Design World June 2018

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June 2018

inside: Motion Control: Rethinking conveyor

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p. 96

3D CAD: The perfect unorthodox

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p. 110

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The power of innovation— and trust At the recent NAHAD Annual Meeting & Convention in Marco Island, Florida, manufacturers and distributors listened to and then interacted with David Nour, author of the book Co-Create: How Your Business Will Profit from Innovative and Strategic Collaboration.

One of the most interesting parts of his talk was a section on barriers to innovation. After all, innovation is at the heart of any successful manufacturer, whether you’re making a small component that’s part of a larger machine or designing that larger machine itself. And beyond that, you also have to be willing to innovate in everything from the manufacturing process to how you deal with the people working in your organization.

According to Nour, some of the main things standing in the way of innovation are risk avoidance, leadership, staffing and internal systems.

But, according to a live survey he took of the attendees, risk avoidance turns out to be the biggest one in the manufacturing world. That makes sense— especially in more mature aspects of engineering design, it’s easy to fall back on the concept of “things are going well, why should I do anything differently?”

So, how do you embrace innovation at your company and take risks?

One good place to start is with trust.

Top performing companies are five times more likely to embrace a culture that embraces trust, said Nour. In this context, think of trust as safety. Create a space for people in your company to take prudent risks.

“Ever since we were kids, it’s been driven into us that failure is bad,” he said. “But we learn more from the things that don’t go well. And when we scrape our knees and have to get up and then go at it again, that’s progress. Think of it as ‘we never failed, we always learn.’”

There is also a different side of trust, and that ties into leadership. Do your leaders trust people who look or think differently than them? Do you?

Nour explained that 42% of top performing organizations value diversity.

That doesn’t simply mean ethnic, nor gender, but also diversity of thought.

That turns out to be most entrepreneurs’ blind spot. They tend to attract and recruit—as well as promote—everybody else just like themselves. Yet, if you don’t have that proverbial devil’s advocate in the room who says, “Okay, I get it, I’m just asking why are we doing this again?,” then Nour said that you’re going to keep finding yourself playing Monday morning quarterback, and asking what went wrong, instead of truly innovating. DW

Paul J. Heney - VP, Editorial Director pheney@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW—Editor

4

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com DESIGN WORLD

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Teschler on Topic When rational decision making is an oxymoron

One of the strongest tendencies in the human thinking process is what’s called confirmation bias. It is a propensity to interpret new data in ways that support the opinions you already had.

Now, consider that most engineers are highly analytical people. Generally speaking, they have a strong ability to use quantitative data and can reason out a hypothesis pretty well.

Unfortunately, having an analytical personality is bad news if you want to avoid confirmation bias. Though it may seem counterintuitive, psychologists say people with strong analytic personalities are more likely to twist data to confirm their own beliefs than are people with a lower ability to reason.

Researchers from Yale, Ohio State, Cornell, and the University of Oregon uncovered this tendency using an experiment where subjects had to solve a problem that depended on how well they could draw valid inferences from data presented to them. As you might expect, those who measured highest in numeracy did substantially better than less numerate people when researchers presented the data as though it resulted

from a study of a new skin rash treatment.

But then researchers took the same data and presented it as results from a study on whether gun control affected crime rates. Interestingly, people in the study who scored highest in numeracy scored worse than the rest in terms of making valid inferences, though the numbers presented for gun control were exactly the same as those for skin rashes.

Obviously, opinions were interfering with the ability to analyze data objectively. Tali Sharot, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University College of London, points out that these findings debunk the idea that only less intelligent people are likely to twist facts. Ironically, she says, people may use their intelligence not to draw more accurate conclusions but to find fault with data they don’t like.

Sharot also says this confirmation bias is why, when arguing with others, it may not help to call up facts and figures supporting our own position and contradicting theirs. Even smart people find it difficult to change their mind when presented with hard data indicating they’re wrong.

Keep these ideas in mind as you ponder another of Sharot’s

experiments. Sharot and her colleagues seated people at a computer keyboard and told them to press the space bar every time they saw a painting by Klee.

The reward was a dollar for every correct space bar press. But when a Picasso appeared, another button had to be pressed quickly to avoid losing a dollar.

It turned out that people were quicker to press a key that gained them cash, slower and more likely to miss pressing a key altogether to avoid a loss.

Sharot says biology explains the results. When we get the chance to acquire something good, our brains trigger a chain of biological events that make us more likely to act fast. But when we anticipate something bad, our instinct is to withdraw. The biological chain of events tends to inhibit a response. In a nutshell, we’re more likely to execute an action when we anticipate something we like than when avoiding something sad, she says.

These results are something to keep in mind during the dynamics of an engineering project. Engineers with an axe to grind may not be swayed by contrary evidence. And managerial determination to continue a questionable project may have little to do with grit and determination and much to do with a biological predisposition to move forward. DW

Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW—LeeTeschler

6

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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Technology Forward Will the collaboration of IoT, 3D printing and blockchain change the world?

When additive manufacturing re-emerged as a viable technology about ten years ago, the buzz focused on what would be the “killer app” that would make it must have equipment in any engineers’ toolbox.

So far, the aerospace industries and many of the medical industries have found plenty of reasons to use additive technologies. But this technology is not in everyone’s toolbox yet.

What if the path to that killer app involves combining additive with a couple of other emerging technologies-the IoT and blockchain? This is an interesting idea being discussed in some technology circles.

Blockchain is a transactional infrastructure. It’s basically a decentralized, distributed, and highly secure digital ledger anyone can use to record transactions. While both parties may have copies of their transactions, the blockchain prevents anyone from altering them. Thus, proponents claim blockchain is incorruptible, promising integrity for parties who may not know each other, let along trust each other.

Ironically, blockchain arose out of needs for security and privacy with the digital currency Bitcoin.

Used in other industries, though, blockchain provides a safe alternative to other data transaction and storage offerings.

Proponents of blockchain believe that when combined with the IoT and additive manufacturing, manufacturing will be decoupled from geography.

You will be able to send design files anywhere in the world and have items additively made at a nearby location and your intellectual property will remain secure.

Currently, blockchain projects exist in finance, customs processing, risk management and even cryptographic traceability. Proponents think the next project will be global trade. When this happens, they predict a realignment of global economic power as on-demand production is decentralized, i.e., supplychain disruption.

Of course, much work needs to be done to achieve this vision. IoT technology, like additive technology, is still facing acceptance issues. Where is the data that proves IoT delivers greater efficiencies in manufacturing; finding areas that can be tweaked to shave off seconds of production time or reduce scrap? Where is the data that proves a resin-like material delivers the strength, heat resistance, elongation breaks or other mechanical feature a design needs?

And even blockchain must still prove its usefulness. Blockchain is at the point both IoT and additive manufacturing have been—at the hype phase. That’s not necessarily a bad place to be. As the recent history of additive technology

shows, this can be the place for a great deal of investment, which can lead to technological advances.

But the vision is intriguing. Additive technology already has a number of service providers around the world who can take a CAD file and create parts for others, and deliver those parts either locally or globally.

Who knows where IoT analytics will affect manufacturing processes and supply chains, taking out areas of inefficiency and reducing costs.

And once there’s a format to safely and securely track orders, changes, deliveries, and any other transactions, everything opens up for greater collaboration, and potentially for solving more complex problems. DW

Leslie Langnau • Managing Editor llangnau@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW_3Dprinting

8

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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Green Engineering Paul J. Heney

• VP, Editorial Director

Hydraulic power units show their environmental side

The Green Hydraulic Power unit, designed by MJC Engineering, provides power on demand.

Documented energy savings up to 70% have been reported, earning users energy credits from their home states.

MJC Engineering is a custom machine tool builder in Huntington Beach, Calif. that specializes in metal-spinning machines for applications such as sheet spinning, flow forming, wheel spinning and rotary forging. The company’s machines produce end products such as car wheels, aircraft engine housings, spacecraft fuel tanks, and welding gas cylinders. They typically use very large volumes of hydraulic power in operation.

About three years ago, the company’s president, Carl Lorentzen, began investigating the configuration of the hydraulic units used on his company’s machinery. He had a great interest in servo-pump technology, having read about its application in other industrial uses such as injection molding machines, extruders, stamping presses, offshore oil rig assemblies, cranes, and lifts.

“We had looked at a variety of ways to improve the energy efficiency of our machines. Being a California company, there are substantial incentives offered here for documented energy savings in machine building and operations. Plus, I felt it was simply the right course of action to do our part in protecting natural resources,” Lorentzen said.

Another thing that motivated Lorentzen was a recent company safety audit conducted by its insurance company. Sound levels were tested, and the

DESIGN WORLD

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hydraulic power units were a concern.

MJC began serious investigation into the application of servo-pump technology to replace the constant motor operation on the main hydraulic unit of the machines, in a concerted effort to reduce energy consumption, noise and, owing to the smaller hydraulic reservoirs needed, the machine footprint.

“We are fortunate to have on our staff an amazing group of electrical, hydraulic, controls and mechanical engineering talents,” Lorentzen said. “All these engineers had the same reaction I did, and we began to rethink our hydraulic power units from the ground up.”

The company turned to his longtime supplier of CNC, PLC and drives technology, Siemens, for further assistance. A team led

by Chris Britton, the sales manager for the region, assisted with various application

June 2018

11

5/31/18 1:14 PM

Green Engineering engineering studies, energy and controls testing to affect the optimum design, all while working in concert with the MJC team.

“They use a wide variety of our motion controls and components on their machine builds, including CNC, PLC, motors, spindles, power modules and our drive control chart (DCC) technology that allows configuring of all the control loop structures,” said Britton. “As it happens, [we] have been frequent project partners for some time, so this marriage of technologies was even easier to accomplish. We offer our Sinamics servopump technology to customers, utilizing various pumps with our motors and drives.”

A further advantage quickly emerged, as the Green Hydraulic Power unit (GHP) began to take shape. Little or no external

Wireless panel operation for easy movement by operator.

12

cooling was required to dissipate the ambient heat of the unit.

GKN Aerospace in Orangeburg, South Carolina was the first customer for whom an entirely new spinforming machine was built, using a complete Green Hydraulic Power unit. MJC’s VP Per Carlson and his hydraulic engineer Jerry Wang designed the unit. An already documented result of the GHP unit onboard its machine, GKN has experienced nearly a 70% energy consumption savings, plus the quieter operation and smaller footprint.

Following this development, Lorentzen had another, more profound revelatory moment. He realized the unit could easily be adapted onto any type of heavy hydraulic piece of equipment.

Subsequently, he established Green Hydraulic Power Inc., which today functions as a free-standing enterprise.

“The GHP is a complete turnkey system with I/O options to run with any PLC, to control the power utilization on virtually any type of hydraulicallypowered machine. We researched the variable speed drive hydraulics for over two years to devise the optimum solution on our current standard models, which comprise 15, 30, 55 and 80 kW units,” said MJC electrical engineer and robotics manager Jose Machuca.

More than a dozen MJC machines with GHP units have been built and installed as of late 2017, with no issues reported.

Lorentzen cites the extended warranty on the Siemens components, which constitute the majority of those used on the GHP, as a further upside.

“We had a very dynamic interaction with the Siemens engineering team to make this unit come alive. We frankly didn’t know what to expect at the outset, but the results have been very pleasing, so far. And we’ve only just begun,” said Machuca.

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

Green Engineering 6-18 Vs2.LL.indd 12

Further options under development for GHP include Siemens Scalance wireless control, kW torque setpoint on pressure, fail-safe compatibility, custom touchscreen and other monitoring and maintenance tools for operation and unit data transmission in an Industry 4.0 environment, over a Profinet industrial Ethernet protocol.

When equipped with the high-level Safety Integrated PLC and other required components, the GHP is suitable for severe environments such as oil rigs, chemical processing equipment and other challenging work environment applications.

Currently, machines with this green hydraulic unit are in operation at such industry giants as Meritor, SpaceX, Worthington and multiple plants of GKN Aerospace. Most have been in use for six months to a year without performance issues. Owing to the widely varying duty cycles involved, Lorentzen explained, “We can say with high certainty our customers are experiencing up to 90% energy savings, plus the quieter operation and reduced carbon footprint as additional positives. I’m certainly glad I read what others were doing with servopump technology, as it’s made a big and very positive impact on our company.” DW

MJC Engineering & Technology Inc. www.mjcengineering.com

Green Hydraulic Power Inc. www.greenhydraulicpower.com Siemens Industry Inc. www.siemens.com

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Contents 6 • 2018

•

vol 13 no 6

•

designworldonline.com

Inside: 62/ 2019: the Year of the Legged Robots

•

72/ Self-driving cars

www.designworldonline.com

•

80/ Robots in warehouses

A Supplement to Design World - June 2018

Evolution of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot. page 68

Robotics Cover_6-18_FINAL.V3.indd 60

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60-95

96

A supplement of Design World June 2018

How to pick the how to pick the right

plastic

for additive manufacturing

130

96 _MOTION CONTROL

126 HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printer

110 _3D CAD

Rethinking conveyor performance

The perfect, unorthodox design

A new approach offers to simplify

What if you could create the perfect

conveyor control and design by

part unlike anything that exists today?

redefining automation productivity.

New CAD tools combined with

3D printing can make that happen,

makers say.

138 Choosing between 3D printing and injection molding processes

COVER_MPF 3-18_Vs1.indd 124

124-140

Medical www.designworldonline.com

104 _LINEAR MOTION Engineers building linear-motion

118 _ELECTRONICS

systems can use ground-up DIY

Looks like LabVIEW

approaches or purchase complete

Free programs that seem to behave

turnkey solutions. Here we explain

like LabVIEW engineering software

where each tactic is most profitable.

have become available. Here’s what’s

behind the user interface.

A Supplement to Design World - June 2018

Medical Device Development: the Digital Future has arrived

Profitable linear-motion design

5/31/18 10:53 AM

Medical Tips cover 6-18_FINAL.indd 141

5/31/18 11:00 AM

141-156

ON THE COVER This Parker Hannifin belt-driven linear actuator and linear-motor-based actuator are typical components for hybrid linear-motion approaches. | Courtesy of Parker Hannifin

A | S | B | P| E

A | S | B | P| E

A | S | B | P| E

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6.18

• contents

departments 04 Insights 06 Teschler on Topic 08 Technology Forward 1 1 Green Engineering 18 Design For Industry 32 Design Notes 46 Internet of Things

54 CAE Solutions 157 Product World 160

16

CONTENTS 6-18_second page_Vs1.indd 16

June 2018

Ad Index

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

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June 2018

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Design for Industry O f f- h i g h w a y In 2014, JLG Industries, Inc. introduced the 1850SJ, the world’s tallest straight boom lift, with its envelope controlled by sensors.

Tips on controlling the envelope

of an aerial work platform

Andy Bean • Senior Director of Engineering • JLG Industries, Inc.

E

Envelope control is important because it provides the

Stability and strength

opportunity to make taller machines without the need to add

The working envelope of a boom lift includes all combinations of accessible height and outreach of the platform. These combinations directly influence the stability and strength requirements of the machine.

In some cases of boom lifts, as height increases the machine tends to become heavier, requiring a larger base to enable an increase in the working envelope of its reach. When designing a boom lift, vehicle weight is an important consideration because it affects manufacturing costs, vehicle maneuverability and safety factors.

An envelope control system is the primary means of controlling the stability of the machine; it restricts the working envelope of the main boom. The envelope

excessive outreach and excessive weight. Without envelope control, the gross vehicle weight rating could possibly increase by more than 3-times the amount for large machines. Imagine trying to transport a machine weighing nearly 200,000 pounds!

With envelope control, not only will larger machines weigh less but permits will be easier to obtain if one is needed. Trailers and trucks to transport the machine will also be more readily available and less expensive. Other benefits include improved jobsite mobility for the machine and a reduction in the overall cost of the machine.

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June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

DFI 6-18 Vs3.LL.indd 18

DESIGN WORLD

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POWER TRANSMISSION

RETAINING DEVICES & shape positions of stability and structural integrity can be controlled including the restriction of forward and rearward reach of the platform.

Each machine has its own envelope control. There are two ways to control the envelope of the main boom: mechanically and electronically. Mechanical limitations are typically reserved for smaller machines as straight booms can use linkages to restrict the envelope control. Small articulated booms can take advantage of the functionality of the machine to restrict the envelope.

Envelopes that are limited electronically are more prevalent on larger models, especially those with a straight boom. The boom’s envelope is controlled electronically with sensors, whether they are length and angle sensors or load sensing devices. The sensors restrict the length of the boom based on its angle and vice versa.

A stable machine has the envelope control system as one of its most important attributes. While there is a complexity to understanding how the system works, it is necessary to bring awareness to this process and understand what the machine is doing and why.

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Mechanical envelope control A conventional straight boom lift typically includes a single telescopic boom that enables the platform to be positioned from low angles (usually below horizontal) to high angles (around 75-degrees above horizontal). When an angle is near horizontal, it creates a situation of forward instability where the machine may tip toward the platform due to the moment created by the platform load and boom assembly. Counterweight can be added to the tail of the vehicle turntable to counterbalance the destabilizing moment created by the boom and platform load.

INCH and METRIC THREADS LEFT HANDED as well as RIGHT -HANDED

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Materials of: CARBON, ALLOY and HARDENED ALLOY STEELS Materials of: ALLUMINUM and CORROSION RESISTANT STEEL NUTS & WASHERS

HARDENED TONGUE WASHERS

SPLIT COLLAR

RETHREADING DIES

ADJUSTABLE SPANNER WRENCH

BEARING ASSEMBLY SOCKET

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The working envelope of a boom lift includes all combinations of accessible height and outreach of the platform.

These combinations directly influence the stability and strength requirements of the machine.

DESIGN WORLD

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Design for Industry O f f- h i g h w a y Maximum boom angles can create a situation of backward instability where the weight of the boom and the counterweight in the tail of the turntable can cause the machine to tip in the direction opposite the platform.

Typically, counterweight added to the frames of the machines helps to counterbalance the destabilizing moment caused by the boom and tail counterweight. The total weight of the machine is dependent on the compromise made for the placement of weight required to satisfy both conditions of instability.

A single tower articulated boom lift typically includes two booms connected by an upright. This upright is held in a vertical orientation as the lower boom or tower is raised at an angle. Maintaining the upright in a vertical orientation is usually achieved by a hydraulic circuit or parallelogram

economy servo worm gearheads

linkage with the tower boom. The upper boom is pinned to the upright with its own lift cylinder, which can be raised or lowered in angle with a full range of motion regardless of the position of the tower boom.

The two booms can be independently positioned to allow the machine to be used for various work positions and articulated for up and over obstacles. The total maximum height of the platform is achieved by the contribution of the tower and upper boom lengths. Booms on an articulated lift are typically shorter than the boom of a comparable height straight lift. Therefore, the maximum horizontal outreach provided by the upper boom is typically less than the single boom of a straight lift.

A position of maximum forward instability for this type of boom is encountered when the tower is raised

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to its full angle with the upper boom near a horizontal angle. This creates the maximum horizontal outreach of the platform while also positioning the boom structure weight in the most detrimental position to the forward stability of the machine. Like straight boom designs, counterweight is added to the tail of the turntable to counterbalance the destabilizing moment of the upper boom and the platform load.

Likewise, the position of maximum backward instability occurs when the tower is lowered to a near horizontal angle while keeping the upper boom raised at the max angle. The weight of the boom structure has moved to the most detrimental position of backward stability and is made worse by the presence of the tail weight added to reduce forward instability. Frame counterweight is typically added to counterbalance the additional weight.

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Electronic envelope control Some boom lifts have a tower boom coupled to the vehicle base with the tower boom having the capability of extension and retraction through telescope sections. Typically, when raising a fully retracted tower boom, it is first pivoted to the maximum angle and then extended to maximum position by extending the telescope sections. By raising the tower boom in this manner, a main boom supporting the platform that is coupled to the upper end of the tower boom may be placed in positions that create a large overturning moment.

To accommodate for large overturning moments, the vehicle must include a large mass counterweight to stabilize the machine.

However, large counterweights increase manufacturing costs and could have a detrimental effect on operating envelopes. For example, when a vehicle is operating on an incline, it may not perform to the same capabilities as if it were on a level surface.

Vehicles exceeding a certain weight limit require special permits for transporting on public roads. This results in additional costs to the vehicle.

Forward stability positions are the most critical when the main boom is extended near a horizontal angle and when the tower is fully raised in angle but retracted in length. Backward stability positions are most critical when the main boom is fully raised while the tower is lowered and retracted or when the tower is fully raised and fully extended.

With the addition of sensors, the boom positions are continuously measured, and the position is controlled within the predetermined envelope. The system uses two main boom angle sensors, a main boom length sensor and a main boom transport length switch.

The two main boom angle sensors measure the angle of the main boom relative to gravity and are continuously monitored for mutual agreement. The main boom length sensor measures the length of the main boom and is monitored for response to the main telescope command and for agreement with the fixed position length switch.

Violations of the main boom position to allowable envelope positions will result in reduced function speeds, a boom control system (BCS) warning light illumination and restriction of functions. The platform alarm will sound and the BCS light will flash with attempts to operate restricted functions. The machine will be restricted from leaving the transport position until the failure is resolved.

Components, such as tires and engines, can be sized for the lower weight the system provides. The sensors and control systems used also provide the operator with smooth operation of the vehicle. The systems can additionally run diagnostic tests and enhance productivity.

With the addition of envelope control, a boom lift gains the advantage of multiple platform capacities on the same machine giving a user selectable envelopes based on the desired platform capacity ratings. DW

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shapes are processed by hand — of the fulfillment process.

Traditionally, the last touch has been a manual process, but the Robotic Piece Picking Module completes the automation of the fulfillment chain. The module selects, grips, lifts and places individual items of varying sizes into containers or bins to complete a shipment. It delivers pick rates of 600–1,200 items per hour ensuring on time delivery of a variety of SKUs, such as personal care items, cosmetics, packaged food, office supplies and other package types, shapes and fragility.

“Distribution centers are facing increased pressure to find reliable, qualified and available labor,” said Crystal Parrott, Vice President, Robotics Center of Excellence, Dematic. “Our robotics offerings, such as the Robotic Piece Picking Module, help warehouse managers streamline processes through advanced technology and software that operate 24/7 with extraordinary accuracy, drilling down labor costs and improving fulfillment efficiency. The key to success is in identifying the system solution that meets the unique needs of a customer’s application.” DW

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DESIGN WORLD

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Power Review

Altra Industrial Motion Vol. 7 | No. 2 | 2018

The Power Brands in Power Transmission

Featured in this Edition...

NEW Videos Available!

Altra Provides Advanced Power Transmission Solutions for Outdoor Power Equipment Applications

The latest product solutions from Huco & Bauer Gear Motor

Bauer Stainless Drives Take Over at Fish Processing Plant Huco Piston Air Motors Out Perform Vane Air Motors Boston Gear Rapid Response Delivery NEW Warner Linear B-Track K4x Rugged Duty Actuator NEW Compact Hydraulic Brake Packages for Single-Source Convenience

Find Altra Industrial Motion on:

Altra Industrial Motion Ameridrives Bauer Gear Motor Bibby Turboflex Boston Gear Delroyd Worm Gear Formsprag Clutch

Altra Industrial_#1_6-18.indd 23

The Power Of Experience

Guardian Couplings Huco Industrial Clutch Inertia Dynamics Kilian Lamiflex Couplings

Marland Clutch Matrix Nuttall Gear Stieber Stromag Svendborg Brakes

TB Wood’s Twiflex Warner Electric Warner Linear Wichita Clutch

For more information contact us at: info@altramotion.com or visit www.altramotion.com

Scan to download the interactive version of the Power Review

6/4/18 8:30 AM

Altra Provides Advanced Power Transmission Solutions for Outdoor Power Equipment Applications Altra Industrial Motion is a leading provider of advanced power transmission solutions for outdoor power equipment applications with industry-leading brands such as Guardian, Kilian, TB Wood’s, Warner Electric and Warner Linear that provide OEMs with expectational drivetrain value by ensuring component compatibility and optimized performance. Whether a modified standard product or a customer solution is required, Altra provides extensive technical experience in outdoor power equipment and applications.

A new brochure (P-8561-C) is available that details Altra products used in these applications.

Products that keep outdoor power equipment running longer: Clutches/Brakes, Couplings and Driveshafts, Linear Actuators and Controls, Sheaves and Castings and Bearing Assemblies.

Types of machinery in which the products highlighted in the brochure are used: Riding and ZTR Mowers, Commercial and Residential Walk-Behind Mowers, UTVs and Log Splitters.

For more information about power transmission solutions for outdoor power equipment applications from Altra Industrial Motion including case studies, literature and service manuals, visit: www.AltraOutdoorPowerEquip.com.

Altra Industrial Motion

Guardian Couplings Kilian

For more information, download P-8561-C from www.AltraLiterature.com

TB Wood’s Warner Electric A Global Footprint to Support Customers Around the World

Warner Linear

Altra Headquarters Altra Manufacturing Facilities Light Manufacturing, Assembly, Regional Warehouse

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The Brands of Altra Industrial Motion Couplings

Electric Clutches & Brakes

Ameridrives www.ameridrives.com

Heavy Duty Clutches & Brakes

Inertia Dynamics www.idicb.com

Bibby Turboflex www.bibbyturboflex.com

Industrial Clutch www.indclutch.com

Matrix www.matrix-international.com

Guardian Couplings www.guardiancouplings.com

Twiflex www.twiflex.com

Stromag www.stromag.com

Huco www.huco.com

Stromag www.stromag.com

Warner Electric www.warnerelectric.com

Lamiflex Couplings www.lamiflexcouplings.com

Svendborg Brakes www.svendborg-brakes.com Wichita Clutch www.wichitaclutch.com

Linear Products

Stromag www.stromag.com

Warner Linear www.warnerlinear.com

TB Wood’s www.tbwoods.com

Belted Drives

Engineered Bearing Assemblies Kilian www.kilianbearings.com

Geared Cam Limit Switches

TB Wood’s www.tbwoods.com

Stromag www.stromag.com

Power Transmission Solutions for Outdoor Power Equipment

Gearing Bauer Gear Motor www.bauergears.com Boston Gear www.bostongear.com Delroyd Worm Gear www.delroyd.com Nuttall Gear www.nuttallgear.com Overrunning Clutches Formsprag Clutch www.formsprag.com Marland Clutch www.marland.com Stieber www.stieberclutch.com

Bauer Stainless Drives Take Over at Fish Processing Plant Creating a reliable, efficient and robust processing line for a hygienic environment that can also operate at -43 °C (-45 °F) is no simple task. However, having found a solution that met so many requirements, one major international fish supplier chose to upgrade its conveyor drives to stainless steel variants to improve the mechanical resilience of the system.

Processing fresh fish requires a hygienic environment, regular washdowns and very low temperatures for freezing the final products. Keeping the whole process moving, while still offering low costs of ownership, requires specialist equipment that can endure the environment whilst providing reliable and efficient service. The solution for one leading international fish supplier came from Bauer Gear Motor, which has supplied the latest stainless steel gear motors for use throughout the company’s facility in Urk, Netherlands.

