IEN Radio
717 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingRadio for manufacturing and engineering professionals. New industrial products, news and technical articles.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Researchers Make More Affordable Fuel Cell
May 16, 2019 15:00 - 1 minute - 1.19 MBA team of researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new fuel cell that reportedly lasts 10 times longer than any other current technology. The researchers believe that this advancement, coupled with mass production, could finally make the fuel cell economically viable and provide a suitable replacement to traditional gas-powered engines. According to the researchers, the cost would be comparable or even cheaper than gasoline engines. The fuel cell is promising, but based...
3D-Printed Martian Habitat Nets $500K
May 16, 2019 15:00 - 1 minute - 1.39 MBThis week, New York, NY-based AI SpaceFactory won $500,000 by taking first place in NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. Now, if that sentence alone can't get kids interested in STEM, we're beyond saving. The competition asked participants to manufacture sustainable shelters for deep-space habitation, including the Moon and Mars. The team created MARSHA, a 15-foot tall prototype that was 3D printed by robots in 30 hours. The team likely beat out the other challengers because it was printe...
Congress Cracks Down on Manufacturer’s ‘Extreme Profit Margins’
May 16, 2019 14:00 - 3 minutes - 2.23 MBThe U.S. House of Representatives has begun investigating a Cleveland-based supplier and aerospace manufacturer for “extreme profit margins” and “excess profit”. The remarks stem from reports that TransDigm has been a “bad actor” and “gouging taxpayers” by realizing some pretty impressive profit margins on parts for aircraft such as the Apache and Chinook helicopters and Falcon and Globemaster planes. Some examples include: Charging the Pentagon $1,443 for a for a three-inch ring used on ...
Designer Creates Floating U.F.O. Timeshares
May 16, 2019 14:00 - 2 minutes - 1.69 MBPierpaolo Lazzarini wants to build an unidentified floating object. The U.F.O. 1.2 has been under development for about three years and now the Italian designer is finally ready to make his floating houseboat a reality. Spanning 12.5 meters in diameter, the U.F.O. has two living spaces: a main entrance and communal area above the water, and an underwater bathroom and bedroom. According to designboom, the plan is for the vessel to be self-sustainable. The main deck includes solar panels th...
Engineer Gets 2.5 Years in Prison for Bribery, Fraud
May 15, 2019 13:00 - 2 minutes - 1.81 MBA Hawaiian engineer was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribing public officials in Hawaii and the Federated States of Micronesia. 53-year-old Frank James Lyon pleaded guilty to paying $250,000 to Hawaiian officials to secure $2.5 million in state contracts. The bribes secured work for Lyon’s engineering and consulting company in Hawaii. Lyon also admitted to bribes that led to nearly $8 million in contracts in Micronesia. According to the Department of Justice, Lyon pleaded guilty...
Hellfire Cuts Like Swords from the Heavens
May 14, 2019 15:00 - 2 minutes - 1.92 MBThe Hellfire missile offers an interesting perspective, not just on military technology, but product lifecycle in general. The missile was initially developed with a shaped charge, which means the explosion it generated was intense, but channeled to produce a very narrow, focused blast. This make sense as its primary application was taking out heavily armored tanks and vehicles. The precision of the missile drew military leaders to desire its use in targeting groups of enemy troops, so it ...
Will All Wheel Drive Save the Sedan?
May 13, 2019 14:00 - 2 minutes - 1.61 MBEdmunds.com says that more than 63 percent of the new vehicles sold last year were SUVs or trucks, which is no surprise to automakers who have spent the last few years slashing their small car models to line up with the market. But they’re not ready to fully let go just yet. According to Bloomberg, automakers have a plan to save some of their dying sedan models, but it’s not exactly novel: a recent report says car makers are adding some of the features that people love about SUVs and applyi...
DoD Won’t Let Sonar Supplier Walk Away
May 09, 2019 18:00 - 2 minutes - 2.04 MBTypically, if there’s demand, someone will figure out how to supply a product. However, in the case of a key naval defense asset, even a contract that has grown by more than to 50 percent in three years, reaching $264 million, wasn’t enough demand to justify continued production. The eight-pound, three-foot long sonobuoy is described as an expendable, waterborne sensor that is deployed by the hundreds from P-8 surveillance aircraft and MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters to detect enemy subs. The D...
