June 2001

Dear subscriber;

Welcome to the PowerUltrasonics newsletter for June 2001. Sorry for the long delay since the last one - there always seems to be something else that needs doing first... Anyway I hope you find something useful, and please feel free to forward a copy to anyone else you think would be interested.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MPI WEB SITE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most recent distraction keeping me from writing newsletters was creating a new web site for Miodrag Prokic - see it at www.mpi-ultrasonics.com. Miodrag has 20 years experience in ultrasonic industrial engineering as a freelance technical expert and working for Branson, Krohne and Hamo, and he was able to supply some fascinating technical information for inclusion on the site - see the new articles section below. He's also keen to promote new applications of ultrasonics - here's a brief taster from the proposals page (more applications, and much more detail there):

• Water processing, including ozone injection, in line sterilization, active (ozone-saturated) ice cubes, neutralization of phenolic, cyanide, polymeric and similar dangerous remains.
• Other liquid processing, including mixing, homogenization, degassing, defoaming, liquid metal mixing and alloying
• Powders production and processing, including cold atomizing, pulverizing, in line vapourisation and drying (or solidifying) of very fine powders.
• Surface hardening, impregnation and coating, including implantation of hard particles, capillary surface sealing, impregnation of aluminum oxide
• Accelerated 3-D shock and vibration tests, and ultrasonically accelerated material aging / stress relieving
• Extrusion (of plastics and metals) assisted by ultrasonic vibrations
• Incineration of non-flammable waste and dangerous liquids by ultrasonic vaporisation and mixing with fuel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW ARTICLES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four new entries on the articles page since the last newsletter:

Ultrasonic cleaning in supercritical liquid CO2 - A paper written for the 2001 UIA symposium by Miodrag Prokic and fellow researchers from ECO2 SA, and published on Miodrag's new web site. Describes a new multi-frequency system used to drive ultrasonic cleaning in a pressure vessel containing liquid carbon dioxide.

Design and optimisation of an ultrasonic die system for forming metal cans. Chapter 6 - Results. - At long last, another chapter from my PhD thesis converted to HTML and uploaded to the web site. Results include modes and frequencies, ESPI evaluation and force measurements with and without ultrasonics.

Ultrasonic Motor Development - An interesting page about research at MIT to develop a high torque-density solid-state actuator for use in the NASA/JPL Mars Micro Lander manipulator arm, including a general explanation of the principles of ultrasonic motors and some cool animations!

Canon Ultrasonic Motors (USMs) - More ultrasonic motors, this time Canon's description of their development for use in camera auto-focus lenses. Their explanation of the arrangement of piezoelectric elements is particularly good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FREE ADVERTISING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The powerultrasonics web site aims to promote the technology while remaining independent of any manufacturer. Anyone is welcome to contribute articles, links or other information - if you can I will gladly include a by-line, e-mail address, and link to your web site (or not if you prefer). There are 3 areas of the site where contributed information is particularly important:

Suppliers database
The database now contains details of 123 supplier organisations (mainly companies) around the world, but it's by no means complete. To check that your companies details are included and correct please go to the suppliers page and search for it by name. If it's not there, or if you want to change the entry just follow the instructions to enter / correct the information.
Articles
The articles page features links to technical articles about ultrasonic technology and research. If your article is already published somewhere on the web, just send me the url and I will add it to the page. If it's not already on the web (and you have the right to publish it) I would be happy to show it on the powerultrasonics site.
Newsletters
If you can make an interesting contribution to a future issue of this newsletter - read by a but select global audience of ultrasonics and other professionals - please e-mail it to me (chris@powerultrasonics.com). It must be relevant to ultrasonics technology and contain something new and interesting (not just a sales pitch please!). A brief summary of a longer article (as above) would also be ok.

~~~~~~~~~~~ LOW-COST BANNER ADVERTISING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The powerultrasonics site also now includes limited advertising, carefully separated from all other content. For a modest $25 per month you can purchase a banner to promote your company to a very specialist audience. See the advertising page for more information.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ POWERULTRASONICS CONTACT DETAILS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've now made the move from Sydney to a little place on the New South Wales Central Coast. Due to problems beyond my control (builders!) the house still isn't built but it's on the way... Please note the new phone number:
Chris Cheers
PO Box 7240, Mannering Park, NSW 2259, Australia.
Phone / fax xx xxxx xxxx
Mobile xxxx xxxxxx
(to avoid confusion I have removed earlier contact information from previous newsletters)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's all for this time. Feedback is always welcome...

Chris Cheers (chris@powerultrasonics.com)