yet enjoy flow improvements of 40%, letting them substantially lower the supply pressure and boost ef-ficiency, adds Forish

work-The AV03 is a zero-overlap spool valve with soft sealing, and the Series includes 2×3/2-way, 5/2-way, and 5/3-way versions Users can custom-ize the number and type of valves to meet specific requirements With a 25-pin D-sub connection, manifolds can be configured in increments

of one after the second valve and after the fourth valve with 44-pin D-sub and fieldbus connections The

AV03 controls up to

24 coils with a 25-pin D-sub connection, up

to 40 coils with a 44-pin D-sub, and

up to 128 coils with a fieldbus connection De-signers can also opt for different pressure zones within a single valve manifold

Users can cally connect the valve blocks using multipole or fieldbus connections, with integrated I/O modules, de-pending on the configuration And because sensors can directly con-nect to the valve electronics, fewer cables have to be fed back to the control cabinet

electri-Maximum nominal flow is

300 lpm, with operating sure ranging from –0.9 to 10 bar Medium/ambient temperature

pres-is –10° to 60°C, and valves run on standard compressed air filtered

to 40 μm Protection class rating

is IP65

The AV03, currently available in Europe, will be released in the U.S

in the 3rd quarter of this year. MD

A new angle on valve design Resources:Bosch Rexroth, www.

boschrexroth-us.com

RS# 406

For additional details

on the AV03, visit www.

advanced-valve.com/en/ index.html

Users can customize AV03 manifolds with different valves, pressure zones, connectors, and communications networks.

Mounting internal components

in the AV03 at an angle makes efficient use of internal space, cutting valve size nearly in half.

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

20

Regulations in many

coun-tries now mandate a

mini-mum energy efficiency for

electric motors that are at

least 1 hp But does it make

sense to replace motors

smaller than 1 hp in the

in-terest of energy efficiency?

That was one of the

questions a German

wastewater-treatment

plant tried to answer with

some recent tests

Work-ers there took

measure-ments to gauge the

eco-nomics of replacing an

or-dinary 0.37-kW (0.55-hp)

induction motor with a

more-efficient design for

powering a disc thickener,

a rotating sieve that filters

water from sludge and

mud In use, the motor

rotates the sieve with a

constant torque because

the sludge has a constant

consistency The new motor, a

synchronous permanent-magnet

design, ended up using about 40%

less energy than a conventional

induction motor

The original induction

mo-tor created 2.62 Nm of mo-torque

at 1,350 rpm and operated with

61.5% efficiency, and dissipated

0.26 kW/hr The new motor, from

Bauer Gear Motor, Somerset,

N. J., created 3.5 Nm of torque at

1,500 rpm and operated with an

efficiency of 87.7%, dissipating

0.16 kW/hr Both motors operated

from an inverter from Danfoss,

Baltimore, and used the same

Bauer 381:5 gearbox which was

94% efficient

Estimates are that over four

years, the induction motor would

consume 2,657 kW-hr compared

to 1,635 kW-hr for the

synchro-nous PM motor

Bauer personnel involved in

the test note that there are

more-efficient induction motors

avail-able and that comparisons with one of those motors would not be

as dramatic Nevertheless, the chronous PM motor would have still saved energy and been less expensive to boot An induction motor with premium efficiency for

syn-this application would have onstrated at least 82.5% energy efficiency, weighed 88 lb, and cost about $905, say Bauer personnel The 87.7%-efficient synchronous

dem-PM motor used in the test weighed

55 lb and cost about $879. MD

The synchronous

PM motor in place

in the wastewater treatment plant.

A look at the instantaneous power consumption of the induction motor and synchronous

PM motor reveals different power levels of the two when rotating a disc thickener Both were driven by

an inverter.

