Useful iPhone app for tubing assemblies

I'm often impressed by the knowledge and skill of people who design and build hydraulic systems. The power and control capabilities of these machines is truly impressive, but some of the skill that goes into them looks like a work of art.

There's just something about an array of tube assemblies parallel and with elbows perfectly aligned. I've made a few tubing assemblies for my home's plumbing system, so I can appreciate the skill and expertise that go into cutting a tube to just the right length, bending it to a precise 90°, and assembling it into a perfectly (or in my case, less than perfectly) aligned assembly.

I just learned of a new tool that should make work easier for designers of tubing assemblies — a new iPhone app. Looks like it's quite useful, and it's free. Developed by tube bending machinery specialist Unison, the calculator lets users quickly and easily determine the tooling needed for performing a particular bending task on any type or make of tube bender. By simply entering the bend radius, tube diameter, and wall thickness (in metric or imperial units), users can instantly gain a clear visual representation of the type of mandrel and wiper die they will need to achieve a perfect bend.

Compatible with any iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad running IOS 4.0 or later, the tube bending tooling calculator will be regularly updated with new features and functions. Already under development are user-selectable tube profiles and material types — such as steel, stainless steel, copper, etc — that will allow machine-specific calculations, such as bending force requirements.

Version 1.0 of the calculator can be downloaded free of charge from Apple's iTunes App Store. Go to iTunes, click on App Store, then enter tube bending tooling calculator into the search window Users are also encouraged to sign up for free updates and to suggest future enhancements to Unison by emailing apps@unisonltd.com.

New iPhone app helps wth hydraulic calculations

A new iPhone app from In Situ Hydraulic Experts, a French hydraulic consulting company, is now available for download at the Apple Store. The app helps with unit conversions and equivalence values for hydraulic pumps, motors, and cylinders. It also helps you calculate motor and mechanical pump power.

As an example, fields are given for hydraulic pump technical specifications, such as displacement, rotational speed, volumetric efficiency, theoretical and actual flow, pressure, and hydraulic power. Users simply enter data, select calculate, and the app quickly displays solutions.

In Situ says this is the first of many fluid power iPhone apps it intends to release.

Visit the Apple Store here to download the app or visit In Situ for more details.

Hydraulic fluids from the rain forest

David Sundin, Ph. D., is a chemist and chemical engineer who’s a partner at SVB Environmental Lubricants, a Brazilian company that manufactures an environmentally friendly hydraulic oil from trees and other plants that grow in the Amazon rain forest.

I know, you’re probably thinking “Great, another company exploiting the world’s precious rain forests.” But as Dave points out, just the opposite is true. Dave says that among the raw materials that SVB uses are oils from nuts and seeds collected from various trees along the Amazon. The trees themselves are not harmed in any way. In fact, the market for plant-based hydraulic oil and other industrial fluids increases the trees’ value. Therefore, the trees are less likely to be cut down for less lucrative enterprises. Furthermore, Brazil’s government recognizes the economic value of this blossoming market, so it is getting involved to further protect the area from deforestation.

Dave says oil extracted from a particular part of a palm tree seed, for example, is extremely high in vitamin E. Vitamin E happens to be an excellent antioxidant, which gives the oil very high oxidation stability. Rapeseed (Canola) oil has generally been considered the best performing hydraulic oil derived from plants. But Dave says that the oxidation resistance of palm and other tree oils allow them to be used at higher temperatures and have a longer service life than is possible with rapeseed oils.

Furthermore, Dave says the wide variety of oils available in the Amazon area allows blending different oils together to make products with specific characteristics for individual applications. Using a single oil, on the other hand, usually requires enhancing the base oil with synthetic additives or processes to achieve the desired fluid properties.

However, hydraulic oil is just a small part of this new industry. Dave said the jatropha plant grows throughout the area and looks like a cross between a broad leaf weed and a grass, similar to bamboo. Its oil is toxic to humans, but it makes a great biodiesel fuel. Furthermore, because it is native to Northeast Brazil, it can be grown in areas unsuited for food crops, becoming a renewable and economical energy source. Greases and lubricating oils are also part of the family.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Dave says SVB’s hydraulic oils are already being used in oil rigs off the west coast of Africa and in the North Sea. These are extremely environmentally sensitive areas, and although caution is taken to avoid leaks and spills, the oils are almost completely biodegradable and don’t leave a sheen when spilled on water. However, if a spill does occur, operators don’t have to immediately go into panic mode.