A l t r a

t r i a l I n d u s

n M o t i o

Ameridrives

es Stainless Driv Fish Take Over at Plant Processing

Bauer Gear Motor Bibby Turboflex Boston Gear Delroyd Worm

Gear

Formsprag Clutch Guardian Couplings Huco Industrial Clutch

For more information, download P-8579-BGM from www.AltraLiterature.com

Inertia Dynamics Kilian Lamiflex Couplings Marland Clutch

Scan to watch the Bauer Video

Matrix Nuttall Gear Stieber Stromag Svendborg Brakes TB Wood’s Twiflex Warner Electric Warner Linear Wichita Clutch

Huco Piston Air Motors Out Perform Vane Air Motors You may have read a lot about how the Huco Piston Air Motors out perform Vane Air Motors, but now you can see the difference. Huco built a test rig to demonstrate the efficiency gain of piston air motors in comparison to vane air motors. The simulated liquid stirring application compares the air flow rate needed to deliver equal RPMs. The Piston Air Motor reduces air consumption by 75% compared to the Vane Motor.

The Benefits Of Piston Motors: • Cost Efficient • Clean • Quiet • Instant Start-Stop Control

Scan to watch the Huco Video

Altra Industrial_#2_6-18.indd 24

6/4/18 8:30 AM

Boston Gear Rapid Response Delivery A large vegetable grower and processor located in Northern California needed a double reduction speed reducer to replace a failed unit on one of its pepper processing machines. The equipment was critical to the plant’s operation, so downtime needed to be kept to a minimum. The desperate customer quickly contacted his local Motion Industries branch for help. After obtaining the specifications of the worn gearbox, the Motion sales associate immediately called Boston Gear based on a previous history of exceptionally fast delivery. Since the original reducer was not a standard product, the Boston Gear engineering team quickly went to work to create a drawing for a custom, 700 Series double reduction speed reducer with a 1500:1 ratio. The customer then verified that the new gearbox design would fit in their application based on Boston’s specs and dimension drawing.

To help the customer even further, the Boston Gear team took the time to prefill the oil so the unit was ready-to-use upon receipt. It is a bit challenging to get the correct amount of oil in a double reduction reducer since the oil needs to pass slowly from the prefix to the secondary housing. The difficulty was enhanced due to the large size of the unit.

• • • • •

Custom double reduction reducer 1500:1 Gear ratio 2-Day shipment Exclusive Stainless Bost-Kleen (SBK) washdown coating Oil prefilled prior to shipment

Service

Reduction s Double 700 Serie ery onse Deliv Rapid Resp

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For more information, download P-8556-BG from www.AltraLiterature.com

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NEW Warner Linear B-Track K4x Rugged Duty Actuator Warner Linear is proud to announce a new B-Track K4x Rugged Duty Actuator. The B-Track K4x actuator provides the highest load rating in its class and incorporates all the base K2x features with a ball nut screw for a 4,000lb (17760 N) load capacity within a compact package size whereas the K2x model provides load capabilities up to 2800 pounds (12455 N).

Ideal for applications that involve mobile off-highway equipment, deck and implement lifts for tractors and mobile applications, solar panels and scissors and dump box lifts, the B-Track K4x Rugged Duty Actuator is well suited for the most demanding applications where an alternative to hydraulic or air cylinders is needed or where hydraulic power sources are not available.

Exemplary B-Track K4x features include: • Protective coatings and O-ring seals • Heavy wall construction • Maximum speed of 0.32 inches (8.1 mm)/second when traveling at full load • Ball detent overload clutch • Double ball bearing motors and heat-treated gears

trial Motion Altra Indus

A L T R A

I N D U S T R I A L

M O T I O N

U C I N G I N T R O D

Warner Linear B-Track K4x

B-Track K4x Rugged Duty Actuato r

Rugged Duty Actuator

Strengthened Structure for Higher Load Capability the The K4x model provides class! in its highest load rating on the proven K2X actuator The K4X model is based for higher load capability. with strengthened structure ball features, with a larger Incorporating the K2X and gearbox it is able to push screw and reinforced and is N) force dynamically pull 4,000 lbs (17760 holding. lbs (22000 N) static rated for up to 5,000 thrust bearing arrangement Thanks to an efficient in with a limited increase forces these it can reach compared to the K2X. power consumption

For more information, download P-8165-WL & P-8482-WL from www.AltraLiterature.com

NEW Compact Hydraulic Brake Packages for Single-Source Convenience Twiflex, a global leader in innovative braking solutions, has launched a range of compact hydraulic brake packages, which are designed to meet the challenging braking requirements experienced in a wide variety of industrial applications.

The standard brake packages, comprising Twiflex spring applied, hydraulically released caliper brakes and state-of-the-art compact hydraulic power units (Twiflex type LCS), are pre-assembled onto specially designed pedestals for ease of mounting and installation. The brake packages can be further customized to meet specific customers’ requirements.

The high-specification hydraulic power unit features a fully-integrated hand pump for manual release of the brake in the event of power failure, pressure gauge and built-in terminal box to simplify the electrical connection.

Key features of the Twiflex hydraulic brake packages include the compact dimensions, addressing applications with limited space available. A wide range of braking force ratings provide superior performance in applications as diverse as elevators, gantry cranes, winches, amusement rides, conveyors, metal processing lines and ski lifts. In addition, the integrated nature of the Twiflex solution ensures component compatibility and optimized performance, while minimizing the installation time and maintenance burden.

For more information, download P-8454-TF from www.AltraLiterature.com

Altra Industrial_#3_6-18.indd 25

6/4/18 8:31 AM

Boston & Bauer

Washdown Gear Drives & Gear Motors for the Food & Beverage Industry The original Domed Crown™ Design

The Best Choice for Food & Beverage Safety As the leading innovators in gearing and gear motor technology, Boston Gear and Bauer Gear Motor present a full line of Stainless Steel and Aseptic products that provide sanitary protection and optimal performance in the toughest caustic environments.

Distinct Advantages of the Boston Gear and Bauer Gear Motor offering: 1. Wide Breadth of Products • Worm / Helical-Worm / Helical-Bevel or Helical / Parallel Shaft • Gear Drives (Speed Reducers)/Gear Motors/Shaft Accessories • Reductions of 3:1 thru 10,000:1 • Output Torque from 100 lbf-in thru 7,500 lbf-in Scan to watch!

Boston & Bauer Washdown Video

2. Critical Product Features for Washdown Suitability & Sustainability • NSF International Certified (Worm Gear Drives) • UL/ULc Certified (Gear Motors) • IP67 / IP69K Compliance • The Original Domed CrownTM Technology • 316SS Cast Housings 3. Performance Competitive Advantages • Proven: Longer Product Life • Proven: Higher Motor Efficiency • Proven: Higher Gearing Operating Efficiency • Proven: Lower Gearing Operating Temperature • Proven: Reduced Installation Time & Maintenance Cost

For more information, visit www.BauerGears.com and www.BostonGear.com

Altra Industrial_#4_6-18.indd 26

6/4/18 8:32 AM

Design for Industry Medical

L

Lubricious silicones for medical device lubrication

Bio-compatible silicone lubricants are used to reduce friction between medical device components and human tissue. Other desirable properties of lubricious silicones for medical devices include oxidative resistance, chemical inertness and hydrophobicity.

These silicones are available in a broad portfolio of off-the-shelf products including self-lubricating elastomers as well as dispersions, fluids and greases to accommodate a range of substrates such as metal, glass, plastic and silicone. Many options are available for solvent or solvent-free needs, wet or dry formulation, limited migration and nonmigrating lubricants, hydrophobic coating functionality, and more.

The lubricious silicone products are supported by Master Files with U.S. FDA and international authorities, which include the biological testing conducted on each product.

DW

NuSil | www.nusil.com

DESIGN WORLD

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

June 2018

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5/31/18 1:30 PM

Design for Industry Medical

Bot collects data that might be

crucial to controlling disease

H

How does our environment create and contribute to health

threats? This is a question doctors are looking to answer. Nano Global, a company focused on accelerating cures to address global health challenges, has introduced the Nano Bot device to monitor and convey environmental data critical to human health and disease control.

The first generation Nano Bot, featuring an Arm based microcontroller and array of environmental sensors, will be deployed initially at healthcare and research facilities operated by some of Nano’s strategic partners. This marks an important milestone in Nano’s ability to monitor sensitive environments for health threats by collecting ambient environmental information to better understand, predict, and rectify threats such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and superbugs.

Data acquired through Nano Bots provides an important data stream to the company’s broader data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) platform called Nano Sense.

The company’s Nano Sense system-on-chip (SoC) , currently under development in partnership with Arm, will power future Nano Bot and partner devices to enable data acquisition and AI at the edge, accelerating detection, prevention, and treatment of health threats. DW

Nano Global | www.nanoglobal.com

28

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DFI 6-18 Vs3.LL.indd 28

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

DESIGN WORLD

5/31/18 1:28 PM

Pharmaceutical

For motion control innovation, Solution City never sleeps.

Lightweight pharmaceutical

barrier bottles reduce plastic and energy use

T

These pharmaceutical bottles promote sustainability through light-weighting and production efficiency. The high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pharmaceutical bottle combines technology advancements to reduce plastic content by up to 28% compared to standard designs, while delivering excellent barrier performance.

More specifically, Milliken’s additive solution for barrier improvement, together with uniform wall thickness provided by SACMI’s proprietary Compression Blow Forming (CBF) equipment, enabled jARDEN to produce the new thin-wall bottles. These bottles are strong and light, use less energy to manufacture and generate less scrap.

The thinner, lighter bottles offer drug companies a way to reduce environmental impact while maintaining or improving the necessary barrier performance.

Compression Blow Forming, a sustainable plastic production method developed

by SACMI, combines compression molding and blow forming into one process.

This patented process offers advantages for pharmaceutical companies. First, CBF delivers consistent wall thicknesses, avoiding thinner areas that can allow for faster permeation of water vapor and oxygen. This near-perfect consistency, together with the high-performance properties of Milliken’s barrier technology, permits costeffective light-weighting without compromising protection.

Further, CBF offers reduced cycle time and produces less waste. Cycle times can be up to 30% faster with less than 1% scrap.

Finally, the CBF process runs at a lower temperature thereby reducing energy use, which safeguards the purity of the resin against degradation. In addition to the benefits of lower heat, the compression of the preform reduces shear stress, which is important for initial resin processing and for further use after recycling. DW

Milliken | www.milliken.com

Whatever keeps you up at night, we’ve got a solution—the largest selection of motors, pumps and air-moving devices available.

Plus, one-of-a-kind solutions ready to be custom-engineered for your precision industrial, commercial, combustion or transportation application.

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100 East Erie Street • Kent, OH 44240

DESIGN WORLD

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June 2018

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© 2017 by AMETEK Inc. All rights reserved.

5/31/18 1:28 PM

Ultra-Precise Pointing of Electro-Optic Devices AMG-600 AMG and AMG-LP

AOM360D

IP-66 Rated

Custom Design

Custom Design

Continuous 360° Direct-Drive AZ/EL Rotation Aerotech direct-drive AZ/EL mounts provide ultra-precise angular position, rate, and acceleration for development and production testing, and are ideal for directing optics, lasers, antennas, and sensors at high speed to very precise pointing angles. Typical applications include missile seeker test and calibration, LIDAR, electro-optic sensor and FLIR testing, airborne target tracking, optical testing of space-based sensors in a vacuum, and angular testing of inertial sensors such as gyros, MEMS, accelerometers, and inertial reference units. Contact an Aerotech Application Engineer to discuss how an Aerotech gimbal can give you a competitive advantage.

• Continuous 360° rotation of AZ/EL • Resolution to 0.13 µrad and accuracy to ±24 µrad • Direct-drive brushless servomotors for zero backlash • Accommodate loads up to 600 mm diameter

Get a FREE copy of Advanced Motion Systems for Aerospace, Defense, and National Security at www.aerotech.com/ resources/brochures.aspx

Add an Aerotech award-winning single- or multi-axis control system for a complete motion solution.

www.aerotech.com • 412-963-7470 AF0417A-LPM

AF0418A-RAD-AMG-Gimbals-9x10_875.indd 1 Aerotech 6-18.indd 30

5/3/2018 5/31/188:57:59 10:24 AM AM

Design for Industry Military/aerospace

GE and Altair Sign Agreement for

Exclusive Distribution of GE’s Flow Simulator Software Increased Reliability

GE’s patented engine system modeling technology to be distributed and enhanced by Altair as part of exclusive relationship

A

for Industrial Applications

Altair and GE have signed a multi-year software agreement making Altair the exclusive distributor for GE’s Flow Simulator software. The engine system modeling software has a number of tools for multi-disciplinary analyses of fluid systems.

This software helped guide GE to design world record efficient gas turbines and the more advanced aircraft engines in the industry.

Developed internally by GE with a modern Graphics User Interface (GUI), GE’s Flow Simulator is a multi-grid based solver. It uses the continuity-based Newton-Raphson method, using several numerical techniques that conquer the robustness issues of stiff fluid system designs. It currently serves more than 1,500 users as a single-fluid system modeling tool across the aerothermal and combustion engineering design communities at GE. DW

New 1.27mm pitch Archer Kontrol connectors in horizontal and vertical layouts with 12-80 pin combinations.

Designed with surface mount solder tabs for additional board retention strength, it can withstand lateral and twisting forces in high vibration environments.

GE | www.ge.com

Temperature range of -55°C to +125°C

Altair | www.altair.com

Assists with blind mating Fully shrouded connector system

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Design Notes

The couplings for a road construction sweeper require continuous, reliable performance while accommodating small amounts of misalignment. Dampening characteristics are also required to avoid transmitting vibrations to either the drive or driven components.

Coupling cleans up challenges for

construction sweepers Edited by Mike Santora • Associate Editor

A manufacturer of industrial sweepers and brooms required an economical coupling solution for a line of road construction sweepers. Dual hydraulic pumps, horizontally mounted to each other off the rear of the machine’s 74 HP Tier 4 engine, drive the propulsion of the machine and control the operation and speed of the broom and various other components.

This coupling application required continuous, reliable performance while accommodating small amounts of misalignment. Dampening characteristics were also required to avoid transmitting vibrations into either the drive or driven components.

The OEM used a standard SAE #4 engine housing with a standard SAE 10 flywheel connection. An SAE standard offset of 53.8 mm (2.12-in.) existed between the mounting face of the engine housing and the coupling mounting face.

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The complete kit for this application consisted of a one-piece, all-steel FBA flywheel coupling, with a 4,640 in.lb. torque rating, that attached to the engine flywheel and mated to the hydraulic pump’s splined shaft.

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The Guardian engineering team worked directly with the OEM’s engine distributor to configure a combination coupling and mount kit that installed easily onto the distributor’s engine package while accommodating the OEM’s specific performance requirements.

The complete kit consisted of a onepiece, all-steel FBA flywheel coupling, with a 4,640 in.lb. torque rating, that attached to the engine flywheel and mated to the hydraulic pump’s splined shaft. FBA couplings are torsionally soft and are designed for applications up to 450 HP. The kit also included an SAE standard flat steel pump mounting plate that attached to the engine housing and allowed the pump to be directly attached to it. The plate, featuring a special anti-corrosion coating, ensures that the pump is held in alignment with the engine housing and flywheel. DW

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Design Notes

A failure to consider gate and ejector pin locations is the Achilles Heel of the micro mold process. While this may not dynamically impact the design of an average small injection molded part, consider the surface area dedicated to an ejector pin when the entire part is 800 x 360 x 380 microns. Proportionally speaking, this is a huge deal.

Preventing common

micro mold mistakes Gregory Peterson • Engineering, Accumold

As medical and wearable devices become much smaller and lighter than anyone could have previously imagined, a new breed of engineers and designers are turning their focus to ultra-small thermoplastic component design. In this shift however, a pattern has emerged where micron tolerance considerations are presenting some common mistakes.

As these designers are being asked to fit more functionality into tighter spaces, they are discovering new methods to accomplish increasingly difficult design challenges.

These ideas are shaping the future of product design, but their inexperience in this micro molded space has also created an alarming trend. This knowledge gap could be responsible for massive delays in the manufacturing process, and in many cases, unnecessary product design revisions.

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Design Notes

Gate location on every part is often located on the thickest geometry of the part to make sure the entire mold fills. Ejector pin locations should always avoid thin areas, preventing the force of the ejector pin from punching through the part, or damaging it.

That trend? A failure to consider gate and ejector pin locations. As surprising as it sounds, this Achilles Heel of the micro mold process is weakening strong manufacturing companies and processes. While some designers are crossing over from micro machining, others may be new into the space and simply overlook the issue this may cause.

While this may not dynamically impact the design of your average small injection molded part, consider the surface area dedicated to an ejector pin when the entire part is 800 x 360 x 380 microns. Proportionally speaking, it’s a huge deal. Luckily, there is an easy fix.

Provided the part can be molded, at best, companies see delays in their manufacturing process as designers redesign the part to include ejector pin and gate locations. At worst, (25% of the time, in fact) these revisions result in such a dynamic change, the entire product or device has to be completely redesigned.

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At Accumold, redesign decisions are typically made through three to four back and forth meetings between designers and micro mold engineers. When dealing with microns, an improperly placed gate can fail to fill the entire mold making an incomplete part that lacks a robust structure, and an ejector pin placed in the wrong location can change the part geometry. Because a design is only as strong as the molding process that produces it, there are several rules of thumb to make sure the micro molded part is designed correctly.

Gate location on every part is often located on the thickest geometry of the part to make sure the entire mold fills. Ejector pin locations should always avoid thin areas, preventing the force of the ejector pin from punching through the part, or damaging it. In some cases, ejector pin locations on the part itself are impossible. But that doesn’t mean the part cannot be made.

When ejector pin or gate locations simply can’t exist anywhere on the part without compromising the design, there are work arounds to accommodate part complexity. Adding a “gate feature” to the end of a part has proven useful. The feature is an excess portion of the part that is left connected for the sole purpose of ejecting it out of the cavity. This part then goes through another process designed to trim the gate feature off, leaving the final part.

It’s a given considering gate and ejector pin locations in advance can save a lot of time and resources, but in some cases simply thinking ahead saves the entire project. Today’s micro technology has less margin for error than past projects, and it’s vital to accommodate for these micro features that perhaps in the past, part designers never had to consider.

As in any project, it’s wise to share as many details with your molder in advance, even more so in micro molding. A project you may believe is extremely unique or challenging (or impossible) may have already been tackled and conquered.

When you give your micro molder a good idea of what the part is, and how it works in the overall product design, breakthroughs are made. DW

Accumold | www.accu-mold.com

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Design Notes The machine, which has a footprint of 50’ x 11’, the process tonnage of 35 tons for form and 130 tons for trim, is generated entirely by electric servo motors. The steel rule die inline arrangement results in faster changeover and an overall cost only 10% of conventional punch and die systems.

Thermoforming machinery

gets up to speed

Edited by Mike Santora • Associate Editor

When thermoforming machinery company, SencorpWhite set out to create the Ultra 2, several challenges were up ahead. The machine is said to be the largest production steel rule die inline thermoformer in the global plastics industry.

On the machine, which has a footprint of 50 ft x 11 ft, the process tonnage of 35 tons for form, and 130 tons for trim, is generated entirely by electric servo motors. The steel rule die inline arrangement results in faster changeover and an overall cost only 10% of conventional punch and die systems, according to company sources. Onboard, 44 zones of heating are being controlled by a monitoring system supplied by Siemens, who also supplied the servos and other motion control components for this machine.

The genesis of this machine, as Brian Golden, product manager for thermoformers at SencorpWhite, explains, “…was a market analysis we did, where we determined a distinct need among our major industry segments for a more precise thermoformer with optimum

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control of form and trim operations, as well as a large forming area to increase production. Typically, such a large machine would involve major challenges in motion and heat control, especially when running at higher production speeds.” As a result, Golden notes, the SencorpWhite engineering team, led

by Greg Danti, turned for assistance Siemens.

The Siemens plastics industry group, headed by Mathias Radziwill and the SencorpWhite account manager, Hue Liue, connected with the customer’s team to review all the parameters of the project. As Liue explains, “We were challenged from the outset, as SencorpWhite was looking for a faster thermoformer to do higher-end work.

Likewise, they were seeking ways to DESIGN WORLD

6/5/18 9:52 AM

Parts produced on the Ultra 2, given its combination of volume, speed and accuracy, range from HBA and medical packs to clamshell and high-capacity containers or other high-volume jobs. achieve faster assembly, faster operation on the machine, overall cost reduction in various areas of heat and motion control, plus finally a greater throughput due to their newly designed steel rule die and proprietary off-loading system. Just another day at the office,” Liue mused.

Overall, this machine was in development approximately 2-1/2 years, with the bulk of the engineering focused on the electrical and electronic controls. Radziwill notes, “The Siemens team brought our TIA Portal to the challenge. This system enables complete access to the entire suite of products and software available, allowing machine builders to engage in a totally digital enterprise during machine development, performance evaluations, simulation scenarios, build stages and commissioning, plus it has full diagnostic and energy management tools. Many builders view TIA Portal as their gateway to Industry 4.0,” he said.

The key to the machine form and trim tonnage, Lieu further explains, “…was the implementation of electric servos, which eliminated an array of mechanical components, with their obvious cost and assembly time expense for the customer. The servos also run the indexers on the rail system, which upped the productivity of the machine by 40% or so.” Greg Danti, SencorpWhite Director of Engineering, confirmed this fact.

“With the industry trending towards higher performance electric servos, we elected to move away from our previous reliance on pneumatics and hydraulic solutions for generating our tonnage.”

The Siemens engineering team also assisted in the development of the proprietary off-loading system on the Ultra 2, introducing the SencorpWhite team to its Simotion D motion controller, which runs the system in 100% servo mode. By use of the supplier’s Scout system, the builder here was able to “test drive” a number of drives to select the optimum combination of features and price point. This new system uses stationary motors, driving the need for coordinated motion control. The Scout system provided the technical solution for this requirement.

Parts produced on the Ultra 2, given its combination of volume, speed and accuracy, range from HBA and medical packs to clamshell and high-capacity containers or other high-volume jobs.

In production, the inline steel rule dies allow faster changeover for the SencorpWhite customer, “…in hours not days,” said Greg Danti, director of engineering for the builder. The original design

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Design Notes

Overall, this machine was in development approximately 2-1/2 years, with the bulk of the engineering focused on the electrical and electronic controls.

called for electric motor drive, but Hue Liue, the Siemens account manager, explains, “Servos were ideal for this application and, once we walked through the updated architecture with the guys, we all saw the light bulbs going off. The combination of less manufacturing time, fewer components, and the increase in speed with the desired accuracy, won the day.”

On the HMI side, the Panel Pro IP67 gave the SencorpWhite team a display that could withstand any anticipated working environment.

For heating control on the machine’s 44 temp zones, the choice was the Siplus HCS4300 control system, with detailed diagnostics that can detect internal faults in the load circuit, blown fuses, and defective heater cable. Network voltage and internal temperatures are also monitored per zone. The heating on the machine is radiated top and bottom, with individually controlled zones for form and trim. All communication is run over ASI Profinet. CAT3 safety compliance is provided. DW

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The Nanolevel provides outstanding accuracy and long-term stability in full-scale ranges as low as 4 inches of water making it ideal for fluid reservoir level measurement applications. Use only as directed. Common side effects include increased dependability and decreased system downtime. For more information, contact Keller America toll-free 877-253-5537 or email sales@kelleramerica.com.

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Design Notes

Bearings vs. bushings in 3D printing

Edited by Mike Santora Associate Editor

Here is a closeup of Vesconite 3D printer bushings.

A small but vocal discussion in the 3D printer community is on bearings and bushings that are used by 3D printers, and how these can be optimized to create better printers and better print quality.

Some believe 3D printing will run counter to globalization by ensuring that end users will begin producing many of the products that they consume. Others think 3D printing could be the means through which manufacturing will be fundamentally transformed. Many in the printer community are intent on increasing the quality and the speed of 3D printing. This task involves refining all printer components to make them the best they can be, and this includes the bearings and bushings that make up the linear motion systems.

Why linear motion systems are important in 3D printing In most 3D printers the build platform (including the extruder) slides over smooth rods as it moves. The polished rods support the components and guide the motion of the extruder along a linear path. Bearings or bushings are used on the straight steel rods to create motion that is smooth and jerk-free where the extruder is moving in a single direction.

Among 3D printer enthusiasts, bearing and bushing options are available, including bushings of various materials, and linear bearings, which tend to be made of bronze and have rows of ball bearings located on the inside.

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Bushings, or sleeve bearings, look like tubes and can be made from bronze or polymers. Both types attempt to achieve a reduction in power, noise and wear.

The bronze bushings are sometimes impregnated with oil or require external lubrication for operation.

Bronze bushing enthusiasts appreciate the lower cost over linear bearings in the application. Also, because they can run on hardened or less expensive nonhardened shafts, the ancillary equipment tends to be less expensive.

However, bronze bushings have their detractors. Bronze bushings can wear away at the shaft, and they sometimes require significant amounts of lubrication DESIGN WORLD

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Design Notes

at regular intervals. Additionally, the lubrication sometimes forms a gritty mixture that wears away at the shaft.

Bronze bushings can also have a stickslip problem, which results in a jerky motion when printing as the bushings are prone to sticking on the shaft followed by slipping over the shaft. They can also have large tolerances, where they are not made to specification, and this can make them a poor fit for 3D printers.

Polymer bushings, which are another option for those interested in sleeve bearings, can be made from a range of materials. Slip-stick can also be a problem with cheaper polymers, as can the wide tolerances that sometimes accompany mass-produced bearings.

Mass-produced polymer bearings are occasionally available in limited sizes,

and may not meet the needs of the consumer.

High-end self-lubricating polymers tend to reduce the likelihood of slipstick, especially where the coefficient of friction is low and the dynamic and the static coefficients of friction have values that are similar. With polymer bushing manufacturers, it may be possible to get the exact required tolerances and the precise sizes that are required.

Linear ball bearings are also in use and are the alternative to bronze and polymer bushings. They can also be tube-like, flanged or pillow boxes, but have linear ball bearings that are located along their inside diameter. These run on the shaft, making the motion a rolling one rather than a sliding one.

The cost of linear ball bearings can also vary significantly depending on

quality. Durable well-known linear ball bearings can be expensive compared to bushings. In addition, they should be used with hardened shafts so that the balls do not eat into the shaft; the ancillary equipment associated with them can be expensive.

Some suggest that maintenance can be higher, and that lubrication needs to be monitored to ensure performance with linear ball bearings.

Moreover, because dirt and dust can combine with greasing, these balls can eventually run louder and even jam if the grit-containing lubrication becomes a significant problem.