Field tests show energy efficiency

not just for integral-horsepower motors

difference-between-asynchronous- and-synchronous-motors-0103

machinedesign.com/article/the-MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com 21

Thousands of enclosures

Hundreds of sizes

Next-day shipping

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

A magnetic sensor turned

out to be a useful

replace-ment for a simple

limit switch that

once incorporated

heavy-duty bolt-on limit switches

as a means of keeping the

worm-gear-driven jacks from

be-ing driven too far Recently, the

company replaced the switches

with magnetostrictive sensors

which detect ring magnets fixed

to the translating screw to note

its position The sensors, along

with a patented electronic

detec-tion circuit, make up what’s called

the Nook Sensor System

Sensors on the NSS are

manufac-tured using polypropylene

overmold-ing which also seals them The sensors

slide into a profile on the side of the screw housing

If need be, several can be positioned in the profile for sensing the screw as it passes various points in its housing This permits such actions as slowing the screw as it nears an end point

The small tostrictive sensors, measuring 28-mm long,

magne-are made by Turck in

Min-neapolis The sensors come with a quick-mount tab that helps seat them in the cylinder’s groove for easy single-handed mounting Operators tighten a screw to keep the sensor in place MD

Magnetic sensors

beat limit switches for

astronauts aboard the

International Space Station

(ISS) by moving cargo from

the delivery rocket into the

ISS The hand, developed by

THK America, Schaumburg, Ill.,

uses ball-screw actuators to create its gripping force

The hand was recently used

in the Japanese Experiment Module known as KIBO, the largest module of its kind on the ISS A recent mission

combined use of the robotic hand

with REJX, an astronaut support

robot or astrobot A standard payload

unit attached to KIBO’s exterior let the

hand mounted on an extendable robotic arm

move cargo from the payload unit into the ISS

and back Experiments conducted on the arm and

gripper while they moved cargo helped determine

the effects of arm extension and positioning They

also let researchers explore the arm’s manipulation

capabilities. MD

New LED is the brightest yetThe Xlamp MK-R LED gener-ates an output of 200 lumens using 1 W of power at a junc-tion temperature of 25°C and a color temperature of

5,000°K According to the manufacturer, Cree Inc.,

Durham, N. C., this makes the MK-R the brightest commercially available LED today

The high output comes thanks to the use of con-carbide technology and advanced phosphors while a new chip architecture helps to keep junction temperatures low The LED can deliver up to 1,600 lumens at

sili-15 W with a junction ture of 85°C Characterized at 85°C, the MK-R is available

tempera-in color temperatures ranging from 2,700

to 7,000°K and offers minimum color rendering in-dex (CRI) options of 70,

80, and 90 at selected color temperatures. MD

The MK-R LED from Cree Inc can produce

200 lumens when driven at 1 W.

RS# 119

1$756475*.'551614

Brushless Design Objective Groschopp Brushless Motor Strengths

Dynamically balanced rotor to eliminate vibrationMaintenance-free No brushes to wear out or replace

Easy to Control

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# 5UjLNNkLFMgHEGI

How do I select a gearmotor that fi ts

my application?

motor and gearmotor selections in seconds

Use Motor Match to get best-fi t

ranked search results based on your application specifi cations

Choosing a gearmotor is that simple thanks to Motor Match™

Don’t want to do it yourself? Call Groschopp at

“Innovation distinguishes between

a leader and a follower.”

- Steve Jobs

As the leading manufacturer of OEM pumps and compressors, our innovation in design and technology has helped our customers create new innovative products and become leaders

in their marketplace

For more information on how Thomas innovation can help you lead your industry, go to

gd-thomas.com

Improving Lives through Innovation TM

RS# 121

Improving Lives through Innovation TM

The Dept of Energy keeps adding number-crunching power in the form

of supercomputers to its arsenal of scientific and engineering tools At the

Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, for example, the new Titan

supercomputer replaced the XT5 Jaguar as the world’s fastest computer

on the Top500 list, a semiannual ranking of the world’s supercomputers

Titan also placed third on the Green500 list, a project at Virginia Tech

that ranks computers by the number of calculations per watt of

electric-ity Titan is a Cray XK7 with 18,688 nodes, each built from a 16-core AMD

Opteron 6274 processor and a NVIDIA Tesla K20X GPU accelerator It has

710 Tbytes of memory and a theoretical top speed of 27 petroflops or

27 quadrillion calculations per second Running at top speed takes about

9 MW of electricity, enough to power 9,000 homes

Titan’s top speed makes it 10 times faster than Jaguar but it uses only

20% more electrical power, thanks to efficiency gains from using GPUs

GPUs, or graphical-processing units, were developed for the computer

gaming industry But because they can handle hundreds of calculations

simultaneously, GPUs can perform more calculations than CPUs in a given

time So Titan relies on its 299,088 CPU cores to guide simulations while

the NVIDIA GPUs do the heavy lifting, which leads to faster, more-accurate

calculations and less power consumption In one task, Titan took 13 hr to

simulate the life of a fuel rod through one round of use in a reactor, a job

that took the Jaguar XT5 60 hr

The Energy Dept is also expecting to accept delivery of a new

super-computer at the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory at its Pacific

