3D Model Restless Legs and BPA
Eliminating BPA from my diet appears to have made a significant improvement in my RLS symptoms.
Essentially all canned foods and beverages contain BPA as do foods and beverages stored in containers made of polycarbonate (recycle code 7). A recent Harvard study showed that eating canned soup five days in a row raised BPA levels in urine almost 1300%.
For years, I've suffered from RLS. Recently, the symptoms became so severe that they were affecting my ability to work. After reading about the Harvard study and, separately, about a possible link between BPA and RLS, I decided to eliminate BPA from my diet; no canned foods, no canned drinks, nothing stored in plastic containers with a recycle code of 7. Also, no restaurant foods that may have canned origins like tomato sauces.
The change in my RLS symptoms has been dramatic. While there is no scientific proof that eliminating BPA helps RLS, it's something that's easy to do. For me, it has been well worth the effort.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
3D Model Reverse Engineering for Reshoring
3D Model Reverse Engineering for Reshoring
Laser scanning based reverse engineering is a powerful tool for reshoring.
It's sad, but true that many products being manufactured overseas were at least partially engineered overseas. It's very common for molds and tooling for US products to be designed by and be owned by overseas manufacturers.
The overseas manufacturers often develop and build tooling at "no cost" which makes it easier to get started, but nearly impossible to leave. If a customer wants to move a manufacturing operation, he or she is often faced with having to redesign and rebuild all of the tooling. Laser scanning can help.
Often the tooling development process results in small tweaks to the part design. And often these tweaks go unnoticed and don't get incorporated into the official design. Trying to build new tooling doesn't just involve redesigning the tooling, but also redesigning the part. And that's where laser scanning based reverse engineering comes in.
3D laser scanning (or X-ray CT scanning) can collect enough measurement data to completely describe a part. The scan data can then be processed with advanced reverse engineering software, like Rapidform, to create high quality, dimensionally accurate CAD models. These models can be used for designing tooling, design documentation and quality control.
Think about laser scanning the next time you're involved in a reshoring effort.
Laser scanning based reverse engineering is a powerful tool for reshoring.
It's sad, but true that many products being manufactured overseas were at least partially engineered overseas. It's very common for molds and tooling for US products to be designed by and be owned by overseas manufacturers.
The overseas manufacturers often develop and build tooling at "no cost" which makes it easier to get started, but nearly impossible to leave. If a customer wants to move a manufacturing operation, he or she is often faced with having to redesign and rebuild all of the tooling. Laser scanning can help.
Often the tooling development process results in small tweaks to the part design. And often these tweaks go unnoticed and don't get incorporated into the official design. Trying to build new tooling doesn't just involve redesigning the tooling, but also redesigning the part. And that's where laser scanning based reverse engineering comes in.
3D laser scanning (or X-ray CT scanning) can collect enough measurement data to completely describe a part. The scan data can then be processed with advanced reverse engineering software, like Rapidform, to create high quality, dimensionally accurate CAD models. These models can be used for designing tooling, design documentation and quality control.
Think about laser scanning the next time you're involved in a reshoring effort.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
3D Model Texas Medical Device Alliance and STL
3D Model Texas Medical Device Alliance and STL
I attended my second TMDA meeting on February 9, 2012. The presentation by David K. Leigh was especially interesting.
David spoke on the evolution of design and manufacturing and the role of additive manufacturing in the evolution. He also spoke of the need of and ongoing efforts to develop formal specifications for additive manufacturing processes.
Later, via email, David pointed me towards information on the ongoing development of a replacement for STL. Originally dubbed STL 2.0, it's now named AMF. The format promises to significantly increase resolution while simultaneously reducing file size. Additionally, there are discussions on adding the ability to include voxel data (3D bit-maps) commonly used by medical imaging equipment and industrial CT scanners.
David K. Leigh is the president of Harvest Technologies in Belton, Texas.
I attended my second TMDA meeting on February 9, 2012. The presentation by David K. Leigh was especially interesting.
David spoke on the evolution of design and manufacturing and the role of additive manufacturing in the evolution. He also spoke of the need of and ongoing efforts to develop formal specifications for additive manufacturing processes.
Later, via email, David pointed me towards information on the ongoing development of a replacement for STL. Originally dubbed STL 2.0, it's now named AMF. The format promises to significantly increase resolution while simultaneously reducing file size. Additionally, there are discussions on adding the ability to include voxel data (3D bit-maps) commonly used by medical imaging equipment and industrial CT scanners.
David K. Leigh is the president of Harvest Technologies in Belton, Texas.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
3D Model Reshoring with Laser Scanning
3D Model Reshoring with Laser Scanning
Laser scanning can be a vital tool in bringing manufacturing back to the US.
