Technology reviews
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Solenoid
The term solenoid is one to be commonly found in the study of physics as well as in connection with electrical appliances. Basically, solenoid is the name given to a tightly wounded coil in the shape of a helix. To be more technical, it refers to a thin loop of wire circling a metallic nucleus.
An electromagnet is produced when current is supplied to the wire. Solenoids are commonly used for the purpose of creating controlled magnetic fields. In fact, solenoid is synonymous with a magnet used for the purpose of creating a uniform magnetic field, in which experiments are to be carried out.
Solenoid and Magnetic Fields
The magnetic field inside a solenoid is radially homogenous in nature and is independent of the distance from the axis or the cross-sectional area of the solenoid. However, it should be borne in mind that the longitudinal magnetic field is free to vary.
Similar to the magnetic field inside of the solenoid, the outside magnetic field is also uniform radially. However, this is true only in case of the magnetic field near to the centre of the solenoid.
Towards the outside of the field, the flux density will be almost equal to zero, resulting in the radii of the field approaching towards infinity. The magnetic flux density of a solenoid is calculated by the formula where μ0 is the magnetic constant, N the number of turns, i the current and l the length of the coil.
A table showing the inductance of solenoids of various lengths has been made by Dellinger, Whittmore and Ould. Inductance of solenoids that have a more complicated structure can be calculated by Maxwell’s Equation. Within certain restrictions, the same rule can also be applied to calculate the inductance of solenoids that have magnets in their cores instead if metals.
Uses of Solenoids
A solenoid can be used in a variety of ways depending on its type. While electrochemical solenoids are mostly used in paintball markers, pinball machines, dot matrix printers and fuel injectors, rotary solenoids are used to rotate a ratcheting mechanism when power is applied.
This type of solenoid was also used for making the bomb shackles during the Second World War. Besides these, solenoids are also used for controlling pneumatic and hydraulic valves, making disk drives as well as starter equipments of automobiles.
The last mentioned item can either have a separate solenoid connected to it or have the solenoid built within the system.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Fleet Management
What does fleet management mean?
Fleet Management refers to the management of the vehicles in a company’s fleet. This is a very necessary part of the maintenance and regulation of any company that uses a large number of vehicles on a regular basis.
Fleet management includes quite a large number of varied works the most important of which is vehicle tracking. This means that each of the individual units of a fleet of vehicles is constantly monitored for position, direction and cargo safety using geo physical satellites.
The other functions include vehicle maintenance, the buying of new units to replace damaged ones, driver training and management, checking for fuel efficiency and keeping up with safety measures.
The purposes of fleet management
Fleet management can help you out with a large number of things. The biggest advantage is it enables you to keep track of your vehicles. This means that you can just be sitting in your office and know exactly where each of your units are at that present moment.
Since you also get to know the direction and movement status it becomes easy for you to tell when a certain unit is over shooting its stay period at one particular stop or making an unauthorized stop for that matter.
Any damage to the cargo or leakage can also be detected. Similarly if the air conditioning is being kept on for long periods while the vehicle is not in motion you would know. All this will enable you to utilize your fleet to its maximum potential and also help in the maintenance department. You will have also reduced maintenance costs substantially.
If you are in the police or fire brigade or for that matter a service cab provider, fleet management will help you deploy your units most effective during emergencies since you will know the exact location of each of your units at all times.Advantages of fleet management
If you invest in fleet management for your vehicles, the amount you spend will ultimately come back to you. It is you who will be benefited. You already know how it can help in reducing maintenance costs. It will also help your drivers in finding directions with the minimum of time wastage. Hence you will make better time and your business will benefit from it. There is also the factor that all safety issues will be taken care of. All you need to do is get a device installed in your vehicles and an internet connection in your office. Most of the companies offering fleet management services will do that for you. Use technology to help grow your business.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Chemical Engineering
The sphere of engineering technology that deals with the process of conversion of raw materials or chemicals obtained from natural or artificial resources into more useful or valuable forms is known as chemical engineering.
