Machine design, tập 84, số 09, 2012

Nanosats to test software Engineers and technicians at ESA today control satel- lites and space experiments using Packet Utilisation Stan- dards, a software suite that dates to 1994.. Th

U S

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STRENGTHS, page 68

PRECISION PARTS WITH HYDROFORMING,

page 76 VARIABLESPEED PUMPS MAKE HYDRAULICS

ENERGY EFFICIENT ,

page 82

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RS# 101

©COPYRIGHT 2012 NEWPORT ELECTRONICS, INC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

conditioners connect to an Ethernet network and can email or send text

messages to your cell phone You can monitor and control temperature or

any process through a web browser over the Internet!

RS# 102

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

pressure data to the researchers through the entire crash event The original ESA engineer worked to convert the foil into a strip of about 50 individual sen- meter At the end of each strip is When it is attached to a fender bending, as well as whether it is 60° in the other.

VW has now used the sor in several crash tests and it

sen-VW managers.

A Swarm heads for space Three identical Swarm satellites will launch from Rus- sia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome next month on a four-year mis-

person responsible for ground software devel- man operations center.

Tech transfer for piezo foil Back in the early 1990s, a German en- gineer was developing the wings of Hermes,

a reusable shuttle that would be atop an Ariane 5 rocket and then return to like the Space Shuttle The sensor had to be light and thin

manned-so it would not add bulk or drag to the airfoil The neer turned to piezoelectric foil to do the job Like other measured and interpreted.

engi-The foil senors were successfully tested in a sonic wind tunnel, but the Hermes project was cancelled

hyper-converting the foil to paint and putting it on a human lar Scientists used this ”instrumented” tooth to measure forces a toothbrush puts on teeth.

mo-But just recently, Volkswagen saw the sensor strated at the Hannover Fair at a booth set up by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office They quickly de- tional sensors do well at recording pressure up to the point

demon-Eventually ordinary Earthlings may be able to access spacecraft from a browser screen.

U.S citizens tend to think of NASA when

European Space Agency (ESA), established

in 1975 to combine the efforts of 19 European with which ESA is involved is one aimed at

compared to NASA’s $18 billion, ESA is making

important strides in fundamental space research.

Nanosats to test software Engineers and technicians at ESA today control satel- lites and space experiments using Packet Utilisation Stan- dards, a software suite that dates to 1994 There have been

to newer software is that space scientists and the ing operating systems, languages, and interfaces, is fit for space.

organi-“No one wants to use new and possibly problematic software on a multimillion-euro mission in space,” says ESA operations center.

Unfortunately, the only real way to prove software is fit

is to take it into space and run it through its paces.

To lower the cost of validating software, and to sure no missions are endangered, ESA researchers devel- oped Operations Satellites, dubbed Op-Sats The 30 × 10 with off-the-shelf processors that have more computing

en-to recover easily and quickly from “buggy” software searchers on Earth can replace the entire onboard software troubleshoot their work in a real but safe environment.

Re-The first Op-Sats could launch next year.

Spinning an interplanetary Web People increasingly take reliable and fast Internet ac- cess for granted Now space scientists want to extend the communicate among themsleves, with control centers on

Earth, and with space ships and bases But who knows;

names as moon, mars, or sstation

To this end, ESA, NASA, and other major space ganizations and industrial partners have been working Data Systems They have developed standards for hard- ware and data exchange that should pay off even in the manufacturers, and space agencies.

or-Satellites have already been used for links between Earth and mission spacecraft In 2008, for example, ESA’s technicians on Earth and their Phoenix Lander during de- cent and landing on Mars, It will repeat that task in August this year with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory.

And last December, ESA’s worldwide tracking station network handled contact between Russian controllers Space Station will practice at remotely controlling a plan- rover communication links on a planet like Mars.

“Establishing technical standards and tion architectures isn’t the most high-profile part of space will work when that time comes,” says Nestor Peccia, the

communica-Authored by:

Stephen J Mraz

Senior Editor stephen.mraz@penton com

continued on page 22

EAAS used its 35-m-diameter deep-space dish antenna in Spain to relay transmission from a Russian Mars mission to controller in Russia.

The pressure senor used in VW crash tests is based on sensitive piezo film and consists of 50 individual sensors, each 1

pressure-sq cm, and a 50-channel amplifier, all flexibly printed on a thin and bendable circuit board.

Piezo material suspended in a paint was applied

to let scientists measure the force of a toothbrush on a tooth.

Op-Sats, here shown in

an artist’s conception, are simple spacecraft designed solely to test software They will have liters but will carry off- such as three-axis attitude control systems, deployable fixed solar arrays, GPS receivers, and UHF communication systems It will also have state-of-the-art components such as S-band communications with an uplink rate four times greater than any other ESA spacecraft and a miniaturized X-band transcmitter providing up to 50 Mbps downlink These rates are

up to several hundreds times better than any other satellite flown

before

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

20 JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com 21

SEMICONDUCTORS

Most light-emitting diodes are made in Asia, but future generations

of LED manufacturing equipment could still be marked

“Made in the U S A.”

The bad news for makers of ductor-manufacturing equipment is that could end up playing a bigger role sup- plying manufacturing equipment for the emerging area of solid-state lighting.

semicon-“The U. S Dept of Energy used stimulus

funds to amplify the supply-chain strengths fabs, so it tried to seed the development of LED-manufacturing equipment here,” ex- dent, emerging markets group and chief

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

VOLUME 84ISSUE 9JUNE 14, 2012

Internet in space?

Eventually ordinary earthlings may

be able to access spacecraft from a browser screen

20

Will the U S be

an LED assembly mecca?

Most light-emitting diodes are made in Asia, but future generations

of LED manufacturing equipment could still

be marked “Made in the

From Engineer to Rocketman

A trained mechanical engineer who

seriously dabbled in rocketry as a

hobbyist builds a rocket that climbs

transform press technology

Hydraulic motion controllers

bring hydroforming presses into

the 21st century

Energy-efficient

hydraulics slash machine

operating costs

Unlike traditional constant-speed hydraulics,

variable-speed pump drives supply only the

power a process requires

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

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P3-HSI P3-HSO

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In Progress ConveyorMove In Progress 1

Complete Conveyor Move Complete 0

Move Status Conveyor Move Status 2

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Simple Instructions

Our standard instructions were designed to make your everyday motion applications simpler The Find Home, Set Position, Simple Move and the Velocity Move instructions (to name a few) were created to get you up and running sooner Capabilities such as Registration, Jerk Control and Channel Scaling were included to give you the flexibility

to accomplish those jobs.

