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Category: transportation – Page 70

Researchers have developed an ingenious air-powered soft valve circuit system devoid of electronics, showcasing its utility in a drink dispenser and its durability as a car drives over it.

The 3D-printed valve system showcases how well soft devices without electronics can work, even when facing challenges that could turn off regular robots.

According to reseachers at the University of Freiburg, its integration into everyday applications heralds a new era in robust and adaptable robotics. Soft circuit devices, which are flexible and don’t use metal, can handle damage much better than those with delicate electronics. They can survive being crushed or exposed to harsh chemicals without breaking.

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Performance Factors Include Spike Geometry

This technology is perfectly suited to the spike plates in bobsleigh, which, until now, was essentially off-the-shelf. 3D printing opens up entirely new possibilities. Performance factors such as geometry – where exactly the spikes placed, the number of struts and teeth, and the weight can be efficiently varied. The spike plates can be printed quickly and inexpensively, tested by athletes until the optimal result is achieved. There is no longer a standard; the efficiency of the process allows for the production of individual plates for each athlete. The ongoing optimisations are expected to be completed by the 2026 Winter Olympics. The experts are also targeting the stiffness of the plates and, consequently, the shoes because not every athlete performs best with the same shoe stiffness.

Another milestone in this journey was reached this year. Various materials for 3D printing are now available for the spikes, tested by athletes. The use of special construction software is also new. It is utilised to optimise components for vehicles as well as equipment for BMW Group production systems in terms of weight and stiffness. This software also aids engineers at the BMW Group in designing the spike plates. It allows for the rapid, automated, and, above all, individually tailored creation of the respective 3D print data. The preferred parameters of each athlete – such as geometry, stiffness, number, and shape of spikes – are automatically incorporated into the design and adapted to the individual plates, based on 3D scans of the athletes’ shoes. This algorithmic design process results in significant time savings and maximum variability.

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Engineers and material scientists have been trying to develop increasingly advanced devices, to meet the growing needs of the electronics industry. These devices include electrostatic capacitors, devices that can store electrical energy in a dielectric between a pair of electrodes through the accumulation of electric charge on the dielectric surfaces.

These capacitors are crucial components of various technologies, including electric vehicles and photovoltaics (PVs). They are often fabricated using polymers as dielectric materials, synthetic substances made up of large organic molecules with good intrinsic flexibility and insulating properties.

Researchers at Tsinghua University and other institutes in China recently introduced a new strategy to fabricate filled with subnanosheets exhibiting highly advantageous properties. Their proposed method, outlined in a Nature Energy paper, allowed them to fabricate a 100-meter-long roll of a polymer-based subnanocomposite film.

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We finally got our first look at the new all-electric Porsche Macan EV this week. Porsche’s electric Macan features a 100 kWh battery pack that will reportedly be supplied by China’s CATL.

Ten years after debuting the SUV, Porsche revealed the all-electric Macan Thursday. The electric Macan is Porsche’s second EV, after the Taycan and the first fully electric SUV to wear the iconic badge.

The Macan EV is also the first existing Porsche model to receive an electric upgrade. With 87,355 Macan models handed over last year, the SUV plays a critical role in Porsche’s lineup.

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To make things even more interesting (or weird), there’s a mime (yes, you read that right) in the middle of the street, somehow unfazed by all the surrounding water, who reacts in a way only a mime could (we don’t know what those moves mean, so take that as you may).

Taking both X posts into consideration, there are about 1,000 comments–some say the car would malfunction in a matter of minutes, others say that nothing will happen, while some referred to Elon Musk’s words from 2016 when he said that “the Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time.”

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