dng de-06252013
TRANSCRIPT
$10.00 | May/June 2013
PM 4
00
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0
The Future of Automotive Design?
16 Autodesk helps expand reach ofWeatherhaven’s portable shelters
24 Quebec’s InnovMetric speeds development for after-market automotive OEM
38 Precisely tuning servomotors boost accuracy, productivity.
Kor Ecologic’s Urbee 2 looks to
answer the question of sustainable transport.
1-DES.indd 1 13-06-11 11:32 AM
YA S K AWA A M E R I C A , I N C .D R I V E S & M O T I O N D I V I S I O N
1 - 8 0 0 -YA S K AWA YA S K AWA . C O M
Follow us: For more info:http://Ez.com/yai465
©2013 Yaskawa America Inc.
NOTEWORTHY
When our engineers work on a motion project with you, they share everything that’s in their heads. Sometimes that means turning over 100 pages of notes, formulas and drawings. Other times, it’s simply having straight forward conversations.
At the same time, Yaskawa customers share their proprietary knowledge because they can trust us. Because we give their challenges a lot of thought. Because when they talk to us, they know we are on their side.
Trusting the guys across the table from you with your most important product secrets. That’s noteworthy.
NOTEWORTHY
When our engineers work on a motion project with you, they share everything that’s in their Sometimes that means turning over 100 pages of notes, formulas and drawings. Other
times, it’s simply having straight forward conversations.
2-3-DES.indd 2 13-06-10 8:41 AM
YA S K AWA A M E R I C A , I N C .D R I V E S & M O T I O N D I V I S I O N
1 - 8 0 0 -YA S K AWA YA S K AWA . C O M
Follow us: For more info:http://Ez.com/yai465
©2013 Yaskawa America Inc.
NOTEWORTHY
When our engineers work on a motion project with you, they share everything that’s in their heads. Sometimes that means turning over 100 pages of notes, formulas and drawings. Other times, it’s simply having straight forward conversations.
At the same time, Yaskawa customers share their proprietary knowledge because they can trust us. Because we give their challenges a lot of thought. Because when they talk to us, they know we are on their side.
Trusting the guys across the table from you with your most important product secrets. That’s noteworthy.
NOTEWORTHY
When our engineers work on a motion project with you, they share everything that’s in their Sometimes that means turning over 100 pages of notes, formulas and drawings. Other
times, it’s simply having straight forward conversations.
2-3-DES.indd 3 13-06-11 1:23 PM
Solutions for Automation That Take You Straight to the TopUnrivaled in scope and versatility, Schaeffler’s linear product line ranges from shafts with linear ball bearings and monorail guidance systems to sophisticated actuators with drives and control systems, plus special coatings and every conceivable accessory. You name it, we’ve got it.
But that’s only the start. Our linear portfolio is based on a modular concept that goes far beyond mere components. We can design a complete system solution tailored to your specific application - from large gantry robots to intricate circuit board inspection systems. In fact, many of our linear guidance systems started out as solutions to customers’ needs!
Class dismissed.
Need more details? Please contact us at [email protected]
Superior-quality products. Comprehensive reliable solutions.
©2013
Schaeffler_DesignEng_Ad_MayJune_2013.indd 1 5/16/2013 3:03:16 PM4-5-DES.indd 4 13-06-11 1:20 PM
5IN THE NEWS
8 PEO elects new president
8 Université Laval regains Shell Eco-marathon title
8 DEX Expo rocks B.C.
10 Beckhoff relocates to new HQ
10 BioFuelNet, Airbus and Air Canada partner on biofuel
12 Queen’s researchers unveil shape-changing smartphone
12 Combat-ready rechargeable battery scores federal funding
12 Canadian inventors launch $600 3D scanner
14 Neptec enters 3D machine vision market
14 Ballard signs tentative fuel cell bus deal
Annual Subscription RateIn Canada: $52.95 (1 year) $71.95 (2 year)Outside Canada: $99.95 (1 year)Single CopyIn Canada: $10.00Outside Canada: $22.00Directory RatesIn Canada: $27.00Outside Canada: $45.00Reader Service Contact [email protected]: Toronto 416 442 5600 X 3538 Elsewhere -866-543-7888Mail:Business Information GroupDesign Engineering Circulation Dept80 Valleybrook DriveNorth York, ONM3B 2S9
Printed in Canada
READER SERVICES
Contents | Volume 59, No. 3
16 CAD ReportB.C.’s Weatherhaven relies on Autodesk Inventor to design rugged portable shelters
20 CAD BeatMaple-assisted computation helps discover the theoretical Gömböc geometric shape
32 Power TransmissionMiniature slides facilitate test of tiny semi-conductor wafers
41 Idea GeneratorThe latest in industrial products including power transmission, sensors and motors
46 Canadian InnovatorU of T engineering grads create the “most effi cient light bulb in the world”
Columns
24 A Flare for Design3D scanning and Quebec-basedInnovMetric metrology software turn concept to product in record time.
28 The Future of Automotive Design?Kor Ecologic’s Urbee 2 looks to answer the question of sustainable transport.
36 The Right Tool for the JobSPIROL engineers and a custom disk spring solve DeWALT tool design problem
38 Sharpening the AxesPrecisely tuned servomotor technology can boosts productivity and increase accuracy
Features
16
12
24
46
28
20
www.design-engineering.com May/June | 2013
Solutions for Automation That Take You Straight to the TopUnrivaled in scope and versatility, Schaeffler’s linear product line ranges from shafts with linear ball bearings and monorail guidance systems to sophisticated actuators with drives and control systems, plus special coatings and every conceivable accessory. You name it, we’ve got it.
But that’s only the start. Our linear portfolio is based on a modular concept that goes far beyond mere components. We can design a complete system solution tailored to your specific application - from large gantry robots to intricate circuit board inspection systems. In fact, many of our linear guidance systems started out as solutions to customers’ needs!
Class dismissed.
Need more details? Please contact us at [email protected]
Superior-quality products. Comprehensive reliable solutions.
©2013
Schaeffler_DesignEng_Ad_MayJune_2013.indd 1 5/16/2013 3:03:16 PM 4-5-DES.indd 5 13-06-11 1:20 PM
6 EditorialViewpoint
I enjoy hearing from you so please contact me at [email protected] and your letter could be published in an upcoming issue.
@
www.design-engineering.com
EditorMichael McLeod (416) 442-5600 ext. [email protected]
PublisherAlan Macpherson (416) [email protected]
Group Editorial DirectorLisa Wichmann (416) [email protected]
Accounts Manager Taebah Khan (416) [email protected]
Technical Field EditorPat Jones, P. Eng.
Art DirectorKathy Smith (416) 442-5600 ext. [email protected]
Market Production ManagerJessica Jubb (416) [email protected]
Circulation Manager Cindi Holder (416) 442-5600 ext. [email protected]
BIG Magazines LPExecutive Publisher Tim Dimopoulos
Vice-President of Canadian Publishing, Alex Papanou
President of Business Information Group, Bruce Creighton
Publications Mail Agreement #40069240ISSN: 0011-9342 (Print), 1929-6452 (Online)Privacy Notice: From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods:Phone: 1-800-668-2374 Fax: 416-442-2191E-mail: privacyoffi [email protected] to: Privacy Offi cer, 80 Valleybrook Drive,North York, ON M3B 2S9Subscriber Services: To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information contact us at 1-800-387-0273 ext.3552. Subscription Price: Canada: $52.95 for 1 year; $71.95 for 2 years; $10 for single copy. Outside Canada: $99.95 for 1 year; $22 for single copy. Directory/buyer’s guide: Canada $27; Outside Canada $45.Design Engineering, established in 1955, is published 6 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues. Published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. Tel: 416-442-5600, Fax: 416-510-514080 Valleybrook Dr., Toronto, ON M3B 2S9.Contents of this publication are protected by copyright and must not be reprinted in whole or in part without permission of the publisher. DE receives unsolicited features and materials (including letters to the editor) from time to time. DE, its affi liates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, re-publish, distribute, store and archive such submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort. DE accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported or advertised in this issue. DE is indexed in the Canadian Business Index by Micromedia Ltd., Toronto, and is available on-line in the Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database. We acknowledge the fi nancial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
In May, the Harper government announced that the 100-year-old National Research Council, Canada’s center for scientifi c and engineering research,
would be fundamentally reorganized, so as to focus its efforts away from basic blue-sky research and toward scientifi c investigation with discernable com-mercial applications.
In his announcement of the NRC’s new direction, Minister for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, said the organization needs to return to its roots.
“The realities of the 21st century economy mean that if Canada is going to continue to compete internationally, we must do it through developing new ideas and new products and opening new markets—in other words, through innovation,” he said. “By helping Canadian businesses develop and bring tech-nically advanced products to market, the NRC is supporting the creation of not just jobs but good-quality, high-paying, long-lasting jobs.
Following recommendations presented in a 2011 report by expert advisors headed by Tom Jenkins, executive chairman and chief strategy offi cer for Open-Text, the NRC’s new entrepreneurial focus will see its more than 20 research institutes and projects consolidated into 12 business units that focus on fi ve core areas of research: health costs, manufacturing, community infrastructure, security, and natural resources and the environment.
Part of the impetus to reshape the organization stems from the fact that, even though Canada has historically spent more than other OECD countries to foster R&D, through the Scientifi c Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit program, it has comparatively little to show for it. In addition, private sector R&D spending continues to lag behind that of similar industrialized nations. As a result, political leaders see the overhaul as a means to turn the NRC into the business sector’s 1-800 number for industrial-focused research.
The move has drawn criticism from all sides. Many in the scientifi c com-munity see it as the most recent move by a government generally hostile to science. Others liken it to a government subsidy, a bailout of SME’s unable or unwilling to conduct R&D activity themselves.
While that may be true, the real problem is that this strategy puts a govern-ment-run institution in the position of acting like a for-profi t business. If the intent is to drive Canadian innovation—which, by its defi nition, requires com-mercialization— then the benchmark of the NRC’s success, inevitably, will be measured in dollars and cents.
As a result, the agency could easily become overly timid, taking safe bets on only “sure thing” projects deemed the most likely to show return-on-investment. Never mind that the NRC’s redirection represents a fundamental shift in its culture, but gauging which novel ideas will or won’t be profi table is the domain of entrepreneurs, not research scientists.
In the end, the only companies to benefi t from this new focus may well be large corporations that don’t need a research handout. What will fall through the cracks are the riskier ideas germinated in small to medium sized fi rms where true innovation historically takes place.
