Fabre is best known for writing Souvenirs Entomologiques, a series of educational volumes that described in detail the lives of insects and their place in nature, something Micropolis demonstrates. Patrons enter through a cleft cut into a rock-like facade of the park. This opening gradually increases to 13 feet in height, like cracks from the point of view of ants and beetles.

This insect gallant asks his partner to dance at the Micropolis theme park in south central France, where people are given a bug's-eye view.

Inside the park proper, green metal stalks support giant brass flowers that form the roof of the structure, towering above visitors as they would over the tiny denizens of a flowerbed. Natural and artificial light is blended to produce shafts of light as seen from a garden floor.

The park's 5,400-square-foot mineral facade is designed to interplay with daylight to symbolize the multifaceted vision of insects. An audio system pipes in the chirping of crickets, and ducts waft the scents of field and flowers through the park.

In addition to entertaining its visitors, Micropolis educates them through 11 halls that describe the work of entomologists as well as the entire life cycle of insects. The halls contain cavern and vivarium displays that depict insect metamorphoses. Among the most popular attractions are human-scale models of insects, some anthropomorphized with top hat and tails, à la Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, who hit the big time in another theme park.

Breaching the dams stays an option, said Donna Darm, the acting regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the strategy released by the caucus calls first for habitat improvements to the Columbia estuary and its tributaries, along with changes to the hatcheries.

Ice Harbor dam, pictured here, together with Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite dams, will continue operating on the Snake River.

Part of the strategy comes in an opinion rendered by the NOAA Fisheries agency. The agency diverged from a 1995 opinion in two main ways. The new strategy stresses the need to increase salmon survival outside dammed areas, thereby expanding the number of fish ending up in the river. It also sets up periodic evaluations, three, five, and eight years out, to gauge how well the measures are working.

Among the changes to the hydro-power plan are a call for more flow and spill. The plan also recommends improvements to the dams to bring more fish safely past them.

If, in 10 years, the recovery of salmon and other endangered fish populations is not in evidence, then more aggressive plans, such as breaching, could be set in motion.

A Prox Actuator extends the reach of a small-diameter prox and isolates the sensor from damage.

Here's how it works. A threaded stainless steel actuator is mounted in the traditional through-hole style, so the extended end of its spring-loaded plunger comes in contact with the target. The other end mounts in an anodized, aluminum-mounting clamp along with a 4- or 8-mm prox sensor, depending on model. When light contact is made with the target, the plunger is pushed back and its opposite end is detected by the prox. As the target moves away, the spring returns the plunger to its original extended position.

The system saves money by requiring only a small, inexpensive prox that is now isolated from damage through accidental target contact. Balluff says it is suited for limited-space and hazardous-environment applications, as well as for situations in which the target is not made of metal, and thus is undetectable by an inductive prox.

Actuators are available in M8 or M12 sizes and can withstand impact to 100 N. Mounting clamps are machined for either 4- or 8-mm prox sensors, and are available in straight or 90-degree versions for installation flexibility.

According to Mark White, the GE Plastics market development manager, the single-piece, injection-molded part will be the first non-metal, non-glass mat rear bumper to be used on a 4,650-pound vehicle in the minivan class. The bumper meets impact resistance requirements of DaimlerChrysler and passes Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 581 at 5 mph.

"We've integrated the functions of the traditional steel or aluminum beam and impact-absorbing foam into one high-performance, lightweight, injection-molded system that meets the 2.5 mph federal impact standard and also passes the federal impact test at 5 mph," said White.

DaimlerChrysler redesigned its Minivan platform for the 2001 model year. The new bumper offers significant weight reduction, weighing 11.4 pounds. That is 8 pounds, or 41 percent, lighter than the stamped steel version it is replacing. According to GE Plastics, Xenoy 1103 combines the properties of both amorphous and crystalline resins, offers a high flexural modulus, high tensile strength, and good chemical resistance.

The boiler replacement was part of a mechanical room renovation begun in 1998. The project replaced not only the boilers, but also the emergency generators and the mechanical-room floor itself. Concrete from the third-floor equipment room had been raining down on the office space below.

According to Culligan's facilities director, Joe Vartiak, the company wanted small, lightweight, high-efficiency units to replace the older boilers, which were installed in 1969. Lochinvar suggested its Copper-Fin II boilers, which, the company said, have thermal efficiency ratings of 84 percent. According to Lochinvar, measuring thermal efficiency is an accurate way to evaluate performance because it determines how much heat is added to the water during boiler operation.

