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Q&A

AR/AI

WCX 2025: Stellantis Design Chief Gilles Asks - What's Wrong with Diversity?

“It’s not rocket science,” Stellantis design chief Ralph Gilles said when asked about diversity at the leadoff keynote of WCX 2025 in Detroit.

News

Manufacturing & Prototyping

Recaro Pioneers Seating Shells Made with CF Recyclate

The green flag is about to drop on an auto-racing first: a seat shell infused with recycled carbon fiber.

Articles

Materials

The Olfactory Factor in AV Interiors

Whether they’re riding in an autonomous shuttle, a transit bus, a train or a rental car, passengers often face cabin air full of “mal odors” — bad smells — including cigarette and vape smoke,...

Articles

Materials

Solving Signal Interference Challenges in Aerospace and Defense Electronics

As the complexity of signal challenges in aerospace and defense technology increases, design engineers need to creatively combine materials to solve multiple problems at once.

Briefs

Aerospace

Oximeter Headband Initial Characterization Test on Form, Fit, and Function

The oximeter headband system consists of a custom-made, textile-based headband. It is a noninvasive, non-subcutaneous, and non-radiation-harming device that only maintains surface contact with the skin.

News

Nanotechnology

Altair Honors Innovations in Sustainability and Lightweighting

Ford follows up its top prize in last year’s Sustainable Product category – for the Mustang Mach-E – with another electric-vehicle winner, the 2022 F-150 Lightning. The...

Briefs

Energy

Flexible, Thin-Film Battery

Computers or smartphones with folding screens, smart clothing, and wearable sensors all require an energy source, which is usually a lithium-ion battery. These are typically heavy and rigid, making them fundamentally...

News

Manufacturing & Prototyping

A Novel Materials Approach to EV Battery-Box Design

A battery enclosure that features a single-piece, metal-reinforced composite tray and one-piece composite cover is a step closer to an electric vehicle (EV) production application....

Briefs

Sensors/Data Acquisition

Deformation Sensing in Soft Bio-Surrogate Materials

Accurate measurement of deformations occurring within or on soft materials will advance the next class of soft robotics and wearable biomedical sensors.

Road Ready

Power

Chevy Reveals 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible, C8.R Racer

Reinforcing the Corvette’s long association with astronauts, Chevrolet unveiled the convertible version of its all-new, mid-engine-layout 2020 Corvette Stingray in Cape...

What We’re Driving

Propulsion

2019 VW Beetle Convertible Final Edition

Here it is: 2019 is the swan song for the Beetle. There’s baggage that goes along with Volkswagen’s “new” Beetle soldiering along many years longer than it should have, but this Final Edition...

News

Automotive

Mass-Reducing Innovations Honored by Altair

The 4th generation Jeep Wrangler, which eliminated 92 kg (203 lb) compared to the previous-generation vehicle, and Ferrari’s Portofino, which is 80 kg (176 lb) lighter yet 35% stiffer than the...

Application Briefs

Electronics & Computers

Intelligent Parachute Rescue System

Drone Rescue GmbH Graz, Austria+43 660 140 80 55www.dronerescue.com Drone Rescue Systems GmbH has developed a fast, efficient parachute safety solution for drones that can reduce the risk of harming people on...

Articles

Materials

Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites

Reinforcing polymers with strong/stiff fibers is nothing new. Such materials have been used pretty much since aircraft were first created. In those pioneering days, wings were reinforced with woven...

Briefs

Energy

Permeation Tests on Polypropylene Fiber Materials

The Toxic Industrial Chemical/Toxic Industrial Material (TIC/TIM) Task Force MFR#1 published in February 2009 focuses on inhalation hazards in an operational environment and provides a list of...

News

Materials

Linking Embroidery and Carbon Fiber to save Weight and Cost

The story of carbon fiber’s use by the automotive industry in medium- to high-volume manufacturing has for decades moved through chapters of high expectation and low likelihood....

Briefs

Defense

Experimental Setup to Assess Blast and Penetration- Induced Secondary Debris in a Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) Environment

As part of Project Agreement on Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT), the US Army Research...

Briefs

Materials

Structural Composites with Tuned EM Chirality

Work on structural composites with tunable chiral elements has produced electronically tunable overall chiral composites, mechanically tunable chiral composites, flat lenses with soft hyperbolic...

Briefs

Defense

Thermal Response of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) Materials in a Flash Flame Test

Testing was performed on Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabric and composite material in a flash flame environment when...

Application Briefs

Defense

Floating Armor Torso System

BCB International Ltd. Cardiff, UK +44 (0)2920 433 700 www.bcbin.com A Floating Armor Torso System (FATS), designed for marine-based forces, inflates when coming into contact with water. If the wearer were to be shot...

News

Defense

Jet Aviation Basel Gains DGCA Approval from India for Dassault Aircraft

Jet Aviation Basel recently received CAR-145 approval from the Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India to provide full maintenance services to Indian-registered...

Briefs

Materials

Hydrolytic Stability of Polyurethane-Coated Fabrics Used for Collapsible Fuel Storage Containers

Collapsible fabric fuel tanks have provided critical tactical bulk petroleum storage for military operations for over 50 years. Beginning in the...

Technology Update

Defense

Enabling high-strength composites to reach their full potential

The use of composite materials for construction of aerospace components began in the early 1980s and is now the material of choice for commercial and military airframe designers....

Articles

Electronics & Computers

The Evolution of AdvancedTCA: From telecommunications to military, aerospace and security

The Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA® or ATCA®) is a series of open standard computing platform specifications originally ratified...

Briefs

Materials

Solar and Thermal Energy Harvesting Textile Composites for Aerospace Applications

The proposed research focuses on developing novel energy harvesting devices that can be integrated with loadbearing structures in an air vehicle (e.g. a UAV)....

Briefs

Materials

Investigation of Basalt Woven Fabrics for Military Applications

Basalt rock is a black or gray fine-grained rock in the family of igneous rocks, formed by cooling of molten lava. It is commonly found in the Earth’s crust, is abundant...

Articles

Electronics & Computers

Applying OpenVPX to Single Board Computers

For more than two decades, single board computers (SBCs) built on open standards have been largely based on specifications from two preeminent industry organizations, VITA and PICMG. For the 6U...

Briefs

Materials

Temperature Effect on Drop-Weight Impact of Hybrid Woven Composites

The main idea of composite material is to combine different materials to produce a new material with performance unattainable by the individual constituents. It gives...

Briefs

Materials

Tomographic Electrical Resistance-Based Damage Sensing in Nano-Engineered Composite Structures

Advanced composite materials are increasingly replacing metals in the aerospace industry as they offer weight-saving improvements such as high...