⚡ The Analog #92: Wind Tunnel Tested Olympic Swimsuits & Psuedo-Pressure Sensors
August 6th, 2024
This Week’s Highlights
Wind Tunnel Tested Olympic Swimsuits 🏊
Psuedo-Pressure Sensors in Coca-Cola Machines 🥤
High-Power Density Wireless Charging for EV’s 🔋
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Featured Content:
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Interesting Links 🏭
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Speedo launched the LZR Racer swimsuit, a game-changer in competitive swimming. Athletes wearing the suit won 33 out of 36 Olympic medals, and 93 world records were shattered within a year. This suit was a product of meticulous R&D, developed in partnership with NASA's Langley Research Center. Through use of wind tunnel testing, they identified the best fabrics and seam bonding methods. The final design, made from a woven blend of polyurethane and elastane-nylon, was ultrasonically bonded to reduce skin friction drag by 24%!
In 2010, the international swimming governing body banned swimsuits that enhanced speed, buoyancy, and performance, requiring that suits be made only from textile fabrics. This effectively ended the era of the high-tech LZR Racer suits.
SpaceX recently unveiled their new Raptor 3 engine, which boasts a simplified design by eliminating the traditional nozzle extension, resulting in a lighter and more efficient engine. The engine achieves a thrust of 280 metric tons (a 25% increase over v2) while maintaining a specific impulse of 350 seconds (measures how efficiently a rocket engine uses fuel), highlighting significant advancements in propulsion technology that could lower the cost and increase the reliability of space missions. Additive manufacturing internally integrates many formerly discrete components, allowing SpaceX to take the phrase, “no part is the best part”, to the extreme. Elon Musk himself mentioned that “SpaceX has the most advanced 3D metal printing technology in the world”.
The complexity of engine designs cannot be understated, especially when designed for payloads to Earth orbit and future missions to the Moon & Mars. The Starship launch system comprises 33 Raptor engines in the first stage and six in the second. To put the thrust into perspective, the first stage generates as much thrust as ~3 Saturn V first stages, the rocket that took humans to the Moon during the Apollo missions!
Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers use a solenoid actuated valve called a Flow Control Module (FCM) for regulating water flow. FCM is one of the highest replaced parts in the dispenser/field, and yet about 50% of field return FCMs are good. As such, Coca-Cola developed a virtual pressure sensor in their smart drink dispensers to eliminate costly physical sensors and reduce unnecessary replacement. They published a detailed presentation on the physics behind the system describing the prediction of valve pressure based on valve current.
This week we spoke with Mike Lo, founding principal at Ronin Product Development and current founder of Catalyst Introductions. In the interview, we talked about his background building a toy company at MIT, experience starting Ronin Product Development, and his current venture, Catalyst Introductions, inspired from 10+ years of hardware development experience. Here are three of our favorite pieces of hardware advice from Mike:
Nylon can expand and weaken when exposed to water.
Calipers are considered a weapon by the TSA. Don’t fly with them.
Yes, it can probably be solved with magnets. But there are often less expensive solutions.
If you're interested in expanding your network (finding people who align with similar interests, current goals, etc.), fill out this brief questionnaire form within the next week. Shortly after, you'll receive emails from Catalyst introducing you to 2-4 community members who could be valuable connections!
This guide by Mekanika provides a comprehensive overview of selecting the appropriate end mill for CNC machining, emphasizing factors such as tool geometry, material, and the specific milling operation. Some of our favorite insights highlighted here:
Choosing the right number of flutes (# of spiral grooves) for chip evacuation and surface finish is important, with fewer flutes (2-3) recommended for materials like aluminum to prevent chip clogging.
Carbide end mills can increase productivity by 3x compared to High-Speed Steel (HSS) end mills due to better durability and higher machining speeds.
Bagger 293 is the world's largest bucket-wheel excavator. At 225 meters long and 100 meters tall, the machine can move over 240,000 cubic meters of material daily (~96 Olympic swimming pools!). As the largest ground vehicle ever built, Bagger 293 requires an external 16.5MW power source. It took 10 years to manufacture and assemble, and is still in operation today from the early 1990’s.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a polyphase wireless power transfer system that successfully delivered 270 kilowatts of power to an electric vehicle, setting a new world record for wireless EV charging. The system uses lightweight polyphase electromagnetic coupling coils to achieve a 50% increase in state of charge within 10 minutes at over 95% efficiency. This breakthrough shows the potential for high-power density wireless charging systems to transform the automotive industry by making EV charging more convenient and efficient. Volkswagen is currently working with ORNL to develop a more commercializable version of this charger.
