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The Technology Behind Protecting Casino Assets, Both Money and Equipment EE Staff Mini Story Oct 27, 2025 Casinos need to be conscious of every detail of their business to remain profitable. The casino floor includes a wide variety of high-value equipment—slot machines, poker tables, roulette wheels, baccarat tables, pit podiums, drop slides, and more—that must be closely monitored and maintained. One answer to this challenge included the GAO RFID asset tracking system that’s able to provide comprehensive information such as service history, maintenance schedules, and current status. Ensuring that equipment is working optimally not only helps keep the gaming environment fair but also safeguards the casino’s bottom line. Learn about the company’s full capabilities here . For more information: GAO RFID *Las Vegas strip photo courtesy of Depositphotos.com Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

The Axceleron LED lighting fixtures bring unprecedented flexibility to theater, museum, convention center, and industrial/commercial settings. Axceleron LED Lighting Fixtures The Axceleron LED lighting fixtures bring unprecedented flexibility to theater, museum, convention center, and industrial/commercial settings. Terry Persun Stage Events Jun 16, 2025 Aquarii, Inc. offers customized LED lighting solutions as showcased in their Axceleron, broad application LED down light fixture. Axceleron is a tested and recognized ETL, DLC, LM79, and LM80 down light designed for facilities that need an energy efficient fixture for high performance or round-the-clock lighting. Four wattages are available up to 150W. At 150W, Axceleron delivers up to 15,000 lumens, with color rendering indexes (CRI) of up to 90. By mating a state of the art LED printed circuit board and heat sink, the unit manages thermal loads without the need for fans, making it the ideal light for environments that require quiet operation. Customers can select one of four different color temperatures—from 3,000 to 5,000 degrees Kelvin. The units can be mounted in pendant, flush mount, C-clamp, yoke or recess configurations, making it easy for them to fit into any new or existing building. Six different lens configurations include 14, 18, 28, 36, 70 or 110 degrees, allowing facilities to select the angle that suits their specific application. Photo: Aquarii LED light. By using an 8-bit to 16-bit processor that is RDM ready, the Axceleron emulates the smooth dimming curves of incandescent without any visible dimming steps while using only one channel for control. Users have the option of on/off operation, 0 to 10V dimming, or operation of their Axceleron fixtures using DMX—but with fewer addresses to manage per unit. While off-white and black are standard offerings for the outer housing, essentially any color, pattern, image, or logo can be provided to match the color palette or theme of the facility. Axceleron provides outstanding durability, is designed for maximum service life, and requires virtually no maintenance. Eliminating bulb changes and the hazards of servicing fixtures in difficult locations can greatly increase the savings beyond those found with its energy efficiency. Adding to the savings, Axceleron comes with a 10-year warranty. For more information: Aquarii Inc Home Aquarii LED Products Aquarii LED Controls Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Rogue State turns to LightWave 11.5 3D software to conquer CG dragons for Dracano. LightWave 11.5 3D Software Used in Video Games Rogue State turns to LightWave 11.5 3D software to conquer CG dragons for Dracano. EE Staff Film and TV Jun 4, 2025 In Dracano, a volcanic eruption in the Pacific Northwest spews lava, steam and fire—along with eggs that hatch ancient, menacing, winged dragons that prey on man. Since similar volcanic eruptions in Russia, Japan, and other “Ring of Fire” regions are also releasing these menacing creatures into the world, scientists fear they are witnessing the start of a global dragon apocalypse. Set in contemporary times, this ambitious plotline depends upon the credibility of the dragon creatures and their appearance, movement, and interaction with people from a nearby U.S. military base who fight back. Three visual effects animators completed the movie’s 220 visual effects shots using LightWave 11.5, which advances the features, capabilities, and efficiency of the popular LightWave 3D modeling and animation system. “There is no other 3D animation software out there with the breadth of features and ease of use to allow us to handle all of these visual effects shots for Dracano, given the tight time and budget constraints,” said Scott Wheeler, visual effects supervisor for Dracano and president of Rogue State, a visual effects and post production boutique in Burbank, CA. In the fall of 2012, Rogue State worked closely with Los Angeles-based Remember Dreaming Productions to realize this fantasy/action adventure movie for Odyssey Entertainment in Australia. LightWave 11.5 was used to create all of the CG dragons, military vehicles, helicopters, and jets, as well as volcanic smoke, steam, and lava. It was also the primary