MD_Fastening and Joining Monthly_: Accurately predicting O-ring swell

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April 27, 2009

Earth Day has just come and gone, but these days no one needs to be reminded to save energy or money. Machine Design's Energy Efficiency Web Conference can help you do both at the same time.

Learn more about the implications of recent energy mandates, compare technologies and products from an energy efficiency standpoint, and network with engineers and suppliers with the same goals, all without leaving your desk. And no need to worry about getting management approval for travel, time away from the office, or seminar fees!

On May 14th, Machine Design will offer a full day of live, educational webinars and interactive virtual booths. Register here to get more information and access the web conference. And stop by Machine Design's virutal booth on the 14th to chat with the editors and learn more about what we're up to.

For now, read on for more information about correctly sizing O-rings for joints, permitting steering columns to collapse for safety, and keeping up clamping force in your bolts. Don't forget to scroll down for new products, upcoming Machine Design events, and industry news.

As always, please share your comments on the articles that appear on machinedesign.com, on our forums, or by email.

Happy energy savings,
Jessica Shapiro

Articles

Accurately predicting O-ring swell

For more than 60 years, engineers specifying seals and customers using them have accepted the arbitrary rule that the maximum amount O-rings will swell in most applications is a 25% change in volume. But today, given the sophisticated test and analysis tools available, experts began to question why engineers still relied on a general rule of thumb.

To verify or disprove this rule, Simrit conducted extensive testing to establish volume-swell relationships between common seal materials and industrial fluids.
Read the full article.

Unit Conversion Tool

Convert popular spring units such as force, or retaining ring thrust capacities, into metric units with Smalley's new engineering tool. A simple conversion tool allows for units to be converted such as mass and weight, angular measurements, velocities, temperatures, pressures and densities and more. Additional engineering tools allow engineers to design custom wave springs and Spirolox® retaining rings. Smalley has over 9,000 standard sizes available from stock, ¼" to 16" diameters. Custom designs can be manufactured from .200" to 90" with No-Tooling-Charges™.

www.smalley.com

Joining a steering column for safety

Steering columns connected to hardware mounted in the front of the vehicle can be hazardous. In front-end crashes, for instance, the column can be forced into the driver’s chest, causing death.

To reduce the risk of this happening, Ididit, Tecumseh, Mich. worked with USA Tolerance Rings, Pennington, N.J., to design and construct a collapsible steering column. The resulting design is a two-piece component with a flanged tolerance or collapse ring fitted between the two tubes. The outer tube holds the ring while the inner tube slips axially inside it.
Read the full article.

Making sure bolts keep clamping

A bolt that loses its clamping force is next to useless, and many of today’s common methods for securing bolts fall in that same category, according to the engineers at Nord-Lock Inc., Muskegon, Mich. Their bolt-securing system, a pair of special washers, uses the tension of a wedge-locking method instead of friction to secure bolted joints. It withstands the Junker vibration test and meets DIN 56151. When the washers are properly installed and the bolt is tightened, serrations bite into the bottom of the bolt head and mounting surface to stop the washers from turning.
Read the full article.

New Products

Ceramic-metallic putty

Pyro-Putty is a high-temperature ceramic-metallic putty that seals joints and repairs defects in cast aluminum, cast iron, steel, and stainless steel. The putty, formulated from advanced organic and inorganic ceramic resins, resists temperatures to 2,000°F. Typical applications include afterburners, boilers, castings, exhaust stacks, flanges, furnaces, incinerators, ovens, heat exchangers, pumps, blowers, piping, ducting, turbines, and manifolds.
Aremco Products Inc.

Thermal epoxy

EP37-3FLFAN, a thermally conductive and electrically insulative potting compound, is designed for applications requiring a dielectric heat-transfer adhesive. This two-part epoxy is strong and has a high degree of flexibility that holds up well to temperatures up to 250°F and in cryogenic environments down to 4K. The adhesive features a 25-Btu thermal conductivity and a 1×10¹⁴-Ω-cm volume resistivity. The compound cures at room temperature and forms tough bonds that resist shock, impact, thermal cycling, and chemicals.
Master Bond

Weld cap sensors

WTS10 weld cap sensors check the quality of welding cap fronts and detect faults such as inclusions, faulty dressing, or burrs. These diffuse-mode sensors provide stability against discrepancies in the cap’s position and angle. Upper and lower welding caps are checked simultaneously and provide prefault (near the limit) indication for proactive maintenance. A pushbutton teach mode facilitates quick and easy sensor programming.

