Advantages of Laser Welding by Andrei Smith

In recent years, the use of laser beams in welding has steadily increased due to continuous demand for precised steel products in construction and other industrial purposes. Due to many of its advantages, the technology of laser welding is being used in a wide variety of applications in the metal fabrication industry. Many welding experts are now recognizing how efficient laser welding is when it comes to producing better quality fabricated metal products at better productivity and much lower cost.

One of the main advantages of laser welding is its versatility. It is applicable for combining welding steel structures or miniature electronic materials in excess of 1 inch thick. Laser beams are not used only for cutting thick steel plate, they are also capable of cutting other pieces of metal, from structural metal, pipe steels to aerospace components, with magnificent power ranging from hundreds of watts to 60 kilowatts. In fact, weld lines can be as narrow as 0.1mm (0.004 inch).

A typical laser welding equipment consists of a laser beam generator, beam-directing optics to transfer the beam to the work and focus it to the needed spot size and power density. It also has a workstation that normally contains a workpiece handling machine that may either feature automatic or manual loading and unloading. The sophistication of laser welding technology allows stainless steel, ferrous metals and even alloys to be joined themselves or each other.

Another advantage of fabricating metal with a laser is the capacity to engrave and cut at the same time. This means that better productivity, welding speed and accuracy in fabrication are achieved. Laser beams can also produce good-looking welds without post-processing. Many laser welding machines these days have the ability to create welds that are full penetrating and with improved material strength without undergoing any finishing operations.

Moreover, laser welding creates a low heat affected zone, hence causes minimal welding distortion in the metal. It is even safer than other forms of mechanical cutting such as router cut signs or saw cut signage. Working with laser beams doesn't require physical contact and there's no unsafe cutting edge which can become contaminated by the metal.

How does Cold Transport Work? by Rob Perissi

In the not so distant past, shipping temperature-sensitive and perishable products over long distances relied on the use of real ice and its obvious limitations. Today, advancements in cold shipping technology combined with rapid delivery options from shipping companies have made it possible to reliably ship perishable items much longer distances. Products such as meat, fish, produce, chocolate, pharmaceuticals and other perishable goods can now be shipped across the country or across the world without compromising their integrity.

The use for cold transport technology is vast. The medical industry relies heavily on cold shipping technology to transport medicine, vaccines and other biological materials. Perishable foods such as meat, produce and chocolate are exported and shipped all over the world using the same or similar technologies. The specialized supply chain involved with transporting temperature sensitive products is called the cold chain. The cold chain refers to an approach to logistics in which the temperatures of goods are controlled throughout all phases of transportation including loading, shipping, unloading and storage.

Dry ice makes it possible to ship refrigerated packages while keeping their contents cold, but newer cold transport technologies have eliminated some of the drawbacks involved with shipping dry ice. Packages shipped with dry ice require compliance with stringent packaging protocols and must be marked with a hazard class 9 label, UN 1845. While dry ice is still widely used for shipping temperature sensitive products, innovations in cold shipping technologies have made cold shipping safer and eliminated the need for the hazardous material designation.

Water-based gel refrigerants such as the Ice Brick™ Shipping Pack from Nortech Labs have emerged as the next generation in cold transport. These water based refrigerants are designed to provide a safer, non-toxic alternative to dry ice that does not require the hazard class 9 label. The versatility of cold shipping packs makes them ideal for diverse applications, from complex cold chain activities to shipping chocolates to your mom. With many countries across the world relying on cold transport technology to export billions of dollars in perishable goods, manufacturers will undoubtedly continue to advance this logistically critical technology.

Parking fine printers provide simple solution to parking problems by Andrea Percival

We think of Fefalu in sicily with its famous Norman-Arabic Cathedral as a romantic holiday destination, famous for its narrow winding roads and beautiful beach.

But every weekend, particularly during the holiday season, there is a huge influx of traffic which creates a difficult problem for the local government authority. So great is the number of cars and vans that it even becomes dangerous to walk along the streets and parking has become a huge problem.

Over recent months, the Traffic Wardens have been issued with a portable parking fine printer to issue parking fines on the spot. The thermal printer weighs less than 400 grammes, including battery and paper roll. IrDA and RS232 communications are included and flash memory is available for a variety of downloadable options, including fonts, graphics and forms.