The issue of whether to choose bearings or bushings seems to be more pronounced among those with RipRap printers, which involve a high degree of innovation. The culture of this printer

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Design Notes community promotes individualization and adaptation. Essentially, users may replace all components according to preference or even make the components that are required themselves.

For those converting their machines or those committed to modifications, the debate as to whether to use bearings or bushings is particularly pertinent. One option is to include specified parts that are described in production catalogues.

3D printer users report a phenomenon called dimpling and pimpling when a rod becomes deformed. This phenomenon is caused by the rod slightly lifting on one side and slightly tilting on the other side as the bushing or bearing moves from one side to the other. This is typically a result of wear to the rod. 3D printer users report that this phenomenon is eliminated when Vesconite Hilube bushings are introduced. Vesconite Hilube is a thermopolymer in the

A view of the Vesconite Hilube bushings inside a 3D printer in a South African computer component.

Vesconite range, designed for operating in wet conditions, including pump and marine applications.

The material is self-lubricating, requires no greasing, and the polymer bushings require very little maintenance.

Because there is no gritty greasing mixture that embeds on the mating surface, wear caused by the constant movement of this contaminated oily mixture is eliminated. Wear caused by

metal-on-metal contact also becomes a thing of the past, as the hard-wearing polymer glides smoothly over the rods.

Vesconite Hilube has an unlubricated friction coefficient on steel of 0.1 and a static friction coefficient as low as 0.08.

These friction coefficients make the movement of the bushing along the rod smooth and also eliminates the problem of the jerky motion (stick slip) when the extruder is moved to a new location. DW

Vesconite | vesconite.com

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Internet of Things

Easy data collection

T

EtherIO technology is an alternative to the use of field bus-based

solutions for real-time data collection used to enable real-time sensing for machine automation, predictive maintenance, equipment monitoring and optimization, production traceability, rapid quality feedback, and factory environment monitoring applications.

EtherIO transforms standard LAN ports into dedicated real-time I/O ports while consuming less than 10% of CPU processing resources. This feature allows users to leverage the computing power of existing systems for real-time I/O. EtherIO offers a real-time performance of one millisecond for distributed/ remote system topologies and can support up to 768 I/O points. It does not require specific hardware for real-time performance. Users only need to download the EtherIO software driver to use existing Ethernet ports for realtime data acquisition.

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EtherIO enables data acquisition from sensors and serial communication with legacy devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLC), meters, and equipment.

EtherIO is an open system. This architecture software uses simple APIs and supports two programming environments for IT and OT users. DW

Advantech | www.advantech.com

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Internet of Things

EtherCAT I/O for energy management

T

The EL34x3 series EtherCAT Terminals are for advanced power measurement and mains monitoring. Energy management for machine operation and the energy industries creates a range of demands, from basic monitoring of the supply

network and process control to high-end power monitoring.

Together with the EL37x3 power monitoring oversampling terminals, the new EL34x3 EtherCAT Terminals for energy management provide a comprehensive product portfolio that can be optimally adapted to the varied measurement tasks found in a wide range of applications.

Two of the EtherCAT Terminals are for energy management in monitoring and maintenance applications: • As an economy version, the EL3423 3-phase power measurement terminal is for cost-sensitive energy management solutions, especially in IoT applications.

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The parameters that can be measured are energy, power and a mains quality factor. These are recorded with an update interval that is adjustable from 10 s to 1 h. As a special feature, the measured parameters are available as average, minimum and maximum values.

• The EL3483 3-phase mains monitoring terminal

for voltage, frequency and phase enables optimum monitoring of the power supply to a machine. The functions include threshold value monitoring of the internal measured values, and the setting of warning and error bits in the process image. Single-phase operation as a voltage, frequency and phase monitor is also possible. DW

Beckhoff Automation | beckhoff.com

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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5/31/18 2:35 PM

Ethernet PHY transceiver fits in tight spaces

A

An automotive Ethernet physical layer (PHY) transceiver cuts the external component count and board space in half and consumes less power. The DP83TC811S-Q1’s support for serial gigabit media independent interface (SGMII), small packaging and integrated diagnostic features use Ethernet connectivity to bring greater intelligence to space-constrained automotive body electronics, infotainment and cluster, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications.

This 100BASE-T1 device supports SGMII. It improves design flexibility by enabling connections to multiple switches and interfaces. It supports the full range of media independent interfaces (MII), which enables designers to implement Ethernet connectivity with various media access controllers (MACs) and processors such as TI’s Jacinto automotive processors. To help the system monitor and detect cable breaks, temperature and voltage variations, and electrostatic discharge (ESD) events, the DP83TC811S-Q1 has a diagnostic toolkit, including an ESD monitor.

Features include:

• Smaller solution size and lower weight. In addition to requiring fewer external components, the DP83TC811S-Q1 comes in a 6-mm-by-6-mm wettable flank package, which can reduce solution size by 50%. In addition, the device is compliant with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3bw standard and OPEN Alliance qualification, enabling the use of unshielded single twisted-pair copper cable, which reduces overall cable weight and cost.

• Lowest power consumption. The DP83TC811S-Q1’s lower power minimizes thermal dissipation and enables components to be placed closer together. The device also includes power-saving features such as standby, disable and wake-on local area network (LAN).

• Robust and intelligent design. The integrated diagnostic toolkit features cable diagnostics, temperature and voltage sensors, and an ESD monitor, enabling engineers to create designs that can withstand ESD and voltage events.

The diagnostic features enable designers to continually monitor the integrity of the Ethernet link. Additionally, the DP83TC811S-Q1 provides up to 8 kV of ESD protection, helping shield the device against high-voltage faults.

• Simpler layout, flexible design and high performance.

SGMII uses four pins instead of the 12 required for reduced gigabit media independent interface (RGMII), reducing board size and number of traces and in turn simplifying the design layout. The integration of a physical medium dependent (PMD) filter, MII series terminators, PMD termination and power-supply filtering components reduce the need for external discrete circuitry, leaving more board space for designers to add features. The DP83TC811S-Q1 has a latency as low as 140 ns. DW

Texas Instruments Inc. | www.ti.com

Wireless Ethernet gateway

W

Wireless Etherent Gateway (WEG) can be configured to communicate with Bluetooth 4.0 or Wireless LAN; and multiple communication configurations further increase the WEG’s versatility.

The WEG is packaged in IP65 housing and is easy to mount directly on equipment, making it suitable for use in harsh industrial environments. It can be configured using a button on the front of the unit or with a web browser. DW Wago | www.wago.us

DESIGN WORLD

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Internet of Things News Software driver for smarphones, IoT, AR/VR, automotive and more

T

The MIPI Alliance, an international

organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobileinfluenced industries, released MIPI I3C Host Controller Interface (HCI) v1.0. The publicly available specification defines the building of a common software driver interface to support compliant MIPI I3C host controller (master device) hardware implementations from multiple vendors to more easily integrate value-added features for smartphones, wearables, Internet of Things (IoT), automotive and more.

Smartphones and other devices have a rapidly increasing number of mechanical, motion, biometric and environmental sensors, which enable a variety of features and use cases that companies use to differentiate their products. But this sensor proliferation creates design challenges.

For example, without a common method for interfacing to MIPI I3C, every host controller must have its own system software or driver to support that piece of hardware. Every host controller implementation may also provide a different set of features and optimizations.

MIPI I3C HCI defines a common set of capabilities for the host controller and the software interface, allowing for the building of class definitions based on a common set of features.

The definition allows for vendor-specific extensions and optimizations.

“The release of MIPI I3C in 2016 was an important milestone for developers because it brought together multiple sensor interface approaches around a unifying specification that provides conveniences and system-level benefits for many use cases and applications in mobile and beyond,” said Joel Huloux, chairman of MIPI Alliance. “Now, MIPI I3C HCI provides an additional set of benefits by offering a common software driver interface that allows implementers of MIPI I3C to focus on developing innovative sensor applications rather than the interfaces themselves.”

MIPI I3C HCI, available for download, is also included in the soon-to-be-released MIPI Touch family of specifications, making it possible to use touch commands and multiple data streams to add differentiating touch features to a design. Application processor companies can apply the specification to standardize the HCI method used in their devices.

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The specification defines several optimizations based on typical usage. For example, the combo command feature allows for the efficient one-shot transfer of write and then read transfers on the bus. Another example is auto command, which provides an efficient way to read a large data buffer related to in-band interrupt.

Other key MIPI I3C HCI v1.0 features include: • Support for MIPI I3C main master device operation on the I3C bus • Two modes of operation: Direct data interface support (PIO mode), with programmable buffer depths for the transmit/response and data buffer, and DMA interface support (DMA mode) to support scatter gather transfers for data buffers • Power-efficient operation of the host controller, which helps maximize battery life in mobile devices such as wearables and smartphones • Support for I3C data rates, including I2C fast mode (up to 400 Kbps), I2C fast mode+ (up to 1M bps) and I3C SDR (up to 12.5 Mbps) • Support for extended capabilities, including vendor- specific ones, to enable more sophisticated hardware or additional functionality. DW

MIPI Alliance | www.mipi.org

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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5/31/18 2:36 PM

MindSphere comes to Microsoft Azure

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MindSphere is a cloud-based, open

Internet of Things (IoT) operating system. It helps customers develop and implement Industrial IoT solutions quickly. Customers can begin developing and testing MindSphere applications on the Azure cloud.

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“Building Industrial IoT solutions is complex and customers are craving simplicity,” said Sam George, partner director IoT at Microsoft. “Joining forces with Siemens to host Mindsphere on Azure will help simplify and take advantage of global Azure IoT and other cloud services. With edge computing becoming pervasive, there is an opportunity for Microsoft’s global partner ecosystem to extend the power of Mindsphere through Azure cloud platform services, including IoT Edge to connect new or existing devices, systems or equipment.”

MindSphere delivers a range of device and enterprise application connectivity protocol options, industry applications and advanced analytics. It provides a development environment that uses Siemens’ open Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities and integrated native IoT cloud services on Microsoft’s Azure platform. Through these capabilities, MindSphere can connect assets to Microsoft’s intelligent cloud services to enable industry applications to operate with intermittent connectivity, provide local feedback loops, cognitive services, edge analytics and artificial intelligence on the edge. The open PaaS will also enable a global partner ecosystem to develop and deliver new applications.

A preview of MindSphere for Microsoft Azure is available for select customers and partners.

MindSphere for Microsoft Azure is planned to be generally available in the calendar 4th quarter of 2018. DW

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This centralized hub handles the quality data throughout the product lifecycle and provides insight into resource use, which can help optimize a process or improve productivity.

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Built-in statistical analysis tools help operators and managers with actionable intelligence for better decision-making and proactive response to workflow issues. The software’s extensive resource management and workflow optimization toolset integrates quality management activities seamlessly into day-to-day operations.

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CAE Solutions

Reducing weight and design time for the

Dream Chaser spacecraft

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With the go-ahead from NASA for a first mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the engineering team at Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) is reviewing flight performance data and refining the Dream Chaser spacecraft, refining the vehicle’s design adaptations to meet mission requirements and changing payloads. The team is using the HyperSizer software from Collier Research Corp.

The HyperSizer software gives the team insights into the strength, weight, and manufacturability of designs for both composite and metal structures. Typically able to reduce the weight of existing designs by 20-40%, the software plays an important role in margin-of-safety certification for aerospace projects and is also valuable for wind, marine and other fields looking for performance with durability.

The current model of the autonomous, reusable Dream Chaser—Commercial Resupply Service 2 (CRS-2)—will transport pressurized and unpressurized cargo to and from the ISS, with a launch window of late 2020. The vehicle also has the potential for satellite servicing, orbital-debris removal and exploration technology testing.

In every case the demands of low-orbit flight, earth reentry, runway landing and vehicle reuse require precision design for reliability, durability and safety.

Each type of mission requires additional analysis due to new flight trajectories and corresponding changes to the vehicle loads.

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Managing the complexity of ever-evolving designs The unique challenges faced by the structural engineers at SNC were to design the Dream Chaser to accommodate changing cargo weights and different reentry trajectories, carry pressurized and non-pressurized items, and withstand significant deflection forces.

According to SNC engineers Andy Kim and Eric Schleicher, to meet these challenges HyperSizer was used by the team on nearly all primary composite structures for the launchapproved CRS-2.

“HyperSizer’s suite of industry-standard failure criteria was valuable for our team, enabling us to quickly size the Dream Chaser structure and perform architectural trade studies,” says Andy Kim, Senior Structural Engineer for SNC. “The software’s rapid analysis capability gave us more time to interrogate our results and gain insights into the sensitivity of the structural weight to various design features and stiffener cross sections.”

“HyperSizer helped us improve and automate the design-analysis process for the CRS-2,” says Eric Schleicher, SNC Principal Structural Engineer. “We found some of the most useful aspects of the software to be load processing, sizing, margin reporting and the finite-element model [FEM] update feature.”

“The SNC team did a great job of incorporating HyperSizer into their design and analysis process to the hit weight and schedule targets,” said James Ainsworth, lead stress engineer for Collier Research Corporation.

“They took full advantage of the software’s scripting API to customize the workflow and automate data exchange with their suite of CAE software tools. This enabled the team to move rapidly from whole-scale optimization to detailed analysis and stress reporting. It will be exciting to watch the spacecraft meet its next milestones and prepare for powered orbital space flight.” DW

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Software for machine monitoring

and intelligent inspection

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This software gives users a comprehensive approach to machine monitoring and management that meets the needs of multiple applications. Called WebAccess/MCM machine condition monitoring software, it conveniently acquires sensor signals, analyses signals, extracts features, manages and interprets data, and handles alert notifications for online monitoring and inspection.

The software is compatible with various DAQ computers and cards. The software is designed with a user-guided graphical user interface for easy setup configuration.

The software has a cloud function in which data from various machines can be uploaded to a cloud platform, giving clients real-time data access to machine conditions for predictive maintenance applications.

WebAccess/MCM provides three different modes • Scope Mode: At the start of implementing a measure system, a user needs to verify the sensor signal. Scope assists users in analyzing signals and provides oscilloscope like functions including cursor measurement tools, trigger capture functions, automatic measures of amplitudes, frequencies, average and peak-to-peak values, as well as real-time display of time-domain data and spectrograms.

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• Intelligent Inspection Mode: This mode provides an easy way to develop an inspection system for a production line. Wizard guides provide easy setup.

Custom algorithms optimize signals and data analysis.

The system can output signals to other equipment and can connect to a SCADA system as monitoring nodes and generates quality inspection reports.

• Condition Monitoring Mode: Provides plenty of algorithms for signal processing and data analysis to convert large amounts of data into useful information.

Through a data management function, data are uploaded to an IIoT cloud. With MCM, the user can realize real- time online condition monitoring, predict key component life, minimize machine shutdowns, and increase productivity. DW

Advantech Corporation | www.advantech.com

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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LASER

CAE Solutions News

PARTS?

Maplesoft joins Rockwell

Automation’s Encompass Product Referencing Program

LET JEFF TAKE THE LEAD ON PARTS REQUIRING:

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Maplesoft has been named an Encompass Product Partner in the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork Program. Through

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the partnership, joint customers of Rockwell automation and Maplesoft will benefit from technology that provides model-based tools for virtual commissioning. Using Maplesoft technology, customers can reduce integration problems through the development of high-fidelity, high-performance Digital Twins of their machines.

Integrating these Digital Twins with Studio 5000 from Rockwell Automation allows customers to predict dynamic loads on machine actuators, helping them to make better informed decisions on motor sizing, eliminate undesired dynamic effects, and maximize machine performance. It also helps customers reduce the costly integration problems typically associated with the first prototype of the machine, which reduces associated development costs. Model-driven Digital Twins, less expensive than traditional data-driven Digital Twins, assist in all stages of product design and are essential for virtual commissioning.

The capabilities provided by this partnership are based on MapleSim and associated professional services to ensure a rapid return on investment. MapleSim, the system-level simulation software from Maplesoft, is used across a variety of applications and industries. Because Digital Twins in MapleSim do not require test data to predict behavior, they can be used for conceptual design as well as to validate product performance, design changes, and diagnostics.

Designers can test integration in a virtual commissioning phase, correcting issues that typically would not be discovered until after production.

“Too often, the first time machine manufacturers encounter problems with their design is during the hardware integration phases, when it is costly to address and risks disruption to the schedule,” said Paul Goossens, Vice President of Engineering Solutions at Maplesoft. “Building a digital twin of the machine within the Rockwell Automation platform complete with mechanisms, motors, gearing and controllers - early in the process, allows customers to test the design through multiple duty cycles. This helps them to identify and address integration issues at a fraction of the cost of dealing with them in the later stages.” DW

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Made in Staunton, VA June 2018

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Inside: 62/ 2019: the Year of the Legged Robots

www.designworldonline.com

•

72/ Self-driving cars

•

80/ Robots in warehouses

A Supplement to Design World - June 2018

Evolution of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot. page 68

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The Robot Report

Agility Robotics Cassie bipedal robot.

2019:

(Credit: Agility Robotics)

the Year of Legged Robots

2

Steve Crowe • Editor, The Robot Report

2019 will be the year of commercial class legged robots. That was the message delivered by Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics during their respective opening and closing keynotes at the inaugural Robotics Summit & Showcase, produced by The Robot Report and WTWH Media May 23-24 in Boston.

Agility Robotics CEO and co-founder Damion Shelton updated attendees on its Cassie bipedal robot. Boston Dynamics co-founder and CEO Marc Raibert quickly discussed the wheel-leg hybrid robot Handle, which he said we’ll hear more about in 2019 with a real application, while focusing more on the Atlas bipedal and SpotMini quadruped robots. Raibert conducted a live demo of SpotMini where the robot traversed a small obstacle and picked up a soda can and handed it to Raibert.

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The Robot Report

Boston Dynamics will sell its SpotMini quadruped robot as a hardware and software platform starting in 2019. (Credit: Boston Dynamics)

Neither company has ever claimed legged robots are a fit for every application. “If we evolved with wheels, I’m sure our environments would be good for wheels, too,” Shelton said. Raibert and Shelton both described potential applications for their robots, including construction, delivery, disaster relief and surveillance, but the availability of commercial class legged robot platforms to build upon will lead to innovative ideas.

2019 will be the year of commercial class legged robots.

Cassie is gearing up for its second production run in July 2018, while SpotMini is in pre-production preparing for commercial availability in 2019.

SpotMini will be the first robot Boston Dynamics commercialized in its 26-year history.

Raibert would not disclose the price of SpotMini, but he said the latest prototype costs 10 times less to build than the iteration before it. Boston Dynamics is working with contract manufacturers to build 100 SpotMinis over the next year, then it hopes to build 1,000 each year going forward.

Agility Robotics recently raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Playground Global, which was founded

by Android co-creator and ex-Google robotics head Andy Rubin. The company is hiring mechanical, electrical, and

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controls engineers at its Oregon headquarters. It’s also adding employees for perception, business development and apps engineering at a facility in Pittsburgh.

Legged robots have long been challenging and expensive. The prices are finally coming down, but challenges such as agility, control laws, emergency stop, power consumption and stability will persist. Getting these platforms out into the masses is the only way to expedite their development. The Dynamic Legged Locomotion Lab at the University of Michigan, for example, recently had Cassie riding a Segway to test custom controls. The University of British Columbia used deep reinforcement learning in simulation to test feedback control. Shelton said Agility Robotics is just starting to explore how deep learning can help bipeds.

SpotMini will be sold as a hardware and software platform, Raibert said. The robot is flat on top with mounting plates for companies to hook into. SpotMini has a network connection and API so third-party software can talk with its software to develop apps. Boston Dynamics is building its own apps, including a surveillance package, that it’ll use as reference designs going forward.

There’s an optional manipulator arm sold separately.

Skeptics have often wondered what has taken Boston Dynamics so long to commercialize a robot. And it appears the company’s mentality has changed since the Softbank acquisition in 2017.

As Raibert said at the Robotics Summit,

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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Boston Dynamics’ long-term goal has been solving “the hard problems in robotics, leading to major new functionality.” Its new goal is developing products for real-world applications.

Raibert admitted it’s challenging to balance both the short- and long-term goals simultaneously. But he isn’t shy about asking for help. “I hope half of you quit your jobs and come join us,” Raibert said jokingly to the audience. “Because we’re hiring.” RR

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The Robot Report Philadelphia startup Exyn Technologies is developing scalable, full-stack AI that enables robots to navigate unmapped environments without human intervention.

AI Helps Drones Navigate Unmapped Environments

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exynAI uses multiple sensors to perceive its environment – cameras, LiDAR, radar, and RGBD – and late-stage sensor fusion that, in real time, estimates a drone’s position and orientation relative to where it started. (Credit: Exyn Technologies)

Steve Crowe • Editor, The Robot Report

One of the biggest challenges in robotics is developing autonomous systems that can reliably operate in unmapped environments. This is why, for example, leading self-driving car company Waymo only tests in areas it’s spent countless hours at creating detailed 3D maps.

Exyn Technologies, a spin-off of the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP lab, is making inroads in advanced autonomous navigation and realtime mapping of unmapped, infrastructureless environments that don’t have beacons, GPS or ultrawideband technology. The technology works just as well in environments equipped with infrastructure, but that’s old-hat at this point.

The Philadelphia startup, which took part in WTWH Media’s inaugural Robotics Summit & Showcase, is developing scalable, full-stack software called exynAI that enables autonomous navigation and real-time mapping for Autonomous Aerial Robots (A3R) in complex commercial environments. At the moment, Exyn is focusing on indoor drone applications, including construction (data capture), logistics (inventory management) and mining (surveying). The technology alsos work on ground-based robots. Exyn is currently working with a legged robotics company, but it can’t publicly disclose the name of its partner just yet.

How exynAI works Exyn co-founder Nader Elm said the key to enabling autonomous navigation starts with these questions: • Where am I in the environment?

• Where am I trying to go?

• How do I get there optimally?

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Exyn uses multiple sensors to perceive its environment – cameras, LiDAR (Velodyne VLP-16), radar, and RGBD – and late-stage sensor fusion that, in real time, estimates a drone’s position and orientation relative to where it started. Exyn has demo videos that show a drone autonomously navigating mines and warehouses.

According to Exyn, the routes were not pre-programmed, human pilots did not intervene, and processing was done onboard the drone.

The VLP-16 is the primary sensor for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and for part of state estimation. “Each sensor gives state estimation, then we fuse it,” Elm said.

“Depending on the confidence level of each sensor, we’ll use it. If it’s low confidence, we consider it bad data and get rid of it.”

The difficult part, Elm said, is building the AI that helps the A3R understand the 3D environment. Exyn uses machine learning and deep neural networks to do so. “This is the hard part Google has been working on for a decade. What Google is doing to make cars driverless, we’re doing for drones.

Exyn has an advantage of leveraging a decade of research from UPenn.”

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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“As the drone is moving and obstacles dynamically appear in its path — a forklift or a person — you need to dynamically change the path.

We can do that in real time with onboard processing,” Elm said. “But now, using machine learning, we can identify what’s in front of the drone and change the behavior of the drone based on what it is. If it’s a forklift, for example, go around it and complete mission. If it’s a person, come to a stop and stay a safe distance away. These are new and exciting things we’re integrating into our stack – semantic labeling of objects in the drone’s path.” exynAI software can be customized to be mission-specific, support swarms, and provide a “sliding scale” of autonomy.

Exyn’s technology is a fit for various outdoor drone applications, too.

But on-going battles over outdoor, commercial drone regulations have been a turnoff for the company.

“Regulations don’t really exist for indoor drones. Indoor drones are unregulated, but not unrestricted.” RR

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The Robot Report

Evolution of

Boston Dynamics’ Altas Robot A look at how Atlas became the running, jumping, backflipping humanoid it is today.

The closing keynote at the 11th International Fluid Power Conference was an all-too-short talk by Aaron Saunders, VP of Engineering of Boston Dynamics. Even non-engineers know about the Waltham, Mass.-based company due to its famous YouTube videos that feature bipedal and animal-like robots that jump, run, balance and even do backflips.

By Paul J. Heney

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Saunders talk focused on building “the world’s most dynamic” humanoid robot — the famed Atlas, which has been through a redesign in recent years. Saunders noted that Boston Dynamics is a very small company, with only 100 engineers. For the last 15 years, he said that his team has been focusing on basic principles of the mechanics of the locomotion of robotics. Their goal has been on changing people’s idea of what robots can do.

“I’m always asked, ‘What’s the purpose?

Are you making any money with this?’ The answer is no,” Saunders said, to laughs from the audience. “This robot’s [purpose] is really to drive innovation inside our group, to push us to understand how to marry controls on complex machines. It is also to create an impression of what robots can do. As we move toward the future, we’re getting closer and closer to when we’re going to turn these things into products.”

People also ask Saunders why they are making robots perform tasks such as making them jump. He explained that it forces his team to face a lot of pragmatic problems. In

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tasks such as jumping, there is a lot of coordination happening—in the upper body, in the legs and the feet.

His videos showed the robot’s hands and arms moving to better stabilize itself, and its legs wobble when it landed on soft ground, far different than laboratory conditions.

This is on purpose, he said. “The other thing we do with a lot of the robots at Boston Dynamics that’s kind of unique is we put them out in the real world. Robots in their history have almost always been in the lab environment.”

“In these environments, the robots have to autonomously navigate the terrain,” he said, as another video showed a robot walking up an uneven set of stone steps in a parklike setting. “The only inputs that this robot is getting right now from the operator are simple

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June 2018

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The Robot Report joystick commands, like go forward, go left or right, and everything else comes autonomously from the control system.”

Sawing a quadruped in half The journey that Boston Dynamics took in getting to this robot did not happen overnight. They started in 2009, literally sawing one of their quadrupeds in half to make an early biped robot, as they worked on a government project that used pneumatics. This robot was tethered for power and cooling.

“In 2012, there was a big competition started in the U.S. to use mobile robots to use in disaster response scenarios, and the government asked them to build 10 robots to give to universities to learn how to access these difficult trends,” he said. Boston Dynamics used a lot of off-the-shelf components to put this hydraulic robot together, which was a 2-m tall robot that was selfcontained and weighed nearly 200 kg.

“In 2013, we got the opportunity — when we were acquired by Google — to really look inside and focus on things that we thought were important. We used the opportunity to redesign this humanoid robot from the ground up, and we ended up with a robot that’s very similar. It has all the same strength and range of mobility.”

This newer Atlas model is about 1.5 meters tall and weighs 80 kg. It has an increased strength density to near human levels, is completely power autonomous (running between 30-60 minutes, depending on what it is doing) and has 28 degrees of freedom.

Valves were a problem to source.

They found, as their scale got smaller and smaller, and moved down to the human scale, there really weren’t many choices to purchase a high-performance servovalves that they could use to do control. So, they developed their own, which features multiple modes, for traditional servo, braking (negative work) and coasting (chamber to chamber). The valve, he said, has a fast response time and extremely low bypass leakage.

3D printing lends a helping hand 3D printing technology has also been key to this version of Atlas.

