End of the Line

Commercial railways have been around for 200 years in America. And for most of that time, they represented a low cost, high speed and reliable way to haul large tonnages of freight across a very wide country. As private passenger cars and air travel drove passengers away from rail service, freight took up the slack and railways remained unchallenged on a cost per ton mile basis for many kinds of f...

Mining is both an essential human activity, and a surprising contributor to global CO2 emissions, at 4 to 7 percent of global production. Caterpillar is working with Canadian mining firm Nouveau Monde Graphite to create a fully carbon neutral mine using electric vehicle technology. Access to zero carbon hydroelectric power at the miner’s Québec site is a major enabler, and other firms are working...

Nuclear energy has many, many detractors but one fact that no one disputes is that it’s capable of producing a lot of electricity and a lot of process heat without CO  2  emissions. A new generation of extremely small, road and even air transportable micro reactors promise to take the key benefits of nuclear and add flexibility and reliability as well as considerable redundancy...

Steelmaking is possibly the most important single technical innovation of the last thousand years. Almost all modern technology can trace its roots back to the unique properties of iron with carefully controlled amounts of carbon. Steel allowed everyone from James Watt to the village blacksmith alter the hardness of the material at will, creating the ability to cut and shape steel into everything...

Mark Forkner is in big trouble. The engineering test pilot for Boeing is alleged to have misled the FAA about the MCAS stability control system used on Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the major contributor in two crashes with the loss of all aboard. Boeing as a corporation has negotiated a deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution in exchange for a large compensation payout to multiple...

As Covid 19 drags on, most nations in the world of opted for a mass immunization strategy, rather than natural immunity to control the pandemic. In America, the issue has morphed into a multidimensional political battle, with issues such as the efficacy and safety of vaccines on the table, as well as the age-old argument about public good and personal liberty. But for your business, whether you sh...

If you’re old enough to have flown on a Boeing 707, or a Douglas DC-8, or even a Lockheed L-1011, you remember a time when jets were fast, comfortable and often both. Today, there are slower and are less comfortable, at least in Economy. Did it have to be this way? Jim Anderton argues, “No”. Access all episodes of  End of the Line  on  Engineering TV  along with all of our othe...

If you’re shopping for a new car right now, you’re in for a shock. New and used car prices are up, way up in short term the situation isn’t going to get better. Covid 19 is one reason why, but the fact is, the supply chain issues that are crippled the auto industry, although triggered by Covid, aren’t the long-term industry challenge. Jim Anderton explains why. Access all episodes of  End of...

The design and manufacturing of complex projects has always been a challenge in engineering. Several novel management techniques evolved over the last 60 years to cope with the problem of keeping projects on time and on budget, but early tools rarely tackled the problem at its root cause: the lack of truly collaborative engineering design. Documents are necessary in e...

A new report from the Manufacturer’s Alliance Foundation and business consultancy Aon has analysed the major issues facing US manufacturing as the Covid pandemic approaches its end. Worker flexibility is universally identified as an important issue for manufacturers, particularly in an era of broken and disrupted supply chains and production schedules that are difficult to match with consumer dema...

With environmental issues now at the forefront of government policy and media coverage, reducing waste, particularly nonrecyclable waste is more important than ever. E-waste, discarded electrical and electronic devices are a persistent problem in landfills worldwide. They are difficult to recycle, often contain toxic substances and in consumer goods, have a surprisingly short service life. The rea...

A century ago, a pickup truck buyer would purchase a vehicle engineered with a sheet steel box and a stamped steel body bolted to a ladder frame. Today, a pickup buyer is purchasing exactly the same technology. In Europe, the auto industry explored lighter, stiffer and more modern technology, monocoque construction, as far back as the 1930s and in America a steady shi...

When Elon Musk talks, people listen. A serial entrepreneur has pulled forward the adoption of electric vehicles by at least a decade and launched several other ventures, including satellite launch and orbital Internet provider SpaceX. What’s the next frontier? According to Musk, it’s humanlike general-purpose robots, development of which will relay on Tesla’s in-...

In 1959, an attractive cargo passenger vessel ordered by the US Maritime Administration was launched, the NS Savannah. As a demonstration for civilian use of the nuclear power plants than used in atomic submarines, the vessel operated well for over a decade and demonstrated safe, reliable operation. But since 1972, no other commercial cargo vessels have been built with nuclear propulsion. The...

Wiring harnesses are the central nervous systems of modern vehicles. They’ve evolved far beyond simple bundles of wires and encroach on every system and every panel in both body and chassis. Conductors now carry data as well as power, but the common element is the need to terminate those conductors in some kind of electrical connector. They are normally trouble-free, but when they f...

As we finally emerge from the Covid pandemic, kickstarting Western economies means infrastructure: large public works projects. Delivering projects such as bridges, highways and utilities on time and on budget has always been a challenge, but when the imperative is to throw money at the problem immediately, it becomes essentially impossible. Much American infrastructure is built by the l...

A recent, hefty European commission fine against German auto industry heavyweights Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen Group has the potential to severely impact the way professional engineers design automotive and other products in the future. The commission ruled on and engineering collaboration between the three companies regarding exhaust emission technologies for diesel engines between 2009 and 2014...

It will be some time before forensic engineering teams determine the cause of the failure of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, but speculation is rife that the building was not constructed according to specifications and contained less than the required amount of rebar. If true, there will be a major shift in the way construction projects are inspected and in the way that older structures...

Hydrogen is widely touted as an important route to a carbon neutral future. The amount of disinformation and sheer ignorance about hydrogen however, is significant, and persistent, despite efforts by the scientific and engineering press to educate the public about what hydrogen can, and can’t do and the switch from fossil fuels as energy sources. Jim Anderton explains the five key things everyone...

The old joke has always been that nuclear fusion is 50 years away. And always will be. The sad reality is that it’s true. No technology has offered so much, absorbed so much research and development and delivered so little progress toward usable hardware. Why? Jim Anderton discusses the subject and his opinions may be controversial. Access all episodes of  End of the Line  on  Engin...

Development of low cost, mass-produced semiconductors has transformed one of the oldest and most important functions in electrical circuits: overcurrent protection. Modern systems may use algorithms to actively manage current flow, and even report on power or signal quality through the protected circuit. But Jim Anderton believes that there is still a role for the oldest and simplest overcurrent p...

Global automakers will cumulatively lose $110 billion as a result of a worldwide shortage of integrated circuits. Auto manufacturing has evolved into a global, just-in-time enterprise with extended and complex supply chains. Very vulnerable to external shocks. Covid 19 was the biggest shock imaginable, and now automakers are struggling to source critical components at a time when demand is roaring...

It’s incredibly hard to develop a new aircraft. Do it without the resources of a major airplane company and to simultaneously develop radical new technologies in aerodynamics, propulsion and fuels would seem an almost impossible task. For Reno, Nevada based Aerion Supersonic, it was. Access all episodes of  End of the Line  on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.

The Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk military jet trainer will be built using model-based engineering principles. Model-based engineering is proving to be a perfect fit for the aerospace industry: more accurate, precise parts and assemblies that fit better and faster on the assembly line. Model-based engineering also offers a hidden bonus that few in the industry talk about. Access all episodes of ...

A year into the Covid pandemic, and Western nations are finally making enough vaccines. For the rest of the world is still suffering. Why can’t anyone manufacture enough? Access all episodes of  End of the Line  on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.