According to Terry Elvidge, "We export over 80 percent of our machines - many of our customers are first tier suppliers to the automotive industry in central Europe and Asia - which means that worldwide support is a critical factor to our success. The global nature of Festo's operations assists us in this area by providing highly responsive technical support and spares services wherever we do business. We have also found that moving to a single source of supply for our principal automation components has made ordering and parts tracking much easier."

Festo's Bionic Learning Network
Bionic Learning encapsulates the Festo brand, raising awareness across a broad range of contacts and attracting talent to the company. Exploring the links between nature and technology opens up new innovation fields and demonstrates complex ideas in a stimulating and fun way. Festo works with an alliance of internal R&D, external educational establishments and specialist companies, to advance the development of bionic solutions for automation applications of the future. For more information about Festo's Bionic Learning Network, view website: www.festo.com/gb/bionics

Festo profile
Festo is a leading international supplier of automation technology. With its innovations and problem-solving expertise in the field of pneumatic and electrical automation, the company has established itself as the performance leader in its sector.

Festo's innovative strength is demonstrated by around 100 new products which it launches every year, as well as its R&D ratio of 8.5% and the 2,900 patents it holds world-wide. Its new approach to product development, using bionics and biomechatronics within the framework of the Bionic Learning Network, represents a true first in the field of automation technology.

For further information about the company's products and services, view website: www.festo.co.uk

New solutions for Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue using nCode DesignLife

nCode, the leading brand of durability, test and analysis products offered by HBM, announced today that new solutions for thermo-mechanical fatigue calculations will be available in the next release of nCode DesignLife software. This enables a wide range of high temperature durability simulations and will be available at the release of nCode version 8.

nCode DesignLife uses stress and temperature results from industry-standard finite element software and provides CAE durability simulation to estimate component life in these extreme operating conditions. Building upon previous projects with industry partners investigating available thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) methods, this commercial software implementation in nCode DesignLife 8 will provide cost-effective tools that can be used to solve real-world design problems.

"An important consideration for the selection of technology for thermo-mechanical fatigue was the availability and practicality of the required materials tests,"  commented Dr. Andrew Halfpenny, Chief Technologist for nCode software. "These new methods can use standard and relatively inexpensive constant temperature fatigue and creep tests. We have also focused on optimising the numerical methods to ensure rapid analysis time and accuracy for life prediction."

Components in high temperature operating environments such as engine manifolds, pistons and exhaust systems can suffer from complex failure modes. At temperatures above 30% of the melting point, the steels and alloys used in these cases can "creep", causing a progressive stretching (increasing strain) of the component under constant load. Other complicating effects include the oxidation of the metal, which also affects the operational strength of the material.

The implemented methods include the Larson-Miller creep model and Chaboche methods for creep and fatigue, and also combined creep-fatigue interaction. The required materials data can be provided through a Materials Testing service available from HBM-nCode at their ISO9001 certified laboratory in Derbyshire, UK. "This unique combination of software and services for CAE simulation and materials testing for thermo-mechanical fatigue illustrates the clear leadership position nCode has in the durability market," said Steve Tudberry, Vice-President of nCode products.

The power and ease of use of HBM technologies is a direct development and improve design. The power and ease of use of HBM technologies is a direct result of its world-class development process, expertise and in-depth experience of a broad range of industries. nCode product development is ISO9001 certified. Product support is available through HBM-nCode offices in Europe, North America and Asia.

For further information, view website: www.hbm.com/ncode

Fastener Express: effective rapid prototyping concept

Fastener Express closes the gap between development and regular production. With its Fastener Express method, for the first time Arnold Umformtechnik offers designers an end-to-end concept that allows highly complex fastener components and precision parts to be developed quickly as prototypes and manufactured later as production-ready parts with the same technical properties and cost-effectiveness for large volume production.

Nowadays for new cars the elapsed time between the first sketch on the drawing board and the start of regular series production is little more than 30 months. Nearly half of the time previously required has been eliminated, thanks to the systematic optimisation of the entire supply chain for automobile production, which has now reached the small-parts level as screws, bolts, turned parts and precision parts. In the past, development departments had to reckon on development times of up to 30 weeks for special solutions in this area.

