One of the fastest growing sectors adopting 3D printing/additive manufacturing is healthcare.Different technologies and materials produce a range of medical devices, catering to the demands of personalized medicine.
Leo Somerville, former president of Renishaw Inc., has been promoted to oversee Renishaw North America’s healthcare business. Replacing Somerville as president is Howard Salt, former business manager of encoder products. Somerville will continue to develop technical and commercial strategies in his new R&D role.
A new senior management team has been created to support Salt. David Bozich, former MT/scanning business manager, was appointed vice president operations. Denis Zayia, former national sales and marketing manager, was appointed vice president sales and marketing.
Additionally, Renishaw’s North American growth continues in Auburn Hills, Michigan, with a 20,070ft2 technology and research center. The center will provide turnkey measuring solutions to Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, while supporting medical and aerospace companies.
In West Dundee, Illinois, Renishaw will soon complete its new 133,000ft2 office and warehouse facility. This includes the North American Solutions Center – part of Renishaw’s network of global solutions centers – opening in 2017. These centers provide venues where additive manufacturing adoption can be accelerated. www.renishaw.com
Rapid tooling, prototyping program
Freudenberg Medical offers a comprehensive program for quick-turn tooling and prototyping. Rapid Prototype WorkCell is a four-part program that includes a modular mold system; a 3D cavity set made of steel, plastic, or aluminum inserts; a dedicated molding press; and dedicated design engineers to manage the process.
Freudenberg Medical’s Rapid Prototype WorkCell can deliver custom 3D printed cavity inserts in two-to-four days, depending on the complexity. If a customer prefers working with steel or aluminum inserts, the turnaround is longer, but the program delivers real parts for review and testing prior to implementation of production tooling. www.freudenbergmedical.com/rapid
It starts with how we treat each other
Departments - Editor's Letter
After a very long, heated presidential campaign, U.S. citizens elected a new president.
After a very long, heated presidential campaign, U.S. citizens elected a new president. No matter which candidate you supported, division about the outcome was immediately obvious from the reactions that ranged from wishing failure on the president-elect to hate for fellow Americans.
On Jan. 20, 2017, President Barack Obama will leave office and Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Now is not the time to argue about who won, it is the time to stay vigilant that campaign promises are upheld, because an administration’s failure would be failure for all of us. Trump pledged, “to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me.” This is ‘so important to me’ as well because how we react and how we treat each other matters. Only tolerance and acceptance – bringing citizens back together – will show if our country has the wherewithal to come together and prosper.
One major campaign platform was bringing jobs back to America, with manufacturing having a huge stake in policy change and reform. The president-elect’s 7-point plan to rebuild and fight for free trade states that he is for “negotiating fair trade deals that create American jobs, increase American wages, and reduce America’s trade deficit.” Manufacturers are likely to welcome his promises to lower taxes and reduce business regulations, but they also know that it needs teamwork.
The National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) has shown its want for collaboration and willingness to work together, when more than 1,100 manufacturers and business leaders signed the NAM’s Nov. 9, 2016, letter, Manufacturers: We Are the Solution. Its members expressed their commitment to:
Reunit(e) our country and our people after this particularly difficult election. American families, businesses, and our communities cannot truly prosper and reach their full potential in a country that is divided and distrustful.
We will look for areas upon which we agree and can work productively with your new administration. To be sure, we are aware that there will be times when we disagree on the specifics of important policies, and we will respectfully make our voices heard when we do. We do believe, however, that we can be constructive – both when we agree and when we do not – if we can all approach challenging situations in good faith, guided by an unwavering commitment to a greater purpose.
There will be challenges, and how they are approached will determine progress or stagnation. While factory production has more than doubled since 1979 (see TMD Sept. 2016 editorial: https://goo.gl/oXU3Ag), there’s still work to be done regarding policies that promote reshoring, support R&D, protect intellectual property (IP), and build a strong manufacturing workforce.
Our country can progress, but it’s all about how we treat each other. That means everyone needs to be willing to work together. What are your plans to help manufacturing stay strong and get stronger? Drop me a line and let me know atemodic@gie.net. ~ Elizabeth
Stretchy power sources
Departments - 1 Last Look
In a step toward wearable electronics, a team of researchers produce a stretchy micro-supercapacitor using graphene ribbons.
This stretchy supercapacitor made from graphene could spur the development of wearable electronics.
Photo credit: Xiaodong Chen, Ph.D.
Traditional batteries are thick and rigid – not ideal properties for materials used in tiny malleable devices. However, researchers are working on development of stretchy, micro-supercapacitors.
“Most power sources, such as phone batteries, are not stretchable. They are very rigid,” says Xiaodong Chen, Ph.D. “My team has made stretchable electrodes, and we have integrated them into a supercapacitor, which is an energy storage device that powers electronic gadgets.”
Developed in the 1950s, supercapacitors have a higher power density and longer life cycle than standard capacitors or batteries. And as devices have shrunk, so have supercapacitors, bringing a generation of two-dimensional micro-supercapacitors that are integrated into medical devices, cell phones, computers, and more. However, these supercapacitors have remained rigid.