A customer of one of my clients wanted to reshore a line of fishing lures. Production was continuing overseas so the molds were not available. Also, due to the high level of rework required on the lures, it was felt that the overseas molds would not be adequate for US production. My client's customer chose to have new molds built here.
My client, an injection molding company, had already begun production of one lure in the series. Reverse engineering the first molds using conventional methods was very time consuming and required several mold revisions to achieve an acceptable product. Repeating the process on the other lures in the series was going to be prohibitively expensive so Reverse Austin was contacted to see if the process could be expedited using laser scanning.
My client had had less than satisfactory experience with laser scanning performed by a previous vendor. The CAD models produced were comprised of many small surface patches that included small imperfections and which were difficult to tool path.
To show my client that not all laser scanning is created equal, I grabbed an old lure from my tackle box and scanned and modeled it. Based on the results, my client agreed to have me scan and model two of the remaining lures in their customers line.
My client had SLA rapid prototypes made from the Reverse Austin CAD models
Laser scanning can be a vital tool in bringing manufacturing back to the US.
A customer of one of my clients wanted to reshore a line of fishing lures. Production was continuing overseas so the molds were not available. Also, due to the high level of rework required on the lures, it was felt that the overseas molds would not be adequate for US production. My client's customer chose to have new molds built here.
My client, an injection molding company, had already begun production of one lure in the series. Reverse engineering the first molds using conventional methods was very time consuming and required several mold revisions to achieve an acceptable product. Repeating the process on the other lures in the series was going to be prohibitively expensive so Reverse Austin was contacted to see if the process could be expedited using laser scanning.
My client had had less than satisfactory experience with laser scanning performed by a previous vendor. The CAD models produced were comprised of many small surface patches that included small imperfections and which were difficult to tool path.
To show my client that not all laser scanning is created equal, I grabbed an old lure from my tackle box and scanned and modeled it. Based on the results, my client agreed to have me scan and model two of the remaining lures in their customers line.
My client had SLA rapid prototypes made from the Reverse Austin CAD models
Thursday, December 8, 2011
3D Model Laser and X-ray CT Scanning Projects
3D Model Laser and X-ray CT Scanning Projects
I'm often asked "What is scanning used for?".
I use 3D laser scanners and X-ray CT scanners to create dimensionally accurate CAD models of physical objects (parts) and to perform dimensional analysis and non destructive testing (NDT). The parts generally fall into one of two categories; old stuff and new stuff. The old stuff usually involves CAD modeling and the new stuff dimensional analysis and/or NDT. The following are a few examples:
A foundry making investment cast fire sprinkler heads needed to increase production on an older model head. The foundry wanted a multi cavity mold that would produce wax patterns that were identical to the ones produced with the old single cavity mold. During the development of the original head, the single cavity mold had been modified based on customer requirements and the parts coming out of the mold were significantly different from the old drawings. I was able to laser scan one of the wax patterns and create a solid CAD model that replicated the pattern precisely. The customer then scaled the model for shrinkage and cut a new multi cavity mold. According to the customer, "The parts from the new mold are indistinguishable from the old".
A contract manufacturer specializing in aircraft structural components needed to machine a replacement for a 4' long section of cracked longeron from a commercial airplane. The standard procedure was to use a profile mill to machine a replacement by tracing the profile of the old longeron. The manufacturer had gotten rid of the ancient profile mill in favor of new CNC equipment and had no way to machine a new longeron without a CAD model. I was able to laser scan the cracked longeron and a plaster cast of part of the longeron still in the aircraft and then create a solid CAD model of the replacement with an integral doubler (splice). The customer machined the replacement part and "it dropped right in".
A contract manufacturer machining a family of parts for a long time customer damaged a functional gage for one of the parts. A new gage fabricated to print produced parts that weren't functional. Investigation found that many of the other functional gages weren't made to print even though parts made to them were functionally acceptable. I was able to scan and model the gages to enable the shop's drafting department to produce accurate drawings and to aid machining of new ones in the event of another mishap.
A firearms manufacturer cracked a set of forming dies used on one of its most popular pistol magazines. The dies had been tweaked to provide parts that functioned reliably and did not exactly match the CAD models originally used to make them. Prior to the accident, the manufacturer had already had me scan and model a magazine in preparation for designing new and improved dies. Unfortunately, the accident accelerated the project and necessitated a more direct approach. I was able to scan and model the old dies so that new ones could be machined immediately.
