I know a lot of people still like to browse online industrial listings even though Industrial Interface will do all that work for you, so we created a great little search engine that indexes 40 of the most popular and comprehensive listings on the web.

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There are a lot of free trade magazines available for engineers and designers.  These can be fun to read, and have lots of great pictures to flip through when you’re bored at work.  How often do you actually find yourself referencing one of these free magazines, however, when you have a truly complex technical problem that needs solving?  Probably never.  You search google and you may search some engineering forums, but odds are what you’re looking for is tucked away in an expensive, subscription only, unsearchable academic journal.  So how do you find this information?  Enter DeepDyve. Read the rest of this entry »

During my first few months as an engineer out of college I designed an assembly that would allow me to tighten a knurled nut, increase friction between multiple surfaces, and ultimately regulate the torque applied between a motor and a shaft.  I spent weeks iterating this design and probably a few thousand dollars in machining time before I realized I could buy what I needed for a few hundred dollars from dozens of companies within 50 miles of my plant.

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A few months ago, I decided to try out a little gadget that a friend had told me about called the Pulse Pen by livescribe.  Spending $150 on a pen was a little difficult to swallow, but I soon found myself wondering how I lived without it. Read the rest of this entry »

courtesy: David Yanko of Virtual Saskatchewan

This blog is about “finding better ways to pour coffee.”  At the risk of sounding like a bureaucratically-generated cliche, it’s a little like a more focused “think outside the box,” which I hate.  Allow me to explain what I mean, starting with a quick story.

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Industrial Interface co-founder, Chris Powell, presented to the local San Diego SAMPE chapter. In his presentation he discussed a variety of things that Engineers don’t normally encounter. Read the rest of this entry »

Working with others is easy for some, difficult for others.  Engineers, in particular, often have a difficult time communicating clearly.  For many firms, the end goal (a finished product) isn’t finished until many, many engineers get their hands on the design.  Naturally, in the corporate world, this mandates that teams of technical gurus are created under the glorious umbrella of hierarchical chain of command. Read the rest of this entry »