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“When we started the program, I’d read a lot of glossy magazine ads about how 3D printing was here. You could use it, you could print and go. That’s not quite true, but it is a very promising technology and it’s evolving rapidly,” Saunders said.

The robot’s leg makeup was, he said, “probably our biggest undertaking. We learned a lot of lessons … we integrated the structure, the manifold and the fluid routing and actuator cylinders all into one structure.”

“We were able to reduce limb inertia significantly, which is a big deal for a walking robot—most of the power in the system goes to swinging the legs through the air and accelerating and stopping them. You do very little work on the world when you’re a biped and you’re walking — you’re actually very efficient.

But you need a lot of power to swing legs, especially when they’re heavy, so this [reduction] was a big deal,” he said.

“We have a saying in our company called the bleeding edge. A lot of people talk about leading edge technology and the leading edge for us is when you’re going too far. The leg was very challenging because there was a lot of stuff integrated into it. Just finding a company to hone an actuator cylinder in a 3D printed material that had never been qualified before is a massive challenge. The number of close processing steps you have to go through as opposed to traditional machining really started to erode some of the benefits. In the end, we still saw that benefit in the inertia, but the effort to get this part out was quite significant,” Saunders said.

“It’s approaching a Kilowatt per kg of density, it’s pretty scalable,” he said.

“It sits in the center of the robot. It has everything it needs to collect electrical power and put hydraulic power out …

All the homeostasis, sensing, filtration, dump valves, everything we need for the power plant is integrated into a printed part. This lets us wrap everything really tightly around the reservoir—and uses empty space that’s otherwise not used.”

Atlas’ manifold has 18 valves, which service the upper body of the robot.

“This is where we are getting close to

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This newer Atlas model is about 1.5 meters tall and weighs 80 kg. It has an increased strength density to near human levels, is completely power autonomous (running between 30-60 minutes, depending on what it is doing) and has 28 degrees of freedom. a sweet spot in printing,” Saunders said, “so we can make very organic structures and minimize pressure drops—get rid of a lot of excess components. It’s kind of exciting, the things that can be done in printing manifolds.”

But, he reiterated, he wants to see component manufacturers come forward and expand their offerings for uses like this.

“For us, I think one of the big things is the availability of small components. I would love to be able to come to a group like this and find more components on the human scale for mobile applications,” Saunders said. “Developing that valve was really fun, but we’re a robotics company - and we’d like to do more robotics and less component development. So, finding places that work with people to develop these small components on the timescales that are relevant is an area that it’d be great to see more of.” RR DESIGN WORLD

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The Robot Report

Self-Driving Cars take on unmapped roads Companies like Waymo only test self-driving cars in major cities where they’ve created precise 3-D maps.

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Autonomous driving has the potential to drastically improve lives. To date, the vast majority of fielded autonomous vehicles focus on one of two scenarios: lane following on well-marked highways;

By Steve Crowe | Editor Robot Report

and urban navigation using extremely precise and manually annotated detailed global maps.

But more than one third of the roads in the United States are unpaved, and 65 percent do not possess reliable lane markings, according to the Federal Highway Administration. While the detailed global mapping approach becomes impractical as the maps grow prohibitively large, the lane following approach is also infeasible since lane markings and road curb geometry are frequently unavailable for reliable road lane following.

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A team of MIT researchers tested MapLite on a Toyota Prius outfitted with a range of LIDAR and IMU sensors. | Courtesy of MIT CSAIL

June 2018

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The Robot Report MapLite uses perception sensors to plan a safe path, including LIDAR to determine the approximate location of the edges of the road. | Courtesy of MIT CSAIL

“More than one third of the roads in the United States are unpaved, and 65 percent do not possess reliable lane markings, according to the Federal Highway Administration.”

Navigating roads less traveled in self-driving cars is a difficult task. One reason is that there aren’t many places where self-driving cars can actually drive.

Companies like Waymo only test their fleets in major cities where they’ve spent countless hours meticulously labeling the exact 3-D positions of lanes, curbs, offramps, and stop signs.

“The cars use these maps to know where they are and what to do in the presence of new obstacles like pedestrians and other cars,” says Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “The need for dense 3-D maps limits the places where self-driving cars can operate.”

Indeed, if you live along the millions of miles of U.S. roads that are unpaved, unlit, or unreliably marked, you’re out of luck. Such streets are often much more complicated to map, and get a lot less traffic, so companies aren’t incentivized to develop 3-D maps for them anytime soon. From California’s Mojave Desert to Vermont’s White Mountains, there are huge swaths of America that self-driving cars simply aren’t ready for.

A map-less approach One way around this is to create systems advanced enough to navigate without these maps. In an important first step, Rus and colleagues at CSAIL have

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developed MapLite, a framework that allows self-driving cars to drive on roads they’ve never been on before without 3-D maps.

MapLite combines simple GPS data that you’d find on Google Maps with a series of sensors that observe the road conditions. In tandem, these two elements allowed the team to autonomously drive on multiple unpaved country roads in Devens, Massachusetts, and reliably detect the road more than 100 feet in advance. As part of a collaboration with the Toyota Research Institute, researchers used a Toyota Prius that they outfitted with a range of LIDAR and IMU sensors.

“The reason this kind of ‘map-less’ approach hasn’t really been done before is because it is generally much harder to reach the same accuracy and reliability as with detailed maps,” says CSAIL graduate student Teddy Ort, who was a lead author on a related paper about the system. “A system like this that can navigate just with on-board sensors shows the potential of self-driving cars being able to actually handle roads beyond the small number that tech companies have mapped.”

The paper, which will be presented in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Brisbane, Australia, was co-written by Ort, Rus, and PhD graduate Liam Paull, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Montreal.

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The Robot Report

MapLite can navigate without physical road markings by making basic assumptions about how the road will be relatively more flat than the surrounding areas. | Courtesy of MIT CSAIL

For all the progress that has been made with self-driving cars, their navigation skills still pale in comparison to humans. Consider how you yourself get around: If you’re trying to get to a specific location, you probably plug an address into your phone and then consult it occasionally along the way,

like when you approach intersections or highway exits.

However, if you were to move through the world like most self-driving cars, you’d essentially be staring at your phone the whole time you’re walking.

Existing systems still rely heavily on maps, only using sensors and vision

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algorithms to avoid dynamic objects like pedestrians and other cars.

In contrast, MapLite uses sensors for all aspects of navigation, relying on GPS data only to obtain a rough estimate of the car’s location. The system first sets both a final destination and what researchers call a “local navigation goal,” which has to be within view of the car. Its perception sensors then generate a path to get to that point, using a Velodyne HDL-64S3 LiDAR to estimate the location of the road’s edges. MapLite can do this without physical road markings by making basic assumptions about how the road will be relatively more flat than the surrounding areas.

“Our minimalist approach to mapping enables autonomous driving on country roads using local appearance and semantic features such as the presence of a parking spot or a side road,” says Rus. The team developed a system of models that are “parameterized,” which means that they describe multiple situations that are somewhat similar.

For example, one model might be broad enough to determine what to do at intersections, or what to do on a specific type of road.

“I imagine that the self-driving cars of the future will always make some use of 3-D maps in urban areas,” says Ort. “But when called upon to take a trip off the beaten path, these vehicles will need to be as good as humans at driving on unfamiliar roads they have never seen before. We hope our work is a step in that direction.” RR

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Modeling techniques MapLite differs from other map-less driving approaches that rely more on machine learning by training on data from one set of roads and then being tested on other ones.

“At the end of the day we want to be able to ask the car questions like ‘how many roads are merging at this intersection?’” says Ort. “By using modeling techniques, if the system doesn’t work or is involved in an accident, we can better understand why.”

MapLite still has some limitations. For example, it isn’t yet reliable enough for mountain roads, since it doesn’t account for dramatic changes in elevation. As a next step, the team hopes to expand the variety of roads that the vehicle can handle. Ultimately they aspire to have their system reach comparable levels of performance and reliability as mapped systems but with a much wider range.

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The Robot Report

Robots Taking Over E-commerce Warehouses Flexibility and an ability to handle an increasing number of products has logistics operations around the world turning to robotics for help.

By Frank Tobe

E-commerce sales for 2017 were $453.5 billion in the U.S. and $1.1 trillion in China, an increase of 16.0% and 32.6% respectively over 2016. This upward trend is projected to continue for the next many years. Consequently flexibility and an ability to handle an ever-increasing number of parcels is of concern to warehousing, fulfillment and distribution center (DC) managers around the world.

Handling, distribution, transport and delivery – and the amortization of facility setup charges which often represent more cost than raw materials and manufacturing combined – are part of mounting challenges faced by today’s fulfillment executives.

Accordingly, warehousing and material handling are a big business for hundreds of different types of companies that provide conveyors, rollers, racks, vision systems, hoists, shelving, electric motors, slides, barcode readers, printers, ladders, gantries, tugs, forklifts, skids, totes, carts, and software systems of all types.

Most of these vendors provide products that serve the manto-goods model, ie, a person goes somewhere in the warehouse, finds the item, and either puts it into further play in the system or packs it himself. Kiva Systems shattered that model with their goods-to-person robots and dynamic shelving systems. Amazon was so enamored with Kiva’s robotic solution that it acquired Kiva and their robots. Since that acquisition Amazon Robotics (as Kiva Systems was renamed) has since produced over 130,000 Kiva robots and put them all to work in Amazon warehouses and DCs thus proving the efficacy of the method – a method which has been copied and also expanded upon by multiple vendors listed below.

Bottom line: In warehouse and supply chain logistics focused on e-commerce fulfillment, whether third-party logistics service providers or e-retailers and their logistics arms, fixed and exorbitant front-end costs for conveyors, elevators and old style AS/RS systems have become anathema to warehouse executives

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worldwide who are clamoring to lower fixed costs while increasing flexibility and handling more goods. Comprehensive software and analytics — particularly predictive analytics — are on executives near-term agendas. Hence the need to invest in next-generation supply chain methods offered by the companies listed below.

Automating lifts, tows, carts and AGVs Human-operated tows, lifts, AGVs and other warehouse and factory vehicles has been a staple in material movement for decades. Now, with low-cost cameras, sensors and advanced vision and depth-sensing systems, they are slowly transitioning to more flexible autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that can autonomously tow, lift and carry and can work in either autonomous or human-operated modes.

An AGV is an unmanned vehicle preprogrammed to move materials and rely on guidance devices (tapes, beacons, barcodes, laser paths) and stop and wait when an object or person obstructs their path.

AMRs are autonomous vehicles without pre-programmed scripts to control steering, acceleration or braking which can move through DESIGN WORLD

6/1/18 9:31 AM

Aethon was a pioneer in developing and deploying autonomous robot tugs for hospitals. They were the first to develop a 24/7 remote command center to ameliorate any glitches. In recent years they’ve integrated their tugs into ERP and MES systems in factories and warehouses.

Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+) is the leading Kiva-like robot provider in China and is this year bringing their tech to the US and Europe.

Fetch Robotics’ HMIShelf autonomous mobile robot delivering packages inside a warehouse. | Fetch Robotics

facilities based on an ever-learning map and vision system and point-to-point instructions.

Of the top 20 industrial lift suppliers tabulated by Modern Materials Handling, only 5 offer kits or optional self-driving add-ons.

Vendors providing kits and systems for existing forklifts and carts to convert them to Vision Guided Vehicles (VGVs, AMRs) for lineside replenishment, pallet movement, etc. include: • RoboCV is a Russian provider of autopilots for warehouse machines at Russian facilities for Samsung, VW and 3PLs. RoboCV also provides cloud-based task optimization and traffic control.

• Balyo, a French provider of autonomous vehicle kits to forklift OEMs Hyster and Yale.

• Seegrid, a Pittsburgh-based provider of vehicle autonomous kits for OEM Raymond, 3PLs and distribution centers of all types, also makes their own VGVs, and provides software and engineering systems to minimize human involvement and maximize VGV productivity.

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Vendors providing AMRs, VGVs and AIVs (Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles) for goods-to-person, point-to-point, load transfer and restocking.

“The hardware and software systems that most warehouses use today were built for a world that is facing extinction.

We live in an on-demand world and operations teams are struggling to keep up. A few leaders have adapted to this reality, but most need to modernize quickly for their business to survive,” said Jerome Dubois, 6 River Systems co-founder and co-CEO. Thus all of these vendors are also in the traffic, warehousing, vision systems and fulfillment software business as well as providing mobile robots outfitted with various shelving capabilities.

6 River Systems has raised $46 million in three funding rounds, the latest was $25 million in April, 2018. See quote from their CEO above regarding old and new tech in warehouses. 6RS was started as a direct result of Kiva Systems being acquired by Amazon and thereby depriving warehouse operators of Kiva technologies. www.designworldonline.com

Clearpath’s OTTO robots takes Clearpath’s history of providing mobile robot development platforms and, in their OTTO line, offer a light and heavy load self-driving platform for factory and warehouse material transport.

Fetch Robotics is a well-funded Silicon Valley startup that has developed a line of 3 mobile robots in 10 configurations plus traffic management software that integrates with various WMS to provide point-to-point on-demand transport.

Fetch is an approved vendor for 3PL warehouses managed by DHL around the world. They are also providing ~100 grasping robots (mobile manipulators) for researchers and academia to help close the technology gap in this area.

Grenzebach specializes in mechanical engineering, integration and plant construction but also automation and robotic equipment. Having previously been a partner/investor in both Kuka and Swisslog, much of their product line is industrial. Grenzebach also offers a mobile manipulator, an autonomous tug and a series of driverless forklifts.

Kuka is one of the world’s Big Four robot builders. They were acquired in 2016 by Midea, a Chinese consumer products conglomerate. Kuka’s mobility products are rugged and capable of moving heavy industrial goods either separately or in tandem. Their omniMove platform is solid and stable enough to put a lightweight robot arm on top with all controllers onboard to make a mobile manipulator possible (albeit expensive).

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The Robot Report Locus Robotics is a story of a satisfied Kiva user and early adopter being frozen out of upgrading and adding additional Kiva robots to his warehouses. So he founded Locus, removed the Kiva’s and built an alternative that satisfied his needs, and has since offered Locus products (robots, WMS integration, traffic management software, etc.) to other warehouse managers. Locus is also an approved DHL vendor for their global network of 3PL warehouses.

Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) just got acquired by Teradyne, the same testing equipment provider that acquired Energid and their Actin platform and Universal Robots and their line of one-armed collaborative robots.

Robotnik Automation is a Spanish integrator and maker of mobile robots, localization systems, configuration and programming tools (HMI) and Fleet Management Systems (FMS) for autonomous indoor transport for hospitals, factories and warehouses.

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Seegrid filed for bankruptcy in 2014 but was reorganized and funded by their biggest client and backer: Giant Eagle which now owns 40% of the company. Seegrid provides pallet trucks, tow tractors and vision-guided kits for other lift manufacturers. They also provide supervisor software to manage, monitor and control the fleet in all aspects of material transferring – from parts-to-line to replenishment, putaway, kitting and picking, long hauls, sortation, and end-of-line.

Swisslog sells three different types of mobile robots: (1) the omni-directional AutoStore robot that moves around on top of racks in high bay spaces and then lifts out pods for further processing; (2) PowerStore, a high density pallet shuttle system for warehouses with low ceilings; and (3) CarryPick, a modular and flexible Kiva-like shelf picking system without having to make any facility construction changes. A version of the CarryPick

robot, TransCar, is used in hospitals for their on-demand and routine material transport.

Toyota offers autopilot vision systems for their forklifts and also offers automated carts for factories and warehouses. Their sister company Vanderlande also provides elaborate robotic AS/RSs. Vecna Robotics is a provider of mobile and remote-presence devices for healthcare has, in recent years, been expanding with a full line of 7 scalable mobile transport robots for industry and warehouses including a complete set of software for fleet management.

Grasping Where humans surpass machines is in the quick visual determination of what to pick, how to grasp, and then move the item to wherever it needs to go. Until recently, this has been the missing link in automated fulfillment and one of the

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The Robot Report biggest challenges in robotics acceptance.

A few vendors are perfecting the science that enables high speed random grasping from moving conveyors or bins: RightHand Robotics, Universal Logic, Kinema Systems, Swisslog, Soft Robotics Vendors providing grasping capabilities in addition to autonomous mobility include: InVia Robotics, IAM Robotics, Magazino, Dorabot, GreyOrange

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Indoor navigation Navigation systems have changed along with all the other technological improvements and often don’t require floor grid markings, barcodes or extensive indoor localization and segregation systems such as those used by Kiva Systems (and subsequently Amazon).

SLAM and combinations of floor grids, SLAM, path planning and mapping systems, indoor beacons, and collision avoidance systems are adding flexibility to swarms of point-to-point mobile robots and enabling traffic control and dynamic inventory placement.

Kiva look-alikes In March 2012, in an effort to make their fulfillment centers as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in-house, leaving a disgruntled set of Kiva customers who couldn’t expand and a larger group of prospective clients who were left with a technological gap and no solutions. I wrote about this gap and about the whole community of new providers that had sprung up to fill the void and were beginning to offer and demonstrate their solutions. Many of those new providers are listed above.

Recently, another set of competitors has emerged in this space. Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD (JingDong), VIPShop, Tencent and others have funded companies who copied the Kiva Systems formula to provide Kiva-like goods-to-person robot systems and dynamic free-form warehousing for their in-country fulfillment and distribution centers.

Now some of those companies are braving the prospect of IP infringement proceedings from Amazon and are expanding outside of China and SE Asia to Europe and America: Grey Orange Robotics has sites using their systems in Japan and Europe and exhibited at Europe’s Logimat trade show where they launched PickPal, an autonomous picking robot which can pick a wide variety of SKUs using machine vision and a scalable gripper system specifically suitable for high-volume order fulfillment.

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The Robot Report

Soft Robotics’ SuperPick combines soft robotics and artificial intelligence to enable automation of highly unstructured tasks like bin picking, sorting, and order fulfillment.

Beijing Geekplus (Geek+) Technology also has sites using their systems in Japan and Poland and had booths at MODEX and CeMAT trade shows to introduce Geek+ to the West.

Xinyi Logistics Science & Technology (Alog) – has not yet ventured beyond China and SE Asia.

Shanghai Express Warehouse (Quicktron / Flashhold) – this company is funded by Alibaba which is placing their robots in new Alibaba warehouses.

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Hanzhou Hikrobot Technology (HIK) – has not yet ventured beyond China and SE Asia.

vision-enabled forklifts and trucks and Egemin, a provider of AGV systems.

Locus Robotics described above.

Kiva alternatives Swisslog described above.

Fetch Robotics described above. RR

Dematic (acquired in 2016 by KION Group) is a well-funded supplier of integrated automated technology, software and services to optimize the supply chain. The KION Group also owns Linde Robotics, a maker of

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GAM The New Gearbox Standard in Robots Our new robotic gearbox offers a unique level of precision, lifetime and energy efficiency unseen from other gearboxes suppliers. Our planetary technology is based on a unique patented gear profile that remains backlash free at ≤0.1 arcmin for the lifetime of the gearbox. Our high tilting rigidity and 95% efficiency, allow us to achieve an impressive life of 20,000 hours, unheard of in today’s robotic gearboxes. We have 7 sizes up to 7000Nm with many versions available from sub-assembly to right angle in both shaft and hollow configurations. These features set this gearbox apart from all others in the market today!

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www.designworldonline.com

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HANNOVER MESSE USA Sept. 10-15, 2018 · Chicago, IL Industry 4.0 is changing industries, markets… and trade shows.

For the first time in its 70 year history, the world’s leading industrial trade show, HANNOVER MESSE, will be produced outside of Germany. HANNOVER MESSE USA, co-located at McCormick Place with IMTS, expects over 115,000 buyers and 2,000 exhibiting companies to Chicago for unparalleled networking opportunities at one incredible event.

Register for free show floor admission with code HMUSAWTWH

Website: www.hannovermesseusa.com Phone: (773) 796-4250

Harmonic Drive Extremely customizable supermini actuator Small enough to fit inside the finger of a robotic hand, these ultra-compact servo actuators utilize zero backlash Harmonic Drive® precision gears, a brushless servo motor and an incremental encoder. RSF supermini actuators are available in 2 sizes with ratios 30:1, 50:1 and 100:1. Peak torque .13~1.4 Nm, max speed 100~333 rpm. RSF Supermini actuators are remarkably reliable.

Known for our expert engineering and manufacturing, Harmonic Drive® products are relied upon every day throughout the robotics industry.

247 Lynnfield Street Peabody, MA 01960 United States www.harmonicdrive.net

Harmonic Drive is a registered trademark of Harmonic Drive Systems

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igus Customize low-cost robotic joints and complete arm assemblies The new robolink designer is an online configurator tool from igus® that allows users to quickly and easily configure individual robotic systems. With the tool, users can select robolink components individually and configure a robotic arm step by step. They can also configure the length of the arm to match the dimensions a specific work environment, as well as simulate motion of the robot through rotating its joints. Furthermore, a parts lists can be saved for future reference, and a quote can be requested for the configured system.

The digital design tool uses an intuitive CAD interface suitable for both desktops and tablets.

Website: www.igus.com Email: sales@igus.com

Try it for yourself at http://robolink-designer.igus.tools

Phone: 800.521.2747

Kollmorgen KBM™ Series Frameless Motors The KBM™ Series is designed to be directly embedded in a machine. With a vast selection of standard motors—plus Kollmorgen’s ability to create optimized modifications—design engineers can choose the exact-fit motor that yields the highest performance in the most compact space.

• Direct load connection eliminates maintenance of gearboxes, belts or pulleys • Zero backlash and compliance provides more responsive system performance • Eliminates coupling devices, reducing overall machine size • Embedded motor enables compact machine design • Solutions for operating from 48 VDC to 600 VDC • Many standard windings for optimized motor performance • Standard thermal and hall sensor options • Industry-leading torque density Webpage for KBM: www.kollmorgen.com/kbm-motors

Contact: Gene Matthews 203A West Rock Road Radford, VA 24141 Phone: 1.540.633.3545 Email: www.kollmorgen.com

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maxon precision motors Drive Systems for Robotics Reliable, Powerful, Efficient A complete joint actuation unit. Includes a brushless DC motor, an internal high resolution encoder, planetary gearhead with absolute encoder and position controller with CAN and RS232 interface.

Exoskeleton Joint Actuator • Compact Housing • Integrated Controller • Reduced Weight and Cost • For Use in Hip and Knee Exoskeletons maxon is your single source for motion solutions. When you choose maxon, you can expect outstanding service, creative options and quality without question. Want to get your ideas moving? Contact maxon today.

Learn more about the maxon solutions and visit www.maxonmotorusa.com

101 Waldron Road Fall River, MA 02720 Phone: 508.677.0520 www.maxonmotorusa.com info@maxonmotorusa.com

MICROMO 24% More Torque Per Watt – in a Powerful 10 mm Package MICROMO launches the new FAULHABER 1016 SR series.

At 10 mm in diameter and 16 mm in length, the 1016 SR series small dc motor delivers over 24% more torque per watt than competitive motors with the same dimensions.

Additional strengths include low power consumption, high energy-efficiency and minimal vibration & low audible noise, making it well suited for applications with small dimensions and very high requirements such as those in autonomous robot systems, electro-mechanical systems, unmanned equipment, ROVs, and exoskeletons.

As the exclusive provider of FAULHABER motion products to North America, MICROMO creates value through advanced design and engineering services.

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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maxon precision motors, inc.

Contact Information: MICROMO 14881 Evergreen Ave Clearwater, FL 33762 Phone: (800) 807-9166 www.micromo.com

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Mitsubishi Electric FR Series Next Generation, High Performance Industrial Robots Integrate Seamlessly with iQ Platform Controllers for Advanced Cooperative Functions “FA-IT Integration Functions” with the full line of Mitsubishi Electric FA products such as PLCs, motion controllers, VFDs, HMIs, and CNC, as well as MES/SCADA packages provide a level of performance, functionality and ease of use unparalleled in the industry. In addition, the open platform architecture OS enables integration with 3rd party devices normally difficult or impossible to use on closed platforms. With such flexibility, capability and performance, increases to both productivity and maintainability can be achieved, resulting in a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

• With an extensive selection of arm sizes, configurations, protection ratings,

Website: us.MitsubishiElectric.com/fa/en Address: 500 Corporate Woods Pkwy Vernon Hills, IL 60061 Phone: 847.478.2100

backed with “Next-Generation” features, and options, the MELFA FR-Series line of robots are ready to handle all of your automation needs. Vertically articulated, horizontally articulated SCARA, ceiling mounted horizontal type, and dual arm high precision for micro-assembly • Industry’s best initial warranty - 3 year on-site for most models

mk North America Conveyors to Meet Your Needs mk North America, Inc. understands that no two material handling applications are the same; and as such no two solutions should be the same. mk offers a wide variety of standard and custom conveyors. And since all of mk’s aluminum-frame conveyors are constructed out of mk’s line of t-slotted aluminum extrusion; it is easy to integrated different conveyor types, and convenient to add guarding and workstations to them. mk provides better products and better solutions by: • Taking the time to understand each unique application • Working with customers to identify and address pain points • Bringing decades of design and integration experience to each application • Providing customer service and

Contact info: mk North America, Inc.

engineering support before, during, and after the sale • Assembling and testing all

Website: www.mknorthamerica.com

conveyors before shipping

Phone: 860.769.5500 Email: info@mknorthamerica.com

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New England Wire Technologies Advancing innovation for over 100 years Why accept a standard product for your custom application?

NEWT is committed to being the premier manufacturer of choice for customers requiring specialty wire, cable and extruded tubing to meet existing and emerging worldwide markets. Our custom products and solutions are not only engineered to the exacting specifications of our customers, but designed to perform under the harsh conditions of today’s advanced manufacturing processes. Cables we specialize in are LITZ, multi-conductor cables, hybrid configurations, coaxial, twin axial, miniature and micro-miniature coaxial cables, ultra flexible, high flex life, low/high temperature cables, braids, and a variety of proprietary cable designs. Contact us today and let us help you dream beyond today’s technology and achieve the impossible.

NEW ENGLAND WIRE T E C H N O LO G I E S

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Posital-Fraba Upgrade Your Motor Feedback with POSITAL Absolute Kit Encoders POSITAL absolute Kit Encoders offer a great upgrade path for the traditional incremental kit encoders used for servomotors. Compact, rugged and cost effective, they provide accurate position feedback for precision motion control in robots, production machinery, autonomous vehicles and other motion and position control application. They can also be used to provide closed-loop feedback control for stepper motors. Rotational resolution is up to 17-bit (one part in 130,000) with a multi-turn range of

POSITAL-FRABA Inc.

more than 8 million revolutions.

1800 East State Street, Suite 148 Hamilton, NJ 08609

Standardized compact form factors make POSITAL absolute kit encoder a straightforward replacement for US Digital or Broadcom incremental kit encoders in existing machinery or in new designs.

