Design Engineering October 17

14 Siemens PLM unveils Next Gen MCAD with Solid Edge ST10

24 Canadian naval design firm dominates marine industry

45 UofT students’ medical device

combats leading cause of death

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Contents | Volume 63, No. 5 5

EDITORIAL BOARD

Dr. Alain Aubertin ice President, Business V Development and International Affairs, Canada Consortium for Aerospace Research and Innovation in Canada (CARIC)

Ajay Bajaj, P.Eng President, Rotator Products Limited; Past President and Board Member, Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA)

Frank Defalco

Columns 8 Design News UofW detection system uses AI to spot distracted drivers and other news

14 CAD Report Siemens PLM unveils the Next Generation of MCAD with Solid Edge ST10

Manager, Canada Makes, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

20 CAD Beat

John Lamb

24 Inside Design

Regional Sales Manager, Wainbee Limited; Chairman, Canadian Fluid Power Association (CFPA)

For a half-century, E.Y.E Marine’s leading naval engineering design has shaped Canada’s marine industry

Dr. Ishwar Puri, P.Eng

38 Idea Generator

ean of the Faculty of D Engineering; Professor of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University

Top 6 reasons to choose structured grids, vs unstructured or hybrid, in CFD

18 20

The latest industrial products including automation, motors and metrology

24

Dr. Mary Wells, P.Eng Associate Dean, Outreach; Professor of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo

Features

18 Metrology

3D scanning helps Sweden’s Koenigsegg Automotive ensure quality in its extreme performance hypercars

28 High Tech SUBSCRIBER SERVICES To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information contact us at 1-800-387-0273 ext.3552.

Canadian innovations cultivate quality cannabis for explosive global marijuana market

32 Industry 4.0 Infographic Global IIoT tends and financial projections by the numbers

Annual Subscription Rate In Canada: $53.95 (1 year), $72.95 (2 year). Outside Canada: $101.95 (1 year)

34 The State of IIoT 2017

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45 Canadian Innovator

Directory Rates In Canada: $28.00 Outside Canada: $46.00 Design Engineering, established in 1955, is published by Annex Business Media, 6 times per year.

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Although Industrial Internet of Things adoption is accelerating, numerous obstacles still remain

UofT engineering students’ award-winning medical device combats leading cause of death

2 0 1 8

28 45

Abbotsford: March 13 Winnipeg: April 4 Saskatoon: May 2 Moncton: May 29 Kitchener: October 10

www.design-engineering.com October | 2017

6 EditorialViewpoint

Demystifying IIoT

www.design-engineering.com

B

esides what it should be called, the Industrial Internet of Things/Industrie 4.0 (IIoT/I4.0) is a bit of a mystery, even among those whose business is automation. It’s not surprising; the concept, and the specific technologies, standards and protocols that will enable it, are still coming into focus.

As a result, it’s hard to say exactly what IIoT/I4.0 is or isn’t and manufacturers are therefore justifiably hesitant to invest in it. After all, if someone markets a component or automation system as Ethernet capable or says it supports the EtherCAT or EtherNet/IP protocol, those are easy claims to validate. However, if a vendor bills their solution as IIoT/I4.0 ready, capable or enabled, how would someone confirm that?

At present, the label is analogous to the food industry’s “organic” or “natural”– they sounds good but there’s no set bar a supplier needs to reach before they can legitimately claim those attributes. What makes them such potentially slippery terms is that, unlike performance specs, physical dimensions or integrated features, IIoT/I4.0 isn’t a binary property (i.e. true/false or present/absent). Instead, those terms encompass a full spectrum of technologies and capabilities that may be minimally present or fully implemented in any given component or system.

For example, does a machine that simply connects to the Internet qualify as IIoT/ I4.0 ready? Or should it be riddled with pre-emptive maintenance sensors on every potential failure point while also capable of self-analysis and self-configuration? In the coming years, IIoT/I4.0 is in danger of becoming a marketing term distinguished more by its abuse than its assurance.

This issue’s IIoT guide includes resources that will hopefully demystify IIoT/I4.0, to some extent. The infographic on page 32 displays data taken from PwC’s 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey. The largest such study of its kind, the global survey details how far the digital transformation has progressed in different economic regions as well as the revenue gains and cost savings IIoT/I4.0 is expected to generate in the next decade.

For engineers, Benson Hougland’s article (The State of IIoT in 2017) is one of the most concrete and straightforward analyses currently available of IIoT/I4.0 technologies and trends. In place of esoteric language, overwrought diagrams and far-flung techno-utopian visions, Hougland provides a clear definition of IIoT/I4.0’s challenges and actionable recommendations to address them.

As one further resource, Germany’s mechanical engineering industry association (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau or VDMA, for short) offers its Guideline Industrie 4.0 to help SMEs begin Industrie 4.0 implementation. A comprehensive read, one of its highlights is the Toolbox section. It includes two tables that break out the various aspects of Industrie 4.0 products (e.g. connectivity, sensor integration, data storage and exchange, etc.) and production (e.g. data processing, M2M communication, man/machine interfaces, etc). The tables then define the various levels or stages of implementation and thereby provide an easy way to assess a product’s or production environment’s Industrie 4.0 capabilities.

We would be remiss not to thank Ben Hope of Festo Canada, Joe Ottenhof of Beckhoff Canada and Michael Gardiner of Siemens Canada for helping us cut through the noise. For anyone with questions about IIoT/I4.0 or looking for guidance on its benefits, challenges and implementation, any of these experts will either know the answer or know where to find it.

Publisher Alan Macpherson (416) 510-6756 amacpherson@design-engineering.com Editor Michael McLeod (416) 442-5600 ext. 3231 mmcleod@design-engineering.com Associate Editor Lindsay Luminoso (416) 510-5233 lluminoso@design-engineering.com Account Manager Ron Salmon (416) 510-5249 rsalmon@design-engineering.com Art Director Mark Ryan (416) 442-5600 ext. 3541 Account Coordinator Cheryl Fisher (416) 510-5194 cfisher@annexbizmedia.com Circulation Manager Beata Olechnowicz (416) 442-5600 ext. 3543 bolechnowicz@annexbizmedia.com Vice President Tim Dimopoulos (416) 510-5100 tdimopoulos@canadianmanufacturing.com COO Ted Markle tmarkle@annexweb.com President & CEO Mike Fredericks Design Engineering, established in 1955, is published

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Annex Privacy Officer: privacy@annexbizmedia.com Tel: 800-668-2374 No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. ©2016 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. DE receives unsolicited features and materials (including letters to the editor) from time to time. DE, its affiliates 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.

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I enjoy hearing from you so please contact me at MMcLeod@design-engineering.com and your letter could be published in an upcoming issue.

October | 2017

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8 DesignNews

UofW detection system uses AI to spot distracted drivers

I

t is estimated that 75 per cent of all traffic incidents worldwide are due to distracted drivers. Given that sobering statistic, engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed computer algorithms that can accurately determine when drivers are texting or engaged in other distracting activities.

Using cameras and artificial intelligence (AI), the system detects hand movements that deviate from normal driving behaviour and classifies them in terms of possible safety threats.

That information could then be used to improve road safety.

“The car could actually take over driving if there was imminent danger, even for a short while, in order to avoid crashes,” said Fakhri Karray, a University Research Chair and director of the Centre for Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (CPAMI) at Waterloo.

The team trained the algorithms using machine-learning techniques to recognize actions such as texting, talking on a cellphone or reaching into the backseat to retrieve something.

The seriousness of the action is assessed based on duration and other factors.

That work builds on extensive previous research at CPAMI on the recognition of signs, including frequent blinking, that drivers are in danger of falling asleep at the wheel. Head and face positioning are also important cues of distraction. Ongo-

Fakhri Karray, right, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and doctoral candidate Chaojie Ou work together at a testing platform for driver behaviour recognition software at Waterloo Engineering.

ing research at the centre now seeks to combine the detection, processing and grading of several different kinds of driver distraction in a single system. www.uwaterloo.ca

UP FRONT AP&C Expands in Quebec Arcam’s powder manufacturing subsidiary, AP&C, officially opened its new metal powder facility in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. By the end of the year, AP&C CEO Alain Dupont. the company (Photo credit: Tomas hopes to hire Kellner for GE Reports.) more than 100 employees for the facility—making it one of the largest employers in the region.

