Tsugami/Rem Sales, the exclusive North American importer of Precision Tsugami machine tools, plans to host its 4th annual Technology Center Open House in Fullerton, California on December 10 and 11, 2019, at the Tsugami/Rem Sales office, located at 1521 E. Orangethorpe Ave., Suite E, Fullerton, California.

The event will consist of presentations on newly released machine models as well as Tsugami/Rem Sales’ highly regarded technology including the new SmartFlex Guide Bushing system, Oscillation Cutting, and quick-change tooling systems. The event will also feature a number of industry partners that will offer value add solutions for a wide range of manufacturing challenges.

“We pride ourselves in the engineering expertise and exemplary customer support behind Rem Sales’ products and partnerships and look forward to demonstrating this at the Fullerton Open House each year; this annual event is a great time to showcase our newest machine tool technology to the Southern California manufacturing industry. This year, we are especially excited to show the new Tsugami S206-II and present on the Tsugami TMA8F,” says Michael Mugno, president, Tsugami/Rem Sales LLC.

Tsugami Machines featured include:

• Tsugami S206-II: 20mm, 6-axis Swiss lathe with enhanced casting, added standard live tooling capability, 3-toggle clamping system, increased sub-spindle horsepower, intuitive thermal sensors, 12 back-working tools standard
• Tsugami SS38MH-5AX: 38mm, chucker-convertible sliding headstock lathe with full B-axis, glass scales on X1, Y1, Z1, and X2 axes, back-working capability, and standard intuitive thermal sensors, and a 40 tool CAPTO C4 ATC
• Tsugami VA2: 20 taper, high speed vertical machining center with a 15 pocket ATC and 1.35 second chip-to-chip time
• Tsugami M08SY: Rigid turning center with Y-axis, 8" chuck and a 12 station turret.
• Tsugami B0386-III: 38mm, 6-axis opposed gang tool CNC Swiss Lathe built to take the heaviest of cuts
  

Hours for the Fullerton Open House are, Tuesday Dec. 10, 10:00am to 4pm PT and Wednesday, Dec. 11, 10:00am - 3:00pm PT. Lunch will be supplied for all registrants, both days.

All attendees will have the opportunity to meet with Tsugami/Rem Sales’ Swiss CNC Engineers and local Tsugami specialists. All are encouraged to bring questions, ideas, and drawings of parts for consultation sessions. Representatives from Tsugami West Coast distributor and industry partner, Ellison Technologies will also be available during the event.

George E. Danis, CEO of Plastic Molding Manufacturing, announced the company’s newest acquisition, Phillips-Moldex Company, supporting the company’s continue growth throughout the United States.

“It has been our goal for many years to keep manufacturing in the United States and this acquisition demonstrates our objective to be a national plastic molder with a local service to our customers,” Danis says.

Phillips-Moldex is an ISO 9001:2015/IATF16949-2016 certified plastic injection molder serving the automotive, medical, industrial, and electronics industries. Founded in 1958, Phillips-Moldex operates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, with 22 injection presses ranging from 20 ton to 250 tons and has in-house tool building, along with automation and engineering expertise.

Plastic Molding Manufacturing is proud to welcome Phillips-Moldex to their team, as they will help facilitate its goal to bring desirable manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

“We work to continuously challenge ourselves and focus on our journey to make our customers not only happy but to exceed their expectations. Our goal in acquiring other companies is to increase our support and capabilities for our customers across the country, so in return they will bring their manufacturing business back to the United States,” Danis adds.

Plastic Molding Manufacturing locations also include headquarters in Hudson, Massachusetts, along with Berlin, Connecticut, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and South Bend, Indiana. Plastic Molding Manufacturing offers customers more than 100 injection molding machines ranging from 24 tons to 500 tons, the largest base of two-shot presses in New England, and an ISO Class 8 Certified Cleanroom. From design to market, the company develops sustainable and advanced plastic molding solutions, using state-of-the-art technology and is committed to innovation and Made in America.

The Robotic Industries Association (RIA), part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), announced that North American robot unit orders are up 5.2% through the third quarter, compared to 2018 results. So far this year, North American companies have ordered 23,894 robotic units, valued at $1.3 billion.

Looking at third-quarter results only, North American companies ordered 7,446 robots, valued at $438 million. Both units ordered and revenue are up 1% in the quarter compared to 2018.

The largest driver of the year-to-date growth in units ordered was an increase in orders from automotive OEMs at 47%, followed by plastics and rubber at 15%, and food and consumer goods at 4%.

“We continue to see improvement in the robotics market,” says Jeff Burnstein, president of A3 and RIA. “At this time last year, we saw a dip in orders of around 15%, so it’s encouraging to see a recovery through the third quarter. We hope to end the year strong and see growth in 2020 as well.”

Burnstein says he sees strong interest in robotics from companies that have never invested in robots before. In addition, orders from non-automotive customers remain near record numbers, a healthy sign for the long-term growth of the robotics industry.

Just wanted to drop some interesting research to read during the Thanksgiving weekend - in-between football games and leftover turkey and stuffing sandwiches. Medical advancements continue and this weekend we look at wrapping a pacemaker in cellulose and how VR and haptics deliver feeling. Hope your Thanksgiving was great!

