Hydraulic assist for Hybrids make a lot of sense and Peterbilt has certainly got some smart folks their and Kenworth is also on the leading edge with their use of Electronic - Hybrid Technology strategy. Re-designing the modern Truck electrical system also makes sense for saving fuel.

Changing over to a 42-volt electrical system will allow electricity to run many of the components that normally put large loads on the motor and burn more fuel. This is considered a mild-form of hybridization as defined by the Department of Energy:

Mild hybridization typically refers to the incorporation of a 42-volt electrical system on a vehicle. The 42-volt electric system increases electrical power thus allowing the use of electrically powered systems such as electric power steering, electric brakes, and electromechanical value actuation.

You see, by using a more powerful electrical system the truck will have the electrical energy to run more taxing components. When you move the steering in a truck or put a load on the engine for an air-conditioner system or a fan to cool the vehicle that means it takes more horsepower from the engine.

When the engine speeds up to compensate it uses a lot more energy and that means more fuel, so if the goal is to save fuel then it certainly makes a lot of sense to put less of a load on the engine and run it a much lower power setting and this is why the concept of 42-volt electrical systems is being considered and why the engineers designing these systems have had so much success with them.

Sandwiched between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers, distributors of electronic components often find themselves in an awkward situation. Customers want to know whether the components are compliant, and the distributor replies they must be so because their suppliers told them so. But, they go on to add that they are not absolutely sure, as they did not make the components.

Different distributors address this problem in different ways. Some, like Newark InOne of Canada, conduct testing to check if the component is compliant, and grade their suppliers accordingly. That way, they can’t give customers a guarantee, but assure them of all possible measures.

It remains to be seen how the European Union decides to police the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) compliance when OEMs come under the scanner after the July 1, 2006 RoHS deadline. Customers will have to continue relying upon distributors to get assurance of compliance.

As the number of components is too large for distributors to vouch for, some of them, like Avnet, try to connect the customers to the suppliers so that the former could get compliance information from the latter. Like Avnet, Arrow Electronics Inc. also offers a fee-based service designed to help customers facing due diligence issues.

Among the top distributors of electronic components are Arrow Electronics, Avnet, Future Electronics, Bell Microproducts, Memec Insight, TTI, Newark InOne, Digi-key, All American and Nu Horizons. All of them distribute components like semiconductors, passives, electromechanical devices, connector products, computer equipment, embedded subsystems, crystals, test equipment, and active components, including analog, clock and timing devices, and so on.

You can visit their web sites to know what components are available at what prices, and make your informed choice. Many of the distributors will agree to offer you a small quantity of components, provided it is not less than the minimum quantity fixed by them.

DUBLIN, Ireland — Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c58000) has announced the addition of Other Asian - Pacific Countries: Capacitor Market, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2011 to their offering.

Market database with forecast, market data in euros, figures given in excel spreadsheet. No split by countries except China and Japan. Market is given for each component type by application end-user markets.

Component type list:
Capacitors
1. Film
2. Aluminum
3. Tantalum
4. Ceramic
5. Other capacitors

End user application markets
1. Consumer - audio video
- Television
- Set-top boxes
- DVD
- Videos & other

2. Data processing
- Mainframes, servers, workstations
- PCs
- Peripherals & other

3. Telecoms
- Mobile terminals
- Mobile infrastructure
- Fixe infrastructure
- Terminals and others

4. Aerospace & defence
- Space & avionics
- Radiocoms, weapon systems & others

5. Automotive
- Engine control
- Chassis
- Instrument panel & Comfort & others

6. Industrial
- Transportation
- Power supplies, converters
- Power distribution
- Automation and control equipment
- Medical
- Instrumentation & others

7. Consumer - household appliances

Topics Covered

Excel spreadsheet tables:

5 capacitor types: Films, Aluminium, Tantalum, Ceramic, Others plus total = 6 tables

Electronics production scenario= 1 table

A component type table gave markets by end user application

DUBLIN, Ireland — Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c58233) has announced the addition of “Other Asian - Pacific Countries: Industrial Keyboards and Switches Market, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2011″ to their offering.

Market database with forecast, market data in euros, figures given in excel spreadsheet. No split by countries except China and Japan. Market is given for each component type by application end-user markets.

We analyze the market demand for passive and electromechanical components.

The survey results are proposed in a database which contains the market data for passive and electromechanicals components (discrete, interface, interconnect product, etc…).

This survey is the result of ten years of economics research and market analysis.

