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Electronics, software help cars cruise design crossroads

Future automobile designs announced at the Detroit Auto Show combine the technology of different platforms with futuristic design features to create a new driving experience

Anna Allen, Staff Editor

Detroit, MI--The future has arrived. Thanks to the efforts of design teams from General Motors (GM), Daimler-Chrysler, and Ford, concept cars are exploring new roads. SUVs, minivans, sports cars, coupes, and sedans are crossing paths, creating a new entry of vehicles, a metamorphosis if you will.

Among the concept introductions at the North American International Auto Show:

Visual interest. General Motors (GM) introduced five cars at the show, they include the Pontiac Aztek, Buick Cielo, Oldsmobile Recon, Cadillac Evoq, and Chevrolet Nomad. To design these cars, engineers are using Alias software's 2D digital sketching, paintbox, 3D digital modeling, and 3D visualization tools.

Each brand has its own design center that houses exhibits to inspire new automobile concepts. Kate Zak, a developer of brand center characters, comments that GM wants its engineers to know what the focus is, what it feels like.

Such exhibits include Speedforms, a generic sculpture of the individual brands' shape that helps engineers maintain the concept's focus and the model's theme. A glass case houses the brightest, boldest products, such as the latest Nike sneaker, which influence car design and keep engineers aware of consumer wants and needs.

Tom Peters, one member of the Pontiac Aztek design team, recalls going shopping with his kids and being captivated by a yellow/gray jacket. Products such as this gear, says Peters, stimulate a visual interest and incorporate materials to attract the consumers. He comments that sports bikes are another eye-catcher, especially those that feature exposed structural elements.

It's products and designs such as these that the design teams adopted for Pontiac Aztek, which combines the basic elements of an SUV, sedan, and van into one automobile. The Aztek, says design team member Phil Kuchera, is "in the hunk look, with a dual-port exhaust. Its profile is most dominant, a whole new animal, not a Clint Eastwood but rather an Arnold Schwarzenegger."

This four-door hatchback seats four passengers and features a 3.4l V6 200-hp engine with 225 lb ft of torque mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. This combination makes it possible to tow up to 3,500 lb--enough power to trailer not one, but two SeaDoo personal watercraft.

The car offers front-wheel drive with traction control and rack-and-pinion steering. Other features include MacPherson fully independent front struts, open-section twist-axles with integral stabilizer bar, and gas shocks with coil springs in the rear.

Inside, the titanium and textured-leather instrument panel features a fully exposed floating-instrument cluster pod with round analog gauges peer out of a titanium face plate.

The pod features Delphi Delco Electronic System's Ultra-Lite technology that uses a thin sheet of acrylic to efficiently channel light to the yellow primary display graphics. At night, the display takes on a 3D look.

The panel also features a driver information center with built-in heads-up display and multifunction LCD. The LCD screen delivers driver information center messages, time and radio-station readouts, and navigational information.

The main monitor also controls Pioneer's premium visual audio system. This system features a radio with CD changer control, two LCD displays, DVD, six-disc multi-CD changer, cordless remote control, and 10 speakers. The door speakers feature Pioneer's low-profile Kevlar(R) cone and neodynium-magnet circuit technology for loud, clear sound.

The Pontiac Aztec is is just one example of how GM is moving design. Another is a new spin on today's convertible.

"A no-compromise vehicle." That's how the Buick Cielo's design team described this concept, which they say provides the comfort of a sedan with the with the open-air enjoyment of a convertible.

This concept is designed from a primarily math-based process that involves extensive use of computers, 3D modeling, computer sketches, rendering, and production of a foam, not clay, model. This four-door convertible seats five and features a 3.8 liter supercharged V6 engine with four-speed auto transmission.

The Cielo features wide-opening doors, a dual head-up display, voice-activated systems (such as a retractable roof that is either voice or button operated), air bags (mounted in the roof rails), and a shift-by-wire roof (a sunroof that opens to varying degrees). The ignition is keyless.

Cielo's two roof rails run between the front of the passenger compartment and the rear end, strengthening the overall body and allowing use of three hard roof panels that slide into the trunk when the driver wants the top down. When the convertible top is up, the roof rails provide increased body stiffness and reduce noise and wind intrusion.

The four doors are power-operated and hinged at the front and rear pillars, opening at the center pillar. Articulating hinge mechanisms allow the doors to open wide. Recessed rockers and door sills Strengthen access to the car. And, the rear seat folds down.

A hybrid hybrid. At Daimler-Chrysler, designer's are using Visio and CATIA to create their futuristic concoctions. And once again, commercial products are driving some of the design considerations.

Chrysler's concept cars also address the need to increase fuel efficiency or look at alternative operating methods. The Citadel blends a sport sedan with an SUV and mixes in a futuristic performance powertrain.

"The Citadel is a hybrid-hybrid, a new breed of crossover vehicle. It provides the driving passion of the Chrysler 300M with ample cargo room," says Neil Walling, vice president of advanced design and exterior large-car, small car, and minivan. While Citadel is a hybrid among market segments, it is also a hybrid of powertrains; that is, it draws from two different sources.

