Manufacturing Technology

Octopus inspired robot

In the picture:It has the ability to morph (change shape), propel itself and turn quickly in water (i.e. super-manoeuvrability) efficiently and silently, lending itself to future possibilities in surveillance and inspection. Scientists in Singapore have developed a new octopus-inspired robot which can zip through water 10 times its body length within one second, in an ultra-efficient manner. This first-ever ultra-fast propulsion and super-manoeuvrability demonstrated in underwater vehicles is unprecedented; and is the work of researchers and an engineer from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). This ground-breaking research validates the physics of shape change (that forms the basis of jet propulsion of cephalopods) to give additional thrust to underwater vehicles. Inspired by the speed at which cephalopods like the octopus, flee from danger by inflating its mantle cavity with water to a bluff-body shape and then quickly expelling it to dart away, the researchers started building an octopus-inspired robot in November 2013. The end result is a polycarbonate 3D printed streamlined skeleton which had no moving parts and no energy storage device other than a thin elastic outer membrane. It works like blowing up a balloon and then releasing it to fly around the room. The 27cm long robot is inflated with water and once released, rapidly deflates by shooting the water out through an aperture at its base to power its propulsion. As the rocket contracts, it can achieve more than 2.6 times the thrust of a rigid rocket doing the same manoeuvre, while creating minimum turbulence – an important feature in underwater research / survey vehicles. The skeleton within the robot keeps the final shape streamlined, while fins at the tail, help in stabilisation. When a fish escapes by swimming fast, it bends its body and zooms through the water, losing some energy to the surrounding […]

Farm technology among Hi-Tech Award finalists

For the second consecutive year, Hamilton-based Dairy Automation Limited (DAL) has been named finalist in two categories of the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards. The subsidiary of farmer-owned co-operative LIC specialises in manufacturing sensor technology systems for the dairy shed, for real-time on-farm milk analysis. Its CellSense system is a finalist for the Endace Innovative Hi-Tech Hardware Product award, and YieldSense system is up for the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Innovative Agritech Product award. CellSense meters measure somatic cell counts for early detection of mastitis. It is the only fully automated in-shed in-line somatic cell count sensor in the world. YieldSense is a combined full flow milk meter and milk component measurement device for the individual measurement of cow milk in the dairy shed. The six-in-one sensor analyses yield, fat, protein, lactose, conductivity and plant wash. Both systems provide real-time results while a cow is being milked, that farmers can utilise to increase production, reduce treatment costs and make more informed herd management decisions. They also integrate with LIC’s Protrack automation systems, so any cows identified by the sensor systems as requiring closer inspection or further treatment will be alerted to the farmer and automatically drafted at the end of milking. The sensors are highly regarded by farmers in New Zealand and demand from farmers overseas is increasing too. Sensor technology has the potential to revolutionise traditional herd testing practices.

ESPRIT 2015 to Increase productivity and automation

In the picture:The new ESPRIT 2015 5-Axis Chamfering strategy chamfers edges lying along a 3D curve. ESPRIT helps increase productivity for a full range of machine tool applications by generating more efficient toolpaths while also saving time by providing substantial improvements in computer numerical control (CNC) programming productivity. Besides increasing productivity, the release also provides many new and improved features specifically in the areas of intelligent machining, strategic machining, CAD-CAM data exchange and Cloud-Enabled CAM.: ESPRIT 2015 5 – Axis Blade Roughing cycle makes it possible to completely machine blades in a single setup. Intelligent Machining Intelligent machining features in ESPRIT 2015 accelerates the machining process by providing new and unique 5-Axis cycles that reduce cycle time. This makes it possible to completely machine blades in a single setup. ESPRIT´s 5-Axis Blade Roughing tool motion is morphed across the blade from any size stock shape to uniformly offset stock allowance so it can be immediately followed by a finishing cycle. ESPRIT 2015 offers unique features in 5-axis to make complex machining more efficient, allowing users to have more tool path options with features like blade roughing and chamfering.» said Cedric Simard, Global Marketing & Communication Director of DP Technology. »ESPRIT 2015 blade roughing enables users to remove material down to uniform stock around the blade and eliminates the need to follow semi-finish cycles. Users in the aerospace, energy, medical and automotive industries will benefit the most from these time-saving operations for precision parts.» The Port Roughing cycle, another intelligent machining improvement in ESPRIT 2015, is a brand new 5-Axis cycle. It creates a 5-axis roughing operation to remove the material inside an area where the tool must enter through a restricted opening. The shape of the toolpath is an offset of the port surfaces, starting […]