As part of a reshoring effort, an injection molding company needed to design and fabricate molds for a sporting goods item. The original molds were made to match hand carved prototypes and no drawings or models were available. I was able to laser scan and model one of the parts produced overseas so that new molds could be produced here.
A manufacturer of high end kitchen utensils was having problems with unacceptable overmolding on one of its product handles. The problem was caused by mismatch between the parts coming out of the primary molds and the overmold tooling. I was able to laser scan and model some parts from the primary molds. The CAD models included the shrinkage and warping found on the parts. The models were used to re machine the overmold tooling to precisely match the parts. This has since become the manufacturer's de facto method for debugging overmold problems.
A medical device manufacturer wanted to shorten the development time on a new delivery system. The system was an assembly of ultra precision injected molded parts with extremely small features. Previously, similar systems had required many iterations of mold tooling designs to achieve the desired product quality. Using X-ray CT scanning I was able to create very precise, ultra high resolution CAD models of the as-molded assembly components. I then 'assembled' the components in CAD and used fly throughs, sections and interference checks to determine the required modifications and eliminate many mold iterations.
The above are only a few of my scanning projects, but perhaps they give some idea as to "What is scanning used for?". For more details.
I'm often asked "What is scanning used for?".
I use 3D laser scanners and X-ray CT scanners to create dimensionally accurate CAD models of physical objects (parts) and to perform dimensional analysis and non destructive testing (NDT). The parts generally fall into one of two categories; old stuff and new stuff. The old stuff usually involves CAD modeling and the new stuff dimensional analysis and/or NDT. The following are a few examples:
A foundry making investment cast fire sprinkler heads needed to increase production on an older model head. The foundry wanted a multi cavity mold that would produce wax patterns that were identical to the ones produced with the old single cavity mold. During the development of the original head, the single cavity mold had been modified based on customer requirements and the parts coming out of the mold were significantly different from the old drawings. I was able to laser scan one of the wax patterns and create a solid CAD model that replicated the pattern precisely. The customer then scaled the model for shrinkage and cut a new multi cavity mold. According to the customer, "The parts from the new mold are indistinguishable from the old".
A contract manufacturer specializing in aircraft structural components needed to machine a replacement for a 4' long section of cracked longeron from a commercial airplane. The standard procedure was to use a profile mill to machine a replacement by tracing the profile of the old longeron. The manufacturer had gotten rid of the ancient profile mill in favor of new CNC equipment and had no way to machine a new longeron without a CAD model. I was able to laser scan the cracked longeron and a plaster cast of part of the longeron still in the aircraft and then create a solid CAD model of the replacement with an integral doubler (splice). The customer machined the replacement part and "it dropped right in".
A contract manufacturer machining a family of parts for a long time customer damaged a functional gage for one of the parts. A new gage fabricated to print produced parts that weren't functional. Investigation found that many of the other functional gages weren't made to print even though parts made to them were functionally acceptable. I was able to scan and model the gages to enable the shop's drafting department to produce accurate drawings and to aid machining of new ones in the event of another mishap.
A firearms manufacturer cracked a set of forming dies used on one of its most popular pistol magazines. The dies had been tweaked to provide parts that functioned reliably and did not exactly match the CAD models originally used to make them. Prior to the accident, the manufacturer had already had me scan and model a magazine in preparation for designing new and improved dies. Unfortunately, the accident accelerated the project and necessitated a more direct approach. I was able to scan and model the old dies so that new ones could be machined immediately.
As part of a reshoring effort, an injection molding company needed to design and fabricate molds for a sporting goods item. The original molds were made to match hand carved prototypes and no drawings or models were available. I was able to laser scan and model one of the parts produced overseas so that new molds could be produced here.
A manufacturer of high end kitchen utensils was having problems with unacceptable overmolding on one of its product handles. The problem was caused by mismatch between the parts coming out of the primary molds and the overmold tooling. I was able to laser scan and model some parts from the primary molds. The CAD models included the shrinkage and warping found on the parts. The models were used to re machine the overmold tooling to precisely match the parts. This has since become the manufacturer's de facto method for debugging overmold problems.
A medical device manufacturer wanted to shorten the development time on a new delivery system. The system was an assembly of ultra precision injected molded parts with extremely small features. Previously, similar systems had required many iterations of mold tooling designs to achieve the desired product quality. Using X-ray CT scanning I was able to create very precise, ultra high resolution CAD models of the as-molded assembly components. I then 'assembled' the components in CAD and used fly throughs, sections and interference checks to determine the required modifications and eliminate many mold iterations.
The above are only a few of my scanning projects, but perhaps they give some idea as to "What is scanning used for?". For more details.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
3D Model to Raise Taxes
3D Model to Raise Taxes
The best way to stimulate the US economy and reduce the US government deficit is to raise taxes.
