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20 Canadian inventor speeds 30

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Contents | Volume 57, No. 3

IN THE NEWS

8

Berkshire, OMERS acquire Husky Injection

8

CAD MicroSolutions, SolidCAD merge

8

Queen’s researchers unroll paper-thin smart phone

8

Additive Manufacturing industry rebounds

10

BAE Systems launches armored recon vehicle

10

Islington School takes Canadian Fluid Power Challenge

12

Columns 14 Hardwire HP’s mobile workstation EliteBook line delivers high-end power in a sleek package 16 Cad Report Autodesk fine tunes and bundles 2012 lineup of mechanical design software

28 Idea Generator Product news covering the latest in motors, drives and fluid power

22

Features

READER SERVICES Annual Subscription Rate In Canada: $52.00 Outside Canada: $99.00 Single Copy & Directory Rates In Canada: $8.00; $26.00 directory issue Outside Canada: $22.00; $43.00 directory issue Reader Service Contact Information rogers@cstonecanada.com T: Toronto (416) 932-5071 Elsewhere 1-866-236-0608 Mail: Design Engineering c/o Subscriber Service 111 Granton Drive, Unit 101 Richmond Hill, ON, L4B 1L5 Request New or Renew Subscriptions Online www.rogersb2bmedia.com/dsen

22 How to Design a Hyper-Efficient Car

Université Laval team soars above the collegiate engineering competition with a radical vehicle capable of better than 3,000 miles per gallon

30

26 Engineers Wanted

Engineers Canada report points to shortages of experienced engineers in current and coming labour market

30 Canadian Innovator

Ryerson bio-engineering duo’s braincontrolled bionic arm may not give amputees super-human strength but could restore nearly all natural function one day soon

Instant access online In addition to all the news and information already available on our Website, you can now interact with DESIGN ENGINEERING to get the

ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

20

20 Rapid Prototyping Canadian inventor leverages grass roots funding and rapid prototyping to turn sketch into finished product on shoestring budget

Centre for Engineering Innovation signs first tenants

Printed in Canada

14

most up-to-date information about your subscription.

Online Subscription Services This is a secure site. It’s easy to use and convenient. You can renew your current subscription, apply for a new subscription, change your mailing address, report missing issues and check the status of your account.

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May/June | 2011

5

6 EditorialViewpoint

Who Saved the EV?

I

n 1997, when GM was still behind its first foray into the embryonic electric vehicle market—the EV-I, I jumped at the chance to test drive one. For a relatively short time, the automaker leased the then space-age looking 2-seat, 2-door coupe in the southwestern U.S. At the time, GM billed the EV-1 as the wave of the future. And, to be honest, it felt that way. The one thing that stands out in my memory is the looks I’d get driving a noise-less and somewhat funny-looking car around the streets of Phoenix, Arizona.

Powered by a 137 hp (or 102 kW to be more exact) 3-phase AC induction electric motor, the EV-1’s performance wasn’t anything special (0-60 mph in 8 seconds) and the range of the original lead-acid battery averaged around 60 to 80 miles on a full charge depending on driving behavior. Still, it felt like charging a car at night for the following day’s commute would become commonplace in the near future.

That came to an end in 2003 when GM repossessed its EV-1s and destroyed nearly all of the more than 1,100 it produced between 1996 and 1999—some would say suspiciously. It’s not hard, from a business standpoint at least, to understand why.

It’s estimated that, over the four years of its short life, only 800 EV-1s found a home at a cost to GM of approximately US$1 billion. Whatever the ultimate motivation behind the move, the resounding signal to those within GM and the rest of the automotive industry, was that the electric vehicle’s time simply hadn’t come.

At least, that’s the way it seemed. At the same time GM was recalling its EV-1, engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were co-founding Tesla Motors in Menlo Park, California. As partners Ian Wright and Elon Musk joined the team, the company envisioned creating a line of electric vehicles, starting with a high-performance sports car followed by more mainstream vehicles.

As with the EV-1, when I was offered a chance to test drive the revamped Tesla Roadster 2.5 this past winter, I relished the idea of seeing how far electric vehicles had come in the last 12 years.

Of course, it’s an unfair comparison to make. While it too is powered by an AC induction motor, the Roadster’s 295 lbs.-ft. of torque and 288 horsepower propel it from 0 to 100 km/h in under four seconds. Even when traveling at relatively high speeds, flooring the gas pedal produces the same g-force sensation as a standing start. What’s more, the Roadster’s range averages around 245 miles (394 kilometers) on a full charge. Best of all, driving one around downtown Toronto produces the same stares as its predecessor did a more than decade before.

However, the business case for electric vehicles is still uncertain, as Tesla Motors has yet to turn a profit. To do that, the company knows it will have to appeal to more than early adopters. In addition to the Model S, a high-end sedan with a longer range set to roll out next year, the company recently announced it has begun development of an SUV called the Model X and a lower-end US$30,000 sedan code-named BlueStar. If those models catch on, the small company could become the fourth largest automaker, analysts predict.

Whatever its future, the Tesla Roadster has produced enough buzz in the automotive industry to re-ignite the interest of GM as well as the rest of North American and foreign car makers. It not hard to imagine that, without the Roadster, the Chevy Volt, Ford Fusion or Toyota Prius wouldn’t have made it past the drawing board.

Mike McLeod

@

I enjoy hearing from you so please contact me at mike.mcleod@de.rogers.com and your letter could be published in an upcoming issue.

May/June | 2011

www.design-engineering.com

www.design-engineering.com Publisher Alan Macpherson (416) 764-1534 alan.macpherson@de.rogers.com Group Editorial Director Lisa Wichmann (416) 764-1491 lisa.wichmann@rci.rogers.com Editor Michael McLeod (416) 764-1555 mike.mcleod@de.rogers.com Technical Field Editor Pat Jones, P. Eng. Directory Editor Jessica Badali jessica.badali@de.rogers.com Art Director Kathy Smith (416) 764-1542 Production Manager Natalie Chyrsky (416) 764-1686 natalie.chyrsky@rci.rogers.com Circulation Manager Celia Ramnarine (416) 764-1451 deokie.ramnarine@rci.rogers.com Junior Web Producer Jessica Mirabelli (416) 764-1316 jessica.mirabelli@rci.rogers.com ROGERS PUBLISHING LIMITED President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Segal ROGERS BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING Senior Vice-President, John Milne Vice-President, Financial Publishing, Brand Extensions & Online Services, Paul Williams Director of Audience Development, Keith Fulford (416) 764-3878, keith.fulford@rci.rogers.com Executive Publisher, Industrial Group, Tim Dimopoulos, (416) 764-1499, tim.dimopoulos@rci.rogers.com CORPORATE SALES General Manager, Corporate Sales, Sandra Parente (416) 764-3818, sandra.parente@rci.rogers.com WEB General Manager, Online Operations, David Carmichael (416) 764-3820, david.carmichael@rci.rogers.com RESEARCH Senior Director, Rogers Connect Market Research, Tricia Benn (416) 764-3856, tricia.benn@rci.rogers.com EVENTS General Manager, Conferences & Events, Stephen T. Dempsey (416) 764-1635, steve.dempsey@mtg.rogers.com Publications Mail Agreement #40070230 ISSN number: 0011-9342 Subscriber Services: To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information, please visit us at www.rogersb2bmedia.com/dsen. Subscription Price: Canada $52.00 per year, Outside Canada $99.00 US per year, Single Copy Canada $9.00. Design Engineering, established in 1955, is published 6 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues. Rogers Publishing Ltd., One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, ON, M4Y 2Y5. Montreal Office: 1200 avenue McGill College, Bureau 800, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 4G7 Return undeliverable items to: Design Engineering, Circulation Dept., 8th Floor-One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto ON M4Y 2Y5.

