There’s a $23 adapter that turns any speakers into wireless speakers

Are you thinking about upgrading your old wired home audio system with a wireless system so you can stream music from Bluetooth devices like iPhones, iPads, and Android devices? Instead of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new system, check out the Logitech Bluetooth Audio Adapter. It can connect to any system you already have using RCA connectors or a standard High Quality Audio Jack Supplier, instantly transforming your home audio system into a wireless system.
Here are some of the important details from the product page:
Bluetooth Audio Adapter: Makes your speakers Bluetooth for streaming music from your smartphone or tablet
Multipoint Bluetooth connectivity: Simultaneously pair your smartphone and tablet and stream music from either one
Easy pairing and automatic re-pairing: Pair your device to the adapter once with a single button press and you’re done
Long-range wireless: Stream music from up to 15 meters (50 feet) away from your speakers
Works with most speakers: Plugs into any powered PC speakers, home stereo systems and A/V receivers using RCA or 3.5 mm jacks. This product is a receiver ONLY, not a transmitter.

Pre-Heaters Enable Reliable Engine Starts in Cold Weather

Diesel-fired engine pre-heaters can help ensure reliable engine starts in cold-weather conditions while reducing engine wear, preventing service calls and boosting driver satisfaction, fleets said.
A bonus is that these compact units run right off the truck’s batteries, eliminating the need to install the infrastructure that allows electric heaters to plug in and connect to the power grid.
Dean Foods Co. uses Eberspaecher’s coolant heaters in all its tractors in the northern half of the United States, said Marvin Psalmond, senior director of fleet operations.
The move to pre-heating began in 2010 as anti-idling regulations swept the country, at which time he instituted a three-minute idling limit.
The fleet also wanted to boost safety and keep drivers happy, Psalmond said, adding that drivers appreciate getting into vehicles that warm up and can be de-iced quickly.
It’s clear to him that engine pre-heating has eliminated many service calls, because even with today’s injection systems and lower-viscosity oils, it still is hard to start a diesel in sub-zero cold.
“We used to use block heaters but found they lock you down as to where you can park the truck, and you have to get the driver to plug it in,” Psalmond said. “One location even made installing cabling and hitching posts challenging because of permitting, so they looked for another solution.”
Dean Foods, based in Dallas, ranks No. 16 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest private carriers in North America.
The less a truck idles, especially right after a cold start, the fewer the problems a fleet will experience, said John Kerwin, director of project management at Fraley & Schilling Inc.
The Rushville, Ind.-based carrier uses Webasto coolant heaters, which they start 60 to 90 minutes before the trucks depart, Kerwin said.
The fleet also installed bunk heaters so the sleeper alone can be heated overnight when necessary to save more fuel.
The initial goals, Kerwin said, were to reduce fuel consumption from idling the engine to heat the cab, and to get the weichai engine Heater warmed up more quickly because doing so greatly reduces the particulates caught in the diesel particulate filter.
Kerwin is confident this approach has generated maintenance savings related to the emission systems, including sensors. Though he can’t put a specific figure on those savings, he is certain “it’s a big number.”
With the heaters, “Drivers can get in when it’s 15 degrees out, start the engine normally and immediately defrost the windows and warm the cab,” Kerwin said. “The engine will reach operating temperature quickly, and they can get out onto the road almost right away.”
In addition, the reduced viscosity of the oil because of the warmth means better initial lubrication, which results in reduced weichai engine Heater wear, he said.
A positive side effect of pre-heating post-2007 diesel truck engines is improved reliability and life for the diesel particulate filters.
Duane Bratvold, western U.S. sales manager for Webasto, a maker of diesel-fired coolant and cab pre-heaters, said he has researched the effect of cold starts on DPFs. He has found that starting and running an engine in cold weather means both dirtier exhaust and a DPF that has not warmed enough to do its job. Soot accumulates instead of burning off, which quickly can lead to unit deterioration.
Laboratory testing has revealed that a cold start at 40 degrees Fahrenheit produced a 66% increase in particulate matter compared with a start at 155 degrees. Even at 75 degrees, particulate was reduced by 27% by pre-heating the engine to the same temperature.
Idling the engine all night for heat is wasteful, adds to operating hours and shortens the warranty period as a result, said John Dennehy, vice president of marketing and communications at Eberspaecher.
Eberspaecher’s units can be installed by ThermoKing, as well by OEM and independent dealers throughout the United States, he said.