The use of wireless technology (wireless LANs, Bluetooth and Infra-red) plus low-cost handheld computer systems powered by Windows CE and Palm operating systems and enabling more front line workers to complete transactions and issue parking fines and receipts at the location of issue.

Traffic Wardens issue around 500 parking fine tickets per day in the summer season, contributing a substantial credit to the government's budget. The parking fine printers scheme has also been replicated in many other locations throughout the world.

Read the original article about parking fine printers

NTFS Disk Recovery by Data Recovery Tools

Data recovery tools has announced Windows NTFS/NTFS5 partition recovery program provides complete scanning of logically damaged hard disk and locate corrupted files, folders, lost Microsoft office documents, hidden snapshots, movies, audio files, images and other sensitive data. NTFS disk restoration program retrieves information from different data loss reasons like lost master boot records, invalid partition table, hardware or system software malfunction, power failure and corrupted operating system. Vista NTFS partition recovery tool restore different files formats such as TIFF, JPEG, PCT, GIF, MPA, WMA, AVI, ASX, WAV, MOV, PNG, BMP, 3gp, MPEG, MIDI, MID, RIFF, PSD, AVI, xls, ppt, doc, jar, html and txt etc. Deleted NTFS file restoration program rescue important and sensitive files from different NTFS supported storage media such as USB drive, flash drive, zip drive etc. Data salvage software repair bad sector of various NTFS disk drives such as SCSI, ATA, IDE, SATA, EIDE etc. Windows NTFS recovery application easily fetches data from formatted hard disk and rebuilds the encrypted system files. Rescue software is compatible with NTFS and NTFS5 file system and easily installs on all windows operating system like 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, VISTA etc. Features: * Provides recovery of compressed/encrypted files, root directory. * Restore lost Microsoft office document, power point ppt, excel xls document, word doc, Access mdb etc. * Utility is read only, non-destructive and GUI (Graphical User Interface) based application. * Salvage data even after permanent deletion (shift+delete), hard disk formatting and improper system shut down has been performed. Comapny Details: Company Name :Data recovery tools Company URL : http://www.data-recovery-tools.org Download URL :http://www.data-recovery-tools.org/downloads/ntfs-data-recovery-demo.exe

PVC Compounds - Applications & Products by Clifton Flack

PVC's intrinsic properties make it suitable for a wide variety of applications. It is biologically and chemically resistant, making it the plastic of choice for most household sewerage pipes and other pipe applications where corrosion would limit the use of metal.

With the addition of impact modifiers and stabilizers, it becomes a popular material for window and door frames. By adding plasticizers, it can become flexible enough to be used in cabling applications as a wire insulator.
Clothing

PVC has become widely used in clothing either create a leather like material or at times simply for the effect of PVC. PVC clothing is common in Goth, Punk and other alternative fashions as well as in Fetish wear. PVC is cheaper than rubber, leather or latex and so it is more widely available and worn.

PVC fabric has a sheen to it and is waterproof. It is commonly used in coats, jackets, aprons and bags because of this.

Electric wires, PVC is commonly used as the insulation on electric wires; the plastic used for this purpose needs to be plasticized. In a fire, PVC-coated wires can form HCl fumes; the chlorine serves to scavenge free radicals and is the source of the material's fire retardance. While HCl fumes can also pose a health hazard in their own right, HCl dissolves in moisture and breaks down onto surfaces, particularly in areas where the air is cool enough to breathe, and is not available for inhalation.

Hoses, roughly half of the world's PVC compounds are manufactured annually for producing technical hoses and industrial tubing for various applications. In the water distribution market it accounts for 66 percent of the market in the US, and in sanitary sewer pipe applications, it accounts for 75 percent. Its light weight, high strength, and low reactivity make it particularly well-suited to this purpose. In addition, PVC pipes can be fused together using various solvent cements, or heat-fused (butt-fusion process, similar to joining HDPE pipe), creating permanent joints that are virtually impervious to leakage.