Drop-in Hardware Configuration

Install a high-speed module into the system hardware

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RS# 103

For customized article reprints and permissions please contact: Penton Reprints, 1-888-858-8851, e-mail at reprints@pentonreprints.com or visit

pentonreprints.com.

Editorial content is indexed in the Applied Science Technology Index, the Engineering Index, SciSearch and Research Alert Microfilm copies available from National Archive Publishing Company (NAPC), 300

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Subscription Policy: M ACHINE D ESIGN is circulated

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subscription see our Web page at submag.com/sub/

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Printed in U.S.A., Copyright © 2012 Penton Media, Inc All rights reserved M ACHINE D ESIGN (ISSN 0024-9114)

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in January, February, June, July, and December by Penton Media, Inc., 9800 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park,

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Paid subscriptions include issues 1-18 Issue No 19 (OEM Handbook and Supplier Directory) is available at additional cost Rates: U.S.: one year, $139; two years,

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IL 60076-7800 Periodicals Postage Paid at Shawnee Mission, Kans., and at additional mailing offices Can GST #R126431964 Canadian Post Publications Mail Agreement No.40612608 Canada return address: Pitney Bowes, P.O Box 25542, London, Ont., N6C 6B2 Digital subscription rates: U.S.: one year, $69; two years, $99; Canada/Mexico: one year, $79; two years,

$119; All other countries: one year, $99; two years,

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High pressures and temperatures associated with hydraulics make

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couplings, discuss cutting-edge technologies available to solve common

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environment A Q&A session will follow the presentation Learn more and

register at http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/events.

CASINO GAMING EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS

Engineering TV talks with experts at AMD about the

company’s new R-Series APU (accelerated-processing unit) for modern casino games It features high-end graphics and animations, and supports up to 10 displays for side bets and ordering refreshments right from a slot machine It meets regulatory requirements for secure but accessible embedded components, and the devices are also suited for digital signs, sales

kiosks, and medical-imaging

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Delcam’s online data-exchange

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com-pany on its Facebook page at www.

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download and store the software on

a computer This makes translations

quick and secure because CAD

mod-els are not sent to an outside service

provider The software reads and

writes all common CAD format files.

New motors Web site

Pittman Motors, a manufacturer of

dc-brush and dc-brushless motors and

gear-motors, has launched a new Web site at

www.Pittman-Motors.com Resources

include tech articles, white papers, and

catalogs, as well as downloadable CAD

models for virtual prototyping A “buy

online” feature lets users order standard

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custom-ize motors with special shafts, lead-wire

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Webcast on data management

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manag-in a mobile-computmanag-ing environment

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com/rc/ansysinc/tp/scalable_4.

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check the schedule and register for upcoming presentations Recordings of past Webinars are also available to view at your convenience Popular topics include dc motors, process control, and pneumatics

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

6

RS# 106

PowerPoint can kill

To most engineers, the idea of using graphs or models to convey concepts comes as second nature In many cases, these representations get shared through a PowerPoint presentation You might think that a presentation tool like PowerPoint couldn’t get you into much hot water — at worst, it might inflict acute boredom on colleagues But taking PowerPoint lightly

is particularly dangerous for engineers

So warns Franck Frommer, who recently wrote a book (How

Power-Point Makes You Stupid) about PowerPower-Point’s downside For instance, take

the idea of expressing concepts in a PowerPoint chart “Diagrams kill thought!” cautions one business veteran She explains that drawings are okay for detailing processes, circuits, and other well-defined relation-ships But they are a terrible way of expressing anything dynamic such as

a strategy Her point was diagrams are prone to lull viewers into accepting

a static and oversimplified outlook on problems that are inherently bile and changing

mo-Bad PowerPoint even played a role in the Columbia Shuttle disaster After Columbia broke up reentering the atmosphere in 2003, a series of NASA-prepared slides about the shuttle came under intense scrutiny All these slides were prepared using PowerPoint Data-visualization pioneer Edward Tufte took issue with one in particular that, he said, portrayed

a “festival of bureaucratic hyperrationalism.” Among the problems he noted was that the author had used six different levels of text to arrange and classify 11 phrases The primary information in the slide got rel-egated to small print several layers down

What is troubling about the NASA example is that PowerPoint itself encourages such problems through its built-in templates The software imposes what Tufte calls a summary style that can be confusing and lets users prepare slides using letter fonts that are inappropriate for the sub-ject at hand In the case of the Columbia slide, for example, the author had used a “pitch-style typography” that tended to belie the seriousness of foam damaging the heat shield

Organizations also have a tendency to let PowerPoint slide decks stitute for more-detailed forms of technical communication Frommer points out that the board investigating Columbia criticized NASA on this point as well, saying that the use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers illustrated problematic methods of technical communi-cation at the Agency

sub-Many of the problems arising from PowerPoint come from the misuse

of bullet points, especially because this practice leaves out the logical connections that give the points meaning in the first place Worse, bullet points can be a screen hiding a “certain intellectual laziness” on the part

of users who never bothered to think out the connections, says Frommer.There are, in fact, a few individuals who have mastered PowerPoint One in particular was Apple’s late great Steve Jobs, Frommer claims You’d never see cornball images, poorly formed ideas, or a font festival

in a Jobs slide deck His slides were always simple, contained a organized argument, and used analogies to make numbers in the presen-tation memorable

well-But then again, there was only one Steve Jobs

— Leland Teschler, Editor

The engineer’s choice

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Beyond measuring angles,

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EDITORIAL STAFF

EDITOR

Leland E Teschler leland.teschler@penton.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Kenneth J Korane ken.korane@penton.com

SENIOR EDITORS

Leslie Gordon leslie.gordon@penton.com Stephen J Mraz stephen.mraz@penton.com

1300 E 9th St Cleveland, OH 44114-1503 RS# 110

RS# 109

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

10

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RS# 111

a sustainability standard (“Do We Need a Sustainability Standard?”

