No mechanic needed....

With cars becoming more and more complicated everyday, it is becoming increasingly difficult for mechanics and owners to work on them. But the same advancements in technologies that make it difficult to repair modern day cars can also help us figure out what’s wrong and fix the problem.

With a plethora of sensors, electronics and computers incorporated into modern day cars, it is difficult for people to ‘fiddle around’ with the cars because of the complexity of the technology involved. There was once a time when mechanics and even car enthusiasts could understand the internal working of an automobile, but the new tech savvy age has made it difficult for even these people to know what goes on inside. Luckily, auto and tech companies are developing way to allow people to know what to do with modern day cars without even touching a tool.

BMW has developed a pair of sunglasses with attached earbuds that shows the mechanics all the components of the engine in highlighted form. It also displays computer generated information on which components are problematic and gives instructions on how to disassemble and repair the parts. The glasses contain small screens which display computer generated images of the real world.

 

This technology is called Augmented Reality (AR) and is the key to the future of auto repair where you can know the problems in the car before even handling any tool. Google Glass and contact lenses with integrated displays are finally making AR possible. The technology has also been made easily available with the accessibility of smartphones and the only limitation now is for people to come up with new applications to implement it into our daily lives.Augmented windscreens and seats could allow the driver to see the whole car as one transparent vehicle and give greater visibility of the road and surroundings. Though this tech may become a reality far off in the future, AR is here to stay. Volkswagen’s XL1 concept uses a service support system named Marta (Mobile Augmented Reality Technical Assistance), that provides instructions to identify and label components of the car.

While some automakers are integrating these systems into new models and gadgets, other companies like Audi are making the tech available to the masses today. The German automaker has released a mobile app in Europe which helps users identify over 200 components in a car. The app is a user manual which allows the user to point their smartphone camera towards the problem and it tells them how to fix the issue. The app can help people make simple fixes without having to worry about taking their car to a mechanic.

AR could someday help us connect our cars to our smartphones and simply feed us all the information in a step-by-step manner and allow anyone to maintain their car without ever having to visit the mechanic again. This may sound like bad news for mechanic shops, but it is an opportunity for them to adapt and evolve for the modern era. The future of Augmented Reality surely sounds exciting.

Continue reading →

5G NETWORK

People in South Korea will be able to download entire movies in just one second by 2020. The country’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) announced that it would be investing $1.5 billion (1.6 trillion won) to develop 5G technology that will be 1,000 times faster than the current 4G technology.MEST hopes to have a trial 5G service ready by 2017 and make the technology commercially available by 2020. 

The ministry also aims on developing new features alongside the network itself, including Ultra-HD streaming, hologram transmission and upgraded social networking services. The government estimates that the projected sales for relevant industries using the 5G infrastructure between 2020 and 2026 will be $310 billion (331 trillion won). MEST hopes to develop the technology with the help of service providers such as SK Telecom and Korea Telecom, as well as the help of tech giants such as Samsung and LG.

MEST hopes to have a trial 5G service ready by 2017 and make the technology commercially available by 2020. The ministry also aims on developing new features alongside the network itself, including Ultra-HD streaming, hologram transmission and upgraded social networking services. The government estimates that the projected sales for relevant industries using the 5G infrastructure between 2020 and 2026 will be $310 billion (331 trillion won. 

MEST hopes to develop the technology with the help of service providers such as SK Telecom and Korea Telecom, as well as the help of tech giants such as Samsung and LG.Whatever the truth may be, development of a new network is being looked into by other countries as well. The EU is set on developing a next-generation network and hope to meet the increase in traffic by 2020. The speeds claimed by 5G may or may not be speculation, but a new breed of network is sure to come in a few years

Whatever the truth may be, development of a new network is being looked into by other countries as well. The EU is set on developing a next-generation network and hope to meet the increase in traffic by 2020. The speeds claimed by 5G may or may not be speculation, but a new breed of network is sure to come in a few years - See more at: http://wonderfulengineering.com/5g-internet-is-a-thousand-times-faster-than-4g/#sthash.6P0uVNXy.dpuf