What this means is that SVB and other manufacturers offer highly biodegradable, vegetable-based fluids that don’t require sacrificing equipment performance, reliability, or longevity. So I guess you could say we’re enjoying a bumper crop of environmentally compatible hydraulic fluids.
To view David's article, click here.

Spanky and Alfalfa — Now They Were Innovators

Probably the most enjoyable lecture I've ever attended was by George McFarland at Lakeland Community College. You may already know that McFarland played Spanky in the old Our Gang and Little Rascals comedies produced by Hal roach and MGM Studios in the 1930s and 40s.
McFarland (Spanky) explained that Our Gang typified how kids grew up before the age of television; they had to find their own ways to entertain themselves. This usually meant brainstorming about starting a secret club or building some sort of exotic vehicle from items rescued from a junk pile.
Spanky showed a film clip that revealed the prime mover of the Gang’s fire chief’s car. In that car’s engine compartment was a cage with a cat inside. The cage was positioned in front of a dog, which, of course, tried to chase the cat. But the dog was held stationary by a harness, so its running motion was transferred to a treadmill, which, in turn, powered the car’s wheels.
We would certainly question the practicality of this humorous setup, but it does illustrate a solution that kids who had no access to an internal combustion engine would use to solve a problem. Before television, kids across America resorted to innovative (thought more practical) tactics like this in order to amuse themselves.
It’s no wonder, then, that American industry benefited from the carry-over of this innovation. When kids from this pre-television era grew up into adults, they already had creative design experience even before entering college. Moreover, I believe that this mechanical inclination becomes lifelong when it is etched into the inquisitive mind of a child.
Which brings me to my point. Read any current magazine discussing industry, and you’re bound to learn someone’s opinion of what has caused the U.S. to lose ground as the industrial leader of the world. Certainly video games and the internet cannot be singled out as the main reason for our lost ground. If kids would rather play video games, surf the net, or text their friends than use their ingenuity to entertain themselves, blame parents, not digital technology. Besides, there are plenty of good materials out there that educate and encourage children to figure out concepts. So point to today’s lifestyles as a main reason why so many kids shoot for MBAs and law degrees instead of engineering and sciences.

Everyone wants in on the action

The Great Recession has claimed countless jobs and shrunk businesses. We are now supposed to be in a recovery phase, although growth is expected to be rather slow. Strong businesses survive and are look for areas to expand during periods of growth, either through acquisitions or through “organic” growth — where new business sprouts and grows from an existing profit center.

The very strong businesses are in position for the most growth because they have gained market share during the hard times. This may have stemmed from advertising or other marketing strategies or by introducing innovative new products that resulted from maintaining research and development — or both.

Other companies seem to be looking to expand by grasping at straws. Recently I came across a publication containing a fluid power section — essentially about eight product descriptions. Problem is, only about half were products that would normally be used in hydraulics or pneumatics technologies. If it was a pump or a valve, I guess the editors assumed it fit into fluid power technology.

Ever since Hydraulics & Pneumatics debuted in 1948 as Applied Hydraulics, we have not lost sight of our focus: to cover fluid power technology. But we’re like any other business; to survive, we must evolve with the times — and I think we have. We’ve been increasingly covering electronic control since before I joined the H&P staff in 1987. We’ve also increased the frequency of our coverage how fluid power interacts with the environment. And as the world has embraced digital technology, we launched our website way back in 1997. Since then, we’ve responded with frequent additions to our website: videos, countless links, forums where you can communicate with colleagues, social networking at multiple levels, and useful information on fluid power technology and the industry.

We plan on keeping our focus on fluid power as long as it remains a relevant technology. So don’t look for us to start a new section on Silly Bands in hopes of attracting some new ad dollars. But, seriously, we do our best to bring you the most relevant information about fluid power technology, so you’re not likely to see us waste any space describing chemical process valves or sewage pumps.