The company has invested a total of CAD$31 million to help meet global production needs. The highly automated plant presently offers a production capacity of 750 tons, and eventually will reach 1,250 tons at full capacity. www.arcam.com October | 2017

UTC acquires Rockwell Collins Jesse Garant Metrology Centers invest NA expansion Michigan-based Jesse Garant Metrology Centers says it plans to invest in its three locations in Ontario and Michigan, including new equipment and better infrastructure.

According to the company, this planned expansion will accommodate growing demand for high volume part inspection for pre-production and production validation.

The five year investment roll out will enable the company to include a more diverse range of advanced imaging systems. The expansion will include improved CT capabilities for a handling a wider size range of complex 3D printed parts. www.jgarantmc.com

United Technologies (UTC) has acquired Rockwell Collins in a US$22.75 billion deal to expand its aerospace capabilities. UTC, which makes Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney engines, will pay $140 per share in cash and stock for the Iowa-based maker of avionics and aerospace IT systems. The companies expect the deal to close by the third quarter of 2018. Including debt, the acquisition is worth US$30 billion.

“This acquisition adds tremendous capabilities to our aerospace businesses and strengthens our complementary offerings of technologically advanced aerospace systems,” said UTC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Greg Hayes. www.rockwellcollins.com www.utc.com www.design-engineering.com

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Ford is expanding testing of Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality technology globally to gain speed in designing more stylish vehicles for its customers. (Photo credit: Ford Motor Co.)

Ford to use hologram tech to design vehicle elements Traditionally, automotive designers have wielded sculpting tools to fashion clay into the next year’s car models. Today, Ford designers are trading in these tools for mixed reality headsets and visualization software.

Ford’s Dearborn designers have been piloting Microsoft HoloLens technology, which enables them to see proposed virtual design elements as if these pieces were part of physical vehicles.

“It’s amazing we can combine the old and the new – clay models and holograms – in a way that both saves time and allows designers to experiment and iterate quickly to dream up even more stylish, clever vehicles,” says Jim Holland, Ford vice president, vehicle component and systems engineering.

HoloLens technology uses mixed reality, which enables designers to see holograms in photo-quality backdrops through wire-free headsets. Whereas today it can take days, even weeks, to study a grille design, HoloLens allows designers and engineers to explore a variety of different iterations in a matter of hours.

“With HoloLens, we can instantly flip through virtual representations to decide which direction they should go,” says Michael Smith, Ford design manager. “As a designer, you want to show, not just tell. This is much more compelling.”

Given its success so far, Ford says it is now expanding the project globally. “We’ve only just scratched the surface, so possibilities for the future seem almost limitless,” says Craig Wetzel, Ford manager, design technical operations. “This is very exciting.” www.ford.com

Canadian telescope to unlock biggest cosmic mysteries A Canadian effort to build one of the most innovative radio telescopes saw “first light” in September. Located at the NRC’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, the new radio telescope will allow scientists to create a threedimensional map of the universe The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment extending deep into space and time. (CHIME) is an extraordinarily powerful new telescope.

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity (Photo credit: Andre Renard, Dunlap Institute of Mapping Experiment (CHIME) com- Astronomy & Astrophysics, U of Toronto; CHIME.) bines a unique “half-pipe” telescope design with advanced computing power to help scientists better understand the three frontiers of modern astronomy: The history of the universe, the nature of distant stars

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12 DesignNews and the detection of gravitational waves.

“CHIME ‘sees’ in a fundamentally different way from other telescopes” said Dr. Keith Vanderlinde, University of Toronto. “A massive supercomputer is used to process incoming radio light and digitally piece together an image of the radio sky. All that computing power also lets us do things that were previously impossible: We can look in many direc-

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Digitalized Pneumatics

UBC researcher 3D prints strong, porous artificial bone grafts Bone grafts are a common treatment for bone fractures and defects, but they aren’t the easiest option, since they require removing bone from one part of the body to repair the damaged area.

A research student from the UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering, Hossein Montazerian, has developed an artificial bone design that is both strong and porous for stronger, safer and more effective bone replacements.

Montazerian says replacing bones can be a painful process, requiring multiple surgeries. That is why finding the best design for artificial bone grafts was crucial.

“When designing artificial bone scaffolds, it’s a fine balance between something that is porous enough to mix with natural bone and connective tissue, but at the same time strong enough for patients to lead a normal life,” says Montazerian. “We’ve identified a design that strikes that balance and can be custom built using a 3D printer.”

After an analysis of 240 different bone graft designs, the best were up to 10 times stronger than others and tended to have structures similar to natural bones. Montazerian and his team are already working on the next generation of designs that will use a mix of two or more structures that are both porous and strong.

“The next step will be to test how our designs behave in real biological systems,” he says. “I hope to see this kind of technology clinically implemented for real patients in the near future.” www.ubc.ca

World’s first in digitalized pneumatics: Festo Motion Terminal VTEM The Festo Motion Terminal VTEM is opening up radical new dimensions in the world of automation. It’s the world’s first valve to be controlled by apps.

It combines the advantages of electric and pneumatic technology for numerous functions that currently require more than 50 positions. www.festo.com/motionterminal

Hossein Montazerian, research assistant with UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering, demonstrates the artificial bone design that can be made with a 3D printer. (Photo courtesy of UBC) October | 2017 DES_Festo_Oct.indd 1 DE_halfpage_island_oct2017_VTEM.indd 1

www.design-engineering.com 2017-10-04 2:04 10/2/2017 3:31:47 PMPM

14

CADReport

Convergent Modeling Figure 1: Siemens Solid Edge ST10 and NX11 feature Convergent Modeling, an MCAD design method that allows meshes and solid models to co-exist and be edited in a single part.

On the 10th anniversary of I’m not disregarding other tsunamis in Synchronous Technology, tech, but things like the Internet, 64-bit Siemens PLM unveils the Next CPUs and cloud computing apply equally to all software, not just MCAD. Generation of MCAD with The most recent innovation in MCAD Solid Edge ST10.

By Ralph Grabowski

B

ig advances in MCAD seem to arrive every ten years or so. In 1986, PTC introduced history-based parametric MCAD and just about everyone made it the standard way to model in 3D. A decade later, Solidworks 95 brought MCAD to Windows and competitors rushed to Microsoft’s operating system to mimic the success of the self-funded startup.

A little more than decade further along, in 2007, SpaceClaim rocked the world with a revitalized direct modeling system, forcing competitors to acknowledge this old technology. From that, we got Creo from PTC, Fusion from Autodesk and Synchronous Technology from Siemens PLM Software.

October | 2017

quietly arrived in 2015 and, like other advances before, attempts to solve a difficult problem. This time, it concerns how to merge and edit a single 3D body composed of both meshes and solid models.

In the past, if you wanted to work with both, you had to convert one into the other: Either meshes into solids or shell solids into meshes. This isn’t ideal, as surface data can get lost in the conversion, and you might end up with an unusable result. In any case, meshes generated from 3D scans tend to be huge and complex, and so are unsuitable to be represented by solids.

It turns out that it’s tough to figure out the editing of both kinds of 3D models at the same time. The Spatial division of Dassault Systemes, for example, has been making only a few advances each year. This year, for instance, they added just two new funcwww.design-engineering.com

CADReport 15

tions to its Polyhedra hybrid editing API: Stitch (to directly combine meshes and solids into one body) and Move (to manipulate solid faces in a hybrid body).

Note that Polyhedra is not end-user software, but an API that MCAD vendors would implement in their software through Spatial’s ACIS or CGM kernels.

Spatial calls the imported 3D scans the “polygonal” model, and the 3D solid the “precise” model.

Until recently, it was best to keep organic mesh data separate from 3D solid models.

But now we have “hybrid” modeling. As an example, imagine creating a 3D solid model of a custom knee joint based on a 3D-scan of a patient’s knee. A typical editing operation would involve carving out some of the knee’s mesh model to make room for the solid joint; similarly, the solid joint can be edited to adjust to the knee’s mesh model (figure 1).

Siemens Convergent Modeling In the kernel world, the arch competitor to Spatial is Siemens PLM Software. It’s not surprising, then, that Siemens recently revealed that it too is working on hybrid modeling for its Parasolid kernel. Siemens calls its technology “convergent” modeling, because it converges meshes (which it calls “facet models”) and solids (or “classic b-reps”) into a single model.

In classic MCAD industry fashion, the

two competitors often take pot shots at each other. Siemens boasts that its technology is integrated into Parasolid, and so has “no delegation to an add-on modeling component.” (Polyhedral is an add-on to the ACIS and CGM kernels.) In an interview with me, Spatial accused Siemens of holding both representations separately internally, rather than truly converging them.