June 2018 www.designworldonline.com

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Contact info:

USA Website: www.posital.com Email: info@fraba.com Phone: +1 609.750.8705

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VIONiC™ Encoder series The VIONiC digital incremental encoder series has been specifically designed with the machine builder in mind. Its enhanced ease of use, superior metrology capability and multiple configuration options all ensure optimal machine performance.

VIONiC really has been designed for the designer.

Website: www.renishaw.com Email: usa@renishaw.com Phone: (847) 286-9953 Address: 1001 Wesemann Drive West Dundee, IL 60118 USA

Universal Robots Robotics Within Reach Universal Robots has reinvented industrial robotics with flexible, collaborative robot arms. Innovative forcesensing technology makes the robot stops operating when encountering an employee, eliminating the need for safety guarding in most scenarios.

Unlike traditional industrial robots that stay hardwired in a cage, the lightweight UR Robots can be moved around, automating high mix low volume production runs.

Programming is intuitive; simply grab the robot arm to teach the desired movement, or use the touch screen.

The Polyscope GUI runs on a Linux OS platform for easy customization of specific tasks and tools. Product portfolio includes the UR3, UR5 and UR10 robot arms named after their payloads in kilos, they all feature 0.1 mm repeatability and span in reach from 19.7” in to 51.2”. Since the first collaborative robot was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. U.S. regional offices are located in Ann Arbor, MI, Long Island, NY, Irvine, CA and Dallas, TX.

www.designworldonline.com

Contact info: Universal Robots USA, Inc. 5430 Data Court, Suite 300 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 United States Phone: +1 844.462.6268 Email: ur.na@universal-robots.com

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AMK Automation’s ihXT combines a synchronous servo motor and servo inverter into a single, compact package that can be daisy-chained so that only one cable is needed between each module and the motion controller.

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Rethinking conveyor

performance A new approach offers to simplify conveyor control and design by redefining automation productivity.

Tom Jensen | SVP and General Manager | AMK Automation

Engineering the structure, flow and motion control of conveyor systems in highly automated production systems is difficult and time-consuming. The design must address complex physical transport requirements—horizontal, diagonal and vertical. Power supplies, automation buses and sensor I/O points need to be identified and integrated. And ultimately, the need to know the efficiency of the system (and subsystems)—where a product is, where a failure is, and foreseeing where rerouting is needed—all add to the challenge.

It’s often compared to engineering and installing an entire railroad or subway system. Getting the conveyors in sync with the functions, throughput rates and other operational characteristics of each “station” on the train set presents multiple motion

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Decentralized motion control technology like AMK Automation’s iSA decentralized controller enables highly flexible and modular conveyor motion control. This kind of technology is one key to realizing the standard control of non-standard conveyor cells.

Engineering the structure, flow and motion control of conveyor systems in highly automated production systems is difficult and timeconsuming.

control challenges. Each connection between two stations must be timed to receive the output from the first machine and deliver the output to match the timing and requirements of the next machine or workstation.

Consider a basic packaging application, like producing toothpaste tubes. A conveyor feeds empty tubes into a machine that fills the tubes, then the tubes are sealed (at the bottom; the lids

are already on.) The filled tubes are conveyed from the sealer to a cartoner. Each carton is then conveyed to a case packer, then each case must be handed off to a palletizer.

Each of the process steps runs at a different rate. Depending on individual operations, different conveyors may be integrated to accumulate product before or after certain stages—between the cartoner and case packer, for example. As a result, each conveyor is a custom-engineered product, based on the type of load being moved and the rate that product is processed within each station. It’s even possible that different companies build different conveyors on the same production line, with different motors, sensors, servo drives, and motion control hardware and software being used.

Too much complexity; not enough clarity This fragmented approach to conveyors, treating them as individual automation systems rather than a single transport “train set”, makes building and integrating the system exponentially more complex, often requiring extra time, money and explicit knowledge of multiple drives and control systems. In addition, subsystems of PLCs need to have cross-communication—the

The Conveyor Cell: Motion Control What’s in the box?

w w w w w

Controller +24 VDC Motor power STO Multiple communication protocols

Decentralized, machine-mounted motion controllers now provide all the functionality to control multiple conveyor cells efficiently, for a highly modular and flexible transport platform.

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ability to see what other conveyor cells are doing—to be able to achieve the plant’s goals.

Ultimately, this complexity impacts long-term operations: Most plants today need to be flexible and modular, able to shift production processes in response to changes in product mix and market shifts. This flexibility is hampered by the complexity that gets built into many conveyor implementations.

Efforts to reduce this complexity and introduce standardized manufacturing concepts have been attempted with standards such as ISA88 and PackML that tried to create a broadly accepted set of concepts, models and definitions for the batch control industry.

As serious as these efforts have been, the complexity of integrating multiple conveyor components with the rest of production systems hasn’t been alleviated. Data collection is still a goal and not yet a reality. Moreover, the fundamental goal for all concerned—plant operators, automation equipment OEMs, conveyor manufacturers and system integrators—is to measure, manage and improve efficiency to deliver return on investment and value.

But what is the most effective way to measure this? Too often, each “station” in the line—its throughput and uptime— is measured, with conveyor data points an afterthought. The toothpaste tube filler is filling and outputting 500 tubes a minute.

The case packer is packing 20 cartons a minute. It takes complex and tricky controls investigation and analysis to extract the overall line effectiveness of all these disparate-functioning automations.

What if we were to flip the equation? Rather than measure the performance of each discrete production machine (tube filler, cartoner, case packer, etc.), measure the performance of the entire line (and manage it) by using a standard conveyor as both the simplest and most relevant unit of production throughput and control.

Standardized control of nonstandard conveyor components There is potential in taking a radical approach to simplifying how conveyor-driven production plants can measure overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Like a model train set, conveyor modules can be created with simple-to-connect smart drives based on a standard command concept. These conveyor modules have standard motion and control elements:

• Modules have a given input and output—product going into a production machine, product coming out • A single motor moves the module—with simple control steps: forward, reverse, stop, go at a predetermined speed • Modules are functionally identical—they move items from one production stage to another This doesn’t mean physically identical—conveyors can be straight or curved or function as diverters, but all have a point where product enters and leaves the conveyor, and the electronic motor moving them is the basic control of what happens to the product

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Concept - OEE Overall Equipment Effectiveness

With 2 sensors at the entrance and exit of a process or

w

Running speed/design speed

w

Running time/available time

OEE without digging into the

w

Output products/delivered products

OEMs machine code.

Same

Process 1

Same

Using the standardized conveyor cell, it’s not necessary to dig into the different productivity rates of the different process stations in the line. This is because the conveyors all have essentially the same measures of productivity.

machine, we can get complete

Process 2

Thus, the conveyor is the standard element that is controlled in the production line because its function is so simple, yet it’s still the most basic measure of productivity in the line or facility.

Between each module is the production equipment that is essentially the source of integration TL Design Worls ad copy.pdf 1 1/25/18 8:28 AM complexities and problems.

Think of them as

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Process 3

Same

“stations.” From the tracks’ perspective, a station has an input and output regardless of the services inside the station. The station can handle passengers and train cars, but they are always equal.

They have multiple axes, complex functions, sophisticated software and

(depending on the process or application) multiple OEMs who focus on engineering maximum performance for individual machines—not the entire line. Measuring overall OEE by measuring the performance of each machine involves a lot of background work.

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M o t i o n

C o n t r o l

With this concept of using the conveyor modules as the standard, OEE is simple: All belts function the same, whereas the “stations” in between have widely varying functions, builders, software and ways of measuring OEE. If the conveyor controllers have a standard program, the job of getting multiple cell controllers to work together becomes easier, focused on data exchange and not hierarchy.

Using this modular approach, OEE can be based on the following data points drawn from the conveyor modules:

Seals that help you build a better robot.

• Running speed/design speed • Running time/available time • Output products/delivered products With two sensors on the conveyor module, at the entrance and exit of a process or machine, we can get complete OEE without digging into the machine code of the individual machine “stations.”

Three building blocks To further standardize the conveyor module concept, the modules are composed of three building blocks:

• Mechanical—the various physical conveyor elements • Electrical—motor, drive and controller motion control elements • Software—a simplified set of instructions, able to be constructed in a standard spreadsheet or via HMI form entry

The Bal Seal® spring-energized seal

Mechanical: Obviously, there is a wide range of conveyor types and components available for use in many different production applications and environments. Fundamentally, however, the core mechanical elements are the same. Whether straight, curved, curving accumulators, diverters or right-angle diverters, these mechanical elements are motor-driven and have input points and output points that must be captured.

Your customers expect consistent, long-term service from the industrial robots you design. Our Bal Seal® spring-energized seal helps you meet that expectation by delivering superior protection against leaks and contamination that could stop production cold.

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Electrical: Motor and drive components will need to be sized to handle required loads, which involves the distance travelled, throughput speeds and (most critically) weight of inputs/outputs being moved.

This modular concept is well-suited to using a decentralized motion control framework, taking advantage of some of the latest advances in machinemounted drives and controls as well as drive-integrated servo motors.

Because they support combined power and communication in one cable, multiple conveyor

Call or click today, and learn how a Bal Seal® spring-energized seal can elevate your robot design.

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New! modules can be daisy-chained to a single controller. This can be either a cabinet-based controller module or a machine-mounted option to eliminate the cost and complexity of adding a conveyor control cabinet.

Certain conveyor applications may need to have more powerful motors and drives (think moving complete pallets to shrink wrap or shipping dock), which can require centralized motion control components in cabinets. Even in those applications, a hybrid motion control framework is possible, combining conveyor modules with both decentralized and centralized elements—but all operating according to a set of standardized, simple motion control instructions.

Software: To achieve the simpler, standardized conveyor module calls for a new approach to the control environment.

The goal; have no programming environment and be able to have nonprogrammers such as plant personnel configure the modules using the HMI or a spreadsheet.

The local control auto-configures when integrated with the larger line. It contains standard elements: controller, +24V DC power, motor power, standard emergency safe stop and communications protocols.

What does the PLC code look like? It doesn’t matter. The code will auto-configure for the discovered modules, looking for three components per conveyor module: one motor and two sensors, one for input and one for output. For each module, a set of standard commands—forward, reverse, pause, output on, output off, etc.—can be selected from a standardized spreadsheet saved as a CSV file and dropped into the controller.

Standard model can simplify OEE By standardizing conveyors this way, plants can more quickly and cost-effectively modify (add, remove or relocate) machines within a production line, an important ability in an age of shrinking batch sizes and boutique products for a changing demographic.

For the vast array of manufacturers whose operations incorporate significant amounts of conveyors, this approach has the potential to dramatically simplify how these

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plants manage their automation assets by providing: • Simpler, more useful visibility to the plant floor and the real-time results of production • Easily understood OEE for all production modules—both conveyors and the “stations” between them • Smaller equipment footprint, due to reduction or elimination of conveyor control cabinet • Standard modules mean standard components, which can result in lower inventories across all disciplines • Conveyor module motion control is fully managed and updatable by plant personnel If a plant or operation already has a mature and effective OEE system in place, this methodology, centered on the conveyor cell concept, can provide an effective backup process. For example, it could be useful in comparing results and identifying potential gaps in automation performance measurement and analysis.

While this may seem like a radical concept, this approach does not fundamentally change current conveyor technology. Instead, it asks us to think about, and learn from, our automated production environments in a radically simpler fashion.

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• Standardization focuses on the conveyor cell level and asks OEMs to create machine modules based on a unified control architecture • When machine modules respond to the same commands, regardless of technology vendor, the control can be seamless • When a control system can assume that modules are programmed to a standard, the overall control system itself can be, as well. DW AMK Automation | amk.systems

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www.acecontrols.com (800) 521-3320 23435 Industrial Park Drive Farmington Hills, MI 48335 June 2018

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Profitable linear-motion

design

Engineers building linear-motion systems can use ground-up DIY approaches or purchase complete turnkey solutions. Here we explain where each tactic is most profitable.

istockphoto.com

How should designers pick between building linear-motion designs in-house or purchasing pre-engineered assemblies? What is there to consider when determining the best design approach? The answers to these questions all begin and end with the details of the engineering process and the machine for which an assembly is being designed. All approaches to linear-motion builds have advantages and disadvantages — and so (as with most engineering) incur design tradeoffs.

Planning ahead with realistic budgeting and looking at the long-term functions of a machine can provide machine builders and end users with the most profitable setup.

John Brokaw and Kent Martins | Valin Corp.

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Shown here is a Parker Hannifin belt-driven linear actuator and a linear-motor-based actuator — typical components for hybrid linear-motion approaches.

In fact, hybrid (and fully turnkey) linear-design builds are usually up and running in a short amount of time. | courtesy of Parker Hannifin

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Separate ballscrews and linear guides are typical components of a DIY system.

The one shown here includes a Bosch Rexroth ballscrew and rail assembly.

There’s no overarching best method for designing a linear motion system. What’s best for a machine user depends on their process, operations timeline, and available manpower.

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DIY linear-motion solutions from scratch Complete customization can be perfect for some plant operators and a nightmare for others. What are the benefits? Well, the DIY approach of linear motion design offers the option to customize almost every detail of a machine. Designers can tailor components to the exact needs of the end process because they are basically creating the system from scratch.

But if this sounds like an expensive design approach that requires a decent amount of time to complete, it is. One advantage of DIY motion designs is maximizing labor on the backend … But even here, a plant must ensure it has the engineering power to execute.

Having engineering talent in-house is key for the DIY build approach because of the cost of labor and time it takes to create the system. Hiring out non-recurring engineering to complete the job is an option, but it comes with risks. When using an outside engineering source, the level of control over the design can be slightly diminished. Outsourcing can also create issues down the line if a motion design must be modified but the outside engineering team originally hired is suddenly unavailable.

What’s more, it’s difficult to replicate previous designs that weren’t created in-house. To what kind of process would this level of customization apply? It really depends on the size of production of the

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machine’s end use. DIY linear-motion builds excel when they’re destined for machines that will be mass produced, or if the market place doesn’t offer a setup to satisfy the end-use requirements.

For machines to be mass produced, OEMs can realize some economies of scale by buying only components they need in volume. Sometimes OEMs can also buy components that are less costly than purchased motion systems that exceed end-use needs. Where the marketplace doesn’t offer a motion design to meet end-use requirements, sometimes the optimal choice is a one-off solution. For example, a custom linear actuator might help meet accuracy and precision requirements or dimensional and environmental parameters. In fact, customization is a major factor when considering DIY linear-motion design builds.

Hybrid linear designs for the best of both worlds For design engineers looking to drive moderate to minimal system customization, the hybrid engineering approach is the best course of action.

Hybrid setups are exactly what they sound like — a little bit of DIY paired with a complete setup. Pre-engineered setups make it easy to mix and match parts of the system without requiring unworkable engineering effort to create and execute the design.

DESIGN WORLD

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A tabletop robot is a typical example of a turnkey linear-motion setup. Shown here is a gantry from IAI America Inc.

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With components that are predefined and have documented capacities, all a customer must worry about is the final assembly of the pieces. Hybrid linear-design approaches also come with warranties for their components, which can be a reassurance for customers. If there’s a problem with a part and the company doesn’t have specialized technicians to fix it, they can go to the manufacturer for data and information to help resolve the issue.

One of the main disadvantages of hybrid setups is a lower level of customization. Engineers are limited to designing by the manufacturer’s standard sizes and width, which can be challenging in some processes. Hybrid linear-design approaches are best for applications that may need a mismatch of manufacturers. If an OEM demands different specific brands for one or more items, the hybrid design is really the only option.

Where different manufacturers are used, each component carries its own specifications and warranty.

If a specific subcomponent is defective or wears out prematurely, the designer also has some recourse on replacement. If the end user has damaged their system in some fashion, a replacement part can be bought off the shelf in some cases. If the designer wants to change the stroke or speed, it’s also easier to make changes to hybrid linear-design approaches because the system specifications are all available through the manufacturers.

Turnkey linear-design approaches for complete setups Complete turnkey setups are comparable to going to a restaurant for dinner instead of cooking at home. The only decision a machine builder must make is choosing what they want. Offered linear designs are complete and ready to be implemented without additional design time. Another huge advantage of this approach to linear-system design is that the capacities of the setup are all specified by the manufacturer. For example, a 108 June 2018 DESIGN WORLD

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machine builder can order parts prespecified to perform in cleanrooms or in environments that need explosion-proof components. With complete turnkey setups, the component manufacturer knows exactly what the capabilities are. Plus unlike linear systems built with a DIY approach, there’s little chance that engineers will mistakenly choose components to meet unnecessary design parameters.

One downside to pre-engineered linearmotion designs is that they aren’t going to be perfectly tailored for every process. Because the parts are already made and measured, there’s very little room for customization for a designer (aside from choosing what part fits best). That’s why this engineering approach is best used by machine builders that don’t have enough engineering talent on staff to complete a design in-house.

As with linear-motion designs built with a hybrid approach, turnkey builds also offer specifications and warranties for how the system components work together. They are great for replacement parts and components, but what makes them suitable for designers are the elements of single-source setups and having to deal with only one vendor. If something goes wrong with the design, the operator only must approach that one vendor to resolve it.

Linear-motion system (monetary and time) budgets When choosing an engineering approach that’s appropriate for a design, machine builders must ask themselves a lot of questions about the process for which they are designing.

Before making any final design decisions, engineers should also know where they are in the design cycle and what their overall budget will be. Here, the project’s time budget is also an important factor. Usually, the time required to build for an application is about the same for all three design approaches … though turnkey linear designs can generally be engineered a bit more quickly. No matter the approach, engineers need to present manufacturers with a solid idea of how long they have to implement what they need. DW Valin Corp. | www.valin.com

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The perfect,

unorthodox design No matter what you call the design method, having the

computer generate the designs from am engineer’s directions may

just be the future. Unorthodox, 3D printed shapes can be found in

What if you could create the perfect part unlike anything that exists today? New CAD tools

combined with 3D printing can make that happen, makers say.

Jean Thilmany | Senior Editor

aerospace now. Soon, such designs will be all around you.

3D printing methods are enabling the development of shapes unproducible by other manufacturing methods. Now, CAD developers are including design tools that take full advantage of the capabilities of 3D printing. These tools are often labeled generative design or topology optimization. They enable engineers to use design software in a new way to best fit design needs.

In April, Autodesk released generative design to subscribers of its Fusion 360 Ultimate product development software. The design concept allows engineers to define design parameters such as material, size, weight, strength, manufacturing methods, and cost constraints--before they begin to design. Then, using artificialintelligence-based algorithms, the software presents an array of design options that meet the predetermined criteria, says Ravi Akella, director of product management at Autodesk.

“Our effort now is in helping people define the problem they’re trying to solve,” Akella says. “That’s a shift in focus in this industry and makes people have to change the way they have to work.

“The software asks the user preliminary questions. ‘What sorts of materials would you consider for your design? Where does it connect with other things as part of an assembly? What are the loads? What are the pieces of geometry?’” Akella says.

Arup architects designed several variations of the node using conventional and optimization techniques. The third figure, on the right, is the final, lightest shape attained through topology optimization.

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This Elbo chair was designed using Project Dreamcatcher, which was the name

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Autodesk used for its generative design tool before officially unveiling it this spring.

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Needle Tower, public art by American sculptor Kenneth Snelson demonstrates the concept of tensegrity. The piece is located outside of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Unorthodox, 3D printed shapes can be found in aerospace now.

Soon, such designs will be all around you.

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The software then presents designers and engineers with an array of design options that best meet their requirements. Designers choose the best option. Or, if none of the options meet their needs, they can begin the generative process again, this time offering slightly different inputs.

The computer-generated (“generative”) designs might be unorthodox, new, and unexpected, with geometries that wouldn’t naturally occur to the designer. Yet, no matter how different, if the design is shown to work, it can be created through additive manufacturing,” Akella says.

The method adds value to the present way designers use CAD software, he adds.

“None of these generative questions are asking ‘What is your solution and please start documenting it,” he says. “Without generative design, it’s like engineers were using a piece of paper to explain the problem to themselves.

Our job is to get all of that into software.”

He compares generative design with the job of the wine merchant.

“Someone walks into a wine store and wants a Cabernet Sauvignon,” he says. “To get the best version you go in and say ‘It’s summer and this is what’s on my dinner menu’ and you’re trusting the sommelier to present you with a variety or vintage you’ve never heard of.

“Generative expands your solution options, which sometimes aren’t intuitive,” Akella adds.

“Users look at their results and think ‘I never would have thought of it. I’m not sure it’s the right answer but I’m going to check it out further.”

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By any other name?

Akella takes issue with what he calls “technologies that masquerade as generative design,” which, he says, include topology optimization, lattice optimization, or parametrics.

“Topology optimization assumes you have a solution you’ve thought of and are making a better version of that solution,” he says. “But generative design expects the user to define the problem they’re trying to solve. Then we use cloud computing and other technologies to present them with a set of solutions that solve their problem in a practical, manufacturable way.”

Generative design produces many valid designs instead of an optimized version of an already-modeled part.

“Optimization usually involves removing excess material without any notion of how something is made or used,” he says.

Generative design also takes manufacturability into account, which reduces an engineer’s need to redesign products after manufacturing weighs in, Akella says.

But developers and executives at other makers of CAD technology may take issue with that depiction of their topology optimization features, which can radically change designs and reduce weight and slash costs, they say.

SolidWorks introduced topology optimization capabilities into its recent release of SolidWorks 2018 Simulation Professional and Simulation Premium.

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The Arup architectural firm created this 3D-printed, optimized node for a study of nodes used in its urban chandeliers street-lighting project in The Hague.

“We expect the computing platform to anticipate your design goals,” said Gian Paolo Bassi, chief executive officer at Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks, when he spoke at SolidWorks World 2018 in January.

“The era of design and validate is about to end. We are entering the era of optimize and manufacture,” Bassi said.

That means designers specify the aspects of the part they absolutely need, including loads, constraints, boundary conditions, and manufacturing methods. The CAD tool then supplies many versions of a near-optimized part, Bassi says.

Topology optimization can be an additive or subtractive algorithm, meaning it can create parts based on user inputs like loads and boundaries or it can subtract from an existing design by essentially chiseling away at the part, says Robbie Hoyler, a SolidWorks elite application engineer for TPM, an engineering services and design provider in Greenville, S.C. SolidWorks uses the subtractive method.

It creates a meshed part based user-defined loads, constraints and boundary conditions.

The software cuts out elements that offer few structural or manufacturing benefits. This process is then repeated until the part meets all

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constraint requirements, Hoyler says.

The optimized CAD design shows engineers the areas of the part that need to stay and the areas where material can be removed, Hoyler says.

He cited an example in which SolidWorks topology optimization reduced the weight of an existing part by 50% without removing areas designers had flagged as necessary.

The part can then be saved as a mesh body in the stereolithography (SL) format for 3D printing or can be retraced as a new SolidWorks part.

Another software package, Inspire, also features generative design and topology optimization tools. It allows users to save the enhanced design as a CAD model (skipping the retracing step). The software is from Altair channel partner solidThinking.

The Inspire’s generative feature is easy to learn and is ideal for small and mediumsize businesses with little or no simulation experience, says James Dagg, Altair’s chief technology officer for user experience.

Solid Edge, from Siemens PLM Software, of Plano, Texas, also includes a generative design feature that brings topology optimization to the Solid Edge 3D product DESIGN WORLD

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GM engineers Mike Van De Velde and Paul Wolcott at Autodesk’s Pier 9 additive manufacturing lab in San Francisco. GM and Autodesk have paired to use generative design and additive manufacturing to create lighter GM vehicle parts.

development toolkit, according to the company. With the feature, designers define a specific material, design space, permissible loads and constraints and a target weight, and the software automatically computes the geometric solution.

The results can be immediately manufactured on 3D printers, or further recreated as a Solid Edge model for traditional manufacturing. Designers can run multiple weight targets, load cases and constraint scenarios simultaneously, according to Siemens PLM.

By using Autodesk’s generative design and additive manufacturing technologies, engineers at Stanley Black & Decker shaved more than three pounds off this crimping tool attachment, reducing the weight by more than 60%.

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Refining the real world Recently, engineers at automaker General Motors began putting Autodesk’s generative tool to the test to cut weight from GM vehicles. Lighter cars use less fuel, emitting less carbon.

Since 2016, the automaker has launched 14 new vehicle models with a total mass reduction of 350 pounds per vehicle, says Ken Kelzer, GM vice president of global vehicle components and subsystems. The 2019 Chevrolet Silverado, for example, reduced mass by up to 450 pounds as compared to earlier model years.

To further lighten the load, as it were, in May the automaker announced an alliance with Autodesk that will use additive manufacturing and Autodesk’s generative tool to develop future cars and trucks, Kelzer says.

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The pairing of additive and generative capabilities is a natural for the automaker, Kelzer adds.

GM has used additive technologies for more than 30 years to print 3D parts.

The automaker has more than 50 rapid prototype machines that have produced more than 250,000 prototype parts over the last decade, Kelzer says.

And the generative capabilities now included in the Autodesk CAD systems put those printers to work in unique ways, he adds.

“When we pair the design technology with manufacturing advances such as 3D printing, our approach to vehicle development is fundamentally different; to co-create with the computer in ways we simply couldn’t have imagined before, Kelzer says.

But the design of formerly unimaginable parts doesn’t mean the engineer lacks ingenuity. Rather, those reduced weight, and perhaps rather odd-looking shapes are the whole point of the generative process, which provides thousands of solutions to one engineering problem, Akella says.

He gives the example of a designer who wants to create a chair. Typically, the designer would start with some geographical representation of the chair humans have taken for granted for centuries; that is, four legs, a seat, and a back. But if the designer were to begin DESIGN WORLD

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by specifying the amount of weight the chair must support, the materials it will be comprised of, and its cost, “the designer will get hundreds or even thousands of options he or she couldn’t have conceived of on their own,” Akella says.

The nature of the creation process also allows for a part with such complex geometries that it can replace multi-part assemblies. And they can be created with 3D printing, he adds.

The process is also being tested in other industries that design with CAD tools.

For instance, architects at Arup, the building and infrastructure design consultancy in the Netherlands, paired topology optimization and additive manufacturing to redesign a steel node for a unique, public lighting and artistic tensegrity structure.

Buckminster Fuller coined the term tensegrity to refer to a structure that uses the principle of floating compression, with parts compressed inside a net of continuous tension with cables or tendons delineating the system. Think, of course, of his famous geodesic domes.

Arup designers created their trio of tensegrity structures for a shopping street, the Markstraat, in The Hague. Unveiled in 2013, the “urban chandeliers” integrate street lighting and add an artful element to the area.

The urban chandeliers are beautiful.

But they weren’t easy to create, says Salomé Galjaard, an Arup senior designer for the project.

Due to the irregular shape of the structures most of the 1,600 nodes that connected the cables to the struts, were different due to the more than one thousand variations in angle and position of the attached cables, Galjaard told attendees at the 2015 Future Visions symposium in Amsterdam.

“This ‘uniqueness’ inspired us to learn more about additive manufacturing,” she says.