These are a few of my favorite formulas

I always find it interesting how people from outside an organized group expect characteristics of individuals within the group to conform to a stereotype. For example, when I played on and managed a men’s softball team, one of our team members was a pediatrician. I found it unusual that a pediatrician would play on a men’s softball team. My stereotypical perception of doctors would have their preferred recreation to be playing 18 holes of golf at a private country club every Wednesday with other doctors.
I suppose many people have formed stereotypical opinions of engineers. When I was in college, the stereotypical engineering student wore a calculator on his or her belt -- yes, I knew a girl who did this. And in extreme cases, he (I never saw the girls do this) used a plastic pocket protector to hold a variety of writing and drawing utensils. Of course, many -- maybe even the majority -- did not fit this stereotype. But one characteristic I think the majority of engineering students shared was a keen interest in what makes things work.
Suppose, then, you were an artist who had been commissioned to produce a painting that captured the essence of engineering. I found such a piece in a calendar from National Engineer’s Week. I didn’t really need a new calendar, but I thought I’d page through it to check out the artwork for each month. An image I found particularly interesting was the one for November, which is reproduced here.
This piece depicts a wide variety of engineering fields, such as rail transportation, space exploration, energy generation and transmission, and agriculture. However, one, and only one, equation appears in the illustration – it’s e = mc². Have you ever used this equation in the course of your job? Of course, I can’t speak for all engineers, but I’ll bet less than 1% have ever actually applied this familiar formula.
So what formula would best represent the work done by engineers? My favorite is x = 1/2at² + vt + x. Now, I realize this equation might seem too complicated to incorporate into artwork. So my second choice would be F = ma. This equation is even simpler than e = mc² and has far more practical applications.
Of course, those in the electrical world would probably lobby for E = IR, which, again, has far greater application than e = mc². While we’re at it, those involved in fluid power would likely vote for F = PA.
Considering all the different fields of engineering, it would be difficult to reach a consensus about a single representative equation. But I don’t know of any group that would promote e = mc², except, of course, the proverbial rocket scientists. And most of them probably wore calculators on their belts when they were in college.

The huge potential of exhibiting at trade shows

I once read a piece about the merits of exhibiting in a trade show, and it’s stuck with me for more than 15 years. The material can be applied to visiting a trade show as well as exhibiting at one. The author, Steve Miller, president of The Adventure LLC, presented a series of calculations to indicate the financial success of exhibiting at a show. I was intrigued by the hypothetical situation he described that seemed reasonable and logical.

It starts by multiplying the total number of hours a show will be open by the number of salespeople working the booth. If the show will be open 8 hr/day for three days, and you two salespeople will attend, you’ll rack up a total of 48 person-hours. Okay so far. You then multiply this figure by the number of prospects you expect each salesperson to garner each hour. Steve suggested six leads per person per hour, which seems excessive to me, but even if two is used, the final result is still impressive.

If we use the suggested 6/hr, we would finish the show with 288 qualified leads (48 X 6). Now, if an average of 10% of a company’s qualified leads result in a sale, and we multiply this figure (we’ll round it down to 28) by the average annual sales per customer, and the average number of years a customer stays with the company, we’ll end up with a total return on the investment for exhibiting at the show.

Steve’s hypothetical example assumes average annual sales per customer at $5,000, and that the average customer lasts 10 years. Our end result, then, would be $1.4 million generated by exhibiting at the show (28 X $5,000 X 10). Even 1 1/2 leads/hr would return $350,000.

Perhaps a similar type of extrapolation can be applied to attending a trade show. You invest your time away from work plus travel expenses. What you gain are ideas from dozens of exhibitors gathered in a single place. You can:

* compare one vendor’s apples to another’s

* look for solutions to current problems, and even look for better solutions to problems you’ve already solved

* learn how application problems similar to yours— but from other industries — were solved (opportunities to share ideas with colleagues may occur relatively often, but trade shows present an opportunity to cross-pollinate problems and solutions between industries), and

* take a few minutes to learn about companies or technologies you hadn’t investigated or even heard of before.

I’m not sure how to calculate the success of attending a show, but you might find something if you check out Steve’s website, at www.theadventure.com