DESIGN WORLD AUGUST 2021

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August 2021

inside: MOTION CONTROL: Motor-drive simulation expands virtual commissioning

p. 60

LINEAR MOTION: Engineering safer conveyors—art meets science p.

66

MECHANICAL: Seven things your

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One of the standout speakers there was Connor Lokar of ITR Economics, who talked about the current economy and how companies can manage the business in these strange times. Lokar, who shared largely positive economic news, explained that 2021-2023 will be growth years, and the acceleration of the last six months is going to continue.

The supply chain and inflation are most American manufacturers’ biggest concerns right now, and Lokar noted that industrial markets are red hot — and accelerating past some of the lagging markets, such as non-residential construction, oil, gas, and commodities. He said that 2021 will be a year of recovery and business cycle rise, 2022 will be a transaction to the backside of the business cycle, and 2023 will be a year of expansion, but at a slower pace

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Beyond that, here are a few longer-term things he suggested we all keep in mind: • Over the next eight or nine years, the United States is going to keep kicking the can down the road. We’re going to keep managing inflation. We’ll probably keep the printing press going and just keep kind of throwing money at things. A er many years of that, things will catch up to us around 2030, with a huge down-turn.

• ITR thinks there’s a recession risk for the 2025-2026 timeline. But starting around 2030, it’s going to be two to four years of general downside before we pick up the pieces. Part of the reason is that, looking at actuarial projections, half of baby boomers will have passed away by 2036. That will decrease some cost pressure om the U.S. government’s perspective and allow it to move in a more growth accommodating direction in terms of spending.

• The ability to hire, train and retain is going to be the biggest competitive advantage in this economy over the next five years. Those that have the talented workers and can keep them will succeed. Alternatively, invest in automation and spend where you can, to wipe out your productivity bottlenecks.

On the talent ont, Lokar stressed that it is only going to get harder — there’s no surge of folks coming in who are going to want the positions that you’re trying to fill. Manufacturers will be struggling to find higher-end talent for the next several years. So now’s the time to start figuring out an action plan. DW Paul J. Heney - VP, Editorial Director pheney@wtwhmedia.com

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Teschler on Topic

Simulation brings insight into the condo collapse Engineers of all stripes have deve-loped a sudden interest in building construction practices thanks to the collapse of Miami’s Champlain South Tower. There’s been a lot of speculation about the tragedy’s cause, but one of the most interesting attempts at analyzing the sequence of events is an animation on YouTube (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=hynHiWE818c) developed by South African architect Mike Bell. After a little over a week, the video has attracted well over a million views.

Bell, whose design work includes the Mbombela 2010 World Cup stadium, says much of the data for his animation comes from publicly downloadable documents made available by the city of Surfside.

Those documents include structural and architectural drawings, engineers’ inspection reports from 2018, and permit drawings of the substantial repair work scheduled to take place on the building.

“There is a substantial amount of visual information including video footage and still photography from the collapsed building which is a wealth of information,” he told us by email. “Eyewitness accounts around the timing of events provide crucial clues. There are further conclusive clues in the layout of the rubble pile. Viewing the structure in the 3D model inevitably adds additional clarity. You discover things not apparent from looking at the plans. I

discussed these clues with structural engineering colleagues who offered insights and concurred with my analysis.”

The Surfside animation, done in an open-source 3D graphics tool set called Blender, begins with a column failure of the pool deck where a structural column punches through the pool deck concrete slab. “(Column punch through) is typi-cally where the slab-to-column area is too small, and the steel reinforcement bars are inadequate to hold the concrete to the column, so the slab drops. It is a rare occurrence and unforgivable in buildings,” Bell writes.

In Bell’s animation, columns punch through the pool deck one after another. The sagging pool deck then buckled the beams holding up the apartment building.

Bell gleaned a lot of information from where the slabs appeared to fail. “From photos it appears the slab failure lines are at construction joints in the concrete slab,” Bell writes. “Concrete is poured in sections called pours. These are the practical amount of concrete that can be cast in one go. At the edges of each pour a shaped keyed joint is made between sections. The keyed joint is visible in site photos. This is normal building procedure and creates an inevitable weak point in the structure which is usually mitigated with additional reinforcement.”

“It is highly likely this joint opened slightly over 40 years which was

enough to let water from the failing waterproofing corrode and weaken the steel in the slab,” Bell continues.

“Long-term wind action would have further weakened this joint. There is an excellent chance this joint was the initial trigger. The pool deck slab failed at the joint. The sheer mass of the slab pulling hard on the ground- floor slab edge of the building mortally wounded several columns supporting the tower section until the structure was compromised and it catastrophically collapsed. From trigger to collapse took roughly 45 minutes.”

Once the central portion of the structure collapses in Bell’s animation, a stair wall briefly stabilizes the east portion, and an elevator shear wall prevents the west part of the building from collapsing. “All buildings must have large, flat vertical structural elements that resist the substantial sideways forces produced by hurricane force winds and earthquakes,” Bell writes.

“In this case, there were two shear walls. The larger one at the elevator was substantial enough to arrest the collapse of the western third of the tower.”

Of course, Bell’s animation is merely a “suggestion” about what happened, as he puts it. But it is unquestionably food for thought in light of the pervasiveness of its design. “Champlain Tower South was a typical design for apartments with a parking garage and pool deck and is replicated in Florida and around the world,” Bell writes. “There wasn’t anything unusual about this project.” DW Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler

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Technology Forward The data challenge in additive manufacturing Soon, the size of a typical 3D print data file will, on average, be about 27 times larger than a typical file today, notes Harshil Goel, CEO and Founder of Dyndrite.

The additive industry is reaching, some would say has reached, a point where further productivity advances are delayed because of software.

People are designing products they can’t manufacture, notes Goel, because of the data problem. Design programs like traditional CAD and topology optimization won’t enable faster builds, because the key issue is the compute problem. Designs must be simplified to print because of the time it takes to compute them for additive processes.

Part of the problem is due to the growing size of the build beds of 3D printing/Additive manufacturing systems. BigRep, Cincinnati Inc., 3D Platform, among others, all make machines with build platforms that can handle parts that are feet long, wide, or tall.

Another issue is that additive resolutions are increasing. Which means the amount of metadata you need to supply to the printer to properly print the files is also increasing.

And consider the time it takes to load a file into a 3D printing system.

Assume it takes roughly 15 minutes.

Say you have ten people do this four

times a day, at an overhead cost of roughly $100 to $200 each time. That comes out to about $20,000 a week to load files. Additive is advancing to the point where operational costs play a bigger role in adoption than initial purchase costs.

A system that is compute optimized could make it easier to accelerate the adoption of additive for production application, argues Goel.

“I think software is the real bottleneck for additive manufacturing over the next two to five years.”

Goel notes that 3DP/AM software has not kept up with developments in additive technology. This situation means additive machines can print faster than designers can prepare files. With unlimited complexity, on demand operation, high mix, high volume—designs are becoming compute limited.

One solution may be to follow what dot matrix printers did years ago; develop an interpreted language that can compute data a printer needs on the fly. Dot matrix printers had postscript. Additive vendors are looking at a digital front end as a solution for today.

A digital front end would include software or firmware. It would serve as the number crunching unit that feeds data to the machine.

A digital front end can be used to modify a print in real time. It would

receive data from various sensors and cameras on the printer and, through its software, compute changes if necessary to ensure a quality build.

As Goel pointed out, it will be important to shift away from mesh files as they require manual intervention to alter a design.

“There are different ways to do that,” he notes. “By upscaling the compute and improving the fidelity of the data coming in, namely the CAD data, not the mesh file, you can dramatically, in my opinion, transform the workflow and basically help automate that part of additive manufacturing and make it production ready.”

Various 3D printing programs, like 3MF and .STL, will no longer be needed. Printing in a production environment will use CAD data directly, through the digital front end.

Vendors have focused on additive hardware. Now it’s time to work on software. DW

Leslie Langnau llangnau@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW_3Dprinting

8

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Green Engineering

Material testing for lithium-ion

batteries

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies continues to build its lithium-ion battery expertise with the installation of a sophisticated Isolation and Containment Chamber in its Plymouth Central Laboratory. The chamber allows the company to safely conduct exposure testing on materials that come in contact with aggressive lithium electrolytic solutions. From left, chemists Roger Natividad and Michael Saruna set up equipment inside the chamber.

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies has expanded its material testing capabilities to include performance and compatibility evaluations of the rubber, elastomers and thermoplastics used to seal and safely maintain lithium-ion batteries. The company has installed sophisticated equipment and adopted new testing protocols in its Plymouth, Mich., Central Laboratory that will provide conclusive data on which materials optimally resist breakdown om constant exposure to harsh electrolytic solutions. Such data has not been readily available in the private sector until now.

The centerpiece of the six-figure investment is a specially designed Isolation and Containment Chamber (IsoC) that allows technicians to safely conduct exposure testing using the very aggressive lithium electrolytic solutions found in lithium-ion battery cells. These solutions are volatile, toxic and flammable when exposed to oxygen and ambient air moisture. The IsoC, a six-bythree-by-three-foot, two-chambered glass and steel enclosure, allows chemists to work in a controlled, inert and moisture- ee environment.

In addition, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies also invested in a sophisticated telemetry control system that facilitates remote IsoC 10

August 2021

Green.Engineering.8-21_Vs3.LL.indd 10

monitoring of the active work 24/7, head-to-toe protective gear and special respirators for chemists, non-reactive, nickel-based immersion vessels, a safety monitoring and alarm system and electrolytic solutions costing thousands of dollars per gallon.

“What we can now offer customers is design security based on scientific data,” said F. Joseph Walker, Director Research & Development for Freudenberg Sealing Technologies in the Americas. “We have taken this proactive step on behalf of our customers and in response to a growing use of lithium-ion batteries in diverse applications.

Previous efforts have been conducted to determine the impact of materials on the electrolyte. This work focuses upon the impact the electrolyte has on the materials.”

A growing market Multiple analyst forecasts project that the lithium-ion battery market will experience double-digit growth during the next five years based on increasing battery use in the automotive, construction agriculture, mining, commercial

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Green Engineering truck, recreational vehicle, ship, train and electronics industries. In response, the lithium-ion battery developers are constantly exploring ways to make these sustainable energy devices more powerful, more robust and faster during recharging cycles. Electrolytic solutions have a direct impact on these performance issues. New and enhanced electrolytic solvents are being continuously introduced. While these solvents can result in a faster exchange of lithium ions between the anode and cathode sides of a battery cell – thus ultimately impacting energy discharge ad recharge rates — they also expose seals, gaskets and other battery components to a constant mix of reactive, flammable, caustic and hazardous chemicals.

Freudenberg has spent decades performing comprehensive physical and analytical material testing to document the performance and compatibility of materials that are exposed to different fluids, materials and stress conditions. The database the company has assembled om the results provides specification guidance and material benchmarks for the components it sells to customers.

Lithium-ion material testing, however, requires a unique set of inputs to safely succeed. The new equipment and test methodology being used in the Central Laboratory provides these inputs.

New testing, new requirements “All of our exposure testing must be performed inside the IsoC in an oxygen- ee, moisture- ee environment,” said Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ Michael Saruna, the Central Laboratory chemist who is in charge of material testing in electrolytic solutions.

“Electrolytic solution exposed to air can result in a hazardous situation, so we had to take safety and our ability to maintain a controlled environment into account during the design of the IsoC.” The dual chambers of the IsoC allow Saruna to install test samples in the first chamber, purge all air, oxygen and moisture om that space and then move them to the second, larger IsoC chamber for exposure testing. Materials will be immersed electrolytic solution for at least 1,000 hours, then decontaminated to insure they are safe for removal om the IsoC. They will then be subjected to the company’s standard physical and analytical test methodologies.

Freudenberg will use two electrolytic solutions in its immersion testing — one that is commonly used in lithium-ion battery cells and one that has been manufactured as a control. The company will test families of materials, beginning with its own unique and proprietary materials and then moving on to test

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DESIGN WORLD

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LD

commercially available materials that are used in these batteries.

“Benchmarking will provide us with the ability to spot gaps in compatibility and performance,” Walker said. “Then we can develop material programs and components to fill those gaps.”

Safety first The risks associated with testing lithium-ion battery materials exposed to electrolytic solutions are real, and the cost of controlling them is one of the reasons only a handful of universities are the only other organizations to conduct such testing. The Central Laboratory team redesigned safety standards to include as many safety precautions as possible. Full protective gear is required when handling the electrolytic solutions.

First aid kits were stocked with special treatments that counter the caustic chemicals found in lithium electrolyte solutions. An alarm system is in place to monitor for spills, leakage, gas formation DESIGN WORLD

Green.Engineering.8-21_Vs3.LL.indd 13

or other hazards. One of the most significant safety features is the ability of laboratory chemists to monitor the immersion samples remotely anytime and anywhere using a laptop computer, phone or tablet.

“We are committed to the safety of our employees and to the material needs of our customers,” Walker said. “We are performing this critical material testing in a protected, safe working environment.

We will be able to offer our customers critical compatibility and performance data that will likely influence their material choices.” DW

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies fst.com

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

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August 2021

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Contents 8 • 2021

•

vol 16 no 8

•

designworldonline.com

60 60 _MOTION CONTROL

Motor-drive simulation expands virtual commissioning

Integrated automation and motion control simulation software provides simple and quick virtual commissioning for machine builders.

74 _MECHANICAL Seven things your device’s distance measurement system needs

OEMs in industries from machine tools and automation to metrology, solar, and semiconductors, must frequently build linear distance measurement capabilities into their machines.

66 _LINEAR MOTION Engineering safer conveyors — art meets science

Engineering safer conveyors is a long-term strategy. By focusing on the planning and design stages, the system can meet the demands of modern production and safety regulations, with a longer operational life, fewer stoppages and a lower cost of operation.

A vision to create a more effective approach to loading CNC lathes and milling machines involves a servo gripper connected to a robot arm in the robot cells. Photo courtesy of Faulhaber

78 _3D CAD 3D Printing saves lives

Prosthetic limbs have been printed for years. So when a global crisis hit, additive manufacturing was ready to contribute quickly to life-saving equipment.