Mike McLeod
1-800-Innovation
WINNER
2013
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• Need more Ethernet? Segregate Do-more connection to Ethernet networks for security or isolation by adding an H2-ECOM100 module ($301 each)
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more TMDo
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8
PEO elects new president Professional Engineers Ontario elected Annette Bergeron, P.Eng., MBA, as its 94th president during its annual general meeting in April. She holds an honours bachelor of science, material and metallurgical engineer-ing, from Queen’s University and a master of business administration from the Schulich School of Business, York University. She has worked as a production engineer at Dofasco Inc.; a lecturer at Queen’s faculty of applied science and engi-neering and Queen’s school of business; and director, first-year studies, Queen’s engineering. Most recently, she was general manager at Queen’s Alma Mater Society (AMS) Inc. She has also twice served as president and chair of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers.www.peo.on.ca
JNE Consulting announces new president and CEOJNE Consulting Ltd. appointed John Ng, P. Eng. as its new president and CEO. Ng holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in toxicology along with an Honours Degree in structural engineering from the University of Toronto. As part of his recent achievements, he was recognized as the “2012 Person of the Year” at the Eighth Annual Chinese Business Excellence Awards Celebration. Ng is a licensed professional and consulting engineer in Ontario and Alberta and an active member of the Upper Canada Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. www.jneconsulting.ca
MaRS appoints president and COOMaRS Discovery District has appointed Euan Robertson to the newly created role of presi-dent and Chief Operating Officer. Robertson joins MaRS from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), where he held the position of executive VP, and the
Up Front Université Laval regains Shell Eco-marathon title
At the 7th annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2013, Quebec’s Université Laval posted the highest mileage ever achieved at the
annual fuel-efficiency competition by traveling 3,587 miles on a single gallon of gasoline.
This was the fourth year in the last five that the Canadian team has dominated the competition, which attracted more than 1,000 students from across the Americas. Last year’s winner, a team from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Ind., placed second with a best run of 2,308 mpg on the track through the streets of downtown Houston.
Some 131 vehicles competed this year in various categories for the $2,000 first prize, with the Université Laval achievement attaining nearly 1,300 mpg better than Mater Dei’s showing last year.
“What the Laval team accomplished is truly remarkable and it underscores the long way our own cars and trucks can go to improve their fuel efficiency,” said Mark Singer, global project manager of Shell Eco-marathon. “Each year, dedicated high school and university student teams astonish us with the advances they make in achieving unheard-of fuel-efficiency improvements.”
While impressive, Université Laval’s winning mark – achieved in the Prototype category for internal combustion vehicles – didn’t break the all-time record of 8,914 mpg by a French team in 2003. Besides the Americas competition in Houston, Shell Eco-marathon also occurs annually in Europe and Asia and involves thousands of students from dozens of countries.www.shell.com/ecomarathon
DEX Expo Rocks B.C.By all accounts, the inaugural Design Engineering Expo (DEX) West held this May in Coquitlam (Vancouver), B.C. was a resounding success, surpassing all expectations leading up the to annual tradeshow. Sponsored jointly by Design Engineering and Canadian Metalwork-ing magazines, the one-day tabletop expo featured the latest design, OEM and metalworking technologies in a one-on-one oriented venue.
More than 500 local engineers, manufacturing executives, project managers, and purchasing agents toured the show during its first year in Western Canada, and the vast majority came away eager to return
DesignNews
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
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10
Center for Economic Transformation, where he served as managing director. At NYCEDC, he oversaw a broad suite of programs, includ-ing investment funds, incubators, training and mentorship and advisory services.
The newly created role coincides with the organization opening its Phase 2 building, which will more than double the size of its current facilities to more than 1.5 million square feet. www.marsdd.com
Mitutoyo Canada Inc. hires sales managerMitutoyo Canada is pleased to announce the appoint-ment of John Dewar as sales manager. A graduate of McMaster University, Dewar has 25 years of experience in sales of precision measur-ing equipment to the manu-facturing industry. For the last 15 years, he has fulfilled the role of sales and application special-ist for Mitutoyo Canada covering the Southern Ontario region, working with end users and Mitutoyo product distributors. Dewar will report to Peter Detmers, who was named as vice president of sales, overseeing all aspects of Canadian sales and sales support operations in January 2013.www.mitutoyo.ca
Beckhoff Automation relocates North American HQBeckhoff Automation LLC has relocated to Savage, Minn. where the company has con-structed a modern business complex with over 44,500 square feet in combined office and warehouse space.
The new Savage building has more than triple the available space of its previous facility in terms of general office, warehouse and repair center space. The warehouse measures 15,000+ square feet while the Industrial PC repair center is more than 1,660+square feet.
Leveraging the company’s own hardware and software for advanced building automation, the building’s lighting, heating/cooling, venti-lation and window facades are all automated via PC-based control to reduce energy con-sumption. www.beckhoff.com
Up Front
next year. Post-event survey results showed that 86 percent of attend-ees planned to attend next year’s event.
Not surprisingly, DEX West’s 62 exhibitors were likewise enthu-siastic about the show’s performance and optimistic for its future in the Vancouver area. Nearly all survey respondents (96 percent) said they felt attendees represented a well qualified audience and that they would exhibit again at DEX West next year.
“We chose to locate our second DEX tabletop show in British Columbia because we felt the greater Vancouver area was rich in small to mid-size manufacturing companies but vastly underserved by industry events designed to showcase their products and technologies to local OEM buyers and decision-makers,” said Alan Macpherson, Design Engineering Publisher and DEX show manager.
“We were very pleased with the response from our exhibitors and attendees alike and we are looking forward to returning to Coquitlam next May with an even bigger show. To be sure, there are other areas of Canada similarly underserved and we plan to expand DEX over the coming years. We’re adding a show in Calgary next year and more locations are in the works.”www.DEXexpo.com
BioFuelNet, Airbus and Air Canada partner on biofuelNot-for-profit organization, BioFuelNet, has signed an agreement with Air Canada and Airbus to assess the viability of various Canadian advanced biofuels solutions for aviation. Their research will focus on diverse raw materials, such as municipal solid waste and agricultural and forestry waste, as well as a range of conversion processes available for biofuel production.
“Aviation biofuels are one of the most promising ways to reduce the aviation industry’s carbon footprint, making air travel more environmentally-friendly,” Dr. Donald Smith, president of BioFuel-Net and McGill University professor says.
BioFuelNet was launched in 2012 as part of the Federal Networks of Centres of Excellence program, which funds BioFuelNet through a $25 million grant over five years. BioFuelNet brings together 74 leading researchers working on advanced biofuels in Canada, as well as industry partners and government, to accelerate research, develop-ment and commercialization of advanced biofuels.www.biofuelnet.ca
DesignNews
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
DMR_EssentialComponents_September-2011-outline_01.indd 1 8/15/2011 12:43:40 PM
John Dewar
8-15-DES.indd 10 13-06-11 1:44 PM
DMR_EssentialComponents_September-2011-outline_01.indd 1 8/15/2011 12:43:40 PM8-15-DES.indd 11 13-06-10 11:37 AM
12
Queen’s researchers unveil shape-changing smartphoneBuilding on its previous flexible electronic creations, the PaperPhone and PaperTab, researchers at Queen’s Univer-sity’s Human Media Lab have developed a new smartphone, called MorePhone, that changes shape to signal incoming phone calls, text messages or emails.
“Users are familiar with hearing their phone ring or feel-ing it vibrate in silent mode,” says Roel Vertegaal (School of Computing), director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University. “One of the problems with current silent forms of notification is that users often miss notifications when not holding their phone. With MorePhone, they can leave their smartphone on the table and observe visual shape changes when someone is trying to contact them.”
MorePhone is made of a thin, flexible plastic electronics layer — manufactured by British plastic electronics firm, Plastic Logic -– bonded to an electrophoretic E Ink display as found in eBook readers. Shape memory alloy wires, sand-wiched beneath the display, contract and curl the phone’s entire body, to signal an incoming call, or a individual cor-ner, to signal a new text message or e-mail. Corners can also repeatedly bend up and down to convey messages of greater urgency, the researchers say.www.hml.queensu.ca
Canadian combat-ready rechargeable battery scores federal fundingLithium battery system maker, Panacis, announced that it has been awarded up to $613,457 to fund development of its Soldier Sharepack wearable energy storage system targeted at the defense market.
The company hopes to commercialize the Sharepack to help militaries deal with the challenges of the modern battle-field. Soldiers carry an increasing number of electronic devices — from standard communications to sophisticated night vision goggles and navigation gear. With that comes the need
for an array of power sources that can weigh a combatant down. Canadian soldiers, for example, currently carry up to seven kilos of double A batteries during a mission.
In contrast, Panacis is developing rechargeable battery packs that weigh less, last longer and can be used in extreme cold or hot conditions. In addition, the systems can be cus-tomized to integrate into a soldier’s clothing or weapons.
Specifically, Panacis’ system is both a battery and an energy management device that uses flexible energy sharing, harvest-ing and scavenging techniques that allow a user’s movement and renewable sources such as solar to supplement the battery charge and provide reliable power.
According to the company, the FedDev Ontario investment has helped Panacis attract another $1,226,916 in private investment from the Capital Angel Network.www.panacis.comwww.FedDevOntario.gc.ca
Canadian inventors launch $600 3D scannerA pair of Toronto-based inventors, Drew Cox and Adam Brandejs, and their company, Matterform, have become the darlings of the crowd funding site, Indiegogo, with a small desktop-sized 3D scanner called the Photon that costs less than $600.
“The Photon 3D scanner allows anyone to take a physical object and turn it into a digital 3D model on your computer,” says Cox, co-founder of the pair’s invention company, Mat-terform. “It works by shooting dual laser lines at an object as it rotates 360 degrees, taking pictures with an HD camera along the way. At a current price of $599, this is the first 3D scanner that is affordable for the home consumer market.”
The small desktop unit can scan objects up to 190mm x 190mm x 250mm in about three minutes. The Photon has a resolution of 0.43mm at 0.5 degree scans, with an accuracy of +/- .2mm on a 4-inch figurine. With scanning software compat-ible with all major platforms, the Photon saves files to .STL, .OBJ and point cloud .PLY formats.