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Our environmental policy is available at www.rogerspublishing.ca/environment

8 DesignNews Up Front

Queen’s researchers unroll paper-thin smart phone

I Berkshire, OMERS acquire Husky Injection Private equity firms Berkshire Partners and OMERS Private Equity Inc. agreed to acquire Husky International Ltd. and its subsidiaries. Headquartered in Bolton, Ontario, the company has more than 40 service and sales offices in more than 100 countries, and manufacturing facilities in Canada, the United States, Luxembourg and China. Berkshire and OMERS expect to close the transaction by the end of the third quarter of 2011. www.husky.ca

CAD MicroSolutions, SolidCAD merge SolidCAD and CAD MicroSolutions Inc. announced that the Ontario-based CAD resellers will merge their Autodesk businesses forming one of Autodesk’s largest Canadian based Value Added Resellers.

Effective May 2nd, 2011, the merged Autodesk Gold Partners will continue to operate under the SolidCAD brand. Continuing under the leadership of Paul Forman, SolidCAD will maintain its existing offices in Richmond Hill, Brampton and Burlington while adding a sales office and training center at the Etobicoke location of CAD MicroSolutions. www.cadmicro.com www.solidcad.ca

AMEC acquires MACTEC International engineering and project management company, AMEC, announced it will buy MACTEC, a U.S. engineering and environmental services company, for US$280 million. Headquartered in Georgia, MACTEC has 2,600 employees in 70 offices mainly in the eastern U.S. In North America, AMEC’s E&E group has previously May/June | 2011

f smart phones such as the iPhone, Blackberrys and Android devices are still a little too bulky for your liking, researchers at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab may have a solution.

The multi-disciplinary research group unveiled a smartphone prototype, called the PaperPhone, at the Association of Computing Machinery’s CHI 2011 conference in Vancouver on May 10. Described as a flexible iPhone, the ultra-thin device consists of a 9.5 cm diagonal thin-film flexible E Ink display with the same func- The PaperPhone, co-developed by the tionality (run apps, play music or make Human Media Lab at Queen’s University phone calls) as its heftier brethren.

However, in addition to the typical touch screen display, users interact with the PaperPhone as one would regular paper, by bending it, dog earing corners or writing on it with a stylus.

“This is the future,” said creator Roel Vertegaal, the director of Queen’s University Human Media Lab. “This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years.”

At the CHI 2011 conference, the research group also demonstrated a thin-film wristband computer called Snaplet and published an article on interactive use of bending with flexible thinfilm computers.

In addition to Audrey Girouard and Aneesh Tarun from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University, the PaperPhone's development team includes researchers Byron Lahey and Win Burleson of the Motivational Environments Research Group at Arizona State University (ASU); Jann Kaminski and Nick Colaneri, director of ASU’s Flexible Display Center; and Seth Bishop and Michael McCreary, the VP R&D of E Ink Corporation. www.hml.queensu.ca

Additive Manufacturing industry rebounds In its annual report on additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing (Wohlers Report 2011), industry analyst firm Wohlers Associates, Inc. announced that the AM industry rebounded strongly in 2010 from the global economic recession.

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of revenues produced by all AM products and services in 2010 was 24.1 percent, reversing the 9.7 percent industry decline in 2009. The CAGR for the industry's 23-year history is 26.2 percent.

“I am happy to see the additive manufacturing industry recover as quickly as it has,” said Tim Caffrey, associate consultant at Wohlers Associates and a major contributor of the report. “We expect the industry to continue its strong doubledigit growth over the next several years.”

Considered by many to be the industry’s “Bible,” the 270-page report conservatively forecasts industry-wide growth to be $3.1 billion by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020.

The report also documents the latest developments in additive manufacturing technologies, including the growth of low-cost “personal” systems, the rapid development of metal materials and the increasing use of these technologies for the production of end-use products. www.wohlersassociates.com www.design-engineering.com

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COM DEV wins space hardware contract COM DEV International Ltd., a manufacturer of space hardware subsystems, announced that it has been awarded a contract to provide equipment for a new commercial satellite. The company will provide Ka and Ku band switches, multiplexers and filters for the satellite designed for mobile communications. It’s estimated that the final contract will be in excess of US$5 million.

Work on the contract will be carried out at the company’s facility in Cambridge, Ontario with completion expected by the middle of its 2012 fiscal year. www.comdevintl.com

BAE Systems launches armored recon vehicle The BAE Systems business in South Africa has developed a modified version of its RG35 vehicle, called the RG35 RPU, as a contender for Canada’s Canadian Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) program.

The tactical 4X4 wheeled vehicle is designed for reconnaissance missions but can also be equipped with light and medium turrets, as well as direct and indirect-fire weapons.

It can also be modified to transport cargo, conduct routine patrols, or outfitted with cameras and other electronics for surveillance missions. The TAPV program is intended to replace the RG31 and Coyote reconnaissance vehicles currently used by the Canadian forces. www.baesystems.com May/June | 2011

Islington School takes Canadian Fluid Power Challenge Toronto, ON – For the second year in a row, students from Islington Junior Middle School took the top prize at the Canadian Fluid Power Challenge, held at Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy on May 12 in Etobicoke, Ontario.

Celebrating its 11th year, the competition challenges student teams from west-end Toronto middle schools to design and build small-scale fluid power devices. This year, the 18 gender-balanced student teams were tasked with Clockwise from top left: Islington Junior Middle School creating mechanisms that team members – Kevin Sprunt, Areeb Hafiz, Veronica could quickly and efficiently Stan and Hyeonji Kim pick up and place wooden blocks on one of two shelves, simulating a warehouse material handling problem. Islington’s team completed the largest number of cycles in the time limit.