March 22) You can bet that this

is another way of making money

by the “standards” freaks and a way for the government to put more cost burdens on manufac-turing It’s also just more buzz-words to fill the law books by the environment crowd

The government will see this

as a way to force employers to hire more people to shuffle the sustainability paperwork Larger companies will feel forced to spend millions on this stuff be-

c a u s e t h e y s e e k g ove r n m ent contracts, and the costs of the standard will be passed on to the customer, the American taxpay-ers And smaller companies will

be forced to divert resources from innovation and breakthroughs to more nonproductive paperwork

As usual, American citizens will

be the ones paying for this useless stuff

Thanks for your comments It will be interesting to see if other business people have the courage

to speak against this hare-brained idea of another standard

Gerald W Yankie

This is no more than a rity program for third-party qual-ity-control “consultants” and eco freaks You would have to be crazy

job-secu-to even consider establishing this program in your company Endless, mindless, and never-ending make work for want-to-be bureaucrats

Leo V Cranch

We can fix for the

patent office

The U. S patent system is suffering

from two basic problems It is

be-sieged by submittals that are

funda-mentally flawed, but inventors are

encouraged to patent them based

on exaggerated promises from their

patent lawyers And second, the

Patent Office employs technically

weak staff that is overwhelmed by

the sheer number of patent

applica-tion But we can fix this

From 1977 to 2000, I was

in-volved in an effort to evaluate

concepts submitted to the

Na-tional Institute of Technology It

was funded by the Energy Dept

and was eventually called the

Of-fice of Technology Innovations

Ideas were analyzed and

evalu-ated by experts in the invention’s

subject matter, and not all ideas

revolved around energy

genera-tion or conversions There was no

charge to inventors for this service,

and promising entries went on to

further investigation in a second

phase If they survived the second

round, inventors could receive up

to $200,000 to develop working

proof-of-concept models

I worked at NIST in this Office

and analyzed about 750 concepts

over a 12-year period About 5%

of them involved patents The vast

majority of the concepts were

dis-missed at first glance because they

were obviously impractical or

fun-damentally incorrect The rest got

closer scrutiny, but few went on to

the second stage of evaluations

I believe that reestablishing this

Office of Technology Innovations

and broadening its scope to cover

all newly received patent

applica-tions would save inventors

consid-erable effort and money, as well

as taking pressure off the patent

office Of course, the patent

of-fice would also have to hire more

knowledgeable staffers as well

Andrew Wortmang

Not another standard

You are correct; we do not need

Crank up the apprenticeships

I read the recent column (“Don’t Wait for Government to Address Skills Gap,” March 8) with great in-terest But I contend that the Soci-ety of Mechanical Engineers (SME), together with the National Tooling

& Machining Association, has failed miserably at ending the shortage

of skilled machinists and at ing quality, long-term machining training What’s needed is a mod-ernized machining apprenticeship run on a national level

creat-Instead, here is a typical example

of the kind of short-term program

that the NTMA puts on

(www.train-ingcenters.org/ ) It reminds me of a

late-night infomercial, a really bad one After years and years of failure, SME and the NTMA should no longer have anything to do with machining-apprenticeship programs

nar-to daylight or incandescent lighting

Christopher James

Yes and no

Readers say no to unions and a new sustainability dard, as well as to using lasers in lamps and lighting for houses But they say yes to apprenticeships as a way to reinvigorate the U. S manufacturing base and to efforts at streamlining and upgrading the U. S

stan-Patent Office And one of many readers pointed out that 180-hp outboard motors for boats were rare as hen’s teeth in 1962

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

12

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RS# 112

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America became great because

of its manufacturing power, but overly powerful unions now seem

to be more of a hindrance than

a help to economic prosperity

Huge salaries to union execs who get full pay even when working union members are on strike with measly strike benefits is no more fair than Wall Street execs pulling down huge bonuses when they run their companies into the red

Do union leaders really resent the best interests of their members if they keep them out

rep-on lrep-ong strikes to negotiate ulous overtime rates that bank-rupt the company and throw members onto unemployment?

ridic-I’m not so much anti-union as I

a 180-hp outboard In fact, ing back to 1962, if my memory serves me, the largest outboard

go-e n g i n go-e y o u c o u l d b u y w a s a 100-hp Mercury, which was an in-line six cylinder

m i s t a k e n l y s w a p p e d i n t h e graphic titled “Stepper versus servo profiles.”

No to the unions

There’s a reason they call Boeing

the “Lazy B” (“Time for Engineers

to Think About Unionizing?” Jan

19) There’s a reason Boeing is

expanding production into the

South There’s a reason GM went

into bankruptcy There’s a reason

American companies are shifting

production to foreign soil And

there’s a reason unemployment

is high, especially in traditionally

strong union regions And it’s

be-cause overly strong unions are

strangling the ability of

Ameri-can companies to remain

com-petitive, resulting in domestic

layoffs, bank ruptcies, and

in-creases in the offshore content of

American products

Unions indisputably raised our

standard of living and established

fair wages in the sweat-shop era

of early America, and they were

responsible for great increases in

safety standards But what

hap-RS# 113 JUNE 14, 2012

MACHINE DESIGN.com

14

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RS# 114

SCANNING FOR IDEAS

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rsc

Edited by Stephen J Mraz

For a short article on another innovative tool, scan this code or go to:

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com/article/nascar-team-The VT22 Turbine

Grinder makes life

easier for workers

by cutting deeper and

removing more material with less

effort, according to its manufacturer,

Ingersoll Rand (www.ingersollrand.

