Polymers for precision gearing; Ultrasonic transducer; Ultra BLDC motor; Smart manufacturing
Gears share performance problems across many different applications including excessive noise, vibration, heat, weight, and corrosion. They also tend to be over-lubricated or subject to wear, which causes contamination from grease or metal particles. At best, all these performance issues result in gears that are expensive to maintain. At worst, they cause gears to fail prematurely, driving costs higher.
Precision gearing can be machined from advanced polymers. These gears are quieter than metal gears, and they’re more efficient because of low friction. Polymer gears can improve torque transmission efficiency by at least 3% and provide a performance and cost edge when other gears are too noisy, shaky, heavy, hot, rusty, or greasy.
Lube-free helical drive lowers noise and inertia
No lube for lightweight robot gear drive
Self-lubricating worm gear resists chemical exposure heat
Internal gear for dental imaging
Piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers can transmit and detect soundwaves up to frequencies in the megahertz range. In medical applications, ultrasound is used for therapeutics, tumor removal, imaging, and blood flow monitoring. In industrial automation applications, contactless fluid metering of liquids and gasses, and level detection systems are based on ultrasound transducers.
For ultrasonic applications that require high bandwidth, hemispheres and hollow spheres are currently available with outside diameters from 2mm to 100mm with wall thickness as small as 0.2mm. Uses for electro-ceramic spherical transducers include medical high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), therapeutic ultrasound, hydrophones, and sonar transducers.
The 12ECP48 Ultra EC is the latest addition to Portescap’s Ultra EC platform of brushless direct current (BLDC) motors.
The motor features a 12mm diameter, Ultra EC winding, delivers speeds up to 60,000rpm, and at 30g, is almost 10% lighter than existing motors of a similar size. Providing up to 8.1mNm maximum continuous torque, the motor’s R13 gearbox compatibility makes it a combination for applications requiring torque up to 0.5Nm.
The motor is suited for battery-powered hand tools in medical and industrial markets, including robotic pipetting, electric grippers, miniature pumps, and biopsy and podiatry hand tools. The 12ECP48 is an option for companies looking to migrate from brush to brushless DC technologies for longer lifetimes and for companies shifting from manual to powered devices for improved productivity and accuracy.
Modularization for Plex System’s Smart Manufacturing Platform enables accessibility and scalability for digital transformation in manufacturing that more closely aligns with customers’ needs. It lets them build their smart manufacturing technology strategy, focusing on flexibility, quick implementation, and ease of entry with a path to grow. Manufacturers can initially implement quality management (QMS) or manufacturing execution (MES) systems and add capabilities, such as production monitoring, asset performance management, or supply chain planning.
Plex, a cloud pioneer, offered QMS and MES capabilities as part of its ERP solution in a multi-tenant software as a service (SaaS) environment for more than 20 years. A cloud solution gives manufacturers the ability to continue to implement these capabilities at once or compose the solution they need with seamless scale.
New product introduction, management: Reduce time to market, decrease development costs; manage product and program life cycle; track new and existing products, including updates, retirement, obsolescence
Labor, workforce management: Optimize labor schedule, costs while preserving delivery schedules, clear skills-to-required production capabilities; reduce onboarding time; track employee health, safety programs