“The only common denominator between last year and this year was the total commitment of the children,” said Islington teacher, Anne Potocnik, who filed in for the student’s regular Fluid Power Challenge coach, David Zayachkowski “They really threw themselves into the project; they went through four different prototype models before they hit on the final winning design.”

While the teams are limited to glue, wooden dowels, and water-filled syringes as construction materials, how they solve the Challenge’s scenario is left to the students’ imaginations and problem solving skills.

Challenge organizers were concerned that this year’s problem scenario might be too difficult. As it turned out, more teams succeeded in completing at least one cycle than in any of the previous ten challenges.

Many teams opted for complex, often delicate, scissor lifts for vertical actuation. Islington’s team, however, relied on a cantilever crane design coupled with a two-finger griper.

“The key was to keep things simple,” said Islington Junior Middle School team member, Kevin Sprunt. “A lot of teams went for very complicated designs, but ours just got the job done.”

The Challenge, a partnership of the Canadian Fluid Power Association and the Toronto District School Board, is intended to provide Grade 8 students with hands-on experience building a mechanism with real world applicability and hopefully inspire them to pursue technology careers.

At a minimum, the organizers hope that the Challenge will encourage students to select more mathematics and science courses in their high school curricula to keep their options open for technology-based post-secondary studies.

In addition to the Canadian Fluid Power Challenge, The CFPA’s Western Chapter also holds a Challenge in Edmonton that involves both high school and middle school students. Through a partnership between the CFPA and the U.S.based National Fluid Power Association (NFPA), the concept has also spread south of the boarder. The Challenge is hosted a number of U.S. states including Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. www.cfpa.ca www.design-engineering.com

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12 DesignNews Up Front Lignol finishes bio-fuel refinery design Biorefining technology company, Lignol Energy Corporation, announced it has completed an engineering design package for a commercial-scale biorefinery.

According to the company, the proposed facility would produce up to 80 million litres of cellulosic ethanol (approximately 20 million US gallons) and 55,000 tonnes of High Performance Lignin (HP-L) derivatives annually. The design package was developed with Lignol’s engineering contractor, Vancouverbased Pöyry Inc., an engineering and management consulting in the energy and industrial sectors. www.lignol.ca www.poyry.com

University Windsor Centre for Engineering Innovation signs first tenants The University of Windsor announced that Brüel & Kjær (B&K), a manufacturer of sound and vibration measurement apparatus, will become the first occupant of the university’s Centre for Engineering Innovation— the 300,000-sq.-ft., $112 million engineering research facility, currently under The University of Windsor’s 300,000-sq.-ft. Centre for construction on the univer- Engineering Innovation is set to open in July 2011. sity campus.

In the Centre’s phase one Industrial Courtyard, the Danish acoustic measurement company will establish the Wind and Renewable Energies Centre of Expertise (WRECE)—a research group to study turbine components durability and ways to reduce turbine noise below human hearing levels.

The agreement will bring $1.4 million in research equipment to WRECE under the direction of Colin Novak, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering. www.uwindsor.ca www.bksv.com

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pring is the time every young engineer’s heart pines for new hardware and computer maker HewlettParkard has, once again, provided a new line-up of attractive workstations to turn heads.

Last year, the company focused on desktop workstations, debuting its Z-Series line. This year, aside from the small form-factor Z210 desktop, mobile computing, in the form of an upscale EliteBook line, is the main thrust.

“Canada has one of the biggest mobile workstation markets,” says Phil Smith, category business

manager, commercial notebooks for HP Canada. “We have a lot of digital content creation houses as well as medical imaging and oil and gas, which is also a large mobile workstation client.”

As with the Z-Series, the company debuted three mobile workstations in its new EliteBook W-Series to address different levels of the market. At the top of the line, the HP EliteBook 8760w offers a 17.3-inch diagonal, high-definition display, driven by either an AMD FirePro or NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics and up to 4 GB of video memory.

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Hardwire Graphic chip options range from the AMD FirePro M5950 with 1 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory up to the NVIDIA Quadro 5010M with 4 GB. Targeted at the graphics and film industry, the 8760 can also be equipped with HP’s DreamColor display that can generate more than 1 billion active color possibilities as opposed to the mere millions with standard displays.

Under the hood, the 8760w can be equipped with a range of second generation Intel Core i-Series processors from the 2.60 GHz i5-2540M up to the quad-core 2.30 GHz i7-2820QM with 8 MB L3 cache. In addition, the model comes with 4 or 8 GB of DDR2 ram but can support up to a whopping 32 GB total.

What makes the 8760 stand out though isn’t its cutting edge graphics, CPU or high memory capacity. Instead, it’s the fact that it can be configured with up to three hard drives to create a RAID 5 storage array, a rare feature in notebooks.

“That’s pretty amazing in a notebook,” says Smith. “You can’t get that in any other business notebook from HP and would be hard pressed to find that from any other notebook manufacturer in the industry.”

One tier down, the EliteBook 8560w is probably the sweet spot of the line. While it has a smaller screen (15.6-inch diagonal) coupled with either a 1 GB AMD FirePro M5950

or 2 GB NVIDIA Quadro 1000M graphics chips, it supports nearly the same line of Intel CPUs as the 8760—up to the 2.20 GHz i7-2720QM—and up to 32 GB of ram for 64-bit operating system users. It can also sport HP’s DreamColor display, but lacks the capacity for a RAID 5 array. Options include either a 500 GB or 750 GB 7200 rpm SATA II hard drive.

At the entry level, the EliteBook 8460w weighs in at only 4.9 pounds and includes a 14.0-inch diagonal HD panel, in addition to an AMD FirePro 1 GB video memory professional graphics card.

For those interested in style, all the systems sport HP’s DuraCase, a brushed-gunmetal casing that the company says is MIL STD 810G tested for drop, vibration, dust and altitude.

In addition, all the new EliteBook laptops come with either 32- or 64-bit Windows 7 professional.

“The 8760w certainly does catch people’s eye,” Smith says, “but the 15-inch 8560w is actually one of our top selling mobile workstations because people see it as the perfect compromise between performance and size.”

“In companies that have both an engineering arm and office employees,” Smith adds, “we find that they are looking at the 8450w so they can standardize across the organization to help IT reduce workload.”

DE www.hp.com

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15

16 CADReport

Suite Deal?

Autodesk fine tunes and bundles 2012 lineup of mechanical design software.

By Ralph Grabowski

S

pring is the season when Autodesk unveils its annual software upgrades.