Definition

- Twice a year the author conducts a market demand for passive and interconnection components (discrete, interface, electromechanical, etc…)

- This component market is made of height components type groups:

- PCBs - printed circuit boards

- Connectors

- Hybrid circuits / MCM

- Industrial Switches & keyboards

- Magnetic components

- Capacitors

- Resistors

- Piezo, crystal, filters

- The database gave a component demand drawn up in correlation with the electronics production. This approach allows you to evaluate a components end-users market: the market studied by the author is the “passive and interconnection components” contents of product manufactured by the electronics industry.

- Market data’s are the “passive and interconnection” component consumption of the Components end-users, this is the “passive and interconnection” component part in the electronics products.

- Forecasts are made at current prices and the mix-product evolutions as well as component and equipment price developments are taken into account.

- The time period is years 2005 to 2011.

Methodology

- data analysis

- industry interviews

- technological forecasting model :

A complete approach

- Electronics production by products

- The first steep is an enquiry on production evolution which is detailed by products.

- A scenario is made based on: past year balance sheet, current year tendencies, and probable future evolutions.

Passive and interconnection contents of the studied products

- For each electronic products its “passive and interconnection” contents is detailed by component type

- By examining functions, prices, and technological trend the “passive and interconnection” contents possible evolution is forecasted.

Output

- The Database is delivered on CD-ROM in Excel Spreadsheet format.

- Excel format is a useful solution: its make you enable to do your own simulations, estimates or calculations and allows you to prepare your own personal graphs and charts.

- You can choose your entry point by component type to find our historical data and forecasts.

All data is given in Euros.

A look back at the past 12 months shows how global the electrical aftermarket has become

Business activity over the past year indicates broadening markets, business consolidation, and robust sales

ANYONE LOOKING BACK on 2006 could be forgiven for thinking that the electromechanical service and sales business was all about globalization and consolidation this year.

A glance at news items appearing in “Business Briefs” over the past twelve months reveals a pattern of companies expanding their markets overseas. They’ve been doing this, for the most part, by buying and selling business units and acquiring or merging with one another for a better fit with overseas markets.

Domestically, companies have been forming alliances when they haven’t been buying one another outright, expanding existing facilities, and building new ones. In several instances, record sales and earnings have been the result as well as the cause of .this activity. Much of these sales have been related to the real estate market and to Hurricane Katrina, recovery from which has taken longer than expected.

It’s globalism, stupid

The global tone was set in March at National Manufacturing Week in Chicago, where organizers delivered, in their words, “more global manufacluring leaders than ever before.” Keynote speakers included executives from Schneider Electric and Caterpillar, Inc.-international players that have benefited from the construction boom of recent years, much of it outside the U.S.

Nowhere has this construction boom been more evident than in China, where Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, a Connecticut business, reached an agreement this year to provide Guangzhou University-City with two gas turbine units for a combined-cycle cogeneration facility. Operation was expected to begin by the end of this month. Pratt & Whitney also sold a gas turbine to the French utility Électricité de France.

Unsatisfied simply to export products and services, several U.S. companies opened offshore plants or expanded existing ones. Methode Network Bus Products of Rolling Meadows, 111., opened a plant in Shanghai for the design and manufacture of bus bars. A.O. Smith announced plans to build a materials testing lab in Suzhou, China, and recognized A.O. Smith plants in Acuña and Juárez, Mexico, for their safety records.

China and Mexico weren’t alone in seeing plant activity. Flowserve Corp., a Dallas provider of motion-control products and services, opened a regional sales and service center in Moerdijk, Netherlands.

Eased international distribution

The global flow of goods and services is being aided not only by new plants but also by new and flexible distribution agreements. So while Darby Electric of Anderson, S.C., has become a U.S. distributor of ABB motors and drives, for instance, RD. George has appointed Complete Resin Solutions as an authorized distributor of its impregnating resins in Mexico.

A Michigan maker of fiberglass enclosures, Stahlin Non-Metallic Enclosures, entered a partnership with Spelsberg UK, a British firm, under which Spelsberg will be Stahlin’s U.K. stocking distributor.

American Sensor Technologies chose a Bangkok company to distribute its products throughout Thailand, and FISO Technologies of Québec, a Canadian maker of fiber-optic sensors, found a distributor in Mexico City. Heyco Products, a New Jersey manufacturer of wire-protection components, chose a distributor in India, Bossard India, that is a subsidiary of a Swiss company.

In recognition of this flurry of global distribution, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, presented the President’s E Star Award for Exports to John Stropki, chairman and CEO of The Lincoln Electric Co., “in recognition of its achievement in supporting exporting growth in the U.S. business community.”

