Designer's Corner

By John Lewis, Regional Editor -- Design News, October 19, 1998

Flat flex line

DeviceNet's molded-cordsets require extensive up-front engineering. And traditional round cable isn't rated for continuous flex applications. Lower-cost flat media cable uses insulation displacement connection (IDC) technology to simplify the process of attaching nodes on the network and is rated at 1.5 million cycles in 4-inch rolling C-track.

Users can place a two-piece tap anywhere along the cable. As the two pieces are connected by four screws, blades pierce the cable to connect the upper half of the tap which contains traditional DeviceNet connectors--micro, mini, or open.

Users simply clamp connectors at desired locations--eliminating cable cutting, stripping terminations, and connecting junction terminals. It also reduces up-front engineering time required to pinpoint drop points, and simplifies last minute design changes.

Larry Fischer, Allen-Bradley
Two Executive Dr.
Chelmsford, MA 01824
(978) 446-3477.

Cooling Hercules

Heat dissipation limits both rotary- and linear-motor performance. But cooling linear motors is much more challenging without the large surface area and finned cylindrical metal housing of rotary designs.

Fans, mounted on top of the moving coil's heat sinks and powered by a patented technology that doesn't require additional wires, provide forced convection to cool MFM's Hercules series linear motors.

The company claims this thermal management configuration offers the same efficiency as motors that are either air or water cooled, and eliminates the need for hoses.

Glen Bythrow, MFM Technology
200 Thirteenth Ave.
Rokonkoma, NY 11779
(516) 467-5151.

Piezo bat damper

Baseball bats are prone to vibration, especially during off-center hits which frequently result in "sting." As the point of ball contact moves away from the bat's sweet spot (roughly six inches from the hitting end), hit-ball speed decreases while vibrations increase.

Developed in conjunction with Worth Inc., the Copperhead ACX reduces vibration using a piezo damper--an electronic shock absorber that converts mechanical vibration energy into electrical energy. This energy is applied across a "shunt" circuit to dissipate the energy as heat.

Brian Mulcahey
Active Control eXperts Inc.
215 First St.
Cambridge, MA 02142-1227
(617) 577-0700.

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