"It's a performance hybrid," explains Bernard Robertson, senior vice president, engineering technologies. "The Citadel gives you V-8 power with V-6 fuel economy." A gas engine propels the rear wheels and electricity drives the front wheels. "We use the hybrid concept to recover energy normally lost when braking, while providing all-wheel -drive."

The rear wheels move by way of a 3.5l V-6 and the front wheels receive additional power from Siemens Automotive electric motors, which have been used on electric vehicles, similar to the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager EPIC electric minivan. The V-6 generates 253 hp and the electric motors add another 70 hp.

Other highlights of the Citadel include dual-power sliding rear doors and a retracting cargo door that slides under the floor. The B pillar moves with the rear door as it opens to maximize accessibility.

The Citadel has 2 inches more ground clearance and is 3 inches taller than the Chrysler Concorde. It has 20 x 3 ft of storage room, as compared to the 18.7 x 3 ft. for the Concorde.

Instrument panel design is influenced by high-end sports watches such as Chronoswiss and Blancpain. Hand-sculpted chrome is used for the indices on the gauges face. Other features include handmade chrome bevels around the odometer and clock--which carries into the steering wheel, door-control modules, pedals, and the folding tray table on the backside of the front seats.

As we round the corner to the millenium, car design races full speed ahead. Today's roads are the track for a new breed of vehicles. Which concepts will move forward and what else will emerge? That is in the hands of the designers, the vendors, and the tools--we'll have to wait and see.

Also...

Here's some other concept cars introduced at the Detroit Auto Show:

Ford: Thunderbird, Blackwood

This is just one example of how GM is moving design. Another is a new spin on today's convertible.

"A no-compromise vehicle." That's how the Buick Cielo's design team described this concept, which they say provides the comfort of a sedan with the with the open-air enjoyment of a convertible.

This concept is designed from a primarily math-based process that involves extensive use of computers, 3D modeling, computer sketches, rendering, and production of a foam, not clay, model.

This four-door convertible seats five and features a 3.8l supercharged V6 engine with four-speed auto transmission.

The Cielo features wide-opening doors, a dual head-up display, voice-activated systems (such as a retractable roof that is either voice or button operated), air bags (mounted in the roof rails), and a shift-by-wire roof (a sunroof that opens to varying degrees). The ignition is keyless.

Cielo's two roof rails run between the front of the passenger compartment and the rear end, strengthening the overall body and allowing use of three hard roof panels that slide into the trunk when the driver wants the top down. When the convertible top is up, the roof rails provide increased body stiffness and reduce noise and wind intrusion.

The four doors are power-operated and hinged at the front and rear pillars, opening at the center pillar. Articulating hinge mechanisms allow the doors to open wide. Recessed rockers and door sills Strengthen access to the car. And, the rear seat folds down.

Flex ring rinses out washer abuses

Newton, IA--Maytag Corp.'s washing machines are noted for their reliability and maintenance-free performance. Therefore, it seemed only natural for the quality-conscious engineers at Maytag to team up with a product development group at a major producer of elastomers for ideas on how to make its washers even better.

The project: Build a new multi-cavity tool for a flex ring that makes up part of the torque-sensitive mechanism in the agitator of the vertical washer. The previous material did not provide the high stiffness characteristics needed to adjust the amount of agitation for varying load sizes. However, no standard-grade thermoplastic polyurethanes Maytag tested fulfilled the need.

Maytag engineers conferred with personnel from Pella Plastics (Pella, IA), the part's producer, and with BF Goodrich (Cleveland) development engineers to come up with a solution. The team quickly identified the properties needed to meet both process and performance objectives of the new flex-ring design. Then product development engineers at BFGoodrich's IDEA Center turned these requirements into reality by developing Estane(R) 58151, a high-stiffness, durable, 70 Shore D thermoplastic polyurethane that offered excellent hydrolytic stability.

System cools off computer processor

West Columbia, SC--Fast processor speeds generate heat, which means something's got to cool everything off. That's why Compaq turned to KryoTech Inc. to provide the cooling system for the KryoTech/Digital 767 Personal Supercomputer^TM, which runs at 767 MHz.

KryoTech's patented -40C cooling system was developed specifically for use with the Alpha Workstation, according to Scott Spears, product marketing manager for KryoTech. "Each cooling system is specifically designed for use with the specific processor," he says.

The Alpha Workstation works with mechanical, CAD, or CAE applications. It also has been used in research and in custom design applications. "People use it when they need as much number-crunching power as they can get out of one processor," Spears notes.

The cooling system is a standard vapor-phase refrigeration one. It uses a freon alternative coolant, which is environmentally friendly. The system pumps liquid coolant to the evaporator, which is in contact with the workstation CPU inside the KryoCavity.

The KryoCavity is a hermetically sealed and specially insulated device that holds the CPU and maintains the electrical connection with the motherboard. A pressure decrease inside the evaporator causes the liquid coolant to change into a gas, and this phase change pulls the heat off the CPU, Spears says.

KryoTech came to Compaq, which was then Digital, with the idea for a thermal cooling solution. "We work on the premise that as chip technology progresses, chip size doesn't change, but chip power does, and they produce more and more heat," Spears says.

"Active cooling systems like we promote not only dissipate the heat but help the user get more power out of the chip."