Synchron has announced the very first BCI control of an Apple Vision Pro. The Neuralink rival has enabled an ALS patient to control games and other programs on the device using just their thoughts. Both the Synchron and Neuralink patients are using bluetooth to control their devices, meaning that there are even more computing platforms we will see controlled by brain computer interfaces soon.
Startup News 🚀
Star Catcher recently launched from stealth after raising $12.25M in seed funding to develop power-beaming satellites in low Earth orbit. The company is planning an orbital demonstration in 2025 to beam energy to solar panels of orbiting spacecraft, aiming to become the first in-space power transmission network. The round was co-led by Initialized Capital and B Capital.
Applied Carbon has raised a $21.5M Series A round to commercialize its automated robotic biochar production technology. Biochar is an important agricultural input for improving soil health and the company’s robotic production allows in-field agricultural waste to be used to reduce fertilizer needs and help with carbon sequestration. TO VC led the round of funding.
Groq has raised $640 million a new funding round to continue chip development designed to run generative AI models faster than traditional processors. The company is creating a language processing unit (LPU) inference engine, where the chip models like GPT-4o with significantly reduced energy (one-tenth) and at 10x the speed. Groq CEO, Jonathan Ross, originally developed the tensor processing unit (TPU) at Google before co-founding his current venture. The round was led by Blackrock.
Ionworks is developing battery simulation software designed to reduce the number of physical experiments needed in the development of new battery cells. . They recently launched fromY Combinator’s S24 batch and already have multiple enterprises participating in their beta program.
Lodestar Space has raised $2.5M in pre-seed funding to develop a robotic arm that can perform tasks in space under the influence of microgravity. The round was co-led by Inflection.xyz and Lunar Ventures.
Type One Energy has added $82.4M of seed funding to its balance sheet as the company prepares to build a prototype stellarator (type of nuclear fusion reactor) in Clinton, Tennessee. Funding was led by Centaurus Capital and a number of Australian and New Zealand based funds.
Open Jobs 💼
Entry-Level:
Nvidia is looking for a Circuit Design Engineer (New College Grad) in Santa Clara, CA
Bio-Rad is looking for an Electrical Engineer I in Hercules, CA
Mine Vision Systems is looking for a Mechanical Engineer in Pittsburgh, PA
Mid-Level:
Mach Industries is looking for an Electrical Engineer & Mechanical Engineer in Huntington Beach, CA
Fluke Corporation is looking for an Electrical Test Engineer in Everett, WA
Seurat Technologies is looking for an Electrical Engineer in Wilmington, MA
YETI is looking for a Global Supply Quality Engineer in Austin, TX
Topologic is looking for a Mechanical Engineer in Boston, MA
Senior to Staff:
CesiumAstro is looking for a Senior Electrical Engineer (Spacecraft) in Austin, TX
Tau Motors is looking for a Staff Motor Controls Engineer in Redwood City, CA
Peloton is looking for a Staff Mechanical Engineer in New York, NY
Paradromics is looking for a Principal Mechanical Design Engineer in Austin, TX
Internships:
Northrop Grumman is looking for an Electrical Engineering Intern (Summer 2025) in Redondo Beach, CA
Auriga Space is looking for a Mechanical Engineering Intern in Garden Grove, CA
To see the full list of open roles, visit our job board. Want to share an exciting role at your company? Reach out to us at info@hardwarefyi.com.
Looking to get ahead in your career? We offer interviewing resources for engineers!
For all resources available, check out our home page.
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FlashPCB provides super-fast PCB assembly by running design rule checks on your board, automatically generating a BOM, and final quotes within minutes.
POP Manufacturing offers rapid prototyping and quick-turn services for FDM, PolyJet, full-color 3D printing, and CNC machining.
Summit Interconnect is a manufacturer of advanced technology printed circuit boards focused on complex rigid, flex and rigid-flex PCBs.
Cofactr is an automated electronic component procurement and inventory management platform.
AllSpice.io is the Git for hardware collaboration platform, connecting native engineering design tools to provide revision control, automation and more.
Partsbox controls your electronic components inventory management software. Keeps track of where your parts are stored, manages BOMs and production.
Roboze manufactures high-performance super polymers and composites through advanced 3D printing, creating parts strong like metal.
FixturFab designs and manufactures custom test fixtures that are quickly delivered.
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