The world’s most flexible, lightweight tabletop robot

Industrial automation specialists Design Energy, has announced the launch of the new UR3 robot from Universal Robots into the New Zealand Market. The UR3, which went through a three-year development phase, is an affordable tabletop robot that has a payload of 3kg and weighs a mere 11kg. It allows for 360-degree rotation on all wrist joints and infinite rotation on the end joint, ideal for tightening fasteners. The size and price point of the UR3 is proving to be a great first step for any company looking towards automation. The user friendly touchscreen teach-pendant removes the steep learning curve associated with programming a typical 6-axis robot. The light-weight compact robot can easily be moved around a number of processes to increase its utilisation and significantly reduce the payback period, which on average is less than 195 days. Mike Shatford the Director of Design Energy can see an exciting opportunity for manufacturers who have not looked to automation previously, due the cost of the hardware. “The new UR3 from Universal has significantly lowered the price of automating a process using a 6-axis robot. Manufacturers can now introduce an industrial robot into production at almost half the cost of technology which is currently available. We’ve been amazed by the variety of industries who have approached us about integrating a UR3 into their production. The robot is extremely capable and easy to use…. When you combine this with the game changing price point, we can see the UR3 making a different for a large number of local manufacturers.” UR3 Key Features: • 6 axis, collaborative table-top robot • Weight: 11kg • Payload: 3kg • Reach: 500mm • 360 degree rotation on all wrist joints, infinite rotation on end joint • Repeatability: ±0.1 mm (±0,004 in) • 15 adjustable, advanced safety settings; force limit: […]

Octopus inspired robot

It has the ability to morph (change shape), propel itself and turn quickly in water (i.e. super-manoeuvrability) efficiently and silently, lending itself to future possibilities in surveillance and inspection. Scientists in Singapore have developed a new octopus-inspired robot which can zip through water 10 times its body length within one second, in an ultra-efficient manner. This first-ever ultra-fast propulsion and super-manoeuvrability demonstrated in underwater vehicles is unprecedented; and is the work of researchers and an engineer from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). This ground-breaking research validates the physics of shape change (that forms the basis of jet propulsion of cephalopods) to give additional thrust to underwater vehicles. Inspired by the speed at which cephalopods like the octopus, flee from danger by inflating its mantle cavity with water to a bluff-body shape and then quickly expelling it to dart away, the researchers started building an octopus-inspired robot in November 2013. The end result is a polycarbonate 3D printed streamlined skeleton which had no moving parts and no energy storage device other than a thin elastic outer membrane. It works like blowing up a balloon and then releasing it to fly around the room. The 27cm long robot is inflated with water and once released, rapidly deflates by shooting the water out through an aperture at its base to power its propulsion. As the rocket contracts, it can achieve more than 2.6 times the thrust of a rigid rocket doing the same manoeuvre, while creating minimum turbulence – an important feature in underwater research / survey vehicles. The skeleton within the robot keeps the final shape streamlined, while fins at the tail, help in stabilisation. When a fish escapes by swimming fast, it bends its body and zooms through the water, losing some energy to the surrounding water and […]

Delcam announces new Leadership

Manufacturing software developer Delcam announces that Pete Baxter has been appointed to lead Delcam in the new role of Vice President. Pete joins Delcam from its parent company, Autodesk, Inc, where he was a Vice President of Sales and served as the country manager for Autodesk in the United Kingdom. “I’m thrilled to announce the appointment of Pete Baxter as Vice President, Delcam Ltd.,” said Buzz Kross, Autodesk senior vice president, Design, Lifecycle and Simulation. “In his new role, Pete will be responsible for managing the global Delcam business, and for leading the company in the next stage of its growth. Pete brings to Delcam extensive leadership experience and knowledge, critical in helping Delcam develop closer connections to Autodesk, to the benefit of both organisations and our customers.” “I am delighted to be joining Delcam, and helping create the next generation of manufacturing software,” said Pete Baxter, Vice President, Delcam, Ltd. “The company has an unrivalled reputation for the support and industry-leading products it offers to manufacturing companies around the world. I look forward to working with Delcam’s staff and reseller channel to accelerate the growth of the business and to deliver an even better manufacturing experience to our customers.” Pete joined Autodesk in 2004, most recently serving as a Vice President in the Autodesk Worldwide Sales organisation. Prior to that, he held a number of other sales and management roles, including head of sales for Northern Europe, where he was responsible for sales across the Manufacturing, AEC, Media and Entertainment industries. Previously, Pete held management positions at companies including Revit Technology Corporation, Bentley Systems and PTC.

FeatureCAM includes Vortex milling calculator

FeatureCAM 2015 R2 includes the Vortex milling calculator to help users obtain the maximum benefit from the high-efficiency area-clearance strategy. The 2015 R2 release of Delcam’s FeatureCAM feature-based CAM software incorporates a milling calculator to help users obtain the maximum benefit from the Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy. Other enhancements, among the 280 customer-requested improvements since the initial 2015 release last September, include the ability to create multi-tool blocks within machine designs, better control over toolpath output and more efficient automatic selection of tools. FeatureCAM was the world’s first feature-based programming software when it was launched in 1995. Constant development since then has ensured that the system has retained its leadership in programming speed and ease of use, while an increased range of strategies has been added to provide more efficient toolpaths that give greater productivity on a wider range of machinery, including mill-turn machines, five-axis mills and wire EDM equipment. The Vortex area-clearance strategy in FeatureCAM produces safe toolpaths with a much deeper cut by using a controlled engagement angle that maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the whole toolpath. As a result, higher feed rates and material-removal rates are possible, making the cutting time shorter by as much as 70%. In addition, cutting is undertaken at a more consistent volume-removal rate and at a near constant feed rate, so extending tool life and protecting the machine. The radical nature of Vortex can make it difficult for users to set the optimum parameters when they first apply the strategy. To overcome this problem, Delcam has added a calculator that provides an easy way to maximise productivity and efficiency with Vortex. The calculator uses control of the maximum chip thickness to calculate the appropriate feeds and speeds that will minimise the cutting time while maintaining […]

