Metal and Plastic Heat Staking By: James A. Warholic
Ever see the insides of a cell phone and wonder how it is assembled? How about the small metal battery compartments inside hi-tech toys. What about the miniature memory modules that go in digital cameras. Then there are the assembly of keyboards, laptop computers, cordless phones, SIMM cards, PCMCIA card modules, automotive parts, and even the remote controls are assembled with what is known as Heat Staking.
Heat Staking Pictures Courtesy of Thermal Press International
When a manufacture wants to join metal-to-metal or plastics-to-metal via small plastic posts that protrude from the plastic housing a heat staking machine is used to apply controlled heat, time, and pressure through a heat staking head. Typically the head is heated up to a controlled temperature. Once heated to the proper temperature depending on the types of metals and plastics being staked, the head makes contact with the protruding plastic posts and are formed into various types of heat staked posts. Post Types Include: FLAT PROFILE, DOME, HOLLOW, CROSS-SHAPED, and ROSETTE POSTS
When an entire plastic side needs to be formed into a plastic lip to hold a metal device, glass lens, or another plastic assembly this is referred to as side swaging.
Heat staking is found in: aerospace, industrial, medical, dental, automotive, semiconductor, electrical, appliance, telecommunications, fixtures, electronics, house-wares, cellular, communications, memory module units, sporting equipment, PCB connector, PDAs, LCD connectors, computers, and more. Just about every type of manufacturing industry uses some form of heat staking to assemble their products.
Ultrasonics is also another form of assembly, but due to the new tight tolerance size constraints of the miniature products and the larger size head design requirements for ultrasonics to function properly, and typically a slower throughput with ultrasonic assembly equipment, more manufactures are heading to the Heat Staking Machines route for their mass production parts and products assemblies. Heat staking heads can be designed to incorporate very small multi-point contacts to speed up the mass production assembly process.
Heat Sealing Machines
The same machines used for staking can also be used for a heatsealing process. For example when lcd display units need to be applied to a circuit board assembly a special conductive heat activated glue-like adhesive is activated with a heat press. For an example of how a heat staking and heat sealing machine and head function for a cell phone or memory module see the heat staking heat sealing video.
The heat staking process is known for its outstanding repeatability in the mass production environment. Heat staked joints in the miniature world of plastics assembly can withstand the rigors of vibration of heavy daily use of the assembled products. The process is also known for the mega machines that are involved in the large format automotive sector. Dashboard covers, door panels, and even the dashboard assemblies themselves are assembled with these mega heat staking machines.
Large Capacity GM Dashboard Heat Staking Machine
No doubt about it, we live in a Mass Production Heat Staked World.
Sales, Marketing, and Advertising are becoming more technology linked together with new forms of recording media.
One of the best technology devices that I have purchased in the last few months is one of the new digital voice recorders. These devices are extremelly versatile in what they can do for you.
Note Taking Interviews Reminders General Instructions
More and more companies are investing into RFID technology to provide everything from inventory control systems to tracking cars and people.
WalMart recently told their suppliers that an rfid system needed to be incorporated for supply chain tracking, into cases and pallets for tracking of products into and out of warehouses, and from the suppliers.
There are basically two types of systems in use today. One is a passive rfid system in which a micro chip is implanted in an object and when that object is passed over or near a transmitter/receiver a signal is reflected back from the rfid to the receiver. By assigning identifiable numbers and other data to each chip, tracking can be accomplished in real-time via the Internet or internal servers. The other system is an active system where the chip transmits and some can even store information changes. Ranges with passive can be several feet vs. active rfid can be hundreds of feet or more by incorporating cellular and satellite technology and the world wide web.
This technology can be used in a diverse number of ways and it certainly brings into issue the legal and ethical implications from privacy and controlling aspects of Big Brother getting involved in the mix. People tracking is already going on at the criminal level but what about when they implant a chip in your car. As you drive from point A to point B there could be sensors implanted in the roadways and if you got there too fast, the system would automatically know you were speeding and cite you a ticket. Not to mention that a history could be built to let someone spy on you and know where you have been anytime that vehicle is used. This type of system might sound good for tracking your teenager and making sure they are not using the vehicle for inappropriate activities but what about your sales activities?
When a person really understands how small some of these devices are it gives a whole different perspective to the meaning of the word implants. Some of these devices are the size of a grain of rice or smaller. There is even a company that makes a medical rfid chip that is implanted under the skin of an individual which can keep track of the medical history for that patent. This technology is a take-off of searching for and tracking pets when they might get lost.
Yes, it really is amazing what RFID technology can do for us today. But in the whole mix of things it can also be used both for good and bad. So consider carefully for what you ask for, because you just might get it. Imagine the possibilities.
