Injection molded plastics have revolutionized design, innovation, and manufacturing in the 20th century. Before 1950, most products were manufactured in stamped steel, die-cast aluminum, zinc, and ...

In part one of this two-part article, design engineer Michael Paloian outlined the first four milestones of a product-design project, ending with the “cornerstone” of the product-design cycle — ...

Editor's Note: An updated version of this information can be found here. What exactly is computer-numerical-controlled (CNC) machining? It’s a means to make parts by removing material via high-speed, ...

Injection-molded plastic part design is a lot like parenting. The job falls into your lap, you have zero qualifications, and yet, you are supposed to do it perfectly while blindfolded. It's difficult ...

Designers of composite parts can choose from a huge variety of fiber reinforcements and resin systems. Knowledge of material properties is a prerequisite to satisfactory product design, but cost is a ...

Micro-injection molding focuses on producing small, high-precision parts and components with micron tolerances. Designers who are bound strictly by a set of rules will stymie their own capability and ...

Industrial transportation supplier Hutchinson (Paris, France) developed front and rear axles made from glass-reinforced composites for the Peugeot 208 FE, a hybrid electric concept car. The switch ...

In Part 1, I discussed the background behind lock-in amplifiers. Here, I’ll cover analog and digital lock-in amplifiers, software-defined radio, de-embedding, and the hardware and software ...

OpenSCAD has a lot of fans around these parts — if you’re unaware, it’s essentially a code-based way of designing 3D models. Instead of drawing them up in a CAD program, one writes a script that ...