ON THE COVER A vision to create a more effective approach to loading CNC lathes and milling machines involves a servo gripper connected to a robot arm in the robot cells. | courtesy of Faulhaber

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Technology Forward

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EDITORIAL

VP, Editorial Director Paul J. Heney pheney@wtwhmedia.com @wtwh_paulheney Senior Contributing Editor Leslie Langnau llangnau@wtwhmedia.com @dw_3dprinting Executive Editor Leland Teschler lteschler@wtwhmedia.com @dw_leeteschler Executive Editor Lisa Eitel leitel@wtwhmedia.com @dw_lisaeitel Senior Editor Miles Budimir mbudimir@wtwhmedia.com @dw_motion Senior Editor Mary Gannon mgannon@wtwhmedia.com @dw_marygannon Associate Editor Mike Santora msantora@wtwhmedia.com @dw_mikesantora

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Design for Industry Offshore

Maritime fuel cell systems help decarbonize sea vessels Through the use of fuel cells, a ship can spend more than 15 days at anchor or cruise for more than 1,000 miles with zero emissions. This is roughly equivalent to the route om New York to Miami or om Hamburg to Lisbon via London.

With more than 10,000 ships worldwide, the yacht industry is a significant part of the maritime economy. Its customers value innovations, new technologies and environmental protection. A er all, yachts are o en near residential coasts, where factors such as emissions of any kind are delicate issues. Just as in larger ships, electricity must be ruled out as an energy source due to the heavy weight and low volumetric energy density of battery systems. For ocean-going vessels, fuel cell propulsion is a superior choice.

Lürssen and Freudenberg are collaborating on the “Pa-X-ell 2” project, in which other partners such as Carnival Maritime, DNV, besecke, DLR, EPEA and Meyer Wer are pushing ahead with the development and testing of a hybrid energy system with a new generation of fuel cells for yachts and passenger ships suitable for the high seas.

The fuel cells, developed for maritime applications, will temporarily substitute the ship’s conventional diesel generators in the first joint ship installation. This allows the yacht to anchor for 15 days or cruise 1,000 miles without emissions.

The system uses Freudenberg’s methanol-operated, maritime fuel cell 18

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system with integrated fuel reforming. Steam reforming of methane is used to produce hydrogen directly in the system, which then reacts with oxygen om the air in the fuel cell, generating the electric energy required for the propulsion as well as the ship’s electrical system. The ships travel nearly without sounds or vibration, which is important for the regions that serve as destinations for the yachts.

Equipping ships with fuel cell systems is one of Freudenberg’s strategic goals, explains Dr. Man ed Stefener, Vice President Fuel Cell Systems at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies: “Our aim is to decarbonize the entire maritime fleet. Thanks to the integration of fuel cell battery solutions, we will supply all of the energy requirements of ships, including those of the main propulsion system. This hybridization strategy makes it possible to sustainably and cost-efficiently achieve the required installations in the double-digit, megawatt range for every ship.”

In the future, continuously operating fuel cells will cover the base load in shipping. Batteries will provide the power needed for peak performance, for example, during maneuvering.

The fuel cell systems can be used optionally with pure hydrogen, methanol or liquefied natural gas (LNG). In view of the high demands on range and route flexibility of the world’s maritime fleet, methanol fuel, in particular, which can already be produced in a completely emission-neutral manner, offers enormous potential for reducing emissions. For methanol and LNG, Freudenberg uses innovative reformer technologies that are directly integrated into the maritime fuel cell systems.

The reformer technology produces hydrogen chemically and is located inside the hydrogen supply module. Freudenberg’s downstream modular and standardized fuel cell modules can convert reformed hydrogen om both methanol and LNG into electricity and heat. They can also be operated with pure hydrogen. DW

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies www.fst.com

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Design for Industry Medical

Motion system delivers nanometer-level precision for digital pathology needs

The world of in-vitro medical diagnostics is experiencing a revolution.

The field of digital pathology is demanding motion accuracy that is as exacting as anywhere in industry.

Digital pathology includes the acquisition, management, sharing and interpretation of pathology information — including slides and data — in a digital environment. Digital slides are created when glass slides are captured with a scanning device to provide a high-resolution image that can be viewed on a computer screen or mobile device.

Digital pathology is increasingly used by biopharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations (CROs) to help streamline drug development processes in discovery, pre-clinical, and clinical trials. It is also used for quantitative analysis of emerging companion diagnostics and novel theranostics (a combination of therapeutics and diagnostics). This opportunity has become especially relevant with the use of assays, which are difficult to 20

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discern with the human eye, such as markers which exhibit diffuse staining characteristics across multiple cellular compartments of which, for example, only one may be clinically relevant.

The increasing complexity of such assays is driving the development of digital pathology systems with advanced high-throughput image capture (brightfield, fluorescent or multispectral) coupled with pattern recognition to morphologically identi relevant tissue types and individual cellular compartments followed by the ability to quanti intensity of staining.

Digital pathology has the potential to enhance the efficiency of pathology for both medical practitioners and patients. But it requires the use of nanometer-level precise motion control systems to facilitate high-speed and high-quality scanning/imaging while maintaining a small footprint so as not to take up too much space in a lab/clinical environment.

This XYZ-motion control stage moves the slides that are to be scanned underneath a fixed microscope or camera that captures images of the slides. The key is image capture at a high rate of speed with absolute focus on precision, which requires that the chosen motion control system combine smoothness (meaning highest possible image resolution), flatness (controlling the z-axis meaning maintenance of focus), and straightness (reducing overlap between scanning “passes” and increasing throughput).

These stages enable the vital task of image stitching of the scanned data for digital pathology applications. They also reduce reliance on so ware to interpret and ‘guess’ what data readings are showing. DW

ALIO Industries www.alioindustries.com

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Design for Industry Medical

Voice coil linear motor is clean-

room compliant

The 1-in. body diameter open aperture voice coil linear motor, the HVCM-025-038-003-02, features an open aperture and high force-to-size ratio. This small brushless servo motor is capable of high acceleration, deceleration, high speed, zero cogging, and zero backlash when connected directly to a load.

All HVCM open aperture brushless servo motors are quiet, clean room compliant, and capable of high precision when used in closed loop applications. This dc voice coil servo motor has a continuous force rating of 1.0 lb (4.6 N) and a peak force of 3.2 lb (14.4 N) at a 10% duty cycle.

The 0.125 in. (3.2 mm) open aperture of the HVCM-025-038003-02 Linear Motor allows for optics, illumination, laser beams, or passing cables through. This open aperture voice coil motor has 1.00 in. (25.4 mm) diameter and a housing length of 1.500 in.

(38.1 mm) with a 1.00 in. (25.4 mm) stroke. The extended length of the motor is 2.25 in. (57.1 mm) at mid-stroke. It suits applications such as: Laser drilling, cutting, welding, and machining, medical diagnostic equipment, testing, optical focusing, laser beam steering, wafer handling, dynamic vibration absorption, assembly, and positioning applications.

Two 6-32 UNF-2B x 0.25 in. threaded mounting holes on 0.500 in. (12.7 mm) centers in the housing and coil allow for flexible and easy integration into new and existing applications. When used in closed loop applications with an adequate position sensor, resolutions of less than 1 micron are achievable. DW

Moticont | www.moticont.com DESIGN WORLD

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Design for Industry Safety

Special bracket puts safety in

users’ hands

The HT3P Safety Commander addresses a growing need for users who want to incorporate modern tablets into their industrial automation systems, but also need to include hardwired emergency stop (e-stop) and enabled functionality. The Safety Commander makes it easy to hold a tablet securely in an industrial setting, for applications like machinery, robotics, automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), and production lines.

Industrial internet of things (IIoT) initiatives and capable HMI options are prompting users to select mobile tablets as visualization and control devices because of their convenience and productivity benefits.

Tablets offer high display resolutions, computational abilities, extensive memory, Wi-Fi networking, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity at a low cost. Beyond HMI functionality, they can offer instant viewing of drawings and manuals, videoconferencing, and report creation. But how can consumer- or commercial-grade tablets deliver industrial-grade safety?

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The Safety Commander is a hand-held device with a slider and adjustable grippers to accommodate tablets ranging om 8- to 11-inch diagonal size. A tablet mounted into the Safety Commander thus provides:

• • • • • • • •

Key-locking provisions to keep the tablet secure in the device.

A sturdy and ergonomic hand grip and strap, for both rightand le -handed users, and an optional neck strap.

The ability to rotate the tablet to any vertical/portrait or horizontal/landscape orientation using a patented design.

One hardwired e-stop button with LED indicator.

One hardwired 3-position enable switch.

A 5-meter cable.

USB Type-C port for tablet charging.

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Using the Safety Commander, AGV and robotics designers can take advantage of the hold-to-run button to integrate tablets into their automation in compliance with ISO/IEC safety standards and requirements. Manufacturing and processing operations can provide the best visibility for their operators, while providing them with the flexibility to safely move about the equipment. DW

IDEC us.IDEC.com/SafetyCommander

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Design for Industry Material Handling

Conveyor system makes it easy to create accumulation zones As automation becomes more integrated into medium- and heavy-load accumulation and assembly applications, the need for conveyors with zoning capabilities increases. This Edge Roller Technology (ERT250) precision edge roller pallet and tray handling conveyors are engineered specifically to handle zone functionality.

Creating zones along a conveyor is an important feature for applications where product accumulates before moving on to a downstream action, or for assembly applications where product moves om one stage to the next. Primarily, zones are important as they prevent pallets om bumping into each other during movement (known as back pressure) which can disturb product orientation or even damage more delicate products.

The solution is to create no-contact zones along the conveyor. These zones offer precision traffic control of product through zone roller technology that’s powered by a patented linear gearbox drive system. Creating zones is accomplished by removing a lower gear to locate a split between zones. Each zone acts independently of other zones and is powered by a brushless dc gearmotor.

The ERT250 uses rollers to move pallet conveyors smoothly with no iction (a byproduct o en seen in belt-driven platforms). The ERT250 uses pallet sensors

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and control logic to determine when a pallet is free to move forward, or if a pallet is stopped downstream. If a pallet is required to stop, it will stop in the next zone. Motors operate only when pallets advance forward or reverse. Multiple zones can be created on a single conveyor. Using zones reduces the number of stacked-up pallets, while still providing effective accumulation capabilities.

The ERT250 suits applications calling for pallet or tray handling with no- and low-back pressure accumulation, and cleanroom applications such as medical product or device manufacturing, assembly, packaging and others.

Technical specifications for single and multiple zones on the ERT250 include: • Widths 100 mm to 960 mm wide • 38 mm diameter rollers on 50 mm centers • Loads up to 250 lb per pallet or tray • Loads up to 15 lb per roller • 150 mm long tray minimum • Speeds up to 37 m (121 ft) per minute • Aluminum frame with two T-slots • Energy efficient brushless DC gearmotors and controllers; motor controllers use Ethernet IP for easy communication • Reversible • Automation modules (240 mm width minimum) • Navigate 90° and 180° corners • Lift and transfer • Lift and locate • 90° pusher

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Design for Industry Material Handling

Servo motor enables robots to handle highly variable product mix The margins in the manufacturing of small quantities using CNC lathes and milling machines are generally higher than in mass production. Adding to the cost is the use of manual labor to load and unload workpieces between individual turning and milling processes. The recent pandemic also highlighted employment issues when trying to keep manufacturing operations running.

Dutch company BMO Automation had a vision of a more effective approach to loading CNC lathes and milling machines.

The approach involves a servo gripper connected to a robot arm in the robot cells. These cells automatically load and unload the CNC lathes and milling machines. This approach to manufacturing is o en known as multi-batch automation. It is one way to handle the product mix of high variation and high volume.

BMO Automation combines the advantages of pallet automation with the option of loading individual workpieces fully automatically. The task is made possible by, among other things,

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servo-controlled gripper jaws. In the servo gripper, a motor drives a gear spindle that is part of a linear guide system. The gripper fingers, connected to the guided blocks, move to the desired position for the product that is to be loaded into the CNC machine. The dimensions of the workpiece can change following the turning or milling process. Here, the servo gripper automatically adapts the position of the gripper fingers and does so without changing the loading and unloading cycles. As a result, it is not necessary to change the gripper.

In the servo-controlled gripper jaws, brushless dcservomotors with integrated Speed Controller om FAULHABER provide the necessary precision and reliability.

DW

FAULHABER | www.faulhaber.com

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Design Notes

Manure spreading goes high-tech with IIoT

Edited by Mike Santora • Associate Editor

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Manure spreaders have a tandem hydraulic pump. One pump drives the beater system at the backend that spreads, or applies, the product onto the field. A hydraulically driven end gate, or tailgate, opens up to allow the product out the backend, and the system also has a hydraulically driven variable speed floor.

One of the key challenges of this century is to find solutions for ensuring access to healthy, diverse, and safe food for a growing global population while limiting the impact on the environment. Advancing sustainability and efficiency with IIoT innovation in today’s agriculture are a central part of the solution.

In 2020, Travis Jones, co-owner of McKee Ag Solutions, decided it was time for a digital transformation. “We wanted to provide our customers a remote diagnostic web portal that they could log in and see various functions of the machine,” said Jones.

Jones asked TRS Systems, an IIoT integrator and service provider, to design and deploy a solution for the McKee Ag. Two mechanical engineers, Curtis Steele and Rav Singh, brought their experience working with hydraulics, electronic control systems, and IIoT-based cloud integration to digitally transform a manure spreading process.

This was a two-step challenge: Step one was the control automation of the manure spreader. Step two was the onthe-Cloud Integration of the manure spreader.

Step one: Summary benefit control automation of the manure spreader.

When the operator drives the machine onto the field, he can essentially hit one auto button, and the whole machine starts working. The operator can then concentrate on navigating the field and covering it systematicly. The desired solution should be easy to program and saleable, yet the engineering should make quick changes to the program logic if needed.

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Design Notes Distance control mode and Spreader Control. gate auto. When the operator drives the machine onto the field, he can essentially hit one auto button, and the whole machine starts working. The operator can then concentrate on navigating the field and covering it systematically.

The constant-rate feature allows the operator to set the tons per acre and spread width for the actual width of the beater, and the floor will be controlled automatically.

Alarms and diagnostics are also important built-in features. For example, there are alarms to indicate excessively high temperatures in the hydraulic system. This functionality allows for troubleshooting on-site and can help ensure proper maintenance.

Step two: Summary benefit of the bidirectional communication between the manure spreader and the Cloud.

Step two of the solution uses variable rate technology (VRT) and remote diagnostics with Data Logging. VRT is the ability to vary the amount of fertilizer or other farm inputs based on variations in the soil or crop. VRT is an advanced objective in precision farming, or smart agriculture, and has several benefits.

For one, it can reduce the amount of wasted product applied to the field. By using sensor-based VRT or map-based VRT, the goal is to detect information about the landscape and use it to make instant real-time decisions on product application. Variable rate technology, then, leads to optimized output, conservation, sustainability, and highlevel informed decision-making for any agricultural operation.

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Solution Part One: Control Automation of the Manure Spreader Overview of Manure Spreader Components and Control System Manure spreaders have a tandem hydraulic pump. One pump drives the beater system at the backend that spreads, or applies, the product onto the field. A hydraulically driven end gate, or tailgate, opens up to allow the product out the backend, and the system also has a hydraulically driven variable speed floor.