Protection for pacemakers

ETH scientists have developed a special protective membrane made of cellulose that significantly reduces the build-​up of fibrotic tissue around cardiac pacemaker implants, which could greatly simplify surgical procedures for patients with cardiac pacemakers.

“Every pacemaker has to be replaced at some point. When this time comes, typically after about five years when the device’s battery expires, the patient has to undergo surgery,” explains Aldo Ferrari, senior scientist in ETH Professor Dimos Poulikakos’s group and at Empa. “If too much fibrotic tissue has formed around the pacemaker, it complicates the procedure,” he explains. In such cases, the surgeon has to cut into and remove this excess tissue. Not only does that prolong the operation, it also increases the risk of complications such as infection.

Microstructure reduces fibrotic tissue formation
To overcome this issue, Ferrari and his colleagues at ETH Zurich spent the last few years developing a membrane with a special surface structure that is less conducive to the growth of fibrotic tissue than the smooth metal surface of pacemakers. This membrane has now been patented and Ferrari is working with fellow researchers at the Wyss Zurich research center, the University of Zurich, and the German Center of Cardiovascular Research in Berlin to make it market-​ready for use in patients.

As part of this process, the research consortium has now tested the membrane on pigs. In each pig, the scientists implanted two pacemakers, one of which was enveloped in the cellulose membrane.

Following the one-​year test period, the researchers can report positive results: the pigs’ bodies tolerate the membrane and do not reject it.

“This is an important finding because tolerance is a core requirement for implant materials,” Ferrari says.

Just as importantly, the membrane did what it was supposed to: the fibrotic tissue that formed around it was, on average, only a third as thick as the tissue that formed around the unencapsulated pacemakers.

Next step: Clinical trials
The scientists attribute this reduction in fibrotic tissue formation in the first stage to the material itself – cellulose is fibrous by nature.

“When fibrotic tissue forms, the first stage is the deposition of proteins on the surface. A fibrous membrane surface impedes this process,” explains Francesco Robotti, lead author of the study and a scientist in ETH Professor Poulikakos’s group.

Another factor is that the researchers created the membrane with honeycomb-​like indentations in the surface, each measuring 10 micrometers in diameter.

“These indentations make it difficult for the cells that form fibrotic tissue to adhere to the surface – the second stage in the formation processes,” Robotti says.

Now that the material has proved successful in animal trials, the scientists plan to apply for approval for clinical trials in humans in partnership with the ETH spin-​off Hylomorph, which will be responsible for commercialization of the membrane. The trials are slated to start next year at three large cardiac centers in Germany.

This work was carried out as part of University Medicine Zurich’s Zurich Heart project and ETH+ project ETHeart.

Epidermal VR gives technology a human touch

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new thin, wireless system that adds a sense of touch to any virtual reality (VR) experience. Not only does this platform potentially add new dimensions to our long-distance relationships and entertainment, the technology also provides prosthetics with sensory feedback and imparts telemedicine with a human touch.

Referred to as an epidermal VR system, the device communicates touch through a fast, programmable array of miniature vibrating actuators embedded into a thin, soft, flexible material. The 15cm x 15cm sheet-like prototypes comfortably laminate onto the curved surfaces of the skin without bulky batteries and cumbersome wires.

“People have contemplated this overall concept in the past, but without a clear basis for a realistic technology with the right set of characteristics or the proper form of scalability. Past designs involve manual assemblies of actuators, wires, batteries and combined internal and external control hardware,” says Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, a bioelectronics pioneer. “We leveraged our knowledge in stretchable electronics and wireless power transfer to put together a superior collection of components, including miniaturized actuators, in an advanced architecture designed as a skin-interfaced wearable device - with almost no encumbrances on the user. We feel that it’s a good starting point that will scale naturally to full-body systems and hundreds or thousands of discrete, programmable actuators.”

“We are expanding the boundaries and capabilities of virtual and augmented reality,” says Northwestern’s Yonggang Huang, who co-led the research with Rogers. “By comparison to the eyes and the ears, the skin is a relatively underexplored sensory interface that could significantly enhance experiences.”

Rogers and Huang’s most sophisticated device incorporates a distributed array of 32 individually programmable, millimeter-scale actuators, each of which generates a discrete sense of touch at a corresponding location on the skin. Each actuator resonates most strongly at 200 cycles per second, where the skin exhibits maximum sensitivity.

“We can adjust the frequency and amplitude of each actuator quickly and on-the-fly through our graphical user interface,” Rogers says. “We tailored the designs to maximize the sensory perception of the vibratory force delivered to the skin.”

The patch wirelessly connects to a touchscreen interface (on a smartphone or tablet). When a user touches the touchscreen, that pattern of touch transmits to the patch. If the user draws an “X” pattern on the touchscreen, for example, the devices produce a sensory pattern, simultaneously and in real-time, in the shape of an “X” through the vibratory interface to the skin.

© Northwestern

When video chatting from different locations, friends and family members can reach out and virtually touch each other – with negligible time delay and with pressures and patterns that can be controlled through the touchscreen interface.

“You could imagine that sensing virtual touch while on a video call with your family may become ubiquitous in the foreseeable future,” Huang says.

The actuators are embedded into an intrinsically soft and slightly tacky silicone polymer that adheres to the skin without tape or straps. Wireless and battery-free, the device communicates through near-field communication (NFC) protocols, the same technology used in smart phones for electronic payments.