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New Cobot Welder is programmable with smartphone app

The new Cobot Welder from Hirebotics is a major leap forward in easy-to-use welding automation that combines industrial-grade robot welding functionality with consumer-level ease-of-use and a phenomenal price point -- especially for small and medium-size businesses. The Cobot Welder's app programmability decreases the time required to teach a new part by 60%. A Hirebotics/Universal Robots launch event will be held April 28.
Read the full article.

When should designers use crossed roller bearings?

Crossed rollers use a series of cylindrical bearings or rollers set at 90 degrees to one another to form a V that fits into a slot on the rail. Each roller provides an entire line of contact, as opposed to just the point or two of contact provided by liner actuators using ball bearings. The result is less deformation and the ability to carry heavier loads.
Read this informative ISOTECH blog.

Structural adhesive offers 4x temp stability

Developed primarily for use in the automotive industry and mechanical engineering, DELO has launched an adhesive with exceptionally high temperature stability. DELO MONOPOX HT2999 achieves compression shear strength of 20 MPa at 180 C. This is four times greater than its predecessor and other products on the market. High-temperature-resistant adhesives are in demand for use with electric motors and power electronics. Many products that are currently on the market show a clear drop in performance at temperatures above 150 C. DELO's new structural adhesive can handle it.
Learn more.

Retaining rings and wave springs solutions

Finding the best possible solution for your design challenge is no easy task. That's why we're here to help you find the right wave spring, retaining ring, or constant section ring for all of your applications. Choose from one of our 12 product types, 400 sizes, and 10,000+ standard parts in carbon and stainless steel, or challenge our team of engineers to tailor a custom part fit to your exact application requirements.
Request free samples today!

High-performance vibratory feed system handles larger range of parts

The SPIROL Series 2000 is a proven and reliable dual-axis feeding concept that is unlike anything else on the market. It can feed many parts that were once considered not suitable for vibrating feeders, including fuses, tablets, packets, soft rubber parts, fragile parts, and parts that are coated or have a film on them. It is tuned electronically rather than by re-springing, which makes setup and changeover for multiple bowls on one drive a snap. In automated assembly lines, this system offers maximum efficiency, reduced power consumption, and less noise.
View the video.

Servo-insert coupling with new hub design

RINGFEDER has recently released its GWE 5113 series of elastomer jaw servo-couplings featuring a new hub design. This design eliminates radial loads and achieves uniform power transmission with an even clamp force and symmetrical arrangement of clamp and screw positions. GWE 5113 couplings precisely transmit torques from 3 to 560 Nm. The hub is slit partially through and located directly under the jaws to minimize pressure on the shaft. Backlash-free units come with an elastomer spider with 98 Shore A hardness, minimizing movement and achieving longer life cycles. Seven sizes available.
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HVACR Tech Tip: Understanding the basic refrigeration cycle

This Parker Hannifin Climate Control blog reviews the basic refrigeration cycle and the interaction between its four basic components: compressor, condenser, expansion device, and evaporator. It looks at each component and its function, and then at what happens when components are not properly matched.
Read this informative Parker blog.

Antibacterial handles stop germs in their tracks

Contact infections with viruses, fungi, and bacteria were already a problem even before the pandemic, and now JW Winco is expanding its Sanline range of antibacterial products. For their plastic products, special additives with silver ions are mixed in, while metal parts are given powder coatings based on zinc molybdate.
Read the full article.

New metal 3D-printing materials include Inconel, titanium, and maraging steel at Xometry

Xometry has added four new 3D-printed metals to its on-demand manufacturing services: maraging steel, Inconel 625, Inconel 718, and titanium. These premium alloys complement the already available stainless steel and aluminum metal 3D printing. Metal parts in these alloys are produced using direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), which fuses powdered metal with a high-powered laser to build parts layer by layer.
Learn all about these materials in this Xometry blog.

Eaton launches next-gen hollow-head valves for improved engine efficiency

Eaton's Vehicle Group has introduced its next-generation sodium-filled hollow-head valves. Unlike traditional hollow valves, the head portion of the new valves is composed of two separate sections that are welded together during the production process. The new valves have the capability to cool down the combustion face and, therefore, the chamber temperature, which increases the spark advance and air-to-fuel ratio because the engine is less inclined to knock. As a result, the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) can be increased and emissions reduced. The valves are being evaluated by several global automakers, with start of production scheduled for 2023.
Learn more.

Counterbalance support hinge for heavy panels and lids

SOUTHCO has expanded its series of Counter-balance Hinges with a new product that reduces the total solution cost of lifting and positioning heavy panels and lids. The CB Counterbalance Support Hinge enables ergonomic lifting and position control when combined with a CB Counterbalance Hinge by using stored energy to balance the weight distribution of a lid or panel. The all-aluminum hinges are fully adjustable, allowing the experience of opening and closing the panel to be tailored to the unique requirements of the application.
Learn more.