Renold couplings connect Waukesha engines powered by sewage gas to alternators at the Minworth sewage works in Birmingham, England.

The Minworth sewage plant is over 100 years old and one of Europe's largest, cleaning more than 100 million gallons of water for 1.3 million inhabitants of the city of Birmingham and the surrounding area. The plant separates sewage from wastewater, concentrates it into sludge, and sends it to a digester where microorganisms convert a portion of the sludge into biogas. This gas is fed to five Waukesha 8L-AT 27 engines that generate 7.5 megawatts of electric power.

The engines' exhaust and cooling water pick up 8 MW of thermal energy that is recycled back to the sludge digester to promote the growth of the microorganisms.

Key components of the Minworth CHP system are the DCB 845.5 rubber-in-compression transmission couplings manufactured by Renold Hi-Tec Couplings of Halifax, England, which connect the Waukesha engines to alternators. Renold tailors its couplings to specific reciprocating machinery applications, selecting rubber compounds that will control resonant torsional vibration, and protect the coupling against severe shock load. The precompressed rubber elements also eliminate torque amplification that could damage the coupling.

A rocker arm cover is particularly susceptible to noise and vibration because of its shape and its position atop an engine. For engineers trying to squelch automotive noise, the rocker arm cover has traditionally been a good target.

Until now, however, predictions for the noise characteristics for a particular cover had to rely on simulation programs; or the cover had to wait until its acoustics could be measured during dynamometer testing.

Research, begun at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA), of Lyon, used a diesel engine furnished by PSA Peugeot Citro'n of Paris. Engineers discovered two sources of rocker cover resonance. One source was the mechanical vibration of the engine. The other one was acoustical noise emanating from the diesel itself.

For the new procedure, engineers test the rocker arm cover separately for response to noise and for response to vibration. Then, they merge results to predict how the cover will react when it is attached to a running engine. When predicted and actual data were compared, at 2,000 rpm, the difference between results was never much more than 10 dB over a range of 500 to 5,000 Hz.

The first three of the CPSC's 10 principles specifically challenge product developers to incorporate safety in their designs and to test them for potential hazards, while staying apprised of the latest advances in product safety.

"We're laying out a plan for companies to put safety in before they have to take a defect out," said CPSC chair Ann Brown, speaking before a recent gathering of product liability attorneys in New Orleans. "There are too many safety recalls," she said. By making positive examples of companies that stress safety in their products, the commission hopes to encourage other manufacturers to follow their lead, she said.

Companies can join the Product Safety Circle by pledging to follow the 10 principles, by agreeing to name senior safety officials who will implement the principles, and by promising to publicize successes arising out of participation in the initiative.

The commission passed the initiative by 2-1, with Brown and Thomas Moore casting the approving votes. Mary Gall voted against the plan, fearing possible public criticism of those companies not wishing to join the circle. A second reason for her "no" vote was her concern about the initiative's underlying assumption that "the commission can identify certain management characteristics of companies that lead to the reliable production and distribution of safe consumer products." Gall stated further that singling out companies for their compliance with laws and regulations was inappropriate for a regulatory agency.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City will retrofit 500 of its Orion V buses with the emission control filters developed by Johnson Matthey of Wayne, Pa. The filters consist of a platinum-coated catalyst and a particulate filter designed to remove 90 percent of the soot, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbon emissions from diesel exhaust.

WorldWater Corp. of Pennington, N.J., has begun the installation of solar-powered water pumps in Cebu and Sulu provinces under contract with the Philippine government. Because they are self-powered, the products are designed to raise clean water from wells in areas where there is no infrastructure for electricity.

Forbes has included ANSYS of Canonsburg, Pa., a maker of computer-aided engineering software, on its list of the 200 best small companies.

Alstom Power in Paris will provide a heat recovery steam generator to the Salt River Project's combined-cycle power plant at the Kyrene Generating Station near Tempe, Ariz. The generator will recover heat from the exhaust of a natural gas-fired General Electric 7FA turbine to generate steam that will produce an additional 115 megawatts.

home | features | news update | marketplace | departments | about ME | back issues | ASME | site search

© 2001 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers