Impressive Agricultural Technology

AgriHouse Inc. provides intriguing technology designed to boost agriculture. I particularly like the leaf sensor products which make turgidity readings and the linked activation of watering systems possible without damaging plants. It looks like a boon to those growing crops in arid climates.

Innovative Technology Sources

Pelonis Technologies, Inc. is an innovative source of products like fans for commercial and industrial useage. They tout their ability to meet both large and small scale needs.

Minnetronix, Inc. is an innovative player in the medical field. Minnetronix manufactures medical products which include cardiovascular devices, therapeutic devices, diagnostic instruments, implantable devices and monitoring equipment.
Their customers include medical device companies having software and electronics-based products.

VisionCare Inc. plans to market prosthetic telescopes which would be implanted by an ophthalmic surgeon.

Increased Demand for Direct-Drive Linear Motors

Rising demand for direct-drive linear motors is an article appearing at Engineer Live citing a report at IMS Research which notes the healthy growth in the market for direct-drive linear motors. The market for direct-drive linear motors in medical, test and measurement, and photovoltaic machinery industries has increased notably within the last two years and continued growth in these sectors is expected to continue.

Detecting Hazardous Conditions

Laurus Systems, Inc. supplies radiation detection devices of interest to medical imagary enterprises, the nuclear industry and the military. Products include dosimeters, air sampling equipment, chemical detection equipment and software. The company is located in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Small Power Generators

New Generator Produces AC Current by Stretching Zinc Oxide Wires is the title of a news release of Georgia Institute of Technology. The article discusses tiny electric power generators producing alternating currents by taking advantage of piezoelectric properties of zinc oxide structures. The idea is to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Researchers anticipate that small generators will power devicess used by medical sensors as well as areas like defense technology and consumer products. The local environment would supply power needs, eliminating the necessity of an external power source. This quote does much to explain:

To boost the current produced, arrays of the flexible charge pumps could be constructed and connected in series. Multiple layers of the generators could also be built up, forming modules that could then be embedded into clothing, flags, building decorations, shoes – or even implanted in the body to power blood pressure or other sensors.

When the modules are mechanically stretched and then released, because of the piezoelectric properties, the zinc oxide material generates a piezoelectric potential that alternately builds up and then is released. A Schottky barrier controls the alternating flow of electrons, and the piezoelectric potential is the driving force of the charge pump.

“The electrons flow in and out, just like AC current,” Wang explained. “The alternating flow of electrons is the power output process.”

Better Bagging

Sometimes technological progress can overcome product disadvantages. Some American manufacturers have outsourced bags, used for bulk material like salt, sugar and animal feed, to manufacturers in China. As the linked article at Motion System Design indicates, bags can have irregular dimensions. This is problematic for handling by automated machinery.

Engineers of Thiele Technologies Inc., located in Minneapolis and a packaging equipment manufacturer, found a way to precisely position empty bags for the filling process. The system automatically compensates for dimension variations. The source of the custom electric screw linear actuators, which make the automatic compensation possible, is Tolomatic Inc., of Hamel, Minnesota.

Mimicking the Gecko

Mimicking Gecko Feet: Dry Adhesive Based on Carbon Nanotubes Gets Stronger, with Directional Gripping Ability is a news story showing the direction in which adhesive technology is heading. The inspriration for this is none other than the gecko; an animal made into a household name by the Geico Insurance Company which runs some clever commercials. The idea is to mimick the gecko's ability to exploit attraction forces on an atomic level enabling the gripping of surfaces. Polymer or carbon nanotube structures have been targeted by researchers in the mimicking attempts. A more detailed account is available at Georgia Tech Research News.

MRI Technology to Diagnose Breast Cancer

Aurora Imaging Technology Receives FDA Clearance for Spectroscopy Technology is an encouraging article for those interested in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Aurora Imaging Technology Inc. is based in North Andover, Massachusetts and is dedicated to the development of MRI technology geared to the fight against breast cancer. It has obtained permission from the FDA to make its Aurora Breast MRI available to perform imaging to detect and diagnose breast disease. For more information visit this website.

M2M Systems

Five Questions to Ask When Designing an M2M System is an article appearing at Sensors. M2M is an acronym for machine to machine and refers to machines that communicate with each other and do so without the need for human intervention. It is a technology expected to experience great growth in the next ten years. By that time there could be more connected machines than there are people on earth today i.e. six billion connected machines.

The article is intended to direct the thinking of those involved in the design of M2M systems. To that end five questions are posed and readers are guided to answers that are applicable to their particular circumstances.

Another Means of Generating Hydrogen

The article Hydrogen Fuel from Formic Acid informs us of a new way of generating hydrogen gas. The source is formic acid and the related research was conducted at the Leibniz Institute of Catalysis in Rostock, Germany. Formic acid has a number of uses. For example, it has been used to treat tracheal and varroa mites in honey bee hives.

Hydrogen, obtained from formic acid, could be used as a source of power for cell phones and laptops although useage in connection with vehicles does not appear to be likely soon. Formic acid is broken down into hydrogen and carbon dioxide at a low temperature range of 26-40 degrees centigrade. Amines are mixed with formic acid and a ruthenium-based catalyst used to treat the mixture. The amine/formic acid mixture is safe.

An advantage of formic acid is the ability to use it directly in a fuel cell. It's drawback is that other sources of hydrogen, like methane and methanol, yield more hydrogen so they can result in greater energy yield per unit measure.

Newer and Better Batteries

There may be a technological breakthrough soon that will enable the use of renewable energy to fuel the demands of power grids throughout the world. As the linked article notes the problem with renewable energy sources, like sunlight and wind, is a lack of continuous energy flow. Sunlight is not available 24 hours a day and it is not always windy. Storage of energy has been problematic because the batteries needed have been too expensive and their useable lifetime too short.

An Australian organization known as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) may be getting us closer to overcoming the obstacles facing renewable energy with what is dubbed as a hybrid battery. So called Smart Storage battery technology may be the sought after solution. The hybrid battery would combine a standard lead-acid battery with an asymmetric supercapacitor electrode which could rapidly absorb and release charges. This in turn would allow for a steady release of power as needed by power supply systems. Performance increase is estimated to be 50 per cent greater with respect to the charge and discharge of power. There is also a predicted three fold increase in lifetime for the new batteries as compared to the older lead-acid versions. Another positive effect would be environmentally favorable recycling advantages expected from the new technology.

For more information about battery innovations see the linked article in Technology Review which features a report titled Special Reports Better Batteries. There are multiple links to different types of batteries in different developmental stages.