Curious as to what optimization could have done for them on a project like the urban chandeliers, Arup designers conducted a study. Both topology optimi

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zation and additive manufacture have been little used in the architectural world, so this seemed like an excellent opportunity.

After performing topology optimization, using the Optistruct software from Altair, they found the node they’d modeled traditionally closely resembled the optimized node. And yet, that optimized design reduced the weight the node from 44 pounds to 11 pounds, a 75% drop, without compromising the functional and structural performance of the product, Galjaard says.

Still, the designers spent much more time working with the complex, optimization software than they normally would, and the process could be frustrating, she says.

“Our research illustrates that 3D printing can have a positive impact on the design and production process and the functional product,” she says. “The resulting costs of future construction products could be decreased significantly, whereas architectural freedom will be increased dramatically.”

Generative design and topology optimization can bring the same design freedom and cost reduction to engineering and other types of design of course.Imagine a complex, oddly shaped part that is printed and performs as an assembly. In other words, a part beyond your imagining. That’s the promise of generative design and topology optimization. DW Altair | www.altair.com Autodesk | www.autodesk.com Dassault Systèmes | www.3ds.com Siemens PLM Software | www.plm.automation.siemens.com

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E l e c t r o n i c s

Looks like

LabVIEW A simple MyOpenLab circuit written to execute on an Arduino. The resemblance of the graphic elements to those in the LabVIEW program are evident.

And as in LabVIEW, the user runs wires between elements using the mouse.

The wires appear as continuous or dotted to denote different properties.

Free programs that seem to behave like LabVIEW engineering software have become available.

Here’s what’s behind the user interface.

Leland Teschler Executive Editor

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Since 1986, engineers working in test instrumentation have been able to use a program called LabVIEW developed by National Instruments Inc. LabVIEW is wellknown for its graphical user interface which lets users program instrument functions by routing wires between blocks rather than by writing computer code. The procedures written in LabVIEW can be quite sophisticated. They can include, for example, closedloop feedback and function nodes for controlling devices such as cameras and voltmeters.

The concept of being able to construct relatively complicated test procedures without writing a traditional text-based program is alluring. However, no open-source equivalents to LabVIEW have been developed. That may be because National Instruments has patented many of the concepts underlying LabVIEW. Nevertheless, one open source program called MyOpenLab has some of the look and feel of LabVIEW. MyOpenLab seems to have been a home project for a programmer in Germany who first released it in 2006. It is now maintained by a programmer in Columbia. It’s following has grown thanks partly to a college professor in Spain who has posted tutorial videos and a number of short online courses that employ the program.

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E l e c t r o n i c s

A front panel created in MyOpenLab and the corresponding connections on the worksheet. Elements for the worksheet get selected from the library area located in the upper left of the screen.

In contrast to LabVIEW, MyOpenLab has an architecture that is not oriented around flow programming; it is what’s called event driven.

In event-driven programs, events determine the flow of the program.

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(Another open-source program called Pylab-works has a similar look-and-feel but apparently has been abandoned.)

In particular, MyOpenLab seems to be widely used to develop control programs that can run on Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards. (There is also a LabVIEW compiler available to run programs on the Raspberry Pi. LabVIEW can’t run on Arduino though it can run on a PC and tell an Arduino to perform certain operations.)

The resemblance between LabVIEW and MyOpenLab has led to questions on online forums about how the two programs really differ. The appeal of MyOpenLab is easy to understand. A basic license for a seat of LabVIEW starts at about $400 annually and goes up from there. There is a hobbyist version available called LabVIEW Home Bundle for a one-time fee of $50. But it is clearly labeled as being for “noncommercial, nonindustrial, and nonacademic purposes.”

Though MyOpenLab may behave a bit like LabVIEW, it is based on Java and has an internal structure that is completely different. It is worth investigating the internal architecture of the two programs to see how they compare.

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Difference between LabVIEW and MyOpenLab LabVIEW is built using a concept called data flow programming. The formal explanation of data flow programming is that its applications consist of numerous processes that exchange data through a series of connections. An operation runs as soon as all its inputs become valid. Moreover, the processes can be reconnected to form different applications without undergoing any changes internally.

A simpler explanation is to recall the workings of the most widely used flow-based programming application: the spreadsheet.

Each spreadsheet cell is a process.

Connections between cells take the form of the equations and cell references within them. To reconnect the cells in a different way, the user writes different equations with different cell references.

LabVIEW can be visualized as operating in a similar way. Instead of spreadsheet cells, it uses rectangles to represent processes. Connections between processes take the form of wires. (Another widely used analogy is to view LabVIEW as working like a flow chart, again with wires forming the connections.)

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The terminology for the LabVIEW programming model is more complicated than that of a spreadsheet. Whereas a spreadsheet program has individual worksheets, the roughly analogous structure in LabVIEW is a virtual instrument (VI). Each VI consists of a block diagram, a front panel and a connector panel. A VI that calls or makes use of another VI does so via the connector panel. The front panel is built using what are called controls that supply information to the VI and indicators that display results based on the inputs given to, and the internal processes of, the VI. The block diagram contains structures and functions which perform operations on controls and supply data to indicators. Collectively controls, indicators, structures, and functions are referred to as nodes. Nodes connect to one another using wires. Thus, in a spreadsheet, a cell can be defined to display the addition of two other cells; in LabVIEW, two controls and an indicator can be wired to an addition function so the indicator displays the sum of the two controls.

The spreadsheet analogy with LabVIEW breaks down with regard to virtual instruments because a VI can not only run as a program, but it can also be dropped as a node onto a block diagram of another VI. One advantage of this approach is that each VI can be tested in a modular fashion before being embedded into a larger structure.

The simplicity of building programs by dragging and dropping VIs has benefits. But when the functions to be implemented are complex, the construction of LabVIEW programs may require an extensive knowledge of LabVIEW syntax and memory management topology.

Once the hierarchy of VIs is complete, the resulting LabVIEW code gets compiled into executable machine code.

MyOpenLab has an architecture that is not oriented around flow programming; it is what’s called event driven.

In event-driven programs, events determine the flow of the program. Typical events include mouse clicks, key presses, and messages from other programs. Perhaps for obvious reasons, graphical user interfaces typically are built around event-driven architectures.

The typical approach to implementing a program that responds to events is to build in a main loop that listens for events in a way that is analogous to that of industrial programmable controllers. When the program senses an event, it runs an event handler routine. In the case of eventdriven programs for GUIs, the event handlers typically look for mouse clicks and keystrokes. In the case of MyOpenLab, we might surmise event handlers look for wires pulled between blocks, inputs to block functions, and so forth.

Though MyOpenLab is built around an event-driven architecture, LabVIEW can also implement event-driven actions. It does so via an “Event” structure. Here, the structure term refers to graphical entities that control how and when code runs. In this sense, LabVIEW can be viewed

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as a hybrid between a dataflow program and one that’s event driven.

Readers might note that the looping and event handlers in an event-driven program sound a bit like the role played by routines in flow-based programs that look for changes in inputs. The analogous function in a flow-based program is called a scheduler. The scheduler decides whether to do something with the list of connections between the blocks.

An important difference between an event-based program and a data-flow program is that the scheduler in a dataflow program doesn’t do any looping. It only runs when there is data to work on and somewhere to put the output.

Generally speaking, this structure lets flow-based programs consume less run time than event-based programs.

To be clear, the “looping” in this discussion takes place internally within the software. Both LabVIEW and MyOpenLab can be used to create multiple information loops, stacked sequences, and so forth. But these loops are constructed by the program user.

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E l e c t r o n i c s

MyOpenLab is written in Java. Java is a compiled language. Java applications are typically compiled into bytecode that then runs via another program called a Java runtime environment. It, and another component called a Java virtual machine, typically come as part of a Java development kit. The point to note about all these Java components is that they are free, like MyOpenLab itself.

Simple vs. sublime One reason for comparisons between LabVIEW and MyOpenLab is that the two programs have analogous functions in their user interfaces. In MyOpenLab, the drawing area is called a circuit panel. The program also has a front panel. Where LabVIEW has virtual instruments, MyOpenLab has visual models. In MyOpenLab, the user presses button icons for actions such as starting and stopping the simulation, stepping through sequences, showing data tables, adjusting simulation time, and so forth.

To make connections between component blocks, the user marks the output with a click of the left button and then marks the corresponding entry of the selected component block.

Because MyOpenLab is in Java, it’s possible to modify the Java code of a component. It is not clear from its documentation whether MyOpenLab can accept or work with routines written in languages other than Java. In contrast, LabVIEW can call and execute code from several languages as well as DLLs. The means of running code written outside the main application illustrate the differences between LabVIEW and MyOpenLab. LabVIEW is a more complete and mature program. One indication: The manual detailing just how to use external code in LabVIEW runs 302 pages.

Documentation for MyOpenLab consists mainly of 10 user guides each on the order of 60 pages long and written in Spanish.

(Google translate seems to do a decent job of translating these into understandable English.)

That said, LabVIEW programs can grow to become quite complex if the task at

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hand is complicated. And the creation of sophisticated LabVIEW programs seems to require as much expertise on the part of the programmer as any other advanced language.

Consider, for example, comments on the LabVIEW Wikipedia talk page where Wikipedians discuss edits to the article at hand. The talk page for LabVIEW has a lengthy section on criticisms of LabVIEW and whether specific criticisms should be included in the LabVIEW Wikipedia article. Many of the criticisms take the form of, “You can’t do X in LabVIEW,” and are written by practitioners who have a substantial history with the program. As often as not, other practitioners chime in pointing out that LabVIEW can indeed do X. But the how-to explanation is either buried in the rather extensive LabVIEW documentation or is laid out in terms that aren’t exactly clear.

Of course, MyOpenLab doesn’t incorporate any of the advanced programming features about which some Wikipedians griping on the LabVIEW talk page seem unaware. Thus the clearest delineation between where each of the two programs fit is in the difficulty of the application. LabVIEW will continue to make sense for handling knotty instrumentation and control tasks.

MyOpenLab could be a candidate for simpler uses. DW

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References We are indebted to Rich Brueggman, Certified LabVIEW expert and founder/ CEO of Data Science Automation in Pittsburgh, Pa., for his suggestions and sanity checks during the writing of this piece. www.dsautomation.com, 724-942-6330.

National Instruments LabVIEW page, http://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/labview. html MyOpenLab documentation and tutorials, https://myopenlab.de/ documentaion/spanish.html MyOpenLab download, https:// myopenlab.de/download_myopenlab_ now.html LabVIEW Wikipedia page, https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LabVIEW

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It’s not a web page, it’s an industry information site So much happens between issues of Design World that even another issue would not be enough to keep up. That’s why it makes sense to visit designworldonline.com and stay on Twitter, Google plus, Facebook and Linkedin. It’s updated regularly with relevant technical information and other significant news to the design engineering community.

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A supplement of Design World June 2018

how to pick the right

plastic

for additive manufacturing

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126 HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printer

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138 Choosing between 3D printing and injection molding processes

5/31/18 10:53 AM

Editor ia l L e sl ie La n g n a u • M a n a g i n g Ed itor

The future of

additive manufacturing The term digital manufacturing is receiving much attention lately. Several technologies, that if converged, appear to enable digital manufacturing—the ability to design anywhere, securely send the design data anywhere, and have the part produced locally (or anywhere). A couple of these enabling technologies are the IoT, Blockchain, and especially additive manufacturing. Large players in this arena announced plans to make digital manufacturing a reality, and I suspect you’ll see more as additive moves more forcefully into manufacturing.

HP, along with industry leaders Jabil and Forecast 3D announced an arrangement meant to enable digital manufacturing supply chains. These three companies plan to demonstrate additive manufacturing’s expanding role in the digital transformation of the $12 trillion global manufacturing economy, noted Stephen Nigro, President of 3D Printing, HP Inc. As one of the largest contract manufacturers, Jabil has more than 100 facilities in 29 countries, many using additive manufacturing systems from HP. This network of 3D printers underpins Jabil’s Additive Manufacturing Network that will enable design and manufacturing teams to collaborate across multiple geographies, manage incoming orders, allocate jobs across resources, and produce end-products in locations best suited for their supply chain and distribution needs.

Forecast 3D, one of the oldest and largest privately held 3D manufacturers in the United States, plans to produce several million end-use parts 3D printers in the coming year, delivering commercial-grade applications for clients in multiple industries including the medical, consumer goods, aerospace, defense, and auto sectors.

Said Corey Weber, CEO of Forecast 3D, “We are investing in 3D printing as we scale up to meet rising demand from international and domestic clients seeking to reinvent their product lifecycle.”

Siemens is another player in this field, recently launching its Additive Manufacturing Network, an online collaborative platform to bring on-demand design and engineering expertise, knowledge, digital tools, and production capacity for industrial 3D printing to the global manufacturing industry.

The Siemens platform is launching with an early adopter program for designers and engineers,

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manufacturing service providers, 3D printing machine OEMs, material vendors and software providers to join the new ecosystem. By accelerating the distribution of knowledge, as well as streamlining, monitoring and securing the transactions and commercial processes for sourcing high-quality functional prototypes and serial production parts, Siemens’ Additive Manufacturing Network looks to reduce the overall adoption risk of additive manufacturing and create new business opportunities for all members of the global manufacturing community.

“Additive Manufacturing (AM) will unfold its full disruptive potential if we enable direct access to highly valuable services, globally available AM systems and crucial knowledge for engineers, designers and machine operators,” said Güngör Kara, chief digital officer at EOS. “Siemens’ Additive Manufacturing Network can help establish these connections and make them accessible to the general market with the aim of facilitating innovative AM parts and creating high-performing AM production cells within a smart and fully digital factory.”

Siemens’ Additive Manufacturing Network creates an open ecosystem that connects members to co-innovate and help realize new products using the latest software tools, printing technologies and materials for additive manufacturing. This is the next step in the Siemens vision to digitally transform the global manufacturing industry and accelerate delivery of reimagined parts made with industrial additive manufacturing.

Stratasys will be partnering with Siemens on this vision for additive manufacturing. The Additive Manufacturing Network is one more way in which Siemens is facilitating access to the latest knowledge and technology to ease the adoption of industrial additive manufacturing.

Is digital manufacturing the path that will enable additive technology to reach its potential? Many big companies are betting on it. n MPF

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How to design for the 3D printer Chuck alexander director of product management stratasys direct manufacturing

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While there has been plenty of buzz around HP’s Multi-Jet technology, little has been written about its nuances and design considerations.

Here are key points to know to create optimal designs.

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A d d i t i v e

m a n u f a c t u r i n g

H

HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology is the

latest 3D printing innovation to make headlines.

It will continue to strengthen 3D printing’s place in manufacturing. And it offers new possibilities for low-volume production parts and functional prototyping due to its breakthrough speeds and fine feature resolution.

Multi Jet Fusion functions like other 3D printing processes by building parts layer-by-layer, but it adds in infrared heating alongside fusing and detailing agents to build high-strength, nearly-isotropic parts.

While there has been plenty of buzz around this breakthrough technology, little has been written about the nuances and design considerations. It’s still a fairly new technology in the additive manufacturing industry and a baby when compared to veteran technologies like stereolithography and fused deposition modeling (FDM).

Thus, Stratasys Direct Manufacturing spent months studying and fine-tuning the Multi Jet Fusion process before launching it to understand the technology and what can impact the mechanical performance of a design.

Parts built with Multi Jet Fusion have higher isotropic characteristics than any other 3D printing technology, meaning they’re nearly as strong in the Z orientation as they are in the XY orientation. But a few orientation adjustments deliver a better level of detail, accuracy or strength. Place visible features in the XY plane rather than the Z direction for a smooth surface finish.

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www.makepartsfast.com

How Multi Jet Fusion works It’s important to understand how Multi Jet Fusion works in order to design for the process. It begins with a layer of powdered material applied from top-to-bottom on the build platform. The machine applies droplets of fusing and detailing agents along with thermal energy across the powdered material from left to right to fuse the layer. At the end of the scans, supply bins refill the recoater with fresh material. After finishing each layer, the build platform retracts and the material recoater begins again. After the print is finished, the build unit with the material and parts are rolled onto a processing station for cooling and powder excavation. Leftover powder is recycled for use in future builds.

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Multi Jet Fusion functions like other 3D printing processes by building parts layer-by-layer, but it adds in infrared heating alongside fusing and detailing agents to build high-strength, nearly-isotropic parts.

Multi Jet Fusion parts get their high strength and surface quality from the fusing, detailing, and transforming agents unique to the process. The fusing agent is selectively printed where particles will be fused together, whereas the detailing agent is selectively printed to reduce or amplify the fusing agent.

Transforming agents regulate the interaction of the fusing and detailing agents with each other and the material to control part attributes at the voxel level. For the HP printers, a voxel is an individually addressable volume element; designers can control the properties of each voxel in an additive build. The attributes that can be controlled at this level include: • Dimensional accuracy and detail • Surface roughness, texture and friction coefficient • Tensile strength, elasticity, hardness and other material properties • Electrical and thermal conductivity This distinct process results in many unique benefits, including: • Highly detailed features – Multi Jet Fusion can produce a 0.02 in. fine feature resolution. This opens up the opportunity to create small intricacies and complex design features, such as embossed text, small holes and living hinges.

• Low cost batch manufacturing – Multi Jet Fusion is one of the fastest 3D printing systems on the market The speed coupled with its large build envelope makes Multi Jet Fusion suitable for high-volume batches of small parts to achieve low per-unit pricing. This capability is especially beneficial when working with an additive manufacturing service bureau that can batch multiple orders.

Design considerations As with any manufacturing process, Multi Jet Fusion has its own set of limitations and considerations to keep in mind when designing for the build

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process. Stratasys Direct took months to validate Multi Jet Fusion to understand the necessary quality systems and material handling procedures, as well as to verify mechanical properties and dimensional performance criteria to ensure repeatability and consistency when meeting specifications. The team learned how to properly design for the process to optimize parts for speed and accuracy. In many ways designing for Multi Jet Fusion is similar to designing for other powder bed fusion processes, however the process is distinctly unique in the following aspects: • Fine feature resolution – Multi Jet Fusion parts have a fine feature resolution of 0.02 in. Anything smaller will print, but it may not be fully dense or meet specified material properties.

• Materials – Today, HP 3D High Reusability PA 12 is the only material available, but additional materials are in development, like PA 11.

• Color – Most Multi Jet Fusion parts are built in a shade of black or grey due to the black fusing agent.

However, parts can be painted or texturized with color and there are new machines that can build in full color with transforming agents.

• Surface finish – The average surface finish of Multi Jet Fusion parts is 125 to 250 microinches RA. Surfaces can also be hand-sanded or tumbled for a smoother finish.

• Part size – The build envelope for the Multi Jet Fusion machine is 16 in. x 12 in. x 16 in. Stratasys Direct recommends a maximum part size of 14.96 in. x 11.25 in. x 14.96 in. to add a buffer around parts for the printing agents.

Beyond the differences between Multi Jet Fusion technology and other powder bed fusion processes, there are three main design and mechanical limitations to keep in mind when designing for the process.

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D

3D Printing

UlteM® pei w/ 3M™ adhesive pre-applied • Wall thickness – Nylons, like any thermoplastic, shrink as they solidify.

Very thick walls can accumulate heat and cause spot shrinkage in dense areas with an accumulation of material, resulting in geometric deformations. Therefore, walls should be at least 0.02 in. to 0.12 in. (0.5 to 3.0 mm). Thinner walls are possible, but may contain inaccuracies and deformation due to non-uniform in-process shrinkage.

For parts with high aspect ratio, Stratasys Direct recommends to either increase the wall thickness or add ribs or fillets to reinforce the part.

• Orientation – Parts built with Multi Jet Fusion have higher isotropic characteristics than any other 3D printing technology, meaning they’re nearly as strong in the Z orientation as they are in the XY orientation. However, there are a few orientation adjustments to make when the application requires a part with a high level of detail, accuracy or strength. If your application requires a smooth surface finish, place visible features in the XY plane rather than the Z direction to avoid a stair- stepping effect. Also, place parts face down toward the build platform for a smoother surface finish on that side. Lastly, position pins and clips horizontally whenever possible.

• Dimensional accuracy and minimum feature size – Typical tolerances for Multi Jet Fusion parts are ± 0.010 in. (0.25 mm) or ± 0.001 in./in. (0.025 mm/ 25.4 mm), whichever is greater.

Stratasys Direct has achieved tighter tolerances, but it depends on the overall dimensions and design. The minimum practical feature size for Multi Jet Fusion is also 0.02 in. (0.5 mm), including hole diameters, shaft diameters

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and feature clearances. The minimum printable font size for embossed or debossed lettering is 6-point.

In addition, there are special considerations for specific design features, such as bosses, holes, inserts, joints, living hinges, ribs, gussets, fillets, bulkheads and snap latches.

Multi Jet Fusion’s ability to deliver repeatable, isotropic mechanical properties, combined with its speed and low cost per unit make it a versatile technology for a variety of functional applications. The first step in taking advantage of this remarkable technology is learning how to design for it. n MPF Stratasys Direct Manufacturing www.stratasysdirect.com

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A d d i t i v e

m a t e r i a l s

Which material not only suits your design, but also the additive manufacturing process? Here’s a look at the attributes and requirements of popular additive manufacturing processes and guidance on selecting the right resins and compounds for each of them.

How to pick the

right plastic

for Additive Manufacturing Vandita Pai-Paranjape Senior Manager Additive Manufacturing, Technology & Innovation SABIC Successful additive manufacturing with plastic resins and compounds depends on selecting the right material for the process, design, and end-use application. Although additive manufacturing is advancing rapidly on multiple fronts with the goal of expanding from a prototyping/limited production method to a robust, reproducible manufacturing process, optimized materials have been limited to date.

The primary reason is that additive manufacturing differs significantly from classic processes such as injection molding, and therefore requires specialized resins and compounds tailored to provide the desired properties. To address this need, polymer suppliers are developing materials that align with the characteristics of specific printing processes and can meet the higher performance demands of production parts in the end-use environment.

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Large-format additive manufacturing typically uses fiber- or mineral-reinforced resins to improve dimensional stability and minimize warpage.

SABIC’s high-performance THERMOCOMP AM compounds reinforced with carbon or glass fibers deliver added strength and stability.

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Additive materials

Amorphous resins are well suited for fused deposition modeling because of their uniform shrinkage and good consolidation. SABIC filaments based on ULTEM PEI, CYCOLAC ABS and LEXAN PC resins can be used to print a range of high-performance end-use parts.

Why additive manufacturing requires tailored materials It is common to repurpose existing injection molding resins and compounds for additive manufacturing because specialized materials are only beginning to be produced. But this drop-in approach can be problematic because additive manufacturing processes are quite different from injection molding.

To begin with, additive manufacturing is a low- or no-pressure process compared to the high pressures of injection molding. Additive manufacturing often relies on the application of thermal energy to create inter-layer adhesion and layer-to-layer consolidation.

Also, heat management systems in additive manufacturing vary, as well as the form in which material is supplied (filaments, liquids, powders and pellets) and delivered. The heat profiles in printers and the thermal properties of polymers can influence rheological behavior and affect the way material layers are consolidated, resulting in different properties

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compared to those of injection-molded parts. Even post-processing techniques for additively manufactured parts, such as support removal, vapor smoothing, sanding and sand blasting, and thermal curing, are different from techniques for injection-molded parts, which can include de-gating, de-flashing, cleaning, and so on.

An example of a special requirement for additive manufacturing materials designed for fused deposition modeling is compatibility of the build polymer with support structures.

These temporary scaffolds are necessary to hold up free-standing portions of a part during printing (envision using fused deposition modeling to form the cross-piece of a letter H). The support polymer should provide a balance between adhering to and supporting the structure being built, and also be readily removable after the print job is completed.

Other key issues are differences in mechanical properties as compared to injection molded resin properties, and anisotropy variations across print directions that result from the way material is deposited in an additive manufacturing process. Not only do mechanical properties differ for the X, Y and Z axes, with the greatest challenge typically seen in the Z (vertical) axis, they are also process dependent. Fused deposition modeling is more susceptible to anisotropy than selective laser sintering (SLS) and stereolithography (SL). Efforts are being made to address this issue with innovations in materials development and printing techniques.

Adding to the challenge, materials traditionally used to print prototypes generally cannot meet all the demands of high-volume production and the requirements of enduse parts, from mechanical properties to aesthetics. All these unmet needs are driving the development of new materials that are designed and optimized for use in additive manufacturing processes and meet different end-use application requirements and regulations.

To sum up, many plastics suitable for injection molding may not perform properly or predictably in additive manufacturing.

Guidelines for material selection Although selection ultimately depends upon the requirements of each application and the DESIGN WORLD

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This robotic hand illustrates the use of a new SABIC developmental technology that allows selective laser sintering of PC materials with good mechanical properties comparable to PA12. Design courtesy of Christopher Chappell, https://anthromod.com/ SABIC

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Additive materials manufacturing process, the following can be considered general guidelines about candidate materials for major types of additive manufacturing.

Fused deposition modeling Fused deposition modeling involves heating a thermoplastic filament to its melting point and then extruding it, layer by layer, to create a three-dimensional object. Amorphous resins are well suited for this widely used process, as they typically shrink less than semi-crystalline resins. While amorphous resins exhibit good consolidation and uniform shrinkage, layers of a semi-crystalline material tend to shrink non-uniformly and to a greater extent, which can cause warpage, leading to dimensional issues with the part being built.

Polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene (ABS) are commonly

used for desktop printing, while low/ mid-temperature resins such as polycarbonate (PC) and PC/ABS, and high-temperature polyetherimide (PEI) and polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) resins, are often chosen for industrial use. Newer materials for industrial printing include high-temperature plastics like polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and Stratasys’ ESD PEKK (polyether ketone ketone), and resins with fillers like carbon fiber for enhanced strength and stiffness.

Selective laser sintering This method uses powdered thermoplastics, which are sintered into a solid object using a computer-controlled laser. After each cross-section is scanned, the powder bed is lowered by one layer of thickness, a new layer of material is applied on top, and the process is repeated until the part is completed.

Semi-crystalline materials typically used for SLS are polyamides (nylons) such as PA12 and PA11 because they offer a good “sintering window,” which is calculated as the difference between the melting onset temperature and the crystallization onset temperature of a polymer. Polyamides’ discrete melting point and sharp drop in viscosity enable effective coalescence between layers, resulting in good part properties. In contrast, amorphous materials soften gradually, leading to incomplete layer consolidation and parts with lower density, dimensional inconsistencies and sub-optimal physical properties.

However, polyamides may not meet the performance specifications of certain applications, limiting the usefulness of SLS for a range of production applications. To expand the scope of SLS, SABIC has overcome the

Additive Manufacturing Systems

Industrial Size

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LARGE

200

1 m x 1 m x 0.5 m Build Area

300

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traditional drawbacks of amorphous resins using proprietary technologies.

The company is developing products, including PC and PEI, with improved performance properties such as higher heat and better impact resistance, which can be used successfully in this process.

