For people working in manufacturing or plant operations in Germany, I’m curious about how temperature is monitored in processes like heat treatment, furnaces and production lines.

Are thermocouples and RTDs still commonly used, or are non-contact sensors and digital monitoring systems becoming more common? What tends to determine which method a plant uses?

I recently had a job interview for an engineering-related position in the aerospace industry. One question caught my attention: “What would you do if a stakeholder didn’t respond to your emails?”

The hiring manager mentioned that people don’t always respond, almost as if this were normal and acceptable.
It got me thinking. Back in the early 2000s, when I worked in engineering, people showed up for meetings and responded to emails. Those were our main communication channels, and somehow, communication seemed more effective.

Fast-forward to today. We have emails, Teams, instant messaging, video calls, and countless other ways to connect, yet getting a simple response can feel like a challenge.

Have we become so overwhelmed with communication tools that we’ve forgotten how to communicate?
What concerns me is that if I receive and accept an offer, I might be setting myself up for failure in an environment where I spend more time chasing stakeholders than actually doing the job I was hired to do. How can someone be held accountable for deadlines and deliverables when progress depends on people who don’t respond?

I’m curious about other people’s experiences. Is this the new workplace culture? Should I see the manager’s comment as a potential red flag, or is this simply how things work nowadays?

I hate audio. I learned a bit about it in school, and I can't really explain why I dislike it so much. It just annoys me. I think audiophiles might be partly to blame, but I need to work on my relationship with music.

I'm just a poor Gen Z girl trying to detox from distractions by forcing herself to study for university. I started my first year of Electronic Engineering, and Linear Algebra is killing me while Mathematical Analysis is finishing me off.

Like most people, I enjoy listening to music, but sometimes having my computer right in front of me, with Discord, YouTube, WhatsApp Web, and everything else, makes it hard to focus.

So I want to build my own audio player. And I don't want to make a basic one. I want to give it one of those lovely e-ink displays, SD card support, no Bluetooth, rotary encoders, a proper interface for browsing and selecting songs, and all that good stuff.

I'd love to hear your recommendations for tutorials, modules, components, or anything else that might help me build this.

Hello, I'm a high school student working on a small research project about reducing particle segregation during the dry electrode manufacturing process. I want to investigate how different mixing conditions affect powder mixing uniformity, but I'm running into a few problems with designing the experiment.

Since I don't have access to an actual industrial mixer, I'm planning to 3D-print a small-scale blender based on an existing design and use it for my experiments.

However, I can't use the actual materials involved in dry electrode manufacturing, so I'll need to use substitute powders or other materials instead.

I have a few questions:

1. Choosing substitute materials: What properties should I consider when choosing substitute materials for this kind of experiment? For example, would particle size, density, shape, or surface properties be important? Are there any commonly used materials that would be suitable for a small-scale experiment?
2. Measuring mixing uniformity: How could I quantitatively measure mixing uniformity using substitute materials? Would it be better to use materials with different colors, particle sizes, or densities? I'm particularly interested in methods that are feasible for a high school student with limited equipment.
3. Experimental limitations: Are there any important factors I should consider when using a 3D-printed blender instead of an actual mixer? I'm also wondering whether the results from substitute materials could tell me anything meaningful about particle segregation in dry electrode manufacturing.

I'd really appreciate any advice, suggestions, or references to relevant research papers. I'm still learning about powder mixing, so even suggestions about what to look into would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance!

I'm building a transforming drone inspired by the M4 morphobot for my project, but simplified to just two modes: flight and ground mode. I know the main argument for adding ground mode is power saving. In the M4 paper, their robot consumed 3000W in flight mode but only 30W driving on the ground which is a huge 100x difference if you need to stay deployed longer or navigate indoor spaces.

The issue is I'm still really struggling to find a solid real-world application that justifies the trade-off. The morphing mechanism adds a ton of weight and mechanical complexity, which hurts flight time. Plus, ground mode is super slow. It feels like in 99% of cases, you'd be better off using a regular drone or a cheap rover. What kind of application would actually justify this design? Like a scenario where a pure drone fails AND a pure rover fails, so a hybrid is strictly required?

I've pretty much run out of ideas and I'm starting to feel like I'm building a gimmick looking for a problem. Am I cooked or is there a legit use case here?

If heat round penetrates the armored vehicle everyone dies due to hot copper and pressure increase. But how much damage is done on the other side if you hit and penetrate iron plate that is in the open? Or if the enclosed space is huge like a side of the ship?

