Word: acoustica
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When U.S. rocket engineers talk about the bright possibilities of solid-fuel rockets, they always have to pause over one big requirement: how to control the fuel's burning rate. A current system is to shape the charge, measure the ingredients-and hope. This week Acoustica Associates, Inc. of Plainview, N.Y. announced an initial $85,188 contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to explore a radical new control that is as exciting as it is simple. The company thinks that it can handle solid fuels by filling the rocket with sound-plain, ordinary noise...
...Acoustica engineers explain that when a solid fuel burns in a high-pressure combustion chamber, the components, e.g., ammonium perchlorate and polystyrene, turn to gases that mix in a thin layer on its surface. Part of the heat generated strikes back to the fuel, gasifies more of it, and so keeps the flame burning. When this characteristic was discovered by Dr. Martin Summerfield of Princeton, the next step was to look for something that would control the gas mixture. A faster mixing would increase the burning rate, while slower mixing would decrease it. If the control were precise enough, scientists...
...Bendix Aviation Corp., has just unveiled a tool for machining brittle material that combines eight ultrasonic machines into one unit. Gulton Industries of Metuchen, N.J. will bring out a new line of cleaners, standardize the manufacture of its drills and welders to meet demands of the expanding market. Acoustica Associates, Mineola, L.I., last week demonstrated a new "ultrasonic dipstick" that continuously gauges the levels of virtually any liquid...
Aggressive Acoustica is an example of how fast an ultrasonics firm can grow. In 1955 Acoustica's young (now 38) President Robert L. Rod set up shop in a boathouse, landed six contracts for some $8,000 worth of ultrasonic cleaners. Since then, Acoustica's sales have increased, on the average, six times every year. For the fiscal year ended last Feb. 28, sales hit $4,750,000, with earnings of 50? per share, v. 8? in 1957. Stock issued at $1 per share in 1956 was selling around $25 per share last week. To boost earnings this...
Cleaning Up. Most profitable area of ultrasonics thus far is cleaning, where the field is divided between small companies such as Acoustica and Gulton and diversified big ones such as Bendix, Curtiss-Wright Corp. and Detrex Chemical Industries of Detroit. Detrex, the largest U.S. maker of dry-cleaning equipment, last year sold $1,250,000 worth of ultrasonic cleaners for electric shavers, auto-engine parts, outboard motors, jewelry and the tips of ballpoint pens. One cleaner washes a cash register with 5,000 parts in 7½ minutes. Says Detrex's Chief Engineer T. J. Kearny: "Some...