com) with North American HQ in

Davidson, N. C Its 3-hp axial-turbine

air motor and 4.6-lb weight reportedly

give it the highest power-to-weight ratio of any 5-in

(125-mm) air-angle grinder on the market And the

small spindle offset (0.89 in.) lets it cut up to 1.6-in

deep

The 5-in wheel spins at up to 12,000 rpm, with

a governor to maintain speed under load Air

consumption under load is about 84 cfm, and it

generates 86.4 dB(A) of noise The tool will operate in

temperatures from 32 to 120°F

For safety and comfort, the 5-in safety guard has

10 different position settings, each 15° apart The

thumb-operated spindle lock lets operators change

abrasive wheels quickly and easily There’s also an

optional top-mounted handle for jobs where lateral

space is limited

RS# 401

Air-powered grinder boasts

air motor with 3 hp

Governor optimizes speed under load

Low-profile, locking throttle lever

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RS# 115

How do you

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SCANNING FOR IDEAS

The Ion Air Cannon from Exair, Cincinnati (www.exair.com), can neutralize

static electricity and clean surfaces up to 15 ft away using a stream of

ionized air It can be useful for processes such as opening bags, cleaning

molded parts, removing static electricity from electronic assemblies, and

neutralizing shrink wrap and containers

The cannon uses a relatively small amount of compressed air, at

about 10-psig pressure, to induce much more air to flow through the

Ion cannon cleans as it shoots

cannon This air can be delivered

from a remote, cleaner space

through a hose if necessary

At the end of the cannon, an

emitter powered by a

5-kV power supply (not

included) ionizes the

entire airstream,

creating a conical

beam of ionized

air The air volume

and velocity are

adjustable over

a wide range for

light or

heavy-duty applications

And operators can

increase air velocity by

installing thicker shims

in the cannon The cannon

can be bench, wall, or machine

mounted, and comes with a

swivel for directing the airflow

RS# 402

RS# 116

Compressed air introduced into cannon

Air from surroundings

is induced by compressed air

to flow through cannon

Stainless-steel emitter ionizes all the air

Flow of ionized air Aluminum

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RS# 117

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

Op-Sats, here shown in

an artist’s conception, are simple spacecraft designed solely to test software They will have a volume of about

3 liters but will carry the-shelf components such as three-axis attitude-control systems, deployable fixed-solar arrays, GPS receivers, and UHF- communication systems

off-It will also have of-the-art components such as S-band communications with an uplink rate four times greater than any other ESA spacecraft and a miniaturized X-band transmitter providing up to 50 Mbps downlink These rates are up

state-to several hundreds times better than any other satellite flown

before

Eventually ordinary earthlings may be able to access spacecraft from a browser screen.

U. S citizens tend to think of NASA when

the topic turns to space exploration But the

European Space Agency (ESA), established

in 1975 to combine the efforts of 19 European

nations, has its own ideas for advancing space

technology Among the most interesting efforts

with which ESA is involved is one aimed at

extending Internet connections to spacecraft

Though its annual budget is about $5.2 billion

compared to NASA’s $18 billion, ESA is making

important strides in fundamental space research

Nanosats to test software

Engineers and technicians at ESA today control

satel-lites and space experiments using Packet Utilisation

Stan-dards, a software suite that dates to 1994 There have been

upgrades since then, but the stumbling block to moving

to newer software is that space scientists and the

organi-zations that fund them must ensure the software,

includ-ing operatinclud-ing systems, languages, and interfaces, is fit for

space

“No one wants to use new and possibly problematic

software on a multimillion-euro mission in space,” says

Mario Merri, head of the Mission Data Systems Div at

ESA operations center

Unfortunately, the only real way to prove software is fit

is to take it into space and run it through its paces

To lower the cost of validating software, and to

en-sure no missions are endangered, ESA researchers

devel-oped Operations Satellites, dubbed Op-Sats The 30 × 10

× 10-cm satellites’ mission is to test and validate critical

onboard and ground software The spacecraft is outfitted

with off-the-shelf processors that have more computing

power than a satellite usually carries It’s also designed

to recover easily and quickly from “buggy” software

Re-searchers on Earth can replace the entire onboard software

suite with new and fresh code daily, letting developers

troubleshoot their work in a real, but safe, environment

The first Op-Sats could launch next year

Spinning an interplanetary Web

People increasingly take reliable and fast Internet

ac-cess for granted Now space scientists want to extend the

same simplicity and reliability of the Web to astronauts on

the Moon or Mars The first goal will be to let astronauts

communicate among themselves, with control centers on

Earth, and with spaceships and bases But who knows; someday top-level Internet domains may include such names as moon, mars, or sstation

To this end, ESA, NASA, and other major space ganizations and industrial partners have been working together as part of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems They have developed standards for hard-ware and data exchange that should pay off even in the short term for commercial space-flight businesses, satellite manufacturers, and space agencies

or-Satellites have already been used for links between Earth and mission spacecraft In 2008, for example, ESA’s Mars Express acted as a data-relay node between NASA technicians on Earth and their Phoenix Lander during de-cent and landing on Mars, It will repeat that task in August this year with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory

And last December, ESA’s worldwide tracking station network handled contact between Russian controllers and that country’s Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars Then,

in October of this year, an astronaut on the International Space Station will practice at remotely controlling a plan-etary rover at ESA’s operations center, simulating orbiter-rover communication links on a planet like Mars

“Establishing technical standards and tion architectures isn’t the most high-profile part of space exploration, but it’s absolutely vital for ensuring that the more-exciting efforts, like sending an astronaut to Mars, will work when that time comes,” says Nestor Peccia, the

communica-Internet

in

Space?

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

20

ESA used its 35-m-diameter deep-space dish antenna in Spain to relay transmission from a Russian Mars mission to controller in Russia.

The pressure sensor used in VW crash tests is based on sensitive piezo film and consists of 50 individual sensors, each

pressure-1 sq cm, and a 50-channel amplifier, all flexibly printed on a thin and bendable circuit board.

Piezo material suspended in a paint was applied

to a human molar

to let scientists measure the force of a toothbrush on a tooth.

pressure data to the researchers through the entire crash event.The original ESA engineer worked to convert the foil into a strip of about 50 individual sen-sors, each about a square centi-meter At the end of each strip is

a flexible printed-circuit board with a 50-channel amplifier When it is attached to a fender

or bumper, it lets test engineers know how fast that metal is bending, as well as whether it is bending 20° in one direction or 60° in the other

VW has now used the sor in several crash tests and it has contributed to changes that make the cars safer, according to

sen-VW managers

A Swarm heads for space

Three identical Swarm satellites will launch from sia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome next month on a four-year mis-sion to explore the Earth’s magnetic field This is the first