Northwest National Lab Built by Atipa Technologies, Lawrence, Kans.,

the new computer will be used to research climate and environmental

sci-ence and explore biology-based fuels The $17 million machine will have a

peak speed of 3.4 petaflops and will do more calculations in an hour than

a laptop could do in 20 years

Its 196,000 processing units include Intel processors and MIC

accelera-tor cards The computer will also have 184,000 gigabytes of memory along

with 2.6 petabytes of storage, about four times more memory per

proces-sor as other supercomputers The additional memory is said to make the

machine more efficient MD

Resources:

Atipa Technologies,

www.atipa.com

Cray, cray.com/home NVDIA, www.nvidia.com

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be used for research into materials, fuel and combustion, and nuclear power.

RS# 122 MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com 27

Phone 1-888-260-7466 Fax 516-771-6444

sales@ondrivesUS.com www.RightAngleBoxes.com

.US Corp.

6LQJOH'RXEOH&RXQWHU5RWDWLQJ2XWSXWV %HYHO*HDUER[HV

Customizations:

Component Materials Shaft Modifications Mounting Features

Sealing

ACME Thread Output

Hex Socket Input

Custom BGA24

Reduced Housing for Space Constraints 440C Shafts, Gears & Bearings

Happy 50th Corvette!: Chevrolet

is celebrating the Corvette’s 50th

Anniversary by offering a special

50th Anniversary Edition

pack-age for the 2003 Corvette Coupe

and convertible models The

An-niversary Edition has a standard

Corvette LS1 engine and Magnetic Selective Ride Control It also sports a special red exterior paint and specific badging, a color-co-

ordinated interior and instrument panel, distinctive wheels, and em-broidered badges on the seats and floor mats

30 YEARS AGO — 1983

Army gets biggest image cessor: A digital image-processing

pro-system was delivered to the

Army’s Engineer Topographic Laboratories by Comtal Corp., a

subsidiary of 3M Co The system

consists of two “sub-systems,”

each with three pro-cessing and display channels:

two 512 × 512 channels and a 1,024 × 1,024 channel It can ma-nipulate complete 1,024 × 1,024 images in real time at 40 MHz, four times faster than conventional 512

× 512 image-processing systems The dual-user system employs two 2,048 × 2,048 by 8-bit database memories, and allows concur-rent exploitation of any two types

of digital imagery When in this mode, the two operators work together and match one type of imagery to the other using a hard-wired, 6 DOF geometric “mapper.”

50 YEARS AGO — 1963

A record altitude of 40,000 ft was

reached by this Geocap blimp, built

by VIRON, Anoka, Minn., a division

of Geophysics Corp of America.

In a reliability test, the blimp flew for over a week at an altitude of 1 mile, carrying

a 6,000-lb payload A variety of Geocaps

is being built to lift

as much as 10,000 lb

of scientific, military, or commercial payloads Made from coated fabric and filled with helium, the new blimps are extremely lightweight compared to barrage balloons used

in World War I and II MD

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

28

Powered by IHS GlobalSpec

Premier Partners:

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industry analysis, insight, and critical

information.

Electronics 360 affords the only panoramic

view of the electronics value chain, providing

in-depth analysis and expert insight

Consider it your high-powered scope to

bring everything you need to know into view.

Datasheets 360 is your largest resource

for parts data in the industry Count on it

to deliver the data integrity and up-to-date

pricing and availability you need.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

distribution agreement with Digi

International, Minnetonka, Minn.,

a provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions Digi will provide Avnet’s customers with ARM-based embedded wired and wireless mod-ules, wireless routers and gateways, and other M2M technologies