tool for creating the 220 live action visual effects composites. LightWave 11.5 features like Genoma for character rigging, Soft Body Bullet Dynamics, and Motion Blur added to the Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR) system, and sped up the process and streamlined the workflow on complex effects shots by a factor of ten. Credit: LightWave Dragon The Genoma Potential Genoma is an intuitive character rigging system that jump-starts the 3D modeling process by providing instant rigging of legs, arms, fingers, wings, spines, and other body parts for biped, quadrupeds, and even exotic creatures, like dragons. While Genoma provides a head start in creating 3D rigs, animators can modify the rigs, such as making a tail longer, or any other creative changes they need. “You’re basically just putting pre-programmed pieces together almost like an erector set to build your character. There isn’t a lot of trial and error because once you set-up your creature in Modeler and export it to Layout, it just works exactly the way you’d expect it to,” Wheeler said. “With Genoma, an animator can rig a creature without having to understand the underpinnings of the process.” The Flesh of Dragons Most of the CG dragons in Dracano are six to eight feet tall with a massive wingspan and sharp teeth. The dragons have soft flesh covering their bodies and wings that move in relation to the rigid skeletal structure underneath. Soft hanging flesh can even jiggle as the creature moves for greater realism. In LightWave 11.5, Genoma works in conjunction with another new feature, Soft Body Bullet Dynamics to produce this effect. LightWave 11.5 extends LightWave 11’s Bullet dynamics for rigid models to encompass flesh, cloth, rubber, and other soft materials that deform. A dress can blow in the breeze even if the underlying model remains rigid because Genoma and Soft Body Bullet Dynamics understand the distinction between the two materials. “Bullet knows which surfaces to deform based on the weight maps and other parameters you set. These values are not the weight of the creature, they are values you set that define the degree of deformation you want to achieve,” Wheeler said. “It’s like mapping an object by making different areas different colors. One color denotes a rigid structure while another color means that area needs to deform and move in relation to the rigid framework underneath. Genoma works with Bullet’s hard and soft body dynamics to figure out how much each object or surface should bend, collide, flop, wiggle, wave, stretch, or any movement based on how you set it up.” Motion Blur for a Better View The Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR) that was introduced in LightWave 10 has also been extended in LightWave 11.5, making the rendering process much more efficient. Instead of seeing the animation as frame to frame to frame, like a stop motion animation, motion blur gives a better, clearer sense of the animated motion and depth of field without having to go through the full rendering process. Motion blur on the VPR is not a visual effect, it’s a way to preview how the animation will actually look and integrate within the scene. With motion blur inside the VPR, the user can get a feel for the speed of something that’s moving very fast, such as a dragon swooping by, which offers a quick, accurate view of incremental creative enhancements without rendering and saves a lot of time previously devoted to trial and error interspersed with rendering. “LightWave has had motion blur available at the wireframe stage, but now its addition in the VPR makes this valuable tool even more indispensable,” said Wheeler. In the same way that Genoma and Bullet dynamics work together throughout the modeling, layout, and animation process, the VPR is also readily available at every stage of the process. Swarms and Flocks Prior to Dracano, Rogue State produced visual effects scenes for Dragon Wasps, including swarms of dragon wasps flying in the sky. Since hundreds of wasps had to move as an organized group, Wheeler’s visual effects team used the LightWave Flocking feature. In Dracano, many dragon creatures also take to the air and fly around or congregate in caves. But in this instance, Wheeler said they used Instancing to clone one dragon and create a group of 20 to 30 creatures. “Flocking is best to move large numbers of creatures like a thousand wasps to form a deadly swarm. But for a relatively small number of dragons, we used Instancing to create a group. LightWave lets you vary their attributes, like size or colors, and animate them independently of each other,” said Wheeler. “Having a wide array of tools ensures that we have the right one for the unique challenges of every task.” “In our segment of the market, creating visual effects for ultra-low or low-budget features, our visual effects team needs powerful, cost-effective 3D animation tools that get the job done quickly,” said Wheeler. “LightWave 3D helps us meet the production demands of budget-conscious producers without sacrificing the visual impact, credibility, or realism of creatures or visual effects.” For more information: LightWave 3D Home LightWave on