An essential function of the control system is to monitor the torque load on the beater. With the beater requiring the highest horsepower load, it is crucial to use a pressure control, essentially a torque control, to keep the entire operation under the maximum load the drive line can handle. For example, if the operator is driving the floor too fast, which increases the pressure, the control system will stop the floor or slow it down based on the load on the beater.

The key functions TRS Systems developed for McKee Ag are auto end gate control, automatic floor control, constant rate functions, and alarms and diagnostics.

Using the end gate auto function, the operator can hit a button and the end gate will go up and automatically stop based on the pressure. The floor auto function works in unison with the end

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TRS Systems used the following hardware components for the control system: 1. Topcon B3 CODESYS-based human machine interface (HMI) 2. Eaton HFX-20m as the main controller, or brain, for the spreader 3. CODESYS-based Immercloud gateway talking to the Cloud and sending various CAN data to McKee’s user interface in the Cloud 4. Danfoss HMR Series keypad for CANbus based control All of the functions for McKee Ag’s control system were programmed using the CODESYS development environment.

Curtis Steele, P.Eng., serving as chief technology advisor to McKee Ag, has more than 14 years of experience designing and programming embedded control systems using CODESYS. With programming so ware designed to the international industrial standard IEC 61131-3, users can program in any language they feel comfortable with. Steele prefers structured text (ST) and CFC. “But even if you’re used to ladder logic and other languages, it’s just so simple to use.” The function blocks and libraries built over the years can be reused over multiple applications and save so much time.

Also, the built-in SAE J1939 manager and libraries make integrating any piece DESIGN WORLD

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of hardware easy. For McKee Ag, Steele and Singh integrated the Danfoss HMR CAN rotary encoder. The Danfoss uses a standard SAE J1939 message using the auxiliary I/O 1&2. “All you really have to do is enter in the PGN and a source address, and you can start monitoring button clicks. Again, a really nice feature of CODESYS,” Steele explained.

The other aspect is the CANopen side of the bus management. The application uses CANopen to talk to the HMI and the TRS Systems’ Immercloud Gateway.

This gateway runs on CODESYS 3.5 and allows users to just a device, import the EDS file, and start mapping variables.

All of the telematics data flows om the gateway to the cloud. “And also, the gateway provides GPS signal back to the truck and the truck control system over CAN bus,” Singh explained.

Solution Part Two: GPS, VRT, and Cloud Integration One of the earlier phases of the McKee Ag manure spreader project involved TRS Systems wire aming the HMI. “We really follow the philosophy of WYSIWYG— what you see is what you get,” Singh said. They want their customers to have a good idea of what to expect with their final cloud dashboard and the spreader control screens. And it’s all part of TRS Systems’ mission to simpli IoT for its clients.

Launched into Cloud in less than four weeks In the first stage of cloud integration for McKee Ag, Singh integrated McKee Ag equipment to the cloud using TRS’ Systems SAAS Solution—Immercloud — in less than four weeks; it was complete.

The remote monitoring dashboard on Immercloud shows information such as number of devices, how many users, and how many active sessions, all on the main login page. In addition, the main dashboard allows remote troubleshooting and shows information such as floor pressure, beater pressure, floor speed, oil temperature, ECU voltage, and alarm information.

The GPS, latitude, longitude, and speed data are sent to the dashboard. Data logged and sent to the cloud includes as-applied data. This is a basic but crucial element because it prevents overlap in product application, which is useful if the operation involves two or more spreaders on the field.

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Variable Rate Control The second iteration that TRS Systems has worked on was to implement variable rate control, a more advanced functionality.

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Design Notes

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Variable rate technology is an advanced objective in precision farming, or smart agriculture, and has several benefits. For one, it can reduce the amount of wasted product applied to the field. By using sensor-based VRT or map-based VRT, the goal is to detect information about the landscape and use it to make instant realtime decisions on product application.

For McKee Ag, variable rate control would help the manure spreaders vary the product application based on the field’s topography. So, for example, if there is a waterhole, the machine can control that spread width and change the rate variably accordingly.

TRS Systems implemented a map-based VRT. Singh has used hyper layer data visualization, which involves splitting the data set into multiple layers: 1. Drainage data 2. Vegetation data 3. User adjustment data 4. As-applied data The user can enter the drainage data in a GeoJSON format or any leading industry format to the cloud. And the cloud interprets how the natural drainage works on the farm.

The vegetation data layer provides information about the type of crops and vegetation on the field. This is useful because different crops require different types or amounts of manure, and this data layer can determine how much product should be applied on a particular section of the field.

Next, the user adjustment data involves simple geofencing.

Singh said, “We use a lasso-type tool that allows the farmer to draw boundaries and their associated rates right onto the tablet.

Or we can just import GeoJSON om any existing boundary conditions.”

The top layer consists of as-applied data om previous years.

“This gives us the ability to analyze that data — for example, what effect did it have on the particular crop for that particular season?”

Singh said.

The variable rate data takes all these layers into account. “The cloud performs the math to calculate the variable rate data,” Singh explained. “The operator is just going to drive on the field and focus on operating the machine. The rate adjustment happens automatically based on the cloud integration.”

What made the entire project for McKee Ag seamless was the usage of CODESYS’ IoT libraries. Singh said it’s what has also allowed him to design custom IoT integration for other clients.

He is excited about the future of IIoT and, through TRS Systems, helping businesses make that digital transformation to Industry 4.0. DW

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Design Notes

Hybrid linear motion assembly cuts

costs for CNC machine maker Edited by Mike Santora • Associate Editor

Five years ago, when Bend-Tech, a Wisconsin company specializing in CNC tube and pipe cutting machines, tubing, and pipe bending systems, noticed a spike in field-service calls, they quickly sought out the root of the issue. It turned out that the growing popularity of off-roading and other outdoor motorsports had boosted demand for metal tubing and piping fabrication. So the Bend-Tech team sought out hybrid linear motion technology om Thomson Industries for a solution.

“Our systems enable metal fabricators to cut tubing and pipes with great speed and accuracy,” said TJ Merry, Bend-Tech’s production manager. “This improves production capabilities and ultimately their bottom line by bringing traditionally outsourced services in-house.”

Increasing interest in customized vehicles for outdoor motorsports has resulted in a steady demand for fabricated piping and tubing.

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Bend-Tech relies on Thomson linear actuator assemblies for consistent and accurate motion control on its plasma cutting, marking, and engraving systems.

The majority of Bend-Tech’s business is in two markets, both of which have been experiencing significant growth. Many of their customers are manufacturers that create custom handrails for industrial and public buildings and are driven by construction and increased attention to public safety. However, their largest growth opportunity is with shops that modi vehicles such as rock crawlers, racers, and Jeeps for off-road motorsports.

A er their initial market entry proved it was not up to the demands of high-volume production, they built the larger Dragon A400 plasma cutting, marking, and engraving system, DESIGN WORLD

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With engineering from Thomson, Bend-Tech developed the Dragon A250 to help meet increasing market demand.

which handled nearly anything that was thrown at it, but presented yet another challenge: although it was well-received by larger customers, it was difficult for some customers to cost-justi at roughly three times the price of the Dragon A250.

“What we needed was something in between,” said Merry. “We knew what price point we needed and essentially had to halve our machine-building cost without jeopardizing production quality.”

Bend-Tech Dragons have three main components: a structural ame, a cutting and marking toolhead, and a so ware-guided actuation system that controls tool movement. A er deciding to eliminate some functions om the new systems they were developing, costcutting attention turned to the linear motion systems.

The Thomson solution integrated a smaller, simpler version of the system it had designed for the A400 actuation system but with a completely different drive mechanism. Each A400 uses two Thomson 2DB series linear slides bolted together in a cross configuration to control A and Z axes. One positions the toolhead on the horizontal plane, while the other moves the cutting, marking, and engraving tools up and down on a vertical axis. Driving each axis is a 2- ball screw powered by a stepper motor. The long length of the screw requires support bearings on both ends and a special coupling to the stepper.

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For the new Dragon A250, Thomson started with a shorter sha , an 11-in. lead screw with a 6-in. drive, which eliminated the need for support at both ends. This meant they could speci a motorized lead screw (MLS) that does not need to be supported on both ends because the bearings within the motor support the load. And because the lead screw and the MLS rotor are one, there is no longer a need for external coupling of the screw to the rotor.

“The way that Thomson has designed the components on this is really slick,” said Merry. “They get the cost down by keeping components to a minimum. Using a motor with an integrated lead screw instead of a ball screw cuts the cost of coupling screw and motor together and all the support hardware that goes along with that.”

The lower-cost motion control assembly that Thomson customized for Bend-Tech integrated a stepper-motor driven motorized lead screw into previously ball-screw driven linear slide. The Thomson slides bolt together in a cross-like formation to move the plasma cutting torch and marking tools attached to the other side of the red plate on the right.

The new motion control assembly is smaller than the system used on the A400, but it looks very similar with round rails, bearing, blocks, and a carriage.

Merry said the fact that the new www.designworldonline.com

The lower-cost motion control assembly that Thomson customized for Bend-Tech integrated a steppermotor driven motorized lead screw into a previously ball-screw driven linear slide. The Thomson slides bolt together in a cross-like formation to move the plasma cutting torch and marking tools attached to the other side of the red plate on the right.

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Design Notes system looked exactly like a smaller version of the previous system was also a selling point for him because it provided continuity.

In operation, the actuation system connects to a Windows PC that hosts the CAD/CAM so ware that stores design parameters such as lengths, bend angles, rotations, and material characteristics for each customer. The motion control system receives that information and follows the preprogrammed sequence, enabling the tool to switch om plasma cutting or part marking automatically. For both the A400 and the A250, all cuts and markings must be within a +/- 0.010” tolerance.

The Dragon A250’s CAD/CAM so ware is preprogrammed with design parameters, which guide the Thomson linear motion assembly, controlling the system’s movement and achieving high repeatability.

Enforcing such high precision are position sensors that establish a zero point and record any variation om it. In the A400, the sensors extended out to the side of the actuator assembly. All wiring was housed in an extruded, aluminum handle-like structure that ran om one end of the assembly to the other. In the A250 design, Thomson condensed all limit switching into systems electronics, machined a pocket into the end block, and tapped in a hole into which the sensor could screw. Supporting the accuracy demands in this way without external fixtures reduced the cost of the system further.

Sensors provide the A250 with high repeatability, accuracy, and reliability while reducing the cost of the system by eliminating the need to hang a sensor fixture off the side of the actuation assembly.

Also contributing to what Merry called “spot-on” reliability was pre-loading an ACME-threaded nut. Factory aligning the ball screw and the composite polymer nut resulted in much less play than the original ball screw assembly, which used a standard molded nut.

On the day Bend-Tech announced the availability of the Dragon A250, they sold four systems, and demand has been steady since. DW

Thomson | www.thomsonlinear.com

The Dragon A250’s CAD/CAM software is preprogrammed with design parameters, which guide the Thomson linear motion assembly, controlling the system’s movement and achieving high repeatability.

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Design Notes

Maximizing your machine monitoring and data collection system Edited by Mike Santora • Associate Editor

At Flestic, more than 40 machines are equipped with SmartMONITOR. Now Flestic knows which machines are running, where there are malfunctions or a breakdown, and the company can respond without delay.

Flestic, a flexible packaging manufacturer, relies on modern, standardized, but highly flexible machinery in its production process. Today, the company now has 40 extrusion blow molding machines, 35 of which were developed and built in-house. The problem with this is that no precise key figures can be determined for capacity utilization, order status, or productivity.

Bas van Nes has worked as a functional safety engineer at Flestic for more than 25 years and describes the problem as follows, “Until now, we could only roughly measure productivity based on the figures we determined ourselves. That was simply not enough for us.” He continued, “We wanted accurate, reliable metrics and also to see when a machine started and stopped, or what the reason was for that stoppage. This has been a grey area for us so far, but one we were eager to shed light on in the future.”

However, the engineer was not satisfied with the situation at hand and started to gain insight into the pulse of the machine himself. “From this pulse, I was able to build a database and extract information om it,” said van Nes. “But in the long run, this was just not professional enough for us anymore.”

So, the company went looking and found an article about a new machine monitoring and data collection system (MDC system). The “SmartMONITOR” system described there immediately excited van Nes: “What a clever, and at the same time,

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simple principle: a signal light that is supplemented with a corresponding module and then immediately sends all the data om the machine to a central database. I was immediately convinced.”

Bas continued, “Our general manager was also enthusiastic because this way we could see every start and stop of the machines — on the one hand, on the screen, but on the other hand, also on the machine itself. We have about 40 machines in the factory. Since installing SmartMONITOR, it’s visually clear which machines are running.”

Flestic attended an information event organized by the wholesaler itsme. Here they came into contact with a company that was already a WERMA customer and had SmartMONITOR in use. “That gave us peace of mind,” said van Nes. Everything moved quickly om there. “I contacted WERMA, and just two days later, the ee test box arrived with everything we needed.” Flestic installed the demo equipment on three machines and was immediately enthusiastic about the results.

Flestic has been using the simple, radio-based MDC system “SmartMONITOR” om WERMA

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Design Notes

With SmartMONITOR it doesn’t matter what type of machine, what age, or manufacturer, the MDE system from WERMA only needs a WERMA signal tower as an interface.

This was also an important argument for Flestic, “Our machines come from different years of manufacture - we were thrilled at how easy it is with SmartMONITOR to nevertheless network them all together.”

Signaltechnik for just over a year. The SmartMONITOR system consists of a radio transmitter, radio receiver, and the so ware. The radio network (868 MHz) for the production environment searches itself for the best connection and thus ensures the most straightforward integration into the user’s production process. The radio transmitter is simply integrated as an additional element into the existing WERMA signal tower using Plug & Play and monitors the status or number of pieces of machines, plants, and manual workstations. These states are transmitted by radio to the radio receiver, seamlessly transferring all data and saving it in a Microso SQL database.

With SmartMONITOR, it doesn’t matter what type of machine, age, or

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manufacturer; the MDE system only needs a WERMA signal tower as an interface.

This was also an essential argument for Flestic, “Our machines come om different years of manufacture — we were thrilled how easy it is with SmartMONITOR to nevertheless network them all together.”

The three-level signal columns visually indicate the status of each machine: The red light indicates that the machine is at a standstill, yellow lights up if the temperature difference is too great, and green signals smooth operation.

In addition, these are, of course, transmitted to the SmartMONITOR so ware.

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With the help of the three-stage signal columns, the status of each machine is visually displayed: The red light indicates that the machine is at a standstill, yellow lights up when the temperature difference is too great, and green signals smooth operation.

