scholarly journals Low Cost Temperature & Humidity Chamber

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 258-266
Author(s):  
Erica Thomas, ◽  
◽  
Siripong Malasri ◽  
Robert Moats ◽  
Dustin Schrecongost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 287-290 ◽  
pp. 15-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Hei Liu ◽  
Zhi Dong Xia ◽  
Meng Ke Zhao ◽  
Hu Zhou ◽  
Ying Li ◽  
...  

One of the main hurdles for the wide use of current Ag-filled conductive composites is the high cost of Ag fillers, while the challenge for low cost copper-filled composites is their poor reliability. In this study, the Ag-coated Cu flakes was chosen as conductive fillers and a surface modification with coupling agent, to achieve good bonding between the flakes and the Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix, was applied to improve the mechanical and conductive properties of the PDMS based composites. The resulting composites obtained through modification showed an increase in hardness by 13.1% and tensile strength by 28.4% relative to the composites without coupling agent. In addition, the reliability of conducting composites was discussed and the results showed that the coupling agent played a great role in preventing the corrosion of the exposed Cu during aging. The volume resistivity of the composites, filled with untreated Ag-coated Cu flakes, increased from 0.0039Ω·cm to 0.0059Ω·cm under aging at 85°C and 85% room humidity (RH) in a temperature/humidity chamber for 48 h, in contrary, the volume resistivity shift of the composites with treated flakes was almost negligible, just changed from 0.0043Ω·cm to 0.0045Ω·cm. More importantly, the prepared conductive silicone rubber filled with Ag-coated Cu flakes with the resistivity (0.004Ω·cm) comparable to the relative commercial products can be used for electro-magnetic interference (EMI).


Author(s):  
Y. L. Chen ◽  
S. Fujlshiro

Metastable beta titanium alloys have been known to have numerous advantages such as cold formability, high strength, good fracture resistance, deep hardenability, and cost effectiveness. Very high strength is obtainable by precipitation of the hexagonal alpha phase in a bcc beta matrix in these alloys. Precipitation hardening in the metastable beta alloys may also result from the formation of transition phases such as omega phase. Ti-15-3 (Ti-15V- 3Cr-3Al-3Sn) has been developed recently by TIMET and USAF for low cost sheet metal applications. The purpose of the present study was to examine the aging characteristics in this alloy.The composition of the as-received material is: 14.7 V, 3.14 Cr, 3.05 Al, 2.26 Sn, and 0.145 Fe. The beta transus temperature as determined by optical metallographic method was about 770°C. Specimen coupons were prepared from a mill-annealed 1.2 mm thick sheet, and solution treated at 827°C for 2 hr in argon, then water quenched. Aging was also done in argon at temperatures ranging from 316 to 616°C for various times.


Author(s):  
J. D. Muzzy ◽  
R. D. Hester ◽  
J. L. Hubbard

Polyethylene is one of the most important plastics produced today because of its good physical properties, ease of fabrication and low cost. Studies to improve the properties of polyethylene are leading to an understanding of its crystalline morphology. Polyethylene crystallized by evaporation from dilute solutions consists of thin crystals called lamellae. The polyethylene molecules are parallel to the thickness of the lamellae and are folded since the thickness of the lamellae is much less than the molecular length. This lamellar texture persists in less perfect form in polyethylene crystallized from the melt.Morphological studies of melt crystallized polyethylene have been limited due to the difficulty of isolating the microstructure from the bulk specimen without destroying or deforming it.


Author(s):  
J. Temple Black

In ultramicrotomy, the two basic tool materials are glass and diamond. Glass because of its low cost and ease of manufacture of the knife itself is still widely used despite the superiority of diamond knives in many applications. Both kinds of knives produce plastic deformation in the microtomed section due to the nature of the cutting process and microscopic chips in the edge of the knife. Because glass has no well defined slip planes in its structure (it's an amorphous material), it is very strong and essentially never fails in compression. However, surface flaws produce stress concentrations which reduce the strength of glass to 10,000 to 20,000 psi from its theoretical or flaw free values of 1 to 2 million psi. While the microchips in the edge of the glass or diamond knife are generally too small to be observed in the SEM, the second common type of defect can be identified. This is the striations (also termed the check marks or feathers) which are always present over the entire edge of a glass knife regardless of whether or not they are visable under optical inspection. These steps in the cutting edge can be observed in the SEM by proper preparation of carefully broken knives and orientation of the knife, with respect to the scanning beam.


Author(s):  
H. O. Colijn

Many labs today wish to transfer data between their EDS systems and their existing PCs and minicomputers. Our lab has implemented SpectraPlot, a low- cost PC-based system to allow offline examination and plotting of spectra. We adopted this system in order to make more efficient use of our microscopes and EDS consoles, to provide hardcopy output for an older EDS system, and to allow students to access their data after leaving the university.As shown in Fig. 1, we have three EDS systems (one of which is located in another building) which can store data on 8 inch RT-11 floppy disks. We transfer data from these systems to a DEC MINC computer using “SneakerNet”, which consists of putting on a pair of sneakers and running down the hall. We then use the Hermit file transfer program to download the data files with error checking from the MINC to the PC.


