PRODUCTS EDITOR’S CHOICE
VENTILATOR VOICE COIL MOTORS
PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 IR SYSTEM CAN RECORD THE TEMPERATURE OF PEOPLE IN A CROWD
Optris has developed a system which can measure the temperature of a person’s face even when they are just passing by. This is based on the
current version of the PI 450i infrared camera, which has an optical resolution of 382 x 288 pixels, and uses the included PIX Connect Software. The system can either be used to record the temperature
Voice coil motors from Akribis are being used in medical ventilator applications to fight COVID-19. According to Motion Control
Products, which supplies the product, ventilator machines have traditionally used solenoid valves to control the flow of air. With the solenoid valve, you are given an on/off device that requires a spring to activate bi-directional movement, in contrast to the voice coil motor. Hysteresis is also much lower with a voice coil motor, allowing for greater repeatability, an important factor in a medical device. Akribis’s AVM motor series can be as
small as 12.7mm in diameter but still offer a peak force of 3.5 Newtons with a weight of only 12g. With the wide range of size options available (from 12mm to 250mm), it is easy to customise a ventilator with the size, weight and force needed, the company explains.
Motion Control Products
www.motioncontrolproducts.com
NEW DEVICE MAY
HELP PREVENT THE SPREAD OF VIRUSES
A new technology has been developed to help prevent the spread of harmful viruses by preventing people repeatedly touching their faces. With the Protactus technology, the user wears a wrist strap and a neck device and, if they bring their hand close to their face, the neck device gives off an audible alarm to warn them. Hugh-Peter Kelly, entrepreneur and
business owner, worked in collaboration with Texcel Technology of Dartford, which has driven the design and production of the finished product. Patents have already been applied for covering the IP that makes the technology work. Peter Shawyer, commercial director of
Texcel Technology, said: “Studies have shown that, on average, people touch their faces around 16 times an hour. In the current global pandemic environment that means during a typical day there are 256 opportunities for someone to spread harmful bacteria such as the coronavirus.”
Protactus
www.protactus.co.uk 8 JUNE 2020 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
of people in a crowd, or people can be checked individually for an elevated temperature. The second method provides more reliable results because the temperature measurement can be taken at the eyelid where the temperature has the strongest correlation to the body’s core temperature. Optris provides the appropriate optics to perform the measurements at an optimal distance using both methods. Places of application include airports, railway stations,
hospitals, schools, offices, shopping centres, etc. Optris
www.optris.co.uk CUSTOMISED DISPLAYS
Anglia Components has announced an enhanced range of customised display options, empowering designers with the flexibility to create their own components when off-the-shelf solutions cannot meet requirements, for example in creating new COVID-aware touchless user interfaces. David Pearson, technical director,
said: “We are seeing a dramatic increase in the use of displays for both consumer and industrial electronics and due to the current COVID-19 situation we’re predicting further major change in how displays are integrated into designs. Touch screens are now seen as a potential infection vector. Instruments need to be redesigned with a touchless interface such as voice or gesture control or using 2-way communication from a control device which may be a cell phone, a tablet or dedicated unit.” Anglia has many display options which
can be tailored to the application. Anglia Components
www.anglia.com
ROBOT TECHNOLOGY HELPS WITH COVID-19 TESTING
Every day, thousands of tests for Covid-19 are now being prepared for analysis by flowbot ONE, a pipetting liquid-handling robot from Danish manufacturer Flow Robotics. Eight Danish hospitals have chosen the invention, which is also being used by their partners DTU and
Novo Nordisk. A German laboratory which had initially purchased the robot to test for salmonella in food is now also using flowbot ONE when samples from German patients need to be analysed. Orders for the Danish liquid-handling robots have also come from Sweden, Poland, Russia, the Netherlands and Australia. According to the company, robot technology minimises the
risk of human error and contagion in the process, while reducing the physically demanding pipetting tasks for laboratory personnel around the world. “Although people’s eyes have been opened to the potential
of our technology by the sad sight of a world ravaged by the pandemic, we are pleased to be able to make a difference for both patients and staff,” said the CEO of Flow Robotics, Annika Isaksson.
Flow Robotics
https://flow-robotics.com DEVELOPING A LIFE-SAVING VENTILATOR VALVE
Bury-based Hillstone Loadbanks has designed a life-saving ventilator valve to help with the fight against coronavirus. The engineering firm, which designs and manufactures electrical load banks for batteries and generator testing, used its 3D printers to start a collaboration which delivered a valve solution for converting home ventilator kits to treat patients recovering from Covid-19, thereby freeing up more specialist ventilators for severely ill patients in the ICU critical care ward. Paul Smethurst, managing director, said: “Like many engineering
firms, on the night of the lockdown announcement we were scratching our heads to think of how we could help the NHS.. . We were soon in contact with Dr Iain Crossingham, a respiratory consultant at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, who sent us a concept design for a simple part he needed to convert home ventilator kits to treat patients recovering from Covid-19. “A collaborative effort between ourselves and Mackart Additive
allowed the use of 3D printers to produce a valve which met the strict flow and pressure standards required. The valve was successfully trialled by Dr Crossingham who used it to ventilate a test lung.” 100 valves were manufactured and used on 20 ventilator machines in the aftercare ward for patients
recovering from the virus. Hillstone Loadbanks
www.hillstone.co.uk
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