In addition, these are transmitted to the SmartMONITOR software.

HOW

DOES a “This provides information about the process stability of the machines,” said van Nes. “And of course, we discuss the values every morning at our store floor meeting in production.” Here, the number of failures per machine is discussed, and targeted activities are coordinated. “We were very surprised when we realized that it’s o en not technical problems that lead to the stoppages or breakdowns, but organizational reasons behind them.”

Van Nes sees further advantages in the flexibility of the system, “We move our machines om time to time, and so it may be that a machine has to move 10 meters.

With SmartMONITOR, I don’t have to pull any extra cables because the signal tower is already mounted on the machine.”

Flestic is completely satisfied with the MDE system. When asked what’s next, van Nes replied, “We want to analyze the data further and refine our key figures.”

In addition, the company plans to install a signal light in the canteen as well. “This should immediately inform our employees of a possible machine stoppage, even during breaks. This is the only way they can react immediately.”

Van Nes concluded by saying, “We will equip about another 30 machines with this system. Because with it, you’re not just limited to production machines, we can network virtually every machine in our company with this system.” DW

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August 2021

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Internet of Things

Metrology and Industry 4.0 Dr Peter J. de Groot, Executive Director of R&D & Michael Schmidt, Market Development Manager Zygo Corp.

When looking at the place of metrology in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” it is interesting to ponder whether industry 4.0 is being driven by developments in metrology or metrology developments are being driven by Industry 4.0.

Today’s most sophisticated metrology systems drive quality assurance (QA) which has become a fundamental digital task, which in and of itself, facilitates efficient and cost-effective production processes. QA data today controls how products are made, and drives the bottom line and the repeatability in production that is vital in all panindustrial manufacturing scenarios.

From this perspective, it is a short leap to advocate that QA drives Industry 4.0.

The dynamic growth of non-contact 3D optical metrology solutions in recent years reinforces this argument, as image processing and vision systems easily fit into Industry 4.0 processes.

And so, we begin to shi preconceptions. For a long time, metrology for production QA has been seen as akin to a necessary evil, a part of the product development process that ticks boxes but doesn’t directly add value. From this angle, it can be argued that metrology serves no other purpose than to catch failures within 42

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a production process. If the failures or short comings were not there, then the role of metrology would be redundant.

But in the modern world, metrology is the source of bucket loads of data, which can be used to fuel the systems used in a smart factory or Industry 4.0 environment, promoting true data-driven production.

Drilling into Industry 4.0 A key competitive driver for manufacturers is efficient production, which is why Industry 4.0 solutions using digital technologies to stimulate innovation and improve production processes are gaining traction across all key industrial sectors.

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As these technologies are enhanced and become less expensive, Industry 4.0 will become more important.

The underpinnings of the concept of Industry 4.0 requires that businesses interrogate their competitive model and focus on increasing capacity to deliver more cost-effective products through the digitization of the entire production process.

This task requires businesses completely re-assess their entire value chains, and apply different ways of thinking and toolsets, fusing the physical, digital, and virtual worlds together.

Industry 4.0 encourages the integration of intelligent production systems and advanced information technologies, and is fundamental to the foundations and future of many of the world’s leading manufacturers.

The promotion of a digital manufacturing strategy is fundamental for many manufacturing companies if they are to remain competitive in the years to come. and central to this is the capture, analysis, and alteration of data. From this perspective, the role of 3D metrology solutions is clear, and it is much more than just catching the occasional QA failure in production.

The power of metrology driven data For Industry 4.0, use of big data is key, as is its movement and use upstream and downstream in the product development process, with algorithms adjusting the manufacturing process to ensure consistent, efficient, and above all repeatable production with zero failure rates. 3D data captured as parts are manufactured using fast, non-contact optical metrology systems can be directly fed to the quality control team who can analyze its conformance with design intent by comparing it with 3D CAD solid models. Any areas of concern can be highlighted, and adjustments can be made instantaneously to CAM files.

Such an automatic process all but

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negates the need for shut-off, drastically reduces failure rates and scrap, and therefore enhances the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of production.

In such a scenario, advanced 3D optical metrology solutions enhance the quality, quantity, and speed with which data are collected, and allows analysis and significance to be assessed in the blink of an eye to the betterment of manufacturing processes.

Smart factory metrology solutions Metrology’s role in digitized factories that continuously collect and share

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Internet of Things

data through inter-connected devices, machines, and production processes is to support digital production at every stage.

To achieve the objectives of the “smart factory,” manufacturers must evolve their processes to close gaps in inspectionrelated data at every stage in production.

It also has a role in giving manufacturers greater visibility of the entire supply chain, including suppliers. Smart factories bristling with industrial robots and automated handling systems rely disproportionately on fully automated control systems and speedy verification and feedback.

This plays to the use of in-process metrology solutions and non-contact 3D

optical solutions.

Typically, the conversation about the optimum use of metrology in manufacturing settings is between its use in the lab or in-process. Ultimately, a key driver for the shi om in-lab to in-process is a desire for a “faster time to data,” and the ability to make decisions as a result of that faster data. Hence, it is a key element of Industry 4.0 and the efficient running of a smart factory.

When compared to alternative legacy metrology solutions where measurement is a separate off-line activity, in-process solutions have several advantages, the most obvious being the speed with which the derived

data can influence decision making.

If carrying out metrology in-lab, parts must be moved to the QC department, and then they need to be set-up for the metrology operation to be undertaken. If the metrology is in-line, various process steps are removed, and as defects and problems can be identified and rectified instantaneously, reworking is reduced.

In-process metrology therefore assists in preventing problems before they arise, and if they do arise allows them to be identified and addressed before they become a costly and time-consuming issue.

Non-contact optical metrology solutions also fit within the concept of Industry 4.0 as they are speedier and can cover larger areas than contact devices.

Fully integrated 3D optical metrology promotes fully automated closed-loop production. In addition, improvements in computer processing and optical technology mean that the sheer amount of data acquired and analyzed is vastly increased. 3D optical metrology solutions used in-process allow for processed data to be to be fed om the metrology system into the factory management system and this advances the concept of the smart factory considerably.

More intelligent, more flexible, and faster learning metrology systems are at the heart of — and integral to — industry 4.0 and all advanced manufacturing systems. Such metrology systems promote the evolution of connected factories, and will dramatically reduce downtime while speeding up production of more innovative, better designed, and higher quality products. While there are many developments on the horizon in this area, metrology solutions that exist on the market today can be used to enhance manufacturing efficiency at all levels. DW

Zygo Corp., owned by AMETEK, Inc. www.zygo.com

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Internet of Things

AI analytics for manufacturers Brian McCarson • Vice President and Senior Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation The use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is moving into broader adoption.

Influenced by open-source communities, the AI domain is making advances quickly – moving om invention to mass replication in just weeks.

To unlock potential AI benefits – discovering valuable insights, realizing efficiencies or gaining competitive advantage – manufacturers need tools that make it easy to perform analytics. Here are key steps to build these AI solutions in industrial settings, using a common use case: machine vision.

Leverage open-source AI innovations Lighting and camera resolution inconsistencies are a major hurdle to deploying vision-based analytics on the factory floor. The human eye can correct for different lighting conditions easily, but images collected by a camera naturally vary in intensity and contrast when background lighting varies.

Luckily, the open-source community is fueling democratization and rapid adoption of AI innovations.

Members of the community share data, tools and methods that developers can adopt within days. Algorithms are being developed with the ability to absorb lighting variations and neutralize gamma intensity differences as lighting varies throughout the day or as lighting varies om location to location on the factory floor.

This is one example of how the open-source community can rapidly deploy solutions to solve manufacturers’ challenges. An example of opensource so ware is the Intel Edge Insights for Industrial so ware and the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit to enable AI in industrial and other sectors. Such ee, ready-to-use analytics pipelines were developed for concurrent time-series and video workloads found in industrial applications. They are available in an easy-to-deploy, easy-to-modi , microservices amework. The so ware supports the acceleration and distribution of analytics on CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), VPUs (vision processing units) and Intel Optane memory.

Support open-source communities The AI market is being driven by exceptionally talented developers and open-source communities. Their innovations are pushing our collective knowledge and capabilities forward, daily. To make these AI innovations and deep learning techniques mainstream, we need to continue sharing tools and resources in ways that are easily accessible, usable, safe, secure, and proven to add value for engineers and managers on the factory floor. DW

Intel | www.intel.com

Create a closed-loop cycle of innovation In some machine vision cases, factory managers achieved skewed results om machine to machine because of lighting variations. For example, one machine might achieve high accuracy, low false-positive and false-negative rates while a nearby machine might crash when running the same AI application. Natural light influences om a skylight or dense clusters of light fixtures above a machine might cause these variations.

Fortunately, with the advent of deep learning techniques, algorithms are being developed to replicate the photo receptors in our eyes and neurons in our brains to absorb lighting variations and neutralize gamma intensity differences.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

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A D V E R T O R I A L

WAGO’s 221 Series Lever Nuts Raising the bar for electrical applications In true WAGO fashion, the manufacturer is continually innovating and improving its product offering. WAGO’s 221 Series Lever Nuts are an excellent example of this, representing the company’s answer to the twist-type splicing wire connector. This termination device quickly and easily connects different wire sizes and types, using 2, 3, and 5-wire connectors.

“A few years ago, WAGO developed the original 222 Series LEVER-NUTS®, which has been effective and successful,” shares Evan Syens, Product Manager, Electrical Splicing Connectors with WAGO Corporation. “However, innovation doesn’t stop for us just because a product has hit the market. We never settle for ‘good enough’ and are always striving for better. WAGO is all about ongoing advancements.”

To this end, WAGO created their newest version wire-connector solution, the 221 Series LEVER-NUTS®— and they’ve quickly become one of the company’s top-grossing products.

“The biggest difference between the original 222 and the latest 221 Series is the size, as the newest version is smaller,” says Syens.

“But, perhaps, the most notable feature of our 221 Series LEVERNUTS® products is their transparent housing, which is significant.”

This is because with a typical twist-type connector, it’s impossible to know how secure the wire connections are for each terminal, which is a maintenance and safety concern.

“The clear housing completely takes the guesswork out of the installation process,” Syens explains. “Without it, how would you know how many twists are ideal for a secure connection? There’s room for error. In fact, installers will often secure wires with electrical tape to maintain the twist-type connection. But that’s unnecessary, thanks to WAGO’s innovation. Simply pull the orange lever up, insert a stripped conductor (according to the strip-length gauge on the side of the 221) and push the lever back down. That’s it. You’re done.”

Since every 221 Series LEVER-NUTS® also includes CAGE CLAMP® technology (the spring-pressured connection technology that WAGO pioneered back in the ’50s), installers can also ensure a secure a reliable connection. The CAGE CLAMP® is starting to become the industry standard for electrical interconnection technologies.

What’s more, is WAGO has incorporated test slots in the LEVERNUTS® Series for additional safety — one in the direction of wire insertion and one on the opposite side. This allows an installer to insert a test probe into the slots to determine if a wire is live.

“Another unique feature about these products is that they’re reusable, without any added steps. For example, there’s no need to re-strip the wires. Simply lift the lever and connect the new wires,” he says. “Again, it’s that simple.”

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WAGO’s 221 Series Lever Nuts

WAGO offers two different versions of the 221 Series: • The original variant: 24-12 AWG • The 10 AWG variant: 20-10 AWG “The 20 to 10-gauge version also has three variants — a 2, 3, and 5-conductor, which goes up to 600 volts and 30 amps. And, as for the operating temperature, each variant is approved to 105° C,” says Syens.

Along with these innovative connectors, WAGO also offers a line of mounting carriers that can be mounted onto a DIN Rail or chassis, easily cleaning up your cabinet, panel, or junction box.

“It’s really about peace of mind because with CAGE CLAMP® technology, you can be confident in a secure connection for your application,” says Syens.

Whether for an electrical contractor, DIY home projects, lighting applications or use in hazardous locations, WAGO’s 221 LEVER-NUTS® Series offers fast, safe, and dependable connection technology.

“Now when people see the orange lever, they associate it with WAGO and know the product can be trusted.”

Features of the 221 Series • Terminate conductors from 24–10 AWG (with two models: 24-12 AWG and 20-10 AWG) • Connect solid, stranded, and fine-stranded conductors • Combine different wire sizes and types • Install devices with higher levels of power consumption • Save time connecting wires without the use of tools

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Connector Notes

ix Industrial connector is 70% smaller for PROFINET use Edited by Mary C. Gannon • senior editor

ix Industrial connectors, which are 70% smaller in device, are now certified according to the new PROFINET directive.

The new PNO guideline Profinet Cabling and Interconnection Technology - Guideline for PROFINET Version 5.0 specifies the ix Industrial mating face as a new standard for Ethernet applications. The guideline was officially published on June 29, and provides PROFINET users with a reliable set of rules for industrial cabling. With the ix Industrial, PROFINET users can benefit om an Ethernet interface that is significantly more compact and more robust than previous RJ45 solutions — a path to the miniaturized future.

The new set of rules are for PROFINET-compliant cabling use in industrial equipment, systems, and plants. The ix Industrial mating face for Ethernet transmission represents a key new component in the SPC “Specific Passive Components” section.

Consequently, manufacturers of PROFINETcompliant devices are now able to develop more compact devices on a secure and reliable basis and thereby save valuable installation space in the control cabinet. Given the 70% smaller ix Industrial device socket compared to known RJ45 connections, the number of ports can be doubled for the same device size or, conversely, a device can be designed that is significantly more compact.

In addition to the miniaturization and space savings that will become increasingly vital in the future, the HARTING ix Industrial interface offers device manufacturers and users one thing in particular: A high-performance, reliable, and industrial-grade connector paving the way to the future.

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Core properties include: • 5,000 mating cycles • Robust metallic lock • THR shield contacts • 360° shielding

• Transmission up to 10 Gbit/s • PoE/PoE+ • 70% smaller device socket

Benefits for PROFINET users and manufacturers: • Reliable contact in case of shock and vibration • Fewer contact interruptions • Acoustic feedback during insertion signals secure locking • Simple, convenient handling excludes accidental loosening • New miniaturization options • Secure transmission Depending on the application, users can choose between a straight or an angled cable outlet. This means that even tight spaces in control cabinets will not present any problems. Catering to demanding environments, the ix Industrial interface will also be available in IP65/67 protected PushPull housings as om the autumn.

Measurement technology manufacturers established on the markets are reliably supporting the ix Industrial standard with a wide range of measurement technology DW.

The HARTING Technology Group | harting.com www.designworldonline.com

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Material considerations when moving to 3D printing

Jon Eric Van Roekel • process engineering manager for 3D printing • Protolabs

Developments in 3D printing have made it a proven, industrial-grade manufacturing practice for end-use parts. At Protolabs, we see this evolution firsthand as customers leverage new additive manufacturing (AM) processes and expand material options to make more complex, lightweight, or sustainable products.