As the world becomes more and more computer automated there is the need for remotely gathering telemetry data or remotely accessing equipment, programs, and machines.
M2M represents Man-to-machine or Machine-to-machine and is gathering more steam as the new buzzword for the present and the future.
This type of process is already going on extensively in various industries. The trucking industry is a prime target for tracking devices installed in the trucks. As they move across the country information is automatically sent to a server for tracking, routing, and scheduling purposes.
Telemetry gathering was done with our first ventures into outer-space. With cell phone bands, wireless Internet, and relatively inexpensive satellite communications M2M is taking on a whole new meaning.
M2M can significantly simplify general tasks such as having a meter reader person replaced with an automatic transmission type device that could send a signal over the power grid to a central data collection point.
While this represents major breakthroughs in technology it does bring up ethical and business issues related to Man being replaced by Machines. We even have the next stage going on where machines are building machines. At what point does man sit back and let the machines do all the work for him? While the Terminator series of movies was fashioned out of science fiction theme of man versus machines, are we approaching a point where we may have "T3 The Rise of the Machines?"
The Inventor of the Integrated Circuit Has Died Yesterday But His Invention Lives On Today and Tomorrow
The world would not be the same today without the IC chip. The first IC or integrated circuit was first created in 1958 by Jack Kilby. Prior to those days circuits were built using large tubes and other components.
The miniaturization of circuits has continually evolved until whole computer systems are now placed on a single chip. There appears to be no end in site for how much can be squeezed into or embedded onto a surface area. As things have progressed over the years the technology has managed to jump over the naysayers about how small things can get or how much processing power can be compacted into a square inch of space. New words have even been invented such as nanotechnology to describe manufacturing at a molecular level.
Even websites like this would not be in existence without integrated circuits.
When it comes to computers there are a number of things one can do to prevent bugs and viruses from infecting your system but an important item not to overlook is securing a computer from power fluctuations or power blackouts.
Operating systems tend to get scrambled if not properly shut down and data loss can occur during an improper shut down. Not only can operating systems get scrambled but so can the programs themselves. Believe me, I am talking from experience.
A way of combating this is to use a device called a ups or "uninterruptible power supply"
How the ups works is the computer and peripherals get plugged into a device that has a battery built into it. When there is a power outage or sag in the voltage the battery kicks in automatically allowing the computer to continue on running. After a preset time it can go into an automatic shutdown mode or run for a time until a manual shut down is performed thus preserving the integrity of the system.
Some of these devices can even give you a remote page or email automatically sent to a preset mail box upon various different events.
Some of the factors that should be considered when sizing these units is the VA ratings. The higher the number the longer it will maintain power during an outage. Consider also if you would like remote monitoring and reports generated. They provide a free software that actually will function with other competitors units.
Although these units have a battery that will eventually need to be replaced it is well worth the insurance to have to replace the battery instead of losing customer files or your computer system.
Article by James A. Warholic, President of Professional Web Services, Inc. internet marketing and online advertising services for businesses looking for seo help with their online market presence.
Wow! What a change is in store for us in the near future.
I always say that time seems to be moving faster but technology change is moving faster than the speed of light.
They say that technology doubles every eighteen months - OLD FACT.
Turn the search engine page. New search fact, it is impossible to keep up.
Overnight it seems like we have gone from computers that were super expensive to where now anyone can afford one. Prices on hardware components have provided a interesting situation. It seems as though every time an engineer thinks we have reached the limits of making the electronics smaller, faster, or more powerful, is blown out the door by the next new round of technology improvements.
With components such as memory and hard drives plus new super drives the information that can be stored will reach beyond what we can imagine. I remember when I thought 20 megabytes was a lot of memory. Now gigabytes and terabytes for hard drives are common place.
"Apollo, we have lift off!" The Petabyte disk drives. This size equals one million times a gigabyte or 1015 or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. Those numbers are so large in fact that they are hard to comprehend exactly how large that is. Some naysayers have said this is a long way off, well you better look again.
So how is this going to help you?
First off, take a look at Google. They have blasted off on their email service that is out of this world. I have been using it for about two months now and I do not know what I would do with out it. I never ever, never ever, have to throw any emails away. I can always get to any email anywhere in the world.
Their anniversary gift to the world is to expand the storage capabilities beyond what anyone can imagine. Last year at this time the naysayers were saying that it was an April Fools joke from Google to offer one gigabyte of email. Well we are going to the moon. Next stop and beyond is the GOOGOLBYTE
I feel like I am in control central. Here I sit with my large screen Mac in the middle of my desk with two other monitors, one on the right and one on the left.
