Tech Goddess

By Mike Trudel

 According to several reputable studies, up to thirty percent of a typical gasoline car engine’s output is lost during braking in everyday city driving situations. Believe it or not, this simple principle is one of the primary reasons gas mileage on the highway is so much higher: less braking.

Most cars’ braking systems depend on friction, applied on metal drums or disks, to stop the rotation of the wheels. All the kinetic energy built up during driving, then, is abruptly halted through this friction and converted to useless heat, as the vehicle cannot employ that energy for forward propulsion. One important advantage of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) is that they use regenerative braking. This, in turn, helps to provide better fuel economy. Waiting lists are getting longer and longer for the most popular HEV models as gas prices rise. Such high demand surpassing customarily high supply is a feat for the automotive industry, which usually has a standard 100-day reserve of any given vehicle, according to a popular news magazine.

Regenerative braking is the process of reducing a vehicle’s speed by converting some of its kinetic energy into another useful form. In many HEVs, the electric motor is used to create torque to drive the wheels and may often be designed to closely resemble electric generators. The HEV engine, then, can either use electricity to create torque or vice versa. Rather than creating friction and useless heat to slow the vehicle, it reverses the electric motor — essentially turning it into an electric generator. This process generates electricity, which is then fed and stored into a battery to be used once the car starts moving. Every time an HEV slows down, reduces acceleration or uses its brakes, energy can be stored.

The shift from losing energy during braking to packing it away may seem minor to the average consumer, but it is an essential element in creating the hybrid engine’s ability for better fuel economy. So is its ability to actually turn itself off at idle and then quickly — smoothly — restart once the accelerator is pressed.

Stop/start technology conserves energy by shutting off the gasoline engine when the vehicle is at idle. This is difficult to imagine for those who, for their entire driving lives, have been accustomed to a vehicle only starting through the use of a key. This, however, is precisely what happens. The engine automatically re-starts when the driver pushes the gas pedal to go forward and continues on just as smoothly as a traditional gasoline engine would. This, too, saves on fuel.

Of course, specialized equipment is needed to incorporate such technology. An integrated starter generator system, which includes more than just a smart braking system, is a good beginning. The best will have a crankshaft-mounted starter generator, traction inverter, DC/DC converter, controllers and a battery pack. It will also provide quick, quiet stop/start, regenerative braking, torque smoothing, high power generation, launch-assist to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, and battery management to increase battery life.

There’s more, of course, for the savvy. Such systems can also provide on-board electrical power generation, which will create a smoother ride and efficient on-board power production. Integrated power electronics and controllers will give the consumer a traction inverter, DC/DC converter motor, an energy controller, Control Area Network (CAN) communications and 5 to 10 kilowatts of on-board electrical power, enabling customer features. The engine on such models can also start five times faster than its conventional counterparts, and a liquid cooling element allows the elimination of a second coolant loop in some applications.

Pretty fancy, eh?

So you thought fuel economy was all about smaller cars, the latest and greatest engines and race car technology? While these all help, fuel economy is also about using brake energy more efficiently. Using “stop smart” technology just might save the impact on your wallet.

Mike Trudel, Freelance Writer.

Delphi Corporation is committed to contributing state-of-the-art technologies and automotive innovation to help achieve greener roadways. For more information, please visit www.Delphi.com/4green.

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Airlines To Add Fuel To The Fire By Using Full Body Scanners
By Aydan Corkern

 If you are a traveler and travel on a lot of airlines you might have already been through a full body scanner, but these are only in some European countries such as the Netherlands. They want to put these scanners at all the airports in their 27 bloc county. These scanners are on the same line as a full body search or virtual strip search.

Germany’s airline officials are on fire about the use of these machines and want no part of their use because they say that these are against all privacy acts. Here in the United States, they aren’t even planning to use them either even though, in some cases, they might come in handy to keep unwanted weapons and other dangerous things from getting on a plane, but this is just going a little too far.