Rus-person responsible for

ground software

devel-opment at ESA’s

Ger-man operations center

Tech transfer for

piezo foil

Back in the early

1990s, a German

en-gineer was developing

a new type of pressure

sensor that would coat

the wings of Hermes,

a reusable

manned-shuttle that would be

launched into space

atop an Ariane 5 rocket

and then return to

Earth on it own, much

like the Space Shuttle The sensor had to be light and thin

so it would not add bulk or drag to the airfoil The

engi-neer turned to piezoelectric foil to do the job Like other

piezo materials, the thin foil (30-microns thick) converts

vibrations and pressures into electrical pulses that can be

measured and interpreted

The foil sensors were successfully tested in a

hyper-sonic wind tunnel, but the Hermes project was cancelled

So over the years, ESA has been looking for civilian uses

for the piezo sensors One of the earlier applications was

converting the foil to paint and putting it on a human

mo-lar Scientists used this ”instrumented” tooth to measure

forces a toothbrush puts on teeth

But just recently, Volkswagen saw the sensor

demon-strated at the Hannover Fair at a booth set up by ESA’s

Technology Transfer Programme Office They quickly

de-cided to use the piezo sensors on crash-test vehicles

Tradi-tional sensors do well at recording pressure up to the point

of impact, then they are too often destroyed in the crash

The foil versions, however, survive the crash, sending

Authored by:

Stephen J MrazSenior Editor

stephen.mraz@penton com

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

RS# 118

An astronaut on the International Space Station will control a planetary rover, like this European Ground Prototype (EGP) at the Mars-like terrain of Spain’s Rio Tinto mines Here the rover is working with an astronaut in an Aouda.X spacesuit mock-up.

Here’s an artist’s concept

of what Philae, the Rosetta lander, will look like when deployed on the comet In this view, the arm holding a drill

is extended and taking

samples.

time a team of satellites has been deployed on a single, dedicated mission Two of the satellites will travel side by side in a near-polar orbit about

305 miles above the Earth The third Swarm bits slightly higher, 330 miles, and about 40° off axis from the other two During the four-year mission, this third Swarm will drift to 90° off axis from the other two The 1,100-lb satellites will circle the Earth 15 times each day

or-A single rocket will carry all three Swarms into space, and it will take about three months

to get them in their final orbits and check out all subsystems and payloads The satellites each measure about 30-ft long, but half that length is taken up by a tail which will extend back from the satellite during the check-out phase A pair of magnetometers mount on the tail, isolating them magnetically from any interference from the sat-ellites and its electronics

For simplicity, the Swarms do not carry or

Continued from page 21

JUNE 14, 2012

RS# 119

When in orbit,

two of the Swarms

will travel side

by side at a lower

altitude while

the third is at a

higher altitude

and offset orbit

This gives better

coverage and

lets the satellites

triangulate more

accurately.

One of the Swarm Satellites,

with its 4-m boom deployed,

undergoes testing in a

magnetically clean environment

— hence the wooden floor The

satellites measure 5-ft wide,

2.7-ft high, and 30-ft long, which

includes the 13-ft boom.

extend solar arrays Instead the two sides of each triangular-hulled satel-lite that face outer space will be cov-ered with GaAs solar panels that de-liver 608 W of power at the outset of the mission The cells will charge a set of 48 A-hr lithium-ion batteries for power when the satellites are not

in the sun

The satellites will record and transmit to Earth high-precision, high-resolution measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field strength, di-rection, and variation They will also provide accurate navigation data tied

to magnetic and electric-field surements, all of which are needed to map the geomagnetic field

mea-Having three satellites in two ferent orbits will improve sampling

dif-in terms of space and time, lettdif-ing scientists distinguish between the ef-fects of different sources of magnetism

It is hoped the data gained will give scientists insights into the dynamics of

the Earth’s liquid-metal core and crust, as well as into their interactions with

Earth’s protective shield in the ionosphere and magnetosphere

Catching a comet

Eight years ago, the Rosetta probe was launched on an 11-year convoluted

journey to chase down the comet 67P⁄Churyumov-Gerasimenko The

space-craft has already made three swingbys of Earth and one of Mars, and managed

to fly by a pair of asteroids, 2,867 Steins, and 21 Lutetia, and circle the sun four

times Currently, it’s traveling at about 2,600 fps and is on schedule for a May

2014 rendezvous with Comet 67P

Rosetta weighs in at 6,750 lb, but carries 3,200 lb of fuel It measures 9 × 7 ×

6 ft, but the twin solar panels deployed once Rosetta was in space give the space

probe a 104-ft “wingspan.”

Rosetta took some measurements and images when close to the

aster-oids and Mars during the trip, but for the most part, it is hibernating, with

Continued on page 24

JUNE 14, 2012

On the comet, Philae will be sending data to Earth relayed through the Rosetta orbiter Its instruments will detect alpha particles and X-rays to determine the comet’s composition Cameras will take high-resolution images of the descent and surroundings of the landing area Gas ana-lyzers should identify organic molecules and isotropic ra-tios of light elements Another set of sensors be will mea-suring the density, thermal, and mechanical properties of the soil on the surface And a drill will go up to 8-in deep

to collect geological samples that will be dried onboard Philae and examined microscopically

The main objective of the 1-billion-Euro mission is

to make the most detailed observations of a comet’s icy nucleus, surface, and tail According to astronomers, com-ets represent a relatively unchanged environment from 4.6 billion years ago So a close examination will give sci-entists a snapshot of what the solar system was like when planets were first forming MD

most electrical systems shut

down except for thermal

control, radio receivers, and

computers

Several challenges have

made it difficult for ESA

controllers to keep Rosetta

on track and healthy For

example, at some points in

its journey, it has taken 100

min for signals to travel to

Rosetta and for receivers to

get a response And

com-munications have been constrained by an 8-bps rate for

data and relatively little power available, compared to

other satellites This is the first solar-powered spacecraft

to fly farther than 3.1 astronomical units (288.3 million

miles) from the sun

Eventually, Rosetta must brake to match its speed to

the comet’s as they both head toward the sun Once within

a few miles of the comet, Rosetta will begin observing it

with its onboard instruments They include a UV

spec-trometer, ion-mass analyzer, impact analyzer and

accumu-lator, and an imaging system These last three are designed

to examine cometary dust

Once established in orbit above the moving comet,

Rosetta will release Philae, a 220-lb lander, and it will

be-come the first spacecraft ever to make a soft landing on a

comet It is made mostly of carbon fiber with a hood of

solar cells

While Philae and its suite of 10 instruments

investi-gates the comet from ground level, Rosetta will orbit and

study it for a year as it continues to its perihelion or

clos-est approach to the sun Rosetta will then remain with the

comet for another six months as the comet heads towards

the orbit of Jupiter, ending its mission in December 2015

Continued from page 23

SOFTWARE & SERVICES

IT INFRASTRUCTURE

RS# 120

runs at high efficiencies and current densities, several factors higher than standard LEDs that are fabricated on foreign materials,” says Krames “We get many more lumens per wafer This brings dramatic benefits in low-ering overall LED cost and in higher brightness.”Soraa’s first product to use GaN substrates is an LED replacement for a 50-W halogen that only consumes

