THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY

Team prints 'world's first' 3D titanium car components

UK researchers claim to have produced the world’s first 3D-printed titanium car parts, demonstrating how the metal could become cheap enough for commercial production.

Titanium is usually considered too expensive for use in automotive manufacturing but a novel process for producing titanium powder from sand has opened the way for 3D printing parts cheaply enough for low-to-medium volume production, according to engineers from Sheffield University.

The process, created by Rotherham-based company Metalysis (originally a spin-out of Cambridge University), creates titanium powder at much lower cost than the conventional method of atomising blocks of metal, said Prof Iain Todd, director of the university’s Mercury Centre in the department of materials.

This means automotive parts can be made more economically using additive manufacturing rather than traditional subtractive techniques that waste large amounts of the expensive metal and use costly die set tools, he told The Engineer. 

‘If you wanted to make anything out of titanium you normally wouldn’t bother because it’s not a commodity metal. But also the process is getting a lot quicker. It’s certainly a lot better for moderate runs - it used to be very low-volume production runs.’

Todd’s team has used the material to 3D print parts including impellers and turbochargers, as well as aerofoils, using a Renishaw laser additive manufacturing machine and standard operating procedures based on the material’s thermal characteristics.

‘It processes beautifully,’ he said. ‘It’s probably one of the easiest materials we’ve ever put on.’

The research doesn’t take titanium automotive printing to the point where the material or the technique could be commonly used for mass production. But Todd is confident things are moving towards that.

‘Each time we change something we move closer to the point where titanium could be considered like something as stainless steel,’ he said.

‘That’s still a high-value steel but you’re looking that costs the same, is about half the density and has temperature capabilities that are quite attractive I think you’re looking at an interesting competitor to standard automotive material.’

The researchers now plan to work with Metalysis to create other materials from the titanium powder, particularly alloys that would normally separate when formed from conventional titanium.

Source: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/channels/design-engineering/news/team-prints-worlds-first-3d-titanium-car-components/1017653.article#ixzz2n04oYTV0

Copenhagen Wheel Turns Any Bicycle Into Hybrid ‘e-bike’

MIT-spinoff Superpedestrian unveiled a commercial version of its Copenhagen Wheel on Tuesday, allowing consumers to turn any ordinary bicycle into a hybrid “e-bike.”

The $700 rear wheel works in a fashion similar to a Toyota Prius or Chevy Volt, converting and storing energy during pedaling, braking and descending that is later used to boost riders as they accelerate or go uphill.

The wheel’s onboard electronics detect how hard the rider is pedaling, and trigger the motor to automatically assist when needed.

“The Wheel learns about the rider and intuitively recognizes how hard he or she pedals and the topography ahead to determine how much support the rider may need,” Superpedestrian said in a statement obtained by CNET. “There aren’t any additional throttles, wires, or buttons, maintaining the pure simplicity of cycling.”

The amount of assistance the Copenhagen Wheel provides can also be predetermined by the rider using a smartphone app, which provides riders with data such as distance traveled, calories burned and elevation gain.

The wheel – a sleek-looking, 12-pound red disk that sits within the spokes of the bike’s back wheel – features either a 250-watt or 350-watt hub motor, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, a range of approximately 30 miles (48 km) and a top assisted speed of 20 mph (32 km/h). It is available in 26-inch, 27-inch and 700C sizes.

Battery life is typically extended through a regenerative braking system, although the battery can be removed and recharged when required, Superpedestrian said.

MIT’s SENSEable City first unveiled the prototype of the Copenhagen Wheel back in 2009, but the production version is being made by Superpedestrian, a company comprised of SENSEable City team members who licensed the technology from MIT.

The wheel’s development was sponsored by the Mayor of Copenhagen, after which the wheel is named.

The Copenhagen Wheel is available for pre-order now through Superpedestrian’s website, although the handmade modules won’t begin shipping until the first quarter of 2014. The first 1,000 units are already in production, and will be available for mountain bike and road bike wheel sizes, the Boston-based startup said.

The $700 version of the wheel represents a single-gear configuration, with a multiple gear version available at additional cost.

Source: redOrbit.com

Sony's Smart Wig

As computer engineers continue to develop smaller and more adaptable technology, electronic devices are turning up in all kinds of places – from wristwatches to refrigerator doors.

In a step marking the latest evolution of this device culture, Sony has filed a patent with the US Patent & Trademark Office for a “Smart Wig” capable of functions such as giving driving directions, checking blood pressure or manipulating a slideshow presentation.

“The usage of a wig has several advantages that, compared to known wearable computing devices, include significantly increased user comfort and an improved handling of the wearable computing device,” the Sony patent said.

Filed in May — not made public until this week – the patent describes hidden input sensors in the wig that analyze data, communicate wirelessly and give tactile feedback. These sensors would be covered by parts of the wig and hidden from sight. According to the patent, the Smart Wig could be fashioned from horse hair, human hair, wool, feathers, yak hair, buffalo hair or synthetic materials.