In a study, Chen and a team from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, sought to develop a micro-supercapacitor from graphene – a carbon sheet known for its thinness, strength, and conductivity. Graphene can be flexible and foldable, but it cannot be stretched. To fix that, Chen’s team took a cue from skin, which has a wave-like microstructure. From this, the team started to think of how they could make graphene more like a wave.
The researchers’ first step was to make graphene micro-ribbons. Most graphene is produced with physical methods – like shaving the tip of a pencil – but the research team uses chemistry to build this material.
“We have more control over the graphene’s structure and thickness that way,” Chen explains. “It’s very difficult to control that with the physical approach. Thickness can really affect the conductivity of the electrodes and how much energy the supercapacitor overall can hold.”
The next step was to create the stretchable polymer chip with a series of pyramidal ridges. The researchers placed the graphene ribbons across the ridges, creating the wave-like structure. The design allows the material to stretch without the graphene electrodes of the superconductor detaching, cracking, or deforming. In addition, the team developed kirigami structures – variations of origami folds, to make the supercapacitors 500% more flexible without decaying their electrochemical performance.
As a final test, Chen powered an LCD from a calculator with the stretchy graphene-based micro-supercapacitor. Similarly, such stretchy supercapacitors can be used in pressure or chemical sensors.
In future experiments, researchers hope to increase the electrode’s surface area so it can hold more energy, since the current version only stores enough energy to power LCD devices for a minute.
Chen and the teams’ work was presented at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in August.
The 325linear 5-axis CNC grinder has extended X- and Y-axis movement plus two auxiliary slides for workpiece clamping and improved grinding wheel guidance. Micro tools, gun drills, hob cutters, and complex geometries can be accommodated on the machine, which operates from 2,500rpm to 4,000rpm. The second auxiliary slide enables the 325linear to use tool guidance, part support, tailstock, or workpiece pallets in operation.
On the A-axis, users can install collet chucks, hydraulic expansion chucks, or multi-range chucks. With the automated collet changer, workpieces with different diameters can be clamped with high concentricity in the unmanned loader station. The A-axis configuration also permits position-oriented clamping of non-rotationally symmetrical workpieces, so sequential workpieces with various roughing and finishing requirements can be preset on the machine for continuous processing.
The grinding system offers scalable automation, with optional 140-position tool changer, 5, 12, or 24 grinding wheel magazine, and a flexible robotic tool gripper for changing small micro tools.
The 325linear features a universal rotation A-axis with <0.0001° resolution concentricity and pitch accuracy, while the X-, Y-, and Z-axis resolution is maintained at <0.1µm. The swiveling C-axis for the grinding head has a 225° range of motion with <0.0001° resolution accuracy. The primary motor spindle operates up to 12,000rpm with 15kW max. drive output, while the grinding spindle option affords a max. speed of 24,000rpm. Linear axis travel on the machine is (X-Y-Z) 480mm x 250mm x 275mm.
cDD dressers certified to micro-precision tolerances
The radius form tolerance of cDD Diamond Dressers can be certified accurate to within ±0.001mm, making them suitable for the CNC truing and sharpening of grinding wheels used in manufacturing applications with form tolerances as tight as 2µm. The cDD dressing tools’ structure incorporates high-quality CVD diamond inserts strategically embedded within Meister’s hDD porous hybrid-bond matrix.
A line of air chuck jaws, including style M and style R, are machined for accuracy with the pins serving as a locator for precise repeatability and fast installation. Available as blank-top jaws in 1018 steel or 6061 aluminum, or pie-shaped jaws using A360 or 6061 aluminum, plus 1018 steel, they are for all types of air chucks including Kitagawa, Northfield, and Microcentric brands. While air chuck jaws may appear the same, significant performance differences exist due to manufacturers’ selected standards and the manufacturing process used to achieve them.
Vargus’ TMSD thread mill system now includes two extensions:
Full profile inserts – for ISO metric, American UN, NPT, and American buttress standards
Vertical inserts – for partial profile 60°, partial profile 55°, Trapez, and stub Acme
Full profile inserts extend tool life by providing optimal nose radius for specific pitches. They are available in IC sizes: 5"L, 1/4"U, 3/8"U, 1/2"U, provide good surface finish, and full-profile inserts use the same TMSD toolholders as partial profile inserts.
Vertical inserts have a smaller cutting diameter and three flutes for faster machining of small applications (min. D2=10.5mm, 0.41"), extend tool life by providing reinforced support for the insert cutting corner, have standard coolant-thru, and the toolholders can also be used in the Groovex line.
Vertical inserts are compatible with steel Weldon shank carbide cylindrical shank toolholders, and the line is supported by the Vargus GENius tool selector and CNC program generator.
The Talent 42 and 51 family of CNC turning centers offer accuracy, flexibility, and durability in a compact design. The collet-ready main- and sub-spindle design increases part accuracy and improves surface finish. The Talent series offers two separate base structures (short and standard bed lengths), and features a one-piece cast iron base, heavy-duty roller linear guideways, and ball screws. Standard features include through-tool and headwall air/coolant for both main- and sub-spindles, foot switches, chip conveyor interface, bar feed interface, air hose with an air gun, and Fanuc Oi TF CNC control.