Launched via a 35-day crowdfunding campaign on Indi-egogo, Matterform surpassed its initial fundraising goal of $81,000 in a week. The company has yet to say when the scanner will be available for sale through its web site or how much the final retail price will be. http://matterform.net
DesignNews
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
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Neptec enters 3D machine vision marketNeptec Technologies Corp., a spin-off of Neptec Design Group Ltd., announced the launch of a line of obscurant-penetrating 3D laser scanners and a software development tool kit that features automatic change detection, object recognition and object tracking. Together, the components are intended to help OEMs create intelligent 3D machine vision applications on autonomous off-road vehicles and for laser-based survey and measurement tasks in harsh environments.
The company says its OPAL 2.0 laser scanners are designed for real-time 3D applications in harsh environments. They incorporate Neptec’s obscurant-penetrat-ing LiDAR technology and have been packaged for the rough conditions typical of off-road vehicles and mapping sensors used in the mining, oil and gas and con-struction industries.
In addition, Neptec says its 3DRi (3D Real-time intelligence) SDK incorporates the company’s 3D data algorithms and real-time software for automatic change detection, 3D data align-ment and object recognition.www.neptectechnologies.com
Ballard signs tentative fuel cell bus dealBallard Power Systems signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Azure Hydrogen Corporation of Beijing, China for the development of fuel cell buses.
Under the terms of the deal, Azure made a $1 million up-front payment and Ballard will provide a manufacturing license agree-ment, engineering services, fuel cell stacks and components.
Azure plans to develop fuel cell bus capa-bilities in China with Ballard’s technical support and funding from Chinese sources, including both private investors as well as various levels of government. If successful, the collaboration could lead to deployment of zero-emission fuel cell buses in China.
Ballard fuel cell products are currently powering zero emission fuel cell buses in public transit service in more than 10 coun-tries, including Canada, the U.S., Brazil, India, China and a number of European countries.www.ballard.com
DesignNews
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
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� ese have serious limitations.On hot summer days when the temperatures of the room and inside of the enclosure are about equal, there’s not enough diff erence for eff ective heat exchange. • They fail when dust and dirt clogs the fi lter
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EXAIR Cabinet Cooler® SystemsEXAIR has a complete line of Cabinet Cooler Systemsto dependably cool and purge your electrical enclosures.� ey convert an ordinary supply of compressed air intoclean, cold 20ºF air. � ey mount in minutes through an ordinary electrical knock-out and have no moving parts to wear out. � e compressed air fi ltration that is provided keeps water, oil and other contaminants out of the enclosure.• There is no room air filter to clog• An accurate electrical thermostat control minimizes compressed air use• All Cabinet Coolers are UL Listed to US and Canadian safety standards• They are the only compressed air powered coolers that are CE compliant
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• It requires a fl oor drain for the condensation
• Average cost to replace a bad compressor is $750
� e “plastic box cooler” from a competitor uses an inaccurate mechanical thermostat that’s designed for liquids. � is thermostat has a poor ability to react quickly to changes in air temperature. It costs up to 85% more to operate than EXAIR’s ETC Cabinet Cooler® System with the same SCFM rating and Btu/hr. output.• Electronics can overheat before it turns on
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Opening the panel door and aiming a fan at the circuit boards is a bad idea.• It is an OSHA violation that presents a shock hazard to personnel
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If you would like to discussan application, contact anApplication Engineer at:
EXAIR Cabinet CoolerEXAIR has a complete line of Cabinet Cooler Systemsto dependably cool and purge your electrical enclosures.� ey convert an ordinary supply of compressed air intoclean, cold 20out and have no moving parts to wear out. � e compressed air fi ltration that is provided keeps water, oil and other contaminants out of the enclosure.• There is no room air filter to clog• An accurate electrical thermostat control minimizes compressed air use• All Cabinet Coolers are UL Listed to US and Canadian safety standards• They are the only compressed air powered coolers that are CE compliant
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Mr. Grand Mao, Azure Chairman (left) and Mr.
John Sheridan, Ballard President & CEO (CNW
Group/Ballard Power Systems Inc.)
8-15-DES.indd 14 13-06-10 11:37 AM
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Manufacturing Intelligent Compressed Air® Products Since 198311510 Goldcoast Drive • Cincinnati, Ohio • 45249-1621 • (800) 903-9247fax: (513) 671-3363 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.exair.com
@EXAIR
� ese have serious limitations.On hot summer days when the temperatures of the room and inside of the enclosure are about equal, there’s not enough diff erence for eff ective heat exchange. • They fail when dust and dirt clogs the fi lter
• The cooling capacity is limited due to ambient conditions
EXAIR Cabinet Cooler® SystemsEXAIR has a complete line of Cabinet Cooler Systemsto dependably cool and purge your electrical enclosures.� ey convert an ordinary supply of compressed air intoclean, cold 20ºF air. � ey mount in minutes through an ordinary electrical knock-out and have no moving parts to wear out. � e compressed air fi ltration that is provided keeps water, oil and other contaminants out of the enclosure.• There is no room air filter to clog• An accurate electrical thermostat control minimizes compressed air use• All Cabinet Coolers are UL Listed to US and Canadian safety standards• They are the only compressed air powered coolers that are CE compliant
www.exair.com/53/440.htm
� ese coolers are prone to failure in dirty, industrial environments when dustand dirt clogs the fi lter.• It takes almost a day to install
• Vibration from machinery causes refrigerant leaks and component failures
• Compressor life expectancy is typically 2.5 years of continuous operation
• It requires a fl oor drain for the condensation
• Average cost to replace a bad compressor is $750
� e “plastic box cooler” from a competitor uses an inaccurate mechanical thermostat that’s designed for liquids. � is thermostat has a poor ability to react quickly to changes in air temperature. It costs up to 85% more to operate than EXAIR’s ETC Cabinet Cooler® System with the same SCFM rating and Btu/hr. output.• Electronics can overheat before it turns on
• It runs far longer than necessary before shutting off
• Increased cycle time wastes compressed air
Opening the panel door and aiming a fan at the circuit boards is a bad idea.• It is an OSHA violation that presents a shock hazard to personnel
• The fan blows hot, humid, dirty air at the electronics
• The cooling effect is minimal
• It is likely to fail again since the environment is still hot
How To Keep Your Electronics CoolWhen hot weather causes the electronics inside a control cabinet to fail, there is a panic to get the machineryup and running again. � ere are several cooling options out there and it’s important to know the facts.line up of coolers that are prone to bad behavior
If you would like to discussan application, contact anApplication Engineer at:
EXAIR Cabinet CoolerEXAIR has a complete line of Cabinet Cooler Systemsto dependably cool and purge your electrical enclosures.� ey convert an ordinary supply of compressed air intoclean, cold 20out and have no moving parts to wear out. � e compressed air fi ltration that is provided keeps water, oil and other contaminants out of the enclosure.• There is no room air filter to clog• An accurate electrical thermostat control minimizes compressed air use• All Cabinet Coolers are UL Listed to US and Canadian safety standards• They are the only compressed air powered coolers that are CE compliant
Reliable and maintenance free!
www.exair.com/53/44053.htm
WATCHTHE VIDEO!
to dependably cool and purge your electrical enclosures.� ey convert an ordinary supply of compressed air into
8-15-DES.indd 15 13-06-10 11:37 AM
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
16
B.C.’s Weatherhaven relies on Autodesk In-ventor software to design portable shelter systems for the most rugged environments and remote locations.
Committed to improving the quality of life for people operating in extremely rugged and dangerous condi-
tions, Burnaby, BC-based Weatherhaven designs and manufactures portable shelter systems for organizations as diverse as NATO, scores of governments and armed forces, and hundreds of resort, exploration, scientific and geographic research companies.
The company’s shelters have supported earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, military campaigns in Afghanistan, scientific expeditions in Antarctica and peacekeeping missions in the Sahara desert. In addition, the United Nations has used them for every deployment since 1990.
To rapidly deliver shelters that meet the challenging require-ments of these customers, Weatherhaven relies on Autodesk Inventor, as well as Autodesk Vault to reuse designs and man-age iterations and revisions. As a result, the Canada-based company says it has realized a 100 percent ROI within a short time frame, more quickly produce safer products with improved transportability, and transitioned from manufactur-ing to a full product development firm.
Field DeploymentWeatherhaven’s shelters are configured to order. They can include everything from portable sleepers, field kitchens, showers and laundry rooms to gymnasiums, vehicle repair facilities and field hospitals. Given the wide range of specifi-cations and the urgent need for shelters precipitated by natu-ral disasters, health epidemics and military engagements, Weatherhaven adapts its products to make sure they are easily assembled, disassembled and transported, while occu-pying a very small environmental footprint.
“We keep very little inventory, and orders need fulfilling
as soon as possible,” says Ray Castelli, CEO of Weatherhaven. “For example, when the Haiti earthquake hit, we were the first to send 140 field hospitals to assist civilian agencies in dealing with the aftermath. It’s critical that our shelters help teams hit the ground running.”
Weatherhaven not only must configure and manufacture systems rapidly, but also design its systems to be mobile, re-deployable and lightweight so they can be broken down, moved and reassembled with ease when an operation shifts locations. But the design challenges don’t stop there. In recent years, the design team has been tasked with innovating com-pletely new products, helping to transform Weatherhaven from a manufacturer to a product development company.
Taking ShelterA longtime AutoCAD user, Weatherhaven now relies on Autodesk Inventor to create the CAD designs of all its prod-ucts, both new and configured-to-order. With Inventor, it’s easier to find problems earlier in the design process—well before manufacturing, the company says.
“With a digital prototype, we can see how systems will work together,” explains Ryan Savenkoff, design engineer at Weath-erhaven. “We can even drop digital models from our suppliers into our assemblies and then check for interferences. With Autodesk Inventor, we have much more confidence in our designs and know they’ll be manufactured the way we intend. Digital Prototyping has significantly cut down the time for product development from concept to manufacturing.”
“Knowing that the components will work together seamlessly is a real time-saver,” agrees Graham Thompson, design techni-cian at Weatherhaven. “It cuts down on rework tremendously.”
In addition, Weatherhaven now builds fewer physical pro-totypes, relying more heavily on digital prototyping to put designs through their paces. “Our physical prototypes can cost
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16-19-DES.indd 17 13-06-10 11:44 AM
18
up to US$100,000 to build,” says Thompson. “Autodesk Inven-tor has already paid for itself—and then some.”
Meeting one of its primary design challenges—making lighter, more mobile shelters to facilitate transportability—is now a much easier task.
“Autodesk Inventor automatically calculates the weight of various parts and assemblies as we design,” explains Savenkoff. “The lighter it is, the more cost-effec-tive it is. In fact, we can pick up a shelter from a desert location and have it re-deployed to Ant-arctica two weeks later.”
