Over the past year or two, Key Tech has taken advantage of improvements in the usability and functionality of online tools to share information quickly and easily. Over the same period, we've observed dwindling attendance at industry conferences. So, where is everyone?...
Recently, I published an article in MicroManufacturing Magazine about the challenges of designing microparts for manufacture. Not unlike any collaborative process, good communication is the key to a successful project....
Flash memory is becoming increasingly popular in portable devices as the main storage medium. Flash memory offers advantages such as a serial interface, fast access time (compared to hard drives), and low power consumption, making them a popular choice for embedded medical devices....
You’ve been in this situation before. The output from your test set up or analytical model is garbage. You’ve looked at all the inputs and they appear to be ok. So…what do you do now?...
When you’re trying to solve a problem, it’s easy to just attack it with a bunch of ideas and hope something sticks. This might even work, but which idea was the real winner?...
When you are dealing with fluid volumes hundredths that of a rain drop or flow rates that would take decades to fill a beer bottle, the performance of conventional fluid handling methods used on the macro scale can be adversely affected by factors that often...
Ok, it’s time to get a little technical (very little). We’ve talked to a lot of companies with award-winning products, great ideas, and good sense, but when we try to nail down some of the details, they get a little flustered. Although the constant questions...
By now, most mechanical design engineers are used to sending off a solid model and having plastic parts show up in less than a week. While this technique is perfectly suitable and cost-effective for rapid prototyping, it doesn’t quite make the grade for production....
Solving engineering or design problems does not stop with focusing one’s thoughts however. Successful problem solving is about generating ideas. Taking your own thoughts or the thoughts of those around you and developing them further into ideas by way of discussion is the...
From an efficiency perspective, it may appear that using product development process theory tools when not required (by an agency such as the FDA) is adding baggage to a project. It is true that not every tool is appropriate for every project. However, one of...