For this year’s releases of Solid Edge and NX, Siemens added convergent modeling to its MCAD systems. Convergent modeling is integrated into Solid Edge ST10, but the company says it will continue to develop the technology in the coming years, just as Spatial will.

What’s New in Solid Edge ST10 When Siemens first launched Synchronous Technology for mixed direct and history editing, it celebrated the new modeling technique by restarting Solid Edge’s numbering system; what would have been Solid Edge 21 became Solid Edge ST – the dawn of a new era in design. Except it wasn’t. A lot was missing from that first release, and even in subsequent releases of ST. A decade’s worth of updates later, users still can find it difficult to work in ST. With this summer’s release of Solid Edge ST10, the tenth anniversary of synch tech, Siemens has a new master plan. Its MCAD programs will encompass the entire design process – from reverse engi-

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Figure 2: A solid part (in green) removing a portion from a mesh part with convergent modeling.

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16 CADReport

Figure 3: Weight of a frame for a sewing machine reduced with generative modeling

neering, through design, and finally output to 3D printing. Siemens calls it “next-generation design” but didn’t change Solid Edge’s numbering system, sadly; Solid Edge NG would’ve been cool.

Next-generation design encompasses reverse engineering, convergent modeling, generative design and 3D printing.

Reverse Engineering: When drawings don’t exist for parts, we draw them from scratch or we use scanners to do it more quickly. A scanner uses a laser to find the position and distance (x, y and z) of thousands of points on the part.

Software connects every three points with edges, creating a 3D mesh model from the triangles.

Designers then clean up the mesh model by removing facets, filling holes and smoothing the mesh in Solid Edge. Once clean, parts of the mesh can be turned into surfaces native to Solid Edge with its Identify Regions tool.

Convergent Modeling: To work with meshes and solid models, Siemens provides convergent modeling, as described previously (Figure 2). Commands that were formerly only for b-rep modeling now also work on faceted geometry, with no need to convert one 3D representation to the other. (B-rep is short for boundary representation, and is the part of the solid model we see, such as the exterior faces, edges and vertices.)

Operations that convergent modeling October | 2017 DES_IndustrialEncoder_NovDec.indd 1

can do include Booleans, sectioning, holefilling, imprinting, extrusions, mass properties, clash detection and others.

Generative Design: Engineers like to over-design parts to make sure they don’t fail. In fields like aerospace or considerations like cost, weight or space, however, it’s preferable that parts have the least amount of material necessary. Generative design, also known as “topology optimization,” auto-magically reworks a part, removing material that is not needed for strength (Figure 3). The result is often highly organic, strange looking or even “designed by aliens.”

To use generative design, we tell Solid Edge the material, the constraints (like bolt holes), the loads and a weight we’d like the part to weigh. The software then automatically computes the geometric solution.

This technology is not new, but has tended to reside in specialty software external to mainstream MCAD. 3D Printing: Siemens is making a big push towards 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing. This is no surprise, given that the company manufactures everything from tiny medical devices to entire railroad trains. Naturally, it now wants its design software to be designing those parts as well.

But an interface is needed between the 3D model and the printed part. The part you model might have walls that are too thin for the 3D printer’s resolution; it www.design-engineering.com

2016-11-02 11:55 AM

CADReport 17

Figure 4: Solid Edge ST10 analyzes designs prior to 3D printing and warns users that their model may not output successfully before.

might have empty areas large enough to collapse; or it might not even be able to stand upright on the 3D printer’s table.

Software checks for these flaws and others, and then lets you adjust the model to be printed (Figure 4).

Once the part is ready for printing, Solid Edge converts the model to STL or Microsoft’s new 3MF format, and then outputs it directly to Microsoft’s 3D Builder app or uploads it to an online 3D printing service.

So there you have it; a design sequence that runs from reverse engineering through to 3D printing. Next Generation Design is a big vision from Siemens that encompasses the design process end-to-end. I consider it a spectacular addition to Solid Edge, but core Solid Edge users will probably consider it only peripheral. They continue to be concerned primarily with 3D modeling, 2D drawings and updating designs – as are most CAD users, no matter which package they embrace.

On a side note, the formerly singular Solid Edge University event, held each October, has been regionalized into dozens of events throughout the year in individual cities and countries.

I’m not surprised, given that only about 500 enthusiasts showed up at the annual event, a tiny number given the half-million users claimed by Siemens.

Nevertheless, the addition of Next Generation Design and continuing development in other areas of Solid Edge is heartening, because it proves Siemens is serious about supporting Solid Edge into the future. Over time, I’m certain hybrid modeling will seep into all forms of MCAD, just as direct editing did a decade ago.

DE www.solidedge.com

Ralph Grabowski writes on the business of CAD on his WorldCAD Access blog (www.worldcadaccess.com) and weekly upFront.eZine newsletter. He has authored many articles and books on AutoCAD, BricsCAD, Visio and other design software. www.design-engineering.com October | 2017 DES_Elesa_Sept.indd 1

2017-06-12 11:43 AM

18 Metrology

HYPER

QUALITY CONTROL

3D scanning helps Sweden’s Koenigsegg Automotive ensure quality in its extreme performance hypercars.

I

f asked to name a Swedish car company, one would naturally think of the reliable Volvo or sporty Saab. However, in recent years, the Nordic country’s automotive efforts have become synonymous with extreme performance.

Since 1994, Koenigsegg Automotive has produced some of the world’s most powerful super cars. So powerful, in fact, that they created a new category, the hypercar. Founded by Christian von Koenigsegg at the age of 22, the company produced its first production vehicle in 2002. Named the CC8S, this first hypercar accelerated from 0 to 100 kph in 3.5 seconds, had a top speed of 390 km/h and featured a 655 bhp engine, the Guinness World Record holder for the most powerful production engine at the time.

Since then, Koenigsegg has produced numerous other limited run models, including the CCX, Agera and One:1, but ultimately culminating in the Regera, a 1100 hp beast capable of 0 to 400 km/h in under 20 seconds.

Through the process of designing and perfecting these engineering marvels, it comes as no surprise that Koenigsegg always seeks to leverage the best technologies available. Already integrating 3D printing and 3D scanning in the development of their vehicles, Koenigsegg decided to tackle quality control in the engineering and production of their cars.

The Swedish company looked to Creaform’s quality control solutions to streamline its design process right down to the final assembly of the car. With the help of Swedish distributor

Eduardo Nicolás García, Koenigsegg’s composite engineer, 3D scanning the Regera hypercar.

October | 2017

MLT Maskin & Laser Teknik AB, the automotive manufacturer found a solution that seamlessly fit the way it worked — rather than the other way around.

With more than 300 hand-formed carbon fibre parts in every car, control equipment needs to effectively scan on dark and highly reflective surfaces. These are the most challenging surfaces to scan, since dark objects absorb light and shiny parts create noise in analyses.

Louis-Olivier, an application engineer from Creaform’s metrology service team, gave the Koenigsegg team a hand at performing a full-body scan of its newest model, the Koenigsegg Regera.

With Koenigsegg, the team wrapped up the full-body scan with a photogrammetry session using the MaxSHOT 3D optical coordinate measuring system. This crucial step helps get the maximum accuracy in the alignment of the scans that is required in quality control applications.

Meeting the technical expert was also a great opportunity for Koenigsegg engineers to get some tips and tricks on the solutions and discuss other applications they are currently developing to further enhance their production efficiency and quality control processes.

Using the MetraSCAN 3D and HandySCAN 3D scanners enable Koenigsegg engineers to acquire the necessary data points on dark surfaces and bare carbon fiber car bodies. Paired with the HandyPROBE portable CMM for single point measurements to adjust jigs and inspect production parts, Koenigsegg engineers are able to get quick feedback on the quality of the company’s production line.

As a manufacturer of high-performance sports cars, Christian von Koenigsegg and his team are always trying to push the limits of technology and innovation to develop the best hypercars on the market. The engineering team, backed by Christian’s vision, fuels innovation and makes Koenigsegg a leader in the automotive industry.

Currently Christian and his team are working on integrating the HandySCAN 3D in the design process and furthering the capabilities of Creaform’s probing and scanning systems in its production process.

DE www.creaform-metrology.com

This story was contributed by Creaform. www.design-engineering.com

20 CADBeat

TOP

6

A

REASONS TO CHOOSE STRUCTURED GRIDS IN CFD Automeshing algorithms may make life easier but the grids they create lack key qualities.

s one of the most critical aspects of solving problems through computational fluid dynamics (CFD), appropriate mesh generation is essential for an accurate solution, faster convergence and reduction of numerical diffusion.