The cooling system goes to -40C, and at that temperature, the system provides a 30% increase in processor speed. KryoTech is working on a system that gets colder than that. "At -120C, you double the speed of the processor," Spears says.

People at home sometimes also overclock their computers, tuning their motherboards and turning up the speed of their processors. This gives the user extra power and speed, but generates high heat, which can cause damage to the machine. "They use any and every means they can to cool them off, including putting their entire computer in the refrigerator," Spears says. "We've heard about all sorts of strange methods."

Elastomer prevents process contamination

Fremont, CA--HTM Technology Corp. believes staying ahead in the computer industry demands only the best manufacturing techniques and technology. That's why, as a leading provider of thin-film disks for high-capacity disk drives in PCs, network servers, and workstations, the company must control contamination during processing. It's also a major reason why HMT recently replaced fitted fluorocarbon-coated elastomer seals with perfluoroelastomer parts in its electro-less nickel plating production equipment.

Supplied by Pan Pacific Supply Co. (Concord, CA), the parts, made by DuPont Dow Elastomers (Wilmington, DE) from Kalrez(R), have saved HMT an estimated $770,000 per year in reduced downtime, while improving safety on the production line.

Kalrez combines the sealing force and resilience of an elastomer with the chemical inertness and thermal stability of Teflon(R) fluorocarbon resin to create an extremely durable seal that can survive under severe caustic conditions. It contains no active hydrogen atoms in its polymer backbone, giving it the ability to withstand a wide range of chemicals, yet remain thermally stable at temperatures as high as 600F.

In the electro-less nickel plating process, nitric acid (40% at 125F) removes nickel build-up on the side of the plating tank. For HMT, the harsh chemical environment disintegrated previously installed fluorocarbon O-rings used in various valves and fittings. Result: The company had to manually change the seals at least once a month.

HMT replaced the fluorocarbon O-rings with Kalrez in one of its seven plating tanks in December 1995. After a successful two-year trial-and-error campaign, the company fitted the six remaining tanks with the material.

"Degrading of the fluorocarbon O-rings would begin almost immediately, resulting in equipment contamination, acid leaks, and production loss," says Brian McIntyre, HMT's equipment engineering manager. "Since the switch to Kalrez seals, we're replacing seals about once every two years."

Mobile phones withstand tough environments

Nashville, TN--Given survey results showing that people at work spend at least two and a half hours a day away from their desks--costing businesses over $3 billion a year--Northern Telecom (Nortel) decided to develop a more-durable, less-costly wireless phone. The result: the Companion C3050 phone with a tough phone-covering accessory made of thermoplastic rubber.

The companion phone series enables mobile, wireless communications within the workplace, increasing worker productivity, improving customer service, and reducing costs. Whether a person is climbing a ladder or just in an office down the hall, the phone's custom-designed Rugged Protector accessory allows the user to clip the phone on for greater comfort and freedom of movement.

Design Workshop (Ottawa, Canada) was the industrial designer for the holster of Nortel's earlier Companion C3020 series of phones, designed primarily for office use. The new phone series needed to withstand the tougher conditions of an industrial environment, so Nortel asked Design Workshop to incorporate the Rugged Protector in the new models.

In turn, Design Workshop contracted the molding process to ITW Plastiglide (Toronto, Canada), which had the insert molding and tooling expertise needed for the accessory's design. The application presented both companies with a challenge: Make an intricate, yet protective and durable cover that allows the user to operate the phone while still in its holster.

"The C3050 was more advanced and contained more delicate parts than the earlier series," notes John Tutton, partner, Design Workshop. "We needed to make sure we selected the right grade of material that would meet critical performance and visual requirements."

Tutton used Santoprene(R) rubber, supplied by Advanced Elastomer Systems L.P. (AES, Akron, OH) as the base material for testing and comparing other potential material candidates. The material they sought had to have the ability to form the phone's intricate features, resist abrasion, and still provide adequate impact protection.

"We went through a long list of thermoplastic elastomers when trying to come up with the right material, beginning with Santoprene, since its properties made it the top contender from the start," Tutton recalls. "After conducting the tests, we ended up choosing a standard 75 shore A grade of Santoprene as the best material."

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Go to www.designnews.com/info for more information on the technologies in this section.

National Manufacturing Week showcases diverse products

Chicago--From March 15 through 18, engineers will have the chance to experience "America's #1 Source for Today's Industrial Solutions" at National Manufacturing Week. The show, which drew more than 60,000 attendees last year, is sponsored by the National Assn. of Manufacturers.

Manufacturing Week consists of the National Enterprise IT, National Industrial Automation, National Plant Engineering MRO and Management, and the National Design Engineering shows and conferences.

A new development this year in the National Design Engineering part of National Manufacturing Week is the Motion Hall, which is an entire hall devoted to motion-control products.

Last year, 2,100 exhibitors were on the show floor. Two companies who are returning this year are Cutler-Hammer (Cleveland, OH) and Intergraph Computer Systems (Huntsville, AL).

Cutler-Hammer will be celebrating its five-year anniversary as a company, and will be showing "best-in-class solutions, and how we will be taking them into the future and impacting manufacturing processes," says Paul Handle, marketing communications manager. The stage show, which featured music and dancers that transitioned into a speaker last year, will return, and will be "bigger and better, informational and entertaining," Handle adds.