Precision flexible antivibration couplings

New Antivibration Flexible Couplings from Stock Drive Products / Sterling Instrument (SDP/SI) are designed for use with high-gain servomotors. When a servomotor drives a mechanism, as in applications such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment, blood analyzers, or high-speed printers, a change in direction causes a phenomenon called hunting. Hunting is vibration in the system that reduces transit time, making the equipment less efficient. The Antivibration Flexible Coupling features a unique construction of vibration-reducing rubber (FKM) molded with aluminum hubs. The resulting rubber-lined, finger-like structure allows for optimal torsional rigidity and damping.
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Toughened NASA low-outgassing epoxy

Master Bond Supreme 70CN is a two-part epoxy adhesive formulated using a natural, renewable, and sustainable ingredient. This moderate-viscosity, unfilled epoxy is black in color and can be used for bonding, sealing, coating, and potting in aerospace, electric vehicle, electronic, opto-electronic, battery, and OEM applications, particularly those involving composites and fibers. It resists thermal cycling and is ideal for bonding dissimilar substrates including metals, ceramics, many rubbers, plastic materials, and composites. It features low shrinkage upon cure, a high tensile strength, is serviceable from -100 to 400 F, and has a working life of 60 to 90 min.
Learn more.

Top Tech Tip: Innovative way to take up tolerances!

Smalley Linear Springs are a continuous wave formed (marcelled) wire length produced from spring tempered materials. They act as a load-bearing device, having approximately the same load/deflection characteristics as a wave spring. Linear Springs are now available as a standard part in carbon and stainless steel, with over 200 sizes.
Learn more.

Off-Road Machinery: Top 10 Parker Hannifin blogs

Combining innovative thinking with core technological competency can tame the challenges of off-road machinery operating in hazardous mining, agricultural, forestry, material handling, and construction environments. From major components and systems to the smallest fittings and bolts, learn about Parker Hannifin's core technologies that are leading the way to improving productivity, efficiency, reliability, and safety.
Read the Top 10 Parker Hannifin off-road machinery blogs.

UChicago Medicine doctors see 'remarkable' success using ventilator alternatives to treat COVID-19

Doctors at the University of Chicago Medicine are seeing "truly remarkable" results using high-flow nasal cannulas rather than ventilators and intubation to treat some COVID-19 patients.

High-flow nasal cannulas, or HFNCs, are non-invasive nasal prongs that sit below the nostrils and blow large volumes of warm, humidified oxygen into the nose and lungs.

A team from UChicago Medicine's emergency room took 24 COVID-19 patients who were in respiratory distress and gave them HFNCs instead of putting them on ventilators. The patients all fared extremely well, and only one of them required intubation after 10 days.

"The success we've had has been truly remarkable," said Michael O'Connor, MD, Director of Critical Care Medicine.

The HFNCs are often combined with prone positioning, a technique where patients lay on their stomachs to aid breathing. Together, they've helped UChicago Medicine doctors avoid dozens of intubations and have decreased the chances of bad outcomes for COVID-19 patients, said Thomas Spiegel, MD, Medical Director of UChicago Medicine's Emergency Department.

"The proning and the high-flow nasal cannulas combined have brought patient oxygen levels from around 40 to 80 and 90 percent, so it's been fascinating and wonderful to see," Spiegel said.

Mechanical ventilation, the most common treatment for these patients thus far, involves inserting a breathing tube into the windpipe so a ventilator can pump air into the lungs. Using a ventilator or intubation as a last resort -- an approach UChicago Medicine teams call "prevent the vent" -- helps get COVID-19 patients out of the hospital intensive care unit and prevents harmful side effects caused by ventilators, such as lung injuries.

"Avoiding intubation is key," Spiegel said. "Most of our colleagues around the city are not doing this, but I sure wish other ERs would take a look at this technique closely."

This approach is not without risk, however. HFNCs blow air out, and convert the COVID-19 virus into a fine spray in the air. To protect themselves from the virus, staff must have proper personal protective equipment (PPE), negative pressure patient rooms, and anterooms, which are rooms in front of the patient rooms where staff can change in and out of their safety gear to avoid contaminating others.

UChicago Medicine's Emergency Department recently doubled its number of anterooms, thereby doubling its capacity to give high-flow nasal cannula to patients. The main hospital also added negative pressure rooms on two floors, making it safer and easier to take care of COVID-19 patients.

Since the first COVID-positive patient was admitted March 13, UChicago Medicine has successfully treated and discharged 297 patients with the virus. Even as the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has grown, doctors have managed ventilator usage. As of last Wednesday (April 22), UChicago Medicine had 137 COVID-19 patients, but only 27 of them were on ventilators. The medical staff has avoided mechanical ventilation on 40 percent of patients and extubated 50 percent of those who needed ventilators, O'Connor said.

"It's a phenomenal number, because in Italy, the number of extubations was much lower," O'Connor said, who also gave credit to the cross-team collaboration.

UChicago Medicine care teams got an early preview of how COVID-19 treatments were working in China and Italy from the university's hospital affiliates in those countries. When the time came for the Hyde Park-based health system to start caring for COVID-19 patients, they'd already concluded that steroids were an ineffective treatment. The UChicago Medicine teams opted to use less invasive approaches, such as HFNCs or helmet ventilators. For patients who did require mechanical ventilation, the goal was to get those people off the ventilator as soon as possible.

O'Connor and Spiegel agree that the steps the city took to flatten the curve worked. At first, UChicago Medicine was doubling its cases every two to three days, leaving doctors terrified of running out of space, staff, and equipment. Now that the doubling time of COVID-19 patients has slowed to approximately 12 days, it helps the hospital staff generate good outcomes.

"The curve having been flattened has provided us a world of relief," Spiegel said.

Source: University of Chicago Medical Center

Published April 2020

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