Chiron Group announces new CEO

© Chiron | https://chiron-group.com/

Carsten Liske took over as chief executive officer (CEO) of CHIRON Group SE effective March 1, 2021, rounding out the senior management team at the machining centers and solutions specialist headquartered in Tuttlingen.

“In Carsten Liske, our corporate group has appointed a highly competent CEO with more than 20 years’ experience in the international capital goods sector,” says Dr. Armin Schmiedeberg, chair of the Board of Directors.

Liske began his career with the ABB Group in Zurich and Unaxis in Liechtenstein. In 2006, he took over as chief operating officer (COO) of Oerlikon Esec in Cham, Switzerland. In 2009, he moved to Rieter AG in Winterthur, the leading supplier of systems for short-staple fiber spinning, where he held various leadership positions. From 2011 to 2013, in addition to managing global operations, he was general manager of Rieter in China. In 2015, as manager of the After Sales division, he was appointed to the Group Executive Committee of Rieter Holding AG. His last position at Rieter was as head of its largest division, Machines & Systems.

At CHIRON Group SE, Liske will be leading the Operations department, encompassing the Global Service, Production, Logistics, Procurement, and Quality Management divisions. He will also be responsible for the overseas subsidiaries CHIRON Taicang, CHIRON America, CHIRON Mexico and CHIRON India. 

TDM Systems appoints VP of global sales and marketing

© TDM Systems
https://www.tdmsystems.com

TDM Systems, a leading provider of tool data management solutions for industry, has announced the appointment of Jean-Paul Seuren as vice president of global sales and marketing. The announcement was made by Dietmar Bohn, managing director.

In his position, Seuren will be responsible for optimizing and expanding the sales structure of the company, while managing the sales performance of TDM Systems including service, administration, and management of stakeholder relations to ensure achievement of the overall company strategy. He will report directly to Bohn.

Previously Seuren was regional director EMEA at Vero Software, a Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence company.

Bohn says, “The appointment of Jean-Paul Seuren as the new Head of Sales is a great opportunity for TDM. His experience as a sales professional will help communicate the advantages of TDM solutions even more successfully in both our existing and new markets."

Seuren adds, “I’m delighted to be part of the TDM Systems team. If you want to provide excellent service to customers and conquer new markets, you need an effective team. We will be a sales and marketing team that is both innovative and customer oriented. I look forward to the challenges and opportunities of leading the team at TDM Systems.” 

FactoryWiz adds East Coast office

FactoryWiz, a leading provider of machine and asset monitoring software, recently announced that John B. Lucier has been named as Eastern Sales Manager. Lucier previously served as the national automation manager for Methods Machine Tools.

Born and raised in central Massachusetts, Lucier began his career in manufacturing as a shop floor machinist, then after a few years of shop programming and setting up CNC machines, Lucier moved into the world of machine tools. Lucier would spend the next 28 years at Methods Machine Tools first as an applications engineer, eventually moving all the way to national automations manager.

Lucier used his machine tool knowledge, together with his automation knowledge to develop, build and sell automation solutions for the metalworking industry.

“John is the right guy for the continued growth of FactoryWiz,” says Richard Hefner, FactoryWiz president. “John’s extensive machine tool background and sales experience should help FactoryWiz strengthen channel partnerships, develop strategic alliances and expand our brand presence. We believe his strong experience will help FactoryWiz during our continued expansion and growth.”

“I first became acquainted with the team at FactoryWiz more than 20 years ago, and back then, they were already pushing the limits on using machine controls in ways others had not,” Lucier notes. “I’m excited to be part of the team and to use my knowledge to help customers realize the benefits of FactoryWiz Monitoring and DNC. I look forward to helping our industry become more connected and to embrace IOT and Smart Manufacturing.” 

Tsugami/Rem Sales’ distributor partnership with Cnczilla Co.

Tsugami/Rem Sales LLC, exclusive North American importer of Precision Tsugami machine tools, announced today that Cnczilla Co. will be joining their distributor network as the official distributor for Southern New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

“We are excited to increase our presence in the Mid-Atlantic region,” says Tsugami/Rem Sales LLC president, Michael Mugno. “We are committed to providing our customers with excellent support and localized service and Cnczilla Co. is the perfect partner to take us to the next level.”

Tsugami/Rem Sales LLC has an expansive community of service technicians and application engineers across the United States. Cnczilla Co. a will be joining the Tsugami distribution network of along with 13 other partners within the North American market.

In the coming months, Cnczilla Co. plans to hiring additional, local applications engineers and service technicians to better serve Tsugami users in the region.

Jake Rothenberger, president at Cnczilla Co. comments, “In the last 11 years that I have worked in the Swiss machine world, I’ve come to know the high quality of Tsugami machines and the amazing reputation of the Rem Sales team. Their dedication to doing what is right for their customers is value we share, and I am excited to be joining the Tsugami/Rem Sales LLC team.” 

Star Cutter’s new VP of Operations

© Star Cutter Co.
https://www.starcutter.com

Star Cutter Company has promoted Mike Billiel from corporate operations manager to vice president of operations. In this position, Billiel is responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating efficient and cost-effective operational activities across the company’s five manufacturing locations, helping Star Cutter meet its current and future needs.

Billiel originally joined the company in 2013 as the cutting tool operations manager and in 2019 moved to the role of corporate operations manager. “Mike has been instrumental in building uniformity into our improvement strategies, from performance targets and KPI development to budget and capital planning,” says Jeff Lawton, Star Cutter president. “We’re confident he’ll bring even more value to this organization in this role and as a member of our board of directors.”

When he joined Star Cutter, Billiel already had significant experience in quality, manufacturing, and operations management gained by working for automotive Tier 1 suppliers and other manufacturing companies. He is skilled in Lean and Six Sigma tools including DMAIC, Value Stream Mapping, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, and more. He has an Associate of Science degree in electrical engineering technologies from the Community College of the Air Force and served six years of active duty in the United States Air Force. 

Essentium expands leadership team, more than doubles headcount

Essentium, Inc., a worldwide leader in industrial additive manufacturing (AM), announced a series of executive promotions, new appointments, and more than doubling of headcount YoY (year on year). The strengthening of the Essentium leadership team and global headcount will allow the company to deepen and expand operational excellence across its supply chain, innovation, commercial, product development, and marketing functions. It will also bake-in the frictionless scale needed to satisfy growing demand in the Essentium High Speed Extrusion (HSETM) 3D Printing Platform from North America, Western Europe, and Asia.

The company now employs more than 100 people worldwide. Expanded leadership and promotions include:

Erik Gjovik promoted to chief supply chain officer: Under Gjovik’s leadership, and despite the COVID-19 crisis, Essentium achieved consistent on-time printer delivery, zero deviations per machine, and 100% first-pass yield in 2020. Gjovik brings more than three decades of supply chain expertise from industries including semiconductor capital equipment, consumer electronics, aerospace, robotics, and solar power systems.

Blake Mosher appointed as chief commercial officer: Mosher brings three decades of expertise in building customer-centric, entrepreneurial cultures. He will lead Essentium application engineering, sales, marketing, service, delivery, and customer support; and be responsible for orchestrating the consistency and quality of every customer and partner experience globally.

Elisa Teipel promoted to chief development officer: Teipel will lead Essentium’s long-term innovation team, bringing critical systems-thinking to market partners. She will lead a team of scientists, materials engineers, and process engineers to facilitate overall strategic capabilities which exist at the intersection of Essentium’s best-in-class AM machines, materials, and processes to define and bring new AM applications to market.

Terry MacNeish promoted to executive vice president of R&D, machines: MacNeish brings more than 25 years of experience in the servo-mechanical system coding and architecture spaces, semiconductor capital equipment design, opto-electronics, advanced sensors, and electro-mechanical system design to his leadership role at Essentium. MacNeish has been instrumental in Essentium's ability to leverage the world’s most advanced closed-loop motion system architectures in applications in the AM community.