However, the integration of additive manufacturing (AM) into the product design process is not without some tradeoffs along the way. A common decision point to overcome for many is choosing the right material, an evaluation step that is more complex with 3D printing practices. Or at least requires a new set of considerations.

A material must be well-suited for the application in order to achieve design goals. And as we see 3D printing emerge as a manufacturing method for end-use part production, the properties of any material become increasingly important. AM benefits tremendously om recent investment and R&D efforts dedicated to the creation of materials specifically designed for industrial-grade 3D printers. In terms of mechanical and physical properties, material selection hinges on the prioritization of design and desired quality requirements.

Compared to traditional manufacturing practices, materials for 3D printing are still advancing to include rich sets of performance data that characterize materials over a range of conditions. Another factor to consider is that 3D printing produces anisotropic properties where the values differ for the X, Y, and Z axes. The degree of anisotropy varies by technology, but it should always be a consideration.

Both can be overcome by designing for

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3D Printing

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additive manufacturing and leveraging the experience of knowledg-eable service bureaus that have worked on millions of parts.

What to consider with 3D printing materials One or two material properties can distinguish one additive material om another. The first step in identi ing a material is defining the mechanical and physical properties critical for the application.

Common measured properties of interest to designers can include: • Ultimate tensile strength (UTS): The maximum stress the material can withstand before breaking.

• Tensile modulus, or elastic modulus: Measures stiffness, the higher the modulus, the stiffer the material.

• Elongation (%): Measuring ductility, a higher elongation percentage indicates a material is more likely to be able to stretch or elongate into a thin wire shape.

• Hardness: The higher the number, the harder the material. Hardness is typically measured and reported in HRC or HRB on the Rockwell scale for metals.

For polymers, like PolyJet materials, durometers are typically reported.

• Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT): Sometimes called heat distortion temperature, the temperature at which deformation occurs when a rigid material is placed under a specific load.

The following takes a look at the information to consider in the selection of materials for the most popular 3D printing processes: direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), stereolithography (SLA), Carbon DLS, selective laser sintering (SLS), Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), and PolyJet (PJ).

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) Materials DMLS, a type of metal 3D printing, uses pure metal powder to produce parts with properties that are generally accepted to be comparable to wrought metals when comparing them in the heat-treated

Due to the post-build thermal baking process, materials paired with Carbon DLS can achieve heightened mechanical properties.

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condition. Unique in 3D printing, it also produces parts with material properties that approach an isotropic state, meaning similar properties independent om direction of measurement.

Some commonly used materials to consider: • Aluminum AlSi10Mg is comparable to a 360.0F aluminum alloy, which is commonly used for die-casting. The material features good strength-toweight ratio, high temperature and corrosion resistance, and good fatigue, creep, and rupture strength.

• Stainless steel is available in two grades at Protolabs: 17-4 PH and 316L. Select 17-4 PH (precipitation hardened) for its significantly higher tensile strength and yield strength, but recognize that it has less elongation at break than 316L, which means that 17-4 is less malleable than 316L. Stereolithography (SL) & Carbon DLS Materials SL offers the broadest selection of 3D-printable plastics with a large range of mechanical properties. It is also a go-to process for parts that require fine features and cosmetics, as well as a quality surface finish. Compared to injection-molded plastics, impact strengths are o en lower, and exposure to moisture and UV light may alter the appearance, size, and mechanical properties of SLA-printed parts over time.

Some commonly used, all-purpose materials to consider: • ABS-like White and ABS-like Gray are two of the more widely used durable SLA materials. In terms of flexibility and strength, both materials fall between molded polypropylene and molded ABS, which makes them an easy choice for functional prototypes.

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that is superior to similar injectionmolded thermoplastics when HDT (heat deflection) is critical.

• RPU 70 Rigid Polyurethane is a tough, all-purpose material. When manufactured using Carbon DLS, it can be categorized as an ABS-like material.

Due to the post-build thermal baking process, materials paired with Carbon DLS can achieve heightened mechanical properties.

DMLS uses pure metal powder to produce parts with properties that are generally accepted to be comparable to wrought metals when comparing them in the heat-treated condition.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) & Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) Materials Primarily using polyamide nylon materials, both processes offer the most economical choices with o en greater toughness and high impact strengths when compared to SLA. The density of SLS/MJF parts are also closer to traditionally manufactured parts; however, both processes lack the ability to provide the surface finish and fine feature details offered with SLA. When compared to injection-molded materials, polyamide has similar HDT values but less robust mechanical properties. SLS/ MJF material properties also have a known degree of anisotropism when measured in the x-y plane or the z plane.

The Polyjet process produces digital photopolymer parts with varying flexibilities, durometers, and colors.

Some durable materials to consider: • Nylon PA 11 Black is a popular, general-purpose material that delivers on ductility and flexibility without sacrificing tensile strength and temperature resistance. It also offers the highest elongation of all AM nylons.

A stiffer option is PA 12 White, which features slightly higher elastic modulus.

These PA nylons can be mineral or glassfilled to further improve stiffness.

distinction: digital photopolymers show more viscoelastic creep than an equivalent LSR material, meaning it may feel so er over time when under constant stress.

PolyJet (PJ) Materials The PJ printing process produces digital photopolymer parts with varying flexibilities, durometers, and colors.

Compared to injection-molded liquid silicone rubber (LSR), the mechanical properties are similar with one important

In conclusion, the wealth of 3D printing materials available today across all processes makes additive manufacturing more accessible than ever, and that library of materials is ever-expanding.

As more companies turn to additive manufacturing for production parts,

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the ecosystem is also better defining the capabilities and development opportunities for each material. DW

Protolabs www.protolabs.com

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Rodin Cars 3D prints a custom metal gearbox for its Supercar An 8 speed sequential, 68kg, additively manufactured from grade 23 titanium; the Rodin Cars gearbox is designed to set a new standard in automotive manufacturing. | Courtesy of Rodin Cars

Rodin Cars, a New Zealand-based manufacturer of the ultimate track car, designs and builds completely custom single-seat, open-wheel, high-performance vehicles that are designed to be faster than contemporary Formula 1 cars.

The company is about to release a hypercar, the Rodin FZero.

Among the hundreds of metal parts Rodin Cars is additively manufacturing for the Rodin FZero is a first-of-its-kind 8-speed sequential gearbox with a hydraulically controlled differential. This completely custom component can only be produced using additive manufacturing.

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A gearbox created using traditional manufacturing methods would be cast out of magnesium or machined om billet material.

The resulting component would take considerable time to produce, and be heavier and not withstand the rigors presented by the track. Rodin Cars wanted to flip this design into a true innovation – the ultimate component produced om 3D printed titanium that would be compact, light, strong, and durable.

For the Rodin FZero, the engineers envisioned a brand new gearbox with specific gear ratios and differential. The 18-month design process resulted in a gearbox with a hydraulically

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The Rodin Cars bespoke gearbox, uniquely designed specifically for manufacturing using state-of-the-art metal 3D printing technology. | Courtesy of Rodin Cars

controlled differential with internal galleries and thin-wall bearing and mount structures. The engineers worked alongside members of 3D Systems’ Application Innovation Group (AIG) in Littleton, Colorado, and Leuven, Belgium to bring this unique design to life.

The team used direct metal printing (DMP) technology to produce the new gearbox that includes 2-mm thick walls and weighs 68 kg. The application engineers in Littleton optimized the gearbox print design details for additive manufacturing at the large scale achievable on the DMP Factory 500 and produced the first part on its DMP Factory 500 in Leuven. The additive system includes a vacuum chamber to ensure the lowest O2 content and can make seamless large parts as large as 500 mm x 500 mm x 500 mm. Rodin Cars recently installed a DMP Factory 500 on-site at its newly expanded facility and will produce the gearbox, as well as hundreds of other bespoke parts, for the Rodin FZero.

“3D printing allows us to design and create components otherwise unachievable using traditional methods of manufacturing,” said David Dicker, founder, Rodin Cars. “With the Rodin

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FZERO gearbox, we had specific criteria we wanted to meet in terms of weight and durability. Because of the size and quality required for such a large component, it was only possible to print it on 3D Systems’ DMP Factory 500 machine. We couldn’t source another AM supplier who was able to offer a similar solution for our needs - the print quality, volume capacity, testing facilities in Leuven, and continued technological support.”

In addition to 3D Systems’ DMP technology, Rodin Cars is also using the company’s selective laser sintering (SLS) technology for production parts and stereolithography (SLA) to produce tooling for carbon fiber forms.

“Additive manufacturing is enabling industry leaders to de limitations and stand apart,” said Kevin Baughey, segment leader, transportation & motorsports, 3D Systems.

“This is a shining example of how additive manufacturing not only enables parts to be produced that couldn’t be created through conventional methods, it is also delivering a lighter, more durable, beautiful vehicle. It’s the blending of the art of design with the science of hyper-performance cars and motorsports.”

DW

3D Systems www.3dsystems.com

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3D printed gra helps the hearing impaired

The PhonoGraft device is a biomimetic graft that has the potential to enable high-quality and long-lasting eardrum reconstruction. It is a 3D printed biodegradable elastomer in the form of customizable biomimetic circular and radial scaffolds, and is intended to function like the native eardrum.

Thousands of people suffer om damage to their tympanic membranes, compromising their hearing. A biofabrication technology has led to the development of PhonoGra technology—a promising pathway for so tissue regeneration for a range of healthcare applications.

The PhonoGra technology was initially developed by researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Mass Eye and Ear in Boston (Mass Eye and Ear is a member of Mass General Brigham). Harvard’s Office of Technology Development has granted Desktop Metal and its subsidiary business, Desktop Health, an exclusive license to commercialize the platform.

The PhonoGra technology is being studied for possible use in an implantable device for repairing damaged eardrums, with a programmable biodegradable 3D printed gra that has the potential to be minimally invasive and offer patients decreased procedure times and improved healing and hearing outcomes.

The concept for the PhonoGra device arose a er the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, when many individuals sustained eardrum perforations due to the blast injury. Nicole Black, PhD, then a doctoral student in Lewis’ Harvard lab, recognized an opportunity to explore ways in which 3D printing might be used to improve outcomes following eardrum reconstruction. Lewis and her research group, in collaboration with

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ear surgeons Dr. Aaron Remenschneider and Dr. Elliott Kozin om Mass Eye and Ear, assembled a multidisciplinary team of material scientists and otolaryngologists.

“One of the most prevalent injuries of the Boston Marathon bombing was perforated eardrums,” said Dr. Remenschneider. “This is also common in military personnel a er blast injury and in children and adults with ear infections. Surgical repair of the eardrum is unfortunately necessary for many patients to restore hearing and create a ‘safe’ ear.”

Six years of research and development, with an infusion of focused translational funding om the Wyss Institute, led to the creation and DESIGN WORLD

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A biometric 3D printer is used to print the PhotoGraft.

preclinical de-risking of the PhonoGra material and device platform. Black became an entrepreneurial champion for the technology; she and several colleagues founded a startup, Beacon Bio, to advance the technology into commercial development. Beacon Bio has now been acquired by Desktop Metal.

The PhonoGra device is a biomimetic gra that has the potential to enable high-quality and long-lasting eardrum reconstruction. Partnering with surgeons to develop the technology and understand critical features, such as the acoustic and mechanical properties of the gra material, has been important in its development, Black said.

“This device, which is manufactured om a biodegradable elastomer in the form of customizable biomimetic circular and radial scaffolds, is intended to function like the native eardrum.

Preliminary bench studies show that the PhonoGra device not only closed the eardrum perforation; it supported the body’s regeneration of the complex eardrum structure,” said Black, who has joined Desktop Health as the Vice

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President of Biomaterials and Innovation.

“Such gra architectures benefit om the use of 3D printing and permit the eardrum to transmit both low- and high equency sound waves.”

The PhonoGra platform has been validated in preclinical studies in animal models. These studies have shown that as the eardrum heals, native cells and blood vessels grow into the biocompatible PhonoGra material.

Since the gra material is biodegradable, it is expected to be replaced by native tissue over time.

“This technology has potential to ‘intelligently’ support the regeneration of so tissues in other areas of the body,” said Black.

“We believe that this platform may one day offer a groundbreaking solution to the millions of patients impacted by tympanic membrane perforation (TMP),” said Michael Jafar, President and CEO of Desktop Health. “PhonoGra material technology, coupled with our biofabrication capabilities, has tremendous potential across a range of healthcare applications in so tissue –

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om cardiovascular and neuronal gra s to plastic surgery.”

“I’m delighted for the members of my lab at Harvard and our collaborators at Mass Eye and Ear who jointly developed this innovative technology, and who successfully applied their entrepreneurial drive to demonstrate its potential. In addition to TMP relief, this advanced gra technology could pave the way for a multitude of healthcare products in the fields of cardiac, vascular, and plastic surgery,” said Jennifer Lewis, ScD, who is a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute, a Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, and Jianming Yu Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard SEAS. PhonoGra technology is in advanced-stage research and development, and currently not available for sale anywhere in the world. Black and her team at Desktop Health intend to conduct additional preclinical studies and pursue FDA review. DW

Desktop Health www.desktophealth.com

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CAE Solutions

Siemens develops a standard for electronics cooling simulation

Siemens Digital Industries So ware established JEP181—a neutral file, XML-based standard om the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association. The JEP181 standard simplifies thermal model data sharing between suppliers and end-users in a single file format called ECXML (Electronics Cooling eXtensible Markup Language).

The new standard was created to meet a significant challenge for electronics manufacturers: as increasingly powerful processors allow companies to pack more performance and functionality into their designs, the effective management of heat dissipation and other thermal factors has become essential to the successful design of their nextgeneration electronics products. Advanced electronics cooling simulation technologies help create accurate thermal models of new product designs. But the absence of a uniform format for the exchange of thermal simulation data throughout supply chains has created unnecessary duplication of effort and the potential introduction of errors into the stream.

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Proposed through the JEDEC JC15 committee, the JEDEC JEP181 standard simplifies thermal model data sharing. With this universal thermal model sharing standard, electronics manufacturers can reduce the time required to simulate and validate their thermal models.

The JEP181 standard is suitable for emerging technologies and trends such as miniaturization, 2.5D and 3D semiconductor packaging, and 5G technology-- all of which demand increased power dissipation density. DW

Siemens Digital Industries So ware www.sw.siemens.com

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CAE Solutions

Easy robot simulation

Built on the NVIDIA Omniverse platform, Isaac Sim is a robotics simulation application and synthetic data generation tool. It allows roboticists to train and test their robots more efficiently by providing a realistic simulation of the robot interacting with environments that can expand coverage beyond what is possible in the real world.