Using the integrated fi nite element analysis (FEA) feature in Autodesk Inventor software, Weatherhaven can predict stress and defl ection. Engineers can help ensure they are meeting safety requirements as they opti-mize the design to lower the overall assembly weight.
Tackling New ChallengesDigital prototyping solidifi ed its value to Weatherhaven when the company partnered with DEW Engineering to win a highly competitive contract with the Canadian military to replace an aging fl eet of military trucks with complex container-based shelters. Built on traditional truck bodies, the Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) shelters serve as kitchens, dentist offi ces, showers, washrooms, medical centers, and more.
The MSVS project challenged Weatherhaven’s team to design something totally new—and on a very tight timeline.
“It was a completely new kind of project for us,” says Castelli. “We had to meet very exact-
ing specifi cations—and wouldn’t have been able to do it with-out Inventor.”
Savenkoff points to the tools integrated into Inventor, particularly the sheet metal tool, as critical to making the MSVS project a success.
“All the useful tools in Inventor helped us move
through the design very quickly,” says Savenkoff. “For instance, with the sheet
metal tool, you don’t have to spend time calcu-lating bend radiuses. You just pick a material, style
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16-19-DES.indd 18 13-06-10 11:44 AM
19
and the length of fl anges and that’s it. It’s clear Autodesk has thought a great deal about how people work and how to save them time.”
Within 12 months of being awarded the contract, Weatherhaven had a MSVS prototype designed, engineered and tested. “We’d never done anything that fast before, and certainly nothing of that com-plexity,” remarks Castelli.
In addition to the initial contract, Boeing recently awarded Weatherhaven a US$5.6 million contract to modify and convert existing MSVS shelters into portable repair and maintenance shelters for Can-ada’s CH-147 helicopters as part of the Canadian Medium-to-Heavy Lift Helicopter Program.
Even though Weatherhaven dedicates only a handful of engineers to researching and developing completely new products, the company already has made strides transforming into a product development company.
Castelli says, “Autodesk Inventor software gives our engineers the ability to build comprehensive digital prototypes to test out a range of new products. We don’t have our good ideas languishing on the drawing board anymore.”
In addition, Weatherhaven is using Autodesk software to save time during the design phase—and to deploy its shelters to their rugged destinations more quickly. The result has been satisfi ed customers and a solid reputation with governments
and billion-dollar companies around the globe. “We’re a US$100 million company with an engineering
department that has fewer than 10 people, yet we’re competing with billion-dollar companies,” says Castelli. “With help from Inventor software, we’re servicing some of the most sophisticated and exacting customers in the world. It defi nitely gives us a competitive advantage.” DEwww.weatherhaven.com
This article was provided by Autodesk.
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16-19-DES.indd 19 13-06-10 11:44 AM
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
20
When the existence of the Gömböc shape was discovered in 2007 by
Hungarian scientists Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi, it solved a long standing mystery. For years, mathema-ticians had discussed, debated and tried to prove its existence using mathemat-ical equations.
Vladimir Arnold, a Russian scientist, had conjectured its existence, but it took a decade to prove it conclusively and create the shape. The New York Times called the discovery “one of the best ideas of the year.” Like in many other math-ematical developments, Maple played a role in creating the Gömböc.
A Gömböc is a convex three-dimen-sional homogeneous body which, when resting on a flat surface, has just one stable and one unstable point of equi-librium. The Gömböc shape is not unique; it has countless varieties, most
of which are very close to a sphere and all have very strict shape tolerance (less than 0.1 mm per 10 cm). The most famous solution has a sharpened top.
If you put a Gömböc down on a flat surface, resting on its stable equilibrium point, it will stay in the same position.
“Even if you kick it a little, it will come back to its resting position at the stable equilibrium point,” says Domo-kos, one of the inventors of Gömböc. “If it is put down at a non-equilibrium point, it will start rolling around in a systematic way until it has reached the stable equilibrium position.”
Difficult ProofsThe invention of the Gömböc is the culmination of a long process of math-ematical research and Maple, the mathematical computation engine from Maplesoft, played an important
CADBeat
Maple-assisted computation helps discover
the mathematics-based Gömböc shape.
Theoreticalto Practical
20-23-DES.indd 20 13-06-10 11:46 AM
www.design-engineering.com May/June | 2013
21
role in its discovery. The yet-undiscov-ered shape was known to be a convex mono-monostatic object — a three-dimensional object, which because of its geometry had only one possible way to balance upright.
Domokos and Várkonyi identified a two-parameter family of objects, all of which had the desired mono-mono-static property. However, not all of them were convex. Maple was used to identify the convex objects and thus prove the shape’s existence.
The process involved a large amount of complex, precise mathematical com-putation, and Maple’s symbolic com-putation power made it possible.
“The final geometry of Gömböc had to be determined with great accuracy, which meant the details were critical and we couldn’t afford to miss any,” said Domokos. “Maple was very useful
in this regard. Using Maple made the calculations more thorough and secure; its computational power can calculate and explore very sensitive details. So it was a trusted companion in our discovery process.”
Speaking of the popularity of the Gömböc and the attention it received from the scientific and mathematical community around the globe, Domo-kos said, “The beauty of Gömböc is its absolute simplicity. It is so simple that high school students can understand it, but it has potentially great impact on the sciences and has several applica-tions in nature. Yet the answer was elusive for 2000 years.”
CADBeat
This formerly theoretical geometric shape,
called the Gömböc, was discovered, in part,
using Maplesoft’s mathmatics engine, Maple.
20-23-DES.indd 21 13-06-10 11:46 AM
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
22
Theoretical to PracticalTaking their discovery into the world of natural science, Domokos and Várkonyi discovered a unique application of Gömböc among tortoises. They conducted an extensive study of tortoises using complex three-dimensional models of the shell, created in Maple. Using these models, they discovered that, of the 200 species of turtles in nature, two species had Gömböc-shaped shells. This meant that these turtles had a unique evolutionary advantage in that they had the ability to self-right.
“I saw that they were acting like Gömböcs” exclaimed Domokos. Being on their back is a vulnerable and dangerous position for any tortoise. The male tortoise is known to turn over their rivals on their back in an attempt to render them helpless. So any tortoise that has the ability to get back on its belly, under gravity, without having to use its muscle, has a unique advantage, and more power.
“It is the Gömböc shape of their shell that gives them this power,” observed Domokos. “This is a classic example of evolution fi nding the optimal shape for survival.”
Continuing his research, Domokos is currently involved in studying the shape of beach pebbles. His research with Gary Gibbons from Cambridge University attempts to describe the shape of pebbles, and their evolution. They are also trying to understand the interaction between pebbles in their collective evolution.
Using Maple, Domokos was able to study a system of inte-grable differential equations. Solving the equation systems gives him unique insights that he otherwise may have missed.
He is also studying the balance of friction and collisions in the abrasion process which results in what is called dominant pebble ratios, a phenomenon that makes pebbles in a certain geographical area display similar global geometrical features. Domokos is using Maple to determine the critical friction coeffi cients which are responsible for the emergence of dom-inant pebble ratios.
Understanding shapes in nature is becoming increasingly important, both on Earth and off it. Recently, NASA’s Curios-ity rover sent back images from the surface of Mars that showed an ancient riverbed. The size and shape of the pebbles indicate that water fl owed on Mars billions of years ago, and by study-ing the images of the rock, scientists will be able to learn more about the speed and size of the ancient fl ow of water.
As Domokos continues his research into mathematical shapes and the discovery of natural and scientifi c phenomenon based on these shapes, Maple will continue to play a signifi cant role in his research.
“Maple is my favorite computational tool; it is simple and powerful,” says Domokos. “We are surrounded by geometri-cal shapes which our brains are not wired to understand. Shapes like Gömböc open a new language to understand such shapes.” DEwww.maplesoft.com
This article was provided by Maplesoft.
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Except as otherwise noted, all marks used are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Henkel and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere. ® = registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. © Henkel Corporation, 2010. All rights reserved. AD-116-11 (05/11)
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Except as otherwise noted, all marks used are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Henkel and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere. ® = registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. © Henkel Corporation, 2010. All rights reserved. AD-116-11 (05/11)
■ Bolt with split ring lock washer and nut
■ Bolt with Loctite® liquid threadlocker and nut
■ Bolt with tooth lock washer and nut
■ Bolt with elastic stop nut
■ Unsecured bolt and nut
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May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
24
For nearly 40 years, family-operated Bushwacker Inc. has manufactured fender fl ares and truck accessories for the
automotive after-market. The company is committed to style, and they meticulously scrutinize every detail of each design, using the latest standards in design and manufacturing. For Bushwacker, quality can be summed up in three words: Fit, fi nish and style.
However, OEMs continue to raise the bar for vehicle qual-ity in terms of fi t and fi nish, while the body style lines become increasingly sophisticated. To stay in the game, Bushwacker’s products must do the same.
“Our customers expect that the accessories will blend with the vehicle’s style lines,” says Bushwacker design engineering, Sterling Logan. “And with the high-quality surfaces that automobile manufacturers produce, the slightest gap or tini-est interference with the vehicle’s style lines is immediately obvious. So we have to deliver a product with a perfect fi t.”
Crucial to reaching this goal is 3D scanning. After exper-imenting with alternative solutions and scanning services, Bushwacker acquired a top-end scanning system that includes a seven-axis Romer Infi nite 2.0 arm, a Perceptron ScanWorks V5 laser scanner and InnovMetric’s PolyWorks 3D metrology software. Knowing the precise digital data of a vehicle’s sur-faces allows Bushwacker to focus its talents on product designs with the confi dence that they will fi t perfectly.
Rapid ResponseTo highlight the rapid response time thanks to 3D scanning, Logan cited the following example. “A customer contacted us a few days before the Specialty Equipment Market Asso-ciation (SEMA) show with a custom request to design a bumper guard for the Chevrolet Cruze. In a mere three days, we had prototype bumper guards, and we opened the show
with a brand-new product.”To complete the product in three days, Bushwacker scanned
the Chevrolet Cruze, processed the data using PolyWorks/Modeler and imported it into Siemens NX, on day one. On day two, they designed the bumper guard and machined a prototype mold. On day three, the parts were manufactured and fl own to the SEMA show.
In its earlier years, Bushwacker designers would have applied clay to the vehicle and painstakingly sculpted it to the desired design. The resulting shape was then transferred to wood tem-plates so the styling could be replicated in clay on the opposite side of the vehicle. Next, plaster molds were cast from the clay models, and these would be used to manufacture prototype thermoforming tools. According to Logan, this process consisted of many hours of painstaking work. Yet even then, they would be months away from a production-ready mold.