12 W A point to note is that the lamp uses only passive cooling “Other companies that are doing this have

to use tricks like fans to cool the LED and get enough power,” says Krames “Our lamps also use just a single LED rather than an LED array found in competing de-vices This lets them produce a single clean beam with

a single shadow rather than a multishadowed beam which some consumers dislike,” Krames says MD

The surest way to make light-emitting

diodes that are efficient and bright

is to fabricate them on a substrate

made of the same material as the

LED itself

So says LED maker Soraa Inc.

in Fremont, Calif The company

produces LEDs that it claims emit

more light per unit area than any

other LED and handle more electric

current per area than any other

LED Soraa gets this kind of

perfor-mance by building the LEDs on a

substrate consisting of GaN This

dif-fers from the usual practice of

build-ing LEDs on top of either sapphire or

SiC, materials that are cheaper than

GaN and which are compatible with

it The problem with these substrates is that they can

induce imperfections in the LEDs grown on top and

these imperfections reduce the amount of light the

LED can generate

“Because we use a GaN substrate, we don’t have

such issues as wafer strain, wafer bowing because of

the strain, and (crystal) dislocation densities that arise

because of different substrates,” says Soraa CTO Mike

Krames “That allows a higher-quality crystal material

which leads to higher-performing devices.”

The LEDs made this way also are more efficient

“We have been able to engineer the layers on the

native substrate to create an active layer stack that

Resources:

Soraa Inc., www.soraa.com

RS# 406

Transmission electron-microscope images show the imperfections present in conventional gallium-nitride material (above, right) compared to the Soraa GaN on GaN crystals (below, right) The first light to use the technology is an LED bulb that replaces an MR16 halogen light.

GaN substrates bring

brighter LEDs

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REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

RS# 121

Super concrete shielding Iranian nukes?

Some of the world’s experts in ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) are working in Iran, a country regularly beset by earthquakes They want

to use the material, a mix of Portland cement, silica fume, quartz flour, fine silica sand, and either steel or plastic-reinforcing fibers, to build durable bridges, sewer pipes, dams, and other structures

But U. S military officials and others around the world are worried the Iranians will use the high-strength material to protect nuclear-weapons labs and to build other military bases and underground bunkers

UHPC’s compression strength is on the order of 30,000 psi, while that

of normal concrete is just 4,000 psi And UHPC has a tensile strength of 1,000 psi, far above normal concrete’s 400 psi Strength is critical for de-fensive structures Tests of a 13-ton bunker-busting bomb, for example, showed it could penetrate 180 ft of ordinary concrete, but only get through 25 ft of concrete that was twice as strong So it’s possible that the same bomb might only dent UHPC, with its compressive strength seven times that of normal concrete

So why isn’t UHPC more widely used?

If UHPC is so great, why isn’t everybody using it to build roads and bridges that could last 75 to 100 years with minimal maintenance? The

Federal Highway Administration points to five factors:

1 Contractors are slow to change currently approved practices and adopt new ones until they are sure of the safety and benefits of the new approach

2 Highway and infrastructure owners, usually the government, are even less likely to adopt new, potentially risky technologies, especially those that add costs

3 The dearth of design codes covering UHPC adds to the risks And contractors don’t want to conduct tests to prove a technology will work

4 Not many projects using UHPC have been completed and the material lacks a long track record This means there’s limited experience with inspecting, maintaining, and repairing it In fact, new methods for inspecting UHPC will need to be developed before its widely used

5 Customers are aware of the high costs but are unsure of the term benefits

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RS# 122

Ultrahigh performance concrete (UHPC) was used to make these thin, curved canopies over a train station in Calgary, Canada The 24 canopies are only 0.8-in

thick, so the project used only 105 yd 3

of UHPC.

UHPC also resists chemicals such as salt at rates 100 times greater than

that of normal concrete And the steel or polymer fibers add ductility and

strength For example, when microcracks start in the brittle cement matrix,

the fibers take up the load and prevent further slipping and cracking In

normal cement, the small cracks grow larger and weaken the structure The

fibers can also totally replace traditional rebar used to reinforce concrete

Silica fume, or ultrafine silica powder, also adds several benefits to

UHPC On a chemical level, it reacts with calcium hydroxide released by the

cement, turning the silica into a strong binder that helps hold together the

UHPC mixture And on a physical level, the silica particles, together with

the quartz flour, fill in all the small spaces between cement grains and any

coarser aggregate This tight packing keeps out water and chemicals that

can seep in and damage the concrete

U. S military leaders worry that Iranians are testing even smaller

par-ticles, nanoparpar-ticles, as additives to UHPC Some material experts estimate

that nanoparticles could boost UHPC’s already impressive strength by a

factor of four

The downside of UHPC is it is cost – 10 times that of normal concrete

It can also be more difficult to work with To maximize its strength, for

ex-ample, UHPC must be steam cured, a process that takes about 48 hr MD

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

RS# 123

Get ready for CAD in

the cloud

At least, that is what

graphics chip and

sub-system maker NVIDIA

Corp., Santa Clara,

Ca-lif., says will be possible

thanks to its newly

de-veloped VGX platform

With this scheme, a

sin-gle server carrying one

will make it possible to

access a cloud server

from any device — thin

client, laptop, tablet or

smartphone —

regard-less of its operating

system

Even

computation-intensive applications such as first-person shooter

video games can be virtualized this way, NVIDIA says,

with no discernable degradation in performance And

3D solid models and simulations that characterize

so-phisticated engineering design work will work equally

well when run from a VGX-equipped server

There have already been attempts to make some

kinds of engineering software cloud-based But

re-sponse time has been an issue Users seeing a CAD

model called up from a server, for example, might notice a perceptible lag between moving a cursor on

a model and seeing the software finally respond This lag can be just an annoyance or it can bad enough to make real-time server interactions impractical.NVIDIA says it has eliminated such effects by removing about 100 msec from the chain of events that transpire between generating an image on a server and producing it on a remote PC or tablet Superfast graphics let CAD go to the cloud