"We're going to blow everyone away," he says. "The show is important to us, and we feel lucky to be a part of it. You'll have to see it to believe it."

Cutler-Hammer will also be showcasing several new products, including the SM Series photoelectric sensors. The series uses a microprocessor-controlled system called TargetLock^TM to help users speed up the installation process and Strengthen sensor reliability, the company says.

Another product Cutler-Hammer will be showing in its booth at National Manufacturing Week is the SV9000 line of drives, which are available from 0.75 to 1,100 hp and 200 to 690V. The drives are consistent across all frame sizes, Handle says.

In the Intergraph Computer Systems booth, watch for the latest Intel/Windows NT-based TDZ-2000 visual workstations targeted at MCAD professionals. Intergraph will also show a variety of mechanical CAD applications, including Pro/ENGINEER and SolidWorks, according to Marla Robinson, media relations manager for Intergraph. The TDZ-2000 workstations feature Intense(R) 3D Wildcat graphics, which, Robinson adds, are the fastest graphics on Windows NT.

In the Design News booth, be on the lookout for web site demonstrations and several innovative products that have appeared in the magazine's pages last year.

FOR DAILY UPDATES on all show activities during National Manufacturing Week, check out www.manufacturing.net/nmw99

Unix workstation breaks memory bottleneck

Palo Alto, CA--Hewlett-Packard has broken a memory bottleneck with its HP Visualize Model C360 workstation, which it touts as the world's fastest desktop workstation. Based on HP's new 367-MHz PA-8500 64-bit microprocessor, the C360 achieves performance specs of 26.0 SPECint95 and 28.1 SPECfp95, as measured by HP.

Its performance numbers are significantly better than those of its predecessors, the C200 and C240, which use previous versions of the PA-8000 family. Performance on mechanical design applications is up to 77% faster, says Barry Crume, product marketing manager for HP's workstation division. But the only hardware difference is that the C360 has its primary (or first-level) cache memory integrated on the PA-8500, and the C200 and C240 primary caches are the motherboard. Other than that, the three machines are practically identical.

HP engineers were able to integrate 1.5 Mbytes of primary cache on the PA-8500 chip by using a 0.25-micron manufacturing process instead of 0.33 micron. (The smaller geometry also increased the chip's frequency.)

Other advantages of on-chip primary cache include:

Bus between on-chip primary cache and CPU runs at CPU clock rate (367 MHz for PA-8500), which is much faster than for off-chip cache.

The C360 was designed for engineers doing computationally intensive work. A C360 with VISUALIZE-fx2 graphics, 256 Mbytes of RAM, a 4-Gbyte hard disk, and 21-inch monitor costs $24,500.

Earlier detection, easier cure

Rick DeMeis Associate Editor

Skaneateles Falls, NY--A direct result of medical equipment provider Welch Allyn's ongoing education atmosphere is the technology in its frequency-doubling Visual Field Analyzer (see DN 1/18/98). Here, a Medical Products Operation advanced technology manager attended a conference and met the Australian researcher who formulated the concept. The company brought the technology in house for development in conjunction with university and industry design partners. Extensive, targeted training in electromagnetic interference (EMI) and susceptibility brought one engineer up to speed for his portion of the design. Finally the product was implemented and introduced via the company's cross-functional teams.

The Visual Field Analyzer looks at eye function for advanced warning of glaucoma. It is more sensitive and provides fewer false positives and negatives than the common methods of eye-pressure measurement, such as the "air puff." Previously, high accuracy was possible only using equipment costing four times as much (up to $25,000), the company asserts. Testing would take 15 min/eye as opposed to 45 sec now.

The patient looks at a series of bars that vary sinusoidally between light and dark. Between 25-28 Hz, a set of retinal nerve cells, that happen to be the first degraded by glaucoma, produce an optical illusion of twice as many bars. Determining the contrast level where the bars are just barely visible correlates to a variety of eye diseases for earlier detection and easier cures.

A look at global sourcing and the state of European parts manufacture for the burgeoning industry known as telectronics.

Telectronics is a relatively new word invented to cover an industry which has seen enormous and at times explosive growth during the last 10 years. It covers a whole range of items which these days we almost take for granted in our domestic and business lives, such as televisions, VCRs, computers, printers, fax machines, photocopiers, telephones, mobile telephones, pagers, and answering machines.

Market Drivers

The growth of this market is driven by a number of factors:

• The need for faster, more efficient working methods - the globalization of business dealings and transactions means that successful organizations must be able to transmit and receive messages and information 24 hours per day.
• Increased travel and mobility of people both in their personal and professional lives.
• Increased interest in new technology - these days people are generally more exposed and better informed about new technologies and the latest gadgets.
• The pace of change - new products are constantly being introduced and are evolving at a faster rate. In order to stay ahead, we want the latest model, which we perceive will give us the maximum benefit both now and in the future.
• The rise in consumerism - more and more people feel there is a need to have such products. The penetration of telephones and televisions is almost 100 percent in the West and many homes now have two, three, or even four telephone handsets and televisions. Likewise, VCR, mobile telephone, computer, printer, and answering machine ownership has seen a rapid rise, worldwide. These markets continue to expand.