One could be forgiven for thinking structured grids are almost entirely redundant in today’s unstructured or hybrid meshing world, but things may not be quite as they seem. In fact, both grid types warrant careful consideration.

However, before looking into the pros and cons of structured vs. unstructured meshes, it’s important to understand the three grid types (structured, unstructured and hybrid) and how important mesh quality is to generating an optimal CFD solution.

Grid Classification Identified by regular connectivity, a structured grid has two possible element October | 2017

choices: Quadrilateral in 2D and hexahedra in 3D. This model is highly space efficient, since the neighborhood relationships are defined by storage arrangement.

An unstructured grid is identified by irregular connectivity. It cannot easily be expressed as a two-dimensional or three-dimensional array in computer memory. These grids typically employ triangles in 2D and tetrahedra in 3D although quadrilateral and hexahedra may also be present.

A hybrid grid contains a mixture of structured and unstructured portions. It integrates the structured meshes and the unstructured meshes in an efficient manner. Those parts of the geometry that are regular can have structured grids and those that are complex can have unstructured grids.

Whichever grid type is ultimately adopted, the quality of that grid plays a critical role in the overall analysis. For

example, better mesh quality increases convergence rate. Poorly formed meshes introduce numerical error, increasing the computational effort required for convergence. For especially poor elements, the numerical order may be locally reduced to promote convergence and stability or, even worse, the solution may fail to converge entirely.

In addition, better mesh quality also results in a more precise solution. A good example of this is one’s ability to refine the mesh at certain areas of the geometry where the gradients are high, thus increasing the fidelity of solutions in the region.

If a mesh is not refined sufficiently, then the solution’s precision may be limited.

While a quality mesh is generally desirable, CPU time is a necessary consideration. For a highly refined mesh, where the number of cells per unit area is maximum, the CPU time required will be relatively large.

Structured vs Unstructured/Hybrid Historically, structured meshes were considered the ‘norm’ but unstructured meshes have become much more common of late. This is due to their faster grid generation, ability to handle complex geometries and the fact that no significant grid generation experience is required.

However, here are six reasons why you should consider taking the time to create structured grids: High Degree of Quality & Control: This is arguably an area where structured grids www.design-engineering.com

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22 CADBeat

will always reign supreme. Unstructured and hybrid meshing algorithms are highly automated, and as a result, engineers have to sacrifice control. With structured grids, a higher degree of control means you can produce precisely the grid you require. Structured meshing typically allows the user better control of interior node locations and sizes as

interior node placement is directly linked to the user-defined exterior nodes.

Better Alignment = Better Convergence: Typically speaking, structured grids are aligned in the flow direction leading to more accurate results and a better convergence in CFD solvers. Alignment in a structured grid is achieved almost

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Less Memory and Time Required: Unstructured grids require large computational memory for storing elements, nodes and a connectivity table to link them. The structured mesh, on the other hand, does not need the storage of any connectivity table as the mesh is defined according to a specified pattern. As a result, CFD computation time is also reduced with structured grids due to reduced cell count.

The Data Locality Issue: This point relates to memory layout. It’s a critical concern for CFD on massively parallel GPU architectures where often memory bandwidth is the limitation, as opposed to computation power. In structured meshes, data for elements that are close geometrically is also close in memory by design. As a result, fewer cache misses means better usage of memory bandwidth.

Available Solution Algorithms: Structured data allows the use of solution algorithms that can’t be implemented on unstructured data. An example is a sweeping TDMA routine, which can be very beneficial to convergence in certain scenarios.

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Definable Normals: Application of boundary conditions and turbulence models work well when there is a welldefined computational direction normal to a feature such as a wall or wake. Transverse normals are easily defined in a structured grid.

As this article has highlighted, while there are advantages to unstructured and hybrid meshing, the efficacy of structured grids make them a solid choice for computer engineers. It seems they are certainly here to stay, at least for now.

DE www.envenio.com

This article was supplied by Envenio, a Canadian-based provider of cloudbased CFD analysis. www.design-engineering.com

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24

InsideDesign

E.Y.E. Marine was the principal designer of the Denman Island Ferry, a Lloyd’s classed ferry that operates on the longest cable ferry route in the world using a three cable system.

ASSUMING THE

WATCH For a half-century, E.Y.E Marine’s leading naval engineering design has shaped Canada’s marine industry.

By Lindsay Luminoso

I

f you’ve ever ridden a ferry in Canada, E.Y.E. Marine Consultants of Bedford, Nova Scotia was probably involved in its design, one way or another. For the past 50 years, the company has been designing some of the most technologically advanced vessels of all types and operations but have found their sweet spot with passenger vessels and ferries.

And as more federal shipbuilding mandates come down the pipeline, this eight-person operation expects that they will have more work than they know what to do with.

“The main thing we provide is a really practical solution to a sometimes-comOctober | 2017

plicated problem,” explains senior naval architect and president of E.Y.E. Marine, Tony Thompson, P.Eng. “We try to keep our solutions as economical as possible but also an elegant design that costs less to operate or uses fewer people.”

The company averages about six to seven projects at any given time. However, as of late, has been commissioned to do a significant amount of stability work on ferries and fishing vessels.

The team is composed of naval architects and marine engineers, most of whom have had some sort of training through Newfoundland and Labrador’s Memorial University. Thompson explains

that there are not a lot of naval architects in Canada, but for obvious reasons, the existing firms are located in the coastal regions. In the East Coast, he notes three additional firms that do similar work providing support to the Halifax Shipyard and engineering services.

“At E.Y.E. Marine, we design the ships and provide detailed design schematics to clients,” add Thompson. “We don’t actually build the ships; we take care of owner-supervised construction and help in the contract process where shipyards can tender on our processes.”

For the naval architects and marine engineers at E.Y.E. Marine, any given www.design-engineering.com

InsideDesign

vessel project follows a standard process that begins with an initial conceptual design. This general plan includes basic calculations on hydrostatics and powering to ensure the idea can actually be achieved. The customer then provides feedback and, once the concept is nailed down, the team gets into the more detailed structural, weight, stability, speed and power calculations and regulatory regime that the vessel is required to operate under.

“In Canada, we work under the Canada Shipping Act and we need to meet all of their regulations when we put a vessel in services,” Thompson explains.

“It requires a whole stream of drawings to be sent in to Transport Canada for approval. That process starts almost immediately.”

Beyond this, the engineers then develop a detailed plan of every steel component necessary to build the vessel.

This enables the company to deliver the

E.Y.E. Marine designed this glass bottom, triple water-jet propelled boat for tours around Georgian Bay’s Flowerpot Islands.

www.design-engineering.com October | 2017 DES_Mar_Apr_Columbis.indd 1

2017-03-16 10:50 AM

25

26 InsideDesign

E.Y.E Marine’s Abnaki II double-ended ferry provides service between L’Etete and Deer Island, NB.

components to a shipyard in a box with instructions for easy assembly.

“We call this nesting and lofting,” Thompson explains. “It’s done in 3D modelling in the computer—every steel part in the vessel is defined. It is then all laid out and numerically cut out.” This is an extremely tedious and detailed part of the process, he adds, which can take upwards of seven to eight manned months of work to complete.

One thing is certain, shipbuilding is not a fast operation because it’s all manual. And there are so many engineering specifications to consider that are unique to this industry.

“Obviously, ships are unique because everything you put on them needs to be held up by the vessel itself,” Thompson says. “The weight and buoyancy balance on the ship is a critical thing that doesn’t really apply in any other industry or engineering. We can’t just load it up with gear; we need to load it up with gear and then make sure it floats properly.”

Thompson says that designing a ship is like designing a small city, since all of the infrastructure has to be self-contained on board. This includes sewer processing, power generation and lighting systems, as well as medical facilities and fire fighting equipment.

“All of these pieces of equipment have to be incorporated into the ship to make it pass regulations and make it a workable vessel,” Thompson explains. “Weight estimating is a large part of our job. We sit down with spreadsheets and work out the weight of every piece that goes on and October | 2017

ensure it is accounted for.”

The team is able to do a lot of the calculations and analysis through 3D CAD modelling. When Thompson began at the company, drawing plans were drawn by hand. Now, everything is 3D modeled, which allows for 2D drawings to be taken from every aspect of the vessel.