Brandon Sweeney promoted to executive vice president of R&D, materials: Sweeney has been at the forefront of advancements in polymer-based materials for a decade. His innovation and vision have been instrumental in Essentium's ability to bring the most advanced materials to market, providing customers greater choice, freedom, and flexibility in their AM strategies while breaking barriers of speed, strength, and scale.

Ryan Vano promoted to executive vice president of filaments & logistics: Vano created and scaled the first multi-layer thermoplastic filament for AM. Under Vano’s leadership, Essentium produces over 50 grades of polymer filament for everything from elastomers to aerospace-certified polymers to the world’s most demanding ISO9001, AS9100 and iTAR compliance requirements. He will lead the development and launch of class-leading functional filaments for AM applications, helping customers make the leap from prototyping to full-scale production.

Will Chiang promoted to vice president of global supply chain: Chiang uses his extensive experience across consumer electronics and AM industries to run advanced planning processes that ensure supply chain excellence for both customers and suppliers. Will oversees the day-to-day operations of Essentium’s complex supply chain and NPI activities, integrating deeply with vendors on multiple continents while delivering exceptional results.

Kendra Pulliam promoted to vice president of marketing: An accomplished senior executive with an eye for harmoniously blending the consumer and industrial worlds, Pulliam will lead global marketing activities, including brand, digital marketing, product marketing, events, internal communications, market communications, and public relations.

Additional promotions include: Chad Eichele to serve as the director of hardware engineering, and Faisal Altoukhy to serve as the sr. director of software engineering. Eichele and Altoukhy have more than 20 years of engineering experience and lead critical teams that are central to product engineering and client success. Josh Lawson has been promoted to senior manager of business development and will combine his skills in people and business management with his deep knowledge of the AM market to help the world's leading manufacturers embrace AM.

Notable new hires include several industry veterans with more than 20 years of experience in cross-functional roles: Constantin Donea as global product director, who joins from Sabic; Cecilia Eklund as senior global product marketing manager, who previously worked for Dell; and Jay Light as senior VP of sales for the Americas, who was also formerly with Dell.

Desktop Metal Inc. has launched Desktop Health, a new business line focused on accelerating the growth of additive manufacturing solutions for dental, orthodontic and otolaryngology applications. Furthermore, the combination of new additive manufacturing technologies, including bioprinting, high-speed metal binder jetting, and the use of advanced biocompatible materials across polymers, ceramics and metals, puts Desktop Health in a strong position to develop advanced healthcare applications.

“Today the world manufactures more than $85 billion in medical and dental implants each year,” says Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal. “We think a large percentage of these parts could be printed and made patient-specific before the end of the decade, making this market a key opportunity for Desktop Metal. We look forward to building a best-in-class team to work with our industry partners to bring patient-specific solutions to the market at-scale.”

To lead this new initiative, Desktop Metal has appointed healthcare executive Michael Mazen Jafar as president and CEO, Desktop Health. Jafar brings nearly 20 years of experience creating and scaling breakthrough healthcare products. Most recently he served as Chief Commercial Officer of Evolus, a performance beauty company, where he oversaw the launch of its flagship product, Jeuveau. For 16 years, Jafar also led the ophthalmology and medical aesthetics division for Allergan, culminating as VP marketing, U.S. Medical Aesthetics, and working on several of the company’s marquee brands, including Botox Cosmetic, JUVEDERM Collection and CoolSculpting.

“I am excited to join Desktop Metal at such an important time in medical technology. I want to build on years of the company’s research and development to bring its core technology and advanced materials to many healthcare specialties,” Jafar says. “Desktop Health has a mission to change the way patients experience personalized healthcare, through innovation and science-based solutions.” 

Leveraging breakthrough technologies trusted in the industry
Backed by 20 years of research, more than 1,400 published papers, and 3D Bioplotter and DLP technology, coupled with high-speed metal binder jetting additive manufacturing solutions, Desktop Health plans to leverage proven technology to create patient-specific solutions in the medical field.

“It’s a true privilege to work with leading technology alongside physicians, surgeons and dentists to advance personal care,” Jafar says. “Our technology is widely used for customized in-office digital dentistry, makes customized metal implants possible, and has enabled exploration of applications such as bone regeneration, cartilage regeneration, and soft tissue biofabrication. We look forward to building on our success and ingenuity as we research extensions of our core technology across cardiology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, dermatology and plastic surgery.”