“Back when we started the business, our fi rst fl ares were for the old Jeep CJ.,” Logan refl ected. “The clay and plaster process worked fi ne then because the sheet metal for the fenders was fl at. This is defi nitely not true for the body style of the new Jeep JK.”
“Without laser scanning, it may not have been possible for us to roll out the Jeep JK accessories,” he continues. These accessories include several fender fl are options and the com-pany’s Trail Armor, which offers hood and corner guards as well as rocker panels.
ShopTalk
After-market OEM Bushwacker uses 3D scanning
and InnovMetric’s PolyWorks software to ensure the fi t and function
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3D scanning allows Bushwacker to acquire factory mounting points
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After-market OEM Bushwacker uses 3D scanning
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May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
26
The Jeep JK was a challenge because of its body style lines and mounting configuration. Even with 3D scanning, Bush-wacker spent six months developing its patented pocket-style flares, flat-style flares and Trail Armor. Logan noted that for all other projects, 3D scanning has, on average, slashed prod-uct launches to only one or two months after initial concepts.
The Jeep JK project also highlighted another advantage of 3D scanning: The acquisition of mounting locations. To facilitate installation, Bushwacker always attempts to use only factory mounting points for its accessories. For the pocket flare, this led to an innovative combination of inner and outer flares; the scanned data provided the exact locations of the mounting points relative to the body panels.
The innovative design and attention to detail paid off for the Jeep JK accessories. At SEMA, Bushwacker’s flat flares took the runner-up award in the Best New Off-Road/Four-Wheel Drive Product category, while its Trail Armor nabbed first place for the Best New Exterior Accessory Product.
3D Scanning at BushwackerFor all projects, Bushwacker combines its laser scan arm, PolyWorks and Siemens NX in a three-step process: Scan, prepare and design.
In some instances, the 3D scanning system travels to the target vehicle, but in most instances, Bushwacker drives the vehicle into its facilities. For the first step of the process, Bushwacker uses PolyWorks/Modeler for laser scanner con-trol and live data capture.
“With PolyWorks, there isn’t a grueling setup process to get everything communicating before we start scanning,” Logan says, adding that it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to set up and start scanning.
“The interface is also intuitive and easy to use,” he adds. “I love the fact that as I scan, the digital model dynamically changes to follow my scan path. It gives me great visual feedback to let me know where I am and what I still need to capture.”
When he believes that the scan is complete, he then turns to the PolyWorks comparison tool, which shows scan-to-scan
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Flat-style fender flare, one of Bushwackers options for the Jeep JK.
24-27-DES.indd 26 13-06-10 11:48 AM
www.design-engineering.com May/June | 2013
27
deviations. “This is my safety net for the occasional operator error, like a bumped scanner,” Logan said. “I get immediate feedback on what I need to rescan. The result is clean, accurate data.”
As a Siemens NX user, Logan also finds that the PolyWorks/Modeler interface and tools are familiar and quite similar. He makes use of PolyWorks to prepare the files for import to Siemens NX, which he uses for data manipulation and design. “We need powerful modeling tools to create parts and designs that follow the subtle style lines of the vehicle,” he says. “Poly-Works helps us capture the details, and that data is used in Siemens NX to design our parts. For us, it’s a perfect blend.”
To prepare the data for Siemens NX, he uses PolyWorks to filter out any noisy data, fill holes, and create splines and NURBS surfaces. “I select an area and let PolyWorks auto-create the splines; then I connect these and create NURBS,” Logan says. “I find that it’s very similar to the process for Siemens NX, so in fact, it’s intuitive. As far as I know, nothing is better.”
In Siemens NX, the PolyWorks-generated NURBS become the baseline for accessory design. From the body panels and mounting points, Bushwacker’s vision takes shape. Through-out the process, designers render the accessory and vehicle to visualize form and fit.
Each new part goes through a “digital” design review before
any prototype molds are designed and CNC machined. “The high quality surface data that PolyWorks provides allow us to scrutinize the part in CAD for fit and finish before we ever make a real part,” Logan noted. Yet, they still rely on physical prototypes for final evaluation.
“Things jump out at you when you mount a flare onto the vehicle for the first time, things you can’t or don’t see on screen,” Logan said.
Recently, Bushwacker extended its reliance on PolyWorks to inspection. PolyWorks/Inspector confirms the high quality—for which the company has become renowned—of its molds, prototypes, and first production samples. “PolyWorks/Inspector is extremely powerful. It allows us to bring inspection in-house, which lets us evaluate parts and molds quickly and whenever needed,” Logan said. “In the current economy, we have to stay on the cutting edge, and PolyWorks has helped us do that.” DEwww.innovmetric.com
This article was provided by InnovMetric
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Kor Ecologic’s Urbee 2 looks to answer the question of sustainable transport.
By Mike McLeod
If there’s one thing Jim Kor can’t abide in automotive design, it’s wasted energy. That’s not to say he’s a zealot. The 60-year-
old design engineer from Winnipeg still drives his ‘68 Chevy truck and, over his lifetime, has raced Austin Minis, tinkered on numerous sports cars and even owned an RV or two.
Yet, since 1996, Kor and his nine-member team of like-minded engineers at Winnipeg-based consulting engineering fi rm, Kor EcoLogic, have toiled off and on to design, build and eventually market the Urbee, their vision of the ultimate alternative-energy vehicle.
Recently, the company announced it has begun work on the next iteration, named the Urbee 2. Longer and more polished than the original, the next prototype is intended to demonstrate that the “greenest car in the world,” can also appeal to a mass audience.
It may seem like an idealist’s dream but, to Kor, a vehicle like the Urbee is the inevitable conclusion when you combine an engineer’s drive for the practical with a realist’s understand-ing of projected auto usage globally and the resulting envi-ronmental impact.
“There are 1 billion cars on the road now. In 35 years, there are going to be about 2.5 billion new cars, so it’s really about what they should look like,” Kor says. “Too often, I think we listen too much to the economists and not enough to the ecolo-gists, who are telling us we’re in real trouble.”
Effi ciency at All CostsThe prototype version of the tear drop-shaped Urbee (short for Urban electric with ethanol), fi rst grabbed headlines when it entered the Progressive Automotive X-Prize in 2009. Distinc-tive for its futuristic look and 3D printed body, in reality its shape and plastic exterior shell are simply part of the vehicle’s overall design equation. According to Kor, creating a truly energy effi cient car starts with challenging the norms of automotive design.
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“People usually ask us if this is an electric or a hybrid; they just want to know the technology,” he says. “Actually, our goal is to create a low-energy car so we can run solely on renewable energy. To achieve that goal, you got to use whatever technol-ogy will get you there.”
Specifi cally, Kor says low-energy means a car that has energy requirements so small, its fuel can be produced “off the grid” (e.g. by rooftop solar panels and/or home grown ethanol crop). As a consequence, this imperative has led the Urbee’s creators to make some unconventional design choices.
Take, for example, the hybrid’s power plant and drive train. Since the Urbee is intended for city and highway driving, the two-seater relies on a pair of 4-hp DC electric motors to drive its front tires (one per side) coupled with regenerative break-ing for the stop-and-go of urban driving. At these lower speeds, the Urbee needs to be as light as possible to overcome inertia.
“Over the last 100 years, when an engineer has tried to make a really effi cient car, they typically make a three-wheeler,” Kor says. “Our analysis showed that eliminating a wheel doesn’t change rolling resistance much. The reason is that you don’t need the weight of the fourth wheel along with the suspension, break assembly and everything else.”
On the highway, at speeds above 70 kph, the three-wheeled
hybrid switches over to its 4-cycle diesel engine that can propel the Urbee to a top speed of 120 kph while charging its battery, yet has an output of a scant 5 hp. Making this possible required that the Urbee be as aerodynamic as possible. Consequently, the car has an uncommonly small frontal area (14 sq. ft.) along with a coeffi cient of drag of only 0.15.
“To cut through the air, you don’t need an arrowhead; you want just the opposite: A blunt nose with rounded edges,” Kor says. “Once you burst through the air, you have to bring the air back together again. You can do that at about 15 degrees of taper at the speeds we’re talking about. Any more and the air begins to separate. It looks like a torpedo with a round blunt nose then a tapering off to the pointed tail.”
Since a pointed tail is impractical, Kor says, the Urbee’s rear end features a sharply truncated tail, called a Kamm-back or K-tail design, which signifi cantly reduces or eliminates turbulent airfl ow.
“All those backend edges are blindingly sharp because you have to fool the air to keep going,” he says. “If you put even a one-inch radius on it, the air starts to curl as it leaves the car and the vortex causes drag.”
Digital ManufacturingTo get the organic shape needed to preserve the Urbee’s excep-tional aerodynamics, Kor says the team originally planned to make the body out of fi breglass—a material they were familiar with and that could be fashioned by hand. But, from the beginning the Urbee has been a self-funded project, which made the high tooling cost of sheet metal impractical.
However, Kor says fi breglass is toxic, generally unpleasant to work with and violated another his design principles—that the materials in the Urbee be largely recyclable. When the team
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The Urbee 2’s small frontal area, low profi le and Kamm-back tail
combine to give it an exceptionally low .15 drag coeffi cient.
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30
learned that Stratasys’ service bureau division, RedEye On Demand, could print and fuse 3D printed parts into larger structures, Kor decided to try it as simply a prototype body to cover the original Urbee’s chassis.
“Once we had a 3D model of the Urbee and we knew it could meet the target coeffi cient of drag, we met with Stratasys and asked if they could 3D print it,” Kor says. “I looked at because it would give us the sharp edges we needed, which are hard to do in fi berglass.”
Based on the success of the fi rst prototype, Kor says the Urbee 2’s body will embrace true digital manufacturing, which will free its designers to create parts that can’t be manufactured any other way. Composed of approximately 30 exterior pan-els printed on Stratasys’ Fortus machines, the Urbee 2’s body will include an exterior and interior skin, made from recy-clable plastic. In addition, all visible interior components of the future prototype will also be 3D printed.
As it stands now, the Urbee 2 is still in the design phase. By 2015, however, Kor says the goal is to drive the high effi -ciency vehicle from San Francisco to New York City using only enough ethanol to fi ll the vehicle’s 10 gallon tank.
“We’ve done the calculations but I’m not saying the car can do it; I’m saying it could do it,” Kor says. “I make it clear that its our goal. We fully understand that if we don’t do it
with very little fuel, why would people compromise to drive a car like this?”