Whatever the truth may be, development of a new network is being looked into by other countries as well. The EU is set on developing a next-generation network and hope to meet the increase in traffic by 2020. The speeds claimed by 5G may or may not be speculation, but a new breed of network is sure to come in a few years - See more at: http://wonderfulengineering.com/5g-internet-is-a-thousand-times-faster-than-4g/#sthash.6P0uVNXy.dpuf

Continue reading →

Carbon Fibre 3D-Printer

World’s first carbon fiber 3D printer demonstrated, could change the face of additive manufacturing forever

Carbon fiber is one of the most prized construction materials available to a parts designer. It is also among the most expensive due to the painstakingly tedious process of molding or winding it. If, somehow, carbon fiber could just be printed it would be quite miraculous. To the delight of makers everywhere, the first 3D printer for carbon fiber was unveiled this week at the SolidWorks World 2014 conference in San Diego.

The company that makes the printer, MarkForged, claims its machine can produce parts with higher a strength-to-weight ratio than 6061-T6 aluminum. 6061 with a T6 temper is certainly not the strongest aluminum flavor going — and probably not the material chosen for the bulk of Ford’s new all-aluminum truck — but it’s the most commonly used aluminum, and still pretty tough stuff. In a rather surprising move, MarkForged’s founder, Gregory Marks, has named his new creation the “Mark One.” The machine runs either a 1.75mm fused carbon filament (FFF), or a 4mm composite filament (CFF), using quick-change extruder heads, and users also have the choice of printing with fiberglass, PLA (Poly lactic acid), or nylon.

In the old days, a resin was combined with carbon fiber (and often other additives or strengtheners) to form a reinforced polymer composite. How this process plays out on a printer is still a bit of a mystery.

We do know that the build size is fairly respectable at 305mm x 160mm x 160mm (12″ x 6.25″ x 6.25″, 486ci) and the resolution is reportedly 100um for FFF, and 200 for the CFF. The machine accepts .STL or .OBJ files and is compatible with most major operating systems and web browsers.

With a price tag of $5000, this machine may initially be more of a manufacturer’s item than DIY or hobby tool. Beef-up the build size though, and there could be many home or body applications we might imagine. Ski-pants for example, might actually have skis, while golf shirts could have built-in clubs at the cuff. Army recruits might just be given free courses in SolidWorks’ “designing with fiber” modules and credits on a Mark Ten machine, and they needn’t ever worry again about whether their prosthetics needs will be covered. For those capable individuals that design their own medical devices to fix their issues, like the guy who built his own chest wall oscillator to treat his cystic fibrosis, the benefits will be immeasurable. The FDA will literally have to kill you if they want to stop you from saving yourself, your family, or friends.

MarkForged is already open for preorder, and they plan to ship the first units by early next year. We will be anxious to hear about any design packages that might be available for this product as there will likely be many tricks to the trade. SolidWorks is hugely popular in the professional marketplace, with over 17,000 registered seats for 2014, but generally off limits for any individual to keep up a current copy. Judging by their success at working with the stereolithography experts at Stratasys though, SolidWorks may be ready to extend deeper into the 3D market, perhaps offering something for the little guy to bite.

Continue reading →

Bending glass

Mechanical Engineers have always been advance and innovative than any other discipline and here's one of another invention-A Glass that bends but doesn't break

Normally when you drop a drinking glass on the floor it shatters. But, in future, thanks to a technique developed in McGill's Department of Mechanical Engineering, when the same thing happens the glass is likely to simply bend and become slightly deformed. That's because Prof. François Barthelat and his team have successfully taken inspiration from the mechanics of natural structures like seashells in order to significantly increase the toughness of glass.

"Mollusk shells are made up of about 95 per cent chalk, which is very brittle in its pure form," says Barthelat. "But nacre, or mother-of-pearl, which coats the inner shells, is made up of microscopic tablets that are a bit like miniature Lego building blocks, is known to be extremely strong and tough, which is why people have been studying its structure for the past twenty years."