Ohio Town Solves the Mystery of the Blocked Key Fob
May 09, 2019 15:00 - 2 minutes - 1.56 MBThere was something eerie about this situation out of Ohio that was putting some residents on edge: in the small town of North Olmsted -- a suburb west of Cleveland -- people were finding that their garage door openers and vehicle key fobs were no longer working. The New York Times reported that the complaints began to surface in late April when about a dozen residents in either North Olmsted or neighboring community Fairview Park alerted authorities of their problems… which may be a low re...
Smart Suitcase Helps Visually Impaired Travelers
May 08, 2019 17:00 - 2 minutes - 1.48 MBRunning through an airport probably isn’t anyone’s idea of a particularly good time, but for the visually impaired, the air travel experience can be an especially daunting one. Navigating swarms of people through expansive corridors and dozens of nearly identical gates likely couldn’t be done without at least some assistance from airport personnel. Teams from Carnegie Mellon University, however, recently undertook a couple of projects designed to help those individuals move through airport...
Lawsuit After Man Dies Under 'Avalanche’ of Salt
May 07, 2019 14:00 - 2 minutes - 1.69 MBOn April 30, 2017, 60-year-old Lawrence Ray Shiner Jr. was repairing a 145-foot-tall boiler at the Kapstone Paper and Packaging paper mill in North Charleston, SC. While he was repairing the boiler, he was buried in an "avalanche of salt cake" and died as a result of the industrial accident. A new wrongful death lawsuit filed by Shiner’s estate is attempting to hold Palmetto Industrial Services and Thompson Industrial Services accountable. Palmetto and Thompson were hired by Kapstone to ...
Adidas a Victim of its Popularity
May 06, 2019 16:00 - 2 minutes - 1.49 MBIt looks like Adidas isn’t just for Run DMC anymore. The company is having a banner year, dazzling investors by beating forecasts in the first quarter, though its explosive growth has an unwanted bedfellow -- supply chain problems that are limiting the company’s ability to meet demand. It all started in 2016, when Adidas initiated a turnaround strategy, pledging to focus on growing the brand in China and… it worked. Sales were reportedly up a whopping 40 percent in China where the brand’s ...
SUVs Run Smart Cars Out of the U.S.
May 03, 2019 19:00 - 2 minutes - 1.9 MBRoughly a decade after being introduced to the U.S. market, Daimler recently announced that it will stop selling the infamous ForTwo Smart vehicle in the U.S. and Canada after the 2019 model year. Depending on your perspective, the move shows either the positive momentum of the U.S. economy and significant improvements in automotive engineering efficiencies, or it reinforces the simple fact that Americans will always prioritize comfort and convenience over energy savings when it comes to t...
Samsung's Galaxy Fold Fails
May 03, 2019 14:00 - 2 minutes - 1.7 MBEarly reviews of Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold have been critical of the new folding screen, but I think the most hilarious came from iFixit as part of the website’s product teardown, “Like a beautiful butterfly, our Fold's life was tragically short … Also like a butterfly, this thing is alarmingly fragile.” iFixit is a website that provides information to give people more access to repairs. Since some companies don't make parts or manuals readily available, the website is designed to work like...
Researchers Fight Fire with Nanocellulose
May 03, 2019 14:00 - 1 minute - 1.16 MBResearchers from VTT Technical Research Center in Finland have created a new coating using nanocellulose. Nanocellulose naturally adheres to wood and forms an airtight film on the surface. This makes nanocellulose-based coatings a good fit for the protective wood treatments. The coating is based on HefCel technology (High-Consistency Enzymatic Fibrillation of Cellulose), which was developed and patented by VTT. The coating can be sprayed or brushed on to the wood and it works by reducing ...
Researchers Finally Made the Magic Fat Pill
May 03, 2019 13:00 - 2 minutes - 1.57 MBResearchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU Singapore) have finally created the one true magic pill to fight obesity. The team has developed a prototype capsule that inflates in your stomach to make you feel full. They call it the "EndoPil," and it contains a balloon that self-inflates after it's activated by a handheld magnet. The handheld magnet triggers a reaction between acid and salt, which fills the balloon with carbon dioxide. The idea is that the pill will...
Man Arrested for $72M Counterfeit Component Scheme
May 02, 2019 16:00 - 2 minutes - 1.95 MBOn April 16, 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a 44-year-old man in California for overseeing a scheme to smuggle $72 million in counterfeit Apple and Samsung cellphone components from China. Chan Hung Le owns Irvine-CA based EZ Elektronix, which he used as part of an elaborate plot to import counterfeit screens and other components while skirting law enforcement. The scheme started in June 2010 when Le and his co-conspirators, including relatives and EZ Elekt...