Large format additive manufacturing Large format additive manufacturing (LFAM), as the name indicates, is used to produce very large parts. The process uses pellet feedstock directly fed from an extruder, which can be mounted on an X/Y gantry or a multi-axis robotic arm. Since LFAM systems are typically not enclosed in heated chambers, resins that show good melt strength and minimal shrinkage upon cooling are preferred to avoid sagging and warpage in parts. Carbon fiber-, glass fiber- or mineral-reinforced resins are used

almost exclusively to combat warpage and improve dimensional stability.

In the process of developing resins specifically to optimize performance in large format printing, organizations like Oak Ridge National Laboratory and SABIC have evaluated a range of reinforced polymer systems based on ABS, PC, PEI and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS).

Because LFAM is typically performed under ambient conditions, processors must take into account the thermal history of each layer. If layers are added too slowly, adhesion tends to be reduced. But if layers are added too quickly, the part can deform under its own weight due to excess heat build-up.

Materials with low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and good melt strength tend to be good candidates for this process.

“It’s common to try to use injection molding resins in additive. But this drop-in approach can be problematic because additive manufacturing processes are quite different from injection molding.”

Flexibility to Address Fidelity & Speed XLARGE

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Additive materials Stereolithography This technology relies on photopolymerization; the cross-linking of polymer molecules that occurs under exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.

A UV laser draws a design on the surface of a vat of photosensitive liquid

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resin, solidifying the resin and forming a single layer of the part. The print bed is lowered incrementally, and a resin filled-blade recoats the surface of the vat so that a new layer of uncured resin is exposed to the laser.

The process is repeated until the part is completed.

Although photo-initiated epoxy and acrylate resins are commonly used for stereolithography, some materials lack long-term light stability and can become brittle over time. Material innovation to provide more-robust long-term performance can expand the number of applications for which this technology is suited.

HP Multi-jet Fusion Created by HP, this proprietary process is similar to SLS: it uses powdered resin but employs infrared (IR) lamps instead of a laser. HP claims that its technology can increase additive manufacturing speed by up to 10 times and reduce costs compared to fused deposition modeling and SLS. Multi-jet fusion (MJF) uses a heated powder bed and a jetting system with multiple nozzles. A fusing agent is jetted where particles are meant to fuse together. A detailing agent is jetted to improve part resolution/detail and surface smoothness. When infrared lamps pass over the surface of the powder bed, the jetted material captures the heat and helps distribute it evenly.

Like SLS, MJF uses semi-crystalline resins – usually nylons such as PA12. HP is developing special materials, such as HP 3D High Reusability PA 12 Glass Beads and HP 3D High Reusability PA 11, as well as working on elastomers and PP materials for the future.2 Carbon CLIP process While HP is improving upon powder-based processes to enable additive manufacturing of production parts, continuous liquid interface production (CLIP), a proprietary process of Carbon, is an enhancement to stereolithography that also promises to move the industry forward. CLIP “harnesses light and oxygen to continuously grow objects from a pool of resin instead of printing them layer-by-layer,” according to Carbon. Advantages include faster speed, consistent mechanical properties (avoiding the anisotropic issues of different axes in fused deposition modeling) and the ability to use a wide range of photo-polymers.

Best practices for additive manufacturing Because each additive manufacturing process has strengths and limitations, it is important for designers to collaborate with material suppliers and printer

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manufacturers early in the project.

A best practice is to work with a materials supplier with expertise in several different additive manufacturing processes, which makes it easier to compare alternatives. A plastics supplier that offers resources such as design, application development and testing capabilities can help narrow down options.

Also, databases like Senvol4 include comprehensive information on industrial additive manufacturing machines and materials. They can help companies select the right machine and material for a specific application.

In the emerging area of additive manufacturing, materials, processes and designs are equally important considerations when determining the best way to print parts. Understanding whether the part is intended for prototyping or production will lead to certain choices, as will a determination of the performance requirements of the end part.

Currently, fused deposition modeling has the widest choice of commercially available engineering thermoplastics that can meet different functional properties.

However, SLS and stereolithography techniques provide greater isotropic properties as well as better print resolution, leading to better surface quality. The complexity of the design and ability to print fine features and achieve the desired surface finish also help dictate the process and, in some cases, the materials.

A holistic understanding of part requirements and tradeoffs is necessary prior to determining the best commercially available material and printing technique.

The drive to industrialization The main trend in additive manufacturing is the move toward industrialization – advancing from prototypes or limited part quantities to full-scale production.

Although it is early in the transition, there have been several notable early adopters – namely, aerospace, automotive and DESIGN WORLD

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healthcare. It is anticipated that many other industries will join in the transition once high-volume additive manufacturing has been optimized for speed, cost, efficiency and part performance.

Industrialization of additive manufacturing offers multiple benefits, such as the opportunity for mass customization, part consolidation and greater design freedom to create parts not feasible with traditional processes.

According to Boston Consulting Group, additive manufacturing technologies “are critical to realizing the vision of the factory of the future, in which manufacturers improve production by applying new design principles, implementing digital technologies, and integrating processes across the value chain.”

Achieving industrialization will require ongoing advancements in equipment, materials and software, as well as a shift in mindset from tried-and-true methods.

Today’s additive manufacturing customers may have to make compromises due to limited options, but strong progress on all fronts should expand choices in the future. n MPF SABIC | www.sabic.com

References 1 .HP 3D Printers and Printing. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/printers/3d-printers.html? jumpid=ps_ktp4sgdauj&gclid=CInCguem0doCFc56gQodWUcL4g&gclsrc=ds&dclid= CKyvkOem0doCFUK7TwodYsMJrw 2. HP 3D printing materials. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/printers/3d-printers/materials.html 3. Carbon3D introduces CLIP, breakthrough technology for layerless 3D printing.

Press release. https://www.carbon3d.com/news/carbon3d-introduces-clip-breakthroughtechnology-for-layerless-3d-printing/ 4. http://senvol.com 5. Get Ready for Industrialized Additive Manufacturing. Boston Consulting Group.

April 5, 2017. https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2017/lean-manufacturing-industry-4.0get-ready-for-industrialized-additive-manufacturing.aspx

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3 D

P R I N T I N G

Choosing between

3d printing

and

injection molding processes

Today, the manufacturing method a designer chooses strongly influences the final design of the part or component. Especially when that manufacturing method can be 3D printing or injection molding. Here are tips to help you leverage both 3D printing and injection molding technology to get to market fast.

A

dvances in manufacturing are creating opportunities for the design engineer to manage projects more effectively and produce higher

quality parts. But with more processes to select from, there are more questions as to which process should be used and for what purpose.

Most engineers have built roadmaps to differentiate between viable paths to systematically produce designs and deliver products to market quickly. But, based on what the engineer has been exposed to, their path may not always be an optimal one. Here is a grounded approach to determining which process type should be considered and why.

John Sidorowicz • Vice President of Sales • Xcentric Mold & Engineering

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Technology

Typical timing

Typical cost

Prototype or production

SLA

1-3 days

Low to mid-range

Prototype

FDM

2-4 days

Low to mid-range

Both

SLS

4-7 days

Mid-range to high

Both

PolyJet

1-3 days

Mid-range

Prototype

Each technology provides unique capabilities and benefits that you can apply to your project

Fundamentals Although some of the points provided below may be quite fundamental, it is exactly for this purpose that they are brought back to the forefront as reminders, because no matter what new processes and technologies are introduced there is always room for recalling fundamentals while applying the latest that technologies have to offer.

Know your part - No matter which manufacturing process you select for your project, the most important question to ask is “How will the part be used?” Consider the following quadrant as a means to create scope around your project and part.

• Concept or final production – one end of the continuum demands that you are in pilot mode manufacturing multiple prototypes to determine the best design, while the other end of the continuum demands efficient manufacturability alignment with the intent to flawlessly go-to-market. Materials testing, form-fit-function, tolerances, design iterations, production part quantity all take on a different meaning based on which end of the continuum defines your scope.

• Part simplicity or complexity – regardless of which end of this continuum defines the part there are a multitude of manufacturability compromises that could derail the intended design. For simple parts

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build a list of non-negotiables that the manufacturer must adhere to, as not all parts can be manufactured as intended even though the design is “simpler.” For complex parts involve your manufacturer early to improve the design’s manufacturability and potential approaches that could remove complexity and cost out of the design.

“No matter which

• Optimize your design cycle – Applying yourself to the quadrant that best defines your project and part allows you to manage the design cycle with less error and more confidence toward a predictable outcome.

Considerations for optimizing the design cycle should consist of the following:

important question to

manufacturing process you select for your project, the most ask is, ‘How will the part be used?”

• Time-to-market planning – understand where you have the most leniency and where there is little to no compromise. Once you know the strategy, leverage key constituents such as the right manufacturing process and manufacturer to meet expectations. As an example from the software industry, Microsoft developed a strategy to introduce products to market knowing that “version 1.0” will be swiftly iterated and followed by the launch of “version 1.1”. The question to answer is “What’s my project’s strategy?”

• Process integration – it is becoming clear that reliance on one process type may not always be the best strategy. For example, it is common for designers Considerations

Prototype

Production

Validate design

Product parts

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Higher

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Tooling price

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Higher

Part price

Higher

Lower

15 days or less, lowvolume part production

15 days or less, mid-volume part production

Objective Part volume Production runs

Timing

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to have to meet an aggressive timeto-market schedule for a new product introduction, where the product contains complex parts requiring iterative testing for form, fit, and function. To meet such goals, inexpensive prototype testing can deliver the best speed before moving into a mid-volume production environment.

Beginning with a 3D printed part to validate the design while tooling up for mid-volume injection molding runs may be the best time-to-market solution to reduce risk and predict the outcome. This approach also suggests that you involve yourself earlier in the design process with a manufacturer who will understand your strategy and align processes to fit.

3D printing highlights Consider the most popular 3D printing technologies and how they could apply to your project. While the table is not the full comprehensive list of technologies available it does represent the majority. This table provides considerations when selecting some of the more prominent 3D printing technologies as a process.

Each technology provides unique capabilities and benefits to a project.

Stereolithography (SL) – SL has been available since 1989 using an ultraviolet laser that cures parts one layer at a time in photo-reactive epoxy resin. It is one of the most accurate 3D technologies and ideal for fine detailed, small featured parts as fine as 0.002 in. layer thickness. And capable of producing large parts as well.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) – FDM extrudes thermoplastics layer by layer, with a variety of thicknesses as fine as 0.005 in. per layer. FDM uses real engineering grade thermoplastics, functional parts that can withstand rigorous testing, and creates enduse production parts with a variety of color options. It has excellent tensile strength, flexibility, high melting points and chemical resistance, and UV resistance.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) – SLS uses engineering and high performance powder based materials, activated by thermal energy

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of a laser in the Z-axis to build one layer at a time. SLS uses real thermoplastic base materials producing robust parts, end-use aerospace applications. Accurate fine features and complex geometries, and fire retardant plastic materials, UL 94 V0 are standard. Popular uses also include living hinges and high-flex snap fit parts.

more common reasons to use with the overmolding process is to create a soft grip. Overmolding can also be cleverly used to add rubber-like grips to clips designed to grab inanimate objects, and it can be used in more than one area of the same part to achieve even more functionality including cosmetics and color contrasts.

PolyJet – This technology is similar to inkjet printers where jets layer a liquid photopolymer that is instantly cured with UV lights attached to print heads. It produces fine layer high-resolution parts.

PolyJet offers high speed, fine detail (it can print at 16 microns) and smooth surfaces directly off the machine. Uses include living hinges, overhangs, and complicated geometries without needing to be assembled. There are multiple color options, multiple materials, and durometers in one print.

• Insert Molding. Insert molding is the process of injection molding molten thermoplastic around pieces placed in the injection-molding cavity resulting in a strong bond between integral pieces of the final part. Accurate mold design and construction is essential to insert molding to not only maintain part tolerances but also assure the tooling reliability.

Injection molding highlights Injection molding offers a predictable and scalable process for both rapid prototyping and production project needs. Its ability to produce parts from multiple materials with a high degree of consistency and tight tolerance makes it a proven approach to manufacture parts.

The following table provides prototype and production considerations when selecting injection molding as a process.

There are a number of best practices to consider including resin selection, wall thickness, draft, runners and gates, ribs, bosses, corners and transitions. Beyond best practices, injection molding offers several key features that can transform a design including overmolding, insert molding, and undercuts. Tolerances are ± 0.005 in. and can reach ± 0.001 in. with tooling. Consider these key features as a reason why injection molding should be applied to your project.

• Overmolding. Overmolding plastic parts can help in a number of functional and structural uses. A range of materials can be overmolded, including both hard and soft plastic resins. One of the

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• Undercuts. An undercut is any indentation or protrusion that prohibits the ejection of a part from a mold.

Undercuts can be used to carry out complex forms of molding such as the overmolding process and insert molding process. Undercuts are used to create interlocking or snap and latch features, allowing for clamshell or housing designs to come together for quick and easy assembly, or capturing holes or ports for wiring, button features or assembly, and vertical threads and barb fittings typically used in medical device products.

Thus, throughout the design process, remember to rely on fundamentals prior to choosing the manufacturing process type. Thinking through how your part will be used and what non-negotiables drive the design cycle will lead to the most successful project outcome. Also, consider whether you are best served by a single process type, integrated processes, or integrated manufacturers. Regardless, one fact remains – thinking about manufacturability earlier in the design cycle to properly select and leverage 3D printing and injection molding processes is essential to your success. n MPF Xcentric Mold & Engineering | www.xcentricmold.com

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Medical www.designworldonline.com

A Supplement to Design World - June 2018

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Medical Device Development:

the Digital Future has arrived

There are a number of acute challenges facing life sciences and medical device developers and manufacturers: cost, time to market, and developing custom solutions. But digital technologies may well be key to improving medical device design.

Digital design tools—computer modeling and realistic

Lynn Manning • Contributing writer

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simulation—have emerged as key contributors to success in medical device product design and manufacturing, and increasingly in the pharma industry as well. Many of these tools have been used in the aerospace, automotive, construction and other industries for decades. While life sciences applications are in the earlier stages of development, they are beginning to produce often astounding results.

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Simulation of eye structure can help with surgical planning and treatment options and optimize device development.

Not only are the available tools becoming more sophisticated yet easier to use, the U.S. FDA is now taking an active interest in encouraging new methods of modeling and simulation to accelerate the pace of innovation in life sciences. This is likely to have far-reaching consequences for product design, development, and regulatory approval.

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There are a number of acute challenges facing life sciences and medical device developers and manufacturers. Mahesh Kailasam PhD, a vice president at Thornton Tomasetti in charge of that group’s Applied Science lifesciences initiative, sees three challenges.

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Being able to visualize and analyze the structure and motion of a foot including muscles and skin can help shoe designers and surgeons alike.

Digital design tools—computer modeling and realistic simulation—have emerged as key contributors to success in medical device product design and manufacturing, and increasingly in the pharma industry as well.

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The first is cost, he says. “How do you develop new products in a cost-effective manner, especially as the expense of medical treatment is rising everywhere?”

The second challenge is to make sure that whatever solutions are developed are applicable for the targeted patient population so that treatments are effective. Historically, solutions have been developed generically, but applied to individuals according to experience and observation.

“Now we’re getting to the point where devices and treatments can be personalized to an individual’s characteristics, so that the treatment works as intended both in the near term and in the longer term — but we still need to keep that first challenge of cost in mind,” he says.

The third challenge Kailasam sees is the need to develop solutions in a timely manner, of course faster than ever before.

“When you consider these together, it is clear that the heavy reliance on traditional processes, including benchtop experiments, animal testing, and typical clinical studies, is just not suited for the challenges the industry is facing right now,” he says. “Digital technologies will be key to accelerate the transformation needed.”

Steven M. Levine, PhD, senior director of life sciences at Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA, thinks that the single biggest way to reduce the skyrocketing costs in the healthcare industry is to lower the volume of posttreatment care. This has two components: 1) getting the treatment right the first time, and

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2) shortening recovery time with lessinvasive treatments.

“The former often is characterized as ‘precision medicine,’ but it basically means that we need better ways to analyze a given condition and select the best treatment,” Levine says.

“The use of digital technologies will be transformational in this, from using real-world data and in silico models, to develop better physiological models of patients, and to conduct virtual treatments to optimize outcomes,” he says.

The latter involves providing physicians with a more targeted approach in situations where they have less ability to see what is happening inside the body. Once again, virtual reality and realistic digital representations of the patient and procedure are critical to make this happen. “Of course, incorporating realworld behavior as part of the diagnostic or follow-up can dramatically improve success while achieving cost-saving goals,” he notes.

The FDA steps up to the challenge The FDA has taken a lead for several years now, encouraging the adoption of new modeling and simulation technologies for effectively evaluating different solutions and accelerating the pace of innovation—even to the point of accepting simulation data as part of applications for device approval. Of course, to make sure that such adoption is done in a consistent manner, the FDA is also working with others to refine emerging guidelines, such as for verification and validation, to ensure that this is done in a systematic and controlled manner rather than an arbitrary way.

In addition, programs such as MDDT (Medical Device Development Tools) are helping the industry develop virtual human and animal models to evaluate medical devices with greater confidence than before.

Says Levine, “I understand the challenge the FDA has in maintaining their need to oversee the introduction DESIGN WORLD

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of safe medical devices, while at the same time accepting responsibility to help lower the speed and cost barriers without compromising safety.

To meet this challenge, the FDA has invested, though internal R&D as well as extensive collaborations, in understanding new methods that could achieve both goals. They have evaluated the various sources of evidence, animal models, clinical trials and computational models and concluded that, in many instances, as much as 50 percent of the time the computational models could be a better source.”

The FDA is actively working internally and through collaborations with organizations such as the Medical Device Innovation Forum (MDIC) and projects such as the Living Heart Project (LHP—Levine is the lead and Kailasam spearheaded

the commercialization of the technology) toward a future where half or more of the data submitted for regulatory approval comes from computer modeling, virtual patients, or virtual clinical trials. Moreover, the FDA is publicly sharing this mission, publishing guidelines such as the V&V40, and encouraging what they have called a “Simulation Revolution” in medical devices.

“Digital tools are what are allowing us to virtually try out multiple solutions to any challenge and do it all efficiently,” says Kailasam. This is certainly relevant at the earlier stages of design evaluation through virtualized benchtop tests, where companies ranging from the largest medical device makers to hundreds of startups can use simulations to effectively zoom in on designs that have the most promise. “But these

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tools are also very relevant, and perhaps more valuable, in later stages where digital models of organs like the heart or skin can be used to assess effectiveness of devices in virtual populations and tailor the solutions to different population segments,” he points out.

“Information from such virtual studies will allow clinical studies to be more effectively designed, giving device developers greater confidence in their outcomes – and leading toward virtual clinical trials in the near future.”

From skyscrapers to scapulae As noted earlier, digital tools reached maturity in a number of other industries before being adopted by life sciences.

Kailasam’s company, Thornton Tomasetti, has a long history of using digital tools for modeling and analyzing large and complex systems, including the effects of underwater shock on

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T i p s The complex interaction of needles with the skin and underlying tissue can help better drug-delivery mechanisms.

submarines and ships, ground-borne seismic waves and shock on structures, and environmental loading on structures like supertall skyscrapers, stadiums, and arenas.

Notes Thomas Scarangello, the company’s chairman and CEO, “These tools have created efficiencies and have been proven vital in speeding the pace of innovation and the delivery of new solutions for our clients in these industries, and they will play the same role in helping our life sciences clients accelerate their success as well.”

Scarangello says that many of the methods his engineers have been using for decades are directly applicable to life sciences, particularly when you relate the underlying physics — whether they are structural, thermal, CFD, and so on — to the problems at hand.

“Digital tools are perfect for capturing the interactions between different aspects of any complex system, whether it is the behavior of submarines underwater or stents experiencing blood flow inside vascular systems,” he points out.

Only five years ago, few examples existed of simulation successfully moving down the path to commercial success in life sciences. One early showcase example was cardiovascular stents – which are now at the point where simulated fatigue prediction has become necessary to ensure not only the safe lifetime of a new design but also the regulatory approval of the FDA. Today, nearly every device can be MRIsafety certified virtually, and the FDA’s aforementioned MDDT program is working to pre-certify computational methods that can speed regulatory approval.

“I believe the FDA has sent a clear message to the device community when they joined the LHP to lend their support to introduce this technology into the regulatory process,” says Levine. “More importantly, the LHP, now entering its fourth year, has demonstrated that physics-based simulation, once the exclusive domain of mechanical devices, is equally applicable to biological systems such as the human heart.”

Using a consensus methodology among the now 100+ members of the LHP, models and methods to virtually design and test new devices have been developed. These methods offer the potential to test and refine new device designs in a fraction of the time and cost of current methods that are based on a combination of bench and animal testing, and over time to be more predictive of clinical performance. Using the

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LHP as a basis, Dassault Systèmes is now working on models for other medically important body systems such as the brain, knee, spine, and so on.

In addition to quality assurance, Kailasam sees precision personalization to be of particular benefit to patients whose cases can benefit from the latest advances in digitization of life sciences offerings. “Digital modeling and analysis have been used to develop high-quality implants for some time, but now many solutions (knee or hip replacements among them) are designed to match an individual’s lifestyle choices, such as athleticism, as well as his or her physical characteristics, on a more granular level,” he says.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) in combination with such digital tools enables production of high-quality, patient-customized implants. “These solutions are not only being offered by large medical device companies but also by a whole cadre of smaller start-ups, including several that are able to recommend strategies for surgery and treatment based on simulated estimates of post-treatment outcomes,” says Kailasam.

Similarly, in other domains such as vasculature and blood flow, digital tools are used to develop models from imaging data, which can then be used for a variety of applications— ranging from 3D printing of realistic blood vessel network models to simulating the behavior of devices inside these models, and to even assessing various disease conditions that may hinder blood flow or risk the integrity of the vasculature.

The engineering behind the digital tools Many of the tools and modeling capabilities that companies such as Thornton Tomasetti have been developing and honing since 1949 are at the cutting edge of some of the principles that are now promoted by the FDA and increasingly adopted by the life sciences community.

“I expect that our experience with stochastic and probabilistic assessments of various types of events will allow us to offer methods that are quite relevant to life sciences, considering the variations in population or disease characteristics,” says Scarangello.

“Yes, our development and use of vibration and piezoelectric methods has played a key role in improving

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ultrasonic imaging solutions and is already used by leading medical imaging companies,” adds Kailasam. “Another example is the development and pioneering adoption of constitutive models for soils, which at first glance doesn’t appear relevant to life sciences until you realize that the same constitutive models are used to simulate the manufacturing of pharmaceutical tablets.”

Thornton Tomasetti has been active with various ASME committees for computational modeling, such as V&V 10 (Solid Mechanics), V&V 20 (Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer), V&V 50 (Advanced Manufacturing, covering additive manufacturing), and more recently have started engaging with V&V 40 (Medical Devices) as well.

Critical digital engineering capabilities that the medical industry needs include a variety of physics modeling solutions, covering everything from solids and fluids to thermal and electromagnetic simulations. Firms should have the capabilities to research and develop new material models, develop custom test fixtures and carry out physical tests to help with validation, and to develop and automate new or existing methodologies, such as for probabilistic assessments or optimization.

Thornton Tomasetti, for example, has expanded and is continuing to grow its team of engineers with specialized skills in bioengineering. “This allows us to provide virtual human modeling and simulation solutions covering a range of devices and organs, using both already available virtual models or, when needed, starting from imaging data to develop simulation-ready virtual human models, and then performing needed simulations,” says Kailasam.

After the simulations and assessments are completed, his team helps clients prepare thorough reports for submission to the FDA or other regulatory bodies, including necessary evidence of the efficacy and validity of the simulations. If they are interested, clients can also access visualization solutions such as realistic rendering or VR approaches.

“We’ve also established strong partnerships with companies like Dassault Systèmes and others to leverage the best available digital tools and bring to bear our expertise on addressing our client’s individual challenges,” says Kailasam.

Dassault Systèmes is one of the tool providers that have made an important commitment to the science and engineering communities by developing a commercial software platform capable of supporting the most sophisticated applications across all of the domains important in life sciences. “We provide a range of core computational methods and visualization environments, and an open system where our expert collaborators such as Thornton Tomasetti can develop custom methods and expert systems that accelerate the use by a medical device company,” says Levine. “And we have stepped up to advance the open development of accurate models of

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medical systems and participate in critical validation of these models for a given context of use.”

Future directions for digitization Kailasam acknowledges that for the medical device or pharma company looking to take advantage of available digital tools “there are quite a few offerings from both software and solutions perspectives — with everybody solving a piece of the puzzle.”

From a solutions perspective, he notes, one company may be able to create human models from imaging data, another might be good at assessing the structural behavior of a device, and yet another may be able to look at probabilistic assessments, and so on. “But few entities can pull and synthesize all the key elements together and do so in a rigorous manner,” he says. “At Applied Science, our goal is not only to help our clients solve specific pieces of a puzzle or workflow, but also to support them in building complete end-to-end solutions that can be automated and reused efficiently.” DW Sources: Thornton Tomasetti , http://www.thorntontomasetti.com/ Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA , https://www.3ds.com/productsservices/simulia/

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Ensure a successful medical device

product development with these tips The strategies for achieving medical device product development success could easily fill a book. Here’s a 101 course on the subject.

The regulated medical device development world requires Bill Betten • President • Betten Systems Solutions

commitment, a process, and a demonstration of efficacy. The cost of developing a medical device ranges from $25 million to $100 million, according to a 2010 research study out of Stanford University. The cost of failure or delay is even higher.

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| istockphoto.com

Medical device development success simply cannot be reduced to a simple checklist or set of steps to follow. (If it could, every entrepreneur would be successful.) The product development process is messy at best, but still requires as much planning as possible.

The critical elements are as follows: • Idea – Without it, nothing to be developed; • Process – The structure for development; • Plan – The blueprint; • Requirements – The details; • Regulatory/reimbursement – Critical to the medical device space; • Verification/validation – The right product doing the right thing.

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Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Phase IV

Phase V

Concept

Planning and Architecture

Design and Development

Test and Optimization

Validation andLaunch

High-level product development plan Chart courtesy of Betten Systems Solutions

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Building the process The product development process is the umbrella under which all activities are conducted. Processes vary by organization and evolve over time but still require a level of structure to accomplish the goals in a timely and efficient fashion.

The process describes the stages, inputs, outputs and responsibilities associated with product development activities — including post-market changes in function or intended use. The development process also includes the Quality Management System (QMS).

Many medical device companies choose to implement a quality system and have it certified to ISO 13485 to ensure consistency.

For years, the FDA (and industry) adhered to “waterfall” process as described in the FDA Design Control guidance in 1997.

The guidance viewed product development as a set of sequential activities: requirements are developed, and a device is designed to meet those requirements; the design is then evaluated and transferred to production, and the device is manufactured.

However, in the mid-2000s, it was recognized that development is really an iterative process that incorporates interactions between a variety of stakeholders and the input of every group involved in the development process. The emphasis now is on sharing information throughout the product lifecycle, reflecting more realistic interactions. It also encourages the use of preventive actions over corrective actions.