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

28

Game input lag

(In milliseconds) Gaikai

66

Game pipeline Capture/encode Network Decode Display

100

A graph of the response time involved in multiplayer gaming applications shows why

cloud computing hasn’t been able to handle such uses A similar argument applies for CAD

applications The first generation of cloud servers couldn’t respond fast enough to generate

screen updates without inserting an input lag that players found annoying NVIDIA says it has

reduced the delay through use of new GPU technology optimized for cloud servers NVIDIA

demonstrated the idea on a game from Gaikai called Hawken at its recent GPU Technology

ics particularly well

To solve this ficulty, NVIDIA devised

dif-a hypervisor optimized

to work with processing units (GPUs) Memory-man-agement techniques then effectively create

graphic-a mini-dedicgraphic-ated GPU

on the server for each virtual user During interactions between the server and the re-mote user, graphic data streams directly out

of the GPU frame fer to the appropriate network interface card (NIC) without first hav-ing to go to the main CPU

buf-“We can push pixels run concurrently on a host com-

puter It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than

a supervisory program It lets tiple instances of a variety of op-erating systems share virtualized hardware resources The problem, though, is that hypervisors to date haven’t been able to render graph-

mul-The better performance comes

thanks to several fundamental

patents by NVDIA researchers

that pertain to memory

manage-ment technology

The company also wrote a

special hypervisor program for

virtualized graphics A hypervisor

lets multiple operating systems

or frames directly into system memory,” says Jeff Brown, general manager of the Professional Solu-tions Group at NVIDIA “The remot-ing protocol can grab the data at that point I can’t imagine a sce-nario in which there is no available system memory (to slow things down) given the trivial size of the

idia.

Virtual machine Guest O

Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop

Application Citrix XenDesktop NVDIA driver

& software

GPU MMU

Kepler GPU

RS# 125

frame buffer.”

NVIDIA also says delivering virtualized desktops this way can minimize the security risks inher-ent in sharing critical data and intellectual property For example, source data for CAD models need never leave a secure server, but can be manipulated by users across the globe in real time using the VGX scheme

Finally, NVIDIA says integrating the VGX platform into the corpo-rate network also lets enterprise IT departments handle “BYOD” com-puting, that is, employees bringing their own computing device to work It delivers a remote desktop

to these devices, giving users the same access they have on their desktop terminal

There are three parts to the NVIDIA VGX technology:

VGX boards — These carry

NVIDIA Kepler GPUs The first NVIDIA VGX board is configured with four GPUs and 16 Gbytes of memory and fits into the industry-standard PCI Express interface in servers Each Kepler GPU has 192 NVIDIA CUDA architecture cores and 4 Gbytes of frame buffer

VGX GPU Hypervisor — This software layer integrates into com-mercial hypervisors, such as the Citrix XenServer, letting multiple users share common hardware and ensures virtual machines run-ning on a single server have pro-tected access to critical resources.NVIDIA User Selectable Ma-chines — This option lets compa-nies configure the graphics they deliver to individual users in the network, based on their demands Capabilities range from PC experi-ences to professional 3D design and engineering experiences. MD JUNE 14, 2012

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HPSFDPNFMFDUSPOJDT

8*3&"/%$"#-&

RS# 126

Prewired motor plug speeds

service and repair

A new motor connector lets qualified employees connect or disconnect

motors, pumps, generators, and other electrical equipment quickly and

safely by simply plugging them in Meltric Decontactor connectors from

Meltric Corp., Franklin, Wis., consists of prewired, switch-rated combination

plug/receptacle devices that are UL approved for disconnect switching

Replacing electric motors has always involved deenergizing power

cir-cuits and tagging and locking out the branch to prevent accidental

reap-plication of power This means technicians must open the motor service

box to expose the motor power leads and disconnect the associated

wir-ing Then, once replaced, the new motor must be connected to the

elec-trical service and power restored through proper procedures to remove

the tag/lockout All these steps add to the maintenance time

The plug-and-play Decontactor features a dead front, an enclosed arc

chamber, and a switching function that ensures live electrical contacts

are safely deenergized before the technician withdraws the plug from the

receptacle Once withdrawn, the plug visual verifies that power is

shut-down, eliminating the need for voltage testing Maintenance work can

then proceed without any need for hard field rewiring This cuts motor

change-out times by up to 50%

Plugs are switch rated up to 200 A and 60 hp, and carry a NFPA 70E

hazard risk rating of zero, eliminating the need for technicians to don

protective gear during service Typical uses include installation on

waste-water, manufacturing, mining, food processing, and power generation

The switch-rated Meltric Decontactor plug offers simple motor power disconnection

to speed motor replacement and maintenance.

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RS# 127

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• Advanced manufacturing technology

and EMTs routinely rely

on trauma shears to cut

through a patient’s

cloth-ing and access a wound

that needs immediate

treatment These cutting

tools must slice through a

wide range of materials,

in-cluding denim, leather, and

even bulletproof Kevlar

Most trauma shears are

flimsy and poorly constructed

with blades that dull quickly

And they are typically used once

then thrown away But two

inven-tors — Scott Forman, an ER

physi-cian, and Mark Reece, a materials

engineer at Sandia National

Laboratory — got together to

redesign the shears Reece was

able to participate thanks to

the New Mexico Small

Busi-ness Assistance Program,

which pays scientists and

engineers inside Sandia

to work with outside

EMTs easily attach

the tool to a belt loop, keeping

it close at hand The hand length

and handle pivot point lets users

generate considerable torque

and expend less effort for heavy

cutting And the high-carbon

stainless-steel blades hold an

edge longer than previous models

but can also be resharpened The

entire shears can be sterilized in

an autoclave One of the blades is

serrated, letting it cut through Kevlar, bal-listic nylons, thick fabrics, and even fiberglass

The team also incorporated sug-gestions from EMT personnel So the shears include a rip-per attachment with replaceable blade for quickly slicing though clothing, a bottle opener for medications, a key for opening and clos-ing oxygen tanks, and

a window punch

The shears will likely be sold and marketed by

Héros, a

com-pany founded

by Forman The

Innovative trauma shears

make the cut

shears will cost from

$20 to $60, compared

to $5 to

$10 for typical throwaway versions But those who have tested the pro-totypes say they are much better and well worth the extra cost. MD

JUNE 14, 2012

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RS# 129

Ultra-High-Performance Stages

Precisely The Way You Want Them

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For your most demanding requirements, let Steinmeyer build precisely what you need.

