Front End | News New timestrip indicators for vaccines T
imestrip, the developer of smart indicator technology, has moved fast to develop a range of products that support use of the coronavirus vaccines now promising to become available. Special liquid indicators have been created by Timestrip which can travel with the frozen vaccine supplies as they move from manufacture to the point of care, ensuring that any temperature breach can be identified. As one or more vaccines are planned for distribution, attention is focusing on the ultra- cold chain, as Covid-19 vaccines may need to be
stored and transported at temperatures as low as -70C. Any breach of the specified temperature conditions is revealed by the new Timestrip smart labels with a clear irreversible indication. After thawing, vaccines must be used quickly, usually within a few days, and Timestrip indicators are also available to monitor this critical period and alert medical staff to time expired product. Antiviral treatments such as Gilead’s VEKLURY product have also to be kept cool, and then after dilution, can be stored for between one and two days - depending on the
storage temperature - prior to administration. Timestrip indicators are available to monitor these conditions and automatically adjust the time to expiry as conditions change. Other applications now being made available include a range of indicators for virus specimens as they are sent for laboratory testing. The Virus Specimen Transport (VST) series of indicators includes a time / temperature indicator (TTI) that mirrors the response of the virus specimens, and can alert healthcare organisations to compromised samples.
In yet another initiative, Timestrip has introduced ‘Rapid Diagnostics 15’, a short term time indicator designed for use with the new rapid turnaround lateral flow test kits now being rolled out more widely. “We must play our part and support the great
work being carried out during the pandemic”, said Nora Murphy, commercial director of Timestrip. “We are working to develop cost effective, bespoke solutions to support the regulatory bodies in their efforts to deliver product safely through the cold and ultra-cold supply chains.
timestrip.com
Video measuring system for quality control of vehicle components M
any automotive electronic components have always been classified as safety-critical devices. However recently, with
the advent of self-driving vehicles, control over the quality of the sensors used and of their associated electronic and semiconductor elements has become significantly more important. To measure such components reliably and efficiently, Nikon Corporation in Japan has developed a new, high-speed video measuring system that provides unparalleled accuracy, repeatability and reliability in a shop floor or in-line production environment.
Also known as an optical video measuring system, NEXIV VMZ-S3020 is perfect for automated quality control. It has been designed to meet the needs of companies worldwide manufacturing printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) for the automotive sector, for example, as well as other smart, electronically supported components.
The emerging technology of autonomous driving comes alongside the accelerating development of fully electric and hybrid vehicles, which incorporate a far larger number and variety of electronic components than cars with an internal combustion engine. These semiconductor- based devices and circuit boards require effective, reliable, high-speed and accurate inspection. The NEXIV VMZ-S3020 is suitable for measuring components within its 300 x 200 x 200 mm working volume. Numerous enhancements to the robustness of the unit and its functionality have been made compared with the instrument that it replaces, model VMZ-R3020. Nikon’s
proprietary optical measuring, image processing and analysis technologies are employed to detect feature edges at very high speed, capturing accurately and automatically the shape and dimensions of even the most complex and multi- layer PCBAs. Results may be fed back to the production line to ensure that parameters remain within tolerance, providing real-time optimisation of the manufacturing process in a smart factory. Maintaining the highest measuring precision and consistency using Nikon’s in-house developed, high-resolution linear encoders to feed back the precise position of the stage axes to a control centre, the new NEXIV VMZ- S series can achieve even faster movements and image capture steps by the dedicated CMOS camera. Image transfer and subsequent processing of the data are also quicker. This has made it possible to reduce measurement cycle times to achieve higher throughput, without compromising accuracy or reproducibility.
Fast laser scanning at 1,000 points/sec can rapidly acquire the cross-sectional shape of a surface and evaluate the relative heights, meeting the measurement needs across a wide variety of samples. Indicating the attention to detail that has been bestowed on the new instrument, even the joystick unit that moves the stage and measurement head has been redesigned to be even easier to use. A fully featured measurement software environment, NEXIV AutoMeasure, enables high precision, high speed, easy measurement cycles using tools that are close to hand in a user-friendly GUI. For components of simple shape, it has been enhanced with support functions which automate part of the measurement programming processes. Larger NEXIV versions, VMZ-S4540 with X,Y,Z strokes of 450 x 400 x 200 mm and VMZ-S6555 with strokes of 650 x 550 x 200 mm, are scheduled to be released in 2021 to provide the same benefits when measuring larger objects such as printed circuit boards or critical mechanical parts loaded in batches.
nikonmetrology.com
Advantech launches AIR Edge AI Inference Systems for AI and vision analytics
A dvantech launches its
comprehensive AIR series of AI inference systems, to address various AI applications including retail facial recognition, AOI/vision inspection, robotic, intelligent transportation, and more. The offerings include different featured designs to fit diverse AI applications. Advantech also provides Edge AI Suite, a software toolkit with easy-to-use graphic user interface (GUI) and pre-trained AI models to help customers enable AI inference on edge devices.
6 November 2020
AIR series includes AIR-100, AIR- 101 and AIR-200 which integrates Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU, and AIR-300 which supports a PCIe x16 high power graphic card. Powered by Intel Atom x7- E3950 CPU and one Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU, AIR-100 supports multi-4K display and is suitable for interactive kiosks and other retail applications with facial recognition functions. AIR-101 supports DIN-Rail design and 12V~28V wide-range power input with Intel Atom E3940 Quad
Components in Electronics
Core processors and two Intel Movidius Myriad X VPUs and is perfect for AGV and factory automation applications. For higher computing power needs, AIR-200 is an Intel Core i5 platform with two Intel Movidius Myriad X VPUs and supports up to 1080p video encoding, decoding and multi-channel processing suitable for traffic monitoring, license plate recognition and vehicle classification applications. The powerful AIR-300 supports Intel Xeon E3/ 7th &
6th generation Core i series processor and a PCIe x16 high performance graphic card to enable fast inference and on- premises training for robotics and optical inspection applications.
The AIR series comes with the Edge AI Suite software toolkit that integrates Intel OpenVINO toolkit R3.1 to enable accelerated deep learning inference on edge devices and real-time monitoring of device status on the GUI dashboard.
advantech.com
www.cieonline.co.uk
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