Although one major manufacturer told me that they would soon be announcing a plan to release a new product every month, I didn’t see a lot of new components on the show floor. Instead, many exhibitors seemed to be focused on connecting with their engineering customers through website upgrades or iPad apps. It’s about time they got on the social media marketing bandwagon.

Fluids are a big deal here, too. Chemicals are getting more expensive and that means even tubing size is an issue. Companies don’t want extra dead space in a designed system, because that’s simply full of extra (expensive) fluid—and that means smaller tubing is “in.” Smaller tubing with the same flow demands means higher pressures. In fact, I hear that the new thing for selling fluids is naming them by the number of tests they can run instead of a bulk measurement—say a “20 test bottle” instead of a “10 oz. bottle.”

Another interesting trend I heard from a couple of people was that some manufacturers were walksearching for related solutions for their customers. If that isn’t value added service, I’m not sure what is. Maybe it goes to show how difficult the sales game is in some commodity portions of the engineering universe.

Pneumatic Tips

Assemblies are leak free due to the internal ferrules and an O-ring face seal design.  Contact Beswick now for the new compression fitting for use with 4mm tubing and ¼-28 threads.   M3, M4, 10-32, M5, ¼-20, and 5/16-24 thread sizes and 1/16”, 1/8”, ¼” OD tubing options are also available.

Beswick
www.beswick.com

Pneumatic Tips

Today, I (perhaps naively) assume that things are better, and while male students still outnumber females in the engineering ranks, the ratio isn’t as lopsided it once was. News stories on programs aimed to attract young women into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees and careers come across my newsfeed on a pretty regular basis, and great organizations like the Society of Women Engineers do much to promote the great career opportunities.

Recently, there was a bit of a brouhaha when esteemed rocket scientist Yvonne Brill passed away, and the New York Times wrote her obituary by leading with the fact that she made “a mean beef stroganoff” and was a great mom—and not her accomplishments in propulsion systems.

While we can all argue as to whether or not that obit was appropriate, the discussion about it on our Engineering Exchange led to some comments from a member about how she was treated in school, saying that the atmosphere was still quite hostile, particularly in the mechanical areas.

I reached out to some female engineering students on social media sites, and the responses were varied and interesting. One senior studying Civil Engineering explained that she’s always taken the approach that she simply had to work harder to earn her peers respect, but that it largely worked for her—until her senior design classes. At that point, she was working with another student she met through SWE and they both received high grades. It was then that male classmates began insinuating that they were getting high grades because they were women—teachers must be favoring them, they couldn’t possibly be working hard.

Another woman, Emily, currently majoring as a EE, felt that while females are generally treated well, they are not treated as equals. She faced similar criticisms from male students that her high grades must have been a result of favoritism. The first time she walked into a computer class, a male student told her, “You must be in the wrong class, this is a computer programming class.” This belief that she could not possibly program a computer made her work twice as hard just to prove that she belonged.

On a happier note, Michelle, a recent Georgia Tech graduate in ME, told me how, while there were rare instances of being treated unfairly, she mostly used the scarcity of females to her advantage. She found that it was easier for the professors to remember her in a class dominated by males. And even the other students recognized her studying in the library, so she always had a surplus of study partners.

Josephine Casely-Hayford, an applications engineer with Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies, noted that in her field of study, mechanical engineering, men tend to make inappropriate inferences about women’s appearances, some deliberate, some not. And they can ignore contributions from females.

“Some men feel like engineering is not for women, and some feel like women should not be in leadership … some men completely encourage and love the idea of women in engineering, and consider them to be much more organized, decisive and great leaders,” she said.

Still, maybe the answer to the lack of female engineers isn’t as simple as persuading young women that they can do it. Maybe we also need to be educating young men to understand that women can do it. And maybe we need to remind college faculty that it’s their job to ensure that all engineering students are treated fairly and on a level playing field.

Pneumatic Tips

Bosch Rexroth Corporation, which has a manufacturing campus in Bethlehem, PA, was honored with the Jobs First Award for the Lehigh Valley region for its job growth, commitment to sustainable business operations and for its collaboration efforts within its community. Citing local partnerships with Lehigh University, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School, Career Institute of Technology, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Manufacturer’s Resource Center and others, Rexroth noted that its outstanding partnerships in the community helped significantly in creating win-win opportunities to grow and retain jobs in the locale, but also to support the continuous improvement of Rexroth business processes. Bosch Rexroth has added 103 full-time positions in Bethlehem over the last two years.

Vice President and Commercial Plant Manager, Andreas Torell, accepted the award on behalf of Rexroth’s Bethlehem campus. At the awards ceremony, Governor Corbett thanked the audience of nearly 700 for helping to move Pennsylvania forward.

The Corbett administration created the awards initiative to honor businesses in Pennsylvania that are creating job opportunities and contributing to the state’s economy. Nominations for each award were provided by the state’s regional economic development partners, the Partnerships for Regional Economic Performance (PREP) network. Each of the 10 PREP regions was eligible to submit up to five nominations per category. A total of 250 nominations were received.

