Nerd-Day

This topic was inspired by a Linked-In post I had seen a while back. Someone was looking for advice on a where to easily purchase some components for a project they were working on. A response turned them onto McMaster-Carr, which they were not familiar with. I am rather, shall we say, experienced, so it hard to imagine not knowing McMaster- I’ve had one of their yellow catalogs on a bookshelf since before their website existed. It occurred to me that there may be quite a few others out there who need an easy to deal with company and don’t know where to look. Here are three companies that we use for various projects. They are all web-based and have simple, online purchasing. For the most part, their websites are easy to navigate and search. They may not have absolutely everything, but between the three of them, they come close.

McMaster-Carr

https://www.mcmaster.com/

McMaster’s website is the gold standard of easy-to-search online shopping. The site is very well organized and it is easy to find what you are looking for, even if you don’t know what the proper name is (or how to spell it). They carry pretty much everything: hardware, vacuum and sanitary fittings, O-rings, plumbing fittings, tools, the list goes on. If you’re bored in a meeting, you can kill an hour just browsing… They also have dimensioned drawings and 3D models of almost everything, which are really quick and easy to download. One disadvantage is that most items are generic, meaning that they don’t list manufacturer information (they do for some items). But, I have found that they do not switch manufacturers, you get the exact same part every time you order. It’s just that they don’t say who the maker is. They also have really good support. If you have a question on a specific part they can answer it for you – even physically measuring something if a dimension is needed.

Misumi

https://us.misumi-ec.com/

Misumi offer a wide range of components as well, but their greatest strength is in the configurable mechanical parts. They sell a number of components that can be customized to meet what you need (a shaft at a specific length with a certain end feature, for example). The cost and lead time for these parts is generally much better than having a custom part fabricated. There are generally many choices to go through to configure a part, which can get a bit confusing, but in the end, it works pretty well. You can even download a model of your configuration. Misumi also sells some hard-to-find Japanese components, which can give some options for unusual problems.

Automation Direct

https://www.automationdirect.com/

As their name suggests, Automation Direct focuses on selling automation components, including mechanical and pneumatic parts, but with a strong focus on electrical items. Some of their items are sold under their own brand names, but they also offer a good selection of well-known, high quality brands. Their website is one of the better ones, as well. It is well organized and easy to search. The items sold under their brands are all of good quality with a significant cost savings over name-brand components. Plus, they are just easy to buy online. We have used a variety of their components (PLC’s, touch panels, solenoids, pressure sensors, level switches, etc.) on everything from a dual path filtration system to an automated water spray system to keep the squirrels out of the tomatoes, and always had good results. Where else can you get a PLC for less than $100?

There are other companies out there that have good websites, but many are more specialized. These three are the ones we start with. The ability to easily find what we are looking for, being able to customize a part if needed, and then purchase easily with just a few clicks saves us time and helps us be more efficient.

A problem that we have often faced is how to insulate in a clean and effective way.  Insulation materials are often fibrous, messy, and hard to attach.  When we were designing distillation equipment for the CBD industry, we had a need for insulation to cover a stainless steel vessel that was heated to 80 deg C with band heaters that reached temperatures greater than 200 deg C.  We needed to cover the heated vessel so that it would come to temperature faster and not be a safety hazard during operation.  In the same suite of equipment, we were also cooling filter housings down to -40 degree C.  We needed to cover the housings so that we were not wasting chilling power and to prevent excessive amounts of condensation.  We came across a great product that was a perfect fit for both of these applications, and thought we would share.

Advance Thermal Corp has a product called Modulated Spirorap.  It is a 4 inch wide by 20 foot long strip of insulation.  The center insulation material is covered with a durable fabric and is lined on the edges with a strip of hook and loop fasteners.  The insulation can be wound around a pipe or vessel to create a covering for hot or cold applications.  Spirorap has a double seam every 18 inches so that it can be easily cut to an appropriate length for your vessel. 

http://advancethermal.com/service-item/removable-insulation-mondulated-spirorap/

Some tips:

• Sprirorap is recommended for smaller diameter pipes, but we have used it on vessels up to 12 inch diameter.
• It is great for getting around bulky clamps and also avoiding side ports and instrumentation.
• Having two people when you are wrapping it is helpful.  One person can hold the first wrap while the other person winds the insulation around the rest of the vessel.
• Current cost is $275 per 20 foot length.
• It is made to order so quoted leadtime can be 4-5 weeks.  In our experience they have fabricated them much faster, but something to keep in mind.
• If gravity is not your friend, we have used cinch straps from McMaster to keep the insulation securely in place.