This release of Isaac Sim adds improved multi-camera support and sensor capabilities, and a PTC OnShape CAD importer to make it easier to bring in 3D assets. These new features will expand the breadth of robots and environments that can be successfully modeled and deployed in every aspect: om design and development of the physical robot, then training the robot, to deploying in a “digital twin” in which the robot is simulated and tested in an accurate and photorealistic virtual environment.

Key features include: • Multi-Camera Support • Fisheye Camera with Synthetic Data • ROS2 Support • PTC OnShape Importer • Improved Sensor Support • Ultrasonic Sensor • Force Sensor • Custom Lidar Patterns • Downloadable om NVIDIA Omniverse Launcher

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Developers have long seen the benefits of having a powerful simulation environment for testing and training robots. But all too o en, the simulators have had shortcomings that limited their adoption. Isaac Sim addresses these drawbacks with the benefits described below.

Realistic simulation Isaac Sim leverages the Omniverse platform’s technologies including advanced GPU-enabled physics simulation with PhysX 5, photorealism with real-time ray and path tracing, and Material Definition Language (MDL) support for physically based rendering.

Modular, breadth of applications Isaac Sim is built to address many of the most common robotics use cases including manipulation, autonomous navigation, and synthetic data generation for training data. Its modular DESIGN WORLD

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design allows users to easily customize and extend the toolset to accommodate many applications and environments.

Seamless connectivity and interoperability Isaac Sim benefits om Omniverse Nucleus and Omniverse Connectors, enabling collaborative building, sharing, and importing of environments and robot models in Universal Scene Description (USD). Easily connect the robot’s brain to a virtual world through Isaac SDK and ROS/ ROS2 interface, fully-featured Python scripting, plugins for importing robot and environment models.

Synthetic data generation in Isaac Sim bootstraps machine learning Synthetic Data Generation is a tool increasingly used to train the perception models found in today’s robots. Getting DESIGN WORLD

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real-world, properly labeled data is a time consuming and costly endeavor.

But in the case of robotics, some of the required training data could be too difficult or dangerous to collect in the real world. This is especially true of robots that must operate in close proximity to humans.

Isaac Sim has built-in support for a variety of sensor types important in training perception models. These sensors include RGB, depth, bounding boxes, and segmentation.

In the open beta, users have the ability to output synthetic data in the KITTI format. These data can then be used directly with the NVIDIA Transfer Learning Toolkit to enhance model performance with use case-specific data.

parameters that define a simulated scene, such as the lighting, color and texture of materials in the scene. One of the main objectives of domain randomization is to enhance the training of machine learning (ML) models by exposing the neural network to a variety of domain parameters in simulation. This will help the model to generalize well when it encounters real world scenarios.

In effect, this technique helps teach models what to ignore.

Isaac Sim supports the randomization of many different attributes that help define a given scene. With these capabilities, the ML engineers can ensure that the synthetic dataset contains sufficient diversity to drive robust model performance. DW

Domain randomization Domain Randomization varies the

NVIDIA www.nvidia.com

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Motor-drive

simulation expands virtual commissioning Integrated automation and motion control simulation software provides simple and quick virtual commissioning for machine builders.

Kevin Wu and Colm Gavin • Siemens Digital Industries

In the development of any new machine or plant, faults are almost inevitable. Failure during commissioning is especially problematic, because it’s likely to significantly increase costs and delay the designs schedule. What’s worse, failure of physical machine components can cause harm to equipment or even human operators.

So to mitigate these risks and improve design efforts, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are turning to digital twins and virtual commissioning.

These software-based design techniques empower OEMs to identify flaws and inefficiencies in designs prior to working with real components and assembly.

Virtual commissioning involves modeling and simulating a machine’s operation … typically prior to physically building anything. Such commissioning helps refine functionality during earlier stages of development, when alteration 60

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| courtesy of Siemens Digital Industries

costs and consequences are much more modest than those made at later design stages.

A machine’s digital twin consists of three parts: • The automation model • The electrical and behavior model • The physical or kinematic model.

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of the machine. That said, not all applications require all three models.

The physical or kinematic models are primarily needed for early verification of machine concepts because they provide visualization of the machine in a 3D model and predict interferences — and verify how product will move through the machine. But for automation engineers, it may be sufficient to use just the automation and electrical models. www.designworldonline.com

In this article, we detail virtual commissioning using just the automation and electrical models. Deploying these two parts of the digital twin lets manufacturers of small to medium-sized machines gain most of virtual commissioning’s substantial benefits.

Machine-automation commissioning virtualized Virtual commissioning is beneficial for machine builders because it minimizes guesswork when spinning up a machine for August 2021

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A digital twin comprises a virtualized version of real-world components. | courtesy of Siemens

Technology objects (TOs) is Siemens’ proprietary name for prewritten blocks of software code representing a move or mechanical machine component. This software also handles data processing at the automation programming level.

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the first time … and it provides a way to tackle challenges prior to physical commissioning. No wonder it’s become increasingly common as machine mechanics have become more sophisticated.

A digital twin — a digitized replica of a machine or other automated device — is the typical benchmark for modeling and simulation. As mentioned, it consists of three models: 1. The automation model, made up of a PLC program and visualization.

2. The electrical and behavior model, made up of active components — such as motor drives, actuators, and sensors — along with the behavior of peripheral components, such as motors and valves.

3. The physical or kinematic model consisting of mechanical components.

Automation models link graphical visualization with the machine’s PLC code that in turn executes “under the hood” in the virtual model. In this way, automation models give programmers a way to use pre-validated blocks of prewritten software code (representing a move or mechanical machine component) in their code for motion control. Ultimately that reduces upfront testing requirements.

The best pre-validated software blocks provide user-friendly step-by-step setup guides via a graphical user interface (GUI) and represent moves or mechanical components on the machine. There are data blocks associated with this prewritten code, and these are easily accessible in the PLC programming environment. That permits simple viewing of the motion-control part of an automation program.

Typically, an automation model includes pre-validated software blocks for controlling speed, position, synchronous axes, and cams. What’s more, these software blocks can be used for processing data from external encoders and sensors.

A common device such as a motor drive is assigned to one software block … and the latter includes all configuration and status data.

Users can include prewritten software blocks and their associated motion-programming blocks from a prebuilt library — and then reuse them within a project. All prewritten blocks can be shared among projects, with a project’s configured motor drives reassigned to the reused blocks.

The second part of a digital twin — electrical systems The electrical and behavior model of a machine’s digital twin can simulate the real-world performance of active components and their peripherals in response to the automation system programming, and the environmental conditions — such as temperature and pressure. Advanced software provides the flexibility to run electrical and behavior simulation using either a physical or a virtual controller.

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As with the automation model, programmers can pull from a library of standard components for creating electrical and behavior models of drives, actuators, motors, valves, and other devices. This improves the initial accuracy of models while avoiding the need for programming simulations from scratch.

Because the electrical and behavior model functions in concert with the automation model, engineers can test automation code by varying ambient conditions — simulating failure conditions to validate PLC program response and performing other actions.

The third part of a digital twin — kinematics Digital twins can also include physical and kinematic models. Created using CAD data, such models characterize mechanical properties in virtualized space to enable visualization of machine behavior.

Accessible virtual commissioning For applications consisting mainly of PLCs and motor drives, basic motioncontrol simulation software (with automation software) lets machine builders reap most of the benefits of

Motion control simulation software (such as Siemens’ SINAMICS DriveSim Basic software) coupled with an integrated automation suite can assemble and link automation and electrical and behavior models . | courtesy of Siemens using digital twins during their design work. Automatic generation of virtual models is directly from the prewritten software blocks in the automation program, creating automation and electrical and behavior models for simulation.

Using software or hardware-in-the-loop, developers can visualize the interplay among automation controllers, and signals to and from periphery objects, such as drives.

Configuring such simulation requires minimal effort for developers because the baseline models are generated as standardized functional mockup units or FMUs. Each FMU is continuously updated by the manufacturer as they issue

Simulation software such as Siemens’ SIMIT and PLCSIM software displays the electrical and behavior model of motor drives and other components in response to a physical or a virtual controller’s automation routine.

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software and firmware updates to the corresponding physical device … ensuring accurate behavior of the simulation and consistent model-based development. Like prewritten software blocks from suppliers, FMUs are pre-validated to physical components — reducing the time needed to configure simulations while providing more opportunity to optimize machine efficiency.

Consider a PLC and drive model coupling application scenario where integrated automation and motion control simulation software adds value to development: • Calculated load profiles are loaded into an integrated selection or sizer tool, and the user can choose from a list of drives fitting the application requirements.

• The necessary drive parameters and the known interfaces are available for simulation.

• The user must only configure the portion of the drive needed for simulation purposes. A time-consuming, complete virtual commissioning of the drive isn’t required … saving time and money.

• The drive simulation model is prevalidated against the real drive using the same test vectors.

Using simulation as a tool for development and production also improves communication among teams and accelerates verification, especially when workers are remote. This enables more agile software development, because modifications for operational improvement become apparent long before real motors are spinning.

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Two examples of simulation software in use A global leader in heat transfer and fluid handling recently integrated one motion control simulation software package into its standard workflows to facilitate virtual testing. Observing and updating drive control models throughout development lets the company identify errors early for fault-free integration during real commissioning.

The software has also enhanced the company engineers’ capability to test from anywhere, because they no longer need a physical drive and motor to tweak and optimize motion sequences.

Nor do they waste time physically connecting test components and sensors.

Recently a bearings manufacturer also used motion control simulation software to enhance its testing capabilities. A grinding machine was

scheduled to go through a software upgrade and relocation but testing it in the new location would’ve cost an estimated 20 days of downtime — because the machine was in production use elsewhere. By creating a virtual model of the machine and performing a hardware-in-the-loop test at the new cell, the engineering team assembled a suitable configuration for the grinding machine with just four days of virtual debugging. When they connected the real machine to the new cell, no interface errors occurred … and production was ramped back up seamlessly.

Simulation enhances real commissioning and production Virtual commissioning is an invaluable tool for machine builders … and for those looking to simulate prior to prototyping, motion control simulation

software is an achievable entry point.

Through automatic generation of automation and electrical and behavior models, it provides simple and accurate means for both hardware and softwarein-the-loop testing.

This lets engineers optimize testing procedures and work more collaboratively. It also helps machine builders cut development costs because they can identify many errors virtually before working with real parts, and it reduces safety risks during actual commissioning, while promoting continuous and efficient operation. DW Siemens | industry.siemens.com

Custom Gearmotor Solutions

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5G TECHNOLOGY WORLD Delivers the Latest 5G Technology Trends

5G Technology World is EEWorldOnline’s newest site covering 5G technology, systems, infrastructure, and wireless design and development.

Get caught up on critical 5G information, check out the following articles on 5GTechnologyWorld.com: Massive MIMO performance testing: Emulate the channel Performing MIMO testing using real-world conditions is critical for successful 5G deployments. www.5gtechnologyworld.com/massive-mimoperformance-testing-emulate-the-channel

5G is hot, keep your components and systems cool 5G’s antennas and the devices that drive them generate more heat than their LTE predecessors. That creates new cooling problems for wireless devices and systems. www.5gtechnologyworld.com/5g-is-hot-keep-yourcomponents-and-systems-cool

5G moves into production, causes test issues 5G Technology World talks with Teradyne’s Jeorge Hurtarte, who explains components and over-the-air production test of 5G components. www.5gtechnologyworld.com/5g-moves-intoproduction-causes-test-issues

IEEE 1588 adds timing performance while reducing cost and risk GPS and GNSS have been the standards for network timing, but they have security issues. A Master clock and IEEE 1588 reduces the risk and lowers installation costs. www.5gtechnologyworld.com/ieee-1588-adds-timingperformance-while-reducing-cost-and-risk

For additional content, go to: www.5gtechnologyworld.com

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M o t i o n

Engineering

safer conveyors—

art meets science

Engineering safer conveyors is a longterm strategy. By focusing on the planning and design stages, the system can meet the demands of modern production and safety regulations, with a longer operational life, fewer stoppages and a lower cost of operation.

Todd Swinderman | CEO Emeritus | Martin Engineering

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A properly configured conveyor minimizes emissions for improved safety and easier maintenance.

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A

M o t i o n

new conveyor system will

ultimately succumb to the punishing bulk handling environment and begin the slow process of degradation.

The system will eventually require more time and labor for maintenance, shorter spans between outages, longer periods of downtime and an ever-increasing cost of operation. This period is also accompanied by an increased chance of injury or fatality as workers are progressively exposed to the equipment to perform cleaning, maintenance and to fabricate shortterm fixes to long-term problems. A total system replacement is cost prohibitive, but to remain compliant and/or meet ever-increasing production demands, upgrades and repairs are unavoidable.

When examining the safety of a system, efficiency can be improved and risk reduced by using a hierarchy of control methods for alleviating hazards. The consensus among safety professionals is that the most effective way to mitigate risks is to design the hazard out of the component or system.

This usually requires a greater initial capital investment than short-term fixes, but yields more cost-effective and durable results.

The science: Hierarchy of control methods Examining the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) accident database reveals the dangers of working around conveyors. Studies have revealed that the highest prevalence of accidents are near locations where cleaning and maintenance activities most frequently take place: take-up pulley, tail pulley, and head pulley.

Designs should be forward thinking, exceeding compliance standards and enhancing operators’ ability to incorporate future upgrades costeffectively and easily by taking a modular approach. Designing hazards

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L i n e a r

ELIMINATE BY DESIGN SUBSTITUTE GUARDS/CONTROLS WARN/MARKING ADMINISTRATIVE PPE

Safety improves as the type of hazard control moves higher up the hierarchy of methods.

out of the system means alleviating causes with the intent to bolster safety on a conveyor system, but the methods of protecting workers can vary greatly. In many cases, it will be necessary to use more than one control method, by incorporating lower ranked controls. However, these lower-ranking

Incorporating effective hazard control techniques is easier and less costly in the early stages of a project.

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approaches are best considered as support measures, rather than solutions in and of themselves.

For instance, personal protective equipment (PPE) such as respirators, safety goggles, blast shields, hard hats, hearing protectors, gloves, face shields and footwear, provide a barrier between

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the wearer and the hazard. Downsides are that they can be worn improperly, may be uncomfortable to use through an entire shift, can be difficult to monitor and offer a false sense of security.

But the bottom line is that they do not address the source of the problem.

Administrative controls (changes to the way people work) create policy that articulates a commitment to safety, but written guidelines can be easily shelved and forgotten. These controls can be taken a step further by establishing “active” procedures to minimize the risks. For example, supervisors can schedule shifts that limit exposure and require more training for personnel, but these positive steps still do not remove the exposure and causes of hazards.