The process and QMS help ensure that product development activities are conducted in a cross-functional environment. In the regulated world where 60–80% of the development effort is associated with documentation in various

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forms, the process provides the framework for a successful effort.

Successful planning Creating a product development plan is an evolutionary effort that continues through the life of the project. It is essential to gathering and assigning the appropriate resources to the effort, particularly for a startup trying to obtain funding and support for the subsequent development. It can help companies understand the complex dance of cost, schedule and resources.

This initial plan is continuously refined throughout the project, reacting to the inevitable changes that occur along the way.

The plan is a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. It sets planning assumptions and decisions, defines the approved scope, cost and schedule, as well as communication among project stakeholders. In addition, medical product development places an emphasis on quality and risk of both the product and the development process.

The plan typically comprises major phases associated with the overall quality system of the entity performing the work, with subtasks of varying levels of complexity. The phases correspond to the major segments of project development, from development of the initial concept to project launch. Project close-out should also be included because product longevity and management post-launch are critical in the tightly regulated medical environment.

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TYPICAL PRODUCT REQUIREMENT ELEMENTS Device Functions Physical Characteristics Performance Safety/Risk Management Reliability Standards Regulatory Human Factors Labeling & Packaging Maintenance Sterilization Compatibility with other devices Environmental Limits Security

During the concept phase, customer needs are gathered and translated into initial product requirements. Multiple product implementations are considered and, generally, one concept is identified for subsequent development. Phase II (planning and architecture) is where the initial project plan is refined based on the initial requirements and the basis for the subsequent development is set. The majority of engineering design work begins in Phase III, culminating in working hardware and software in engineering units and ultimately design verification test units. Phase IV tests those units and makes any final changes required for locking down the design and moving into production units in Phase V.

The high-level phases contain detailed subcomponents and deliverables associated with the entire product. They can easily consist of hundreds or thousands of interconnected items and incorporate the tasks, schedules and resources associated with the project. They serve as a milestone tracking tool to show progress against the objectives and serve to define critical deliverables.

A few additional pointers for planning and execution success include the following: • Communication by the program/project manager to all stakeholders is critical. (Avoid late “surprises.”)

• Keep an eye on the big picture, manage to the critical path, and provide early warning for potentially late milestones. Don’t blindly schedule “boxes.”

• Do “sweat the right small stuff,” because it can derail you.

• Set priorities and make sure that the team knows what is “hot.” This is often based on a “critical path” analysis (a feature in most tools), that helps point out the tasks that must be completed on time to keep the schedule.

• Keep a sense of humor, a strong sense of team, and don’t panic when things happen, because they will.

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Chart courtesy of Betten Systems Solutions

Handling requirements Developing the product requirements is one of the most complex activities associated with product development, and one of the most important. One of the biggest challenges in developing good requirements is identifying and gathering input from all the stakeholders. Much has been written on the topic, particularly regarding gathering the “voice of the customer.” Requirements are often thought of as written specifications developed by engineers after talking to the marketing personnel who theoretically understand the customers’ needs. Yet in today’s development efforts, the range of inputs extends far beyond the buyer of the system, the traditional “customer.” In medical devices, the “customer” is complex, potentially including the end user, payer, patient, clinician, caregiver, procurement organization or key opinion leaders. Requirements are also driven by the regulatory, reimbursement, and safety and hazard analysis constraints incumbent in the medical product development process.

The FDA imposes requirements for medical devices to include human factors and usability of a device, with the intention of improving the probability of safety and effectiveness. These interactions involve the three major components of the device-user system: device users, device use environments and device user interfaces.

The requirements form the basis not only for the product design, its features, functions and risk mitigation, but extend completely through to the verification and validation process. To that end, requirements should be clear, traceable and verifiable. Other things to keep in mind during the development of requirements include the following: • Involve all the stakeholders in the process of defining the problem and the requirements; • Complete the problem statement before defining the requirements; • Avoid stating the problem in terms of solutions; • Identify the high-level system functions; • State the requirements clearly and unambiguously; and • Identify mandatory versus tradeoff requirements and quantify and prioritize if appropriate.

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Representative product requirements

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Medical manufacturers do not have the luxury of gathering user feedback after launch or to make changes quickly, unlike tactics commonly used in the consumer space, particularly in software-based products. The medical regulatory environment requires tracing from initial requirements to demonstration that those requirements have been met. In addition, post-launch monitoring requirements ensure that product issues and deviations from desired performance are identified, tracked and resolved.

A regulated environment The U.S. FDA has a responsibility to protect the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, food supply, cosmetics and products that emit radiation. It is also responsible for advancing public health by enabling medical innovations and by helping the public get the information required for the use of medicines and foods for the maintenance and improvement of health.

The agency organizes medical devices into three classes, increasing in regulatory control from Class I to Class III. Device classification depends on the product’s intended use, indications for use, risk to the patient and risk to the user (e.g., caregiver). The FDA reviews device applications with either the Premarket Notification 510(k) clearance or the Premarket Approval (PMA). In general, most Class I devices are exempt from 510(k), while most Class II devices require 510(k), and most Class III devices require PMA.

The 510(k) is a premarket submission that demonstrates that a new device to be marketed in the U.S. is “substantially equivalent” to a predicate device already being legally marketed in the U.S. and that doesn’t need the PMA. Class III devices usually have a much higher risk factor, requiring a PMA. A PMA calls for significant support for device claims, typically in the form of clinical data. In addition, manufacturers of the product must undergo a facility inspection by the FDA prior to the products’ clearance. Such an inspection is not needed prior to 510(k) clearance, but a manufacturer should expect an inspection after clearance is received.

All submissions are reviewed and either cleared or approved by the FDA before the device can be marketed in the U.S. While the impact of the regulatory process is felt throughout the development and manufacturing processes for the product, the immediate impact from a schedule perspective is that the targeted time to clearance for a 510(k) is approximately 90 days, while FDA regulations provide 180 days to review a PMA. However, particularly in the case of a PMA, these determinations often take much longer. FDA is able to ask additional questions and request more information, which can reset the clock. According to Emergo, in 2017 510(k) clearances averaged 177 days. In

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2015, FDA reported that PMAs averaged 209 days.

An additional clearance process is the “de novo” application, created in 1997. This approach is for devices that are automatically classified as Class III devices because no substantially equivalent predicate exists for them. It is intended to help avoid a lengthy and costly PMA submission for devices with low or easily mitigated risks. In 2012, the process was simplified to allow the applicant to directly submit a de novo application for the FDA to review and either approve or deny the application.

While the targeted decision date is within 60 days of submission, the uncertain nature of de novo can lead to additional discussion and delays as the decision is reached.

The FDA requires submitters to compile documentation of the development process, as follows: • The Design History File (DHF) contains the records to demonstrate that the design was developed in accordance with your approved design plan and established quality system. It also includes the design inputs and outputs, as well as design verification and validation protocols and results, essentially everything that went into the design of the product.

• The Device Master Record (DMR) includes everything necessary to build and test the device, including much of what is contained in the DHF, but also incorporating the manufacturing, test, quality, packaging and documentation that goes with the device.

• The Device History Record (DHR) contains everything done to make the device. The FDA requires that the manufacturer “shall establish and maintain procedures to ensure that DHR’s for each batch, lot or unit are maintained to demonstrate that the device is manufactured in accordance with the DMR and the requirements of this part.”

The regulatory process for medical devices extends into virtually every aspect of the design, manufacturing, test and support of medical products. Compared with general consumer product regulations and quality requirements, regulated products easily show an overhead of at least 50% in additional requirements, standards and testing, which results in additional effort, cost and time, not including the impact of lengthy and costly clinical trials.

Approaching reimbursement Reimbursement, while having much less of an impact on the design and manufacturing processes, is no less important to the overall success of product introduction. It addresses a vital question: “Who pays for your product?”

Developing a reimbursement strategy requires data, discussion and negotiations by stakeholders, including the providers and payers. Coverage, coding and payment are the three major components of the reimbursement process.

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M e d i c a l

T i p s

Coverage is in the realm of the payers and describes the types of services and procedures that will be paid. These typically are services and procedures considered “medically reasonable and necessary.” Coverage can vary by plan depending on what each payer decides to cover.

Coding is the intricate system of descriptions that describe the procedures being performed.

The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition (ICD-10) is the clinical cataloging system owned and published by the World Health Organization that went into effect for the U.S. healthcare industry on Oct. 1, 2015. The healthcare industry uses ICD codes to properly note diseases on health records, to track epidemiological trends and to assist in medical reimbursement decisions.

ICD-10 is split into two systems in the U.S.: ICD-10-CM (Clinical Modification), for diagnostic coding (68,000 codes), and ICD-10-PCS (Procedure Coding System), for inpatient hospital procedure coding (87,000 codes).

Even with coverage determined and a code established, the payment may not necessarily cover the full cost of the treatment or service being rendered, since each payer may negotiate with providers for pricing specific to their overall plan. However, without coverage and a code, no payment will be made.

Understanding whether you will be working to establish a new code (difficult and time-consuming as well as requiring significant clinical evidence) or whether your product will be designed to fit under existing descriptions may impact the design of the product and will certainly impact the intended use statements and documentation associated with your product.

Beyond the issue of getting paid for your product, however, additional implications of the reimbursement decisions exist. These include

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assessment of what your product does, who it is intended for, its efficacy at solving a specific problem and its value.

Validating and verifying (V&V) Planning for V&V is critical. Definition of the tests to be performed and plans for that testing need to take place early in the development process.

Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they really demonstrate different aspects of the product testing process and should be used for the appropriate activity.

The FDA outlines its expectations in Design Controls 21 CFR 820.30.

Design controls are the quality practices and procedures that form the basis for the design and development process and are intended to ensure that the device requirements meet the user needs and the intended use of the product. The V&V processes provide confirmation that a product meets the design controls.

Verification requires confirmation by examination as well as objective evidence that the output meets the input requirements (21 CFR 820.30(f)). These tests are typically performed at the subsystem as well as the full system level as part of the development process. The results of verification tests must be documented and are archived as part of the DHF.

Validation requires objective evidence that the requirements match user needs and the intended use of the devices (21 CFR 820.30(g)). This is confirmed by objective testing on production units (or equivalents) under actual or simulated use conditions.

Since validation is focused on the user needs, the testing is done as a more cohesive effort near the end of the product development process.

Depending on the classification of the product, validation may encompass clinical testing on production units.

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These results are also documented and submitted to the FDA as part of the premarket submission.

Here’s a simple way to remember the difference between verification and validation: • Verification – Building the system right • Validation – Building the right system Linking initial product requirements and the V&V testing demonstrates that the user needs and requirements established early in the project and refined during the development process are reflected in the final product. A traceability matrix maps the requirements all the way through to the test results. Many software tools for automation of this process are available, but fundamentally, a spreadsheet can also work.

V&V testing is generally applicable to hardware, software and systems. In practice, software may be somewhat more difficult to verify and validate.

It is difficult to address all possible test combinations, particularly those related to misuse. In that case, software validation may involve reaching a “level of confidence” that the device software meets all requirements and user needs. In some instances, user site software validation may also be described in terms of installation qualification (IQ), operational qualification (OQ), and performance qualification (PQ). DW

Tom Waddell, Waddell Group contributed to this article.

DESIGN WORLD

5/31/18 4:32 PM

MEDICAL

BAYCABLE BAYCABLE is vertically integrated and can offer a wide range of manufacturing capabilities including custom cable constructions, full turnkey cable assembly and molding services, component customization, specialized testing, and in house mold tool manufacturing.

BAYCABLE delivers unparalleled engineering expertise “an integrated solutions partner” that can help skillfully create the optimal interconnect system for your application.

Early design collaboration with our Silicon Valley based engineering group takes you from concept through pre-production into the initial production runs quickly, and we provide medium to higher volume production by transferring production to our plant in Sonora, Mexico. Both manufacturing locations are ISO Registered.

BAYCABLE has a long legacy of delivering high performance reliable interconnect solutions to our customers.

Bay Associates Wire Technologies 46840 Lakeview Blvd Fremont, CA 94538 Tel: 510-933-3800 Email: bayinfo@baycable.com www.baycable.com

MEDICAL

Master Bond Inc.

DESIGN WORLD

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Ultra Low Viscosity Biocompatible Epoxy for Medical Electronic Applications Formulated for medical electronic applications, Master Bond EP621LPSPMed is a biocompatible two part epoxy that has a mixed viscosity of 150300 cps. Its ultra low viscosity makes it ideal for use in underfill, impregnation and porosity sealing applications, while it also performs well in bonding, coating or encapsulation. This product exhibits excellent wetting properties and can readily flow by capillary action in tight clearances or beneath devices. It adheres well to metals, plastics, composites, polyimides, glass and ceramic substrates.

EP62-1LPSPMed has an advantageously long working life of 12-24 hours for a 100 gram mass and requires moderate heat for curing. Cure schedule is overnight at room temperature followed by 60-90 minutes at 80-100°C. The higher the temperature the faster the cure. Post curing at 100-150°C for 3-4 hours will optimize its properties.

Master Bond EP62-1LPSPMed passes USP Class VI and ISO 10993-5 cytotoxicity requirements. It also has been tested for 1,000 hours at 85°C/85% RH. It has excellent toughness, tensile strength of 11,000-12,000 psi and resists repeated cycles of ethylene oxide, radiation, and chemical sterilization. This compound has volume resistivity of more than 1014 ohm-cm, withstands mechanical shock/vibration and is serviceable from 4K to +400°F. In very thin sections it will transmit light, but in

thicker sections it is opaque. Shore D hardness is 75-85 and its glass transition temperature is 125-130°C. EP62-1LPSPMed has a 100 to 25 mix ratio by weight and can be supplied in standard sized units: ½ pint, pint, quart, gallon, 5 gallon kits. It can also be packaged in premixed and frozen syringes, as well as in cartridges for gun dispensers. Shelf life in original unopened containers is 6 months.

MASTER BOND INC. 154 Hobart Street Hackensack, NJ 07601-3922 +1-201-343-8983 www.masterbond.com main@masterbond.com

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MEDICAL

DC Motor-Driven Pumps Nitto Kohki’s DC motor-driven air compressors and vacuum pumps are ideal for applications requiring exceptionally reliable air flow, pressure or vacuum performance.

Featuring oil-free operation, a single moving part, low noise, and low vibration, this line of linear air compressors comes in 12V and 24V models. Other benefits include: • • • •

Very low power consumption Self-cooling design Exceptional service life (rated at 10,000 hours) Easy maintenance

Ideal for demanding applications in the medical device and laboratory equipment industry, including dialysis machines, blood separators, blood analyzers, incubators, heart assist devices and more.

NITTO KOHKI U.S.A., INC. 46 Chancellor Drive Roselle, IL 60172 Toll Free: (800) 843 6336 Phone: (630) 924 8811 Fax: (630) 924 0808 E-mail: info-pumps@nittokohki.com www.nittokohki.com

Your online resources for product innovations, industry news, and basic and how-to articles for all connector technologies.

Visit regularly for the knowledge you need when specifying and installing connectors, wire, cable, and accessories. www.WireAndCableTips.com www.ConnectorTips.com

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DESIGN WORLD

6/1/18 11:24 AM

Product World Multi-section linear encoder Heidenhain heidenhain.us The AMO LMF 9310 multi-section linear encoder is specifically designed for long length applications (over 10-ft) on manually operated machines. The LMF 9310 is an inductive encoder available with measuring lengths from 3,150 mm (124-in.) up to 18,270 mm (719-in.), in 180 mm (7-in.) increments. It comes standard with a 20 µm accuracy grade, 1000 µm grating pitch, and a 5 µm measuring step.

Encoder Features: •

Contamination resistance - IP67

•

Insensitive to interfering magnetic fields

•

High precision

•

High resolution

•

Speed up to 3 m/s

•

Operating temperature -10°C to 80°C

Micro gripper handles parts with force down to 2.5 g SMAC smac-mca.com The SMAC MGR6 gripper has a low moving mass with two independent axes, and, thanks to a patented Soft-Land routine, is capable of light, controlled forces. It can be used as an end effector on third party robots.

Features: • Dimensions of 55 x 475 x 24 mm • Stroke to 10 mm (5 mm (5 mm each) and peak force to 3.8 N ... with a force constant of 11.5 Applications that use the MGR6 micro gripper include tiny semiconductor (0201) components handling, small lens handling, stent and catheter handling, sample tube handling, and electronics assembly. These applications use the SMAC Soft-Land feature — programmable down to as low as 2.5-g force (depending on controller), and two independently controlled gripper fingers to pick up asymmetric or offset parts.

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Product World Couplings improve ball screw performance Miki Pulley US mikipulley-us.com The Step-Flex is an altogether new class of shaft coupling. The Step-Flex

motor to output shaft, important in rotary motion

coupling design has a two-part elastomer element combination. This assembly

applications. Plus, it also halts stray voltage traveling

dampens vibration caused by the actuator carrier when struggling to find its

on the shaft. Applications include automation

home position by making small adjustments in rapid sequence.

of all types where ball screws are used including

With this design, the hard (black) element is separated from the aluminum

packaging systems, semi-conductor assembly

alloy hubs by a softer (green) elastomer disc. This combination maintains

systems, laboratory automation and medical

adequate torsional stiffness for precise positional accuracy while still allowing

equipment.

for minimal angular and parallel misalignment and absorbing vibration. The power-transmitting element, consisting of different hardness layers, also

Specifications:

achieves a reduction in counter force generated by misalignment. This can

•

9 sizes available

greatly reduce the load on the bearing – resulting in reduced heat load.

•

Torque: 531 in- lb (60 Nm)

•

Bore size range: 1/8 to 1.125- in. (3 mm -

Another feature is the electric and temperature isolation provided by the coupling’s elastomer element. This mitigates conductive heat transfer from

30 mm)

Safety limit switches AutomationDirect automationdirect.com Safety limit switches from IDEM provide positively operated switching contacts to verify the position of machine elements or other moving parts for safety related purposes.

A range of housing types are available, and each offers a variety of actuation mechanisms, such as plungers, rollers and levers, all with precise operating points.

HLM series limit switches with heavy duty zinc aluminum die-cast bodies and LSPS series limit switches with standard duty plastic bodies have IP67 ratings and 1/2-in. NPT conduit fittings.

The HLM-SS series of heavy duty stainless steel limit switches has an IP69K rating (suitable for high temperature washdown) and 1/2-in. NPT fittings. LSMM series (die-cast zinc aluminum body) and LSPM series (plastic body) are compact size switches with 2m pigtails and IP67 ratings (suitable for washdown).

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For further information about products on these pages visit the Design World website @ www.designworldonline.com

Zero-backlash servo rotary indexing table Sankyo Automation sankyoautomation.com The RollerDrive Reducer is a precision gear reducer that uses a zero backlash roller gear mechanism. The unit is constructed from an input shaft and a turret (output shaft) that is assembled with roller followers.

Features:

The roller followers are preloaded against a screw-like input shaft to

•

Zero-Backlash -The RollerDrive uses a unique preloaded mechanism to completely eliminate backlash and deliver output motions that are

eliminate backlash.

faithfully true to input commands

These servo indexing tables have a constant lead cam with a servo motor drive for programmable motion. The servo indexing tables provide

•

reduction to deliver large torque capacities with smaller servo motors

fast and accurate motion with the added capability to move medium to heavy loads. The preloaded cam and turret provides a high performance,

Design -RollerDrive technology incorporates a cam with a high gear

•

zero-backlash servo indexing table for automation needs.

Second Reducer Option -Multiple reducer options keep the servo at optimal RPM speed

Synthetic gear oil for high shear stability

Control cabinet PC with TPM 2.0

Kluber klueber.com

Advantech advantech.com

Klübersynth GE 4 75 W 90 is a fully synthetic gear oil based on PAO chemistry,

The UNO-1372 control cabinet PC is powered by an Intel

which has high shear stability and protection, even when exposed to impact

Celeron J1900 quad-core processor with four GB DDR3L

load. It is particularly suitable for rail vehicle gears subject to high loads.

memory, dual display interfaces (HDMI and DisplayPort),

Klübersynth GE 4 75 W 90 offers a high scuffing load capacity of API

two GbE LAN, two mPCIe/mSATA, four COM, four USB, and

GL-5, and can be used for gears which have to meet API GL-4 or API GL-5

eight digital I/O for connectivity and data transfers. The

requirements. The good wear protection of both gears and rolling bearings

aluminum housing with chassis grounding protection prevents

enables a long service life of the lubricated components for reduced

damage from electrical surges and enhances heat dissipation

maintenance costs. The high micro pitting resistance of GFT ≥ 10 acc. to FVA

while the system’s fanless design, operating temperature

54/7 offers sufficient protection to gears that are subject to high loads and

range (-20 ~ 60°C) and shock and vibration tolerance (IEC

would normally be prone to this type of damage.

60068-2-27/IEC 60068-2-64) enable it to withstand harsh environments.

It supports iDoor technology. This allows the system to

be integrated with diverse expansion modules for Fieldbus protocol support (Profibus, Profinet, EtherCat, and Powerlink), additional memory/storage, digital and analog I/O, smart sensors, and wireless communication (3G, GPS, GPRS, Wi-Fi, RFID, Bluetooth, and LTE).

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Ad Index

SALES

ABB Motors & Mechanical ................................9

Elesa U.S.A. Corp. ............................................... 21

ACE Controls ......................................................103

Encoder Products Company ......................... 44

Aerotech ............................................................... 30

Fabco-Air .............................................................. 58

Aignep USA ......................................................... 39

Harwin .................................................................... 31

Allied Electronics &

igus ......................................................................... 47

Automation ................................. cover,2,3

Interpower ............................................................ 22

AllMotion ..................................................................4

J.W. Winco, Inc. ................................................... 121

Altra Industrial Motion Corp. ....... .23,24,25,26

Keller America Inc ............................................... 41

AMETEK DFS ....................................................... 29

Kuriyama of America ........................................ 53

Applied Motion Products, Inc. ...................... 37

Lin Engineering ..................................................115

Aurora Bearing Company .............................. 39

Micromo ................................................................ 52

Automation24, Inc. ...............................................7

Nason ......................................................................5

AutomationDirect ..................................Gatefold

OKW ......................................................................... 17

Bal Seal Engineering ......................................102

PHD Inc. ................................................................. 51

Beta Layout ......................................................... 36

POSITAL-FRABA Inc. .........................................119

Bodine Electric Company ...............................40

Rotor Clip ..............................................................99

BRECOflex CO., L.L.C. ....................................... 55

Rutronik .............................................................. 108

Brother Gearmotors .........................................101

Servometer ........................................................... 13

Cadence Inc. ....................................................... 59

Smalley Steel Ring ............................................. 10

Carlyle Johnson ................................................. 33

The Lee Company ............................................ 113

CGI Motion ........................................................... 57

Tolomatic .............................................................. 43

CIT Relay & Switch ............................................. 16

Tompkins Industries, Inc. ...............................107

Clippard .................................................................BC

Trim Lok ............................................................... 100

Del-tron ............................................................... 109

Wago USA ............................................................ 45

DieQua .................................................................. 20

Whittet-Higgins ................................................... 19

Digi-Key Electronics ........................................... 15

Yaskawa America, Inc. ....................................IBC

DMIC ....................................................................... 35

Zero-Max, Inc. .........................................................1

The Robot Report Supplement

Inside: 62/ 2019: the Year of the Legged Robots

•

72/ Self-driving cars

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Bimba ................................................... 63 DieQua ................................................ 86 Festo .................................................... 61 GAM ...................................................... 87 Hannover Fair ................................... 75 Harmonic Drive ................................. 71 igus ....................................................... 83 Kollmorgen ......................................... 79 maxon precision motors ............... 77

•

80/ Robots in warehouses

A Supplement to Design World - June 2018

Micromo .............................................. 85

Evolution

Mitsubishi Electric

of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot. page 68

Automation .................................. 67

Robotics Cover_6-18_FINAL.V3.indd 60

Jim Powers

Mike Caruso

mcaruso@wtwhmedia.com 469.855.7344

Garrett Cona

gcona@wtwhmedia.com 213.219.5663 @wtwh_gcona

jpowers@wtwhmedia.com 312.925.7793 @jpowers_media

Courtney Seel

cseel@wtwhmedia.com 440.523.1685 @wtwh_CSeel

Michael Ference

mference@wtwhmedia.com 408.769.1188 @mrference

Michelle Flando

mflando@wtwhmedia.com 440.670.4772 @mflando

Mike Francesconi

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Publisher Mike Emich

memich@wtwhmedia.com 508.446.1823 @wtwh_memich

mfrancesconi@wtwhmedia.com Managing Director 630.488.9029

Scott McCafferty

David Geltman

dgeltman@wtwhmedia.com 516.510.6514 @wtwh_david

Neel Gleason

ngleason@wtwhmedia.com 312.882.9867 @wtwh_ngleason

smccafferty@wtwhmedia.com 310.279.3844 @SMMcCafferty

EVP Marshall Matheson

mmatheson@wtwhmedia.com 805.895.3609 @mmatheson

Tom Lazar

tlazar@wtwhmedia.com 408.701.7944 @wtwh_Tom

6/1/18 3:12 PM

mk North America ........................... 84 New England Wire Technologies & New England Tubing Technologies................. 65 POSITAL-FRABA Inc. ....................... 78 Renishaw ........................................... 76 Universal Robots USA Inc. ........... 82

Make Parts Fast Supplement CS Hyde Company ......................... 129

A supplement of Design World June 2018

How to pick the

PBC Linear ........................................ 134,135 Tormach ............................................. 136

how to pick the right

plastic

for additive manufacturing

130

126 HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printer

138 Choosing between 3D printing and injection molding processes

COVER_MPF 3-18_Vs1.indd 124

FOLLOW US ON

5/31/18 10:53 AM

Xcentric Mold & Engineering ...... 132

Medical Tips Supplement

Medical www.designworldonline.com

A Supplement to Design World - June 2018

Bay Associates Wire Technologies Corp. .......145 Master Bond ..............................................................151 Nitto Kohki USA, Inc. ..............................................147

Medical Device Development: the Digital Future has arrived Medical Tips cover 6-18_FINAL.indd 141

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DESIGN WORLD

6/1/18 3:33 PM

Always the Right Move YASKAWA AMERICA

One Choice for All Controlling a robot arm, a servo axis, a VFD drive or a custom robotic mechanism is all the same task for an MP3300iec machine controller. It uses familiar IEC61131-3 and PLCopen programming to operate them all, and will even allow you to substitute one motion device for another without reprogramming.

Looking for motion control that can change and grow as readily as your machines do? Move to the MP3300iec by contacting your Yaskawa representative.

Yaskawa America, Inc.

Yaskawa 6-18.indd 1

Drives & Motion Division

1-800-YASKAWA

yaskawa.com

For more info: http://go.yaskawa-america.com/yai1163

5/31/18 3:22 PM

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