SolidWorks Legion

SolidWorks World 2011 Keynote speakers announced

Two men who helped save the Apollo 13 crew 40 years ago by finding ingenious solutions to catastrophic mechanical problems will headline SolidWorks World 2011, the world’s largest gathering of the engineering and design community. Their heroics provide an inspirational example of engineering under pressure.

In April 1970, more than 200,000 miles from earth, Apollo 13 sustained a sudden failure of its cryogenic oxygen system. Commander Capt. James Lovell Jr. and his crew successfully modified the craft’s lunar module into an effective “lifeboat” to provide power and water for an emergency return to earth. Gene Kranz, lead flight director, headed the ground-based “Tiger Team” that helped coordinate the successful detour.

Their actions earned Lovell and Kranz Presidential Medals of Freedom. The pair will tell their stories at SolidWorks World, which takes place Jan. 23-26, 2011, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. This year’s event is the 13th annual gathering of customers, partners, resellers, and employees of Dassault Systèmes (DS) SolidWorks Corp., maker of software for design, simulation, data management, technical communications, and sustainability assessment.

“I faced the ultimate challenge when imparting the words ‘Houston, we have a problem,’” says Lovell. “But we all face challenges – some life-threatening and inescapable, others more routine. I look forward to sharing my story and learning about the unique challenges faced by DS SolidWorks’ customers.”

“Throughout my career I have seen the role teamwork plays in assuring ultimate victory in any circumstances. DS SolidWorks as a team provides engineers and designers with the tools they need to build products for which, as in aeronautics, ‘failure is not an option,’” says Kranz. “I am interested to see firsthand how SolidWorks enables its customers to solve problems in a variety of industries.”

See the SolidWorks World website for more information about this year’s conference.

Vote for your ideas to improve SolidWorks

Without much fanfare, a new feature was added to the SolidWorks Forum under the SolidWorks World area. Its called Ideas. Heres a link (you’ll need to be logged into the forums to gain access to this area). In this new tab, you’ll be able to create and vote on ideas on how to improve SolidWorks. Presumably, the most popular results will be presented at SolidWorks World 2011. So, if you have some zany ideas on how to make SolidWorks better, go to Ideas and submit your idea. Be sure to vote for great ideas submitted to others.

As of right now, it appears that the most popular Idea tag is “Drawing” and the second most popular is “Drawings”. I think that speaks volumes about where SolidWorks needs to be focusing their resources to improve SolidWorks. Happy voting!

Black Chem-film (mythical)

An old joke in the Engineering field is to send the newbie to go find some impossible thing. Unfortunately, black chem-film is asked for seriously at times.

An old joke in the Engineering field is to send the newbie to go find cable stretchers on the manufacturing floor. Someone searching for black chem-film can feel just like that poor newbie. Chem-film goes by other names, such as chemical conversion coating, iridite, or alodine (some of which are trademarked terms). However, putting the word black in front of any of those will provide very disappointing results.

Chem-film is sometimes used instead of anodizing as a protective finish for aluminum. Chem-film leaves a coating that is conductive to electricity. Though an anodized surface may also be conductive, chem-film is more so.

A chem-film finish is typically yellowish or gold in appearance on aluminum, but may also be brown, gray or blue (depending on the substrate). This is not the result of dyes. Lighter processing can result in a clear finish. Either way, the surface color comes from variations within the process itself, and not the result of any coloring additives. Factors such as the reaction of the substrate with chromic acid, temperature, inhibitors, concentration, promoters, time, surface finish, and accelerators all play a role in the final surface color. This contrasts with anodizing, which may be dyed to intentionally achieve a variety of colors.

Be cautious of a vendor that says it can provide black chem-film. They may be using the term chem-film very loosely (i.e., incorrectly). That said, if a vendor can legitimately produce a black chem-film coating on an aluminum substrate, they are invited to comment on this article. Of course, I will ask that verification to any such claims be included within the comment, along with confirmation that results are compliant with MIL-DTL-5541F other similar standards.

~~On a side note, there may actually be black conductive coatings available for aluminum. If I can get confirmation, I’ll mention those at a later date.~~

Reference: MIL-DTL-5541F (.pdf)

MIL-DTL-5541F does not support idea of Black Chem-film.

SolidWorks World 2011 update

SolidWorks World 2011 breakout and hands-on sessions are now available for those registered to attend. Even though this announcement was just made earlier this week by SolidWorks Corp, many hands-on sessions are already full. This usually happens very quickly each year, as seating is very limited in those presentations.

Monday SolidWorks World 2011 schedule

This year, I’m presenting a breakout session entitled Establishing CAD Standards within the SolidWorks Environment. The session will cover general areas that require documentation that are essential for establishing company CAD standards within an engineering environment that utilizes SolidWorks. It’s going to be on Monday afternoon. Press events usually make Mondays very busy for me at SolidWorks World. Now that I’m presenting on that Monday in 2011, it is likely going to be all the more busy. If you attend my session, don’t be suprized if I’m out of breath from all the running that I’m going to have to do. Hmm, maybe I should start working out again to be ready?

If you are interested in attending SolidWorks World 2011 and not yet registered, please see the SolidWorks World 2011 website for more details. 2011’s special event for SolidWorks World attendees promises to be…well, you decide.

Clear hard anodize finishing (mythical)

Once in awhile, I’ll run across a requirement to use a specification that isn’t physically possible. Something I see from time to time is the request to apply the specification of a clear hard anodize finish to the drawing of an aluminum part. This makes me chuckle (unless the requester is thoroughly convinced that this mythical beast really exists).

A hard anodize (Type III) finish is intended to provide wear and abrasion resistant surfaces with improved corrosion protection due to greater thickness and weight than common anodizing (Types I and II). The goal when using hard anodizing is to have a wear index of 1.5mg/1000 cycles, according to MIL-A-8625F.

An anodize finish on an aluminum part is achieved by growing an aluminum oxide layer on its surface using direct current through an electrolytic solution, with the aluminum object serving as the anode. The current releases hydrogen at the cathode and oxygen at the surface of the aluminum anode, creating a build-up of the aluminum oxide. The voltage required by various solutions may range from 1 to 300 V DC, although most fall in the range of 15 to 21 V.

Common methods apply an aluminum oxide layer that is .00002 – .001″ thick. A clear appearance remains as the thickness approaches .0006″ thick. Thicker than that, the layer darkens to a bronze, gray, or black color (depending on the purity of the aluminum substrate). At .0017″, the color is very pronounced. Hard anodize specification calls for .0020″ (+/-20%) thickness. This is far above the point where the anodizing process produces a colored finish. Another factor is that of temperature during the process. Hard anodizing requires the process to occur as a much lower temperature for the harder surface (higher process temperature = softer surface). Additional coloration occurs due to the lower temperatures required by the hard anodize process.

Although a balance may be struck between hardness and clearness, the specification of clear hard anodize is not an achievable specification in a strictly technical sense. Any compromise to get close to this specification is going to have some color and reduction in hardness or durability.

Reference: MIL-A-8625F (.pdf)

Tuesday Two: Nano Power Power

Tuesday Two

mPhase’s superhydrophobic porous silicon membrane nanotechnology based battery is much smaller and lasts longer traditional batteries.

Let’s replace off-shore oil rigs with off-shore wind farms! Many Siemens AG wind turbines are found the Lillgrund Wind Farm, located about 10 km off the coast of southern Sweden.