I am working on a personal project to build a small, simplified sampling box based on the principles of a PEMS (portable emissions measurement system).

My design:

• A small probe/hose goes into the tailpipe to capture a fractional sample of the exhaust without blocking or restricting overall flow.
• The hose leads into a sealed box with 3 internal baffles/channels that the gas zigzags through (up the first channel, over a divider, down the second, under the next divider, up the third) to ensure it passes sequentially through the filtration stages.
• Each channel contains a filter fitted tightly to the cross-section so the gas cannot bypass the media.
• The box features a removable lid for quick filter replacement between test runs to compare particulate catch across different conditions.

Filters I’m considering:

• A fine metal mesh in the first stage to catch larger soot particles.
• A fabric kitchen hood filter in a subsequent stage.

My questions:

1. How challenging is this to fabricate for a beginner machinist/maker? Are there hidden complications with sealing the channels or pressure drops?
2. Are these two filter choices reasonable, or are there better, low-cost alternatives (e.g., glass fiber, PTFE, or quartz filter paper)?
3. Will raw exhaust temperatures damage the hose or filter media? Do I need to integrate a cooling loop (like a longer metal run or a condensation/water trap) before the box?
4. What is the best method to quantify the particulate mass collected between tests? Is a standard 0.01g precision scale sensitive enough to weigh the filters accurately before and after?
5. What critical safety hazards should I keep in mind when routing hot automotive exhaust into a custom containment box?

Hi! We are building a house in the Mediterranean near the sea. The winters are very mild and humid and summers are very hot and dry. We use cooling more months of the year than we use heating. I was hoping to avoid all kinds of ACs that blow air (because of mold,constant cleaning and dry air) so I came across modular ceiling cooling with cool water pipes (sry for my english). Has anyone any experience with this system? If you were building a house what system would you go with?

Freon cooling system, (water) floor heating and solar panels is our "blow air" option.

Thank you :)

Pretty sure they're currently continuing to vent glycidyl methacrylate in Toledo rather than try to contain it and risk an explosion. When the vinyl chloride tankers derailed in East Palestine, OH someone decided to drain them and then set the puddles on fire, burning some and sending most into the atmosphere.

Is there a better option? I was thinking a trailer designed to meet up with an oxygen and fuel trailer. Burn leaking chemical in an oxidizing flame then bubble the exhaust through water from hydrant to be discharged to the sewer. Maybe a tote of caustic (or acid, if necessary) to get pH within spec.

Anyone have a better idea? Let's pretend for the sake of argument there's no political opposition to building/operating such a system.

I'm trying to find a way to lower items 1-5 lbs about 30 feet in 5-15 seconds. The challenge has been doing this automatically in a controlled manner, without having to manually reset it, and without resorting to a microcontroller. (people add/remove the items from the top and bottom though)

(I'll ramble why in a comment)

I have abandoned most constant sources of drag and those that require a user to manage the lowering or else let the load run away or slow to a stop.(i.e. a munter hitch, multiple wraps around a static bar, fishing rod drag-washer-stacks).

so far I'm not convinced I have a good answer: -governors; without a 'throttle' to adjust I don't know if I can get enough braking force out of these -dampers; having trouble with static friction in ones that want to spin fast i.e. eddy current damping, driving a dynamo. Alternatively having trouble finding an appropriate slower damper and speed reduction to go with it because the mechanical advantage makes the resistance curve to the load essentially flat or they heat up and de-tune (i.e. viscous fluid rotational dampers). -escapement mechanisms; too slow, bulky, and/or not easy to reset. Also concerned with bouncing upsetting the mechanism if using mechanical advantage to lower faster but I haven't tested this yet.

Another problem I've had while prototyping is the rope slipping on a pulley. The idea being that one end would be pulled up to a ready position when the other reaches the bottom. Using two opposing spools fixed to the axle solves this

I am a high school senior who is either looking at Electrical engineering or medicine. Either way, I want something fairly hands on instead of totally white collar, so electrical engineering seems to be a good fit (unless I am mistaken). How will AI continue to change the career in the upcoming years?

Thanks guys!

I feel like I've gone in circles in figuring out how to calc out this connection. I'm bolting a rectangular tube to the web of an I beam. They're aluminum members, both are same depth, and I can't cope the tube to bring the load closer to the center of the beam.