SERVICE CENTER

Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara,

Calif., has opened a new tion and repair service center for electronic test instruments in Hanoi, Vietnam Agilent is a measurement company in the areas of chemical analysis, life sciences, diagnostics, electronics, and communications

calibra-PARTNERSHIP

Cable manufacturer, Northwire Inc.,

Osceola, Wis., has entered into an exclusive manufacturing partner-

ship with Lumiflex Inc., Burlingame,

Calif Lumiflex’s patented elec-troluminescent technology is used in North-wire - NWI’s Rescue Cable-light, which ra-diates a continuous illuminated path

to safety for rescue professionals

PERSONNEL

Clippard Instrument Laboratory,

Cincinnati, Ohio, has promoted liam A Clippard to vice president

Wil-of Operations; Jennifer Caunin to vice president of Human Resources; and Robert S Clippard

Clippard-to vice president of Sales and Marketing Clippard manufactures miniature pneumatic components and devices

INDUCTION

Scott Crump, founder and

chair-man of Stratasys, Minneapolis, has

been inducted into IndustryWeek

magazine’s Manufacturing Hall of Fame for his work in 3D printing

FORBES 100 LIST

Altra Holdings Inc., Braintree,

Mass., has been named to Forbes

Magazine’s “100 Best Small Public

AGREEMENT

Parker Hannifin Corp.’s

Instrumen-tation Products Div., Huntsville,

Ala., will be the exclusive

manufac-turer of process systems cobranded

with California-based H2scan Corp.,

incorporating over 11 different

process monitors The monitors will

be combined into a larger system targeted at refineries, petrochemical, fertilizer, ammonia, and hydrogen production plants

Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, an operating group of Avnet Inc., Phoenix, has signed a

RS# 124 MACHINE DESIGN.com

908-806-9400 www.altechcorp.com/HTML/AltechRepPortal.html

We have the UL parts

in stock at a better price

to fill your panels.

B USBARAND0OWER$ISTRIBUTIONs#ERAMIC"LOCKSs#IRCUIT0ROTECTION$EVICESs#ONTACTORS/VERLOAD2ELAYS

$IN%NCLOSURESs$).2AIL4ERMINAL"LOCKSs%MERGENCY3TOPSs%UROPEAN&USESs%UROSTRIPSÍs&ERRULES

&OOT3WITCHESs)NDUSTRIAL%NCLOSURESs)NDUSTRIAL2ELAYSs)NTERFACE-ODULESs,IQUID4IGHT3TRAIN2ELIEFS -ARKING%NGRAVING3YSTEMSs-OTOR$ISCONNECT3WITCHESs0IN3LEEVE$EVICESs0OWER3UPPLIES 0RINTED#IRCUIT"OARD4ERMINAL"LOCKSs0USH"UTTONS0ILOT,IGHTSs2ECEPTACLESs3AFETY2ELAYSs3ENSORS

3LIMLINE2ELAYSs3MART2ELAYSs$).2AILs4IMERSs4OWER,IGHTSs7IRE$UCTS

RS# 125

scale cellulosic ethanol facilities Siemens is suppling five Robicon Perfect Harmony Drives, including one Gen IV 2,500-hp, one Gen IV 1,250-hp, and three GenIII 600-hp medium-voltage drives that will

be used in the plant’s draft fans, forced-draft fans, and digester-feed screws

induced-ACQUISITION

Yaskawa Electric Corp., has signed

an agreement between its

Euro-pean subsidiary, Yaskawa Europe

GmbH (YEU), Eschborn, Germany,

and VIPA Gesellschaft für

Visu-alisierung und tisierung mbH, Herzogenaurach,

Prozessautoma-Germany, where YEU will acquire a majority of shares of VIPA Yaskawa

is a supplier of variable-speed drives, motion control, and robot-ics VIPA is a system house for auto-mation engineering

re-Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) The mid-

range relays are designed for extreme temperature, shock, vibration, and al-titude environments TE Connectivity designs and manufactures devices that con-nect and protect power and data flow inside products MD

Companies in America” list for the

second consecutive year Altra

produces a wide range of

electro-mechanical power-transmission

products

PRODUCT SUPPORT

Siemens Industry/Drives

Tech-nologies Div., Atlanta, is

provid-ing variable-frequency drives to assist the $450 million cellulosic ethanol plant project in Hugoton, Kans., by the U. S subsidiary of

Abengo, Seville, Spain The energy

self-sufficient plant will be one

of the world’s first

commercial-RS# 126 MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

32

ContiTech products meet current and future needs in mobility, energy generation and energy efficiency, as well as health, nutrition and environmental protection Whatever we do, we do with one goal in mind: to provide economical solutions for an intact environment and a better quality of life That’s why we work with our partners to find innovative solutions to the most pressing issues of tomorrow And what we do works Our expertise in rubber and plastics technologies makes us the world’s preferred specialist for a range of key industries.

