Austin Weber

Fuel cells offer tremendous potential as a clean power source. The chemical energy of hydrogen and oxygen reacts with fuel cells and converts the energy to electricity. The decades-old technology is ideal for a wide variety of applications, including stationary power stations and many forms of transportation.

Overheating is one of the biggest challenges facing engineers developing new types of battery technology. Too much thermal activity can reduce performance, cause malfunctions and increase the risk of fires and other serious problems in electric vehicles.

Electrification isn’t the only paradigm shift transforming the automotive manufacturing landscape today. Sustainability is also forcing companies to rethink traditional production models. A new initiative involving some of the auto industry’s biggest players will affect the global supply chain.

As assembly plants become more digitally connected to both suppliers and customers, the potential threat posed by cyberattacks will only get worse. Cyberthreats to manufacturers are real, and the consequences can be devastating.

San Diego has one of the richest aerospace heritages of any city in America. Ryan Aeronautical Co. built Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis” aircraft in the mid-1920s. During World War II, Consolidated Aircraft Corp. mass-produced planes such as the B-24 Liberator and the PBY Catalina.

Traditionally, electric traction motors use permanent magnets made with rare-earth metals. However, materials such as dysprosium and neodymium are a limited resource.

Fully and semiautomatic wire processing machines can greatly increase quality and productivity—if they are set up and run properly. But, as the great Scottish poet Robert Burns reminds us, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Once upon a time, many of the fuel gauges, speedometers and other mechanical instruments used in automobiles and other vehicles were made ion the North Side of Chicago by Stewart-Warner Corp.

Up until a few decades ago, instrument panels in most vehicles consisted of a smattering of simple analog buttons, dials, gauges, knobs and needles. Today, mechanical speedometers and tachometers have gone the way of bench seats, hood ornaments, hub caps and running boards.

To make electric motors without rare-earth metals more sustainable, engineers at the University of Pittsburgh are working with Ames Laboratory and Powdermet Inc. to explore alternatives.