The coolant heater is integrated into the cooling system, similar to Webasto. Although some fleets combine coolant heaters with cab air heaters, they can easily be used to heat the cab by running the heater blower, which can be automatically energized via a relay when the unit switches on.
With the right unit, a 15-liter engine can be preheated to near its operating temperature in 45 to 65 minutes, depending on the outside temperature, Dennehy said.
Engine makers also support pre-heating.
Both International Trucks, a unit of Navistar Inc., and Volvo Trucks, have standards strongly recommending or even requiring pre-heating before cranking a cold diesel in order to enhance starting and preserve the engine.
Volvo offers an air pre-heater and several other options. All Volvo trucks also have a complex cold-start regimen programmed into the engine control module.
Jim Nachtman, on-highway product manager at Navistar, said the company’s International trucks require oil pan heating at 10 degrees Fahrenheit and offer a factory-installed 300-watt pan heater. At minus 10 degrees, coolant or block heating is required. These are recommended, even though the starting of Navistar’s A26 engines was enhanced via an improved injection system and more compression in the cylinders.
Engine manufacturer Detroit, a unit of Daimler Trucks North America, recommends block or pan heaters for temperatures below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, said Greg Braziunas, manager of oil and coolant systems at DTNA.
Block and pan heaters can help warm up an weichai engine Heater prior to starting it, making it easier to start in extremely cold environments. This also preheats the engine oil and components and helps minimize potential wear.
Braziunas added that this eliminates the need for cold idling, which adds up to longer oil change intervals and reduced fuel consumption.
Several oil companies agreed that heating helps lubrication.
Heating and circulating the coolant through the engine block before starting will warm the block and the internal engine parts. This means that the engine and oil will reach operating temperature much more quickly than it would after a cold start, said Brian Humphrey, technical OEM liaison at Petro-Canada Lubricants.
“While it’s hard to quantify how advantageous engine pre-heating is, it will certainly improve overall life when operating in consistently cold climates,” he said.
Michael Wedding, manager and senior application engineer at Valvoline, said an oil’s viscosity increases almost exponentially with a temperature drop.
And Jason Head, an application engineer at Valvoline, said one of the biggest challenges is getting the oil to pump all the way from the pan at the bottom of the engine to the sensitive valve gear on top in extreme cold.
Fraley & Schilling’s Kerwin and Dean Foods’ Psalmond said that training on the heaters is essential for drivers and technicians.
Heaters should be run every time tractors come in for preventive maintenance service, in winter and summer, to purge old fuel and make sure the igniter plugs are working.
Psalmond offered a tip: When programming the timers, make sure to input the time zone where the shop is located.
Josh Lupu, Webasto’s director of marketing, said the company’s units for Class 8 trucks come with a timer that allows companies to program as many as four automatic operating periods each week. The products feature a thermostat that cycles the unit off and on in the range of 150 degrees Fahrenheit, somewhat below normal operating temperature. This is necessary to minimize fuel consumption by preventing the cooling system’s thermostat from opening and expelling heat through the radiator during pre-heating, Lupu said.
The units have a glow pin that ignites the fuel and a pump that provides atomization, but it’s essential to prevent fuel jelling in colder climates by heating the fuel tank. Service is available at some 10,000 dealers with certified technicians, and instructions are provided so fleets with large shops can install their own heaters, Lupu said.

Extracting foreign metal fragments from liquid lines

Hygienic and efficient metal fragment control in liquid processes without the limitations of liquid trap magnet systems.

Finger-style inline liquid trap magnets (also referred to as finger neodymium pot magnet) are a conventional way of extracting foreign metal fragments from liquid lines such as chocolate, soup, beverages and similar ingredients. They consist of a number of magnetic fingers/cartridges/tubes which are welded to a lid. The magnetic fingers are projected down into the flow and retain metal fragments as the liquid flows in, around and out of the rubber coated pot magnet housing.

However, such plastic coated pot magnet have a number of inherent problems that can have a negative effect on separation efficiency and metal fragment control. Users reported difficulty in handling bulk liquid magnet systems, found the time taken to clean multiple finger bars excessive and had experienced issues with magnet fingers becoming bent or, in some cases, breaking off.