Advance Thermal makes custom insulation blankets as well.  We have used their services for a 14 inch diameter vessel and lid, and it came out really nice.  If you give them a 3D model of your system, they will design a blanket around it.  They can do it multiple sections and sew in straps and hook and loop strips as needed for a good fit.  We were really impressed by the speed and quality at a reasonable price.

Hope this unique product is of some help if you have insulation needs.  And if you have some leftover, you can always turn it in to a beer cozy…

Knight’s Foundry in Sutter Creek, California is the last remaining water powered foundry and machine shop in the United States. It was originally founded to produce equipment for the local gold mines. Due to the availability of water at high pressure coming from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, Samuel Knight developed an improved design of the impulse water wheels that existed at the time. The impulse water wheel is similar in design to turbines still used in hydroelectric power generation today. These are enclosed wheels with a series of buckets to catch the water flow, much smaller than a traditional wooden wheel you may see on the side of a mill. These small water motors were used in mining and other industries through out the state and country. They were also used to power the machine tools at the foundry.

The foundry produced the water motors and equipment for mining and other industries. They performed all the fabrication steps in house. They have the pattern shop where patterns where made and repaired for the casting process, the actual foundry where the iron was melted and cast, and a complete machine shop to perform all the finishing steps. They produced some very large parts, and had some very large machines to go along with them – such as a 12 foot diameter surface lathe! The machine shop is purely mechanical (no servo motors here), so all the feeds and stepping is done with cams and gears.

The foundry is only open for tours on the second Saturday of each month, so check their website before making a trip. If you are interested in old equipment and manufacturing techniques, it is certainly worth a visit. They have a good host of volunteers who explain everything about the equipment and processes. Many of the tools are in operation so you can see how they worked. They also have blacksmithing and casting exhibitions.

A trip up to the gold country always makes for a good time. A chance to see some old machinery in operation makes it all the better.

www.knightfoundry.com

We are a two-person company and yet we have a part numbering system…and ERP…and PDM.  We feel that keeping your designs organized is a critical part of the engineering process.  It will help you track what you make, build from past designs, save time, and most importantly, helps you find things when you have moved on to the next project and your memory starts fading…

We wanted to share our semi-smart part numbering system in case your company is just starting out or looking to make some changes.  Our part numbering system is 10 digits with the format XX-XXXXXX-XX. The first 2 digits are the category, and as hard as this might be, we really recommend keeping it to about a dozen categories ONLY.  I know it is tempting to create more, but if the user needs to think too hard about what bucket it goes in, then it is a waste of time and parts are bound to go in the wrong place.  The advantage of having categories at all is that your bill of materials is easy to sort and read, and frankly, it is pretty.  The next 6 digits are just the next sequential number, no thinking there.  The last two digits are the dash number and is typically -01.  You would use -02 for a part that is a mirror image or -02, -03, etc. for a part that is different lengths or colors. 

Our background originated with vacuum deposition equipment so some of our categories are dedicated to vacuum fittings, plumbing fittings, and o-rings.  You can tailor it to your industry, but we recommend that assembly is always first, custom fabricated parts are second, and hardware is at the end.  Speaking of hardware, this is the best part of our system!  We figured out a scheme so that no matter what hardware we use or when the part number is pulled, it will always be in order on your BOM!!!!!!!!!!  Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but it is very exciting. 

The way it works is we have pre-determined selections for each of the 10 digits (thread size, head type, length, etc) and you follow tables to build your part number.  It might sound like a lot of work, but once you have the basic structure it is pretty easy to copy existing parts to pull new hardware.  We can send you our list to get started if you are interested.  The image is an example of an assembly drawing that uses are our part numbering system, and we think it makes for a nice clean drawing. 

Hope this can be of help!