The patent from the Japanese-based company also stated that the device has the potential to become “very popular” and could be a “technically intelligent item and fashion item at the same time.”

Sony said the device could be used for gaming applications or “any type of virtual reality appliance;” although it did not provide any specific examples.

While an actual product based on the patent may never come to market, Sony’s move continues the trend of developing wearable devices, a trend that has also been embraced by Google and Samsung.

“Wearable gadgets are definitely going to be one of the big areas of growth over the next two years,” Andrew Milroy, an analyst with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, told the BBC. “And Sony – which is trying to regain some of the sheen it has lost in recent years – clearly understands that and wants to play a major role in the sector.”

“It’s an interesting idea but I think it would be very difficult for Sony to commercialize,” Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at the Japanese firm Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co., told Bloomberg News. “Who will want to use this wig will become a problem.”

Bloomberg also confirmed through a spokesperson that the device was conceived by Sony engineer Hiroaki Tobita.

“Smartwatches are already made by many companies, so this is something new and fun,” Junya Ayada, a Tokyo-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc., said in a phone interview with Bloomberg.

If Sony’s Smart Wig were to ever come to market, it would join other wearable devices from the company’s product line – such as its SmartWatch 2.

In October, the company’s CEO Kazuo Hirai told reporters that Sony was both developing new devices and studying consumer needs for wearable computers.

In a September interview with Bloomberg, Sony vice president Yasuhiro Ueda said the company is developing chips for products such as self-driving cars and medical devices. These chips are somewhat similar to those already being used for smartphones and digital cameras.

Source: redorbit.com

Wireless recharging on the move

Researchers have developed new technology and techniques for transmitting power wirelessly from a stationary source to a mobile receiver.

The research, conducted at North Carolina State University, could lead to so-called highway ‘stations’ that can recharge electric vehicles wirelessly as the vehicles drive by.

‘We’ve made changes to both the receiver and the transmitter in order to make wireless energy transfer safer and more efficient,’ said Dr Srdjan Lukic, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the research.

The researchers developed a series of segmented transmitter coils, each of which broadcasts a low-level electromagnetic field. The researchers also created a receiver coil that is the same size as each of the transmitter coils, and which can be placed in a car or other mobile platform.

The researchers modified the receiver so that when it comes into range and couples with a transmitter coil, that specific transmitter coil automatically increases its current – boosting its magnetic field strength and the related transfer of energy by 400 per cent. The transmitter coil’s current returns to normal levels when the receiver passes out of the range of the transmitter.

These modifications are claimed to improve on previous mobile, wireless power transfer techniques.

One previous approach was to use large transmitter coils, but this approach created a powerful and imprecise field that could couple to the frame of a car or other metal objects passing through the field. Because of the magnetic field’s strength, which is required to transfer sufficient power to the receiver, these electromagnetic field ‘leaks’ raised safety concerns and reduced system efficiency.

Another previous approach used smaller transmitter coils, which addressed safety and efficiency concerns. But this approach would require a very large number of transmitters to effectively ‘cover’ a section of the roadway, adding substantial cost and complexity to the system, and requiring very precise vehicle position detection technology.

‘We tried to take the best from both of those approaches,’ Lukic said in a statement.

Lukic and his team have developed a small, functional prototype of their system, and are now working to both scale it up and increase the power of the system.

Currently, at peak efficiency, the new system can transmit energy at a rate of 0.5kW. ‘Our goal is to move from 0.5kW into the 50kW range,’ Lukic said. ‘That would make it more practical.’

The paper, ‘Reflexive Field Containment in Dynamic Inductive Power Transfer Systems,’ is published online in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

Source: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/energy-and-environment/news/wireless-recharging-on-the-move/1017546.article#ixzz2lrEKfB8T

New Process Cuts 3D Print Time From Hours To Minutes

Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a new 3D printing process, and are using it to model and fabricate heterogeneous objects comprised of multiple materials in minutes instead of hours.

3D printing has the potential to transform industries by providing faster, cheaper and more accurate manufacturing options. However, the lengthy fabrication times and complexity of multi-material objects have long been an obstacle to its widespread commercial use.

In the current work, USC Professor Yong Chen and his team were able to reduce the fabrication time to just minutes, bringing the manufacturing world one step closer to achieving its goal.

“Digital material design and fabrication enables controlled material distributions of multiple base materials in a product component for significantly improved design performance. Such fabrication capability opens up exciting new options that were previously impossible,” said Chen, professor in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC and the study’s lead researcher.

Traditional modeling and prototyping approaches used to take days to complete. But over the past several decades various additive manufacturing (AM) processes have been developed to fabricate both homogeneous and heterogeneous objects more quickly. Existing AM processes such as multi-jet modeling, which creates a solid 3D object from a digital model by laying down successive layers of material, can fabricate a complex object in a matter of hours.