Bosch Rexroth
www.boschrexroth-us.com

Pneumatic Tips

A new website from Norgren Automation Solutions (NAS) makes it easy for manufacturers using robotic automation to find tool and die and metal stamping solutions for front-of-line to end-of-line requirements. NAS has combined the technologies of ISI, Erie and Syron to form one of the world’s most robust catalogs of grippers, clamps, vacuum products and sensors used in material handling processes.

The website highlights the company’s expertise in modular tooling and carbon fiber booms as well as a new radial cam that eliminates by-pass flanging in metal forming.

Learn more about Norgren’s automation products, die engineering services, automation design services and 3D solid model automation design here.

Norgren
www.norgren.com

Pneumatic Tips

Airpot AFPs help designers utilize Airpot’s line of  self-aligning actuators, Airpel Anti-Stiction cylinders and Airpot –AB zero friction air cylinder actuators in applications in which the need exists to move, hold, support or press with repeatable and accurate low force over a wide temperature range without lubrication and with nearly unlimited life.

The literature addresses the system components needed from the initial air supply devices to the pressure regulation products and finally the actuators providing the accurate force desired. The AFP selection guide section enables designers to choose from among a variety of Airpot air supply products including Airpot’s double filter/ regulators  (FFR) to supply clean, dry filtered air. Also included are products for proportional pneumatic pressure regulation to precisely control the output pressure being supplied to the system actuators. Airpot’s wide variety of air actuators complete the system with low and zero-friction models available.  Airpot’s engineers will be happy to assist in recommending the proper products for your pneumatic force control system needs.

Airpot optimized system components are matched to insure optimum performance and lowest cost, so OEM designers and engineers involved in research and development, high level testing, high tech micro machining, polishing or grinding equipment or precision assembly will find pre-selected systems components provide most of the functions needed between the air supply and the force output system.  Actuation objectives can be achieved while saving research and development time.

Airpot
www.airpot.com

Pneumatic Tips

Learn More

AutomationDirect
www.automationdirect.com

Pneumatic Tips

It is extremely quiet at 82 dBA (half the noise of electric vacs), making it suitable for a wide variety of environments. An economical, easily maintained pre-filter stops larger particles, while the HEPA filter handles the smaller matter. All filters are tested for minimum 99.97% filtration at the 0.3 micron level to meet HEPA standards in strict accordance to IEST-RP-CC-007.

The Heavy Duty HEPA Vac System comes complete with the Heavy Duty Dry Vac, lever lock drum lid, shutoff valve, pre-filter, HEPA filter, 10′ (3m) static resistant hose, hose hanger, 1/2 NPT quick connects coupling, 20′ (6m) compressed air hose, pressure gauge, and aluminum chip wand (drum not included).  Complete systems including a drum and dolly are available. Price is $1,515.

EXAIR
www.exair.com

Pneumatic Tips

That’s just what my colleague and I did on a recent walk-through of Ace Controls, Farmington Hills, Mich., as the company celebrated its 50^th anniversary. We had a chance to see Ace’s gas springs and industrial shock absorbers in action, both in manufacturing cells and in the testing lab.

We were both stumped to see a pneumatic valve used throughout the plant that we didn’t recognize. But when someone mentioned the use of Mac Valves in the presentations later that evening, it jogged my memory. It was a company whose name I hadn’t heard in a while, so I did a quick search and found that yes, Mac Valves is still in business, designing and manufacturing pneumatic valves.

A recent visit to Ace Controls jogged my memory about Mac Valves, a pneumatics company which recently launched an innovative new product, called the Bullet Valve.

The company just recently released an innovative new product, the Bullet Valve, which uses lifting solenoid technology to maintain a balanced design. The company says this ensures that shifting forces are consistently high and response times are always precise and repeatable. They are available as 2- and 3-way cartridge designs in 9-, 10-, and 14-mm sizes.

A video at www.macvalves.com highlights the valve’s design and construction. Now to find out more about its use—hopefully we’ll be able to share application stories on this innovative design soon.

Pneumatic Tips

The decentralized COAX in piGRIP is ideal for very demanding (leaking and/or high speed) vacuum applications where smaller parts/objects shall be moved. Examples are bag handling, bag opening and handling or palletizing of smaller boxes. Applications are to be found in mainly food, consumer, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

Vacuum systems for handling/holding materials with cups can be decentralized or centralized. A decentralized vacuum system is a system where the vacuum is generated independently for each suction cup at point-of-use. There are some strong advantages with a decentralized system, for example: quick response, fast objects release, high system safety (no leakage) and high energy efficiency due to no losses of vacuum flow.

A wide range of suction cups can be selected from the piGRIP program to meet specific application needs.  The units can be mounted on standard extruded profile systems due to the profile mount kits.  A low total build-height (flush mounted cups) and the possibility to mount in several directions will save space on a lifting device.

Accessories, such as vacuum switches and blow-off check valves, can be attached to the auxiliary vacuum ports on the unit to improve the system productivity and reliability.

Piab
www.piab.com

Pneumatic Tips