Electric trains draw power from overhead lines, using a device called a pantograph to maintain connection between the train and the load-carrying wire overhead (known as overhead track equipment (OHTE)).

If you've ever worked while resting a laptop computer on your lap, you know that computers emit heat, and the more powerful the computer, the greater the heat produced. This is a problem because electronics really don't enjoy elevated temperatures. A hot computer is a slow computer or, worse, a computer that will cease functioning.

ZF Getriebe GmbH makes automatic transmissions for passenger cars; its Saarbrucken plant produces approximately 4000 transmissions per day in 14 basic types and 120 models. Not surprisingly, the production and quality control processes are highly automated.

App Snaps Dec 1, 2006 By: Melanie Martella

Monitoring Within and Without; Beacons on the Battlefield

App Snaps Nov 1, 2006 By: Stephanie vL Henkel

Having a bad back is no fun, and the corrective measures can be just as unpleasant. So Disc Dynamics, Devicix, and MTS Sensors Div. got together to devise a minimally invasive way to treat degenerative disc disease. The result is the Dascor Disc Arthroplasty System, in which the nucleus of a spinal disc is removed and replaced with an artificial nucleus that restores the correct gap height between the vertebrae.

We're mammals and we shed. We know this, plumbers know this, and the technical operators at the Wet 'n Wild Water Park in Orlando, FL, definitely know this.

Active RFID tags can store entire manifests and routing schedules as well as sensor data.

The current conflict in Iraq is proving to be a war of amputations. If it's any consolation, an extremely well engineered prosthetic, the Boston Digital Arm (BDA), promises to reproduce much of a lost limb's functionality. The BDA's operating principle has been well demonstrated—the user's remaining muscles and nerves activate the device and control its movements. This arm goes beyond conventional prosthetics, though, by having five axes of motion as well as a variable gripping force in the hand that gives the user the ability to "sense" a held object.

Healthier Building Control

App Snaps May 1, 2006 By: Stephanie vL Henkel

Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) makes ingredients for human food and animal feed, as well as renewable fuels and naturally derived alternatives to industrial chemicals. In 1971, ADM acquired Corn Sweeteners Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which it subsequently expanded into ethanol production.