In February 2007, the California Building Standards Code was updated to approve the use of chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) pipe for use in residential water supply piping systems. CPVC has been a nationally-accepted material in the US since 1982; however, California has only permitted its use on a limited basis since 2001. The Department of Housing and Community Development prepared and certified an Environmental Impact Report resulting in a recommendation that the Commission adopt and approve the use of CPVC. The Commission's vote was unanimous and CPVC has been placed in the 2007 California Plumbing Code.

In the United States and Canada, PVC pipes account for the largest majority of hose materials used in buried municipal applications for drinking water distribution and dairy tubing needs. A detailed State-of-the-Art review of PVC pipes in North America can be found in an article titled Thermoplastics at Work: A Comprehensive Review of Municipal PVC Piping Products.

Celstream simplifies Mobile Photo Printing with the iPrintApp™ by Anand Kuppuswamy

Application enables users to directly print photos captured on their Apple® iPhone™ or iPod™ devices to any printer via a wireless network

Celstream's iPrintApp™ is a revolutionary Mobile Printing application that simplifies the process of printing photos captured on an Apple® iPhone™ or iPod™ Touch device. iPrintApp eliminates the server application required by current iPhone printing applications enabling users to print photos on-the-fly to any printer located on a WiFi network. Users no longer need to go through the cumbersome process of having to transfer images to a computer and then print. Printing photos from the iPhone or iPod Touch is now as easy as making and receiving calls!

Celstream's iPrintApp also eliminates the need for cabling, USB and Bluetooth drivers, as well as the complexities, incompatibility and non-availability associated with these devices. With a few simple clicks, users can select and print photos from the iPhone or iPod Touch photo gallery, including photos taken directly from the device's camera or transferred from a Mac or PC-compatible operating system. Celstream's iPrintApp is compatible with Apple's OS X platform. Photos are printed directly to any networked printer supporting PostScript™, or USB printers that use Mac SharedQueues, located within their current WiFi network. iPrintApp leverages Apple's Bonjour technology to automatically detect any compatible printers within the WiFi network.

Some of the key features and benefits offered by Celstream's iPrintApp include:

• Ability to print multiple photos on a single sheet.
• Ability for the user to select up to 12 images per print job.
• Automatic layout management that rotates images while keeping the image aspect ratio intact for best fit.
• Print preview function that enables the user to delete or reselect images while using the resize option to zoom or shrink images as desired.
• Ability for the user to accept an incoming call while using the application. The state of the application is saved so that the user can continue using the application once the call is complete. The same feature is applicable if the "home" button is pressed prior to printing.

Mobile photo printing is expected to grow at a rapid pace with users having the freedom and flexibility to wirelessly print photos captured and/or stored on their iPhone and iPod devices.

Printer manufacturers and Print Service Providers can leverage this trend to increase print sales volumes and attract this new set of customers. Celstream can customize and package the iPrintApp into printers and MFDs to enhance its value and provide end users with new features, experiences and possibilities. Some of these enhancements include:

1. Adding more imaging features
2. Customizing the current working of the application to suit your specific needs
3. Creating a complete package of the application integrated with your current workflow
4. Creating a comprehensive, easy-to-use, end-user product that has high utility value

More information on iPrintApp can be found at: http://www.celstream.com/engmntmodels/iprintapp.htm

Availability

Celstream's iPrintApp™ is available now for download from the Apple App Store for $1.99.

About Celstream Technologies Ltd.

Celstream Technologies is a successful, global Product Engineering Services company with a rich heritage in product co-development partnerships. Celstream offers complete product life-cycle development services and solutions to technology companies in the Print & Publishing, Media & Entertainment and Consumer Electronics industries. Headquartered in Bangalore, India, and with customers across the globe, Celstream combines the best software talent, world-class processes and cutting-edge technology expertise to deliver engineering excellence to customers. More information on the company can be found at www.celstream.com.