Author(s):  
T. P. Nolan

Thin film magnetic media are being used as low cost, high density forms of information storage. The development of this technology requires the study, at the sub-micron level, of morphological, crystallographic, and magnetic properties, throughout the depth of the deposited films. As the microstructure becomes increasingly fine, widi grain sizes approaching 100Å, the unique characterization capabilities of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have become indispensable to the analysis of such thin film magnetic media.Films were deposited at 225°C, on two NiP plated Al substrates, one polished, and one circumferentially textured with a mean roughness of 55Å. Three layers, a 750Å chromium underlayer, a 600Å layer of magnetic alloy of composition Co84Cr14Ta2, and a 300Å amorphous carbon overcoat were then sputter deposited using a dc magnetron system at a power of 1kW, in a chamber evacuated below 10-6 torr and filled to 12μm Ar pressure. The textured medium is presently used in industry owing to its high coercivity, Hc, and relatively low noise. One important feature is that the coercivity in the circumferential read/write direction is significandy higher than that in the radial direction.


Author(s):  
K.M. Hones ◽  
P. Sheldon ◽  
B.G. Yacobi ◽  
A. Mason

There is increasing interest in growing epitaxial GaAs on Si substrates. Such a device structure would allow low-cost substrates to be used for high-efficiency cascade- junction solar cells. However, high-defect densities may result from the large lattice mismatch (∼4%) between the GaAs epilayer and the silicon substrate. These defects can act as nonradiative recombination centers that can degrade the optical and electrical properties of the epitaxially grown GaAs. For this reason, it is important to optimize epilayer growth conditions in order to minimize resulting dislocation densities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the quality of the epitaxially grown GaAs layers by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine dislocation type and density as a function of various growth conditions. In this study an intermediate Ge layer was used to avoid nucleation difficulties observed for GaAs growth directly on Si substrates. GaAs/Ge epilayers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si substrates in a manner similar to that described previously.


Author(s):  
R.J. Mount ◽  
R.V. Harrison

The sensory end organ of the ear, the organ of Corti, rests on a thin basilar membrane which lies between the bone of the central modiolus and the bony wall of the cochlea. In vivo, the organ of Corti is protected by the bony wall which totally surrounds it. In order to examine the sensory epithelium by scanning electron microscopy it is necessary to dissect away the protective bone and expose the region of interest (Fig. 1). This leaves the fragile organ of Corti susceptible to physical damage during subsequent handling. In our laboratory cochlear specimens, after dissection, are routinely prepared by the O-T- O-T-O technique, critical point dried and then lightly sputter coated with gold. This processing involves considerable specimen handling including several hours on a rotator during which the organ of Corti is at risk of being physically damaged. The following procedure uses low cost, readily available materials to hold the specimen during processing ,preventing physical damage while allowing an unhindered exchange of fluids.Following fixation, the cochlea is dehydrated to 70% ethanol then dissected under ethanol to prevent air drying. The holder is prepared by punching a hole in the flexible snap cap of a Wheaton vial with a paper hole punch. A small amount of two component epoxy putty is well mixed then pushed through the hole in the cap. The putty on the inner cap is formed into a “cup” to hold the specimen (Fig. 2), the putty on the outside is smoothed into a “button” to give good attachment even when the cap is flexed during handling (Fig. 3). The cap is submerged in the 70% ethanol, the bone at the base of the cochlea is seated into the cup and the sides of the cup squeezed with forceps to grip it (Fig.4). Several types of epoxy putty have been tried, most are either soluble in ethanol to some degree or do not set in ethanol. The only putty we find successful is “DUROtm MASTERMENDtm Epoxy Extra Strength Ribbon” (Loctite Corp., Cleveland, Ohio), this is a blue and yellow ribbon which is kneaded to form a green putty, it is available at many hardware stores.


Author(s):  
E.T. O’Toole ◽  
G.P. Wray ◽  
J.R. Kremer ◽  
J.R. Mcintosh

Ultrarapid freezing and cryomicroscopy of frozen hydrated material makes it possible to visualize samples that have never been exposed to chemical fixatives, dehydration, or stains. In principle, freezing and cryoimaging methods avoid artifacts associated with chemical fixation and processing and allow one to visualize the specimen in a condition that is close to its native state. Here we describe a way to use a high voltage electron microscope (HVEM) for the cryoimaging of frozen hydrated PTK1 cells.PTK1 cells were cultured on formvar-coated, carbon stabilized gold grids. After three days in culture, the grids were removed from the culture medium and blotted in a humidity chamber at 35° C. In some instances, the grids were rinsed briefly in 0.16 M ammonium acetate buffer (pH 7.2) prior to blotting. After blotting, the grids were transferred to a plunging apparatus and plunged into liquid ethane held directly above its freezing point. The plunging apparatus consists of a vertical slide rail that guides the fall of a mounted pair of forceps that clamp the specimen. The forceps are surrounded by a plexiglass humidity chamber mounted over a dewar of liquid nitrogen containing an ethane chamber. After freezing, the samples were transferred to liquid nitrogen and viewed in a JEOL JEM 1000 equipped with a top entry cold stage designed and built by Mr. George Wray (Univ. Colorado). The samples were routinely exposed to electron doses of 1 e/Å2/sec, and viewed at a temperature of −150° C. A GATAN video system was used to enhance contrast and to estimate the correct amount of underfocus needed to obtain phase contrast at various magnifications. Low dose micrographs were taken using two second exposures of Kodak 4463 film. The state of the solid water in the specimen was determined by diffraction using a 30/μm field limiting aperture and a camera length of 1 meter.


Author(s):  
Shaohua Lu ◽  
Weidong Hu ◽  
Xiaojun Hu

Due to their low cost and improved safety compared to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries have attracted worldwide attention in recent decades.


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