Our security at our airlines has been greatly upgraded since the accidents at 9/11, and they are going to keep it at the same level until further notice. Currently, they aren’t as crazy as they were right after the attack. Most of the time, you might be able to tell that someone wants to do something bad by their body movements, but sometimes you can’t go by that alone. Some people might be just nervous about traveling usually because this might be their first time alone. Usually, a first-time airplane traveler is nervous about going on an airplane and often become nervous or even sick.

If we are still so worried about the security at our airlines, we need to put other restrictions on some of the things that are allowed on these airplanes and maybe try to develop better laser machines with more sensitive hand scanners. I might be wrong, but I think that the whole attack on 911 happened because of this president that we elected into office. The main reason I think this is because when his father was in office, he had gone against these two countries and their leaders. So they had been watching our elections and just biding their time.

These groups of people that did this terrible thing to this country had to have time to plan their attack. We really need to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen to us again, and the airlines really need to make sure the airlines themselves are secure at all times. Also, they need to make sure that all pilots are citizens of that country where this airline is flying.

Aydan Corkern is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like

water damage restoration poquoson and the restoration express.

Small Businesses Turn To Technology To Increase Productivity
By Brandi Cummings

 In a recent survey by the United States Federation of Small Business (USFSB) and DYMO, they found that many small businesses are making cuts to stay afloat while their businesses feel the crunch of the tight economy. No surprise there, right? Here is a breakdown of where small businesses are making those cuts:

23% of respondents have cut their staff

36% of respondents have decreased their business travel

36% of respondents have minimized their marketing efforts

29% of respondents have put a freeze on bonuses and raises

While at the same time many small businesses, 45%, are looking for ways to increase productivity. If you are going to cut staff, it makes sense that you will have to figure out a way to make the staff that you have left more productive to pick up the slack. Many small businesses are looking to technology to help them become more efficient and productive.

What is important to remember when looking for technologies to help you be more productive, is to not over-buy on tech products that won’t deliver what you need. There are so many gadgets out there that promise to make your business better, more efficient and more productive. However, if they don’t fit your needs, it will do absolutely nothing for your business. Here are 4 places to look when deciding whether utilizing different technologies may be right for your business.

1. Data Storage. Some small businesses may find that their employees spend too much time searching for reports, forms or other data that they need. If this is the case, an investment in network hardware and/or software would allow employees to pull any information they need directly from the network.

2. Communications. Other business owners may find that their mobile employees could work more efficiently if they had Push To Talk technology enabled on their cell phones. Or that they could benefit from a virtual phone system that would route their calls to them on their cell phones when they are out of the office handling other tasks.

3. Overhead of Real Estate. Some small businesses may realize that their employees really don’t need to be in an office setting to get their work done. Sending their employees home to telework or telecommute will require certain technologies to make that happen. For one they would need a network where employees could have access to data. Secondly, their communications system would need to be revamped. Advances in telecommunications make this relatively easy to do. They could use a hosted or virtual pbx that would allow all the calls that come into the business to be routed to the appropriate employee or department. As well, these solutions usually still allow employees to transfer calls to other extensions, have voicemail, utilize an auto attendant to direct calls, and many other features that are similar to the standard phone systems that they are used to.

4. Customer Relationship Management. Many businesses already use software like Salesforce, Act or Goldmine to keep track of clients and leads. If your business is one that needs to communicate frequently with your customers or keep track of leads that you are working on, CRM software is definitely worth the investment. This technology will enable you to save time and money by not going over ground that has already been covered, keep better track of leads and money making opportunities, as well as keep in contact with your current clients through automated processes such as email drip campaigns. All of these things will increase efficiency in your customer relations which in turns increases productivity.

Technology can allow a small business to increase their productivity by organizing data, by expanding their communications, allowing employees to work from home, and streamlining their customer relations. However, it is important to take a hard look at your business to figure out what technology is going to really help you instead of just buying the newest tech gadgets to hit the market.

Brandi Cummings is an expert author on the unique issues facing small and home based businesses. To explore using a virtual PBX to increase your productivity she recommends Freedom800.com a leading provider of virtual PBX solutions.

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