The consensus among safety professionals is that the most effective way to mitigate risks is to design the hazard out of the component or system. This usually requires a greater initial capital investment than short-term fixes, but yields more cost-effective and durable results.

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L i n e a r

M o t i o n

Risk assessment applied to design helps create a safer conveyor system.

Warning signage is generally required by law, so this is less of a method than a compliance issue. It should be posted in plain sight, clearly understood and washed when dirty or replaced when faded. Like most lowertier methods, signs do not remove the hazard and are easily ignored.

Installing systems such as engineering controls that allow remote monitoring and control of equipment -or Guards such as gates and inspection doors that obstruct access -- greatly

fety

n Sa

rn o Retu

Low Bid

{{

Return on Safety

Costs Over Time

The return on better design and quality is realized over the extended life and safety of the system.

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Savings

yc le

Losses

Lif eC

reduce exposure, but again, do not remove the hazard.

Using the substitute method replaces something that produces a hazard with a piece of equipment or change in material that eliminates the hazard. For example, manual clearing of a clogged hopper could be replaced by installing remotely triggered air cannons.

Examples of eliminate by design are longer, taller and tightly sealed loading chutes to control dust and spillage or heavy-duty primary and secondary cleaners to minimize carryback. By using hazard identification and riskassessment methods early in the design process, engineers can create the safest, most efficient system for the space, budget and application.

Economic analysis of Prevention through Design (PtD) Another way of saying “Eliminate by Design” is PtD (Prevention through Design), the term used by The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). As a department of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the organization spearheaded the PtD initiative. In its report, the Institute points out that, while the underlying causes vary, studies of workplace accidents implicate “system design” in 37% of job-related fatalities.

Cost is most often the main inhibitor to PtD, which is why it’s best to implement safer designs in the planning and initial construction stages, rather than retrofitting the system later. The added engineering cost of PtD is often less than an additional 10% of engineering but has enormous benefits in improved safety and increased productivity.

The cost of PtD initiatives after initial construction can be three to five times as much as when the improvement is incorporated in the design stage. The biggest cause of expensive retroactive improvements is cutting corners initially by seeking lowest-bid contracts.

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NexSafe™ Low-bid process and life cycle cost Although the policy is generally not explicitly stated by companies, the lowbid process is usually an implied rule that is baked into a company’s culture.

It encourages bidders to follow a belt conveyor design methodology that is based on getting the maximum load on the conveyor belt and the minimum compliance with regulations using the lowest price materials, components and manufacturing processes available.

But when companies buy on price, the benefits are often short-lived, and costs increase over time, eventually resulting in losses. In contrast, when purchases are made based on lowest long-term cost (life-cycle cost), benefits usually continue to accrue and costs are lower, resulting in a net savings over time.

The Art – design hierarchy Rather than meeting minimum compliance standards, the conveyor system should exceed all code, safety and regulatory requirements using global best practices. By designing the

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system to minimize risk and the escape and accumulation of fugitive material, the workplace is made safer and the equipment is easier to maintain.

Life cycle costing should play into all component decisions. Buying on life cycle cost and anticipating the future use of problem-solving components in the basic configuration of the conveyor provides improved safety and access, without increasing the structural steel requirements or significantly increasing the overall price. It also raises the possibility for easier system upgrades in the future.

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L i n e a r

M o t i o n

retrofitting of new components that improve operation and safety, solving or preventing common maintenance problems.

Installing or providing for maintenance-minded solutions in the loading zone can greatly improve safety and reduce man-hours and downtime.

These components include slide-in/ slide-out idlers, impact cradles and support cradles. On larger conveyors, maintenance aids such as overhead monorails or jib cranes assist in the movement and replacement of components. Also, designers should ensure adequate access to utilities -typically electricity and/or compressed air -- to facilitate maintenance and performance. Next-generation conveyor designs may even feature a specially-engineered idler capped with an independent power generator that uses the conveyor’s movement to generate power for a wide array of autonomous equipment.

Dust, spillage and belt tracking are top concerns for many safety professionals. Field tests have shown that enlarged skirtboards and engineered settling zones promote dust settling and reduce fugitive material.

Curved loading and discharge chutes control the cargo transfer for centered placement and reduced turbulence. As the load is centered on the belt, guides ensure even travel through the takeup to promote consistent belt tracking.

Any transfer point is prone to buildup and clogging under the right conditions, be it ambient humidity, material wetness, volume or surface grade. Flow aids such as vibrators or air cannons on chutes can sustain material movement, improve equipment life and reduced the safety hazards associated with manually clearing clogs. DW

Rather than meeting minimum compliance standards, conveyor systems should exceed code, safety and regulatory requirements.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

Martin Engineering www.martin-eng.com

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Seven things

your device’s distance measurement system needs OEMs in industries from machine tools and automation to metrology, solar, and semiconductors, must frequently build linear distance measurement capabilities into their machines. Suppose a system is destined for a less-than-pristine environment, and stroke lengths from 25 millimeters to several meters, or even more. Given competing technologies and confusing claims, how can a designer, engineer, or purchaser choose the system that’s right for their unique device?

Mario DeVincentis • Engineering Manager • Schneeberger Inc

Here are seven things to look for that will help your chosen system measure up.

1 Integrated Design Instead of a component approach — where you buy a linear scale from one source, a guideway from another, and spend time, cost, and effort on do-it-yourself assembly — consider an integrated distance measuring system design.

An advanced model might combine a high-precision, magnetoresistive linear encoder with a guideway rail in a single package. Besides easing procurement and assembly, it can substantially reduce complexity for multiple machine axes, position measurement close to the process, decrease thermal variations, save precious space, and stand up to challenging machine environments.

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Schneeberger integrates a high-precision measuring head and scale onto its MONORAIL profiled linear guideway to create the magnetoresistive MONORAIL AMS integrated linear distance measuring system. | Courtesy of Schneeberger

s 2 Direct Measurement Many users prefer systems that use direct measurement. That is, the sensor, optical read head, and LED light sources are mounted directly on the machine’s moving part. (As opposed to glass scales or rotary encoders, which are sited on the nonmoving mass of the machine: an indirect measurement approach.)

The direct method ensures that the user is measuring precisely where the movement of the assembly occurs. So, users suffer no loss of windup in the ballscrew, motor, or coupling. Finally, watch out for proprietary restrictions: favor systems that let you work with any controller you choose.

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3 Absolute Positioning Distance measuring systems that offer absolute positioning capability have gained increasing favor with users worldwide. Where traditional incremental systems force users to move the assembly to read a positional value, absolute systems make positioning data available immediately.

And even if the machine loses power, the last position is safely maintained until power is restored.

4 Ensured Protection Consider your machine’s operating environment. For example, it may challenge glass scale encoder measuring systems. These often require a complicated (and expensive) compressed air supply to furnish overpressure versus contamination.

Alternatives such as integrated magnetoresistive models avoid these requirements, standing up to www.designworldonline.com

vibration and shock as well as “dirty” surroundings.

In any case, evaluate sealing provisions with care. Users want industrial-strength protection of the sensing system against rust, corrosion, oils, grease, cooling media, solid particle residue, and other likely contaminants.

5 Ease of Maintenance A supplier should offer a mature system design. That design should deliver sustained measurement accuracy over the longest possible service life — with the lowest levels of maintenance and downtime throughout. Look for benefits such as simple installation, minimal adjustments or alignments, and easy replacement. The latter can be ensured with easily fitted, interchangeable spare parts, using low-wear components wherever possible.

6 Cost Savings Glass-scale-encoder-based systems are a well-established technology, with many currently operating installations.

However, they are relatively expensive August 2021

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and require multiple components to assemble. They demand expenditures for compressed air and considerable ongoing maintenance. Also, their service lives may be somewhat short, especially where the machine environment presents unacceptable vibration or contaminants exposure.

On a comparative basis, an integrated magnetoresistive distance measuring system like the one described above avoids many of these problems. In total, it may achieve cost savings of 50% or more for operation in many applications.

Here we see a wafer inspection using a linear motor design. | Courtesy of Schneeberger

Cost of Ownership Measuring System

Glass Scale

Glass Scale

Auto(3 shifts)

Semiconductor (2 shifts)

One Off Costs (Design)

1503

1503

423

Cost per axis

668

668

75

Ongoing Costs (per year)

276

142

3

Replacement Costs

1603

1593

607

Industry Application

A study in savings A recent study compared ownership expenses of a glass scale encoder system versus an integrated magnetoresistive system for 3-shift and 2-shift operations. (All costs in euros.) The integrated system (AMSABS 3B) was easier and thus less pricey to design. Its integrated assembly was installed easily, whereas the glass scale system incurred higher costs for hardware and mounting, alignment, and hooking up compressed air. The integrated system required much less for maintenance and nothing for air supply. And where a glass scale system needed wholesale replacement, an integrated system replacement took only a new scan head and a few screws.

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AMSABS 3B

7 A Proven Solution Be cautious about suppliers that are new to this area of the market.

Creating designs that deliver the most reliable, high-precision performance takes years of finetuning to meet evolving customer requirements for technology, quality, and support. A supplier should show a proven record of successful installations and satisfied customers.

Take delivery of a linear distance measurement system with all the advantages above to ensure years of industrial-strength performance and reliability. DW

Consider your machine’s operating environment.

For example, it may challenge glass scale encoder measuring systems. These often require a complicated (and expensive) compressed air supply to furnish overpressure versus contamination.

Schneeberger schneeberger.com/en/us/

www.designworldonline.com

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w w w. d e s i g nw o r l d o n l i n e . c o m / M C 2

Linear guides — profiled and round (spline)

Lisa Eitel

In a new Motion Control Classroom, the editors of Design World detail ball splines — a type of rolling-bearing linear guide. They’re much like linear bushing (round sha and bushing) assemblies but with a critical distinction in their operation.

More specifically, the ball-spline sha is much like a linear-guide sha except that the spline sha has grooves along its length. The spline nut (analogous to the bearing, or bushing, of a traditional rolling bearing guide) contains circuits of recirculating balls. But instead of the spline nut riding eely on the sha with the ability to rotate during linear travel, the load-carrying balls ride in the sha grooves that constrain the spline nut and totally prevent rotation.

Another version of the ball spline is the rotary ball spline, which incorporates a rotating element — such as an angular contact ball bearing, crossed rollers, or gear teeth — on the outer diameter of the nut. This adds the capability of rotary motion to the linear motion provided by the ball spline … somewhat like a cross between a recirculating linear guide and a ballscrew.

Because the recirculating balls of the spline nut ride in grooves, the contact area is greater than for ball bushings, giving ball splines much higher load capacities than ball bushing assemblies of the same size. But even though higher load capacity is a benefit, the primary reason many designers and engineers use ball splines is their ability to prevent rotation or (in the case of rotary ball splines) to provide both linear and rotary motion in one device.

Access this and other MC2 installments by visiting designworldonline.com/MC2.

This educational installment sponsored by:

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3D Printing Saves Lives In the early days of the pandemic, engineers quickly

Prosthetic limbs have been printed for years. So when a global crisis hit, additive manufacturing was ready to contribute quickly to life-saving equipment.

Jean Thilmany • Senior Editor

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designed and printed medical protective gear and respirator valves.

The response demonstrated the lifesaving potential the technique could have in the medical realm. But many in the field already knew the potential 3D printing has to enhance patients’ quality of life. For years, the method of creating a 3D object by depositing a material in layers has been used for customized prosthetic limbs.

While many printed medical devices are still under investigation, patients who wore early 3D-printed limbs—only about 20 years ago— recognize how far additive manufacturing has come in healthcare in that short time. Scientists have even established a new field—3D bio-printing—that explores everything from the prosthetic iris to an artificial heart to the printing of customized pharmaceuticals.

But bio-printing couldn’t exist without computer-aided design. A medical device CAD model—whether a prosthetic leg or a respiratory mask—exists before the physical prototype does, the same as in other manufacturing processes. Across all types of manufacturing, the engineer redesigns and analyzes a model many times before creating a physical prototype.

Rather than feeding out instructions to, say, a CNC machine, the CAD files used for additive manufacturing instruct the printers on how much material to deposit at particular locations.

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That precision along with the range of materials 3D printers can use, even living tissue, drives medical research across all categories.

For instance, doctors at Northwestern University announced in June that they’d used images of volunteers’ irises, Photoshop, and AutoCAD software to create a prosthetic iris. It’s intended for people with aniridia, a rare condition in which a person is born without an iris. The iris controls pupil size in response to light, so a prosthetic iris could help its wearers see better in all types of light conditions.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Yonsei University reported their work on a 3D-printed cosmetic, prosthetic eye through use of mapping, design, and printing technology. The paper appeared in the February 2021 journal Korean Ophthalmology.

Studies like these are an extension of one of 3D printing’s first medical uses, the creation of customized, artificial limbs. When the technique was still new, doctors discovered additive DESIGN WORLD

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manufacturing created better-fitting, lighter, stronger and more flexible prosthetics than traditional methods; and in much less time.

Printed limbs can be closely customized to the wearer through the use of imaging systems like computer-aided tomography, which exactly maps the patient’s body, often the remaining stump of a leg, where the artificial limb will attach.

The CAT scans are sent to a CAD system where they’re converted into digital model of the body.

Then, engineers can create a prosthetic model that exactly fits the shape of the body.

When the CAD model is complete, the software sends instructions to the 3D printer, which prints the customized prosthetic by building it up, layer upon layer of a material such as plastic or metal.

The result is a much better fit for patients, a lighter prosthetic, and—in many cases—a more affordable device, say researchers like Hugh Herr, the director of the Biomechatronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. www.designworldonline.com

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Researchers at Duke University and the Pratt School of Engineering modified a surgical helmet to incorporate a 3D-prinited filter to create a a protective device to safeguard surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Duke University

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C A D This image shows how a retrofit surgical hood from Duke University and Pratt School Engineering is worn to shield surgeons’ faces while still allowing them to wear headlights and loupes directly on their heads. | Duke University

After the Civil War, prosthetic legs became more common within the United States, especially jointed legs such as the one below. The design hadn’t changed much through the years; until additive manufacturing. Hugh Herr, the director of the Biomechatronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is helping create “biohybrid” prosthetics, partly using 3D printing, that work in harmony with the humans who wear them, including himself.

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An artificially leg printed leg a decade ago—even some printed now—looks more like a traditionally created prosthetic limb, which is die-cast of aluminum or titanium. Patients who wear these standard limbs may move awkwardly due to the devices limited range of motion. The people who wear them may have difficulty with walking, running, and picking up objects, Herr says.