Before I go any further, I want to say that I truly believe that government spending needs to be thoughtfully reduced. The government "wastes" a lot of money through lack of effective oversight and that waste should be eliminated to the greatest degree possible. But that would not stimulate the economy and would only slightly reduce the deficit.
The "economy" (US, EU, etc) is the mechanism by which goods and services are distributed. When it's working well, a very large percentage, nearly all, of the people are able to obtain goods and services in a timely manner without undue sacrifice. When the economy is working poorly, as it is now, a smaller percentage is able to obtain these benefits. What's an acceptably large percentage? What's an unacceptably small percentage? I think you and I will agree that if the percentage doesn't include us, you and me, it's too small.
Goods and services are distributed by a sophisticated and complex bartering system that uses currency (dollars) as its exchange mechanism. When I obtain goods and services from you, I exchange them for currency, which you then use to obtain goods and services, and visa versa. The currency is simply a promise to exchange goods and services. The currency has no value on its own. Without my promise to exchange something in return for currency, the currency has no value to you. A dollar without people is entirely worthless, it only has value when you and I agree that it can be exchanged for something else. Without us, you and me, the dollar is not even worth the ink and paper it's printed on, because most of our currency, most of the dollars, don't even exist - most are simply numbers in a ledger or computer - most were never printed and never will be.
Not only do we have to agree to exchange currency, we have to actually exchange it, keep it moving. If currency piles up in one or more spots, it stops working. If I collect currency from you and never exchange it, if I horde it, I've broken my promise to exchange it and it becomes worthless. When I have all the dollars and you have none, you have no reason to exchange services or goods for dollars. You would be better served by picking a new exchange mechanism, like navel lint, where you and I both start out with pretty much the same amount.
Currency has its greatest exchange value when it's moving freely. It has zero value when it stops moving. When it's moving sluggishly, like now, its exchange value is somewhere in between. Stimulating the economy means causing money to move at a rate that yields an acceptable value. What is that value? Once again, you and I will agree that it's too low if we have to sacrifice to obtain the goods and services that we need to thrive.
Right now, currency is not being exchanged at an acceptable rate, it is pooling up with the wealthiest companies and the wealthiest people. For instance, Google was recently published to have over 42 billion dollars in cash and equivalents. What will it take to get this currency moving? What about incentives? Google is already working as hard as it can to become as big as it can. Will giving Google monetary incentives, giving Google more money, cause Google to create more Jobs? Currency loses value as it pools and Google already has a really big pool. It would take a huge monetary incentive to get Google to even notice it and then they wouldn't be able to try any harder than they already are.
One way to keep currency moving and stop dollars from pooling is to take it, in the form of taxes, from those who have large amounts of it. By some estimates, for every dollar the government spends on goods and services from US companies, the GDP increases by $.70 to $1.50. Right now, the government is spending lots of money on interest because of the deficit. By raising taxes, less money could be spent on interest and more could be spent on goods and services. That spending would stimulate the economy, but so would the companies and people from whom the taxes are collected.
Corporations are not autonomous entities working on cool logic to maximize revenue. Corporations are managed by people who seek to obtain a higher standard of living. A man with a full belly has little incentive to gather food, but a man who has had a full belly and whose belly is now empty has a lot of incentive to find food. The idea that taking money from someone who is accustomed to having it is going to cause that person to want it less, to become less productive, is naïve and demeaning. The people that make our country great are not going to lie down because they have to pay more taxes, they are going to rise to the occasion and make more money to maintain their standard of living. And by doing so will create new jobs and stimulate the economy.
Stimulating the economy means causing currency to move faster and to pool less. An effective way to accomplish this is to raise taxes on currency that isn't moving. Taxing income and/or sales is counter productive - earning and spending moves currency and should be encouraged, not taxed. Collecting huge cash pools and properties should be taxed, not eliminated, just taxed. A well thought out cash, cash equivalents and property tax could benefit all, including those paying the taxes.
The best way to stimulate the US economy and reduce the US government deficit is to raise taxes.
Before I go any further, I want to say that I truly believe that government spending needs to be thoughtfully reduced. The government "wastes" a lot of money through lack of effective oversight and that waste should be eliminated to the greatest degree possible. But that would not stimulate the economy and would only slightly reduce the deficit.
The "economy" (US, EU, etc) is the mechanism by which goods and services are distributed. When it's working well, a very large percentage, nearly all, of the people are able to obtain goods and services in a timely manner without undue sacrifice. When the economy is working poorly, as it is now, a smaller percentage is able to obtain these benefits. What's an acceptably large percentage? What's an unacceptably small percentage? I think you and I will agree that if the percentage doesn't include us, you and me, it's too small.