What's Happening in Europe?

Western Europe has seen considerable investment in the telectronics industry both from its own indigenous companies and from overseas corporations. Investment from abroad started with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) from North America and was followed by companies from Japan and more recently from Korea. Companies with their bases in Hong Kong and Taiwan have also played a role.

European-owned organizations such as Alcatel, Siemens, Nokia, and Ericsson have all invested heavily in this sector. However, the effects of foreign corporations have had a profound impact with Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Compaq, and Digital of the USA; Mitsubishi, Matsushita, Sony, and Sanyo of Japan; and Daewoo, Samsung, LG, and Hyundai of Korea being just a few examples.

The primary country of focus for investment in the west European telectronics industry has been and continues to be the United Kingdom, although Spain is also a strong area. Within the United Kingdom, the key geographic areas are Scotland, South Wales, and the Northeast of England. Government grants, strong proactive regional agencies, an increasingly skilled workforce, favourable labour rates, lower taxes, an open economy, and the English language and culture have contributed to the growing success of this sector. All the aforementioned companies and many others have invested in transplant manufacturing or assembly factories in the United Kingdom.

In-house Manufacture vs. External Sourcing

Plastic injection moulded parts and components play a vital role in the manufacture and assembly of finished telectronic products and in establishing a transplant factory. The OEM has to decide whether he will produce in-house or source externally. The situation varies widely.

In some cases, it will be a question of company policy that the OEM will produce some or most injection moulded parts in-house in order to retain better control over product quality or to protect a proprietary technology. In others, it may be more convenient and more cost-effective to outsource components and do only final assembly.

For example, Hitachi has injection moulding equipment to produce a proportion of its television housings within its own factory. Onwa produces all its TV cabinets on the premises, while IBM moulds in-house all its keyboard housings and some of its computer monitor housings. Motorola, Sony, Sanyo, Matsushita, and Mitsubishi, in contrast, have all plastic injection moulded parts manufactured externally.

The telectronics industry may be considered as a global industry, as the sourcing of parts may take place from all corners of the world. Much-reduced production costs can outweigh potentially costly shipping charges. Despite having to ship over long distances, it is often advantageous to source injection moulded parts or indeed complete finished assemblies from distant countries. Beon sources all TV housings and components from Hong Kong.

Microvitec, which produces computer monitors, has some housings made in Thailand. The bulk of Aiwa's VCR housings are made in Malaysia, while a proportion of those for Daewoo in Northern Ireland come from Korea. Nortel sources some of its larger telephone terminal housings from Canada.

Foreign Injection Moulders Investing in the UK

An interesting development has been the establishment of production units of overseas injection moulders in the United Kingdom. This has occurred particularly with the Japanese injection moulders and in certain cases with Korean and North American injection moulders. In view of their long-term relationships with the OEMs and their tried and trusted reputation for supplying high-quality products, Japanese injection moulding companies such as Showa Denko, Showpla, and Tsuda have set up bases in the United Kingdom to supply to JVC, Mitsubishi, NEC, Epson, and Sharp.

In a similar way but more recently, Korean injection moulders have established manufacturing units to supply Samsung with parts for microwave ovens and TVs. However, there are now clear indications that several indigenous moulders have attained the quality, delivery, and commercial standards demanded of the Japanese OEMs and have succeeded in gaining their confidence, sometimes winning contracts at the expense of their Japanese counterparts.

Competition from within Europe

Although the United Kingdom has been extremely successful in establishing itself as the prime manufacturing and assembly base for telectronic products in Europe, it cannot afford to be complacent. Other countries in Europe also have low manufacturing costs, as well as other incentives in order to appear attractive. These include Spain and Portugal in particular in Western Europe, and Poland in Eastern Europe.

The intra-European competition has an impact both on the OEMs and on the moulders, as they may compete for certain contracts and sectors of the business. Sanyo also has a plant in Spain using local injection moulders. Equally, the Sanyo factory in the United Kingdom sources some its parts from Spanish injection moulders. In addition, the company has an assembly facility in Poland, which sources mouldings from the United Kingdom. Sony has a facility in Spain for the manufacture of TVs. Hewlett- Packard designs and produces monochrome and colour printers at its Spanish factory in Barcelona. Samsung has a joint assembly plant with Texas Instruments, USA, in Portugal for the manufacture of memory chips.