• 100+ years of engineering experience

• Innovative designs

• Compact integrated solutions

• Advanced manufacturing techniques

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

RS# 130

Tens of thousands of engineers and technical managers from across

Europe gathered in Northern Italy last month for a series of events loosely

termed Technology Exhibition week These included Fluidtrans

Com-pomac (fluid power), Mechanical Power Transmission and Motion Control,

Plast (plastics and plastics-processing machinery), Xylexpo (woodworking

machinery) — all held in Milan — and Lamiera (metal-forming

equip-ment), held in Bologna

Widespread interest in Italian components, machines, and technology

belies the country’s current economic conditions It’s no secret that Italy

is caught up in the European financial crisis and in a recession, with 2012

first quarter GDP declining 0.8%

ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY WEEK:

Small and nimble manufacturers are global problem solvers

Fiera Milano, www.fieramilano.it

Saes Getters, www.saesgetters.

com

UCIMU, www.ucimu.it

Yet many Italy-based companies continue to prosper in spite of the

downturn Consider data from Federmacchine, the federation of Italian

machinery associations, based in Milan Its members manufacture

every-thing from machine tools, packaging equipment, and plastics

injection-molding machines to hydraulic and pneumatic components, robots, and

automation equipment Last year, production for the sector rose 13.2%

and exports were up 15.8% Italy accounts for 18% of the European

Union’s machinery production, second only to Germany

Why the ongoing success despite general hard times? Giancarlo

Losma, President of Federmacchine, cites several reasons, and they

basi-continued on page 36

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REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

RS# 131

cally revolve around performance,

customization, and after-sales

support

First, successful Italian

manu-facturers make machines of the

highest quality and take

advan-tage of the latest technological

innovations, says Losma

Produc-tivity and reliability need to be

second-to-none And because

the average manufacturer is fairly

small by U. S standards, with only

about 60 to 70 employees, this

lets them focus on problem

solv-ing and gives them the flexibility

to customize and personalize the

end product to exactly match

cus-tomer requirements

“Italians are the champions of special machines,” says Luigi Gald-

abini, Vice President of UCIMU, the

Italian machine-tool association

“We are innovative and tive, and we are artists, a little bit

competi-Who is solving problems? It is the Italians.”

He notes that OEMs from around the world don’t look to Italian manufacturers for a cheap price on conventional, run-of the-mill equipment “We will always get beat by China and India in terms of costs, with simple ma-chines Our aim is to be tops in performance, quality, and innova-

tion,” Galdabini says

The expertise of Italian trepreneurs lies in overcoming technical hurdles, crafting unique designs, and wringing out more efficiency, speed, precision, and productivity from a machine Some manufacturers might invest thousands of engineering hours yet only produce a single — albeit extremely complex — machine a year, he adds

en-Galdabini sees investment in R&D as critical, but notes most research by companies is done hand-in-hand with the customer

as a project progresses, creating applied solutions to specific prob-

Continued from page 35

Saes Getters SmartFlex shape memory alloys are packaged into compact, light, and powerful actuators that replace piezo materials and electric motors.

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com

36

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RS# 132

Last year the Italian machinery sector exported 70% of its produc-tion In some segments it was even higher, for instance about 80% of textile machines were shipped abroad last year For many Italian manufacturers, Germany is the number-one customer, while ma-chinery exports to the U. S were

up about 35% last year, according

to Federmacchine

Another strength, notes Losma,

is many of these companies are multi-generational, family-owned operations with their livelihood

on the line “The way to survive is invest in technology, innovation, and internationalization,” he says

“Export-oriented companies that have invested over the last five years are still growing despite the poor domestic market.”

Smart materials

Case in point is Saes Getters, a

medium-size manufacturer quartered in Lainate The company manufactures a range of what can

head-be considered “high-tech” ucts such as ultrahigh vacuum systems for semiconductor manu-facturing, organic LED displays, and medical devices It invests 11

prod-to 12% of earnings on R&D and 98% of its sales are outside Italy, according to Managing Director

ficiency and substantially lower energy and operating costs — ensuring a practical, long-term investment

The firms also stress ing and support after the sale, building long-term relationships, says Losma “Customers need to understand we’re in for the long term.” All these factors give Italian manufacturers a leg up in global markets, according to Losma

train-Despite the companies’ relatively small size, they have structured their internal operations to focus

on, and sell their products, in eign markets

for-lems It’s the life blood of most

firms, which on average count 35%

of their employees as engineers,

technicians, designers, or software

developers “We typically turn

to outside experts for specialty

research, for example in

measure-ment systems or optics,” he says

Sustainability and energy

effi-ciency are growing in importance,

particularly in markets such as

Germany and Switzerland and,

to a certain extent, the U. S But

increasing efficiency can raise the

price of a machine, he cautions,

which often makes the sale more

difficult The goal is to raise

ef-New trade show for power

transmission and control

Deutsche Messe, based in Hannover, Germany, and Milan’s Fiera Milano

have announced a joint venture, TPA Italia, a trade fair for power

transmis-sion and control, hydraulics, and pneumatics

It will be held every two years and alternate with MDA (Motion, Drive &

Automation), Deutsche Messe’s trade show for power transmission and

con-trol held in odd-numbered years as part of the Hannover Fair in Germany

Deutsche Messe looks to leverage its expertise and extensive network

of international contacts to create a strong regional trade show in Italy,

ac-cording to Andreas Gruchow, a member of the company’s managing board

“This will give companies in the power transmission and control industry a

high-caliber, well-run platform in the heartland of one of Europe’s leading

industrial nations,” said Gruchow

TPA Italia is endorsed by Italy’s leading power transmission and fluid

power industry associations, including Assofluid and Assiot The show will

include an exhibition and a supporting program of conferences and

net-working forums The inaugural event is slated for May 2014 in Milan

Continued on page 39

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RS# 133