In the meantime, Kor and his team are looking to secure funding. As with nearly everything else about the Urbee, fi nancing may take an unconventional route. The company is currently exploring a Kickstarter.com campaign to help it carry the project forward.
Once fi nished, Kor says the next step will be fi nding a partner who can produce the Urbee for a global market.
“It’s completely unrealistic for a small group like ours to make a car,” Kor admits. “The only way the Urbee will have an impact on a global scale, with 2.5 billion cars projected, is if you sell a billion of cars like this. Today, only a car com-pany can make a billion of anything.” DEkorecologic.com
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NB miniature slides facilitate
test of tiny semi-conductor wafers.
Semiconductor labs are billion dollar operations and accuracy in the automated testing of the semiconductor
wafers they produce is a critical part of their fabrication process. It’s also a major cost factor. On fabrication of lower cost products, test can account for more 25 percent of the cost of fabrication.
As an engineering director for the design and development of automation systems, Mark Filho saw the need for guaran-teeing the accurate positioning of wafer testing probes. To this end, he established Newmark Systems, Incorporated.
Their fi rst customer, fi fteen years ago, needed a compact positioner for semi-conductor wafer probing. Wafer probing occurs before wires are attached in the burn-in process in preparation for the fi nal chip encapsulation. The probe checks circuits or capacitance of the dies, (i.e. chips) in the wafer and tests if the die meets the specifi cation requirements.
“What we did was increase the load capacity of a precision positioner,” says Mark Filho, describing the development strategy for Newmark’s fi rst product. “The linear stage we created is a very compact stage for the load carrying capabil-ity it has. We’ve been manufacturing the NLS4 for 15 years, and it has been very successful.”
The NLS4 runs from 2 inches up to 24 inches using a 9 mm rail system and can carry twenty-fi ve pounds. Its design was optimized for maximum stability and performance with the use of FEA analysis and incorporates NB Corporation’s miniature linear guides — two guides and four blocks.
Preload Improves AccuracyNewmark was able to choose from the widest selection of miniature linear slide guides on the market. The standard SEBS guides’ major advantage is that they have a standard radial clearance that is twice as accurate as other standard miniature guides.
Most manufactures don’t claim that their preload eliminates all clearance. Their standards are plus to minus, which allows gaps to exist. Minus means there is some preload so there’s no gap. NB’s are from zero to minus as a standard, making for greater accuracy because there is no clearance. Negative clearance means the ball is larger than the space, adding more pressure and greater rigidity. This increased rigidity is desirable in high precision applications. NB’s standard fabrication requires more control in the assembly and manufacturing process in order to adhere to this higher quality standard.
Of course, there can be instances where no preload is desired, where one might want to remove all friction and trade off accuracy and rigidity for minimal friction. In such a case, one might want clearance. But the precision positioner was not such a case.
Had a different design route been taken, there might have been a deformation of the guide block to consider. For instance, had the positioner been mounted on only one rail on an arm that extended to the side, this would have caused deformation of the block, reducing accuracy. There is a solution to this problem. It is called the SEB-AD. The AD version is stiffer because NB optimizes the machining of the top-mounting
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May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
34
surface of the guide block that attaches to the table. This withstands the extra moment load that could have caused some clearance due to deformation.
Tiny GuidesFor the smallest applications, there is an extra compact block for lesser loads – SEBS-BS (size 2), which is shorter than the standard length block and only has two holes instead of four. Either retained-ball (whose elements allow for easier handling since the guide block may be removed from rail without ball loss) or low-cost non-retained-ball lines are available.
A unique miniature guide that provides the greatest rigid-ity is the SER. It uses crossed-roller bearings, which give more rigidity. Crossed-rollers have greater contact areas than ball
bearings. SER comes in all stainless steel. It has non-retained rollers and is available in the same block sizes and configura-tions as the SEBS ball bearing miniature guides.
All NLS4 series stages are machined from 6061 aluminum alloy to provide a light yet stiff and stable linear stage. The drive system utilizes a stainless steel ACME leadscrew with internally lubricated plastic drive nut. The drive nut offers zero backlash operation that automatically adjusts for wear to insure zero backlash for the life of the stage. For more reliability and durability, the ways and leadscrews are pro-tected with a strong, machined cover and the encoder is mounted internally directly to the leadscrew rather than being exposed to shock and contamination when mounted in the rear of the motor.
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Cutaway of MSL, the microslide linear stage, showing its single
miniature rail and block which travels from 25mm to 200mm. Since
the carriage is supported over the entire travel of the stage, it has
good cantilevered load capacity.
A cut-away CAD rendering of the NLS4, which provides precise linear
positioning from 25 mm to 1.5 meters and rides on four linear guide
blocks on two rails.
32-35-DES.indd 34 13-06-10 11:52 AM
www.design-engineering.com May/June | 2013
35
some applications that need a greatly reduced footprint – robotic applications ranging from pick-and-place in factory and lab automation to medical devices. So Newmark created a linear stage with a single bearing – a single guide instead of two guides – with a single block. The carriage is sup-ported over the entire range of travel using a single preloaded NB Corporation miniature linear guide bearing.
This positioner, the MSL, is tiny yet it can lift 15 pounds. Its maximum velocity is three to four inches per second. It offers travels from 25mm to 200mm, has two leadscrew pitches: 2mm and 10mm and comes stan-dard with a high-torque, size-17 stepper motor.
End of travel limit switches come standard on the MSL linear stage. The drive system utilizes a stainless steel ACME leadscrew with internally lubricated plastic drive nut. The drive nut offers zero backlash operation that automatically adjusts for wear to insure zero back-lash for the life of the stage.
For vertical movement, again, the positioners use the mini guide as in a linear stage except they have a wedge. When the wedge is pushed, it creates lift. The guide moves horizontally to push the wedge and that is what causes the
vertical movement. When the wedge is pushed
against a second wedge, it will lift, but you have to guide that
up and down. The NB bearings are used vertically, horizontally and on an angle.
Positioned For The Next InnovationNewmark just moved their 16 employees to a bigger, newer place with more power. Since they do everything in-house, including all machining to control quality, their power needs keep growing. There is irony in their getting bigger as their products get smaller. And, Mark Filho is confident that inno-vations in miniaturization of automation will lead to ever more growth going forward.www.nbcorporation.com
This article was provided by NB Corporation.
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This vertical positioner,
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32-35-DES.indd 35 13-06-10 11:52 AM
DeWALT, a subsidiary of Stanley Black and Decker, is a brand with a reputation for
providing high quality professional power tools and accessories. But when the company’s lead design engineer for drills was tasked with designing a high power right angle drill that was also lightweight, compact and portable, the solution required more than off-the-shelf components and product knowledge.
According to the design specs, the drill would incorporate a mechanical clutch built to limit maximum torque output to 70 ft-lbs. Absent the clutch, with the huge gear reduction of 75:1, the drill would be capable of producing a lock rotor torque at the spindle of 175 ft-lbs, transmitted directly to the operator of the tool.
Early in the design phase, it was determined that the clutching thrust required in the space available could only be achieved by a disc spring design. Compared to conventional coil springs, disc springs offer a higher load capac-ity in less space. Additionally, longevity and reliability is a high measure of quality for professional tools used on a daily basis. Therefore, the life and performance warranty of the tool was reliant on the disc spring design.
During development, DeWALT’s engineers developed and
theoretically calculated the initial disc spring design but initially choose to work with a low cost disc spring supplier. The first prototype built failed, with the new design achieving less than half the targeted cycle life. Analysis indicated the disc spring’s premature fatigue failure was due to higher than expected stress, lesser quality material and a less than ideal manufacturing process.
Determined to find a solution, the lead engineer contacted SPIROL to discuss the disc spring design. SPIROL’s application engineering team evaluated the design and quickly determined they could not be met by a standard disc spring. SPIROL essen-tially became an extension to DeWALT’s team and focused specifically on the disc spring portion of the design.
Ultimately, SPIROL recommended a custom disc spring design that had alternate dimensions, material and secondary operations. For this demanding and high performance appli-cation, these special features added significant value and ended up costing only pennies more compared to the product offered by the original supplier.
DeWALT tested SPIROL’s recommended disc spring and the tool far exceeded the cycle life requirement. By partnering together, DeWALT and SPIROL determined the best disc spring design for the new angle drill, minimizing costly development time for both companies. DEwww.dewalt.com
This article was supplied by SPIROL
May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
36
The Right Tool for the JobSPIROL’s application engineers and a custom disk spring solve DeWALT tool design problem.
Fasteners&Adhesives
A cut-away of DEWALT high performance
industrial drill showing the placement of
SPIROL’s disc springs.
An exploded view of the DeWALT drill’s mechanical clutch assembly showing the two
custom SPIROL disc springs stacked in series.
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• phone: 402.344.4434 • www.brand-hyd.com • [email protected]
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Brand Hydraulics is a leading global supplier of hydraulic and electro-hydraulic components. Many of the products we provide are customized to specifically meet our customer’s needs for a wide variety of industry applications. Technology, product design, superior manufacturing, and outstanding customer service are at the core of our foundation. Our Mission: Brand Hydraulics will conduct business with integrity and strive to exceed customer expectations while providing value and innovation in our products and services.
Brand valves are used across a broad range of industries:
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36-37-DES.indd 36 13-06-10 11:54 AM
ISO 9001:2008 WITH DESIGNCertificate #02.002.1
• phone: 402.344.4434 • www.brand-hyd.com • [email protected]
IFPE 2014 ConExpoBooth #81507
Brand Hydraulics is a leading global supplier of hydraulic and electro-hydraulic components. Many of the products we provide are customized to specifically meet our customer’s needs for a wide variety of industry applications. Technology, product design, superior manufacturing, and outstanding customer service are at the core of our foundation. Our Mission: Brand Hydraulics will conduct business with integrity and strive to exceed customer expectations while providing value and innovation in our products and services.
Brand valves are used across a broad range of industries:
• Agriculture
• Construction
• Industrial
• Material Handling
• Marine
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• Transportation
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May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
38
By Scott Carlberg
Choosing the appropriate servo technology can make all of the difference when it comes to maximizing the poten-
tial of a machine design. Each individual application has a unique set of requirements that could be satisfi ed in a num-ber of different ways. The ability to identify the key applica-tion requirements coupled with the knowledge of available servo technologies can help the designer achieve the best automation solution. The following applications illustrate some unique challenges and how the automation solution was optimized by leveraging the most appropriate servo technology.