Material Considerations

Few great changes in materials are anticipated in the foreseeable future since parts are already made from the optimum materials currently available. A brief synopsis of materials used for prime telectronic parts follows:

• Televisions - Cabinets use HIPS with flame retardancy ratings varying from V-0 (the most stringent) to HB (the least stringent). Standard integrated speakers also use HIPS but where a higher acoustic performance is required, such as on Dolby sound systems, the speakers will be made from PP. Smaller portable TVs often use ABS, which may be self-coloured.
• VCRs - Chassis front panels and cassette doors use HIPS, which is generally HB rated. Buttons use ABS while display panels use PMMA or a PMMA blend.
• Computer monitors - the main housings may be made from HIPS (V-0), flame-retardant ABS, a PC/ABS blend or PVC, the latter being IBM's preferred material.
• Computer CPUs - the chassis is made of metal for shielding reasons, but front bezels and rear bezels where they occur are made from PC/ABS.
• Keyboards - housings are constructed from PVC or flame-retardant ABS.
• Printers - Main chassis parts are made from HIPS, PPO, PC/ABS or glass-reinforced PC/ABS, depending on the part. The HIPS may be V-0 or HB rated depending on the part's proximity to the power source.
• Telephone terminals use ABS, usually with antidust and antisqueak properties. High-gloss or low-gloss grades for a matte, textured finish may be chosen.
• Mobile telephones - most manufacturers use a PC/ABS blend for the main housing parts. Motorola is the exception; it tends to use pure PC, which can be more difficult to handle with thin-wall mouldings.
• Pagers, like mobile telephones, use a PC/ABS blend for most parts with PC for the window display.

Issues Facing Telectronic Injection Moulders

Injection moulders serving the prestigious and technical telectronics industry should be aware of a number of factors impacting upon this dynamic sector:

• The need to be current with new materials and new technologies. High-flow polymers will play a greater role, especially in moving towards thinner wall housings. Gas-assist injection moulding is used to produce lighter parts, and the use of hot runner systems will increase to reduce waste, Strengthen cosmetic appearance, facilitate colour change, and give faster cycle times.
• Working in partnership. In the telectronics sector, OEMs, polymer producers, moulders, and suppliers of other components must work closely together to ensure that the optimum product is developed in the most cost-effective way. Regular meetings are often held between the OEMs and their suppliers, often at headquarters or the Design Center where control of the product is maintained.
• Faster development time to new product launch. In order to remain competitive, the OEMs must use the latest technology and have the latest version available on the market. The development time for both the OEM and the moulder must therefore be very swift. Injection moulding companies will need to consider whether they wish to be involved in fast-changing, design-oriented markets or in the slower-moving, less design-oriented markets. Additionally, the trend towards miniaturization will give rise to smaller, more compact units as may be the case with digital video disk technology.
• Greater responsibility with the moulder. As has happened in the automotive industry, suppliers to the telectronics sector are generally expected to do far more than merely supply a raw injection moulded part. Thus, most injection moulders are required to do a degree of painting and subassembly, such as attaching smaller components, buttons, badges, and logos.
• Total quality. This continues to play a key role as the OEMs strive for the minimum defect rate.
• Increased size of the moulders. To cope with the expansion of the telectronics industry in the United Kingdom, injection moulders are having to extend their facilities. Caradon Elliot established a new moulding facility for computer monitors. McKechnie is enlarging the South Wales facility to make computer monitors.
• Shortage of skilled personnel. The rapid rise of the telectronics industry in the U.K. has meant there is an insufficiently large skilled and experienced workforce on hand. It is an employees' market and incidences of staff switching from one telectronics company to another in the same area are not uncommon. In order to build up a satisfactory skills base in the South Wales area, for example, a training center for the semiconductor industry is being established. The aim is to provide training for technicians, process engineers, and post graduates.

It is evident that the fast-growing telectronics industry presents many varied opportunities to the injection moulder. Those companies with the greatest chance of success will be those with firm objectives, a clearly defined strategy, and full awareness of the technical and commercial implications.

Belleville, Ontario -Marc Soubliere wants to protect his customer's investment. As a Nortel design engineer, he needs to be sure that if any fires were to originate from the company's rack-mounted equipment, adjacent equipment would not be burned. He's also concerned with EMI shielding.

Soubliere could have used many types of EMI shielding products, but he chose StreamShield, a shielding air vent panel with fire-retardant coating from Parker Hannifin's Chomerics Div. (Woburn, MA). "The characteristic that interests us is the flame control this panel offers," says Soubliere.

StreamShield has a thin layer of intumescent coating in the vent's honeycomb cells. When exposed to flames or heat above 300F, the coating expands rapidly, filling the cells with carbonaceous foam that prevents flames from propagating through the honeycomb.

"We conducted a number of worst-case qualifying tests where the performance of the fire retardant HEICF 1594 intumescent coating system offered an extremely impressive flame containment performance," says Soubliere. The HEICF 1594 coating helps enclosures meet the requirements of network equipment building systems and Bellcore GR-63-CORE physical protection standards for fire resistance.

StreamShield EMI vents provide more than 50 dB shielding effectiveness from 1 to 10 GHz. Open area of the honeycomb is 85% with the intumescent coating.

For more information about vent panels from Parker Hannifin Chomerics: Enter 534

The Cloud is Not Forever and Neither is Your Data 

When I began my career in technical operations (mostly what we call DevOps today) the world was dramatically different. This was before the dawn of the new millennium. When the world’s biggest and most well-known SaaS company, Salesforce, was operating out of an apartment in San Francisco. 

Back then, on-premise ruled the roost. Rows of towers filled countless rooms. These systems were expensive to set up and maintain, from both a labour and parts perspective. Building a business using only SaaS applications was technically possible back then but logistically a nightmare. On-prem would continue to be the default way for running software for years to come. 