According to Thompson, the team is able to reach a much higher level of accuracy and detail than ever before, provide better reliability and fewer errors in the design process because they are able to see details and potential for error in 3D much more easily than in 2D. There is a much higher consistency in models, which marine engineers had little access to before.

Employing 3D modeling software has also enabled an evolution in design as well. For example, Thompson says the team recently started designing vessels that use Voith Schneider propellers, rather than the more common rotatable thruster units. These propellers provide instantaneous thrust in any direction, unlike rotatable units that have to be turned around before thrust is applied.

Since most of the ferries E.Y.E. Marine designs are double ended, the team started using this type of propeller on ferries where rotatable thruster units were previously used. The engineers were required to adapt the propellers for the specific hull type, offering the ferry more manoeuvrability and better operations.

Over its 50-year history, E.Y.E. Marine has had the opportunity to work on some unique projects. In 2012, the company

began designing the world’s longest cable ferry, which runs from Vancouver Island to Denman Island. The project took about three years to complete and the vessel entered service in February 2016. The ferry operates using a three-cable system with a 1.9km single drive cable fitted along the centreline with a guide cable on either side.

“It’s a super efficient method to run a ferry,” Thompson explains. “You don’t need the navigational equipment or skill because it’s essentially on a track. A cable is an efficient way of propelling a ferry because propellers are usually at 50 per cent efficiency but the drive system on a cable is 90 per cent efficient. It goes right back to the installed horsepower, amount of fuel you burn and pollution you pump into the air.”

E.Y.E. Marine was also responsible for designing the tugboats operating in Come

by Change, NL that escort the tankers in and out from Hibernia. The project began in 1997 but the vessels are still in operation today.

Four years ago, the City of Dartmouth decided to do a full replacement of their ferries. The marine engineering firm redesigned the ferries, implementing a more modern drive system and updating the control system and overall design. Three of the five are currently in service, with the remaining two under construction.

The team is currently working on a battery powered ferry that will operate just outside of Ottawa. While not involved in the design of the vessel, the company is rather retrofitting it to be more fuel-efficient.

It is projects like these that help the company push design innovation to the limits, Thompson says.

“We are even looking at some electric solutions on cable ferries—tethered electric,” he says. “We are hoping to put one of those in service soon.”

Because there are few naval architect firms in Canada, oftentimes, clients bring their vessels back to retrofit them with the latest technology. And for Thompson, that’s the interesting thing. “You get to see the vessel evolve,” he says.

DE www.eyemarine.com

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28 CoverStory

The Avid Growing System was designed to be vertically stacked to turn any warehouse into a high-end marijuana producing facility.

HIGH TECH

Canadian innovations cultivate quality cannabis for explosive global marijuana market

By Lindsay Luminoso

E

arlier this year, the federal government made good on its promise to introduce legislation that will legalize recreational cannabis use for Canadian adults. The proposed Cannabis Act–estimated to come into law by July of 2018–would allow adults to possess up to 30 grams of legal cannabis in public and grow up to four plants per household.

Beyond July 2018, Canada will join a growing wave of medical and recreational cannabis legalization taking place globally and thereby benefit economically from what most analysts forecast as an explosive market. According to Arcview Market Research, for example, the North American legal pot market is currently a US$6.7 billion industry but will expand to US$22.6 billion by 2021.

In Canada alone, a Forum Research poll estimates that 31 October | 2017

per cent of Canadians make up the theoretical pool of potential marijuana users — approximately 8 million people. Canadian financial firm, PI Financial, estimates the total Canadian cannabis market will reach CAD$7 billion by 2024. However, that’s only a tenth of the global market, which could reach CAD$70 to $75 billion by 2025.

No matter your views on legalization, Canadian companies see that there is a big slice of the “pot” pie to be had. To compete in such a unique space, Canadian cannabis is some of the “cleanest” in the world. Health Canada requires that licensed producers conduct mandatory testing of all cannabis products for the presence of unauthorized pesticides. To meet those quality standards, companies are finding enterprising ways to grow and cultivate “clean” cannabis.

“Canada has some of the strictest requirements to cultivate marijuana’,” explains Patrick Gagné, president and CEO of Avid Growing Systems and CEO of CannaCure, a producer of medical-grade cannabis. “We had to go above and beyond what the home growers and current cultivators were doing if we truly wanted to make this a pharmaceutical grade product.”

Avid Growing Systems In 2014, Gagné launched his Niagara-based company, which manufactures modular turnkey marijuana growing systems.

Approximately the size of a refrigerator, these vertically stackable systems are designed to convert a shell warehouse into a high-end marijuana producing facility, based on a common pallet racking system.

“We went this route because no matter what municipality we went into, there is already a set of rules and permitting processes in place to allow this type of racking,” explains Gagné.

The Avid Growing System has two parts. The nutrient centre monitors the feeding schedule, CO2 levels and is where all data tracking is done. The growing centre includes 17 separate www.design-engineering.com

CoverStory 29 plant chambers. These chambers are supplied by an innovative aeroponic system that feeds the plants by suspending the root base in air and spray it in a nutrient mist.

Aeroponics is known for its explosive growth cycle, cutting cultivation time by 35 percent. However, the mechanics are tricky; just as fast as a plant is reactive to growing in this type of system, a plant can be lost within hours, if there is a fault or problem. This is why the system was designed with 17 individual growing chambers. In addition, the growing system encompasses more than 22 subsystems including lighting, HVAC and heat exchangers.

According to Gagné, the hardest thing to manage with indoor cultivation of marijuana is proper heat and humidity control. At night, a single plant can produce one to three litres of water into the air, which is significant. The Avid Growing System uses sensors to control the climate and air temperatures but also includes a reclamation system that recycles 96% of the water lost to evaporation.

Another challenge was the lighting system. Gagné and his team designed the system to have compartmented chambers with highly reflective material to drop this electrical load significantly.

“We are using a lighting system called LECs or light emitting ceramics,” he explains. “Right now, our chambers are producing seven to 10lbs. per 96 square feet of space every 7-8 weeks, using only 2520 watts of lighting.”

Given this level of fine environment control, the system offers the ability to grow multiple marijuana strains simultaneously, adjusting environment variables to maximize yield and quality for each individual strain.

According to Gagné, this feature gives Avid a significant advantage, since there are more than 2200 different strains on the market today. To turn users away from the black market, Gagné says licenced producers will have to give them a reason beyond lower cost.

“Everyone wants to be a bit different,” he explains, “and the demands for ‘boutique bud’ is going to soar [with legalization in Canada].”

Home Grown In addition to sparking large-scale commercial grow-ops, Canada’s legislation will also open up a new market segment for “grow your own” systems. Surrey-based BC Northern Lights (BCNL) is one company that got into the game early on.

In 2001, Blair Williams was struck with an idea, which he brought to fruition with his brother Rhys Williams and friend, Tarren Wolfe. The team found that growing required a significant amount of time and effort to produce quality cannabis, so they designed and built a home grow box prototype.

“The design and the concept was to make life a little simpler but to also make an easy setup growing system,” explains Blair Williams, sales manager for BCNL. “You can roll it on wheels into any room and it’s plug-and-play. The advantage is you don’t have to poly the whole room off. You don’t need intakes and outtakes or tons of equipment. It’s all built into one—it waters the plants, adds CO2 and filters the smell.”

Today, after 16 years in business, the company offers four variations of that prototype for people who want to grow for themselves. The most advanced boxes come pre-programmed with light timing, watering, CO2 injection, air circulation and

Avid Growing System features an aeroponic system that feeds a plant’s suspended root base by spraying it with a nutrient mist. www.design-engineering.com October | 2017

30 CoverStory

BC Northern Lights’ BloomBox features preprogrammed lighting, CO2 injection and air pumps.

air stone pumps. They are also outfitted with a number of sensors to ensure proper growing conditions.

“It’s a deep water culture hydro set up,” Williams says. “The system auto waters all of the plants. You get all the nutrients with it, the grow medium for up to at least three harvests and a carbon filtration system…You can even make your own clones, so it is very self-sustainable system.”

As with Avid, BCNL found the lighting system to be one of the biggest challenges. The first prototypes used T5 fluorescent lights and then moved to HID lights. Recently, the company had an LED lighting system designed and built. After testing, the yields were slightly smaller than using HID lights but the quality was much better.

As of October 2, 2017, BC Northern Lights was acquired by Canadian cannabis supplier, Aurora Cannabis, in a CA$8.35 million deal. Tarren Wolfe, co-founder and CEO of BCNL as of late, agreed to sell the company, to “enable us to address a much larger audience of people…seeking access to the equipment, genetics and educational support services to do so.”

