In the middle of February, emails about powerful disinfection techniques – from UV lights to sterilization – to battle the coronavirus were on the rise. By the first week of March email topics had taken a turn, focusing on the need to increase ventilator production. (Watch our webinar about how Ford, GE Healthcare, and Airon partnered to produce ventilators.) That was followed by urgent calls for personal protection equipment (PPE).

Now it’s a push for testing, but the answers vary on how much is necessary.

In my home state of Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine recently created a Testing Strike Team led by two former Ohio governors, Bob Taft and Dick Celeste, who will use their skills, networks, and contacts to increase COVID-19 testing capacity in Ohio – alleviating bottlenecks in the supply chain for reagents, swabs, and test processing. As of this writing Ohio had a test rate of <0.7%.

According to “The National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan,” from Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. needs expanded testing capacity to 3 million tests per week by June and then expand capacity to 30 million tests per week during the next six months.

From the “Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience,” by Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, the testing number is 20 million.

“What we need to do is much bigger than most people realize,” the authors write, noting the country needs massive scale-up testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine; delivery of 5 million tests per day by early June, increasing to 20 million a day to fully remobilize the economy. So far, the U.S. has only performed around 4 million coronavirus tests.

Manufacturers are ramping up to address the needs.

In April Tessy Plastics booked a $65 million order with ATS Automation Tooling Systems (ATS) for the design, build, and delivery of two automated manufacturing systems within the next four months to produce 10 million units of critical components for point-of-care testing kits per month. In just 15 weeks, Tessy will be hiring 200 people to produce the entire test kit that consists of 20 components, requiring 50 molding machines, several automated assembly lines, and a cleanroom – all taking place in a former warehouse in Auburn, New York.

Strict regulations and the need to ensure near-flawless execution often gives medical manufacturing a reputation for being slow and methodical. The pandemic is shattering that reputation, showing how innovative companies can pair advanced technologies such as automation with medical-grade quality and competence. Converting an old warehouse into advanced manufacturing space with cleanroom capabilities is just one example of how medical manufacturers are tackling COVID-19.

Send me an email and let me know how your company has scaled production, added automation, or turned on a dime to help battle the pandemic.

A pure copper replica of Michelangelo’s David stands just 1mm tall including its pedestal. Giorgio Ercolano from Exaddon, an offshoot of ETH spin-off Cytosurge, created the micro-statue with the team led by ETH Prof. Tomaso Zambelli from the Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics. Zambelli’s research developed 3D-printing techniques a few years ago to print metal structures at the nanometer and micrometer scale, enabling the mini-David.

The process’ core component is a micropipette coupled to a cantilever, making it possible to monitor the force with which the point of the pipette touches the substrate. With this assembly, researchers can electrochemically deposit dissolved metals onto an electrically conductive substrate with high degree of precision. Optical force measurement automates the process for building minuscule metal structures layer-by-layer. Exaddon adopted this micrometal printing method and improved its speed, and other characteristics.

Printing complicated geometries

Ercolano printed micro-David to highlight the technology’s ability to print structures or geometries of all complexity levels. Printed in one step, without supports or templates, the sculpture didn’t require firing or tempering.

Data for the David sculpture is freely available on the Internet, Ercolano notes, adding that he “could even have printed the room that the statue is standing in – the data includes that as well.”

Size set by resolution

Ercolano 1.0mm David is actually a giant. He printed that one first and followed it with a 0.1mm David. With structures that small, achieving the required resolution becomes problematic. Printed metallic micro-objects typically starts at 1µm, and for more complex and detailed objects, sizes range from 100µm to 1mm. In terms of time, the 1mm model is a world away from the smaller one; the device needed 30 hours to create the big (1.0mm) David but just 20 minutes for the smaller version (0.1mm).

Theoretically, the system can print objects up to 5mm, but the printer cartridge contains only a microliter of ink – about enough to produce the larger David. However, it’s enough ink to print hundreds or even thousands of tiny objects, which represents the strength of the process.

“We’re thrilled that a technology from our research lab has made its way into practical application,” Zambelli says. “An independent group was able to adopt our 3D printing technology and even improve upon it, which shows that it really works.”

Ercolano and his colleagues published their results in the journal Micromachines.

ETH Zurich
https://ethz.ch

Exaddon AG
https://www.exaddon.com

The Ace Micromatic Gemini XL Twin Spindle, combined with fast linear guideways and traverse rates of 1,968ipm (50m/min), makes the Gemini XL series suitable for industries with high-volume production.

Another machine in the production series line is the MCV450XL vertical machining center, equipped with an integrated rotary pallet changer with factory integrated overhead hydraulics, a 12,000rpm direct drive spindle, and Fanuc fine mold package with 400 block look-ahead. Linear pallet changers are available as an option.

A third machine, the DTC-400 XL high-speed drill tap machining center, is compact with high-speed spindle options, up to 24 tools, and rapid feed rates up to 2,362ipm (60m/min).