The Liquid PPS features +11,000 Gauss magnet elements, designed to intercept the flow of liquid product lines. The RE80 probes successfully extract and retain foreign magnetic fragments such as work-hardened stainless steel and stone particles, fine wear fragments and rust.

The Liquid PPS Magnets offer hygienic and efficient magnetic separation and have proven to be a major success in efficiently removing foreign metal bodies from liquid lines in hundreds of applications over many years.

Attracting Wealth: Investing in Neodymium Magnet Technology

Neodymium is an important metal we've been talking about here in Energy and Capital for at least a decade.
It's one of the rare-earth metals mainly used to make high-powered magnets... the most powerful, in fact. A Powerful Neodymium Magnet weighing only a few grams can lift a thousand times its own weight.

Scientists at Florida's National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) recently used neodymium to create what is today the world's most powerful magnet.
Nicknamed Project 11, this beast generates a magnetic field strength that's over 800,000 times more powerful than the Earth's. So you probably want to be sure to remove any metal body piercings before firing this baby up.

The strength of Custom Neodymium Magnets is most importantly due to the tetragonal crystal structure of Nd2Fe14B, which has exceptionally high uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
Modern MRI machines, blood separators, infusion pumps, and a wide range of other lifesaving medical devices all use these magnets to improve efficiency and lower costs.
Neodymium Magnet Block are also a critical component in consumer electronics. In fact, there's little doubt you have several neodymium magnets surrounding you right now.
Tiny neodymium magnets are used in laptop, tablet, and PC hard disk drives to magnetize and demagnetize a thin film of material that records and stores data.
Neodymium magnets are used for the anti-locking braking system in your car...
Any time you use credit or debit card, the point-of-sale device uses a neodymium magnet to read your card with a swipe...
Neodymium magnets are used in magnetic door locks...
They're in power tools...