YouTube Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Advertise with Us Why Advertise with Entertainment Engineering Magazine ? It's human nature to be curious and seek entertainment — that's why Entertainment Engineering exists in the first place! Here at Entertainment Engineering , we connect with our readers' insatiable curiosity to drive engagement, while providing an editorial package that focuses on content that is educational and valuable to our audience's jobs. The result is a publication that isn't just relevant, but fun, too! By prioritizing our readership, we guarantee a highly-engaged audience to our advertisers. We'd love to talk to you about how we can highlight the coolest and most innovative applications of your products to an audience that is enthusiastic, engaged, and interested in your product. To request our media kit, please message us below First name* Last name* Email* Company name Any specific inquiries you have? Submit 5 Ways to Attract a Design Engineer’s Attention The Entertainment Engineering Philosophy 1. Show Them Something Interesting - Entertainment Engineering incorporates the FUN design elements in editorial that focuses on the latest movies, games, amusement park, and more. 2. Teach Them Something They Don’t Know - Entertainment Engineering digs into TECHNOLOGY to find out what new unique electrical, mechanical, fluid power, materials, software and computer products are being used behind the scenes. 3. Excite Them About the Possibilities - Entertainment Engineering provides the platform to get an engineer’s CREATIVE processes flowing, allowing them to consider how the product they’re reading about will fit with the project they’re working on—we call it Tech Transfer. 4. Deliver Them to A Place of Information - Entertainment Engineering opens deep links pertinent to the page an engineer is reading, giving them the chance to deepen their learning and have access to the companies and products their interested in. 5. Repeat The Process - Entertainment Engineering provides the right formula of Technology, Creativity and Fun to attract an engineer month after month.

Automated guitar plays more than two dozen songs Pneumatic Guitar Mimics Motion of Human Hand Automated guitar plays more than two dozen songs EE Staff Cool Stuff Jun 4, 2025 When employees at Clippard Instrument Laboratory set out to make a new exhibit for their 2012 trade show schedule, they wanted something cool and unique that would draw attention to their pneumatic and automation products. Their answer is a pneumatic guitar that plays more than two dozen songs with over 36 notes running on 50-psi air pressure. Rob Clippard, the guitar’s primary designer and developer, recalls part of the challenge was making the guitar. “We had myself and a few other engineers working on it, sometimes pulling all nighters,” he says. Others working on the project include Chris Rhodes, Jerry Grotelueschen, Brett Vidal, Bill Clippard and Ed Ehrhardt. The main design challenge was trying to mimic the motion of the human hand. “If you asked 100 engineers how to do this, you might get 100 different ideas on how to build a pneumatic system,” says Clippard. He adds one of the hardest parts was the “fret,” or the control of what would be the left hand that holds down the strings along the guitar’s neck. “You have to come off the strings with a certain velocity to mute the string at the correct time while sliding your hand to position your fingers for the next set of notes,” he explains. “Engineering the movement, positioning, and force feedback systems for this application is hard to replicate in a more cost-effective solution as pneumatics.” There were marketing challenges with the exhibit too. “With this exhibit we are getting people to think about new applications with pneumatics,” explains Clippard. “We are also trying to show that Clippard does more than sell pneumatic components. Our engineers use creativity to design, development, assembly, test, among other functions to simplify the tasks for other companies in terms of effort.” The pneumatic guitar has 58 electronic valves and 62 miniature pneumatic cylinders from 5/32” diameters up to half-inch bore that help mimic the motion of the human hand “fretting” , “picking” and “strumming” the six guitar strings. A Wi-Fi card and iPad with a midi player app control of the pneumatic guitar. All other guitar parts are standard, off-the-shelf units, except the manifolds. Engineers at the company normally custom design their own manifolds in house with Solidworks CAD software. But with this job, they were able to use a vector-based drawing program for tracing the outline of the guitar to guide laser cutting of the manifold and valve subplates. For more information: Clippard Home Solidworks Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport for three years in a row. Find out how engineers are designing paddles for maximum performance. Carbon Fiber Foam Core Pickleball Paddle Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport for three years in a row. Find out how engineers are designing paddles for maximum performance. Joe Gillard Sports Jun 16, 2025 Body Helix, a pickleball equipment provider, announced