Macro Sensors, US-based manufacturer of LVDT Linear Position Sensors and Rotary Position Sensors, offers a bi-polar version of its DC-operated LVDT linear position sensors. Operating from ±15 V DC input, the HSD/HSDR 750 Series Hermetically Sealed LVDT Position Sensors offer a precalibrated 0 to ±10 V DC output that is ideal for easy integration with PLCs, digital indicators, A/D converters, computer-based data processors and QC data collection systems. Read the rest of this entry »

Meyya Meyyappan of the NASA Ames Research Center and speaker at Metromeet 2009,  picks out some of his favourite papers from Nanotechnology . This year marks the 20th volume of Nanotechnology, the first journal dedicated to the emerging field of nanoscale science and technology, pre-empting the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) by ten years.

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In the fast growing market for wind power systems, quality assurance according to international industrial standards has become an important issue. Wind power plants are no longer a niche playground for environmental proponents, but a serious business where cost efficiency, life cycle costs, reliability and availability of the components must be considered. Coordinate measuring machines play a vital role in ensuring the accuracy and quality of components.

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Developments in the manufacture of polymer micro optics are helping optical designers to meet the exacting tolerances that are required for miniaturized optical components and subsystems.

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From the motion sensor to the computer chip - in many products of daily life components are used whose functioning is based on smallest structures of the size of thousandths - or even millionths - of millimetres. These micro and nano structures must be manufactured and assembled with the highest precision so that in the end, the overall system will function smoothly. Read the rest of this entry »

The necessity to measure precisely, together with the development of complex surfaces, or of surfaces that cannot be touched during the process, trigger the development that the use of contactless technologies for detection and measurement is currently living through. Sensors of multiple shapes and sizes, based on different functioning principles, are being launched on the market. Read the rest of this entry »

An inexpensive and high-resolution microscope has for the first time been engineered to fit onto a single chip. The performance of the device is comparable to a 20x microscope, but in terms of size, cost and ability to mass produce, the device has significant advantages. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we will see  a revolutionary new white reflectance standard for metrology. This new reflectance standard is a breakthrough in terms of cost, simplicity and unique environmentally friendly disposal process. This new white standard will have broad impact in the fields of photonics, digital photography and color measurement and is available for immediate commercial and research use. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists in the US have copied the way the retina sends electrical signals to the brain in order to construct nanoscale colour detectors. The devices, composed of carbon nanotubes decorated with photosensitive molecules, can detect very weak sources of visible light at specific wavelengths and could have applications in astronomy and biology. Read the rest of this entry »

Integrated circuits routinely produced by microlithography have feature sizes as small as 65 nm, well below the traditional diffraction limit for the exposure wavelength of 193 nm. Achieving this level of performance requires using a number of techniques to bypass the resolution limitations posed by the wave nature of light. Read the rest of this entry »