Crydom has made significant investment in realising a full range of RoHS compliant products, with some compliant ranges already available to customers.
Crydom is moving rapidly towards bringing all products inline with the requirements of the European RoHS Directive. Crydom has made significant investment in realising a full range of RoHS compliant products, with some compliant ranges already available to customers. The LC series is RoHS compliant and available today.

A very compact SIL type PCB mounting relay suitable for switching AC loads up to 2A at 30C, at supply voltages up to 280V RMS.

At just 5.1mm wide and 24.1mm long the LC offers superb performance for a minimal footprint on a PCB.

Control is 4-10V DC with a minimal drive current requirement of 15mA at 5V DC.

The series offers a low off-state leakage current, an important consideration when switching low power inductive loads such as control valves.

Available with zero-cross or with random turn-on switching, the latter being preferable for switching of inductive loads.

The part carries UL approval.

Peerless Electronics has now received certification to both AS9100 and AS9120.
Peerless Electronics has now received certification to both AS9100 and AS9120. AS9100 Rev B is the quality system for suppliers to the aerospace industry. AS9120:2002 is the quality system for warehousing and distribution to the aerospace industry.

Audits and certification was performed by SGS Systems and Certification Services.

AS9100 is a document that defines requirements for the quality management system standard.

The current revision is Rev B.

It contains the actual requirements with which an organisation must be in compliance to become ISO9001 registered.

Many organisations decide to implement AS9100 and obtain registration because it assures customers that the company has a good quality management system (QMS) in place.

Many aerospace organisations require their suppliers to have AS9100 registration.

Peerless Electronics reckons it is one of the few suppliers to the aerospace industry that is certified to both AS9100 and AS9120.

In addition to the above certifications, Peerless’ quality system is certified to ISO9001:2000, NADCAP (SAE AS 7104) and to FAA AC00-56.

Peerless’ value added assembly centre is certified to the same quality systems.

The Schrack RT1 bifurcated relay uses a twin contact system and is specifically designed for switching from dry circuit up to 16A, offering improved low contact resistance and high reliability.
New to the comprehensive range of Schrack brand power PCB relays from Tyco Electronics, the RT1 bifurcated relay uses a twin contact system and is specifically designed for switching from dry circuit up to 16A, including arcless switching, offering improved low contact resistance and high reliability. Target applications are domestic appliances and heating control. The single pole devices are rated at 12 or 16A and feature a changeover or normally open contact.

RT1 bifurcated relays use a sensitive DC coil with 200 or 400mW power consumption (for 12 and 16A versions, respectively) and a 5kV/10mm coil contact with reinforced insulation.

Operating temperature range is -40 to +85C.

Environmentally friendly, the RT1 bifurcated power PCB relays are RoHS-compliant, meeting all the latest requirements for lead and cadmium free components.

Omron Electronic Components Europe has achieved the tough, new ISO/TS16949:2002 automotive supply chain standard for the supply of the G6S and other signal relays.
Omron Electronic Components Europe has achieved the tough, new ISO/TS16949:2002 automotive supply chain standard for the supply of the G6S and other signal relays. These relays are sourced from Omron Relay and Devices Corporation in Kumamoto Japan, and the ISO/TS16949:2002 management system certificate validates their processes for the design, development and manufacture of signal relays. ISO/TS16949:2002 is a recently launched harmonised international standard for the automotive supply chain.

Commenting, Nigel Blakeway, Chief Operating Office for Omron Electronic Components Business Europe, said: ‘Our certificate validates to our growing automotive customer base that Omron is a quality supplier of signal relays’.

‘The G6S-series, for example, is already widely used in telecom applications and is now being increasingly used in the advanced electronics for automotive applications’.

The Omron G6S relay’s 2.5kV surge voltage capability, combined with its miniature 15 x 7.5 x 9.4mm dimensions, has attracted significant interest from the automotive as well as the telecomms industry.

Available in surface mount and through hole form, the DPDT relay is fully sealed and draws just 140mW.

Alps has developed a smaller, thinner detector switch for use in digital cameras and other small digital devices.
Alps has developed a smaller, thinner detector switch for use in digital cameras and other small digital devices. The Alps SPVR Series thin lever-type detector switch features a long stroke and a two-sided sliding-contact point structure for high contact reliability. The device is targeted at digital cameras, which are becoming increasingly smaller and thinner.

The detector switch forms the mechanism that switches the power on automatically when the camera’s case is slid open.

The SPVR Series detector switch can work in both horizontal and vertical directions.

Its dimensions of 3.6 x 4.2 x 1.2mm make it ideal for integration into smaller-sized equipment, yet it still features a long stroke of 2.18mm, and its two-sided sliding-contact point structure increases reliability.