The field of chemical engineering uses the applications of physical sciences such as chemistry and physics and also life sciences such as microbiology and biochemistry to achieve its goals.
Any scientific project or industrial advancement requires chemical engineering at its foundation stone because anything and everything has to be made with chemicals and materials and hand in hand with them comes chemical engineering.
Starting from the design and planning to processing and maintenance up till the end Chemical Engineering is required in each step. It has undoubtedly become the blueprint of modern day scientific technology and industrial engineering.
Chemical Engineering in Industry
In the industrial sector chemical engineering involves everything from the making, maintenance to modification (improvement) of the processes and assets of the plant.
A typical chemical plant may involve the production of large scale manufacturing from raw materials to recycling of waste materials from used products, whatever the feed and the output may be the unit operations is designed by chemical engineers.
The chemical engineering industry, using the knowledge of chemistry and technology cover a wide area of sectors such as mineral processing industry, petrochemical plants, pharmaceuticals, synthetic fibers, petroleum refining plants, alcohol production plants etc.
Especially in the pharmaceutical industry and other sectors such as food industry where final product is consumed by living beings quality is of utmost importance.
The chemical engineering department is dubbed with the responsibility of designing, supervision, construction, installation and operation of plants and equipments for manufacturing chemical products and developing new methods of production. In short chemical engineering is the skeleton of the industrial sector.
Modern Day Challenges of Chemical Engineering
The constantly growing market fed by the ever increasing demand of better products is leading to what we can call “global industrial expansion.”
However, Mother Nature is a limited resource and the continuing scarcity of raw materials and tapering supply chain, not to mention the uphill increment of production costs is making a lot of the conventional chemical engineering processes obsolete.
There is a need to design synthetic replacements for those natural resources that are in short supply.
This is where chemical engineering becomes very important as through this discipline we can develop economic ways of using materials and energy.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sintered Magnets
Sintered Magnets are a kind of rare earth magnets. Rare earth magnets are permanent magnets that are have been developed for industrial use where there is a need for very strong magnets. Traditional natural ferrous or iron ore magnets tend to lose their magnetic property over time.
They are also very weak in terms of magnetic activity.
Hence permanent magnets are synthesized artificially for various uses where permanent strong magnets are required. Now permanent magnets are usually made of the alloy neodymium. There are two ways that neodymium magnets can be created one is by sintered process and the other by bonding.
Magnets made by the former process are called sintered magnets.
The properties of sintered magnets:
Sintered magnets are made using powder metallurgy. This is of older usage than bonded magnet process. In this process the alloy is first grinded into a fine powder. This powdered alloy is mixed with a die and then in the presence of high temperature the powder is fused into a metal.
Extremely high temperatures are required for this process to be completed successfully. Once done the sintered magnet takes a very solid form. However it is brittle and can be easily chipped or broken.
But the magnetic power of sintered magnets is higher than bonded magnets as its energy product is higher.
Although sintered magnets usually require some kind of coating to prevent corrosion. The usual coating choice is a mixture of copper and nickel that has excellent anti-corrosive properties.
Quite a few thousand tons of sintered magnets are manufactured each year. This statistics shows the huge demand that sintered magnets have in the industry today. The two countries leading in the manufacture of sintered rare earth permanent magnets are Japan and China.
A reason for this popularity is of course the fact that the magnetic performance of these kind of magnets is much higher than that of other forms of permanent magnet.
Applications of sintered magnets:
Sintered rare earth permanent magnets are almost universally used anywhere where strong magnets are required. Since most of modern technology is concentrating on reducing size, magnets have to be smaller in size but it must be strong.
Sintered magnets perfectly fit this job description. Thus they are used in both desktop and laptop hard disks and both in loudspeakers as well as headphones. They are also used in magnetic guitar pick ups and magnetic bearings.
All kinds of cordless tools also used sintered magnets. But this kind of magnets finds its most extensive use in the automobile industry. Most kinds of motors use sintered magnets. Thus the magnet finds universal use. It is the most technologically advanced magnet in the market today.