Production Ready check
As early as the development phase, Arnold´s Fastener Express team carries out the Production Ready check to determine whether the subsequent production-ready part will be a turned part or a moulded part. This decision has major ramifications in terms of potential cost savings. Many turned parts can be converted to more economical moulded parts during the transition from the prototype phase to volume production.

Direct acceptance
A specially formed rapid prototyping team eliminates the lost time that usually arises from administrative processes. The established Direct Acceptance process systematically eliminates request delay times typical in the industry. Instead of a wait for handling, order receipt automatically triggers a prompt technical evaluation of factors such as using typical fastener materials or testing the mechanical properties of the joint.

Product quality
Additional time savings with the Arnold method arise from the simultaneous transformation of 3D CAD data into physical products. The time-consuming steps of tooling design and tooling procurement are entirely eliminated. Blanks go directly to machining, where they are turned as production-ready parts and sent to finishing. A wide variety of finishing options are available in-house, including heat treatment and electroplating, making time-consuming and costly liaison with external service providers unnecessary. This quasi-simultaneous method ensures a high level of quality in converting designs to products.

By manufacturing prototype functional parts with production-ready properties, Arnold meets the growing demand for functional prototyping. "We produce highly complex fastener components in volumes up to 3,000 pieces with the same properties as flow moulded parts for volume production, in one-quarter of the time", is how Michael Pult, Manager Marketing & Communications at Arnold Umformtechnik, summarises the advantages of Fastener Express. "With this capability we support the entire value chain from the product development process to volume production delivery and further."

The Arnold Group in profile
The Arnold Group is a fully owned subsidiary of the internationally active Würth Group, which realises sales of more than 8 billion euros worldwide with 420 companies and about 65,000 employees.

For further information, view website: www.arnold-uk.com or e-mail: michael.pult@arnold-umformtechnik.de 

Natural-coloured flexible thermoplastic cable
clips allow easy insertion of cable harnesses

The unique design of thermoplastic cable clips cable clips, from the Amphenol Corporation group, is a genuine advance. Their inherent performance is supplemented by great ease of use and excellent cable protection. The silicone overmoulding on the inner surface avoids cable damage by vibrations or shocks, while allowing axial adjustment movement.

Easy to use
Made of natural-coloured flexible thermoplastic, these cable clips allow easy insertion of cable harnesses. This is a robust design: the material used, Polyamide 6.6, withstands rough handling and returns to its original shape after distortion. The cable clips are closed by a cable fastener 5 mm wide after the cable harness is properly positioned. Note that even without a cable fastener the cable harness does not fall out of the clip when the opening is facing down. The clip is fastened to the structure simply with an M5 screw and a washer (other types of fastening are available). This means that these cable clips can be mounted anywhere on the structure before the wiring process or later when the equipment itself is wired.

Cable protection
The silicone overmoulding dampens shocks and vibrations and avoids cable damage. The ridged contact surface between clip and cable also allows axial cable movement in order to accept any movements of the structure on which the clips are fastened, avoiding clips or cables being torn off. The silicone extends to the edge of the contact surface to avoid binding of the cable harness when the clip is fully closed.

Performance and characteristics
These cable clips have remarkable resistance to harsh environments: their working temperature range is from - 55 °C to + 150 °C, their fire resistance complies with the UL 94 V0 standard and they are resistant to most mineral and synthetic oils. They are available in eight sizes, accepting cable harnesses from 5 to 48 mm diameter: with just eight clip sizes the whole range of cable harness diameters is covered.

These cable clips are therefore particularly suitable for applications subjected to shocks or strong vibrations, but also applications in harsh environments or subject to high or low temperatures: moving or vibrating plant and machinery (lifts, vibrating machinery, robots, tunnels, etc).

French subsidiary of the Amphenol Corporation group (sales of 3.25 billion dollars in 2008), Amphenol Air LB France employs 220 persons on industrial sites located in north-eastern France.

Specialist of dedicated technical solutions for harsh environments, Amphenol Air LB France designs, manufactures and markets sealed disconnect connectors (rectangular and circular, modular or not), quick-connect modules and fastening systems for railways, industry and aerospace.

For further information contact, Stéphane MALARD, e-mail: stephane.malard@amphenol-socapex.fr  Refer to page 186