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INDUSTRY FOCUS MEDICAL & PHARMACEUTICAL MOTORS FOR MEDTECH


Dave Walsha, sales manager at EMS, examines the important role precision motors play in medical technology


turned to MedTech to safeguard the sector. Since then, the MedTech landscape has rapidly expanded to become a leading global hub that’s home to 350 companies employing over 38,000 people. Today, exports of MedTech products represent 8% of Ireland’s total merchandise exports, making Ireland the second largest exporter of medical technology in Europe. Key to this success is the support from the


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Irish government. IDA Ireland, a government body designed to encourage investment into Ireland, provides valuable consultancy and support services to help MedTech organisations establish and expand. In addition to this, the government has provided financial support for MedTech companies in the form of grants and the 25% R&D tax credit, which has encouraged foreign MedTech companies to establish a base in Ireland. Furthermore, NUI Galway’s BioInnovate


Fellowship programme equips aspiring innovators with the necessary skills to identify unmet clinical needs, innovate a novel solution to address them, and implement those solutions into patient care. For Ireland’s 85 plus pharmaceutical


companies, continuous innovation is necessary to produce new medications. Typically, it takes at least ten years for a new medicine to reach the market, with clinical trials alone taking up to seven years. But, in recent years, there has been demand for development to be sped up – most notably, the first COVID-19 vaccine was delivered less than one year after the first case was identified. Much of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing is conducted


hen Ireland’s manufacturing industry suffered a downturn in the 1980s, the Irish government and its manufacturers


at the company’s sites in Ireland. Although keeping development times for new


drugs to a minimum is essential, drug discovery is a long and complex process – from initial discovery, to preclinical and clinical trials, through to approval. Fortunately, however, many of these stages can be sped up, and be more precise, through automation. Using motorised equipment to undertake many of the simpler, more repetitive tasks, allows scientists to have more time to focus on innovation and analysis of results.


pOwERED by MOTORS


The preclinical and clinical stages of drug development involve an immunoassay – a test that measures the presence and concentration of analytes such as large proteins and antibodies. Immunoassay tests can evaluate drug response biomarkers, immunotherapy success and toxicity. Pharmaceutical companies can use an immunoassay analyser to carry out these tests, which automatically and quickly runs multiple samples in parallel, saving vital time and enabling the high throughput screening of samples. To ensure the speed and reliability of the test,


the analyser must be powered with motors such as brushless DC-servomotors. These enable the extreme, repetitive, operating conditions as they are precise, dynamic and long lived. In the later clinical trial stages of drug


development, cell analysis is frequently used as a safer alternative to human testing. Cells are grown from human tissue in an incubator to provide sufficient material for drug testing. Cell culture testing is a time consuming,


repetitive, job that requires great precision from the technician to ensure there is no contamination. So, pharmaceutical companies


are increasingly using automated testing systems to save time and improve accuracy and quality. As an example, a robot can pick up a sample and scan its barcode using an onboard camera to identify the type of analysis that’s required. Using its motorised arm, the robot then places the sample in the appropriate piece of laboratory equipment to conduct the required test. To meet the application demands, motors


from FAULHABER offer high performance, precision and low weight – meaning they are ideal for use in medical and laboratory equipment. In addition, these motors are made in a finely controlled manufacturing process that ensures they perform with high repeatability and reliability, ensuring all testing in drug development is conducted accurately. They also deliver high power in a small space envelope, ideal for keeping research equipment compact, which is beneficial when trying to fit a range of equipment into a laboratory. FAULHABER motors are available in the UK and Ireland from EMS.


ems T: 0118 981 7391 www.ems-limited.co.uk


Power suPPlies for home healThcare aPPlicaTions


Now available from XP Power are three new series of IP22-rated wall-mount power supplies for the rapidly growing home healthcare market. The power supplies suit a wide range of cost-


sensitive industrial and medical applications. They are designed to operate down to 80VAC to allow for transmission line loss in remote non- hospital locations, whilst maintaining a reliable DC output. They also operate over an extended input voltage range of 80 to 264VAC. The AMF family of wall plug adaptors offers


power levels of 18W (AMF18), 24W (AMF24), and 36W (AMF36) with a single output covering all common voltages between 5.0V and 48.0V, allowing designers to select the ideal device for a wide variety of applications. All AMF devices are fully approved to a variety of medical, home healthcare, and IT standards,


16 DesiGn soluTions JULY/AUGUST 2022


including EN55011, IEC60601, and UL 62368. As the power supply is external, the design of any equipment is dramatically simplified, and the time, cost, and risk associated with gaining approvals are eliminated. As Class II devices, they can operate safely in environments where the integrity of the safety of earth is not known. The devices are sealed to IP22, allowing the power


supply to be cleaned and/or disinfected with reduced risk of electric shock. In addition, the AMF power supplies offer 2 x MOPP (Means of Patient Protection), thereby ensuring end-user safety in the unlikely event of a power-related issue. Leakage current is less than 50mA, allowing safe operation in applications where applied parts may be connected to the patient.


XP Power T: 01189 845515


www.xppower.com


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