CAD users and editors alike eagerly pour over lists of new features and improved commands provided by the world's largest CAD software company. This year, however, was different, for Autodesk was interested in talking mostly about "suites."

Although Autodesk has bundled software together in previous years, this year they are pushing bundles aggres- Direct modeling application, Autodesk Inventor Fusion, made its official, post-beta debut in the 2012 release sively, in number, pricing and of the CAD giant’s design software round-up and features tight Inventor and AutoCAD 2012 integration. inter-software linkages. Most bundles are available in three levels: Standard, Premium, and Ultimate. With each step in Drawing Layouts: AutoCAD has had commands for extractlevel, you get more software at a higher price, but also with a ing 2D views from 3D models since Release 13, but they were steeper discount—as high as 70 percent. non-intuitive to use. AutoCAD 2012 makes the job as easy as More interesting to end users are linkages between software creating drawing layouts in Inventor: drag and click. in bundles. New tabs in the various ribbon interfaces give you The new ViewBase command works with any 3D solid or easy access to related software, such as new Edit in Fusion surface in the current drawing; if there are none, then the button in AutoCAD. command prompts you to open a part, assembly, or presentaThe question then becomes: Do you need any bundle? In tion file from Inventor. (This is the closest AutoCAD comes one case, the Premium suite adds 3D Studio (worth US$3,500) to importing native Inventor files). at an extra $700. You save $2,800—but would you ever use The ViewBase command then automatically generates a 2D 3D Studio for animations? Maybe one copy in an office is view known as the "base" (usually the top or front view), from sufficient. which you project other views—all six orthographic and four The only bundle I've seen that make sense immediately is isometric views. AutoCAD determines the view automatically the Factory Design Suite, which is focused on 2D, 3D and by the direction in which you move the cursor. animation of factory floors. The others lack focus, and just Model Translation: The good news in AutoCAD 2012 is seem to be somewhat arbitrary collections of software. For that you no longer need to spend extra to buy a 3D translator. instance, Autodesk Design Suite Standard contains AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2012 now imports parts and assemblies from native Fusion, SketchBook Designer, Showcase and Mudbox. When Catia V4 and V5, Pro/E, Rhino, and SolidWorks files. Missing asked about it, Autodesk says they hope that users will come from the list is Autodesk's own Inventor native format. Autoup with new and different ways of integrating the software CAD also imports a larger number of interchange (aka neuinto their workflow. tral) formats: IGES, JT, Parasolid, STEP, and PTC Granite.

The bad news, you still have to buy 3D exporters.

AutoCAD 2012 When AutoCAD determines the translation will take Most of the changes to AutoCAD 2012 will be of interest longer than five seconds (as it does in most cases), then the primarily to MCAD designers; sorry, architectural and civil translation takes place in the background. A new status bar types. alert tells you when then model is ready to be placed. The May/June | 2011

www.design-engineering.com

CADReport 17 translated model is inserted as a block, which can then be exploded into its constituent solids, and then edited in Fusion, if you like.

Fusion: Autodesk Labs has been simmering Fusion for a couple of years, and now it is an official piece of software. It is still free and now will be bundled in with most suites and with AutoCAD 2012. Fusion is a direct modeler like AutoCAD, but uses the Inventor user interface. AutoCAD has a new Edit in Fusion button which exports selected solid and surface models, launches Fusion, and then waits for you to make the edits. (While Fusion is running, AutoCAD is unavailable.)

When done editing, click the Return to AutoCAD button, and the model reappears in AutoCAD with its changes.

The AutoCAD-to-Fusion switch is slow, taking about 15 seconds each time. The UI is completely different from AutoCAD. And it is a direct modeler, like AutoCAD. The question becomes, Why bother with Fusion? It was designed from the ground up to be a direct modeler, and so it is much better at the job, particularly with its at-cursor tools—AutoCAD, in contrast, has stumbled along in 3D modeling for two decades now.

Cleanup Tools: A small bevy of tools help you clean up drawings. Blend connects two open objects with a spline. Join no longer needs a source object; just select two or more connected objects, and AutoCAD figures out the rest. Overkill removes overlapping objects. It was promoted from Express Tools. You can nudge objects by holding down the Ctrl key and then move them with the cursor keys on the keyboard.

Nudging ignores object snaps, unfortunately, but does honor snap distances.

Mechanical Software Inventor 2012 has received an upgraded user interface. Perhaps “cross-graded” is a better term, for it adopts UI elements developed for Fusion, but now the at-cursor radial menu can be customized. I've never been a fan of mouse flicks, but they are now in Inventor. You quickly move the mouse in a direction, such as southwest, causing Inventor to execute a command, like Fillet, that has been assigned to that direction. Autodesk calls this using your “muscle memory.”

You can now draw and edit in ray traced mode, although when you change the view (zoom or pan), the image gets fuzzy for a few seconds until Inventor recalculates the new scene rendering. Placing drawing views is 5x to 10x faster, because Inventor hands off some of the calculations to the multiple cores of your computer’s CPU. iLogic has been enhanced to make it easier to write rules that govern how parts act, in effect making them smart. (iLogic lets parts update automatically based on logic and www.design-engineering.com

This year, Autodesk is pushing bundles aggressively.

The question is: Do you need any bundle? parameters.) Inventor 2012 introduces a new dialog box for designing inputs to iLogic, which is meant for casual users. In addition, you can now make copies of iLogic-based designs without losing rules.

As in AutoCAD, Inventor 2012 has numerous enhancements that might not be immediately apparent until you dig into it. You can now sweep along edges, create additional boss types, add parting line drafts, and so on. See usa. autodesk.com/autodesk-inventor/features/ for an extensive list of new features.

Simulation: Autodesk has renamed Ansys as “Autodesk Simulation,” and plans to have the most comprehensive collection of simulation abilities in the industry. To emphasize the point, Autodesk says it has already spent a halfbillion dollars acquiring companies that write simulation

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18

CADReport AutoCAD 2012 now incorporates 3D file translators and makes extracting 2D views from 3D models as simple as “point and click.”

addition to those it inherits from AutoCAD 2012, it has improvements in the areas of templates and BOMs. Summary In my experience, 2012 is a fine-tuning release for AutoCAD and Inventor, one that addresses lots of little things and makes them better. Looking forward, Autodesk says it plans to release more products later this year that use the cloud, which it calls “Web services,” as well as its first software that runs on the Android operating system for cell phones and tablets.

DE www.autodesk.com

software programs.

Routed Systems, Simulation, and Tooling are no longer available on their own, only as parts of suites. AutoCAD Mechanical still exists, but has few new features for 2012. In

Ralph Grabowski is a regular contributor to Design Engineering magazine and is the author of 140 books on computer-aided design. You can read his blog at worldcadaccess.typepad.com

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20 RapidPrototyping

Invention 3.0 Canadian inventor leverages grass roots funding and rapid prototyping to turn sketch into finished product on shoestring budget.