While working on the other PC, I was just finishing up a project when this beautiful hidden island and beach setting floated onto the Mac screen. The Apple has built in screen savers that are simply beautiful. The way they handle the graphics just captures the beauty of the pictures in such away to create the sense that a person is there.
I am sure there are other screen savers to download but what they give you is sufficient enough for me.
As I dive in more to the OS X Software I am discovering new things everyday. I have been trying out different browsers with the Mac. Apple supplies a browser called Safari. Safari is very similar to the Mozilla-Firefox browser. They have the abilities to have tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing provides a means to open multiple tabs with-in the same window. This makes it easy to go back and forth between many websites when comparing or shopping online. Just installed the newly released browser, Camino by Mozilla, for the Apple OS X system.
Another day tomorrow. I need to go back and dream a little more.
I took the plunge today. The iMac G5.For weeks if not months I have been visiting a couple of different Apple stores in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, looking at all the new toys. I was in need of another computer and fell in love with the new Apples.
I started out many moons ago on the old "SE". The "SE" machine had a whopping 20 meg. hard drive and a grayscale display . Then I graduated to the Power PC6100. Wow I had color! Then many years rolled by in "computer years" and customers were getting all these new Windows machines. I thought it would probably be a good idea for me to learn about these. So I did my investigative market research and found a PC at one of the malls. All of a sudden it seemed as though the whole world was getting on the bandwagon.
As timed rolled on, family members wanted computers. I was not about to pay what I felt was a huge markup on the computers at the various outlets so I dove into learning about the insides and built one. Then I needed a Linux system and built another PC. A short while later it was time for another family member to have one and pulling the same rabbit out of the hat I went down to the local Fry's and looked at all the motherboards and picked what I felt would be the best investment. In addition I picked up a hard drive, memory, CD, DVD player, and a monitor. This one had a little hitch though. The motherboard would not boot. No problem though, just a little time and patience. Took the board back and got another. This time it booted up like a champ.
Now I am coming round circle. I had really loved the Mac when I first had them but because of time moving on I really lost touch with the machine I loved.
A friend had recently purchased a PowerBook and had been a fan of Apple for as long as Apple has been around. He is an older gentleman that really took to the Mac. As I had been comparing the differences between the PowerBook vs the PC, I was realizing what a wonderful difference exisited between the two. I discovered there was a whole other world that I was missing.
So, I took the leap. When I went into the store I had intended to purchase the Mini, which is really a neat little machine but I needed more power and most importantly I needed a larger display with more real estate desktop space. I could have purchase the Mac mini with a large external display but by the time I would have added the external display, I could get the iMac G5 with a 20 inch wide screen display that is simply gorgeous. I picked up the high end model with Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse, 512 meg. of memory, 160 GB hard drive, and the Slot-load SuperDrive. With just a power plug and hooking up a network cable from my router I was in fat city.
When I turned it on it went through its boot up process and Wow! Once again I found the machine I love.
More to come from the Professional Web Services, Internet marketing, Online advertising, Branding strategies, and ComputerTechSter
Technology is changing faster than anyone can stay up with it. by: James A. Warholic
I remember just like it was yesterday when the first hand held calculators came out into the market place. They were big and bulky with big red LEDs and the batteries would only last for a short time. They only had a rudimentary amount of functions: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
The first one I ever saw was when my sister, a teacher, bought one for what I think was a couple of hundred dollars. I recall the family all getting excited about this technology and wondering where it would lead. We all wanted to try it out. Then with in another year or so the next wave of new and improved calculators were seen in the marketplace. These were the scientific calculators that had more functions but a lot more expensive. It was a long time before I actually saw one of these that someone had purchased.
As I recall, it was a couple of years latter that my Dad had purchased a basic one.
During those early years of the calculators, school kids were still being taught to use slide rules. In fact during that time it was forbidden to even have a calculator at school. The teachers said that students needed to do the higher math functions on paper plus use slide rules.
Now, look at us today. With the advent of high speed throughput heat staking machines, the manufacturing processes and costs have been reduced dramatically. How times change. Teachers are asking students to go out and purchase scientific calculators for their math assignments and for use in class. The cost of these calculators have dropped in price to just about to the point where anyone can afford it. Not only are they less expensive but their computing power is on the magnitude greater then what a computer could do twenty years ago. Likewise, computers today have more computing power than forty years ago.
Kids today do not have a clue what it is like not to have calculators. Most in the United States have access to computers either at home or at school.
Yep, technology is a changing... And it is pushing and pulling us along.
In light of the Internet, where will we be in another five or ten years?
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