Microchip’s Stephanie Pinteric, 8-bit Microcontroller Business Unit discusses the new PIC18-Q40 microcontroller (MCU) Family.

Today’s Medical Developments (TMD): Can you summarize some of the key features and benefits of the new PIC18-Q40 family?
Stephanie Pinteric (SP): The PIC18-Q40 family extends the PIC18 portfolio to low pin count with large flash memory, small footprint packages and versatile analog and digital CIPs for portable and space-constrained designs. They are equipped with CIPs with interconnection capabilities that allow fast system response, precision control, design flexibility and lower power consumption. Additionally, our award-winning development tools with its Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment makes it easy to quickly customize combinations of CIPs and generate application code.

TMD: What does the PIC18-Q40 family bring to the market?
SP: It brings to designers the advanced functional capabilities of CIPs that handle a smart medical device’s critical tasks with no code or supervision from the CPU to maintain operation. This greatly simplifies the implementation of complex smart device control systems while creating new opportunities for designers to innovate.

TMD: Why are these new capabilities significant for the industry?
SP: The American Hospital Association reports that 76% of U.S. hospitals connect with patients and consulting practitioners at a distance through use of smart medical device technology. Demand is growing for these devices used in telehealth and remote medical care applications, as well as the nebulizers and syringe pumps that facilitate either unattended, continuous drug delivery or real-time dosing control.

Medical nebulizers are commonly used for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases, while syringe pumps can save medical staff time and reduce errors for medications that need to be slowly pushed at specific flow rates at particular intervals of time over the course of several minutes to several hours.

MCUs with CIPs make it easier to build these and highly integrated smart medical devices while delivering higher performance, reducing power requirements and cost, and giving designers more flexibility to innovate new capabilities. 

TMD: Can you provide examples of smart medical devices that can benefit from the PIC18-Q40 family’s capabilities?
SP: There are many good examples, including Bluetooth connected thermometers. Two specific examples to discuss are: 1) the nebulizer, a device that breaks up drug solutions into small aerosol droplets and delivers them directly to the patient’s airways for respiratory therapy; and 2) the syringe pump, which is used to gradually administer small amounts of liquid medication to patients and is also used in microfluidic applications for chemical and biochemical research.

TMD: What does the PIC18-Q40 offering bring to these applications?
SP: In the first application, the PIC18F-Q40 and its Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) are particularly valuable for nebulizers that use an analog signal with a specific high voltage and resonant frequency to rapidly vibrate a piezoelectric mesh. The voltage and frequency of this analog driving signal can vary from device to device due to manufacturing tolerances. But the MCU and its CIPs work alongside discrete analog components to implement the piezo mesh disk driver’s core boost and output stage functions so there is always an adequate and reliable analog driving signal.

In the second application, the PIC18-Q40 family and its CIPs provide all the control signals needed for each stepping mode of a companion MTS2916A motor driver from Microchip. In both applications, the CIPs need no further firmware interaction after their initial configuration.

TMD: What benefits do Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) bring to these types of applications?
SP: CIPs allow smaller, lower power PIC MCUs to perform timing-critical and core-intensive system tasks in hardware with no code or supervision from the CPU to maintain operation. While the CPU is free to do other tasks or go to sleep to save power, the CIPs provide the total system with precision control, fast response, power saving and lower system costs. Without CIPs, you would have to use external standalone Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal generators, boot converters, DACs, etc. in both examples. CIPs enables a higher level of integration which significantly reduces PCB footprint, BOM costs, power consumption and validation time.