the upcoming launch of their FLiK F1 with TerraCoreXC pickleball paddle which the company says employs their “Gen 4 Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) foam core technology.” The paddles, which are designed for “controlled power and spin,” are slated for release in July, and are USAP-approved. TerraCoreXC Technology TerraCoreXC is the name given to the paddle technology Body Helix says is a patent-pending Gen 4 EPP foam core that “shatters the limitations of traditional polypropylene honeycomb cores.” The core is built using a bonding process. Conventional cores, according to the company, can suffer from rapid breakdown, dead spots, and harsh feedback. For precision, these paddles are designed for a longer dwell time paired with a proprietary high-friction peel ply surface. The paddle also has an area of fiberglass on top of the 4 layers of carbon fiber for “added pop” and for providing power, says the company. Engineered for Excellence The paddle design is a 16.5" x 7.5" elongated shape with a face that features four layers of Toray T700 carbon fiber which the company says gives it its strength-to-weight ratio, and has a central fiberglass area for “added pop.” The handle is made from a solid polyurethane. “This precise layering provides the perfect balance of stiffness for power, flexibility for feel, and surface texture for spin, while the fiberglass layer adds a crucial element of dampening and enhances durability, creating a truly robust and high-performing paddle face,” explained Body Helix founder and head of R&D Fred Robinson in a blog post about the technology. The company says that it utilized player feedback in designing the paddle. “The FLiK F1 with TerraCoreXC is the culmination of over a year of research and player feedback,” said Robinson. “We’ve engineered a paddle that solves real player complaints - a paddle with power that doesn't "break in" while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in pickleball technology.” Body Helix says players eager to experience TerraCoreXC can try the Sandbox F1XC , a limited-edition Sandbox version, while awaiting the official launch. For more information: Body Helix Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Games for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch are becoming more fun. Free-to-Play Zombie Stampede Games for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch are becoming more fun. EE Staff Games Jun 4, 2025 Bandai Namco Games has launched Zombie Stampede©, a free-to-play tower defense action game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. In Zombie Stampede players are immersed in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a devastating virus. Facing waves and waves of flesh-eating zombies through intense action sequences, the game proposes users to take control of a team of ferocious hunters with a variety of unique combat abilities and destructive weapons. Beyond the action, the game offers a powerful cocktail of strategy and collectability with multiple in-game commodities such as the Card Box filled with common and rare hunters and items to be added to one's game. Players also have to be tactical in their use of the precious Zombie Juice collected from slaughtered zombies on the battlefield and that helps unleash hunter skills. Bandai Namco Games America Inc. is a global publisher and developer of interactive content for platforms including all major video game consoles and computers, with marketing and sales operations in 50 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia. The company is known for creating games like PAC-MAN©, Tekken©, SOULCALIBUR©, NARUTO©, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN©, Dragon Ball©, GALAGA©, RIDGE RACER© and ACE COMBAT©. For more information: Bandai Namco Games Home Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

“We were pushing the limits of the robots.” SISU Cinema Robotics and reaching new heights with motion control robotics. How Motion Control Makes Tron: Ares a Powerful New Visual Experience “We were pushing the limits of the robots.” SISU Cinema Robotics and reaching new heights with motion control robotics. Joe Gillard Film and TV Aug 12, 2025 Tron: Ares is the third installment of Disney's Tron franchise. The film stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, and other, as well as engineers, cinematographers, and others working behind the scenes to create the movie magic that’s possible in 2025. ALSO FROM EE: WATCH: One-on-One with Chris Porter of igus Tron has always made use of innovative special effects and this latest installment carries on that technological legacy. In an interview SISU Cinema Robotics, the company responsible for motion control robotics on the film, explained a little bit about the innovations in motion control used. Films make use of robotics and motion control to capture interesting or difficult shots, allowing the camera to jump or move around an object or person in quick or unusual patterns. Scary shots in Tron: Ares Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and SISU's Mike Morgan explained how the safety-conscious SISU Cinema Robotics pulled off some harrowing shots, in an interview published on YouTube. “We had some shots in our film where we had Jared Leto laying on his back and a 12-inch probe lens half an inch from his eyeball and rotated the camera up and then pulled back away from him, and that is terrifying,” said Cronenweth. The motion control and robotics are a crucial part of how the shots were able to get the desired look. “We wanted to create, in this digital world, when they’re in the web, this very mechanical program perspective of things,” said Cronenweth. Watch the full interview below: And here is a trailer for TRON: Ares: Learn more about SISU Cinema Robotics Learn more about Tron: Ares . Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Entirely 3D printed auto-follow device for GoPro cameras begins US tour Auto-Follow Sports Drone Set for Take-Off Entirely 3D printed auto-follow device for GoPro cameras begins US tour EE Staff Sports Jun 4, 2025 Aimed primarily at the consumer market, AirDog is an innovative, yet simple-to-use, ‘quad-copter’ that operates via a wrist-worn tracking device and accommodates a standard GoPro sports camera. Users can automatically capture exciting live aerial video footage and still photography of themselves, having set distance, speed and height levels for AirDog to follow. Helico is specifically targeting the outdoor ‘extreme’ sports market and expects AirDog to be of particular interest to recreational participants of freestyle BMX, motocross and skateboarding, as well as water-sports such as surfing, kite-surfing and wake-boarding. AirDog might literally have not got off the ground, had it not been for the instrumental role 3D printing played during the prototyping phase. The company sought the expertise of Stratasys’ Latvian partner, Baltic3D, who also worked with Polish reseller Bibus Menos to meet the requirements outlined by Helico’s team. In order to produce fully-functional parts that could perform in the real environment, both Stratasys’ FDM and PolyJet 3D printing technologies were employed for AirDog and its AirLeash tracking device, respectively. The final AirDog drone was fully 3D printed using Stratasys’ FDM-based ULTEM material, chosen thanks to its ability to provide parts of extreme strength and durability, with the lightweight characteristics vital for take-off and in-flight maneuverability. For more information: Stratasys Home AirDog Quadcopter Drone Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

An automation system integral to successful precious metals recovery technology is now set for global rollout. Electronic Waste is On the Rise — This Metal Recovery Technology is a Golden Solution An automation system integral to successful precious metals recovery technology is now set for global rollout. Cool Stuff Aug 29, 2025 Electronic waste is one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams, according to Statista market research. With e-waste generation forecast to exceed 80 million metric tons by 2030, improved recycling and recovery infrastructure is critical. One company on a mission to help offset this trend is The Royal Mint, UK’s oldest company. With a contemporary sustainability ethic at the heart of a long-term strategy, the company has invested in, enhanced, and scaled a hugely promising technology used for the recovery of precious metals and other materials from e-waste. At the start of the project, the extraction technology, developed by Canadian company Excir only existed in a prototype form. It required further development and scaling to hit The Royal Mint’s target of 4,000 metric tons per annum. Additional technological and processing hurdles included a tightly controlled scheduling and investment. All photos courtesy of Rockwell Automation and The Royal Mint. According to Rockwell Automation UK managing director Phil Dadfield, “This was never going to be a straightforward project. We knew there were multiple challenges, some of which we could not influence, but we also knew that our highly experienced process technical team and our family of tightly integrated technologies would bring the extraction process under tighter control. Once that was established, further evolution and eventual scaling would be a little more straightforward.” In The Royal Mint’s Precious Metal Recovery facility, circuit boards are fed via a conveyor system into a reactor and the resulting sludge then undergoes separation, sorting, and filtering using specialized chemical processes to extract molten gold and other precious metals from mixed materials, in a tightly controlled precipitation process. The unique chemistry extracts 99% of the gold in e-waste and, more importantly, this process takes place at room temperature, rather than high-temperature smelting. The system separates out more than just precious metals. Every part of a printed circuit board can be accounted for, even the fiberglass bi-product is “de-brominated—where hazardous bromide is removed—as an integral part of the Mint’s circular economy and related net-zero plans. All photos courtesy of Rockwell Automation and The Royal Mint. Rockwell Automation’s Lifecycle Services team delivered a complete process control solution based on the company’s