The CleanSlate UV system uses igus linear guides and ultraviolet light (UV lamps) to sterilize portable equipment to reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections (HAI).
For nearly three years, ultraviolet (UV) light has been used as a disinfectant in the medical community.But as the team at Clean-Slate UV discovered when creating a device to eliminate germs from cell phones and other mobile devices, using it as a disinfectant requires extreme care, testing and precision.
CleanSlate UV Sanitizer destroys 99.9998% of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in 20 seconds.Suitable for smartphones, tablets and other portable items, the device can be used without any training and is disinfected without harsh, damaging chemicals.
Disinfection of mobile devices is critical.The study found that 94 percent of cell phones used by hospital staff contained pollutants.In another report, 89 medical workplace employees were aware of equipment as a possible source of contamination, but only 13 were regularly disinfected.
“More and more mobile devices are being used for patient care in healthcare,” said Josée Shymanski, infection control manager at Monfort Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. “For example, we can use these devices for patient teaching and for patients to complete questionnaires. Or surveys, and accessing information on the web. We know that over time these devices can become contaminated with bacteria. We don’t want these devices to be a source of infection for our patients and staff.”
However, the use of UV light requires extra care.Prolonged exposure can affect skin, eyes and immune system.The CleanSlate team conducted research to identify the most common pathogens that cause healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) in healthcare settings.The device inactivates bacteria and spores and protects the user from harmful UV rays.
“We have considered all possible uses to ensure that personnel are not exposed to [short-wave ultraviolet (UV-C) light] under normal use and maintenance,” said Manju Anand, CTO of CleanSlate UV.
In the early days of CleanSlate, the team conducted research within the hospital network and through publications.
“With the help of research publications, we determined the minimum dose needed to achieve the desired kill rate for selected pathogens. The hardest was Clostridium difficile (also commonly known as C. difficile),” Anand said.CleanSlate has developed a UV test chamber to adjust light source, intensity, material, chamber finish and exposure time.
“Using a radiometer, we measured the intensity and uniformity of UV light throughout the chamber,” Anand said.”Testing ultimately determined the optimal combination of UV source, custom coating on the chamber surface and chamber dimensions.”
The UV test chamber is sent to a third party for efficacy testing according to the ASTM E1153 standard.Tests were performed at multiple exposures to measure UV-C dose (intensity x duration).
“We did extensive research on equipment that requires frequent sterilization, which determines our chamber size and sterilization duration in healthcare settings without disrupting workflow,” Anand said.”With the help of an industrial design firm, we finalized the UI/UX and look and feel of the product so that it would integrate well into a healthcare facility without interrupting workflow, look like a modern medical device, and do not require Easy and intuitive to use with any training.”
The team designing the chamber faced multiple challenges in maintaining proper UV exposure.They used thermal simulation tools to optimize the chamber design to enhance internal airflow.Sensing technology is integrated to continuously monitor the temperature, if the temperature exceeds a set limit, a warning signal will alert the user, and the device will go into service mode to prevent use.
A key component of this product is a lubrication-free and maintenance-free sliding chamber.Linear guides are manufactured by igus, a German manufacturer of motion plastic products with a branch in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.Drylin W rails slide rather than roll, cost-effective and highly flexible.Due to the dry operation, the rails are resistant to dust and dust and are often used in medical equipment and installations, packaging machines, furniture and robotics.
“During the initial R&D phase, we discovered that the UV lamps had to be turned on and heated to effectively disinfect within 20 seconds,” says Kevin Wright, igus Canada Sales Manager.”Because UV light is harmful to human skin and eyes, we had to design a mobile room that transports equipment into the UV room when the user starts to sterilize.”
The company tried using steel bearings, but they fell far short of expected life and required lubricants, which cannot be used in medical facilities, Anand said.“Reliability is critical, as any downtime due to a malfunctioning CleanSlate device would result in ineffective disinfection of mobile devices with chemical wipes, which could damage or degrade the electronics used in the hospital,” Anand added.
The user places the device into the removable chamber, and once the lid is closed, it transports it to the UV chamber for cleaning within 20 seconds.When finished, the lid opens automatically and the device can be removed with clean hands.The unit sterilizes multiple items at once and uses radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled tracking and compliance auditing.UV-C light will not dry out or degrade the material.