Last year, Chen and another team of USC researchers improved an AM-related process known as mask-image-projection-based stereolithography (MIP-SL) to dramatically accelerate the fabrication of homogeneous 3D objects. MIP-SL process begins with a 3D digital model of an object, which is then sliced by a set of horizontal planes. Each slice is then converted into a two-dimensional mask image, which is projected onto a photocurable liquid resin surface. Light is then projected onto the resin to cure it in the shape of the related layer.

The team also developed a two-way movement design for bottom-up projection, so that the resin could be quickly spread into uniform thin layers – cutting production time from hours to a few minutes.

In the current work, Chen and his team successfully applied this more efficient process to the fabrication of heterogeneous objects that comprise different materials that cure at different rates.

This new process allows heterogeneous prototypes and objects such as dental and robotics models to be fabricated in less costly and more time-efficient ways than ever before, the researchers said.

Chen and his team now plan to investigate ways to develop an automatic design approach for heterogeneous material distribution according to user-specified physical properties, and to find ways to improve the fabrication speed. The researchers presented their findings at ASME’s 2013 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in San Diego on Wednesday.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

Google and Apple Alums Invent Adorable Robots That Teach Kids to Code

It’s common knowledge: If you want to learn a language—really learn a language—it’s best to start young. This is true for traditional dialects like Chinese, Spanish and English, but it’s also true of programming. Problem is, teaching kids to code is a lot like getting them to eat vegetables.

Forcing it down their throats is the best way to ensure that they’ll never want to write a line of C++ (or eat broccoli) again. But making programming fun isn’t simple. “Sitting down and writing code is hard,” says Vikas Gupta. “The problem with programming is you have to spend a lot of time on it before you start to see rewards.”Just last year, Gupta, the former head of consumer payments at Google, had his first child. This got him thinking a lot about how he might be able to teach his daughter programming skills someday. Sitting in front of a bright screen writing lines of code isn’t fun for anyone, let alone a 7-year-old who would rather be playing outside. “How do you turn programming into something that kids want to do?” he wondered.

This question led Gupta to quit his job at Google and start Play-i with co-founders Saurabh Gupta, a former engineer at Apple, and Mikal Greaves, formerly of Frog Design. Play-i’s focus is to make little robots that teach children programming concepts and languages through interaction and play. Since launching a crowdfunding campaign a few weeks ago, the company has brought in more than triple its original goal of $250,000 (it’s currently sitting at $793,000).

This flush of money is nothing if not reflective of our current time, where writing code is becoming as important as writing sentences. Gupta himself began programming in his teens, but he quickly realized if the United States wants to keep up with other countries, we’re going to have to start teaching our children how to code much earlier than that.

“The first question was, how early can kids begin to program?” he says. After doing some research, Gupta found that in Estonia, children begin to learn programming as early as first grade. And in the US? “Computer Science education has gotten worse, not better in the last 20 years,” he says. It’s not a question of ability—children are capable of grasping basic programming concepts like, causation, logic and simple sequencing of instructions. So the real question became: If schools aren’t going to take charge, how can parents turn programming into something that kids want to do at home?

Play-i is hoping Bo and Yana is the answer. The two robots look and act like toys—and at their core, that’s exactly what they are. You take them out of the box, turn them on, and kids can instantly play with them. But the robots’ smarts go way beyond your average toy. Both Bo and Yana are covert teaching machines, guiding kids through coding basics disguised as storytelling, music and make-believe. Bo, the bigger of the two, is a three-wheeled creature that can be programmed to dance, play music and even deliver a flower on command. Similarly, tell Yana, the stationary sphere, to roar like a lion when shaken, and she’ll do it.

“Kids can start weaving these characters into stories and learning about sequences,” Gupta says. “On page one you can say, if I throw you, you’re a lion, but if I shake you, you’re a train. Suddenly what they’re doing is programming sequences and conditions and branches, but in the context of a story and characters.”Children simply choreograph a sequence of actions via tablet or puppeteering and the robots perform them. “Kids have a very hard time handling abstract sequences,” Gupta explains. But if you reframe those lines of code into something that children easily grasp—telling Bo to play a song, turn his head or blink his eye—programming almost becomes second nature. This is mostly just teaching causality, “when I do this, you do this,” but it’s a starting point.

All of these actions are recorded in various programming languages like Blockly, Scratch Java and Python, which older, more curious kids can reference and study. As children progress in their skills, the programming language advances, too. Essentially, Play-i is building the backbone of a skill set that children might eventually have to formally learn while in school. But, Gupta is quick to add, playing with Bo and Yana is not homework. “We always want the reward to outpace the work kids put in,” he says. “If it’s not fun, kids aren’t going to use it.”

Source: wired.com