Grobo For those who lack any sort of green thumb or enjoyment in gardening whatsoever, Waterloo-based Grobo has developed a personal robotic gardening system called the Grobo One. Founded in 2014 by CEO Bjorn Dawson, the company recognized a unique opportunity when many of its customers began expressing interest in growing cannabis.

Dawson boasts that this system should look great in any room environment and fits in seamlessly with its surroundings.

The team constantly focused on industrial design and strives to create a design that fits seamlessly into different locations but, at the same time, looks nothing like a traditional growing system.

The solution they came up with is a 1x1x4 foot tower system—an at-home size footprint with unique finishes for a decorative aspect. Within the growing chamber itself, sensors collect temperature and humidity data that’s analyzed by algorithms to optimize growing conditions.

As a result, the system automatically adjusts nutrients, lightOctober | 2017

ing and pH levels to ensure the success of each plant. The Grobo One is also able to track all plant growth variables including a plant’s height and the amount of nutrients it is consuming.

According to Dawson, little is required of this plug-and-play system’s user.

“You just go to our app and choose from the list of plants to set up your system,” he explains. “You pick which one you’ve actually planted. It will load up a growing recipe and away you go.”

When it comes to lighting, each system offers its own unique option which includes lighting cycles and wavelength/spectrum of 53 LEDS (colour and intensity), which can be adjusted to promote compact and dense plant growth.

“The advantage of Grobo is that we can save hours a week troubleshooting, setting up, picking the right combination of lights, water, nutrients,” says Dawson. “It is the easiest way to start growing.”

Whether it’s a sleek at-home grow unit, a grow box combo system with high-yield design, or an automated stackable industrial grow system, one thing is certain: Canadian talent and innovation is leading the charge.

These companies have focused on the U.S. market, and according to Gagné, many customers expressed surprise that these unique and advanced systems were coming out of Canada. As legalization becomes more imminent, Canadian innovation in cannabis cultivation is expected to grow and yield positive results in both the domestic and global markets. www.avidgrowing.com www.bcnorthernlights.com www.grobo.io

The Grobo One’s sleek design offers users growth cycle monitoring and unique strain care tips via an app. www.design-engineering.com

The RSM2800 Magnetic Encoder counts turns, measures angles down to the last degree, and remembers shaft positions without power Don’t try this with other encoders: imagine your machine with the RSM2800 inside both lose power and are still turning without power; when power is restored, the RSM2800 reports the correct position including the counts that occurred with no power!

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THE STATE OF IIoT IN 2017 Although Industrial Internet of Things adoption continues to accelerate, numerous obstacles still remain.

By Benson Hougland

A

cross the world, the industrial, manufacturing and automation industries are in the midst of a massive shift in technology and culture. Terms like predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing are no longer buzzwords.

They’re technologies and concepts being applied to these industries every day.

Although early IIoT advocates have identified competitive advantages and new business models, IIoT adoption challenges remain. For example, the potential benefits of IIoT applications require that information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) teams begin leveraging and applying each other’s technology and skillsets. This continues to be a challenge on both the technical and cultural fronts.

IT lives in a world of constant change and never-ending software and hardware upgrade cycles to gain some competitive advantage.

The IT team’s technology comes from a world of open specifications and well-documented and widely adopted protocols. IT is a realm of information sharing, securing and preservation.

By contrast, the OT team functions in the realm of physical value creation. It handles the installation, maintenance and occasional (i.e. 10, 20 or even 30 year) upgrade cycles. The equipment itself is application specific, expensive and proprietary, but often not designed to interface with external systems.

This makes bridging the gap between the physical world of industrial devices and systems and the digital world of the Internet a significant hurdle.

One recommendation to help streamline this process is to invest a single individual within the organization who is responsible for developing an IIoT strategy and is well versed October | 2017

in both the OT and IT realms. An IIoT strategy is half baked if it comes from only one of these two organizational units, because both are required for a successful IIoT strategy development and rollout.

Organizations and Architectures During 2015 and 2016, two organizations dominated the IIoT headlines: Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), which takes a cross-domain approach to IIoT, and Plattform Industrie 4.0, which is rooted in the concepts of efficient manufacturing and the smart factory. Both groups have developed reference architectures to help streamline the standardization and adoption of IIoT technology. While similar in some respects, they also differ on many points.

The IIC aims to advance the adoption of the Industrial Internet on a global scale with a cross-industry approach. Its founding and contributing members include Bosch, EMC2, GE, Huawei, Intel, IBM, SAP, Schneider Electric, and over 150 other companies. It is primarily focused on developing a standard reference architecture to address the overall enterprise.

The IIC’s Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) is a standards-based template and methodology that system architects can use to design IIoT systems, based on a common framework and concepts. It is designed to address the intelligence and connectivity now being built into the sensors, actuators and other low-level devices. This data-centric connectivity architecture relies on quality-of-service attributes like data delivery, timeliness, ordering, durability, lifespan, fault tolerance and, most importantly, security.

In contrast, Industrie 4.0 began as a German government project to promote computerized manufacturing. As a result, its primary focus is to optimize production by what it calls the smart factory. For a factory to be considered smart, it must be designed and operated around four key pillars: interoperability, information transparency, technical assistance (i.e. systems that help with problem solving) and decentralized decision-making, in that systems become as autonomous as possible. Using these pillars, Industrie 4.0 attempts to build smart factories that can mass produce customized products flexibly.

Automation technology conforming to the Industrie 4.0 standard would have technology built in to allow for selfoptimization, self-configuration, self-diagnosis, cognition and www.design-engineering.com

IIoTGuide

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intelligent support for workers as their work becomes increasingly complex.

Conversations between the IIC and Industrie 4.0 have been on-going since 2015. However, there is still much debate between them, leaving many companies unsure of where to invest. At this point, a wait-and-see approach may be the best option. While it’s likely a combined, overall industry standard will be developed, the timeline is currently unknown.

Platforms Rising While the standards bodies continue to debate the specifics, industry is already offering IIoT platforms that provide ease of use, security and interoperability—leading to the rise of the IIoT platform wars. At present, approximately 150 companies have developed or are developing IoT platforms and middleware.

IoT platforms and middleware are the software that must exist between physical devices (sensors, actuators, relays, etc.) and higher-level software applications like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and cognitive computing. Middleware isn’t a new technology, but the IIoT has given rise to a new type of middleware specifically designed for IIoT applications.

For example, IIoT platforms and middleware will need to be scalable to support tens of thousands of devices, all trying to exchange information with a central server and each other. To facilitate that exchange, platforms will require edge computing to decrease network latency and deliver real-time control and monitoring. Even so, IIoT applications will also need an efficient communication architecture since they may be deployed in environments with unreliable and low-bandwidth networks.

Of course, IIoT middleware needs to support and translate a wide range of different OT and IT protocols so the two realms can communicate. Ultimately, OT devices will likely adopt IT protocols and communication standards. However, there will always be a need for middleware to support the massive install base of legacy industrial systems. Finally, IIoT platforms depend on cognitive computing – computers that think like people – to enable predictive analytics, the key value-add of IIoT applications.

Today, and for some years to come, the root problem is that IIoT applications inherently require connecting legacy systems and devices to cutting-edge IT systems. And a massive gap exists in technology, communication protocols and standards between equipment designed several decades ago and the equipment shipping today. That’s the gap IoT middleware is trying to fill.

Open Standards While there has been widespread adoption of open standards like Ethernet and TCP/IP, software applications in the OT and IT realms still lack interoperability. Here are some current technologies to help overcome these hurdles.

REpresentational State Transfer (RESTful) APIs are the tools that stitch together the Internet and mobile computing as we know them today. REST is an architectural style for software development that provides developers with a set of constraints to write their software code against.

Node-RED is a visual wiring tool to connect edge computing systems, such as industrial automation controllers, to cloud ser-

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vices like Amazon Web Services IoT, IBM Watson IoT and others. An open-source technology, Node-RED is currently available for most operating systems, as well as cloud offerings like IBM Bluemix and AT&T Flow. Node-RED benefits from a large library of prebuilt JavaScript applications, allowing IIoT developers to leverage existing software code and deploy it directly.

OPC-UA: Originally, OPC (OLE for Process Control) was designed to connect applications running on MS Windows to industrial automation devices. The recent OPC UA specification

attempts to overcome this limitation by removing reliance on COM/DCOM and permitting a server to be embedded into an edge product like a PLC or PAC. The OPC UA standard is extensive, spanning 1000 pages of specifications, including transport protocols, security, services, information models and profiles.