The system uses UV-C light, which destroys nucleic acids and breaks down bacterial DNA, preventing them from functioning or multiplying.Light doesn’t physically remove cells, but it does damage the microbe’s nucleic acids, preventing the DNA from being pulled apart for replication.When it tries to replicate, the organism dies.
About the author: Matt Mowry is the Product Manager for Drylin at igus North America and can be reached at mmowry@igus.net.
The lead application engineer for an INDEX Swiss-type lathe explains the advancement of the machine and the benefits it brings to the manufacturer.
1. How do advanced Swiss-type machines differ from their more traditional counterparts?
The Swiss-type machine had several major innovations.Pneumatically controlled guide bushes improve performance.The ability to quickly remove the guide sleeve enables the machine to switch between conventional and Swiss operation.The fluid-driven spindle eliminates wires in the work area to aid in chip management.Precision ground dowel pins in the turret enable fast turnaround with micron tolerances.Turrets, especially with H-axis, increase the flexibility of the machine.These advancements characterize our TRAUB range of machines, some of which can also be found in other machines in the industry.
2. For a shop accustomed to traditional Swiss-style machines, what are the most important features to look for in an advanced machine?
A turret with an H-axis will have a huge impact.The turret does not index the set position, but instead has an encoder and acts as a fully programmable radial axis.This allows up to three tools per workstation.Some machines use a Y offset to provide a version, but you lose your Y axis.With the H-axis on the turret, you can retain all Y-axis functionality, with up to 24 tools on the turret.
The most obvious impact is that there are enough tools on the machine to handle multiple parts.In many cases, workshops can switch between four or five different parts without replacement.In addition to this, trade-offs often occur due to the tooling limitations of traditional Swiss-type machines.If you need seven tools to run a part optimally, and you have six workstations in a gang, you’re going to have to identify a tool that can do both, possibly sacrificing performance for each.With 24 tools, you can reduce cycle and setup time while increasing flexibility.
4. In addition to the setup and cycle time benefits, are there any other immediate cost savings for this type of machine?
Absolutely.To maintain high accuracy with standard guide bushes on traditional Swiss-type lathes, you must use bar stock that has been turned, ground and polished.For the TRAUB line, we use programmable, pneumatically controlled guide bushings that maintain the set pressure if there are slight irregularities in the bar.For many manufacturers, this can reduce raw material costs by 25% to 50%.
In many Swiss shops, machines are designated for specific jobs.For example, you might win a job for a line of bone screws, so you buy a machine that’s set up specifically for those parts.If the job disappears, the volume drops, or there is a major design change, you’re stuck with excess capacity for a particular part.If you invest in an advanced machine, you will have more flexibility.If a job changes or is interrupted, you can easily bring a different job to the machine.In today’s market, this flexibility provides tremendous value that is often overlooked in the buying process.
Many medical problems can be successfully treated with neural implants, but medical treatment is different from getting Musk into your brain.Are you ready for symbiosis with artificial intelligence?
As medical procedures move to more minimally invasive and catheter-based technologies, and devices become smaller and more portable, the push for lighter, stronger components continues.Seventeen years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and today it is used to treat depression, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more.
Advances in miniaturization have also supported projects such as the Recovery Active Memory (RAM) program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).Its purpose is to mitigate the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in military personnel through neurotechnology that promotes memory formation and recall.DARPA’s ultimate goal for RAM is a wireless, fully implantable neural interface for human clinical use.Building on this, researchers are integrating computational models into implantable closed-loop systems to deliver targeted neural stimulation to restore normal memory function.Last year, researchers successfully implemented a proof-of-concept system for restoring and improving memory function in humans, using a patient’s own hippocampal spatiotemporal neural code to facilitate memory encoding.
Then there’s Elon Musk’s idea, “Symbiosis with Artificial Intelligence (AI).”Yes, the futuristic billionaire behind Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink (founded in 2016) wants to connect a Bluetooth-enabled chip (with a USB-C port) to 1,000 wires, the size of a human hair one-third of the width.Your brain will be connected to a small computer worn on your ear.The implants will be small, requiring only a 2mm incision to insert because, as Musk mused, “If you’re going to insert something in the brain, you want it to not be too big…you don’t have it in your head. Wires. That’s very important.”