TMD: What are some of the innovation opportunities you mention?
SP: In the nebulizer example, the power circuitry of the nebulizer consists of two functions, a boost stage to generate a higher voltage from the batteries, and an output stage which produces the sine wave to drive the piezo mesh.  The boost stage uses two 16-bit Pulse Width Modulator (PWM) modules, an op-amp, a comparator, an 8-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) and the Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) CIP module to implement a boost regulator that runs completely independent from the software. Initially, the software configures the peripherals and enables the output, but after that, the boost regulator requires no software interaction while running.  The output stage provides the high-voltage sine wave drive signal for the piezo mesh disk. It is a boost topology as well, so it does provide gain over the bulk voltage from the boost stage. The output MOSFET is driven by the Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO), which provides a variable frequency with a fixed 50 percent duty cycle. The fine adjustment range of the NCO allows the output stage to be tuned to the particular piezo device attached to the nebulizer.

Microchip has developed more than 20 CIPs to autonomously handle the most common embedded tasks, leaving the CPU to perform a supervisory role. All these versatile peripherals with advanced interconnection capabilities makes it easy for developers to customize their specific design configurations. Our MCUs are equipped with CIPs like timers, simplified Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) output, Configurable Logic Cells (CLCs), Analog to Digital Converter with Computation (ADCC), multiple serial communications and much more. CIPs offer flexible, easy-to-use building blocks for developers to create a customized device.

Our MCUs feature intelligent peripherals that can automate signal analysis functions and provides programmable logic that operates outside the speed limitations of software execution which provides customers with the ability to tailor such things as waveform generation, timing measurements and more.  They also provide compensation information to digital pulse-width modulators (PWMs) and provide auto-shutdown capability without CPU intervention.  Our CIPs help reduce external components which decreases total system costs.

TMD: Besides medical applications, what other applications can the PIC18-Q40 family benefit?
SP: The PIC18-Q40 family in 14- and 20-pin packages are well suited for a wide range of embedded applications including remote medical care, wearables, consumer, automotive, industrial, and Internet of Things (IoT).

TMD: When will the PIC18-Q40 family be available and where can designers get additional information about it and the two application examples?
SP: The PIC18-Q40 family is available now for volume production and sampling in a variety of packages.

Wohlers Associates Inc. has published the Wohlers Report 2021, the 26th year of publishing the undisputed, industry-leading annual report on additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing.

The study provides trends, perspectives, and forecasts as a tool for decision making, education, and knowledge acceleration. The report gives readers new to AM a comprehensive understanding of the technology and industry. Veterans of the technology benefit from up-to-date information on growth, recent trends, and important developments worldwide.

The 375-page report discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the AM industry. Even with the pandemic, Wohlers Associates found industry expansion of 7.5% to nearly $12.8 billion in 2020. Growth was down considerably, compared to average growth of 27.4% over the previous 10 years.

Most established manufacturers of AM systems saw a decline in equipment sales, but many less-established companies grew in 2020. An increase in business by AM service providers supported industrywide growth. The following chart shows 7.1% growth from independent service providers worldwide, resulting in nearly $5.3 billion of revenue from this group.

Missed the January 2021 webinar with Terry Wohlers? Watch on demand: https://www.todaysmedicaldevelopments.com/video/additive-manufacturing-terry-wohlers-medical-aerospace-automotive/

Among the new and expanded features in Wohlers Report 2021:

• 3D printing of food, medicine, and electronics
• Pricing of metals and polymers and the hidden costs of AM
• Methods of AM part inspection
• Pandemic’s impact on the AM industry
• Compilation of expert reports from 34 countries
• Tables of AM systems, software tools, service providers, and third-party materials

The report includes commentary on 74 early-stage investments and 35 acquisitions and public offerings. AM startups and established companies have received substantial funding in the recent past. One example is Desktop Metal, which received $575 million as part of a merger with a special acquisitions company. After going public in December 2020, Desktop Metal’s market capitalization exceeded $7.5 billion in February 2021.

Wohlers Report 2021 was created with the support of 124 service providers, 113 manufacturers of AM machines, and 24 producers of third-party materials. Eighty-eight co-authors and contributors from 34 countries provided expert views and perspectives. This valuable input, coupled with the experience and data from Wohlers Associates, resulted in the most detailed and comprehensive body of work on AM available.

Wohlers Report 2021 includes 54 charts and graphs, 104 tables, and 397 images and illustrations. It also includes 80 pages of supplemental online content available exclusively to the buyers of the report.