Obama Will Unveil $1-Billion National Manufacturing Innovation Network Initiative Based On Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute

Posted by: Manufacturingnews.com

By Richard A. McCormack
editor@manufacturingnews.com

Tucked deep — very deep — within the Obama administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget submission to Congress is a proposal to create a new $1 billion private-public partnership program aimed at commercializing and manufacturing U.S. developed technologies. The National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), modeled after the German Fraunhofer Institutes, would be a joint effort between the Departments of Defense and Energy, the National Science Foundation the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. Its goal would be to “revitalize U.S. manufacturing. . . through a network of institutes where researchers, companies and entrepreneurs can come together to develop new manufacturing technologies with broad applications,” according to the budget submission.

Each of the institutes “would have a unique technology focus.” They would support the ecosystem of local manufacturers, develop skilled workers and focus on technology commercialization “by helping to bridge the gap from the laboratory to the market and address core gaps in scaling manufacturing process technologies,” according to page 236 of the NIST budget request.  Read Full Article Here

Lawsuit Cites Design Defect, Negligence in Failure of Wright ProFemur Total Hip System That Fractured in Phoenix Patient

Wright Medical Technology Changed Material in 2009, but Issued No Warnings or Recalls

Posted By: MarketWatch.com

Source:  Stephen I. Leshner, P.C 

A Phoenix man filed a lawsuit today in U.S. District Court against Wright Medical Technology, Inc. and Wright Medical Group, Inc. after needing emergency surgery following a sudden catastrophic fracture of the titanium modular neck of the Wright ProFemur Total Hip System as he was dressing for work last July.

The complaint points out that “studies have shown that modular neck adapters made from titanium alloy, such as the ProFemur modular neck adapter” “are more likely to suffer fretting corrosion and fatigue fracture than those made from cobalt-chromium.”  Read Full Article Here

Corrosion Cited in Pipeline Explosion

Posted by: www.demopolistimes.com

Author: Jason Cannon

A corroded pipe has been deemed the culprit of a massive natural gasoline explosion in Sweet Water last December. A Transco natural gas pipeline ruptured at approximately 3:07 p.m. Dec. 3 with an explosion that could be heard for more than 30 miles while shooting flames nearly 100 feet in the air for over an hour.

“Although we have systems and processes in place to prevent and identify corrosion, our investigation indicated there were multiple factors working in conjunction that led to this problem not being recognized,” said Transco spokesman Chris Stockton. “Extremely corrosive soil conditions, combined with failures in the pipeline’s protective coating and cathodic protection system ultimately weakened the pipe, causing it to rupture.” Read Full Article Here

Recent Exam Failed to Detect Weak Sabo Bridge Cable

Posted By: www.finance-commerce.com

By Mark Anderson

Whatever caused one of the 18 cables supporting the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge to break on Sunday night eluded bridge examiners just six months before when they conducted a major on-site review.   That test was completed on the Sabo bridge in September, but the engineers discovered no signs of weakness. “There were no red flags, nothing to raise any alarms at all,” said Mike Kennedy, director of transportation maintenance and repair for the city of Minneapolis.  

City engineers and consultants from the local office of San Francisco-based URS, the engineering company that designed the bridge, have been at the site since the single cable broke on Sunday, Kennedy said. “Our engineers are trying to identify what happened and what the next step should be. But it’s too early to speculate on what went wrong.” Read Full Article Here

Skyscraper Maintenance Crackdown Urged

Posted by:  Engineering Source

Australian architecture authority Archicentre has sent out a warning to the national architectural community that aging city buildings must be properly maintained in light of a recent, and dangerous, building related incident.

The accident occurred when a large slab of marble located on the façade of a commercial skyscraper on Melbourne’s Collins Street became unattached and fell causing damage to both the building and side walk area, highlighting the potential threat that these unmaintained buildings hold.

Defects that the architecture authority have urged building owners to crack down on include façade staining or discolouration, sealant failures, efflorescence, rising dampness and water penetration, corrosion, buckling or deflection and plaster of tile delamination, says Manager for Archicentre West Australia Maureen Letter. Read Full Article Here

Engineering Failure On World’s Longest Bridge

Posted by: Designbuildsource.com

The construction and engineering sector in Canada has had a major scare this past week with a significant mechanical malfunction on the current redevelopment of Port Mann Bridge, which connects the areas of Coquitlam and Surrey in British Columbia near Vancouver.  One of the structure’s major construction pieces, the gantry, malfunctioned, sending a 90-tonne slab of concrete crashing into the Fraser River below. 

The cause of the accident is still unknown, with officials at the site stating that they were unsure as to whether the malfunction was immediate or due to progressive damage. Read Full Article Here

TKA implant designers should further study mechanical testing

Posted by: Orthosupersite.com

With informed patients asking their physicians about the expected longevity of total knee arthroplasty prostheses, orthopedic surgeons are faced with new questions and opportunities, according to presentations at the Current Concepts in Joint Replacement 2011 Winter Meeting.

“I tell [patients] for each year they use the knee, they have about a 1% chance of failure, and that chance begins at day 1,” he said. “It is not realistic to tell our patients about 30-year results when there are no clinical data available at 30 years.” In his presentation, Victor proposed that strict testing using wear simulators, rather than relying on historical literature, is the ideal approach that supports continued TKA innovation.

“As doctors working with engineers, we should try to make more use of virtual tools and mechanical testing in order to predict future things that will happen,” Victor said. “We all know of the things that went wrong in orthopedics over the past 20 years. A lot of these things could maybe have been foreseen if the mechanical testing had been a bit better.” Read Full Article Here

Boeing Inspects 787 Dreamliner for Possible Repairs

Posted by: CNBC.com

By: Phil LeBeau

Boeing is inspecting its newest plane, the 787 Dreamliner for possible repairs to the carbon fiber composite structure of the plane.

The issue involves a problem known as delamination.  In laymen terms structural stiffeners, or shims, were not attached to the composite skin properly.  Over time, this can cause delamination, or damage the carbon fiber composite skin.  Read Full Article Here

BP gives $1 million for UAA lab to study metals corrosion

Posted By: ADN.com ; Author: Mike Dunham

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. announced Monday that it was donating $1 million to the University of Alaska Anchorage to help create a lab to study the effects of corrosion on pipe metals. 

Tom Barrett, a retired Coast Guard admiral and deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation in the Bush and Obama administrations, called corrosion “a creeping disease” and a “constant threat” to the 35-year old-pipeline that carries the oil on which Alaska’s economy is largely dependent.  A “pinhole leak” due to corrosion in a difficult-to-inspect section of pipe shut down operations for four days in January of 2011. Each day cost the state $18.5 million, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/02/06/2303584/bp-gives-1-million-for-uaa-lab.html#storylink=cpy

Authorities Order A380 Wing Crack Checks

Posted by: AviationWeek.com ; Robert Wall

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is ordering inspections of relatively high-cycle A380s to assess the extent to which a new set of wing cracks are affecting the Airbus fleet.

The inspections and potential repairs could impact A380 operations, although so far the damage that prompted the EASA airworthiness directive has been found on only two of nine aircraft inspected.