Goods and services are distributed by a sophisticated and complex bartering system that uses currency (dollars) as its exchange mechanism. When I obtain goods and services from you, I exchange them for currency, which you then use to obtain goods and services, and visa versa. The currency is simply a promise to exchange goods and services. The currency has no value on its own. Without my promise to exchange something in return for currency, the currency has no value to you. A dollar without people is entirely worthless, it only has value when you and I agree that it can be exchanged for something else. Without us, you and me, the dollar is not even worth the ink and paper it's printed on, because most of our currency, most of the dollars, don't even exist - most are simply numbers in a ledger or computer - most were never printed and never will be.
Not only do we have to agree to exchange currency, we have to actually exchange it, keep it moving. If currency piles up in one or more spots, it stops working. If I collect currency from you and never exchange it, if I horde it, I've broken my promise to exchange it and it becomes worthless. When I have all the dollars and you have none, you have no reason to exchange services or goods for dollars. You would be better served by picking a new exchange mechanism, like navel lint, where you and I both start out with pretty much the same amount.
Currency has its greatest exchange value when it's moving freely. It has zero value when it stops moving. When it's moving sluggishly, like now, its exchange value is somewhere in between. Stimulating the economy means causing money to move at a rate that yields an acceptable value. What is that value? Once again, you and I will agree that it's too low if we have to sacrifice to obtain the goods and services that we need to thrive.
Right now, currency is not being exchanged at an acceptable rate, it is pooling up with the wealthiest companies and the wealthiest people. For instance, Google was recently published to have over 42 billion dollars in cash and equivalents. What will it take to get this currency moving? What about incentives? Google is already working as hard as it can to become as big as it can. Will giving Google monetary incentives, giving Google more money, cause Google to create more Jobs? Currency loses value as it pools and Google already has a really big pool. It would take a huge monetary incentive to get Google to even notice it and then they wouldn't be able to try any harder than they already are.
One way to keep currency moving and stop dollars from pooling is to take it, in the form of taxes, from those who have large amounts of it. By some estimates, for every dollar the government spends on goods and services from US companies, the GDP increases by $.70 to $1.50. Right now, the government is spending lots of money on interest because of the deficit. By raising taxes, less money could be spent on interest and more could be spent on goods and services. That spending would stimulate the economy, but so would the companies and people from whom the taxes are collected.
Corporations are not autonomous entities working on cool logic to maximize revenue. Corporations are managed by people who seek to obtain a higher standard of living. A man with a full belly has little incentive to gather food, but a man who has had a full belly and whose belly is now empty has a lot of incentive to find food. The idea that taking money from someone who is accustomed to having it is going to cause that person to want it less, to become less productive, is naïve and demeaning. The people that make our country great are not going to lie down because they have to pay more taxes, they are going to rise to the occasion and make more money to maintain their standard of living. And by doing so will create new jobs and stimulate the economy.
Stimulating the economy means causing currency to move faster and to pool less. An effective way to accomplish this is to raise taxes on currency that isn't moving. Taxing income and/or sales is counter productive - earning and spending moves currency and should be encouraged, not taxed. Collecting huge cash pools and properties should be taxed, not eliminated, just taxed. A well thought out cash, cash equivalents and property tax could benefit all, including those paying the taxes.
Friday, October 21, 2011
3D Model Bolt Remover
3D Model Bolt Remover
Irwin bolt removers work great.
While trying to remove the blade from a neighbor's Honda lawn mower, I broke a 6 point 14mm socket wrench and rounded off the bolt head in the process. I went to the local home and garden store and picked up a set of Irwin bolt removers. I used a hammer to tap the 14mm remover onto the bolt head and then tried to remove the stuck bolt. I wasn't successful, but not because of the Irwin bolt remover, it didn't slip a bit. With a 18" breaker bar and a 12" cheater pipe, I was afraid that I was going to break off the bolt if I applied any more torque.
Irwin bolt removers work great.
While trying to remove the blade from a neighbor's Honda lawn mower, I broke a 6 point 14mm socket wrench and rounded off the bolt head in the process. I went to the local home and garden store and picked up a set of Irwin bolt removers. I used a hammer to tap the 14mm remover onto the bolt head and then tried to remove the stuck bolt. I wasn't successful, but not because of the Irwin bolt remover, it didn't slip a bit. With a 18" breaker bar and a 12" cheater pipe, I was afraid that I was going to break off the bolt if I applied any more torque.
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