The Department of Energy is circulating a list of some of the things it did this year. "Over the past year, the Department of Energy accelerated the drive toward our clean energy economic and security goals, creating tens of thousands of jobs and helping the country to lead the way in science and innovation," DOE said in its "Year-End Update."



Here is DOE's list:



Recovery Act



The Department of Energy was allocated $32.7 billion in grant…

We've all heard talk of how desperately the nation's power grid need updating. Although we have the technology to generate much of the US's power from wind and solar energy, we don't have the infrastructure to store or transmit it.…

PCs and PLCs are getting more powerful with multicore processors. Proponents of EtherCAT claim that this network is suitable for handling the amount of data possible with centralized control schemes.

Distributed control was the best strategy for the technology during the 1980s, ‘90s and even into the beginning of this century. But now technology has advanced. Several discussions at various shows I’ve attended revolved around distributed versus centralized control.  So is it time to…

What is DFMPro?

DFMPro is an easy-to-use design for manufacturability (DFM) tool for designers and manufacturing engineers that is seamlessly integrated into leading CAD platforms like SolidWorks® and Pro/ENGINEER®. It facilitates upstream manufacturability validation and identification of areas of a design that are difficult, expensive or impossible to…

AC drives (frequency inverters, variable speed drives) are widely used in the industry, for energy conservation & better process control. We can find ac drives (frequency inverters, variable speed drives) in many applications, such as pumps, fans, compressors, paper making, food, steel, oil. And there are single phase and three phase frequency inverters.

There are different kinds of frequency inverters with different…

I got shocked from the light switch last night. I saw the little arc from my finger to the light switch and felt the extra voltage behind it. It jump-started my memory of stories from customers about what static electricity has caused in their surroundings...

People tell me about seeing the arc hit someone from a foot away - OUCH! And then to have someone speak about getting hit anywhere unmentionable - that just adds to the ouch factor. They have seen holes burned in clothes…

We've heard of various solar power projects and devices, but here are two especially interesting ones where you probably wouldn't expect them: a Christmas tree lot and the Vatican.…

In case you haven’t noticed, the world of marketing has been rapidly changing. Thanks to social media and the free flow of communication and word-of-mouth capabilities, marketers are finding new, better, and

moreefficient ways to reach their target market.

One emerging marketing tactic that is catching on is “collective buying” or more commonly called “groupons”. The term “groupon” most likely comes from the site…

In the era of Facebook, Google , Twitter and Yelp (an extensive product review site), buyers have as much control over the flow of information they receive as salespeople have available to them. The process of buying was once a one-way interaction between an informed seller and a curious buyer, but it has now become a conversation between equals, and the revolution in buying behavior…

Euromold 2010 has now come and gone, so here’s a quick look at some of the news announced during the show.

The price of 3D printers is in the spotlight again. Objet launched two new desktop 3D printers starting at $19,900. The Objet24 suits the office environment, providing low-cost 3D printing without compromise on model detail or functional versatility. The Objet30 prints a range of materials. More information is available at:…