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Marposs Red Crown™ analog pencil gauging probes and Digi Crown™ digital probes, modules, and systems are widely used in automotive, aerospace, and medical QC test stands, as well as in the metal cutting, metal forming, plastics molding, and glass and ceramics production industries for in-process control and quality assurance dimensional gauging measurements.
The Red Crown™ product line consists of analog probes in both LVDT and half-bridge versions with measuring ranges from ±0.5 mm full scale to ±10 mm full scale. The probe body diameter is industry standard 8 mm, and a 0.375 inch threaded adapter sleeve is available for retrofit applications. Both spring- extend and air- extend features and either axial or radial cable exits are available from stock.
The Digi Crown™ digital product line uses Red Crown™ analog probes coupled to a proprietary signal conditioner module for the analog probe that can communicate over an RS485 bus to a PC. Marposs offers all the necessary configuration software for maximum integration with third party SPC systems.
“Being able to offer such an outstanding product line of digital and analog probes in conjunction with our other linear and rotary sensing technologies is an exciting opportunity for us,” says Harold Schaevitz President of Alliance Sensors Group.
Besides distributing the Digi Crown™ signal conditioner module noted above, Alliance Sensors Group manufactures their SC-100 LVDT signal conditioner with features specific to the Marposs Red Crown™ analog LVDT and half-bridge probes like a 7.5 kHz excitation frequency and 1 kHz frequency response.
Hi Nicole–I've read the same assessment of CES from other sources — no breakout technology. Instead, some vendors are going the route to excess (80 inch TV screens) or just silly (the smart fork). Maybe CES is no longer the forum for breakthroughs, but then, what would be the alternative?
May be you only have to look at Apple for game changing technologies. Threre are not many organizations with so much of brain power. People did talk about Apple TV. Hopefully it will converge technologies in this device.
Game changing technologies emerge typically over time and often they are nothing but improvements on existing products. Sometimes, too, a brilliant designer and exec needs to come along and show us how to use better what we already have.
Research & development is a long and costly process. Companies who have developed a game changing technology will not roll that newer and more advanced technology out until they have made sufficient money from selling the older technology.
I know this from one of my previous projects where I was part of a large team working on developing a new digital storage technology. We managed to build a working hardware prototype for the new “bleeding edge” recording technology but this did not roll out as a product yet. This technology was developed nearly 10 years ago! My guess is this product will roll out when the leading company is happy with the money they have made from their existing technology.
We as consumers are pushed for spending and consuming old technologies and we are forced to upgrade and spend more money when newer versions are rolled out. The truth is not there are no more game changing technologies discovered but it's not time to make them public yet.
Good point regarding technologies vs. enhancements. I agree that existing technologies still have a lot of life in them yet. What we are seeing is the battle of the form factor rather than the technology.
In my opinion the technologies that are supposedly kept under the wraps by some companies till they cash onto the existing technologies may not be necessarily the game changing technologies.
The real game changing technologies are happening elsewhere -in robotics, the nano technology, i MEMS. But since these are not directly applicable for mass consumer products they would not be visible in the consumer electronics forums
_hm,
I wish that we could give more examples of companies that have in the past couple of years developed game changing consumer products, but as you have demonstrated, Apple is the company that comes to mind. Many of the other companies are just following along and adding designs and features to existing technology. Let me add that when you think of the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, I think we can all agree that Apple has done an outstanding job of introducing consumers to new and compelling devices that have proven to be game changing technologies.
Thanks so much for your comments.
Nicole
Cryptoman,
I appreciate the point you are making. A company needs to know when to introduce new technology to the market. Remember that if the company is unveiling technology that its competitors don't have, and if it has a first to market advantage, then it needs to get that technology out as quickly as possible so that it can have a chance to gain market share dominance. Remember, Apple had a tremendous head start with the iPad and had no serious competitor in the table space for more than a year.
Thanks for your comments.
Nicole
@ The Source
I guess the timing also depends on the nature of the development. Tablet computers were going to be rolled out by a manufacturer sooner or later. At the time, as the PCs and notebooks were getting smaller and smaller, the trend was obvious to all manufacturers. Therefore, the next big step was to roll out the smallest, the coolest and the most user friendly computing machine, which was the tablet. Because more than one manufacturer could see the trend, the fastest would gain a huge advantage in that particular race.
However, the digital storage technology I have mentioned is a completely different kettle of fish. This is mainly because the solution is not an easy one to guess by the competing companies. It is definitely not an easy opportunity to spot such as the leap from a small notebook to a tablet device. The developer of this technology is still sitting on it patiently waiting for the right time. It has been nearly 10 years since the development of the recording technology and yet the product did not hit the shelves. The technology is still very valid and and better than what we have on the market today. The developer company is still very happy to make money with their existing old technology.
My point is if companies are able to delay the roll out of new products, they will definitely use that opportunity to keep on making more money with the older technology first. This also makes a lot of commercial sense. However, whether the companies have this luxury of making money will depend on the product, the sector and the trends in that sector.
Regards…
Nicole,
Further to your comment, is it possible to know how much does it cost to research and introduce new game changing technology – typical estimate for iPad or iPhone?
Also, typically how many times an organization can achieve this? Is it like olympics 100m sprint gold – you can only win once or twice in life time?
May be you only have to look at Apple for game changing technologies.
@_hm, no doubt iPhone and iPad were game changing technologies but after that we haven't seen any major innovation from Apple. Infact iPhone 5 sales are dwindling because of which Apple had to cut orders for iPhone parts. It would be interesting to see how Apple will remain as the “Leader in innovation”.
Maybe CES is no longer the forum for breakthroughs, but then, what would be the alternative?
@Barbara, you are right. Major players, including Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon, didn't participate in this year's Consumer Electronics Show. There presence might have helped CES to showcase more breakthgouh technologies.