PlantPAx® DCS system, which included operator workstations as well as engineer workstations. The overall system allows integration from plant floor instrumentation up to the boardroom, with contextualized reporting providing insights to drive actions for optimizing production. PlantPAx proved ideal for this project due to its ability to scale in line with the growth and evolution of the process. It also connects disparate pieces of equipment in the complex plant and controls them in one place, using an interface familiar to the Mint’s engineers, who have worked with Rockwell Automation before. Hadfield explains, “The system architecture enables different vendors to manufacture different parts of the plant and then easily plug it all together and give one, plant-wide infrastructure control when it's up and running. This approach eliminates disparate control systems that you often have in projects like this and provides optimization improvements, such as common log-ons, change management, alarm management, data logging and more.” All photos courtesy of Rockwell Automation and The Royal Mint. Even with the initial uncertainty and multiple process variables, engineers from all parties were delighted when the system delivered gold on the first run, at scale, and without insights from an intermediate pilot stage. According to Tony Baker, Director of Manufacturing Innovation at The Royal Mint: “After so many early challenges, we are pleased that it is all going to plan. In fact, we have already surpassed our 2024/25 target of 400 metric tons, when we hit 500 metric tons earlier this year. For more information: Rockwell Automation PlantPAx® The Royal Mint Precious Metal Recovery Factory Excir Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Data centers handle vast amounts of information and depend on reliable power and efficient cooling. Industrial Pumps Power and Cool the Internet Data centers handle vast amounts of information and depend on reliable power and efficient cooling. Cool Stuff Aug 5, 2025 Data centers serve as the foundation of the internet, managing massive amounts of information. To maintain continuous and uninterrupted operations, modern data centers depend on state-of-the-art technologies that provide both emergency power and sustainable cooling technologies. Industrial grade vacuum pumps from KNF are customized to these specific requirements. Emergency Power with Flywheel Technology When it comes to critical infrastructure, such as data centers, effective and reliable emergency power solutions are essential. One innovative technology used to bridge power fluctuations is flywheel kinetic energy storage. Unlike rechargeable battery-based systems, flywheel systems do not degrade with use, so they last much longer and are less expensive to maintain. They are also more compact, more efficient, and use more environmentally friendly and recyclable materials. Flywheel technology uses the kinetic energy of a rotating mass to store and release energy as needed. It consists of a high-speed rotating flywheel connected to a combined motor-generator. During normal power conditions, the motor uses electrical power to accelerate the flywheel to a high rotational speed. In the event of a power outage, the kinetic energy stored by the spinning flywheel is converted back to electricity to power critical equipment until slower starting systems such as diesel generators can take over. Advanced flywheel systems have rotors made of high-strength carbon fiber composites suspended by magnetic bearings that rotate in a vacuum enclosure. A KNF multi-stage diaphragm vacuum pump with a long-life BLDC motor can remove more than 99.5% of the air from the enclosure to create a very low friction environment, ideal for this application. This increases efficiency and minimizes drag, allowing some flywheel systems to reach speeds of more than 50,000 rpm. Sustainable Water-Based Cooling Systems As important as emergency power is to the reliable operation of any data center, efficient cooling is critical to maintaining optimal operating temperatures for servers and other components. Inefficient cooling and overheating can lead to performance degradation, hardware damage, and costly downtime. Moreover, when this cooling is done efficiently, it not only keeps the data center running reliably, but also reduces the need for a number of potentially harmful substances. Traditional cooling systems using conventional refrigerants often rely on substances such as fluorinated gases (F-gases), ammonia, or propane. However, these refrigerants can pose environmental risks by contributing to ozone depletion and global warming as well as safety and health risks. In response to these challenges, emerging technologies have turned to water as an energy-efficient refrigerant in closed-loop systems. Water-based cooling systems offer remarkable efficiency and sustainability, delivering energy savings of up to 80% compared to conventional cooling systems, while producing minimal CO 2 emissions. In addition, using water as a refrigerant poses no risk to the environment, making it a safe and clean alternative. The KNF N 952 diaphragm pump can be customized to meet the high