2-Axis Planar Shape CuttingCutting a two dimensional pattern out of a sheet of material is a common application with a number of important require-ments. Whether the cutting is being accomplished with laser, plasma or water jet technology, it is crucial for the planar motion of the X and Y axes to be coordinated smoothly to ensure an optimized fi nished cut.
For example, in a plasma cutting machine that cuts patterns out of sheet metal stock, the X and Y axes are coordinated to move the cutting head through the path of the designated pattern. Each axis is actuated with a standard rotary servomotor coupled to a ballscrew assembly. Depending on the size of the machine, the length of travel for each axis can be relatively long (in this case the travel length of the X-axis is 76 inches and the Y-axis is 49 inches). During operation, a machine of this size and nature can be subject to a few different types of resonant frequencies and vibrations. As a result, the tuning of each servo axis becomes critical to the cut quality on the fi nished part.
During the commissioning of this particular machine, sig-nifi cant amounts of vibration on both X- and Y-axes were being refl ected up through the cutting head. The effect of this vibration
can be seen in both the Y-axis scope plot and the picture of the fi nished part.
Some of the higher end servo systems available today have built-in functionality to account for these types of mechani-cal disturbances. This built-in functionality consists of high resolution feedback devices on the servo motors coupled with advanced tuning algorithms in the servo electronics.
In this application, the servomotors used on the X and Y axes of the machine are equipped with 20-bit (1,048,576 counts per revolution) feedback devices. This high resolution feedback is utilized by an advanced vibration suppression algorithm in the servo amplifi er to effectively eliminate the machine vibrations. By analyzing the feedback on the motor and com-paring it to the commanded motion, the servo amplifi er is able to obtain a mechanical signature of the machine.
Due to the high resolution of the feedback devices, the amplifi er can detect machine disturbances in extremely small increments. The servo amplifi er processes this information and injects a signal that is 180 degrees out of phase with the detected resonances and vibrations, thereby eliminating the disturbances.
Glass CuttingAnother example of 2-axis planar shape cutting is the applica-tion of glass cutting. In this application, the diamond cutting head of a machine cuts patterns out of large glass sheets in the X and Y axes. The key requirements for this application were to improve the machine throughput and accuracy as well as increase the machine’s fl exibility and ease of use. When through-put and accuracy in linear motion are of primary importance, linear servomotor technol-ogy can be a very good solution.
A linear servomotor has the same design concept as a traditional rotary servo-motor with the exception that the motor is laid out fl at. A signifi cant advan-tage of this technology is that mechanical transmis-sion is required to convert from rotary to linear motion. Complicated mechanical designs involv-ing ballscrews, belts and pulleys and other types of gearing can be avoided.
Sharpening the AxesPrecisely tuned servomotor technology can boosts productivity and increase accuracy.
MotionControl
High resolution feedback devices on the servo motors coupled with
tuning algorithms eliminated signifi cant vibration from this plasma
cutting application.
A linear servomotor increased the
throughput of this glass cutting
application by 33 percent.
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40
As a result, linear motor systems, with a high resolution linear feedback device, can be extremely accurate and achieve speeds and accelerations that are magnitudes higher than rotary servomotors used in conjunction with mechanical actuators.
In the glass cutting example above, the machine builder replaced a complicated mechanical design comprised of pneumatic actuators, ballscrews and gearheads with linear motors for the actuation of the X and Y axes of the cutting machine. As a result, the overall machine throughput increased by 33 percent. Cutting speeds were increased to 3 meters per second and cutting acceleration was increased to 1.0 G. All of these improvements equated to a yield of 200 cut pieces per hour. The fi nished part quality was improved due to a doubling of system accuracy (0.05 mm on glass thickness ranging from 2 to 6 mm).
Rotary Table IndexerA rotary table indexer is a classic material handling applica-tion where a work piece gets rotated to multiple locations in a circular path. In many instances, direct drive servomotor technology is a practical solution for this type of application.
Direct drive servomotor design allows for the load inertia to be coupled directly to the motor’s rotor. This motor design eliminates the limitations associated with common mechan-ical components (e.g. couplings, gearheads, ballscrews, belt & pulley, etc).
Once the mechanical compliance is removed, the servo system tuning gains can be increased to a point where you can take full advantage of the total bandwidth capabilities of today’s most advanced servo electronics.
The table was designed to handle three large solar panels, each measuring 49 in x 40 in. When the 3.8 meter diameter table is fully loaded with three solar panels, the total load inertia (the load that is rotated by the motor) is 400 kg-m2. To index a load this large with a conventional rotary servo motor, a signifi cant amount of gearing would be required.
A direct drive motor was used in this application. The inertia of the rotor of the direct drive motor was 0.31 kg-m2. This resulted in a load to rotor inertia mismatch of 1300:1. Due to the table’s rigid design and that it was directly coupled to the direct drive motor, the system was able to perform a reasonable move profi le regardless of this incredibly large inertia mismatch. A target move time of 5 sec for a 120 degree move was achieved (with a settling window of 10 counts) in this application. The bearings in the motor were able to support the entire fully loaded moving structure.
It is important to note that the pole count, feedback resolution and torque constant of this particular direct drive motor were chosen to optimize perfor-mance for this application.
The key thing to take away from this application example is that when applied properly, direct drive motor technology can result in performance that cannot be matched with any other motor technology. DEwww.yaskawa.com
Scott Carlberg is the motion control product marketing manager for the Drives & Motion Division of Yaskawa America, Inc.
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41
Automation
Multi-Axis GripperSCHUNK rolled out its LEG multi axis gripper, with fi xed center jaws, fi ngers made of carbon fi ber reinforced plas-tic and a pneumatic ejector. The gripper, which pre-adjusts its position as the robot approaches, palletizes between 15 and 60 units per minute, at a clamping accuracy of less than 0.1 mm. Due to the universal servo-electric drive concept, the gripper fi ngers can be separately controlled, and articles can be laid down separately. Moreover, the gauge for bore holes between the fi ngers can be defi ned
individually. The gripper weighs 60 kg without chuck jaws. Depending on the article and weight, solutions with minimum clearances between 3 and 10 millimeters are possible. Depending on the size, the LEG multi axis gripper clamps up to 100 kg force-fi t, and up to 150 kg form-fi t.www.schunk.com
Wireless Ethernet GatewayWAGO Corporation introduced its IP65-rated WLAN Wireless Ethernet Gateways designed to replace Ethernet network cables. The 758-916 (2.4 GHz) and 758-917 (5 GHz) Wireless Ethernet Gateways (WEGS) transmit data up to 1,300 ft (400M) line-of-sight. The WEGs wirelessly transmit ETHERNET protocols (e.g. MODBUS/TCP, Ether-Net/IP or PROFINET). With a IP65 housing, the gateways feature an integrated antenna (circularly polarized for heavily metallic environments) and on-unit LEDs for at-
a-glance diagnostics/operational status updates. In addition, the Industry Canada and FCC-approved units feature M12 cables to provide power and Ethernet connectivity. www.wago.us
Z-Axis NanopositionersAerotech introduced a line of ANT-L-Z crossed-roller, Z-axis, nanopositioning stages, offered in two models (ANT95-L-Z and ANT130-L-Z) and two accuracy grades. Utilizing non-contact direct-drive technology, the ANT-L-Z stages provide nanometer performance in a large travel format (25 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm, 60 mm travels). The line also features high resolution (2 nm), repeat-ability (75 nm) and accuracy (300 nm) with in-position stability of less than 2 nm, assisted by anti-creep, crossed-roller bearings. The ANT-L-Z stages use a nearly friction-less counterbalance mechanism to maintain performance levels while minimizing motor heating. The counterbalance is user-adjustable from 0 to 10 kg, depending on stage model.www.aerotech.com
Power Transmission
Belt Drive Actuators MISUMI USA introduced its MSA Series Belt Drive Actuators, confi gurable to carry loads up to 227 kg (500 lbs), with travel speeds ranging from 1200 to 10,000 mm/sec, and standard lengths up to 6.25 meters. The pulleys used feature precision-machined
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May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
42
one-piece steel construction and nickel plated with an integral shaft. The timing belts are made of steel cords molded into highly fl exible
polyurethane material. All MSA Series Actuator models have been tested over tens of millions of cycles with no failures and all have a repeatability of +/-25 µm or better. MISUMI offers a line-up of eight standard MSA Belt Drive Actuators, with selec-tion depending on each user’s specifi c application requirements. www.misumiusa.com
Linear Rail Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions introduced its BGS06 linear rail, which integrates an IDEA Drive. The linear rail also utilizes a size 17 single stack or double stack stepper motor linear actuator with an integrated and fully programmable stepper motor con-troller. The BGS06 has a maximum stroke length of 24-in (610mm) and a maximum horizontal load of 135 lb (600N). The rail’s RoHS-compliant IDEA drive system has an input voltage range of 12-48VDC and maximum current of 2.6A RMS with a current
boost capability of up to 30 percent during ramping. The com-ponent has four digital inputs and outputs. In addition, the rail features USB and RS-485 ports for communications.www.HaydonKerk.com
Lever Actuated Shaft CollarsStafford Manufacturing Corp. has expanded its Staff-Lok line of lever actuated shaft collars, which can be opened, moved, and re-clamped by hand for use in larger, non-rotary applications. The collars feature an integral hinge with a conformal cam lever for clamping and a knurled nut for adjusting the clamping preset, which makes it easy to move by lifting the lever, moving the col-lar, and clamping it by hand. Machined from steel with a smooth bore, Staff-Lok Shaft Collars come in three body and round bore size combinations: 2-1/8 inches O.D. with 1/2-, 5/8-, 3/4-, 7/8-, and 1-inch bores; 3-1/4 inches O.D. with 1-1/8-, 1-1/4-, 1-1/2-, and 1-3/4-inch bores; and 4-1/4 inches O.D. with 2-, 2-1/4-, and 2-1/2-inch bores.www.staffordmfg.com
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DES-41-45.indd 42 13-06-10 12:23 PM
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43
Sensors
Inductive Proximity SensorsCarlo Gavazzi announced that its ICB Series Proximity Sensors have been certifi ed for use in hazardous environments. By division, the certifi cation includes hazardous locations with presence of fl ammable gases or vapours (Class I) includes; hazardous atmospheres only present under fault conditions and only for very short periods of time (Div 2) and Groups A, B, C, and D of explosive gases (Acetylene, Hydrogen, Ethylene and Propane). The sensors feature the same microprocessor design and AirCore sensing coil, along with a potting process that allows users to install the sensor in heavy duty applications. There are no new part numbers involved, as the Class I, Div 2 rating is an enhancement to the existing ICB Series. www.gavazzionline.com
Magnetic Positioning SensorSICK USA launched its MPA magnetic positioning sen-sor that feature analog current from 4 to 20 mA and an analog voltage between 0 and 10V. With measur-ing lengths from 107 to 1,007 mm, the MPA provides high-resolution, non-contact position measurement. The sensor is enclosed in a IP 67-rated aluminum hous-
ing that can be mounted on various cylinders, including T-slot, round and tie rod. The MPA includes a teach pad, a 4-color LED display and several mounting accessories.www.sickusa.com
High-Resolution Encoders AutomationDirect announced that it has extended its line of Koyo medium duty encoder to include high PPR (Pulses Per Revolution) models. Available in Totem Pole (Push-Pull) or line driver (differential) confi gurations, the encoders feature a 50mm diam-eter body with a 35mm depth. Models are con-structed with an 8mm diameter solid or hollow shaft and offer incremental resolutions of 3000, 3600 or 5000 PPR. The encoders are also fi tted with a two-meter cable with tinned ends and are available with either 5 VDC or 5 to 30 VDC inputs; the high-PPR encoders provide up to 200 kHz response frequency. www.automationdirect.com
Hygienic SensorsBaumer announced that it now offers a range of sensors designed to withstand chemicals and/or high pressure washdowns. Baumer’s OADR 20 series of laser sensors provides resolutions from 5 µm and carry an IP68/IP69K rating. Baumer Series 14 hygienic photoelectric sensors are available in stan-dard models as well as a version featuring Smart-Refl ect, a light barrier that operates without a refl ector and has a sensing distance of 800 mm.
