The new importance of design (Or, how to keep your job)Leslie Langnau
August 26th, 2008.
Automation turns the latest product and some services into commodities at breakneck speed, and then they are outsourced to the lowest bidder. We all know many examples; software programs are coded in India, and corporate helps desks are farmed out to non-English speaking countries such as Russia. Outsourcing is a fact of business. (more…)
Made in America–Not: Part 2John Gyorki
July 29th, 2008.
Because I received such an overwhelming number of e-mail responses on this subject in the May issue, I decided to write a second article. I invite you to read the first set of replies on the Design World website Insights blog.
Obviously, most people agreed with my opinion regarding the devastating loss of American jobs and the negative effect that “off-shoring” has on our economy. This included smart, prominent manufacturers who make US products, profitably! Only those who choose to off-shore our knowledgebase object to my opinion. In the hope of finding a government publication that supported my opinion, I consulted the Internet and read our president’s report on the status of the US economy for 2007 (called a 2008 report). I was surprised (and a little puzzled) to read that the president painted a very rosy picture of our economic status! He and his advisors did not own up to the fact that we were and still are on a steep path to recession, but rather, that our economy was “unsettled.” What a weasel word! The report went on to say that although unemployment was approaching 5%, it was not likely to reach it. At this writing, the number is 5.5% and climbing. It also claimed that the US was the largest exporter of goods and services of any country, but he did not immediately describe what these goods and services comprised. After a little more searching, I got the impression that he was equating those exported services with the jobs that we offshored — primarily software development to India and China. How can that be an export? Exports are supposed to bring in dollars, not pay them out in salaries to foreign companies. (more…)
Solutions…anyone?John Gyorki
June 18th, 2008.
I have been a design engineer for many more years than my wife would like to admit. And during those years, I had fun designing new control systems, instruments, consumer products, and even a chemical process. At no time did I consider my job as being a problem that needed a solution, nor did I have a problem that needed a solution. When I created things, I used ordinary engineering tools, which consisted of pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches, soldering guns, oscilloscopes, digital signal analyzers, voltmeters, algebra, trigonometry, physics, and chemistry. You get the idea. I went to school and college to learn how to use these tools to design and make things. So where did the idea come from that I always had a problem that needed a solution? I think it started when my mother said, “Do your homework. Do your math problems.” There it is. Until then, I didn’t know math was a problem. I liked manipulating numbers, fitting them to equations, charts and graphs, and later, schematic diagrams. I liked designing circuits that eventually became radios, power controllers, vehicle computers, and more instruments. Where is the problem here that needs a solution? (more…)
Reader Feedback on Gas BottlesLarry Boulden
June 03rd, 2008.
We’re always happy when a reader takes the time to write about one of our feature articles. So we were pleased to hear from Wayne Baldridge when he saw one way to improve a recent article on using gas bottles to supplement hydraulic accumulators.
Wayne wrote, “ Nowhere in the article was there a ‘reason’ given.
“The gas volume has an initial pressure which the incoming fluid must exceed in pressure to displace or assume the space. As the volume decreases, the pressure increases. The initial pressure and the pressure at fluid volume determine the useful volume of the accumulator as defined by working pressure.
“At half fluid volume the pressure must be 2X of the initial pressure. What the backup gas does is reduce the compression change of the gas so that the accumulator empty pressure and the full pressure are closer together. Working pressure then need not change as much to exchange fluid in the accumulator.
“A stand alone accumulator requires a working pressure change of 2X to access ½ of its volume. With a back-up gas bottle, that pressure change can be substantially less to access the accumulator’s full volume.
“For what it’s worth. Wayne.”
You can read the article, “Reduce hydraulic accumulator cost with backup gas bottles” in the current (May 08) issue of Design World, or on this website. Take a look, then let us know what you think.
–Larry B
Made in America – NotJohn Gyorki
May 20th, 2008.
When I was much younger, I thought that criminals knew they were criminals, murderers knew they were murderers, thieves knew they were thieves, and they all knew they were bad — according to that “good versus bad” set of rules we are all born with. It was not until I read stories about Al Capone that I began to wonder if all outlaws honestly knew they were bad.
I have concluded that they are so grossly disillusioned and out of touch with reality that they do not know they are bad. In fact, most think they are good, even virtuous, and saintly, and the rest of society does not understand them or the good they do for us. Pick any name: Hitler, Tojo, Mussolini, Henry VIII, Nixon, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Castro, and so forth. Thousands more have no names. The list has no end.
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