JTEKT Toyoda Americas Corp.
https://www.toyoda.com

Quality management software

Inspection Manager (IM) Version 5.0, designed and built as a database (MS SQL) driven software, is an integrated set of applications encompassing quality management modules. IM creates inspection plans, ballooned PDFs, consolidates results, and generates reports to AS9102, Medical Industry Standards, AIAG/PPAP, and other standard or custom forms. Version 5.0 features enhanced support for metric dimensions, ISO, BSI, and ASME metrology standards.

One-Click OCR GD&T extraction and ballooning from 2D drawings, PDFs, TIFF, or other image files includes support for surface finish and welding symbols, saving hours (sometimes days) in the initial phase of inspection planning. Streamlining various modules and systems integration, it maximizes automation and efficiencies to meet current and future measurement and inspection quality requirements.

Enhanced job lifecycle management provides greater workflow support, managing jobs and batch records as they move along process stages. An upgraded database addresses installation scenarios, including external MS SQL server locations and advanced database administrator (DBA) settings. Version 5.0 of IM software is compatible across multiple locations, departments, and teams, providing access control permissions at desired levels of authorization.

High QA Inc.
https://www.highqa.com

Biocompatible, medical device grade adhesives

MED line products – MED-OG198-55 and MED-730-110 – have properties that address critical design challenges and are the latest addition to the line of medical-grade adhesives having undergone ISO 10993-5 cytotoxicity testing.

MED-OG198-55 is a special cationic-based, translucent, highly thixotropic gel with significant ultraviolet (UV) shadow curing capabilities and enhanced performance when thermally post cured. Useful in microfluidic designs, where its thixotropic nature prevents flow to specified areas, it’s also used in staking electrical and optical components, reinforcement, feed through, and sealing selected areas in drug delivery products.

MED-730-110 easy to use structural adhesive (1:1 mix ratio, dual cartridge packaging), has low or room temperature curing capability, and adheres to plastics, catheter tubing, and many difficult-to-bond materials, especially PEBAX.

Epoxy Technology Inc.
https://www.epotek.com

The HB400 benchtop optical comparator has expanded horizontal X-axis travel to 16" (400mm) for measuring larger parts. Available with optical edge detection, the HB400 benchtop model offers a 16" (400mm) diameter viewing screen, 6" (150mm) Y-vertical travel, 2" (50mm) focus travel, and 110 lb (49.9kg) workstage load capacity.

The single bayonet-style lens mounting system accepts a choice of six fixed interchangeable lenses, as well as OV2 Zoom or TOV2 fixed telecentric magnification video camera systems. The HB400 is available with MetLogix M1 tablet, M2 or M3 measuring software (when using OV2 and TOV2) PC, or digital readout systems.

The L.S. Starrett Co.
https://www.starrett.com

A super-stretchy, transparent, self-powering sensor that records complex human skin sensations could generate new understanding of patient behavior and robotic actuation, improving the performance of wearable electronics, personal healthcare, and robotics.

Developed by University of Toronto engineering researchers, artificial ionic skin – AlSkin – could become a powerful sensor option in future devices.

“Since it’s hydrogel, it’s inexpensive and biocompatible – you can put it on the skin without any toxic effects. It’s also very adhesive, and it doesn’t fall off, so there are many avenues for this material,” says Professor Xinyu Liu, whose lab focuses on emerging areas of ionic skin and soft robotics.

The AISkin is made from two oppositely charged sheets of stretchable substances known as hydrogels. By overlaying negative and positive ions, researchers created a sensing junction on the gel’s surface. When AISkin is subjected to strain, humidity, or temperature changes, it generates controlled ion movements across the sensing junction. Measuring electrical signals, such as voltage or current, could provide insights into the systems operations.

“If you look at human skin, how we sense heat or pressure, our neural cells transmit information through ions – it’s really not so different from our artificial skin,” Liu explains.

AISkin is also tough and stretchable.

“Our human skin can stretch about 50%, but our AISkin can stretch up to 400% of its length without breaking,” says Binbin Ying, a visiting Ph.D. candidate from McGill University who’s leading the project in Liu’s lab.

AISkin could open doors to skin-like Fitbits that measure multiple body parameters or an adhesive touchpad you can stick onto the surface of your hand, Liu says.

“It could work for athletes looking to measure the rigor of their training, or it could be a wearable touchpad to play games,” he adds.

It could also measure the progress of muscle rehabilitation.

“If you were to put this material on a glove of a patient rehabilitating her hand, the healthcare workers would be able to monitor her finger-bending movements,” Liu notes.

Researchers also envision AISkin being integrated onto soft robots, such as grippers used in manufacturing, to measure data or the pressure necessary to handle delicate, brittle objects.

Future work from Liu’s lab will focus on enhancing AlSkin by shrinking the size of its sensors through microfabrication while also working to add bio-sensing capabilities to the material.

University of Toronto
https://www.engineering.utoronto.ca