Baumer CleverLevel sensors are certifi ed according to FDA, EHEDG and 3A guidelines and
offer 1.4404 stainless steel housings, matching PM023 weld-in boss and PEEK plastic sensor tips. LBFS versions feature standard output confi gurations and operate from
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May/June | 2013 www.design-engineering.com
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-40 to +115°C, while LFFS versions withstand operating process temperatures from -40 to +200°C. The company’s IFBR and IFRR series of inductive sensors are Ecolab-tested and EHEDG-certified. Baumer’s UNAR 18 series of ultrasonic sensors feature stainless steel housings with a parylene coating for increased chemical resistance. www.baumer.com
Motors
Washdown Duty MotorBaldor Electric Company intro-duced its Super White Wash-down Duty motor designed for humid and moist environ-ments in the food and bever-age industry. Its autophoretic autodeposition exterior sur-face preparation method makes the white epoxy finish coat of this motor five times more
resistant to corrosion and chipping than previous methods. The shaft, hardware and nameplate are all 300 series stainless steel, to prevent rust and corrosion. The motor line also includes labyrinth seals on each end of the motor, enhanced sealing around the lead exit, same size bearings on each end and a moisture resistant insulation system. Neoprene rubber gaskets on the conduit box ensure a tight, waterproof seal. It also features a maintenance-friendly drain design with four condensation drain plugs. A notched fan cover allows access to condensate drain plugs without remov-ing the fan cover. Baldor Super White Washdown Duty motors are NEMA Premium efficient and are available from 1 to 20 HP, 56°C through 256°C.www.baldor.com
All-in-One Stepper MotorOriental Motor introduced its PKA Series, a line of integrated stepper motors, drivers and controllers. The All-in-One motor features a built-in controller (stored
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Dust Collectors NEW - Full Line Literature GuideThis impressive NEW guide outlines dozens of N.R. Murphy dust collectors, installations, capacities, styles and models. A must for any reference library. N.R. Murphy Limited has been in business over 70 years and has thousands of satisfied customers. “Dust Collectors are all we do; so get it done right the first time. Just Ask the Experts.” Contact: [email protected] us at: www. nrmurphy.com
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Clippard Offers Miniature Pneumatic Products Catalog for Scientific/Medical ApplicationsA leader in miniature pneumatics, Clippard provides the scientific/medical industry a variety of products and solutions. The product range is illustrated in a color brochure featuring the most complete line of miniature fluid power products for the medical, pharmaceutical analytical and dental fields. To get your copy today please visit our website at the address printed below.Contact: [email protected] Visit us at: www.clippard.com/scientific-a
DES-41-45.indd 44 13-06-10 12:23 PM
www.design-engineering.com May/June | 2013
45
data) type, microstepping driver and a 0.72° stepper as the base motor. The built-in positioning function ensures that the travel-ing amount, speed, and other operating data are retained in the motor. The motor is also equipped with a variety of other operation functions in addition to the positioning operation, such as continuous operation and a return-to-home operation. The PKA Series has DC input and available in 42 mm (1.65 in.) and 60 mm (2.36 in.) frame sizes.www.orientalmotor.com
Process
Centrifugal PumpsKSB Canada released the latest generation of its Movitec high-pressure centrifugal pumps. The series features laser welded hydraulics and are available with a range of material and seal options. With seal variants rated for temperatures from -30°C to +140°C, these standardized centrifugal pumps are designed to handle a huge variety of media, ranging from water
(including acidic and alkaline solutions), alcohol and vegetable oils to petroleum products and condensates, liquid CO2 and LPG. A new addition to the product range is the tri-clamp cou-pling, designed for pharmaceutical and hygienic food or bever-age applications. They are rated for volumes of up to 113 m3/h (498 gpm) and discharge pressure of up to 2,496 kPA (362 psi). www.ksb.ca
Solenoid ValveFesto introduced the VZWF valve, a force pilot operated solenoid valve that can be used with water, air and neutral media. This new valves utilize relatively small solenoids to control high pressures with large nominal diameters. The units can switch at pressures as low as 0 bar and close automatically in the case of a pressure loss in the circuit. These valves can be applied in closed media circuits. The VZWF series is generally suitable for applications in which the medium can be vented downstream of the valve into the atmosphere or a tank. The VZWP is used for gaseous and liquid material flows up to a viscosity of 22 mm²/s.www.festo.ca
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46
By Treena Hein
It was some time ago that the big global electrical product companies saw the “lighting” on the wall. The need for a
greener light bulb – one that’s much more energy efficient and lasts a long time but is still economical and environmen-tally-friendly to produce – was clear. Experienced teams at these gigantic companies set to work, with huge budgets at their disposal.
But a small, independent trio of engineers, all University of Toronto alumni, also took a stab at the problem – and have achieved astonishing levels of energy efficiency that surpass what anyone else has produced thus far. Meet Tom Rodinger, Gimmy Chu and Christian Yan, creators of the Nanoleaf light bulb, an LED lightbulb that its creators say is as bright as conventional bulbs but lasts much longer.
The Nanoleaf’s journey began during the trio’s time as part of the University of Toronto “Blue Sky” solar car racing team. Their experience with the car’s electronics and circuitry gave them great familiarity with efficient circuit design. “We’ve all been really passionate about developing green energy products for the planet for a while,” says Chu. “Our current focus is in
green energy products such as solar and LED technology.” The bulb’s design features small LEDs mounted onto a folded
PCB circuit board so that a bulb shape is achieved, and uses only 12 watts of electricity to produce the light output of a 100W bulb. It turns on instantly and will last for about 20 years. That’s about 30,000 hours of usage, which is equal to that of 30 incandescent bulbs or four compact fluorescent.
“Our signature product, the 12W NanoLeaf, produces 1600 lumens (133 Lm/W) which is hard to achieve with LED light bulbs,” Chu explains. “Some of the bigger brands have just started coming out with 1600 Lm bulbs, but they use much more electricity – 20W for the Sylvania and 23W for the Phil-ips model.” The LED bulb that won the 2012 U.S. Department of Energy’s “L Prize” achieves only 93.4 Lm/W.
It gets better. “Many LED bulbs have the issue where, if used in an enclosed fixture, heat will cause the bulb to burn out within a few months,” says Chu. “These bulbs need a large heat sink to dissipate the heat.” The Nanoleaf solves this problem through over-temperature circuitry protection, so in a fully-enclosed fixture, it will automatically dim to prevent damage. It helps that the NanoLeaf also runs fairly cool compared to other LED light bulbs – yes, you can touch it while it’s on.
Light of a New AgeU of T engineering grads create the “most efficient light bulb in the world.”
CanadianInnovator
From left: U of T engineering graduates—Gimmy Chu, Tom Rodinger, Christian Yan—with their high-efficiency LED lightbulb, the NanoLeaf.
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“Eventually we will pursue the Energy Star certification,” adds Chu. “At the moment, we’re focusing our efforts in some of the other required certifications for getting the product onto store shelves in various countries.”
The team hasn’t yet done the testing to see what extreme outdoor temperatures will do to the lifetime of the bulb, and therefore currently recommend it for indoor use only.
Support for the Nanoleaf has been impressive from the start. In January, the team used crowd-funding web site KickStarter to raise funds for production of a first batch, with a goal of $20,000. By March, they had generated over ten times that amount: $270,000 from over 5,700 backers all around the world.
“It was incredible for us to find so many like-minded people so supportive of our work, says Chu. “There’s still a constant stream of people placing pre-orders every day.”
One of the most challenging aspects of the entire journey was the manufacturing.
“We needed to define a process where folding of the circuit board wouldn’t cause any damage to the circuitry,” Chu explains. “This has not been done by any other manufacturer before, but through making the initial batch of 5,000 bulbs, we are ironing out the issues and we’re confident we’ll have a process that can be expanded to a larger scale.”
Hammering out the design and manufacture was also challenging geographically. The three have lived in three different countries (Canada, the U.S. and China) for a while, and each do a lot of travelling, which made collaboration interesting.
“We had to constantly call each other across various time zones and plan trips to continue working on the project,” says Chu. “But we are a great team, and we each bring a specialty to the table. We’re all working day and night to make this product a success.”
While at U of T, the team members found inspiration in attending the Electrical & Computer Engineering program’s entrepreneur speaker series, where alumni come and talk about building their start-ups.
Coming full circle, Rodinger, Chu and Yan have been invited to be present next year. By then, they’ll be able to tell the next generation of engineering students how they worked to build a global distribution network and describe their work to launch other light bulb models, including one that is dimmable.
“Our goal with the NanoLeaf is to facilitate the global transition to LED lighting, and we’re on the way to reaching that goal,” says Chu. “It’s been a great ride so far.” DEwww.thenanoleaf.com
CanadianInnovator
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