ings Among the latest, nearly 1 million Hyundai and

Kia owners appear to have been misled The companies recently admitted that their claims of a 40-mpg fleet

were a bit too optimistic Based on an Environmental

Protection Agency investigation resulting from plaints of overstated fuel-economy estimates, Hyundai and Kia have agreed to lower the posted mileage rat-ings on the majority of their 2012 and 2013 offerings

com-The downward revisions amount to 1 to 2 mpg on most models, with the largest correction being a 6-mpg reduc-tion in the Kia Soul’s highway rating Both companies plan to reimburse vehicle owners to cover additional fuel costs over what was originally promised

In another case, based on claims from Consumer

Re-ports and others, the EPA reportedly plans to investigate

whether the 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid really deserves its

47/47 city/highway ratings The publication said in its tests, the car averaged between 33 and 39 mpg It also notes that the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid uses the same powertrain and is also rated at 47/47 mpg, but only averaged 40 mpg in its

testing And last March, the EPA had BMW lower ratings for its 328i automatic

by 1 mpg in city and 3 mpg on the highway

How does this happen? Most of us assume the EPA tests and rates all new cars In reality, the agency lets auto companies test their own cars and trucks ac-cording to government guidelines, and accepts the fuel-efficiency numbers the companies submit

The agency only tests 10 to 15% of new models Of those, most are selected

at random and the rest usually involve new manufacturers, new technologies,

or extremely high or low-rated vehicles (To that list, we suggest the EPA add all Hyundais, Kias, and hybrids for the foreseeable future.)

Can manufacturers honestly “game” the system? Most experts say no dai and Kia, for instance, say their misstatements were due to “errors” at the automakers’ joint testing operations in Korea In the lab, the vehicle sits on a dynamometer and is put through a series of tests to simulate “typical” city and highway driving It is also run at high speeds, in cold temperatures, and with the A/C on Wheel speeds are specified, as are the distances and number of stops The detailed procedures are said to account for real-world factors such as aero-dynamic drag and inertia, and final city and highway ratings are calculated from fuel-economy results from each of the five tests

Hyun-However, one problem is human drivers behind the wheel of the test cars control throttle and braking Because they can’t exactly follow test requirements for speed and acceleration, there’s a permissible tolerance band It’s not unrea-sonable to assume manufacturers know how to maximize ratings while staying within the limits of the protocol

Even if testing is by the book, why doesn’t your mileage match the window sticker? In short, no one drives exactly like the EPA test and many everyday fac-

tors hurt mileage Edmonds.com says heavy but underpowered vehicles match

up worst

In the end, when the showroom salesperson touts high mileage, it’s buyer

be-ware In a recent Gallup poll on trustworthy professions, car salespeople came

in dead last — behind even Members of Congress MD

It’s not unreasonable

to assume manufacturers know how

to maximize ratings while staying within the limits of the protocol.

RS# 128 MARCH 7, 2013

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Knovel

New York, N. Y.

Curbing the engineering

knowledge gap

The National Science Foundation reports the number of

engineers retiring over the next decade will increase

dra-matically, leaving less-experienced engineers with fewer

mentors to offer guidance and advice on best practices

At the same time, new materials and products are

con-stantly being introduced and technologies are

continu-ally evolving, making the learning curve steep for new engineers

To remain competitive designing and making high-quality products,

compa-nies must address this knowledge gap by ensuring engineers have the

informa-tion and resources necessary to work effectively and efficiently Tight deadlines

and thin margins accentuate the problem

Identifying the resources and tools that have the greatest impact on

productiv-ity is an important step in addressing this impending knowledge gap Recently, we

worked with The Parthenon Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, to survey

over 600 design engineers in aerospace, defense, construction, and other

indus-tries to learn what sources of information have the greatest effect on their

produc-tivity The results highlighted several points companies should note

Design engineers overwhelmingly indicated practical resources needed for

everyday work outweigh access to scholarly research And they have an acute need

for a single source of searchable material data, regulations, codes, and standards

