Collaborate Disseminate
[Christopher Helmke] is doing fantastic work in DIY systems for handling small hardware like fasteners, and that includes robotic placement of hardware into 3D prints. Usually this means dropping nuts …read more Continue reading Embed Hardware Into 3D Prints, But Not In The Way You’re Thinking
It’s easy to forget that structures such as bridges, wind turbines and scaffolding are held together by screws which could come loose … with catastrophic results. The new Smart Screw Connection system is designed to warn authorities before that happe… Continue reading Fraunhofer “smart” screws transmit a warning when they’re loosening
When you think of machines you see around you every day, you probably think about your car, computer, or household appliances. However, the world is full of simple machines. One …read more Continue reading Tech in Plain Sight: Tough as Nails
The hooks in so-called “hook-and-loop” fastening materials (such as Velcro) are usually quite stiff, meaning they may damage other materials as they’re pulled apart from them. Such is not the case, however, with a new mushroom-inspired alternative.Cont… Continue reading Mushroom-inspired fastener is kinder and gentler than Velcro
A Saturday afternoon. The work week was done, the household chores were wrapped up, and with almost a week left until Christmas, there was just enough wiggle room to deny that there was still a ton of work left to prepare for that event. It seemed like the perfect time …read more
We’ll admit most of us are more comfortable with solder and software than mechanical things. However, between robots, 3D printers, and various other mechanical devices, we sometimes have to dig into springs, belleville washers, and linear actuators. Unless you are a mechanical engineer, you might not realize there’s a lot …read more
Liquid two-part resins that cure into a solid are normally used for casting, and [Cuddleburrito] also found them useful to add strength and rigidity to 3D printed pillar supports. In this case, the supports are a frame for some arcade-style buttons, which must stand up to a lot of forceful mashing. Casting the part entirely out of a tough resin would require a mold, and it turns out that filling a 3D print with resin gets comparable benefits while making it easy to embed fastener hardware, if done right.
Filling the inside of an object with some kind of epoxy …read more
Continue reading These 3D Printed Supports Can Take Hard Use, Thanks to Resin Filling
As a species, we’ve done a pretty good job at inventing some useful devices. But as clever as we think we are, given sufficient time, natural selection will beat us at our game at almost every turn. So it makes sense that many of our best inventions are inspired by nature and the myriad ways life finds to get DNA from one generation to the next.
Velcro is one such design cribbed from nature, and the story behind this useful mechanism is a perfect example that a prepared mind, good observation skills, and a heck of a lot of perseverance …read more
They hold together everything from the most delicate watch to the largest bridge. The world is literally kept from coming apart by screws and bolts, and yet we don’t often give a thought to these mechanisms. Part of that is probably because we’ve gotten so good at making them that they’re seen as cheap commodities, but the physics and engineering behind the screw thread is interesting stuff.
We all likely remember an early science lesson wherein the basic building blocks of all mechanisms laid out. The simple machines are mechanisms that use an applied force to do work, such as …read more