MQTT is a transport protocol that pushes data using a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) architecture; clients subscribe to topics that contain data, which are hosted on an MQTT broker. An open protocol and OASIS standard, MQTT is operating system independent and uses less bandwidth. It only uses outbound connections over secure TCP ports and so isn’t blocked by firewalls.

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Roadblocks Ahead Although industry is making headway on the technical challenges of IIoT, there are still hurdles to overcome. For example, the number one concern today is security.

According to Gartner, spending on IoT security is expected to reach $547 million in 2018. As investment in continues, it’s important to establish best practices for cyber security no matter what industry an IIoT application is being deployed to.

There is also a systemic lack of experienced manpower to implement IIoT systems. OT and IT engineers will need to increase their knowledge of their counterpart’s realms through vendor certification programs or university extension courses.

Finally, any successful IIoT project requires a business case but defining return on investment (ROI) can be challenging.

As a result, making a significant investment in technology is difficult without it having a proven ROI track record.

To determine ROI, start with a pilot project—which is also a learning experience that will provide insight into the ROI of future IIoT projects. Cloud-based platform providers often provide reduced-cost evaluation licenses so users can prototype applications and help calculate ROI. While the details of how to connect IIoT building blocks together are still foggy, it’s clear industry has already delivered the blocks themselves. The hardware and software products required to design, build and deploy IIoT applications are here. And the market is only poised to grow as time passes. www.opto22.com

Benson Hougland is VP of Corporate Marketing and Product Strategy at Opto 22.

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IdeaGenerator Motion Terminal VTEM

Festo Canada has officially launched its Motion Terminal VTEM, a pneumatic valve terminal that employs software apps to control multiple functions without having to modify the hardware.

The terminal combines low-energy piezo valves and control software with stroke and pressure sensors within its on-board valves. Together, these features allow the system’s self-regulating motion apps to constantly adjust for factors like increasing wear of machine parts while also keeping multiple actuators synchronized.

According to Dr. Ansgar Kriwet, Festo’s management board member in charge of global sales, pneumatic valves have lacked this level of flexibility and proportionality, previously. “If you had one valve with one function and you needed another function, you had to take a screw driver and change the valve. Now the VTEM will do it via an app,” he says. “In essence, Festo has designed the flexibility of electronic circuitry into mechanical valves.”

The VTEM launched with 10 apps, including the ability to modify standard directional control valve functions (e.g. 4/2, 4/3, 3/2) at any time and pre-setting the stroke travel time for advancing and retracting in the cylinder. In addition, users can reduce actuator operation to the minimum pressure necessary using an app or set the pressure for specific functions. Other apps include a soft stop option, that uses air pressure in place of shock absorb-

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ers, and one that monitors for anomalies that may indicate a system leak. Each VTEM is comprised of a Festo CPX control module and the VTEM controller, plus an Ethernet WebConfig interface to configure the unit from a PLC. www.festo.ca

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IdeaGenerator Automation PLC Bosch Rexroth announced its latest line of programmable logic controllers, the IndraControl XM 21/22, which integrates the modular IndraControl S20 I/O series into the controller. The controllers are available with either an Intel 600 or 1,300 MHz ATOM processor (XM21/22), along with an onboard Sercos master featuring a cycle time as low as 250μs. Decentralized I/Os, drives and additional system machinery are connected by Ethernet-based Sercos as a universal automation bus for system-wide networking. The XM controller uses Rexroth’s standard IndraMotion MLC system firmware for motion logic applications. Compatible with a range of control topologies, Rexroth’s IndraControl S20 I/O units feature short module reaction times of 1μs per module. The XM 21/22 controllers utilize Rexroth’s Open Core Interface. www.boschrexroth.ca

Motion Control System ACS Motion Control has developed the MP4U, a modular rackmounted motion control system that integrates up to eight universal motor drives with power supplies and an optional EtherCAT

motion controller to deliver a customized solution. Selfcontained in a 19-inch rackmounted chassis, the MP4U can be configured with up to 8 axes of high performance UDM3U drives and/or ultra-high performance NPM3U (NanoPWM) drives and a 48VDC and/or 96VDC motor bus voltage power supply. An optional internal motion controller, with optional EtherCAT network slave (DS402 multi-axis drive) functionality. The MP4U drives are EtherCAT slaves that may be managed by either an external motion controller, such as the SPiiPlusEC, or by an internal one. The internal controller, due for release during 2018, is functionally identical to the SPiiPlusEC. The MP4U has a current range of 3.3A / 10A (continuous peak) to 13.3A/40A. The compact unit has a height of 260mm, width of 483mm and depth of 306mm. www.acsmotioncontrol.com

Machine Vision Cameras Teledyne DALSA added two models to its Genie Nano Camera series.

Integrating Sony Pregius 1/3-inch CMOS, the added cameras are offered in 1.6 MP (1456 x 1088) resolution with a GigE Vision inter-

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face in either color or monochrome. The cameras are drop-in replacements for the original CCD-based models, but with a frame rate almost seven times faster (up to 160 fps in 1.6 MP and up to 400 fps in VGA). The IMX273-based models feature a full frame electronic global shutter and a 3.45µm pixel. The Genie Nano series uses the Sapera LT Software Development Kit (SDK) and Linux GigE-V Framework for embedded vision systems as well as a field proven Trigger-to-Image-Reliability framework. They also feature a temperature range of -20 to 60°C. www.teledynedalsa.com

Motors Food Safe Motors Baldor Electric Company released its BaldorReliance Food Safe motors that exceed the IP69K rating and feature stainless steel, smooth contours and advanced sealing. The enclosures offer fully encapsulated windings, combined with a laser marked nameplate and a footless mounting design, to keep crevices to a minimum. The

series also feature a 3-piece, rotatable conduit box for easy power supply access and color-coded leads with waterproof heat shrink connectors. The series spans single and three phase ratings; three phase ratings meet NEMA Premium efficiency levels and are available in totally enclosed, non-vented enclosures in the power range of 1/2 - 3 hp. Totally enclosed, fan cooled designs are available in power range of 1/2 - 15 hp. They are available in 2, 4 and 6 pole versions for 230/460V at 60Hz. www.baldor.com

Brushless Motor & Driver Oriental Motor’s BLE2 Series Brushless Motor & Driver combines a brushless DC motor with a driver that can be digitally set and controlled via external DC voltage or by the front panel. The series features a built-in simple holding torque function. The BLE2 series has a maximum speed of 4000r/min, achieving a speed ratio of 1:50 (80 to 4000r/min). The motor connector offers IP66 protection and allows for direct connection between motor and driver with two available orientation of cable outlet direction.

Standardized use of stainless steel shaft provides rust prevention and corrosion resistance. www.orientalmotor.com

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Drives Servo Drives Kollmorgen announced its AKD2G servo drives at Pack Expo 2017 in September. The drive features a hybrid connector optimized for single cable motors and an I/O cage-clamp terminal that isolates the I/O to reduce noise.

The drive also features a multicore compute engine – Servo on a Chip – that accommodates changing load conditions immediately with a rapid current loop update rate of 1.28µs. Velocity and position loops updates are 62.5µs and 250µs, respectively. Bus choices include EtherCAT and FSoE, as well as CANopen. Safety can be incorporated with an optional Safe Motion Monitor (SMM). www.kollmorgen.com

AC Drive Rockwell Automation introduced its Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 6000 medium-voltage AC drive line. The drive delivers a wider voltage range (2.4 to 11 kV) and provides 100 percent starting torque, leveraging sensorless vector control. With EtherNet/IP connectivity, the drive can be used for applications with output-voltage ratings up to 11 kV and motor current ratings up to 680A, while remaining an air-cooled design. With ecodesigned main cooling fans, users in Europe and other IEC-based markets can meet EC regulation 327 and ErP directive 2009, and avoid the larger footprint of a liquid-cooled drive. Internally powered cooling fans reduce customer-supplied control power requirements, and equipment and installation costs. A tertiary winding on the isolation transformer provides internal power for the fans. www.rockwellautomation.com

Metrology Video Measurement System Optical Gaging Product’s SmartScope Flash 302 is a bench top multi-sensor measurement system, offering a Z-axis of 250mm (10in.) to accommodate large parts. Users can add optional through-the-lens (TTL) laser, touch probe or micro-probe configurations.