An environmentally friendly alternative for polystyrene

While it is used all over the world as a light packaging and insulation material, EPS (expanded polystyrene) is a problem as waste. This is why VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is currently developing an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative for polystyrene from PLA bioplastic, which is derived from organic sources. The annual production volume of EPS is 5–6 million tonnes per year. Usually this non-biodegradable material ends up on waste tips or is disposed of by burning, which results in compounds that are hazardous to health. PLA (polylactide) is a bioplastic made from renewable materials with the help of lactic acid. VTT is investigating methods of foaming bioplastics to make beads that are further refined into products such as insulation sheets, using methods typical of EPS manufacturing processes. The expansion of the bioplastic by foaming is carried out with consideration for the environment, using carbon dioxide. The density and heat insulation properties of the new biomaterial are similar to those of polystyrene. VTT plans to take its development work closer to industrial processing and to proceed from laboratory work to factory testing. Therefore, in order to collaborate in this development it is now looking for partners from among companies operating in the field. PLA products similar to polystyrene already exist, but their problem is their high price. In collaboration with companies operating in the field, VTT will be looking for new and more efficient production methods to enable the manufacturing of affordable products. VTT is also developing a process for PLA based on extrusion foaming, in order to replace polystyrene in traffic and packaging applications, for example.

Taking self-assembly to the limits

Gold nanoparticles smaller than 10 nanometers spontaneously self-organise in entirely new ways when trapped inside channel-like templates. A new study shows that this feature could facilitate easier nanoscale manufacturing of biosensors and plasmonic devices with intricate, high-density surface structures. Generating surface patterns at scales of 10 nanometers and below is difficult with current technology. An international team, led by Joel Yang from the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore, is helping to circumvent this limitation using a technique known as ‘directed self-assembly of nanoparticles’ (DSA-n). This approach takes spherical nanoparticles that spontaneously organise into ordered, two-dimensional films when inserted into lithographically defined templates. The templates impose geometric constraints that force the films to organise into specific nanoscale patterns. Most patterns produced by DSA-n, however, are simple periodic arrangements. To broaden this technique’s capabilities, researchers are exploring ‘structure transitions’ that occur when template constraints become comparable to the size of the nanoparticles. At these dimensions, the small spheres can dislocate from typical periodic positions and reorient into unpredictable new geometries. Previous studies have used real-time video microscopy to capture structure transitions in microscale colloids, but direct imaging of sub-10-nanometer particles is nearly impossible. “That’s where we came up with the idea of using templates based on channels with gradually varying widths,” says co-author Mohamed Asbahi. “With this system, we can track the self-assembly of the nanoparticles according to the space accessible to them.” Using electron-beam lithography techniques, the team carved out an array of inward tapering trenches designed to fit 1 to 3 rows of gold nanoparticles. After depositing a monolayer of 8-nanometer particles in the template, they used scanning electron microscopy to identify any emergent width-dependent patterns. Between periodically ordered rows, the researchers saw clear evidence of transition state zones — regions where the tiny spheres buckle […]

Delcam lifts the curtain on its enhanced modelling and reverse-engineering capability for 2015

“Designers are great at designing; that’s what they do. Unfortunately what they design is often not capable of being manufactured.” New dynamic point-editing allows PowerSHAPE Pro users to create any shape they can imagine. The latest version of PowerSHAPE Pro – including improvements in direct modelling, surface modelling and reverse-engineering, along with support for data from Creaform HandySCAN handheld scanners – received a rapturous reception form SE- Asia and Australasia’s leading manufacturers and designers at a symposium held in South Korea recently. Delcam’s Senior Applications Engineer, Charlie Jones, led off, to the delight of many, with his comment: “Designers are great at designing; that’s what they do. Unfortunately what they design is often not capable of being manufactured.” Once the comments which flew around the assembly had settled, he launched into the enhancements of one of Delcam’s almost- legendary software tools, PowerSHAPE, and its significant enhancements this coming year. A number of these improvements are built on top of the recently introduced Smart Feature Manager (SFM) and the Smart Feature Selector (SFS). SFM allows users to identify all the feature, such as fillets, slots, bosses and others, within a solid, in a single operation, so making the analysis of the imported data, that much easier and faster. The SFS then allows multiple similar features to be found and selected, using either a specific value or a range of values. Once the particular group has been selected, all the features can be edited, simultaneously, e.g. all holes with a diameter of 5mm can have their diameter increased to 10mm – in one operation. “This new functionality,” says Jones, “will speed the preparation of models for manufacturing significantly, e.g. a very common problem in product designs, to be moulded or cast, is fillet sizes being set so small, they restrict the flow […]

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