The sensors have a scratch-resistant mineral glass lens, provide ±2-mm position and ±1.5° tilt-angle tolerance, and a consistent 2 to 12-mm detection range, regardless of the cap’s length or if it is brand new or a fully dressed tip. Highly visible LEDs provide status indication for “good,” “prefault,” and “fault” weld-tip status.
Pepperl+Fuchs

News from MD

Energy Efficiency Web Conference & Expo –
May 14

Do you know you can get in-depth education on energy-efficiency and all the benefits of an in-person trade show without ever leaving your desk or spending a dime?
The intelligent use of energy is making headlines. Product designers and manufacturers are striving to deliver products that consume less power, extend battery life, generate less heat, or work from alternative energy sources. Our Energy Efficiency Web Conference and Expo will educate design engineers, product developers, and managers on how to make the best use of energy-efficient product innovations and devices, and on how to arrange them in systems to lower power consumption and stay "green." This special one-day event will include sessions on such areas as:

Power-efficient drive techniques for lighting
ROI for high-efficiency capital equipment
Energy monitoring and energy standards
Designing for SEMI S23 and the Energy Act of 2007
Working with alternative power and battery technology

Make plans now to attend the Energy Efficiency Web Conference and Expo. The event offers a full day of live webinars and interactive booths, along with a Resource Center where visitors can download or link to additional materials.

Register Now!

Machine Design Video Spotlight

	Membrane Switches for Harsh Environments
	Joseph Schwartz from The Bergquist Co. shows Lee Teschler of Machine Design magazine the advantages of heat-sealed membrane switches over pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) membrane switches in harsh environments.

Ask the Experts - Software for your Design Process

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UPCOMING WEBCASTS

Understanding Key Power Transmission Technologies:
Comparing Belt, Chain & Gear Drives for OEM Projects
Sponsored by Rexnord
DATE: May 28th, 2009
TIME: 2:00pm ET/11am PT

OEM design teams are under pressure to juggle technologies with specifications with the outcome always being a great new or improved product. Many of these projects have Power Transmission components at their core and the wrong technology can really hurt the end product.
Dennis Missun and Nick Derus from Rexnord have gathered information about the critical issues that need to be considered when deciding between belt, chain and gear drive technologies for applications requiring 5 lbs – 100 lbs of force.

The course will cover

Torque Density: comparing key rating systems AGMA & ISO
Application considerations: impact of thermals, friction and vibration
Basics of sizing & selection: information to right-size components
Other Project/End Customer Considerations
Live question/answer session with presenters

Click here learn more and to register!

ARCHIVED WEBCASTS AVAILABLE FOR FREE VIEWING

Click Here for a list of archived Machine Design webcasts.

Industry Update

PennEngineering introduces CSI program
Fastener company PennEngineering has introduced the PEM Cost Savings Investigation (CSI) Program. The program is a free service that helps companies cut their products' and designs' total assembled cost and identify better ways to achieve assembly-related economies and efficiencies.

CSI Program teams completely disassemble any supplied product and document every procedural step in writing and with photographs as evidence. The team assembles a confidential report with recommendations on improving overall assembly costs including reductions in loose hardware, production steps, or assembly time.
For more information, contact PennEngineering

Video: Shaft-component fastening
Stock Drive Products' and Sterling Instrument's Fairloc integral fasteners are demonstrated in a two-mintue video. The fasteners join rotating components to shafts and are said to solve phasing, timing, positioning, and frequent removal problems. The patented system offers built-in overload protection, full use of the bore, easy adjustment, and compact self-contained design.

The video, titled “Fairloc , The Integral Fastener,” is available at the SDP-SI website or on YouTube. A catalog featuring 3,405 products, including inch and metric Fairloc fasteners, hubs, spur gears, timing belt pulleys, couplings, shaft extenders, shaft collars, and dials is also available at the SDP-SI website.

Energy Efficiency Web Conference & Expo –May 14

Machine Design Video Spotlight

Ask the Experts - Software for your Design Process

Check Out the New Machinedesign.com

Energy Efficiency Web Conference & Expo –
May 14