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MEDICAL & PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY FOCUS ABSOLUTE ENCODERS FOR SURGICAL ROBOTS


Despite nervousness from patients, robots are increasingly used for surgery – from treating forms of cancers to gallstones, as well as heart and thoracic procedures – with benefits including reduced time in hospital, shorter recovery time, and a lowering risk of infection. Using a robot for surgery provides magnified


and detailed resolution of the procedure. The surgeon’s control of the robot can also increase dexterity and range of motion, usually achieving greater precision or function than would normally be humanly possible. A mode of robotic operation involves the surgeon remotely controlling joints and limbs including wrists and finger movements to perform minimally invasive surgery. Precision of robotic motion depends upon a feedback sensor, and an encoder is used to provide closed loop control by detecting and relaying the rotational angle of motors that in turn power the robot’s limbs. The encoders are installed in the manipulator arms and joints of the multiport surgical robot. These encoders need to be compact and light, particularly for applications such as keyhole surgery. Robot designs also need to be flexible for various surgical tasks. As an example, Celera Motion's IncOder CORE is designed for


integration into manipulator arm rotary joints. This features a hollow bore stator and rotor, allowing for simple integration within a robot, with wiring and components that can pass through the encoder’s centre. The sensor itself is contained within a low-profile PCB form factor that also offers light weight. With precision, accuracy, and repeatability needed, the IncOder CORE provides angular granularity of measurement in 17 bit resolution over each 360˚ rotation. The accuracy with which this level of measurement is achieved has a difference as low as ±0.1˚. Additional features of the encoder are a measurement update rate of 10kHz and an internal position update period as


low as 100µs, giving it a reaction rate that can respond to virtually any status change. This performance is also offered in control of a maximum speed of up to 10,000rpm. To ensure reliable performance during a


critical surgical procedure, as well as offering long-term durability that reduces downtime and maintenance requirements, the IncOder CORE involves an inductive measurement technique. The non-contact position sensor uses field proven technology that is impervious to contamination and as a result delivers repeatable, reliable, temperature-stable measurement performance. Absolute encoder technology is important in


the surgical setting as it enables the device to know the position of each joint and its position in three dimensions at power-up. Awareness of the true angular position of the axis removes any configuration requirement. The IncOder CORE also speeds up production time for the robot OEM as no precision tolerances are required for calibration.


INMOCO www.inmoco.co.uk


FLEX PRINTED CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGY ENABLES A NEW GENERATION OF MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS


Trackwise, the manufacturer of specialist products using printed circuit technology, is seeing a significant increase in medical applications using its flexible printed circuits (FPCs). This includes its patented Improved Harness Technology (IHT) which enables multilayer FPCs of unlimited length to be constructed. According to the company, the FPC technology brings several key advantages to


medical instrumentation such as catheters and endoscopes, enabling a surgeon to access areas of the body that were previously hidden. FPCs can be made smaller and lighter than the discrete wire solutions they replace. They are also more flexible, and can stretch (within limits), the company explains. In addition to this, the technology also saves assembly time. Required circuits are


printed in one operation, rather than assembled from discrete wires. This can result in significant cost savings. This, in turn, means that single-use catheters and endoscopes can be produced, resulting in better hygiene and less costs for the medical facility, both in terms of the initial investment in the equipment and in on-going cleansing costs. Philip Johnston, CEO of Trackwise, commented: “We are delighted to support the


global medical instrument industry with our innovative FPC technologies. Not only do our interconnect solutions bringing space and cost benefits, we have also upgraded or processes with a new ISO Class 7 clean room and a high-resolution reel-to-reel direct imaging process, enabling our FPCs to meet the high-precision and miniaturisation demands of today’s MIS instruments.”


Trackwise Designs trackwise.co.uk Clearmark www.clearmark.uk MARCH 2022 DESIGN SOLUTIONS 47


directly to the control system so that any product with an out of spec torque curve is automatically rejected. This 100% testing ensures that only perfect products are delivered by the production cell. The two teams quickly devised a test rig to verify the solution which, at the first attempt, confirmed that the transducer produced values for frictional torque that were within the tolerances allowed by the system specifications.


Kistler www.kistler.com/en PHARMACEUTICAL SOLUTIONS


As a leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, Ecolab helps to protect people and vital resources. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the company experienced a sharp rise in demand for its hygiene-focused products. After discovering a print quality challenge with one of its 12-year-old ICE Zodiac coders, Ecolab’s site engineering manager contacted the Clearmark technical support team. Just 24 hours later, a long-term solution was implemented, with Clearmark also delivering comprehensive training to Ecolab’s in-house operators to maximise performance across all coding lines, preventing downtime and disruptions going forward. Thanks to the rapid support and training provision,


Ecolab was able to maintain a 60% uplift in production throughout the pandemic while meeting the strict print quality requirements of the pharmaceutical sector.


SENSING A SOLUTION FOR DENTAL MACHINERY


Needing a manufacturer to design and build a highly automated production cell capable of producing and testing five million mixing nozzles per year, a dental laboratory turned to Jonas & Redmann. However, the short cycle time of 1.5 seconds was a problem when it came to the essential 100% final testing. The disposable mixing nozzles, used to produce the


casting compounds used by dentists, are made of four parts and are assembled in the production cell. Final testing, a critical part of the production process, had to be based on a friction coefficient test ( 0.5 Nm) on the mixing mechanism of the assembled nozzle. Jonas & Redmann turned to Kistler who proposed a solution using a combination of a type 4502A torque sensor and the maXYmos BL evaluation system to check the torque curve for each individual product. The measurement value produced by the torque sensor is used to generate an OK/NOK signal transmitted


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