demands of water-based cooling systems. Using water as an effective refrigerant requires precise, constant, and reliable vacuum conditions for the phase changes necessary for refrigeration. This places high demands on the vacuum pump, which must operate completely oil-free, within a range of 10 to 100 mbar abs. and a temperature range of 5° C to 45° C. In addition, compact size and overall robustness are critical factors in selecting the right vacuum pump for these systems. Thanks to its unique modular design, which allows for the optimal selection of materials for each application, diaphragm pump technology such as a customized KNF N 952 provides an ideal solution for handling demanding vapor environments and maintaining the required vacuum conditions. For more information, visit KNF . Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next

Customizations necessary for large-scale stage production rotational applications require the right components to deliver accuracy, repeatability, and safety in any environment. Precision Rotational Stages Enhance Performances at Concerts, Theaters, Theme Parks, and More Customizations necessary for large-scale stage production rotational applications require the right components to deliver accuracy, repeatability, and safety in any environment. Stage Events Sep 5, 2025 Large-scale rotational applications, such as those used in theatre settings, for concerts, and theme park attractions, require precise motion feedback to gain optimal performance, safety, and efficiency. Custom encoder design provides an innovative solution for these applications, similar to other high-demand products such as forklifts, MRI machines, mobile equipment, and a wide variety of specific stagecraft turntables. Reliability and accurate positioning of the rotational element is key. Encoder Products Company has designed a custom encoder design that leverages a spring-loaded gear or wheel system to provide absolute motion feedback. The challenge with such applications is that large diameter rotary motion introduces unique problems because traditional encoders struggle to provide accurate feedback. The reasons for this are many. For example, accurate tracking of large diameters requires specialized designs, which can often involve large, fragile, difficult to install, and very expensive optical sensor rings. Further challenges include environmental durability, space constraints, and safe operational control. In addition, gear ratios that result in irrational numbers can be difficult to work with. Image courtesy of Encoder Products Company. Encoder Products has designed a gear slewing technology that allows their encoders to calculate the correct position of a large ring gear when installed on a smaller drive gear using any gear ratio. The company’s A36R Absolute Encoder is a 22 Bit ST/24 Bit MT single turn/multi-turn absolute encoder that uses BiSS C or SSI communications. The device has a low profile of just 1-inch (25.4mm). The encoder offers flex mount options to eliminate couplings and the option of a battery/backup power interface for data retention in the absence of primary power. Custom Solutions For large-scale rotational projects, Encoder Products Company eliminates the need for engineers to spend time piecing together parts and assembling components themselves. They offer customizable solutions that combine the housing from their TR1 Tru-Trac® wheeled encoder and the stability of the A36 Absolute Encoder with a spring-loaded gear or wheel system tailored to each application's unique requirements. Image courtesy of Encoder Products Company. TheTR1 Tru-Trac is rugged and versatile. Its housing provides robust protection against environmental factors such as dust, moisture, and vibrations, while its modular design allows seamless integration into diverse systems. Known for its compact size and exceptional performance, the A36 encoder delivers precise absolute motion feedback even under harsh environmental conditions. The inclusion of a spring-loaded gear or wheel mechanism enables precise tracking of large-diameter rotary motion, ensuring maximum positioning accuracy. Image courtesy of Encoder Products Company. Particularly valuable in stagecraft where the turntable must rotate smoothly and precisely to create seamless theatrical or production experiences, the company’s spring-loaded gear or wheel system pushes the limits on accuracy for large-diameter motion and position tracking. This ensures flawless operation in a variety of high-pressure settings. The encoder can also be used as secondary feedback for safety, giving position data right at the point of motion itself. Encoder Products Company’s custom encoder solutions are redefining motion feedback technology across industries. By combining the rugged TR1 Tru-Trac encoder housing, high-performance A36 absolute encoder, and a precision gear and wheel system, the company is able to deliver an all-in-one solution that provides engineers with the tools they need—without the hassle of assembly. For more information: Encoder Products Company A36R Creative Conners *Lead photo is a general photo from Depositphotos.com Previous Facebook LinkedIn Copy link Next