The Excellence in Design Award provides professional acknowledgement within design and manufacturing in today's global appliance marketplace. Join the competition that showcases the best examples of thought leadership, creativity, and technical savvy solutions within our industry.
Submit your entry by February 6, 2009, and save on entry fees! The late deadline is Feb. 13, 2009, but a late fee is required.
Additional Entry Details: • Complete one online form for each entry. • $150 fee for each entry: $225 for each late entry • Deadline for entries is February 6, 2009. Late entries accepted until February 13, 2009, but include the additional $75 late entry fee. • All products must have been placed into distribution between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.
The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to modify its proposed rule governing the sale of equipment pre-charged with HCFC-based refrigerants (R-22, R-142b, and their blends).
In testimony before the EPA, AHRI Vice President of Regulatory Policy and Research Karim Amrane stated that the proposed rule "goes well beyond its original intent," which was to close a loophole on imported products containing HCFCs, to match the ban on domestic manufacturing of products that use virgin R-22 or R-142b beginning January 1, 2010.
Do you need guidance navigating safety standards or want to learn about new regulations? UL University offers over 150 public workshops plus onsite private, custom, and round-table workshops. Topics include:
· Designing for Compliance to UL 197 · Commercial Refrigeration Appliances: UL 471
· Safety of Household and Similar Electrical Appliances, IEC 60335-1 ·
CE Marking and more
Register for any public workshop before January 31st and receive 15% off with discount code APP0109.
The consumer electronics industry is projected to generate $171 billion in U.S. shipment revenues in 2009, according to the semi-annual industry forecast released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®.
The CE industry continued to grow in 2008 despite the economic downturn. CEA's estimate of final shipment revenues for 2008 showed the industry reached a new high of $172 billion, an increase of 5.4 percent over 2007. In 2009, overall, CEA projects that domestic shipment revenues will essentially remain flat at $171 billion, a decrease of 0.6 percent over 2008.
Hundreds of gadgets and services, all promising to make consumer's lives at home easier and more comfortable is set to hit the market, but according to a new study, the one thing consumers want most in a connected home is convergence.
According to the 2008 State of the Connected Home Market Study, the number of US online households that consider the idea of a connected home - a home where independent systems, like lighting, security and entertainment, are linked and centrally controlled - "definitely appealing" has held steady since 2005. However, more people than ever before find it appealing and product convergence is the biggest opportunity for growth.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the availability of Energy Star residential water heaters. The Energy Star program now addresses every major residential appliance found in most American homes. Introduction of this product provides significant potential savings to consumers. Water heating represents up to 15.5 percent of national residential energy consumption, the second largest end use of energy in homes, following heating and cooling. Using one of five specified water heating technologies, Energy Star qualified water heaters can reduce water heating bills from 7.5 percent to as much as 55 percent.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Northbrook, Ill., a leader in product testing and safety certification, has aligned the organization into five operating units reporting directly to UL CEO Keith Williams.
The five operating units are: Product Safety, UL University, Environmental Services, Life and Health Sciences, and Verification Services.
"Underwriters Laboratories posted strong growth in 2008," said Keith Williams, CEO Underwriters Laboratories. "By aligning our business under these operating units, we intend to focus on strategic areas for growth and further drive our public safety mission globally."
LG Electronics, Seoul, Korea, has reorganized and realigned its four traditional business units. The strategic changes to the company's structure is effective Jan. 1, 2009.
In addition to the changes to the company's business units, a total of 48 executives were appointed or promoted as part of his sweeping plan to position LG for long-term business success.
GlobalSpec (www.globalspec.com), a leading specialized search engine, information resource and e-publishing company for the engineering, industrial and technical communities, has entered into a partnership with appliance DESIGN
, a magazine devoted to providing solutions for design and engineering teams in the global residential and commercial appliance industry.