H

istorically, if an inventor had a new idea of for a consumer product, they typically had to take a financial leap of faith in their own reading of the market. After the initial sketches, crafting a prototype was financially and logistically draining enough. Then came the arduous job of luring enough investment to pay for tooling, manufacturing, marketing, etc all before the first dollar was made in sales. Of course, that’s provided any sales did follow.

Enter Bernie Graham—an inventor from North Bay, Ontario. Like many others, he found that his popular tablet reader was frustrating to use with both hands. Unless sitting at a table, the tablet required the user to hold the device with one hand, which limited the ability to freely type with two hands or operate many of the applications.

“Bernie had an idea for a hands-free stand that would sit on your lap, making tablets and e-readers more comfortable and easy to use” says Jim Young, the industrial designer who got involved with the project after meeting Graham on a social design web site. The pair set about creating the PadPivot, a detachable monitor stand, compatible with not only the popular iPad, but also most computer tablets, smart phones and e-readers.

Rather than take the risks associated with the traditional product development process, the partners leveraged the power of online collaboration, grass-roots funding options and rapid prototyping to bring their invention to market. Already receiving interest on Quirky.com where the idea was introduced, Graham and Young moved the new product to Kickstarter.com—a “crowd-source” funding site—to raise enough capital through pre-orders to fund the injection molding tools needed to complete the PadPivot’s manufacture.

To gain interest and support on Kickstarter, prototypes were needed in short order. However, Graham and Young required that the prototypes be as close as possible to the final product in both quality and feel. To accurately communicate the product’s appeal, two different materials would be required: A rigid ABS material for the body and a soft rubber-like material for the edges of the stand.

Along with the strict mechanical requirements of the PadPivot prototypes, time was also a critical factor. Young, through previous experiences, approached rapid prototyping service bureau Quickparts to turn-around a functional model of the unique product on the tight schedule required.

May/June | 2011

“Timing was crucial for this project,” says Graham. “Functional prototypes were needed immediately for marketing and pre-sales. We had to keep the project moving forward since we only had 60 days with our Kickstarter program to raise the funds required for production.”

Unsure of what solution would meet their needs, the entrepreneurial pair turned to Quickparts for guidance on the best process to meet their mechanical requirements in a short time frame.

Quickparts recommended PolyJet Connex technology to create the complex dual-material prototypes required. The PolyJet process allowed them to produce the overmolded parts in half the time of other conventional overmolding processes, the company says.

With fully functional prototypes in hand, Graham was able to promote the PadPivot through videos and demonstrations. Quickparts product offering and quick

Designed for tablets and smart phones, the PadPivot was prototyped

by Quickparts to help attract start-up capital and fund its manufacture.

turn-around helped Graham and Young meet the pre-sale goals required to move the PadPivot to production weeks before the 60-day deadline.

The PadPivot reached its Kickstarter.com goal of $10,000 in March. Since then the project has grown to more than 4,800 backers and generated approximately US$190,000 in product pre-orders. That funding has allowed Graham and Young to pay for the expensive molds needed to manufacturer the PadPivot’s parts, plus pay the fulfilment house for assembly, packaging and shipping. Their first production units began shipping in April of 2011.

“With such a short time frame for this project, quick and correct parts were necessary,” says Graham. “Quickparts came through on all fronts and kept me well informed throughout the process with constant and thorough communication.”

DE www.padpivot.com www.quickparts.com www.design-engineering.com

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22

How to Design a Hyper-Efficient Car Université Laval’s Team Alerion Supermileage soars above the collegiate engineering competition with a radical vehicle capable of better than 3,000 miles per gallon.

By Jim Anderton

E

ach year, Transport Canada tallies the country’s most and least economical vehicles. For 2011, the winner is the Toyota Prius, which delivers excellent fuel consumption ratings of 3.7L/100 km in the city and 4.0L/100km on the highway. The Prius is an engineering achievement, but it’s not the most fuel-efficient vehicle in Canada.

That title goes to an extraordinary machine created by engineering students at the Université Laval’s Team Alerion Supermileage.

How efficient is their vehicle? The team competes in the SAE Supermileage and Shell Eco-Marathon hypermileage events for student engineers. The Quebec-based team does more than compete; they win, consistently, with an advanced gasoline-powered vehicle that has recorded fuel consumption figures better than 1,300 km/L. That’s over 3,000 miles per gallon. The numbers seem impossible: 100 kilometers on less than 3 ounces of gasoline, burned in a single-cylinder reciprocating-piston internal combustion engine.

Team Alerion’s monumental achievement has resulted in a swelling trophy case with three consecutive overall victories in the SAE Supermileage competition, despite the fact that the group operates at funding levels that are easily surpassed by many of the US-based teams.

This year, the team beat second-place University of Ottawa and 21 other collegiate competitors from across North America.

On April 19th, the team won the gasoline/internal combustion class of the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas 2011 competition, also for the third consecutive time.

May/June | 2011

So, how do they do it? Many of the details are a closely guarded secret. Suffice it to say, the project contends with numerous trade-offs and variables between engine, tires, weight and aerodynamics. The most important factor in designing a hyper-efficient vehicle, says team captain Anthony Bernier, is all of the above. “[The vehicle] has to be as light, efficient and as aerodynamically perfect as possible,” he says. “Some teams have a good engine, but a weaker car, some great aerodynamics but a poor engine. To win, you have to do everything.”

Start Your Engines Converting the energy locked in fuels like gasoline into mechanical work isn’t new technology. Nickolas Otto’s 1876 engine was revolutionary enough to make his name synonymous with four-stoke spark ignition technology, but it was a refinement of previous designs. What made Otto’s engine historic was its relative efficiency. Today, a full-tilt racing powerplant might be 35 percent thermally efficient, while the engine that spins a lawn mower blade can achieve little better than half that figure.

Like all heat engines, energy (and efficiency) leaks everywhere there’s a thermal gradient to ambient. Losses through hot exhaust gases, heat transfer to cooling systems and to the air in general conspire against super-efficiency.

Even if zero heat transfer were possible, keeping the engine from literally melting is a problem that has never been completely solved. Add friction, plus the complex chemistry of burning liquid fuels under pressure and the efficiency problem is far from trivial.