But technology always progresses at lightspeed. So just three years after Salesforce began preaching the “end of software”, Amazon Web Services came online and changed the game completely.

Today a new SaaS tool can be built and deployed across the world in mere days. Businesses are now embracing SaaS solutions at a record pace. The average small to medium-sized business can easily have over 100 SaaS applications in their technology stack. Twenty years ago, having this many applications to run a business was unthinkable and would have cost millions of dollars in operational resources. However, at Rewind, where I oversee technical operations, I looked after our software needs with a modem and a laptop. 

SaaS has created a completely different reality for modern businesses. We can build and grow businesses cheaper and faster than ever before. Like most “too good to be true” things, there’s a catch. All this convenience comes with one inherent risk. It’s a risk that people rarely discussed in my early days as a DevOps and is still rarely talked about. Yet this risk is important to understand, otherwise, all the vital SaaS data you rely on each and every day could disappear in the blink of an eye.

And it could be gone for good. 

The Shared Responsibility of SaaS

This likely goes without saying but you rent SaaS applications, you don’t own them. Those giant on-prem server rooms companies housed years ago, now rest with the SaaS provider. You simply access their servers (and your data) through an operating system or API. Now you are probably thinking, “Dave, I know all this. So what?” 

Well, this is where the conundrum lies. 

If you look at the terms of service for SaaS companies, they do their best to ensure their applications are up and running at all times. It doesn’t matter if servers are compromised by fire, meteor strike, or just human error, SaaS companies strive to ensure that every time a user logs in, the software is available. The bad news is this is where their responsibility ends. 

You, the user, are on the hook for backing up and restoring whatever data you’ve entered and stored in their services. Hence the term “Shared Responsibility Model”. This term is most associated with AWS but this model actually governs all of cloud computing.

The above chart breaks down the various scenarios for protecting elements of the cloud computing relationship. You can see that with the SaaS model, the largest onus is on the software provider. Yet there are still things a user is responsible for; User Access and Data.  

I’ve talked to other folks in DevOps, site reliability, or IT roles in accurate years and I can tell you that the level of skepticism is high. They often don’t believe their data isn’t backed up by the SaaS provider in real time. I empathize with them, though, because I was once in their shoes. So when I meet this resistance, I  just point people to the various terms of service laid out by each SaaS provider. Here is GitHub’s, here is Shopify’s and the one for Office 365. It’s all there in black and white.

The reason the Shared Responsibility Model exists in the first place essentially comes down to the architecture of each application. A SaaS provider has built its software to maximize the use of its operating system, not continually snapshot and store the millions or billions of data points created by users. Now, this is not a “one-size fits all scenario”. Some SaaS providers may be able to restore lost data. However, if they do, in my experience, it’s often an old snapshot, it’s incomplete, and the process to get everything back can take days, if not weeks. 

Again, it’s simply because SaaS providers are lumping all user data together, in a way that makes sense for the provider. Trying to find it again, once it’s deleted or compromised, is like looking for a needle in a haystack, within a field of haystacks.    

How Data Loss Happens in SaaS

The likelihood of losing data from a SaaS tool is the next question that inevitably comes up. One study conducted by Oracle and KPMG found that 49% of SaaS users have previously lost data. Our own research found that 40% of users have previously lost data. There are really three ways that this happens; risks that you may already be very aware of. They are human error, cyberthreats, and 3rd party app integrations. 

Humans and technology have always had co-dependent challenges. Let’s face it, it’s one of the main reasons my career exists! So it stands to reason that human inference, whether deliberate or not, is a common reason for losing information. This can be as innocuous as uploading a CSV file that corrupts data sets, accidentally deleting product listings, or overwriting code repositories with a forced push.

There’s also intentional human interference. This means someone who has authorized access, nuking a bunch of stuff. It may sound far-fetched but we have seen terminated employees or third-party contractors cause major issues. It’s not very common, but it happens.       

Cyberthreats are next on the list, which are all issues that most technical operations teams are used to. Most of my peers are aware that the level of attacks increased during the global pandemic, but the rate of attacks had already been increasing prior to COVID-19. Ransomware, phishing, DDoS, and more are all being used to target and disrupt business operations. If this happens, data can be compromised or completely wiped out. 

Finally, 3rd party app integrations can be a source of frustration when it comes to data loss. Go back and read the terms of service for apps connected to your favourite SaaS tool. They may save a ton of time but they may have a lot of control over all the data you create and store in these tools. We’ve seen apps override and permanently delete reams of data. By the time teams catch it, the damage is already done.

There are some other ways data can be lost but these are the most common. The good news is that you can take steps to mitigate downtime. I’ll outline a common one, which is writing your own backup script for a Git.

One approach to writing a GitHub backup script

There are a lot of ways to approach this. Simply Google “git backup script” and lots of options pop up. All of them have their quirks and limitations. Here is a quick rundown of some of them.

Creating a local backup in Cron Scripts

Essentially you are writing a script to clone a repo, at various intervals, using cron jobs. (Note the cron job tool you used will depend on the OS you use). This method essentially takes snapshots over time. To restore a lost repo, you just pick the snapshot you want to bring back.  For a complete copy use git clone --mirror to mirror your repositories. This ensures all remote and local branches, tags, and refs get included. 