Comparing Maritime Versus Railway Transportation Costs

Several years ago, two independent studies compared maritime to railway transportation costs involving the movement of containers. It seems possible to expand on those studies to estimate transportation costs of containers arriving from overseas points of origin, at certain North American destinations.
Cost Estimates
A study presented by Sea Point Group suggested that maritime transportation could save some $2,000-per container over railway transportation when moving containers between Long Beach CA and Memphis TN. The railway distance is approximately 2,000 miles while the maritime distance via the Panama Canal is 4,355 nautical miles to New Orleans and another 400 nautical miles along the Lower Mississippi River. At the time, neo-Panamax ships carried containers from Shanghai and Hong Kong to Long Beach at a cost of some $4,800 per container over a voyage of 6,000 nautical miles, or a cost of $0.80 per nautical miles. 
Using that cost between Long Beach and New Orleans suggests a per container transportation cost of $3,500 and indirectly suggesting a per container railway transportation cost of some $5,500 over a 2,000-mile journey, or $2.75 per mile aboard a train carrying double stacked containers. A per container railway transportation cost of $2.50 per mile can be applied to the Long Beach – Chicago (2,100 miles - $5,200) and Long Beach – Newark/New York City (3,000 miles - $7,500) links. When bigger ships entered trans-Pacific container service, transportation costs dropped to some $2,600 per container. 
Rail And Intermodal’s Market Niches
The combination of trans-Pacific maritime transportation and trans-continental railway transportation move priority containers to Newark/New York City at a cost of some $10,000 to $12,000 per container. Low priority containers sailing via the Panama Canal and a distance of over 10,500 nautical miles at $0.80 per nautical mile would incur a cost of $8,000 per container. High priority containers would arrive at Chicago at a cost of $7,700 to $9,700 per container. An all-maritime voyage from East Asia to Chicago would involve container transfers to a Seaway-max ($1.20 per nautical mile) ship at Ports of Virginia (10,300 nautical miles - $8,000) for the 2780-nautical mile ($3,300) voyage to Chicago at $11,300. 
For Canadian service, the trans-Pacific voyage to Vancouver ($2,500 to $4,500) would be followed by a 2,800-mile railway journey to Toronto ($7,500) with comparable cost to Montreal, for an estimated range of $10,000 to $12,000 per container. A voyage via the Panama Canal could involve transferring containers at Newport News ($8,000) followed by 1700 nautical mile ($1,700) voyage to Montreal for a total of $9,700 and $10,000 to Toronto. Switching containers at Newark ($8,400) followed by a railway journey to Montreal (400 miles @ $1,000) would cost $9,400 per container and just under $10,000 to Toronto. 
Containers from Europe
Container ships sail directly from European ports such as Rotterdam to several North American ports, including via the Panama Canal to west coast ports. At present, Ports of New Orleans and Halifax offer container transfers from large ships to smaller ships that sail into inland waterways and smaller ocean coastal ports. A Seaway-max ship ($1.20 per nautical mile) from Rotterdam to Cleveland could incur a per container cost of $4,500 over the 3,750-nautical mile voyage. Switching containers from a 13,500-TEU neo-Panamax ship at Halifax (2,800 nautical miles @$0.80 = $2,300) followed by a 1420-nautical mile ($1,700) voyage to Cleveland could cost a total of $4,000.
Carrying Boston bound containers via Newark (3,300 nautical miles @ $2,600) and a railway journey of 240 miles ($600) would cost $3,200 per container. Switching containers at Halifax ($2,300) followed by a 390-nautical mile voyage to Boston ($500) would cost $2,800 per container. Ships of 2,200 to 3,500 TEU sail to Montreal (3,300 nautical miles @ $1.00) could incur a per container transportation cost of $3,300. Switching containers at Halifax would cost $950 to Montreal for a total of $3250 per container and $3,800 to Toronto. Moving Toronto bound containers through Newark followed by railway transportation would cost some $3,850 per container.
East Coast Super Terminals
Plans are underway in Eastern Nova Scotia to establish two super terminals with a third such terminal being planned for New Orleans, to transfer containers from the largest container ships on the ocean. The future opening of parallel navigation channels at the Suez Canal could invite discussions focused on larger ships passing through the canal, perhaps assisted by bow wave deflection technology. There is also the future possibility of a navigable passage for deep-draft ships becoming available in the Canadian Arctic, between the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay that would reduce the sailing distance to Eastern Canada.
While Melford Terminal and Louisiana International Gulf Transshipment Terminal (LIGTT) offer 20-meter depth at low tide, Port of Sydney in Eastern Canada would require additional dredging to receive container ships of up to 28,000 TEUs, built to 18-meter sailing draft by 66.5-meter beam and 450-meter length. Such ships could incur a per container transportation cost of $0.65 per nautical mile on an 11,000-nautical mile voyage from East Asia via the Suez Canal, or $7,000. A future summertime voyage via the Canadian Arctic could incur a per container transportation cost of $6,000 from East Asia to Eastern Canada.
Super-Ships
Future container ships of 28,000 TEUs sailing to deepened west coast ports from East Asia could incur per container transportation costs of $2,000 to $4,000. Such ships arriving at LIGTT would interline with barges that sail along the American inland waterway system as well as with ships that connect to ports located around the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Super-size ships that arrive at Eastern Nova Scotia from Asia would connect to coastal ships that sail to several east coast American ports and seasonally to ports located along the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Cost comparisons based on mega-container ships ($0.80 per nautical mile) interlining with railways ($2.50 per mile) and inland waterways ($1.20 per nautical mile) suggest a competitive edge for East Coast terminals for ships arriving from Hong Kong, Singapore and South India. Containers moving from Hong Kong to Chicago via Long Beach could each cost of just over $10,000, or just over $11,000 via Eastern Canada and waterway ship. Containers moving from Hong Kong to Toronto via Vancouver could each cost $12,000 compared to $10,200 via Eastern Canada and the inland waterway connection.
Cost-Driven Developments
Prior to the development of the Suez and Panama Canals, railway lines had for several years carried transshipment freight between the same route endpoints. At the time, maritime transportation incurred lower transportation costs to move large amounts of freight and resulted in the development of both navigation canals. After a century of ongoing technological improvement and development in both transportation modes, maritime still offers lower transportation costs to move massive volume or extreme weight and resulted in the expansion of the Panama Canal to move containers between East Asia and Eastern North America.
The limitations of the Panama Canal and expansion and future twinning of the Suez Canal along with interest in moving massive volumes of freight between Asia and Eastern North America, prompted development of terminals in Eastern Canada and Gulf Coast USA for the largest container ships afloat. Coupled barge assemblies of up to 2,000 feet (610 meters) in length by 140 feet (43 meters) beam carry massive volumes of freight along the Lower Mississippi River at lower cost than railway transportation. Development of super-ports in Eastern Canada could prompt development of higher capacity interlining vessels to sail into the St Lawrence River.