High Wind Penetration (Caribbean) by James Post

The past decades, wind energy has been the underdog in energy world, where government subsidies and idealists were the main driving forces. The rapid increase of oil prices, global warming concerns and oil dependency made the need for subsidizing obsolete. In small markets the situation is even more severe as the fuel cost per kWh is amongst the highest due to the small size of the operations. With a highly favorable wind regime it is no wonder that the Caribbean is now seen as a key market for wind energy. However, current plans are not very aggressive, aiming at a net wind penetration of up to 20%. While this is better than nothing it does not really address the underlying concern and is more a sign of good will than truly solving the issue. The example situation described below shows a typical island energy situation. Many islands face severe financing limitations and therefore often chose the PPA path (Power Purchase Agreement), where an independent power producer (IPP) supplies renewable energy. In cases where the wind penetration is initially set at 15-20%, the vendor with the lowest price per kWh may win the concession. But, there is a string attached -and it's a big one-. Most traditionally designed windmills are aimed at low wind penetration. Their natural behavior destabilizes the grid, simply because the wind comes not constant, but with fast rising peaks. As long as the grid is stable enough this works well -for low wind penetration-. But it also closes the door for higher wind penetration and that's the real pitfall. There are state-of-the-art windmills out there that first convert AC to DC and then generate a highly defined AC. For the specialists: this opens the door to compensate an inductive grid -which it usually is- by a programmable cosine phi, in addition to frequency support. But the AC/DC/AC process has another significant -until now less recognized- feature: the ability to stabilize the output of the wind generators. As long as the nominal output of the wind generators is less than about 80% of the base (minimum) load, a large capacitor bank will do the job and convert the peaks caused by the wind in a smooth output. That is a major winning point for the AC/DC/AC based systems as this allows the wind penetration to be roughly double -without further measures-! This more than justifies the higher cost of these best-of-class windmills; not even counting the other positive effects as described above. But, there is more. To obtain really high wind penetrations, energy storage is necessary. Typical solutions involve energy storage of 4-8 hours [of the peaks]. This allows to control the diesel plant and let it run in the most optimal fashion, i.e., at 80% load or even switch off in a high wind situation. These windmills are indeed able to run stand-alone! Because of the stabilization measures needed to support a higher wind penetration, the cost per kWh increases with wind penetration. However, as the effective kWh cost (mix of wind energy cost and diesel cost) goes down with every step, high wind penetration really pays. The reason why the energy industry in the Caribbean is not particularly moving forward towards high wind penetration is the same reason why wind energy in the region lagged behind. This is understandable as this is a complex matter, but I am glad to report that there are some utilities whom -assisted by external specialists- have seen the 'high wind' light. Another issue that need to be clarified is reports that say the maximum size that can be installed in the Caribbean is 900 kW. However, the state-of-the-art windmills are in the 2 MW range. This statement was true for monopole designs where large cranes were necessary that even made installing the 900 kW windmills a challenge, while traditional lattice towers were considered to be too maintenance-prone. However, in recent years (the recommendations originate before that) new tower constructions were developed, based upon the traditional lattice tower, but with tubular segments. Compare it to a high tech Eiffel tower... The weight is less than a third of the tubular tower at improved strength and without maintenance issues! By placing a top crane on the top of the tower that can lift up the very heavy generators etc., the main crane only needs to have a capacity of 18 tons, even less than required for 900 kW tubular towers. The 2 MW wind generators have the extra advantage as having a higher tower. A 100 meter tower makes economic sense with a 2 MW, but a 900 kW stops at 65 meter for the same reason. That difference mean significantly more wind. For good order, with the high wind penetration it may be necessary to upgrade the diesel plants (and if applicable hydro) as the central control system must be able to switch them on or off or at a particular (efficient) load. These costs have not been brought forward here, but neither are the savings associated with these measures. Finally, for those markets with hydro power installed, pumping up water to the reservoir before the hydro plant, is a very attractive energy storage option, cheaper than any other form of energy storage. Renovations may be required to be able to switch the plant on and off, in addition to pumping water but these costs are very acceptable compared to the savings. CONCLUSIONS · High wind penetration is no longer an unreachable wish, but a technically feasible and economical solution To keep the path to high wind penetration open for tomorrow, the right decisions need to be taken today · The initial investment in the first Megawatts of state-of-the-art AC/DC/.AC windmill capacity may be higher than traditional wind turbines, but it already pays off in the first stage of high wind penetration, not even considering the positive effects on the grid. · Advanced 2 MW windmills can be installed in Caribbean islands using the latest tower and lifting technology. · For markets that (will) have hydro, the high wind penetration is the only sensible choice offering dramatic savings.