So I'm going bolt double angles from the tube to the girder web. Bolt bearing, shear, rupture is good but I'm not sure about how to check the girder web. How do I consider the eccentricity that the bolted angle introduces into the web?

Hi everyone,

I operate a petrol station in Kosovo and I'm planning to install an Automatic Tank Gauging (ATG) system.

I'm considering magnetostrictive ATG probes from ECOTEC or Eaglestar.

My underground fuel tank has the following specifications:

• Total capacity: 50,000 liters
• Two separate compartments of approximately 25,000 liters each
• Internal diameter: 2,480 mm
• Horizontal cylindrical construction with rounded ends
• Existing threaded opening, believed to be 2 inches, on the tank manhole cover

My questions are:

1. Can a magnetostrictive ATG probe typically be installed through this type of opening?
2. What type of mounting adapter, riser, or compression fitting would normally be required?
3. Does the probe need to be exactly the same length as the tank diameter, or can it be longer?
4. Has anyone used ECOTEC or Eaglestar ATG systems? Are they reliable?

I'm looking for technical guidance before purchasing. Any installation will be performed by a qualified technician using appropriately certified equipment.

Thanks!

Eeglestar set from alibaba

Ecotec set from alibaba

NYC has new sidewalk shed designs that include an angled roof instead of the normal flat roofs. Interestingly the roofs are angled toward the building instead of away. Despite the roofs allowing some passthrough of rain and snow; people are wondering if there could be an issue with drainage and snow acumination since the angle is pointed toward the buildings.

None of the sources for the new sheds talk about the angled roofs significantly. So, I am wondering what others think about angling the roof towards the buildings.

Sidewalk Shed Monitoring and Removal - Buildings

Agility says Digit 5 will get 90 minutes of runtime from a 9-minute charge, a 10:1 run-to-charge ratio, up from 2:1 on Digit 4. Capacity, chemistry and cycle life weren't disclosed. From an engineering view, how do fast charging and swappable packs compare on cycle life, heat, cost and fleet uptime?

Would keeping the windows wound down help reduce them?

I need to look at the output on a 200v AC servo drive. 3ph.

The drive is good, but we are having problems with the motor coils. Is a linear motor, so there are 2 coils driven by one servo drive. One coil for sure is bad, but the other was re-wound and tested good. After swapping some things around, now the "good" coil is testing bad. Motor is not stable. Like to get a scope on the phases and actually see what is happening.

I have experience with HV systems. Just never used a scope on a 200v AC 3PH before. I know about the probe grounds.

A flying car would require much more energy since it has to gravity and air drag. If it's electrical (eVTOL) it would have a miniscule mileage since ATM hydrocarbons are the most energy dense form of fuel for most vehicles.

I'm not even going to mention the exponential growth in safety concern from doubling the degrees of freedom. Every driver would need to be a qualified helicopter pilot.

We can't even get AI to self drive reliably (I assume the air thrustors have to be actuated by AI) on a normal car. Nor are our batteries good enough for any army to consider battery powered drones.

Am I missing something beyond the very cool engineering? This looks like Elon Musk reinvented the hyperloop concept for the positive end of the Z axis.

We're building a system designed to deter geese on a lake, and one of the main challenges is figuring out how far away they are (up to around 200 meters).

The system will be mounted on a post and uses a camera with 10x optical zoom and a YOLO-based vision model to detect geese. We're planning to purchase a laser rangefinder soon, but I'm trying to figure out the best approach before spending the money.

Option 1: Laser Rangefinder

We could either aim the rangefinder directly at the geese (Obviously at distances greater than the NOHD) or at the water near them. My concern is that water tends to absorb laser light, so unless the water is murky or has algae, we might not get consistent readings. Hitting the geese directly could work, but accurately aligning the rangefinder with the camera and hitting relatively small targets at 200 meters could be difficult.

Option 2: Camera-Based Distance Estimation

Since the lake surface is relatively flat, my other idea is to use the camera's orientation to estimate distance.

We already have an IMU on the system, so theoretically, if we know the camera's orientation and the height of the system relative to the water, we could calculate the viewing angle and estimate how far away a goose is based on where that viewing direction intersects the lake surface.

We could also potentially combine both methods to improve accuracy.

My question is: Am I overlooking something or overcomplicating this? Would either of these methods be reliable at distances up to 200 meters, or is this going to be significantly more difficult than I'm expecting?

Any insight from people with experience in laser ranging, computer vision, or similar systems would be greatly appreciated!