Surprisingly, the team’s base engine is a 3.5 HP Briggs & Stratton air-cooled single cylinder unit displacing 148cc’s, like millions of similar units powering lawn mowers everywhere. It’s mandated by the SAE’s Supermileage competition regulations. At 29 pounds, it’s a lightweight engine, but the venerable flathead design is decades old. It’s about as basic a starting point for high-technology development as possible and is highly inefficient for performance use. www.design-engineering.com

23 “It’s very primitive,” Bernier bluntly states about the “spec” engine. “We use only the aluminum crankcase. The rest we throw into the garbage.”

Naturally, Team Alerion has made significant changes. In the hypermileage league in which Team Alerion Supermileage plays no one leaves anything on the table, efficiency-wise.

The exact engine specifications are a closely guarded secret, but Bernier did reveal that the engine uses a modified head derived from a motor scooter while the cylinder is liner-ed down to reduce the bore diameter. There are few photos of the engine. That’s intentional, says Bernier.

“Until last year, we didn’t let anybody photograph it,” he says, citing competitive secrecy. The few images available of the engine show aluminized insulation blankets suggesting that the Laval student team is damming heat in every way possible to extract the maximum out of the fuel’s energy content.

The team’s modified cylinder head is considerably freerbreathing than the stock piece while the weak magneto ignition and carburetor fuel metering have been replaced with modern ignition and fuel injection systems. Both are controlled by microprocessor.

The engine runs on regular fuel—in SAE competition, it’s pure iso-octane—which is less of a handicap than is generally believed, since the anti-knock additives present in “highoctane” fuels do nothing to increase energy density. Clever engineering of the cylinder head, combined with carefully controlled fuel injection event timing and spark can deal with pre-ignition.

The ragged edge of pre-ignition is where the engine spends most of its operating life, effectively lugging at weak fuel/air ratios to extract the most from every drop of fuel. Currently, the engine is strictly metal, but the team is open to alternate materials. “There are no ceramics in the engine,” declares Bernier. “We looked at cylinder coatings last year…maybe in the future.”

One interesting SAE rule requires that batteries produce

Lacking a wind tunnel, Team Alerion optimized their vehicle’s aerodynamic performance in ProEngineer Wildfire (Creo Elements/Pro). www.design-engineering.com

Non-structural covers Firewall

Reinforcement for the firewall

Structural monocoque chassis Front wheels fixation composite panels

Composite panels used as reinforcement for the system

Team Alerion’s vehicle shell presents a scant 0.285 square meters of frontal area, a fraction of the frontal area of a Formula One race car.

no greater than 1.4A/h, requiring strict energy management of ignition and instrumentation to avoid the need for a powerrobbing on-board generator.

“For the SAE competition, we used two batteries,” says Bernier. “One for the ECU and support systems and one for the starter. The electric starter is important because the engine doesn’t run 100 percent of the time. We get running and, when we reach a pre-determined speed, we turn off the engine and coast.” The engine power output is a secret, but the lightweight car can achieve over 50km/h.

Rolling Resistance Building an efficient engine is only part of Team Alerion’s winning formula. Rolling resistance represents up to five percent of a street vehicle’s energy loss, so the competition vehicle uses every strategy, from razor-thin, very high pressure and low-hysteresis tires to a tricycle configuration to remove the energy-sapping and superfluous fourth wheel. Even the team’s driver, first year undergrad Audrey Laine, is decidedly petite. To win, every gram counts.

There are two key components in the driveline: a centrifugal clutch that allows engine idling and a free-wheel overrunning clutch built-in to the drive hub. Final drive is by chain and the disk brake system is powerful enough to flat-spot the high-pressure tires through the cords.

Steering is Ackerman type by yoke with lots of negative camber in the front wheels to reduce frontal area of vehicle. Beyond that, Bernier is tight-lipped. Other than the Michelin low-rolling resistance tires, he states simply, “I can’t tell you.”

Engineering a slippery shape Aerodynamic drag is a major efficiency issue for all hypermileage teams. Team Alerion used clever engineering and careful workmanship to craft an aeroshell that’s strong, light and very slippery.

The design evolved from the team’s winning 2006/2007 vehicle and reduces an already small frontal area by 25 percent to 0.285 square meters. A Honda Civic, by comparison, has a 1.9 square meter figure, which is good by automotive standards. A Formula One race car has a frontal area of approximately 1.1-1.3 square meters, so the team is nearing the May/June | 2011

24 theoretical limits for a driver-enclosed volume. Skin friction was addressed with a minimal wetted area design, while form drag was managed with a super-smooth surface finish to minimize boundary layer separation.

Remarkably, the multiple award-winning final shape was designed and simulated entirely “on screen,” with no wind tunnel testing. Instead, the team designed the shell and simulated performance completely within ProEngineer Wildfire (aka Creo Elements/Pro), which consumed more Canoe manufacturer, Kayaks St-Laurent, helped the team create moulds and a fiberglass display shell. The final carbon-fibre body weighs 11 kg.

than 100 hours of processor time to iterate the shape into the optimal design.

The verified data was then exported to MasterCam to generate the CNC-required G-code for fabrication using a five axis machining centre. Three weeks of effort, with the assistance of Laval’s Centre de Recherche sur le Bois, resulted in a precise, segmented 385-kilogram wooden buck.

The polished buck was used as a positive for team partner Kayaks St-Laurent to fabricate a fiberglass/polyester resin mold, from which a fiberglass/gelcoat display shell and finally a carbon-fibre race shell were laid up. The final, highly polished and painted composite body weighs a scant 11 kilograms.

How long did it take to design and build the car? Development is continuous and evolutionary, so there’s really no start or endpoint. By print time, Team Alerion Supermileage will have competed in the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe competition in Lausitz, Germany against Europe’s best collegiate engineering teams.

However, only one week away from the team’s departure for Germany, Bernier continued to work on an improved carbon fibre body for the upcoming SAE contest.

“I worked on it yesterday,” Bernier said.

“We’re laying up the prepreg now.” He predicts significant improvements in the already low frontal area figures with the new shell.

According to medieval geographers, an alerion was a mythical legless and beakless bird, but Team Alerion Supermileage must seem more like a bird of prey to the student competition. They have reason to boast, but Laval’s Bernier says simply, “We do a lot with a little.”

DE www.alerionsupermileage.ca May/June | 2011

www.design-engineering.com

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26 ShopTalk

Engineers Wanted Engineers Canada report points to shortage of experienced engineers in current and coming labour market.

By Mike McLeod

I

t’s no surprise that when Canadian manufacturing took its precipitous decline in 2008/2009, the engineers working in those sectors saw their numbers dwindle as well. For those companies that were hiring, they found it relatively easy to attract qualified and experienced engineering talent in nearly all disciplines.

However, 2011 has seen as nearly a dramatic rebound, with some sectors returning to pre-recession levels, leaving the present engineering labour market in short supply of experienced applicants. According to a labour market study published by Engineers Canada last year (Engineering Labour Market Conditions 2009 - 2018), this trend is projected to only get more dire in the coming decade.

