Technology & Industry blog
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Technology and Evolution
Technology is a term that is broadly used and highly misunderstood. It is the art of, or skill that is based on the underlying principle of a certain field of knowledge. This results in the creation of tools or machinery that area appropriate to manipulate the system in question. In electric motors, it is understanding…
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Design Integration and the Future of Design
There are a number of definitions for the word ‘design’. A broad definition is based on conceiving or planning something. The object of the design could be anything, a building, a park, a homestead, an electric vehicle, you name it. Design can also include the process of fabricating the item, so all of the techniques…
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Not ‘Industrie 4.0’, Work 7.0 (Intro)
It sounds impressive, was started by a bunch of doctors of philosophy, and it’s imported from Europe. Industrie 4.0, is very fancy and all the rage around in the press that covers the world of industrial automation. Personally, I think it’s just a giant marketing campaign to stimulate sales of automation control systems. Alleging itself…
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Manufacturing in the 21st Century
Manufacturing is still the largest sector in the US Economy, notwithstanding the disrespect shown by some politicians who ought to know better. Manufacturing accounts for 20% of all economic activity, about $5.8 Trillion dollars. That’s big. Even bigger is the change in manufacturing that is currently taking place. There are several major trends occurring the…
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Alternative Energy and Storage
The alternative energy industries have been struggling to define how solar and wind power sources can become reliable sources of power in the context of the mainstream utility grid. Hopefully everyone knows that solar and wind are energy sources that are only present when there is daylight and wind. Kind of obvious, but the practical…
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What’s wrong with wind power?
There are great expectations of wind power. Ai??Untold taxpayer money has been spent through Federal subsidy programs. Ai??The technology has been touted as a major element of the energy supply system in the US and many parts of the world. Ai??Wind power has some serious problems to overcome if it is to be everything it…
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Where does electricity come from?
When you flip a light switch in your home, the lights come on. That’s how things work. We pretty much take it for granted. We rarely question how it really works behind the scenes. It’s very cool that it does, but there is an enormous amount of machinery and manpower that is required to make…
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Electric Cars are Coming
There were 96,000 electric cars sold in the United States in 2013. So says Green Car Reports, and you can read some of the details at the following link; Electric car sales in the US are up approximately 50%. Some forecasters are expecting similar growth in 2014. This should be great news to everyone who…
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Wind Power Needs Better Design
With all the emphasis on how important wind power is to the future of energy supply, it is surprising to me that we haven’t seen a variety of dedicated generator designs. There are a few, but only a few. Maybe this is because the magnetics of generator design are not a popular topic in engineering…
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American Entrepreneurship
In my travels, I continue to find people hard at work doing something that has never been done before. With the hope of making a profit while doing it. Just such a situation came up recently when I met with the owner and founder of Transcon Steel. Among the mainstays of an industrial economy is…
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