The SmartScope Flash 302 offers axial straightness and perpendicularity, which are built in to meet stringent volumetric specifications. The system comes with an “elevating bridge” design, which allows the entire unit to fit in an area as small as 0.6 cubic meters. The system comes standard with TTL coaxial illuminator and patented LED SmartRing light as well as a high-quality auto calibrating AccuCentric 12:1 zoom lens. www.cmmxyz.com www.design-engineering.com October | 2017 DES_ITEM_Sept.indd 1

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Handheld Laser Scanner Nikon’s Model Maker H120 offers a frame rate of more than 450Hz even when measuring difficult materials such as carbon fibre, gloss black, reflective or significantly multi-coloured parts. The system includes a field-of-view width up to 120mm and a point resolution of up to 35μm. With 2,000 points per scan line and no point-to-point interpolation, the scanner can measure small details on large surfaces even when cycle time is critical. The ModelMaker H120 uses Nikon optics and a blue, low speckle, laser. The scanner features accuracy of 7μm (1 sigma) and a combined system accuracy with the MCAx arms of up to 28μm (2 sigma). www.nikonmetrology.com

Networking Power Over Ethernet Switches AutomationDirect has added Stride PoE+ switches to its unmanaged Ethernet switches lineup. Both 10/100 Mbps and GbE versions have one standard RJ45 Ethernet port and four PoE+ RJ45 ports (30W on each port). Using Powered Device (PD) Detection, the

PoE switch port will detect the presence of a PoE enabled device before sending power. If a non-PoE device is detected, power will not be sourced on that port but Ethernet communications will be permitted. Power input requirements are 54-58 VDC for PoE+ (30 watts per port) and 48-58 VDC for PoE (15.4 watts per port). The switches provide broadcast/network storm protection and have redundant power inputs. With IP30 metal cases, the switches have a -40 to +75°C (-40 to +167°F) operating temperature range and are approved for HazLoc environments. The switches are DIN rail mounted and an optional panel mounting bracket is available. www.automationdirect.com

I/O and Wi-Fi Gateway Weidmuller released its WI-I/O-2-E-N-GBL, a wireless networking I/O and Wi-Fi gateway that accommodates multiple I/O nodes and extends communications to sensors and actuators in local, remote or difficult to reach locations. The gateway includes a simple web-based user interface, a built-in webserver and a standards-based wireless protocol with a networking topology. It includes built-in I/O capability for

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digital and analog inputs and outputs. The internal radio transceiver uses Weidmuller’s ProMesh redundancy protocol that provides mesh node remote units the ability to automatically detect available connectivity options and make decisions based on link quality.

The unit supports base, repeater and remote functionality. The gateway can provide Ethernet and serial gateway support for industrial protocols that include Modbus TCP/RTU and DNP3. With Hot Spot capabilities, this unit can also be used to bridge multiple networks together to create a DHCP server. www.weidmuller.com

Robotics

Robotic Controller Aerotech debuted its HEX RC, a 6-axis motion controller designed for controlling robotic systems like hexapods. The 4U rackmountable unit is compatible with the Automation 3200 (A3200) motion platform that runs up to 32 axes, perform complex, synchronized motion trajectories, manipulate I/O and collect data at high speeds. The HEX RC controls any combination of brush, brushless or stepper motors and digitally performs both current loop and servo loop closures. The controller connects and controls up to 26 additional axes of servo, stepper or piezo-driven stages using the A3200 distributed control architecture. The HEX RC is designed with an ASCII command interface over TCP and can act as a master controller to control other A3200 external drives via the FireWire. www.aerotech.com

4-Axis Robot DENSO Robotics introduced its HSR four-axis SCARA robot, that features advanced vibration control, a lightweight arm and improved heat dissipation. In addition, the robot benefits from reduced shaft whip and settling time, which www.design-engineering.com October | 2017 DES_RotoPrecision_Oct.indd 1

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the company says allow it to accelerate faster and stop more precisely. The robot can continuously run at its highest rated speed, the companys says. Its standard cycle time (with a 2-kg weight) is from 0.28 to 0.31 sec. and repeatability is from ±0.01 to ±0.12mm. Maximum payload capacity is 8kg, with available reaches of 480, 550 and 650mm. Electrical wiring and air piping are internally embedded in the robot arm. The HSR also complies with ANSI and CE standards. www.densorobotics.com

Sensors Linear Position Sensor Novotechnik introduced its TFD Series of touchless linear position sensors with a maximum dimension of 40 x 27 x 7mm. The TFD-4000 Series utilizes a magnetic position marker to provide a touchless measurement range of 0 to 14, 24 or 50mm – depending on model.

These sensors make measurements through air and non-magnetic materials. Magnetic position marker mounts to users’ application.

Key TFD-4000 Series specifications include ingress protection from liquids and dust to IP 67, resolution of 12 bits, repeatability of ≤0.1% of full scale and optional second channel for applications requiring redundancy.

TFD-4000 Series sensors have analog voltage output. They have an operating temperature range of –40°C to +125°C. www.novotechnik.com

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Ultrasonic Sensor Pepperl+Fuchs released its Series IO F77 ultrasonic sensors that feature an integral pushbutton to allow simple configuration without external hardware. More advanced configuration requires that company’s PACTware software that lets users customize sensor parameters and visualize every measurable echo point within a scan area. Other features include the ability to intelligently blank-out and ignore unwanted, non-target echoes. The series can also handle color variations or transparent targets, area object detection (up to 800mm), immunity to acoustic interference and have minimal deadband. The IP67-rated sensors are usable in temperatures ranging from -25°C to 70°C (-13°F to 158°F). www.pepperl-fuchs.us

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CanadianInnovator 45

A

SOFT

University of Toronto PhD students, Justin Wee (right) and Robert Brooks, with their ForceFilm project that won the 2017 Canadian James Dyson Award.

TOUCH UofT engineering students’ award-winning medical device addresses leading cause of death.

By Mike McLeod

S

urgeons who perform minimally invasive surgery (MIS) face a daunting challenge. In traditional surgery, doctors can use their fingers to gauge how much force they are applying when performing a common procedure like tying a suture.

During MIS, however, the surgeon operates long, thin surgical tools inserted through small openings in the patient.

As a consequence, it can be difficult to “feel” when too much pressure is applied with the tool. That can lead to negative outcomes. According to a 2016 study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers, medical error is the third leading cause of death in U.S. Of that, an estimated 12% is due to improper force.

To address this problem, two University of Toronto engineering students, Justin Wee and Robert Brooks, spent two years developing a digital system that can be retrofitted onto existing MIS surgical tools to restore that lost “sense of touch.”

Called ForceFilm, the system employs between two to four strain gauges to capture axial force and torsion. The gauges are embedded in a thin, flexible circuit board, or film, that wraps around the instrument near its end effector and extends up to a cylindrical electronics module on the surgical tool’s handle.

A Bluetooth transceiver in the module transmits raw strain gauge data to a surgical monitor that warns surgeons if they are exerting too much force.

During ForceFilms’ development phase, prototypes were used in an educational study with 19 urologists at the Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. The team’s second prototype assured that the surgical instrument could be sterilized without ruining the electronics.

In recognition of their efforts, The James Dyson Foundation awarded Brooks and Wee the Canadian James Dyson Award for their ForceFilm project. The annual international product design competition tasks students from around the world to design something that solves a pressing problem.

For winning the Canadian award, the pair received $3,400 toward ForceFilm’s development.

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46 CanadianInnovator

“Unlike most medical sensors, ForceFilm is uniquely economical and environmentally friendly because it can be steam sterilized and reused,” said ForceFilm co-founder, Robert Brooks. “We will be using the prize money to make ForceFilm last even longer. This will allow us to try different formulations and constructions of film and build test apparatuses to repetitively test them for abrasion and steam resistance, with the goal of having ForceFilm last a full year in surgical use.”

The Canadian James Dyson Award is the latest prize the UofT pair have received. Others include the $10,000 UofT Hatchery – Lacavera Prize and the National Technology and Business Conference – Veteran Pitch Competition. Their project, along with five other Canadian runner-ups, will enter the International Dyson Awards, where they will go up against other national winners for the ultimate $50,000 prize.

Whatever the outcome of the international competition, the duo have already begun commercialisation of their invention. According to newly formed start-up, SensOR Medical Labs, the company will leverage ForceFilm to help train surgical residents, increase MIS safety and enable new surgical procedures that are not currently possible. www.sensormedicallabs.com

DE

ForceFilm employs strain gauges embedded in a thin flexible circuit board that wraps around MIS surgical tools to monitor forces applied during surgery in real time.

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