Monthly Archives: February 2014

Safety

UL Functional Safety Listing Mark

UL Functional Safety Listing Mark

UL (Underwriters Laboratories) is a safety consulting and certification company.  It is based in the United States, and has offices in 46 countries.  UL is one of several companies approved to perform safety testing by the US federal agency Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Traditional UL listing marks were for fire and electric shock safety certification for a great variety of products.  Over the past few years, functional safety standards have been growing throughout North America and Europe.  This has led to UL creating its UL Functional Safety Listing Mark.

UL Functional Safety Listing Mark

UL Functional Safety Listing Mark example

The UL Functional Safety Listing Mark examines the effectiveness of the entire safety-related system of a product.  It includes evaluations of:

  • Software
  • Hardware
  • Environmental factors (e.g., electromagnetic compatibility, EMC)
  • Safety lifecycle management processes

Traditional UL Listing Marks were concerned with just the hardware safety, and environmental factors to some extent.

UL’s intention is that the UL Functional Safety Listing Mark will replace the old listing mark.  They won’t be used in tandem.  But the old listing mark isn’t going away.  The choice between the two is up to the product manufacturer seeking the safety listing.  Reasons for adopting the new functional safety mark may be for market acceptance or customer requirements, for example.

 

Uncategorized

World’s first 3D-printed titanium bicycle frame

World’s first 3D-printed titanium bicycle frame could lead to cheaper, lighter bikes

3d printed titanium bicycle frame

The MX-6 Evo mountain bike, sporting its 3D-printed titanium frame

When it comes to a high strength-to-weight ratio, titanium is just about the best material out there for manufacturing bicycle frames. Unfortunately, those frames are also quite expensive. They could be about to come down in price, however – two British companies recently teamed up to create the world’s first 3D-printed titanium bike frame.

Article is continued here.

Original source: Renishaw via Stuff

The Economy

IAR’s Inland Empire Report on Business, Jan 2014

IAR’S INLAND EMPIRE REPORT ON BUSINESS

Institute of Applied Research

CSU San Bernardino

 

Prepared by: The Institute of Applied Research
Housed in CSUSB’s College of Business and Public Administration

 

Report for January 2014

Sponsors:
San Bernardino County Economic Development Agency
Riverside County Economic Development Agency

(Editor’s note:  The Inland Empire (I.E.) is a metropolitan area and region of Southern California. It is situated directly east of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.)

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PMI CONTINUING TO SHOW SLOW GROWTH

According to Barbara Sirotnik (Director, Institute of Applied Research), and Lori Aldana (Project Coordinator, Institute of Applied Research), “This month’s PMI (51.9) is only a slight decrease from last month’s 53.5, and is the fifth month above the 50% benchmark which indicates a growing manufacturing sector.”

“All components of the PMI registered at or above 50 this month except the Inventory index which showed a decrease from 56.5 to 48.4.  Production was virtually unchanged (56.5 last month and 56.3 this month).  The New Orders Index decreased from 58.1 last month to 51.6 this month indicating that the rate of growth has slowed, however new orders are still coming in.  The volatile Employment Index remained at 50.0 – most companies said the overall level of employment remained the same since last month, but a small group of companies saw increases, and an equal amount saw decreases.  Commodity Prices showed a decrease from 61.3 to 59.4 but remained above 50 for the 19th month, indicating that prices continue to rise.  Supplier Deliveries increased from 46.8 to 53.1 (indicating that deliveries are slowing slightly).”

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