Through this relationship, visitors to the appliance DESIGN Web site (www.appliancedesign.com
) can search for products and services by specification - more than 177 million searchable product specs in 2.3 million product families from over 24,000 searchable supplier catalogs - or by part number. Additionally, users will benefit from having The Engineering Web - more than 250 million Web pages consisting of engineering and technical content powered by GlobalSpec - at their fingertips, making it faster and easier for them to search for materials including engineering and technical Web sites and Web pages, part numbers, news, research papers, editorial content, material properties, patents and standards.
Learn more...
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Thermal Engineering Report: Dissipating Heat in Electronics
Based on hundreds of on-site visits and interviews, this report delves into the common mistakes companies designing consumer and commercial electronics have made and offers recommendations to help your company unlock the power CAE.
Even though commercial appliances have a higher cost and lower volume than consumer appliances, makers of commercial equipment still must operate in a competitive environment, which means keeping a lid on cost. In the past, that might have also meant throttling back on technological innovations that would add cost to the product. But, times have changed. Read more ...
Placing power control electronics on printed circuit boards provides a great deal of design flexibility, while attaching power semiconductors to a substrate delivers excellent thermal properties for motor drives. Designers of such drives can now reap the benefits of both approaches in a recently developed intelligent power module. Want to learn more?
Imagine a world where the skyrocketing demand for energy, driven by the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and the rapid economic development of emerging economies, leads to frequent electrical brownouts and blackouts. Now imagine if local utilities could communicate with appliances in homes such as a water heater, air conditioner, clothes dryer, or dishwasher, and instruct each one to cycle down during high-demand periods. This can help minimize power demand across the grid and avoid blackouts. Or better yet, imagine load-management programs that automatically drive down consumer electrical bills by turning off appliances and lights during high-cost peak periods and reinstating them
when electricity rates are lower. Read more...
Injection molding is the most commonly used method of manufacturing any significant volume of plastic components. The process uses metal molds to produce parts with high accuracy and cosmetic surface finishes, accommodates a vast variety of engineering-grade resins and can be highly cost effective in mid- to high-volume runs.
See more... See more of the January issue, including a look at:
ETCO
The ETCO electrical terminals are now RoHS compliant materials. The terminals now include more than 1,500 standard connector products that are designed to be crimped to wire, such as rings, spades, disconnects, pins, receptacles and splices made from a wide range of RoHS compliant materials. Read more.
The company recently expanded its portfolio of heat exchangers with the introduction of the company's own range of microchannel heat exchangers through its joint venture, Danfoss Sanhua. With the microchannel heat exchangers, it is possible to build systems that reduce refrigerant charges by as much as 40 percent and boost overall efficiency by up to 30 percent.
The 35-72P gas ignition control eliminates mercury flame sensor switch systems. The one-piece 120 VAC microprocessor based pilot ignition control ignites the pilot flame on LP or natural gas heating equipment, providing high energy sparking, dependable flame sensing and automatic control of the main gas valve. Want to learn more?
The TX20D19 display is a compact 8.0 in. wide aspect ratio TFT display module. It supports a 15:9 wide aspect ratio, a display resolution of 800 x 480 pixels (WVGA) and delivers excellent optical performance. The new transmissive display provides excellent image uniformity and delivers a brightness of 350cd/m² with a 200:1 contrast ratio. Read more.
The 3-W AstraLED RGB LED combines cost and space savings with superior color performance. In a single three-chip package, the AstraLED RGB provides color rendering performance and brightness that is superior to traditional phosphor converted high-power white LED technologies.
The Precision Differential Thermostat Series features tight differential between 9 DegF and 14 DegF. These ½-in. Automatic Reset Disc Thermostats are suitable for temperature control in heaters, commercial food equipment, spas, and medical equipment. They are available with Selco's Open on Rise (OA) and Close on Rise (CA) configurations.
Read more?
Please let us know what you think by sending your comments to Larry Adams, E-News Editor,at
adamsl@bnpmedia.com.
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Please let us know what you think by sending your comments to Larry Adams, E-News Editor,at