Tracking supply and demand across twenty six separate engineering labour markets, the report predicts engineering employment, across all disciplines and geographies, will experience an average annual growth of 1.5 percent above that of all Canadian employment from 2010 to 2018.

While that rate suggests moderate, and manageable, growth, it doesn't properly reflect the whole story, says Chantal Guay, P.Eng, CEO of Engineers Canada. For example, she says that while the report predicts moderate shortages or labour market balance in the traditional engineering categories (e.g. civil, mechanical, electrical, etc), these numbers don’t differentiate between battle-hardened engineers with years of industry specific experience and newly graduated recruits.

“For the first time, we have documented the fact that employers are looking for engineers with five to 10 years of experience,” she says. “But, if we don’t help those with zero to five years of experience find jobs now, they will never be the experienced engineers industry wants. Without these new engineers, the difficulty we have now in finding experienced engineers is only going to be compounded as the Baby Boomer demographic begins to retire over the next 10 years.”

Of course, the traditional disciplines are only the starting point in many careers, as most engineers become specialized in a particular industry. While the fundamentals are the same, technical skills and business acumen don’t transfer easily between specializations. This reality is reflected in the report's labour market findings; aerospace, petroleum and industrial / manufacturing engineering will see the greatest shortages of engineers over the next decade, it predicts.

In fact, shortages of experience engineers is already a factor for many employers, whether they know it or not, says Mike Winterfield, president of national staffing company, Randstad Engineering, which specializes in engineering placement.

“We are definitely no longer in 2008 and 2009 times,” he says. “We have the highest level of demand that we’ve every experienced going on right now. However, except for a few progressive companies, those hiring are still behaving like it is an employerdriven market, but we have definitely seen a switch to a candidate-driven market.”

Complicating matters, Guay says, is that, in addition to a retiring demographic bubble and a chronic shortage of junior engineer positions, the number of skilled engineers immigrating to Canada is also in decline.

“Although we are a very welcoming country and there are a lot of very talented people who are engineers and get into the workforce,” she says, “we expect that the engineering graduates and the engineers who come into the country aren’t going to be enough to fill the gap left by those retiring.”

DE www.engineerscanada.ca May/June | 2011

www.design-engineering.com

DesignSolutions

27

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Contact: sales@clippard.com Visit us at: www.www.clippard.com/catalog-a

Dust Collectors Full Line Literature Guide This impressive guide outlines dozens of N.R. Murphy dust collectors, installations, capacities, styles and models. A must for any reference library. N.R. Murphy Limited has been in business over 65 years and has thousands of satisfied customers.

“Dust Collectors are all we do; so get it done right the first time. Just Ask the Experts.”

Contact: 4nodust@nrmurphyltd.com Visit us at: www. nrmurphy.com

DILBERT™ CONTROLCAT NEW HORIZONS® Catalog Version No. 28 Contains over 150 full color pages of state-of-the art products separated into 7 sections: Automation, Sanitary, Temperature, Electric Heaters, Wireless/Data Acquisition, Pressure/Strain/Force, and Flow/Level/Environmental. A user-friendly index is available for easy product search, economical choices, popular models and accessories. Also featured are 105 classic Dilbert Cartoons, easy ordering options including online shopping, technical assistance, and fast delivery.

Contact: info@omega.com Visit us at: www.omega.com

Shock Absorbers plus New Gas Springs ACE Controls catalog features deceleration and motion control products. Includes: industrial, safety, PET & GLASS industry shock absorbers, feed controllers & hydraulic dampers.

Also includes: AGS Gas Springs providing counterbalance motion control for lifting and lowering lids, hoods, hatches, panels and more. Made in USA. Contact: shocks@acecontrols.com Visit us at: www.acecontrols.com

New Pulley Catalog “B216” The domestic source for perfect meshing timing belts and pulleys. BRECOflex CO., L.L.C. is announcing their new pulley catalog “B216” for made-to-order and stock pulleys. The new domestic “CNC” state of the art pulley manufacture allows for very precise machining standards, leading to superior product quality and quick product availability. Made-to-order pulleys are available with normal backlash, reduced backlash “SE” or zero backlash “0” tooth gap design.

Contact: info@brecoflex.com Visit us at: www.brecoflex.com

Clever Ideas To Improve Production Efficiency! Look to Seal Master® Inflatable Seals.

Solve difficult, awkward design problems with Seal Master® Inflatable Seals. Custom-built, fabric reinforced for strength, fully molded, these elastomeric seals and other pneumatic specialties offer flexible, close tolerance capability and resistance to compression. Use anywhere a positive seal is needed between opposing surfaces. Actuators and grippers are also featured. Design assistance is offered.

Contact: info@sealmaster.com Visit us at: www.sealmaster.com

To advertise your solution in this section call Alan Macpherson at 416.764.1534 www.design-engineering.com

May/June | 2011

28 IdeaGenerator Motors & Drives DC Servo Motors Pittman introduced its 8540 Series brush-commutated DC motors, which feature improved power density from bonded neodymium magnets. The motors are available in three lengths (2.114 in., 2.585 in. and 3.057 in.) weighing from 4.66 oz. to 7.55 oz. Depending on model, they can achieve continuous torque from 2.5 oz-in to 8.3 oz-in without heat sink.

The motors exhibit low magnetic cogging due to an optimized magnetic flux profile. They are equipped with pre-loaded ball bearings to accommodate high speeds, radial and axial shaft loads and temperature extremes. A bearing support system and related construction techniques yield inherently more balanced 7-slot armatures and help minimize vibration and audible noise, the company says. www.ametektechnicalproducts.com

Servo Drives Galil Motion Control announced two multi-axis servo drives: the AMP-43540 and the AMP-43640. Both models are sinusoidally commutated and are available as options for Galil’s DMC-40x0

Advertisers Index Advertiser

Website

Associated Spring Raymond www.asraymond.com

Page 18

Automation Direct

www.automationdirect.com

13

Baldor Electric Company

www.baldor.com

32

Baumer Inc.

www.baumer.ca

12

Beckhoff Automation

www.beckhoff.ca

2

Laboratory Inc.

www.clippard.com

9

Design Engineering

www.design-engineering.com

Digi-Key Corporation

www.digi-key.com

Clippard Instrument 14 7

Encoder Products

www.encoder.com

18

Henkel Canada Corp.

www.loctite.com

25

Master Bond Inc.

www.masterbond.com

12

Novotechnik US Inc.

www.novotechnik.com

17

Omega Engineering Inc.

www.omega.ca

Parker Hannifin Corp.