Today’s myoelectric prosthetics are fitted with robotics and sensor technologies so their movements closely mimic that of a human hand or foot. Through more natural movement, wearers will have an easier time walking, running or picking up and carrying objects, movements that today can be somewhat awkward due to the limited motion of the prosthetic, Herr says.

In today’s parlance these are “bionic limbs,” so-called because their capabilities are so much greater than the early 3D-printed limbs.

Herr’s work has been instrumental to bionic limbs. But he wants to extend the field even further. He’s helping create “biohybrid” prosthetics that work in harmony with the humans who wear them.

His mission is personal as well.

Herr lost both legs to frostbite while rock climbing in New Hampshire’s White Mountains in 1982.

He still climbs. In fact, Herr says he climbs better with the legs he’s recently developed than he did before the accident. He expects future advances in prosthetics to help him climb with even more speed and agility.

Also in the near future, wearers may well control the prosthetic limbs the way most everyone controls their natural arms and legs; without a thought. Or rather, with a subconscious thought. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, for example, are studying brain-machine interfaces to control movement of prosthetic limbs and include touch perception.

Additive manufacturing will keep up with these advancements, Herr says.

Medical printing in a pandemic Printed prosthetic limbs showed the medical community that 3D printing had a place in healthcare. And thankfully so; as the year 2020 proved that additive manufacturing could save lives.

When the COVID-19 pandemic froze traditional supply chains, opensource CAD systems and 3D printers were able to get devices into the hands of healthcare providers

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Empowering Automation

who faced shortages in medical and testing equipment and in protective gear, says Aamir Nazir, a researcher at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s High-Speed 3D Printing Research Center. He and fellow researchers studied the rise of the rise of 3D printing and smart CAD during the shutdown, publishing their findings in the October 2021 Journal of Manufacturing Systems.

When the lockdown began in earnest, “it became obvious very fast that traditional manufacturing and supply techniques weren’t going to work,” Nazir says.

“This created the need for geo scattered, small, and rapid manufacturing units along with a smart computer aided design facility,” he says.

The medical devices printed during this time helped saved lives. The devices could be designed and printed much cheaper, and in much less time than with traditional manufacturing methods. Not to mention, the devices could be made right on the spot, or nearby and available immediately, no shipping required, Nazir says.

Medical manufacturers helped the cause by providing 3D printable models on the cloud, rapidly scaling the movement toward 3D cloud manufacturing, he adds.

In those early days of the pandemic, a team of Italian engineers stepped up to make a 3D printed version of a vital respirator valve, a Reuters news report stated.

A hospital in Chiari, an area in northern Italy hit hard by the pandemic, urgently needed valves for the respirators that kept many patients breathing. When the valves’ manufacturer couldn’t get them out in time, Christian Fracassi volunteered his engineers at Isinnova, a 3D printing company he founded.

His staff of 14 engineers immediately began tinkering with the design of the Venturi valve, a small but important valve that kept respirators functioning.

Fracassi took the resulting CAD file and a 3D printer directly to the hospital, discovered it worked, and quickly printed 100 valves. That evening, at least 10 patients were using respirators fitted with the printed valve, Reuters reported.

The Italian hospital wasn’t alone.

The need for the Venturi valves was great. By March 18, more than 100 medical facilities and engineers had asked Percassi to share his CAD file. He couldn’t share the file, he told them, the correct course of action would be to contact the manufacturer first.

In Italy, 3D-printed parts have to be certified. But emergency rules in that country waived the requirement, according to 3D Printing Media Network, which started an Emergency AM Forum to help share designs and ideas during the crisis. Other countries may not have similar waivers, Percassi reasoned.

The next day engineer Filib Kober posted a free model of the Venturi valve he’d made with the GrabCAD open-source system.

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A gripper inspired by the motion of a human finger ADAPTIVE DESIGN Finger modules flex multiple joints to conform and adapt to various workpieces, offering an unmatched level of versatility and application potential.

CONFIGURABLE SYSTEM Modules can be assembled in radial or parallel hub arrays with one to five fingers in each position.

WIDE RANGE OF USE Suitable for both industrial and collaborative robots.

Visit phdinc.com/flexion to see FLEXION in action.

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3D printing can be used to make prosthetic hands with a range of features and capabilities.

Within a week, the model had been downloaded many times and was already being updated. The Kober model couldn’t be printed on the smaller, desktop printers. But individual “makers” only had access to desktop printers, says engineer Useriu Daniel.

By the end of March, he’d released his valve-design iteration, created with Catia V5 software. Daniel is an engineer at Romanian researcher organization INCDT-COMOTI. His updated design can be made with through fused deposition, the method used by desktop printers, he says. The model also had a new feature and the inner surfaces were optimized for fluid flow.

Other engineers quickly designed parts that could be printed or could be integrated with existing designs; and even with existing devices. Engineers at Duke University collaborated with students and researchers at the Pratt School of Engineering to retrofit arthroplasty helmets—a surgical hood.

The updated hoods safely shielded surgeons’ faces while still allowing them to wear headlights and loupes directly on their heads.

The engineering team created a manifold that could be 3D printed and

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incorporated onto existing helmets.

CAD allowed for the quick testing and redesign needed for the project, says Melissa Erickson, a spine surgeon at Duke University who helped spearhead the project.

“The engineering team designed and created the final adapter just in 12 days. They were able to come up with different design alterations while testing to make the final manifold, which is only possible because of 3D printing,” Erickson says.

It’s hard to believe, with these quickthinking creations at a time of crisis, that additive manufacturing is still in its early days in the medical field. Watching a video of Herr scale a mountain on his “bionic legs” does nothing to dispel that.

Though the future of the field is almost unimaginable, Herr thinks he’s got a pretty good handle on the cutting edge of the present. By giving wearers access to these new prosthetics, he’s giving them access to the part of themselves that moves naturally through the world.

By opening up lives like this, by helping to save lives, 3D printing and CAD is on its way to becoming a big part of healthcare. DW

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Product World Self-lubricating bearing for heavy-duty applications igus igus.com The TX2 bearing has an improved iglide material, which offers self-lubricating and maintenance-free properties for heavy-duty applications. The TX2 increases wear resistance by a factor of 3.5 in load ranges with more than 100 MPa surface pressure. The material is suitable for components in machines that serve construction and agriculture, requiring more than 50 liters of lubricant annually.

These tribo plain bearings made of high-strength filament fabric are used where very high loads occur. The robust filament, in its specially interwoven design, ensures maximum resistance and enables a maximum permissible compressive strength of 400 MPa. The newly developed material was extensively tested on the indoor and outdoor test rigs in the 3,800 square-meter igus test laboratory. Pivot tests on hard-chrome shafts showed that iglide TX2 is around 3.5 times more wear-resistant than the standard heavy-duty material TX1. Like all iglide plain bearings, iglide TX2 is self-lubricating and operates dry.

Thermoplastic polyurethane parabolic pitch belts Gates gates.com/TPU Gates has added two new thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) belts — the Gates Parabolic Pitch (GPP) in 8 mm and 14 mm profiles. The new GPP belts are stronger, more durable, quieter, safer to operate, and require less maintenance than other alternatives, including alternative rubber belts, roller chains, and steel cables.

The high-strength, reinforced steel (RSL) GPP 14-RSL has the highest break strength of any 14 mm pitch TPU belt on the market, and the standard product versions are compatible with Timken’s RPP sprockets, making them suitable drop-in replacements across a range of applications. All Gates GPP belts are equipped with nylon fabric on the tooth sides for high abrasion resistance and quieter operation, and the optional low-temperature construction provides an operating range from minus 30 up to 50° Celsius.

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Expanded range of universal joints Ruland ruland.com Ruland Manufacturing has expanded its line of Belden Universal single and double friction bearing universal joints to offer over 3,500 standard items. Customers will have the widest selection of universal joints to choose from, including straight, step, and inch to metric bore sizes with or without keyways in sizes ranging from ¼ to 1-1/2-in. (6 to 35 mm).

The expanded range of universal joints will be available through Ruland’s eCommerce platform and traditional distribution channels, offering customers various ways to purchase. When using ruland.com, customers have access to 2D and 3D cad files, full product specifications, live chat with technical specialists, pricing, and lead times.

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Product World Terminal block series expansion WAGO wago.us A complete line of function terminal blocks has been added to WAGO’s TOPJOB S push-button terminal block family. This expansion includes automotive and pivoting fuse holders, blade disconnects, and base carrier terminal blocks for pluggable modules.

All variants have industry-proven Push-In CAGE CLAMP connection technology and the intuitive, easy-to-identify, orange push-button, which can be actuated using a standard tool. Using the same profile as other terminal blocks in the TOPJOB S family, accessories such as jumpers and universal marking strips may be interchanged throughout the entire line.

These new Function Terminal Blocks come in four basic styles and in 2, 3, and 4 conductor variants: 1. Mini automotive blade fuses or mini-circuit breakers (multiple LED blown fuse indication options).

2. Pivot-style glass fuse holder (5 x 20 mm mini metric fuses) 3. Blade disconnect.

4. Base carrier style for pluggable glass fuse holders, orange disconnect plugs, or electronic component modules (offering various plugs, including custom and empty, allowing users to design their own).

Miniature photoelectric sensor SICK sick.com The W4F is SICK’s latest generation of miniature photoelectric sensors.

A new ASIC platform delivers numerous performance advantages to this product family; these sensors can detect jet black, highly reflective, flat, or transparent objects with the utmost reliability. The W4F can also provide distance information, such as the height of objects and, as a result, identify process errors.

The Blue Pilot operating concept combined with the monitoring options make configuring and monitoring the sensors easier than ever, which saves time during commissioning. IO-Link and new smart functions for sensor monitoring and diagnostics create the link to the digitalized machine and application world. The W4F provides maximum performance in the smallest installation space, reliable switching behavior, and a guaranteed process setup, even in the new applications that open up for the W4F.

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Digital differential measuring systems Kaman Precision Products kamansensors.com The KD-5600 family of digital eddy current measurement systems is suitable for COTS applications for fast steering mirrors, magnetic bearing active control, shaft vibration, image stabilization, and adaptive optics.

Customers in the small satellite, semi-conductors, military/aerospace, high precision metal-working, and UAV/drone sectors benefit from the KD-5600 system’s host of features.

Designed for non-contact linear position displacement sensing applications, Kaman released two configurations for tailored use. The KD- 5656 (Full System) and KD-5690 FE (Front-End) are equipped with custom sensors, signal processing, analog to digital converter, and a custom calibration system to ensure precision and accuracy.

For optimum operation for each channel, the KD-5600 system has two matched sensors.

Input signals are filtered, and SWaP-C scaled to provide optimum operation, remove common mode noise, and deliver a drive signal. They also offer digital filtering as part of the signal conditioning to reduce signal noise.

Hybrid bearings for tough industrial applications NKE nke.at These hybrid bearings consist of ultrapure steel bearing rings and ceramic rolling elements made of bearing grade silicon nitride Si3N4. “At first glance, this material pairing is highly unusual, but it offers many advantages in an enormous range of applications, which significantly increases the reliability of the overall system,” says Michael Rössl, Application Engineer at NKE in Steyr, Austria.

The silicon nitride rolling elements are 60% lighter than those made from steel and are suitable for high rotating speeds. These hybrid bearings can reach limit speeds that are over 20% higher than conventional standard bearings.

Even at these high and demanding speeds, NKE hybrid bearings demonstrate strong performance characteristics and minimal running noise. They are particularly well-suited for high-speed electric motors.

The ceramic rolling elements have high wear resistance and can achieve better results under demanding conditions, such as poor lubrication, extending service life significantly.

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Product World Heavy-duty, torsionally rigid disk couplings

Instrumentation and compensating cables for sophisticated applications

Hexelus hexelus.com

HELUKABEL helukabel.com/us/home.html

Designed to suit applications where high reliability, precision, and an optimum weight/power ratio are required, these couplings are well-suited for applications with high speeds and power. This coupling is composed of three main items: the two fully-turned steel hubs and a single or double disc pack in 304 stainless steel.

• Larger and more rigid than “typical” disk couplings • Made in fully turned steel with standard phosphating treatment • Disc pack in stainless steel.

• Extremely high torsional rigidity.

• Maintenance and wear-free.

• Version with double disc pack: GTR/D. • High torque – up to 130,000 Nm (1,150,000 in-lbs) • Maximum Bore Diameter: 205 mm (8-in.)

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Helukabel now has four new in-stock instrumentation and compensating cable product groups for applications in the oil and gas sector, and use in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries.

Reliable data transmission is a must, even under the most extreme conditions. As a result, these robust instrumentation cables (HELUDATA) and compensating cables (HELUTHERM) have been designed for sophisticated applications to ensure the continuous transmission of sensitive measurement data even under harsh conditions.

These new cable products come in various designs and insulation materials and guarantee minimum losses, even over long distances.

Configuration options include conductors wrapped in a single or double shield, cables with an overall shield, and with or without wire armor. This ensures that the correct cable version can be found for each application.

Both cable series have a robust PVC jacket, and are certified according to European, US, and Canadian (UL and cUL) standards along with their halogen-free, flame-retardant (LS0H) variants. The LS0H versions can be used in areas where corrosive or toxic combustible gases are not permitted. HELUTHERM compensating cables for thermocouple connection are available in a diverse variety of metal combinations. All cables are resistant to UV rays, sunlight, and oil.

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Servo-coupling for hollow shaft connections Ringfeder ringfeder.com The GWE 5117 series of elastomer jaw servo-couplings have a new hub design. With its partially slit hub located directly under the jaws and two screw clamps, this model eliminates radial loads on the shaft and achieves uniform power transmission. This hub design also prevents premature wear and system failure.

Designed for hollow shaft connections, the GWE 5117 servo-coupling is equipped with an expanding mandrel for friction-locked torque transmission. It has a spider element that is available in solid standard form, minimizing movement and achieving longer life, or drilled through the center.

For convenience, the coupling comes with a slightly shorter design for compact use cases. It also provides easy accessibility with its interactive hub QR code that links to instructions.

Drive couplings AutomationDirect automationdirect.com AutomationDirect has added SIM drive couplings to its line of mechanical power transmission products.

SIM drive couplings are power transmission components used to couple the shafts of various mechanical devices, often of different sizes, and compensate for shaft misalignment.

Four different styles of couplings are available. Jaw/Spider couplings provide a range of fitment and higher torque. Oldham couplings offer a higher speed rating and allow for a higher misalignment of mated shafts. Servo beam style couplings add a significant increase to speed rating and have zero backlash, while high-gain couplings offer the highest speed ratings, excellent vibration absorption, as well as zero backlash.

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Ad Index

SALES

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Altech Corporation ....19,21,23

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Phd Inc ..................................... 81

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SMC Corporation

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of America .........................22 Society of Mechanical

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Engineers ......................... 55

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