Previous attempts to recreate the structures of nacre have proved to be challenging, according to Barthelat. "Imagine trying to build a Lego wall with microscopic building blocks. It's not the easiest thing in the world." Instead, what he and his team chose to do was to study the internal 'weak' boundaries or edges to be found in natural materials like nacre and then use lasers to engrave networks of 3D micro-cracks in glass slides in order to create similar weak boundaries. The results were dramatic. The researchers were able to increase the toughness of glass slides (the kind of glass rectangles that get put under microscopes) 200 times compared to non-engraved slides. By engraving networks of micro-cracks in configurations of wavy lines in shapes similar to the wavy edges of pieces in a jigsaw puzzle in the surface of borosilicate glass, they were able to stop the cracks from propagating and becoming larger. They then filled these micro-cracks with polyurethane, although according to Barthelat, this second process is not essential since the patterns of micro-cracks in themselves are sufficient to stop the glass from shattering.

The researchers worked with glass slides simply because they were accessible, but Barthelat believes that the process will be very easy to scale up to any size of glass sheet, since people are already engraving logos and patterns on glass panels. He and his team are excited about the work that lies ahead for them. "What we know now is that we can toughen glass, or other materials, by using patterns of micro-cracks to guide larger cracks, and in the process absorb the energy from an impact," says Barthelat. "We chose to work with glass because we wanted to work with the archetypal brittle material. But we plan to go on to work with ceramics and polymers in future. Observing the natural world can clearly lead to improved man-made designs."

Continue reading →

RAILGUN- A 21st century weapon

The fine gray powder does have three major limitations:

• Gunpowder must be carried with the projectile, making the entire round heavier.
• Ordnance based on black powder is volatile, and so difficult to handle and transport.
• The muzzle velocity of projectiles propelled by gunpowder is generally limited to about 4,000 feet (about 1,219 meters) per second.

 One solution to overcome these challenges is the electromagnetic rail gun, or rail gun for short. Using a magnetic field powered by electricity, a rail gun can accelerate a projectile up to 52,493 feet (16,000 meters) per second. And while current Navy guns have a maximum range of 12 miles, rail guns can hit a target 250 miles away in six minutes.

A rail gun is basically a large electric circuit, made up of three parts: a power source, a pair of parallel rails and a moving armature.

1. The power supply is simply a source of electric current. Typically, the current used in medium- to large-caliber rail guns is in the millions of amps. 
2. The rails are lengths of conductive metal, such as copper. They can range from four to 30 feet (9 meters) long. 
3. The armature bridges the gap between the rails. It can be a solid piece of conductive metal or a conductive sabot -- a carrier that houses a dart or other projectile. 

Some rail guns use a plasma armature. In this set-up a thin metal foil is placed on the back of a non-conducting projectile. When power flows through this foil it vaporizes and becomes a plasma, which carries the current.

Here's how the pieces work together:

An electric current runs from the positive terminal of the power supply, up the positive rail, across the armature, and down the negative rail back to the power supply.Current flowing in any wire creates a magnetic field around it a region where a magnetic force is felt. This force has both a magnitude and a direction. In a rail gun, the two rails act like wires, with a magnetic field circulating around each rail. The force lines of the magnetic field run in a counterclockwise circle around the positive rail and in a clockwise circle around the negative rail. The net magnetic field between the rails is directed vertically.

Like a charged wire in an electric field, the projectile experiences a force known as the Lorentz force (after the Dutch physicist Hendrik A. Lorentz). The Lorentz force is directed perpendicularly to the magnetic field and to the direction of the current flowing across the armature.

The magnitude of the force is determined by the equation F = (i)(L)(B), where F is the net force, i is the current, L is the length of the rails and B is the magnetic field. The force can be boosted by increasing either the length of the rails or the amount of current.The projectile, under the influence of the Lorentz force, accelerates to the end of the rails opposite the power supply and exits through an aperture. The circuit is broken, which ends the flow of current.

Rail guns are of particular interest to the military, as an alternative to current large artillery. Rail gun ammunition, in the form of small tungsten missiles, would be relatively light, easy to transport and easy to handle. And because of their high velocities, rail gun missiles would be less susceptible to bullet drop and wind shift than current artillery shells. Course correction would be important, but all missiles fired from rail gun artillery would be guided by satellite.

Continue reading →