Wandering the aisles and meeting vendors for interviews at the recent MD&M West and co-located shows in Anaheim, Calif., gave a mixed view of current manufacturing and assembly processes.
There are lots of ways you can build a product, from high-speed robotic assembly lines to small, refrigerator-sized 3D printing machines that make actual metal production parts for medical or aerospace uses. Two of these stood out from the rest.
In 3D printing, 30 percent of the business now consists of medical applications, and that proportion is growing, Andrew Snow, director of EOS North America, told us. EOS had on display plastic patient-specific devices, such as a cutting guide for knee surgery. Another, FHC's STarFix mobile fixture that fits on a patient's head, holds the probe used in a deep probe tumor biopsy, or in deep probe stimulation for Parkinson's patients. These fixtures reduce operating room time and increase patient comfort.
A titanium bone rasp for hollowing out femurs before inserting an implant can be custom-designed for a specific patient's bone using EOS' laser sintering additive manufacturing technology. (Source: Within Technologies)
But the thing that impressed me the most was how costs are going down in titanium implants, one of the biggest medical applications. For example, a titanium hip implant, an acetabular cup made by Within Technologies with EOS systems, has an optimized lattice structure and surface pores that help speed integration with the patient's bone. Eighteen of these can be made in 20 hours, with an overall net cost of $70 each, which includes capital equipment depreciation, said Snow. That's an insanely low price.
Other titanium devices made by Within using EOS' direct laser sintering (DSL) machines include spinal and finger implants, as well as a bone rasp that surgeons use to clean and hollow out the femur before inserting an implant.
Snow said the additive manufacturing (AM) industry will continue to focus on rapid prototyping, but that there's a definite shift toward manufacturing production parts, especially medical and dental implants and devices. AM will also boost the growth of electronic spare parts warehousing, where designs are inventoried electronically instead of parts warehoused physically.
In robotics, my most memorable visit was to the Rethink Robotics' booth where I interviewed Eric Foellmer, marketing communications manager, and saw the company's Baxter robot demonstration. Unlike other industrial robots, Baxter isn't dangerous enough to be surrounded by a cage. I think the company has a good argument for what Foellmer said was a rethink (word play intended) from the ground up of how industrial robots can be made safe enough to interact with people so both can work together side by side. The company used some revolutionary technology -- at least in industrial robotics -- to make this possible.
Baxter was designed for small to midsized companies. A few fundamental principles governed its design. First, it had to be able to operate close to people outside a cage. "Baxter lets people work collaboratively with robots," said Foellmer. "We want it to be an addition to the line." (You can watch a video of Baxter doing the same things I saw here.)
Al, I think you nailed it: our expectations of industrial robots are quite different from what this one doers. Which is, of course, the whole point. Regarding how big its niche will be, it's potentially pretty broad once the SDK comes out. Time will tell.
Thanks, William. Baxter has eliminated pinch points, as Foellmer demonstrated at the show, and it's also a lot slower than typical high-speed industrial 'bots. Too bad about the saw flesh-detector.
Thanks Ann. I guess their niche is just that -- simple to program applications that can leverage their safety technology. Maybe the problem is that I am programmed that in most pick and place applications, speed is extremely important. And the new Delta style robots are more flexible and less costly than robots with traditional articulated arms. Still makes me wonder how big a niche Baxter might find.
Al, as we said this is an industrial robot for doing simple, repetitive tasks, not highly precise, that humans previously did, such as the simple pick and place shown in the video. The point is that it's not highly specialized and can be easily programmed with open source software for whatever you need, within certain limits.
eafpres, it's pretty simple. if something larger than a part--like the human body--gets inside its working zone, it stops. This is determined by its sensors. Also, if you bump into it faster than it can respond, it won't hurt you because of its softer surface (plastic) and its considerably lower force, compared to other industrial 'bots. More details are available on the website.
Thanks Clinton. I did not think of Baxter wielding the bone rasp--I take no responsibility for others' imaginations! OTOH, Chuck, pointed out that it looks something like a medieval weapon, so I can understand the association. That's an interesting idea about flesh-sensors; I didn't know about that. Sounds like a good cross-app possibility. Hope Rethink is reading these comments...
Ann, Did they mention any specific commercial applications for Baxter? There is certainly interesting technology here but I'm not certain of its application niche.
Interesting use of safety technology. From their website, Baxter contains sensors and software protocols that detect people within contact distance and trigger the robot to slow to safe operation speeds. May be that the robot sets up programmable safety zones on sensor inputs. Every motor can also be "back driven" in order to comply when unexpectedly pushed backwards.
@CLMcDade , That "skin detector" used in the sawstop system would not help in a robot system because it uses a resistance principle, not a touch principle. And the reason that the saw companies are not rushing to adopt this system is that it has a few very big shortcomings, including a very expensive reset process and a propensity toward false triggers from wet wood and nails.
The two steps to make a robot safe for humans to be around is to slow it down to human speeds, and to eliminate pinch-points. By no means a trivial task, but certainly an achieveable target.
But the real point is that 3D printers can make complex shapes that would be too costly (translated: impossible) by other methods. I can imagine that bone cells would really gather 'round this object and build new bone. Additive technology will help us build shapes previously unattainable.
The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
The airframe of Airbus's A350 XWB consists of a bigger proportion of carbon-fiber-reinforced composite structures than any other commercial jet to date: over 53 percent by weight.
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