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www.us-tech.com
Tech-Op-ed February, 2013
SOUNDING OFF
By Walter Salm Editor
The Dreamliner Nightmare W
e have always been great cheerleaders for American-made products, and Boeing’s airliners are no exception. Selling billions of dollars’ worth of commercial airliners to other countries has to help our
staggering balance-of-payments deficit. But the latest phase of this balanc- ing act is now in jeopardy because of some apparently defective or improper- ly rated lithium-ion batteries — batteries that were made in Japan. The Dreamliner has the distinction of being truly international, the sum
of many parts from many lands. Boeing is the prime contractor, subcontract- ing body parts, frames, wings, engines, avionics, and yes batteries, to other companies in countries around the world. It was conceived as a truly global effort, and part of the reason was very self-serving — to get the participating nations to buy Boeing airliners. As we go to press, virtually all 787 Dreamlin- ers have been grounded until the problem is solved. The Japanese battery maker, GS Yuasa (I never heard of them before) is apparently a large, well- known company in Japan. Coupled with the hue and cry is the voice of reason that says, “Virtual-
ly every new airliner has had bugs when new, and they have all been ironed out.” To put that statement in perspective, the “bugs” in earlier aircraft usu- ally resulted in plane crashes and fatalities. The “bugs” were worked out and those aircraft are in service today (the ones that didn’t crash). In the case of the 787, there have been no crashes, but there have been some scary emer- gency landings and passenger evacuations down those wonderful emergency slides, which all seem to have worked very well. The batteries were overheat- ed, smoking, burning, on fire — just short of explosive. Now stop to consider a couple of truths: first, the 787’s overall design
places total reliance on electrical control systems for everything — stuff that’s handled by hydraulics and simple mechanical linkages in previous models of commercial jet aircraft. The all-electrical control system was to make this tru- ly the plane of the future, destined to be in service for decades to come. Those all-encompassing electrical systems require a hefty battery system. Lithium- ion batteries provide the best bang for the buck of all available rechargeable batteries. But lithium itself is a very unstable element, extremely prone to ex- ploding when mixed with water, or even a humid atmosphere. Wouldn’t this negative characteristic disqualify lithium-ion batteries for something as sen- sitive as a commercial passenger aircraft? So far, they’ve only caught on fire, but obviously, the potential is there for a serious disaster. We’ve often said in these pages that the world’s battery technology is
still in the dark ages — lagging way behind the burgeoning technology of elec- tronics design and semiconductor manufacturing. Moore’s Law — doubling the number of active elements on a semiconductor chip every two years — has yet to miss a beat. How wonderful it would be if the same could be said for battery technology? Batteries have been known for thousands of years. No, Allesandro Volta wasn’t the first; that honor goes to some “magician” or “sor- cerer” or metalsmith in ancient Babylon. There was no patent protection in those days; the “secret” was handed from father to son until it was finally lost, and it stayed lost for a long, long time. Pieces of these ancient batteries were discovered by an Austrian archaeologist near Baghdad in 1938, but World War II got in the way, and the discovery was forgotten for a while. Reproduc- tions of this Babylon Battery were funded by General Electric in the 1960s, and later “scientific models” are on display in a Smith College Museum in Northampton, Massachusetts. The clincher: gold electroplated jewelry has survived from that ancient period, about 250 B.C.E. I mention all this because for all of our wondrous technological achieve-
ments, today’s battery technology is still woefully crude. Nobody seems to be giving battery R&D the kind of priority that it deserves. So now we have state-of-the-art airliners that are sitting on the ground because of some not so state-of-the-art batteries. Boeing may well have to go back to the drawing boards to figure this one out. Maybe remove some First Class Seats to make room for some not-so-up-to-date backup batteries. Some way has to be found to get the Dreamliners airborne again. Energizer bunny — where are you when we need you? r
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
By Jacob Fattal Publisher
f you’re reading our print edition right now, you may have noticed that it’s a bit heavier than usual. In fact, at 136 pages, it’s our biggest issue ever, and is being distributed at two major trade shows: Electronics West/MD&M in Anaheim and APEX in San Diego. Ambitious undertakings like the February, 2013 issue of US Tech
Too Heavy for You? I
are never easy, and in fact putting it together has required a lot of long, late hours by our creative staff as well as our sales force. Since much of our labor time came during the Holiday season, when all of
Europe and much of the U.S.A. seemed to be closed for vacation, we were beset with open items and unanswered questions. It’s hard to do business when you can’t get anybody on the phone or by e-mail. But somehow we managed. For the first time, we have a total of 8 articles dealing with contract man-
ufacturing, 10 Special Focus feature articles, as well as super-sized new prod- uct and tradeshow product preview sections. It’s certainly an upbeat way to start off the new year. Our steady growth in an industry where print media have been shrink-
ing and disappearing speaks volumes for the kind of quality and information that you can count on from U.S. Tech in each and every issue. And if we get too big and heavy for you to conveniently carry, you can always get our digi- tal edition on your iPAD, iPhone, or Droid. It’s simple, handy, great reading, and loaded with links. r
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