www.parker.com

3, 31

Proto Labs Inc.

www.protolabs.com

21

Reid Tool Supply Company

www.reidsuply.com

29

SME Canada

www.sme.org

15

Schaeffler Canada Inc.

www.ina.com

4

19

Swagelok Canada

www.swagelok.com

11

Tsubaki of Canada Ltd,

www.tsubaki.ca

24

May/June | 2011

Accelera and DMC-41x3 Econo motion controllers with Ethernet. The AMP43540 contains four 600Watt fully digital, transconductance amplifiers for driving brushless motors with sinusoidal commutation. Each amplifier drives motors operating at up to 8 Amps continuous, 15 Amps peak at 20-80 VDC. The AMP-43640 contains four 20Watt linear, transconductance amplifiers for driving brushless motors with sinusoidal commutation. Each amplifier drives motors operating at up to 1 Amp peak, 15-30 VDC with a gain setting of 0.1 Amp/Volt. www.galilmc.com

Fluid Power Modular Solenoid Valves NITRA pneumatic BVS series modular solenoid valves are body ported, three-port, two-position poppet valves available in normallyopen or normally-closed configurations. Models are available with removable flying leads or 8 mm micro DIN connectors. Units are DIN rail mountable when used with BVM series manifolds. Featuring flow coefficients from 0.02 to 0.05, models are available with 12 VDC, 24 VDC or 120 VAC solenoid coils, with LED status indicators and a pushbutton manual operator. www.automationdirect.com

Pressure Regulators Swagelok introduced its RHPS series domeloaded pressure regulator that permits high flows and exhibits less droop than spring-loaded designs in controling the pressure of liquids and gases. The domeloaded design relies on a pressurized chamber above an elastomer diaphragm in place of a spring to operate the regulator. Depending on regulator size and configuration, regulated pressures span 1.4 to 29 psig (0.10 to 2.0 bar), 0 to 1000 psig (0 to 70 bar), 0 to 2900 psig (0 to 200 bar), and 0 to 5800 psig (0 to 400 bar).

Swagelok domeloaded regulators are available for pipe sizes ranging from 1/4 to 4 in. with corresponding Cv values ranging from 0.1 to 73. Operating temperatures range from -4 to 176° F (-20 to 80° C). www.swagelok.com www.design-engineering.com

30 CanadianInnovator

We have the Technology...

Ryerson bio-engineering duo’s brain-controlled bionic arm may not give amputees super-human strength but could restore nearly all natural function one day soon.

By Treena Hein

W

inning multiple awards is not nearly enough for Ryerson University biomedical engineering undergrads Thiago Caires and Michal Prywata. They’re also president and CEO respectively of Bionik Laboratories Inc., a company that’s on the cusp of changing the lives of amputees worldwide.

Controlled by brain signals and compressed air, their “Artificial Muscle-Operated” arm will cost four times less than traditional prosthetics and provide much greater functionality.

Usually, when people lose their whole arms, they’re offered a very basic prosthetic which often has only a hook at the end.

“The only other option is for amputees to have muscle reinnervation surgery which is extremely expensive, not available in Canada and only performed by a handful of surgeons worldwide,” Prywata explains. “After the surgery, there’s also a long healing process after which you start learning to use the prosthetic. It became pretty obvious to us that there’s a need for a fully-functional non-invasive prosthetic arm.”

Their creation involves a headset worn by the patient that senses brain signals. A thought corresponding to, for example “down,” is sent wirelessly to a small computer in the prosthetic.

“EEG brain signal capture has been around for a long time,” says Prywata. “The signals in your brain are essentially electrical bio-potentials which are measured, amplified and sent to the on-board CPU for processing.”

The software compares the signal to those in the database and sends a new signal to the arm’s pneumatic system (comprised of simulated muscles) to provide the required motion.

Compressed air to run the “muscles” is stored in a small, refillable tank carried with the user.

There are eight “muscles” in the arm; one in the shoulder and elbow, one for rotating the wrist, one for the thumb, and four for the fingers. “That gives an amputee much more motion than any other arm on the market,” says Prywata. “We’re also very excited because we’ve also invented capacitive material-sensing technology, so when the hand is brought close to a given object, sensors detect the material and a maximum pressure is set.”

This means a user will be able to exert enough force to grasp something heavy, but won’t crush an object like an egg.

Bionik Labs technology may also be used eventually by the military to facilitate remote robotic operations.

Since they began working on the arm, Caires and Prywata have experimented with a number of different headsets, added new circuit boards, an extra micro-controller, a faster CPU, more efficient muscles and improved the mechanics to consume less air. The biggest challenge was definitely achieving May/June | 2011

From left: Bionik Laboratories Inc CEO, Michal Prywata, and president Thiago Caires pose with their Artificial Muscle-Operated prosthetic arm.

proportional air pressure control, says Prywata.

“We weren’t able to find any sufficient proportional valves on the market so we ended up designing our own with a custom feedback system,” he says. “It’s more power-efficient, consumes less air and gives accurate repeatability.”

Getting the tank in the arm is one of the next steps, but Prywata says the big concern will be getting each finger to move individually. “We’re approaching that problem by creating modes for the user so they can select which fingers to use when grasping an object,” he explains. The team also has plans to make the entire system adaptive so it can learn from a user and carry out movements more smoothly.

The arm has already won first prize at the 2011 Ryerson Engineering Competition; achieved first-place awards for innovative design and social awareness at the recent Ontario Engineering Competition in February 2011 and second place in innovative design at the Canadian Engineering Competition.

“We’re very excited because we’re breaking new ground and are on our way to making a difference using our knowledge and skills,” says Prywata. “It’s great to be able to use our insights into how technologies can be integrated and how to improve it. We've both been making circuits etc. since we were children so it’s second nature.”

After the arm is perfected, the pair’s next goal is to develop a proof-of-concept for a device that will allow paraplegics to walk. “We get a lot of emails from people who need these devices,” says Prywata, “and it definitely makes us happy to be doing something for them.”

DE www.bioniklabs.com www.design-engineering.com

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Over 150 full color pages covering 7 product categories in automation, sanitary, temperature, electric heaters, wireless/data acquisition, pressure and flow Plus de 150 pages en couleurs couvrant les 7 catégories de produits suivantes; automatisation, sanitaire, température, éléments chauffants électriques, acquisition de donnée/sans fil, pression et débit

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Cover Art: Printed by permission of the Norman Rockwell Family Agency.

Copyright © 1935 the Norman Rockwell Family Entities Dilbert © United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

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© COPYRIGHT 2011 OMEGA ENGINEERING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © COPYRIGHT 2011 OMEGA ENGINEERING, INC. TOUS DROITS RESERVES

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