They identified technical resources that work with engineering software as a

primary factor that improves productivity Specifically, they want to access

infor-mation through the software they regularly use, such as CAD programs or Excel

This lets engineers find information quickly It’s also less disruptive to the design

process than searching in numerous places, then returning to the task at hand

Other productivity factors depend on a design engineer’s specific needs

For instance, many rely heavily on workflow and collaboration tools Their top

productivity needs include electronic workflow-approval tools and

collabora-tion tools that identify experts within their organizacollabora-tion Meanwhile, on-the-go

engineers depend on mobile tools, and their top productivity needs include

engineering-focused mobile apps for tablets and smartphones

In addition to determining what information design engineers need to do

their jobs, companies must also consider how to effectively provide access to

that information Online access is most convenient Let’s face it, most turn to

Google and other search engines for answers, and this has set the bar for easy

access and search

Companies have a number of options when choosing how to best provide

engineers with the information they need Smaller firms with a narrow

engi-neering focus may be well served with content from targeted societies and

pub-lishers A global company with engineers working on diverse projects, however,

may be better off with platforms that offer a wide variety of engineering-specific

information, resources, and features

Ultimately engineers seek answers they can quickly incorporate into their

work A company should provide an easy-to-use information platform with

in-tuitive search features that handles text or data searches Users want to skim

re-sults to quickly determine the most-relevant answers And information should

be easily accessible whether engineers are at the office or in the field

Newly-minted design engineers face a steep on-the-job learning curve With

the right tools, they will learn quickly, or at least find answers and best practices

for the tasks at hand MD

Edited by Kenneth Korane

Knovel (http://why.knovel.com) offers comprehensive technical references for engineers,

including Web-based applications integrating technical information with interactive

analytical and search tools.

RS# 129 MARCH 7, 2013

TAVENNER ON SAFETY

Equipment designers are often advised to make a formal hazard analysis part

of the design process There is some additional urgency to instituting this

practice because of an OSHA white paper published about a year ago.

The OSHA white paper describes the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) It is anyone’s guess whether or not the IIPP will become a formal regula-tion but it’s much more likely if the same leadership stays in place at OSHA after the presidential election

The part of the proposed IIPP that most interests designers is a section on hazard identification and assessment It requires that all new equipment be in-spected for hazards before being installed in the workplace It also requires this inspection at other times after the equipment is in place You’ll have to rank the hazards discovered by severity and correct those that are correctable

One problem is that this requirement gives

no objective method to determine hazard ity So companies will have to develop their own method

sever-It is up to those purchasing the equipment

to identify and correct hazards It’s also their responsibility to figure out a way to rank uncor-rectable issues by severity As purchasers iden-tify hazards, they will look for ways to correct them At a minimum, that will most likely mean more conversations between purchasers and equipment suppliers about what is safe and un-safe on equipment being designed and intro-duced into facilities These conversations will almost certainly extend back to equipment designers

The most immediate way IIPP will affect engineering firms is that it requires them to develop a formal IIPP program that includes common components such as demonstrating management leadership and employee participation; showing they identify and assess hazards; have formal ways of preventing and controlling hazards; undertake training; and have ways of evaluating how effec-

tive they are at doing all this Note: The Proposed IIPP rule will be required for all employers ex-cluding those in construction and agriculture or those that meet a grandfather exemption clause.Finally, it should be said that IIPP programs are not a new concept In fact, many states have had them or currently require some employers

to have a program in place The most well known

is in California, where these types of programs began in 1991 The Golden State saw a 19% drop

in injuries and illnesses after the first five years

of implementation Fatalities dropped by as much as 31% below the national average in 2009, though it is unknown whether this was solely because of the

Joe Tavenner CSP, CFPS, is a long-time Certified Safety Professional who works in occupational safety and design for safety Got a question about safety? You can reach Joe at josephtavenner@yahoo.com.

Edited by Leland Teschler

Will OSHA’s Injury Illness Prevention Program give you a headache?

One problem

is that the IIPP gives

no objective method to determine hazard severity

Resources:

OSHA White Paper: http://

www.osha.gov/dsg/topics/

paper-january2012sm.pdf

safetyhealth/OSHAwhite-Draft Proposed Rule: http://

www.osha.gov/dsg/topics/

safetyhealth/nshp.html

RS# 130

MARCH 7, 2013 MACHINE DESIGN.com

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