The pros of using this method are a lack of reliance on external tools for backups and the only cost is your time. 

The cons are a few. You actually won’t have a full backup. This clone won’t have hooks, reflogs, configuration, description files, and other metadata. It’s also a lot of manual work and becomes more complex if trying to add error monitoring, logging, and error notification. And finally, as the snapshots pile up, you’ll need to consider accounts for cleanups and archiving.

Using Syncthing

Syncthing is a GUI/CLI application that allows for file syncing across many devices. All the devices need to have Syncthing installed on them and be configured to connect with one another. Keep in mind that syncing and backing up are different, as you are not creating a copy, but rather ensuring a file is identical across multiple devices.  

The pros are that it is free and one of the more intuitive methods for a DIY “backup” since it provides a GUI.  Cons: Syncthing only works between individual devices, so you can’t directly back up your repository from a code hosting provider. Manual fixes are needed when errors occur. Also, syncing a git repo could lead to corruption and conflicts of a repository, especially if people work on different branches. Syncthing also sucks up a lot of resources with its continuous scanning, hashing, and encryption. Lastly, it only maintains one version, not multiple snapshots. 

Using SCM Backup

SCM Backup creates an offline clone of a GitHub or BitBucket repository. It makes a significant difference if you are trying to back up many repos at once. After the initial configuration, it grabs a list of all the repositories through an API. You can also exclude certain repos if need be. 

SCM lets you specify backup folder location, authentication credentials, email settings, and more. 

Here’s the drawback though, the copied repositories do not contain hooks, reflogs, or configuration files, or metadata such as issues, pull requests, or releases.  And configuration settings can change across different code hosting providers. Finally, in order to run it, you need to have .NET Core installed on your machine.

Now that’s just three ways to backup a git repository. As I mentioned before, just type a few words into Google and a litany of options comes up. But before you get the dev team to build a homegrown solution, keep these two things in mind.

First, any DIY solution will still require a significant amount of manual work because they only clone and/or backup; they can’t restore data. In fact, that’s actually the case with most SaaS tools, not just in-house backup solutions. So although you may have some snapshots or cloned files, it will likely be in a format that needs to be reuploaded into a SaaS tool. One way around this is to build a backup as a service program, but that will likely eat up a ton of developer time. 

That brings us to the second thing to keep in mind, the constantly changing states of APIs. Let’s say you build a rigorous in-house tool: you’ll need a team to be constantly checking for API updates, and then making the necessary changes to this in-house tool so it’s always working. I can only speak for myself, but I’m constantly trying to help dev teams avoid repetitive menial tasks. So although creating a DIY backup script can work, you need to decide where you want development teams to spend their time.

Data Continuity Strategies for SaaS

So what’s the way forward in all of this? There are a few things to consider. And these steps won’t be uncommon to most technical operations teams. First, figure out whether you want to DIY or outsource your backup needs. We already covered the in-house options and the challenges it presents. So if you decide to look for a backup and recovery service, just remember to do your homework. There are a lot of choices, so as you go through due diligence, look at reviews, talk to peers, read technical documentation and honestly, figure out if company X seems trustworthy. They will have access to your data after all.  

Next, audit all your third-party applications. I won’t sugarcoat it, this can be a lot of work. But remember the “terms of service” agreements? There are always a few surprises to be found. And you may not like what you see. I recommend you do this about once a year and make a pro/cons list. Is the value you get from this app worth the trade-off of access the app has? If it’s not, you may want to look for another tool. Fun fact: Compliance standards like SOC2 require a “vendor assessment” for a reason. External vendors or apps are a common culprit when it comes to accidental data loss.

And finally, limit who has access to each and every SaaS application. Most people acknowledge the benefits of using the least privileged approach, but it isn’t always put into practice. So make sure the right people have the right access, ensure all users have unique login credentials (use a password manager to manage the multiple login hellscape) and get MFA installed.

It’s not a laundry list of things nor is it incredibly complex. I truly believe that SaaS is the best way to build and run organizations. But I hope now it’s glaringly obvious to any DevOps, SRE or IT professional that you need to safeguard all the information that you are entrusting to these tools. There is an old saying I learned in those early days of my career, “There are two types of people in this world – those who have lost data and those who are about to lose data”. 

You don’t want to be the person who has to inform your CIO that you are now one of those people. Of course, if that happens, feel free to send them my way. I’m certain I’ll be explaining the Shared Responsibility Model of SaaS until my career is over!  

About the Author

Dave North has been a versatile member of the Ottawa technology sector for more than 25 years. Dave is currently working at Rewind leading 3 teams (devops, trust, IT) as the director of technical operations. Prior to Rewind, Dave was a long time member of Signiant, holding many roles in the organization including sales engineer, pro services, technical support manager, product owner and devops director. A proven leader and innovator, Dave holds 5 US patents and helped drive Signiant’s move to a cloud SAAS business model with the award winning Media Shuttle product. Prior to Signiant, Dave held several roles at Nortel, Bay Networks and ISOTRO Network Management working on the NetID product suite. Dave is fanatical about cloud computing, automation, gadgets and Formula 1 racing.

Head of industry, automotive Google Canada

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