While Neuralink’s focus was on understanding and treating brain disorders, Musk’s presentation focused more on protecting and enhancing the brain while “creating a coherent future” for humans who are at risk of falling behind due to advances in artificial intelligence.Even if the impact of AI is benign, he said, “with high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces, I think we can actually go with the flow and choose to merge with AI.” The “riding” we take may be Means the connection of AI to your brain, Tesla, or both — that’s one way to advance self-driving cars — but either way, I’d say no, thank you!
If someone “chooses” to interact with the computer, this sets off an alarm and appears to open the door for cybercriminals to gain access to brain data.Then there’s the ethical question: can your data be used to influence, manipulate and control you?Who will have access to this data?Can you share?
Many medical problems can be successfully treated with neural implants, but medical treatment is different from getting Musk into your brain.Are you ready for symbiosis with artificial intelligence?
New materials with magnetic shape memory could have applications in medicine, space exploration, robotics.
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich have developed a new material that retains a given shape when it is in a magnetic field, thanks to its magnetically activated shape memory.The material consists of two parts: a silicon-based polymer and a magnetorheological droplet.
The droplets provide the material’s magnetic properties and its shape memory.If a composite is pressed into a shape with tweezers and then exposed to a magnetic field, it stiffens and retains that shape – without the support of the tweezers – and does not return to its original shape until the magnetic field is removed .
While similar materials consist of polymers and embedded metal particles, researchers at PSI and ETH Zurich instead used water droplets and glycerol to insert magnetic particles into the polymer.This produces a dispersion similar to that in milk.Because the fat droplets are finely dispersed in milk, the droplets of magnetorheological fluids are fine in the new material.
“Because the magnetosensitive phase dispersed in the polymer is a liquid, the force generated when a magnetic field is applied is much larger than previously reported,” explains Laura Heyderman, professor at ETH Zurich, head of the Mesoscopic Systems group at PSI.
The researchers studied the new material using the Swiss Light Source (SLS) at PSI.X-ray tomography images produced using SLS showed that the length of the droplets in the polymer increased under the influence of the magnetic field, and that the carbonyl iron particles in the liquid were partially aligned along the magnetic field lines.These factors increase the hardness of the material by a factor of 30.
In addition to the higher force, the new material’s magnetic shape memory has advantages.Most shape-memory materials respond to temperature changes, which creates two problems in medical applications: Overheating can cause cell damage, and uniform heating of objects that remember their shape is not always guaranteed.Both of these drawbacks can be avoided by controlling shape memory with magnetic fields.
– Catheters pushed through blood vessels into the surgical site during minimally invasive procedures may change their stiffness.Using shape memory materials, the catheter can only coagulate when needed, so there are fewer side effects, such as thrombosis, as it slides through the blood vessel.Space Exploration – This new material could serve as a self-inflating or folding tire for rovers.Robotics – Shape memory materials can perform mechanical movement without motors, creating new possibilities for automation.
“With our new composite material, we have taken an important step towards simplifying components in a wide range of applications,” says Paolo Testa, first author of the study and materials scientist at ETH Zurich and PSI.”Our work is thus the starting point for a new type of mechanoactive material.”
Heidenhain Academy opens in Chicago; Okuma completes Dream Site 3 smart factory; Jorgensen Conveyors expands capacity
In short…Tomohisa Yamakazi has been named Chairman of Yamazaki Mazak Corp.He will be replaced by Takashi Yamazaki, who earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Xavier University and served as Managing Director and Vice President of Yamazaki Mazak.
President and CEO of Okuma, President Hanaki, was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government for his achievements and contributions to the development of the machine tool industry.
Omron Microscan has named Andy Zosel its President and Chief Executive Officer.Zosel was previously Senior Vice President of Engineering at Omron, where he has more than 22 years of experience and has held various leadership roles in customer service, marketing and engineering.
Robert Baker, former vice president of global operations for Stryker Corp.’s Joint Replacement Division, will serve as Glebar Co.’s new CEO.Baker is a medical device manufacturing industry veteran who has held leadership roles in the medical device manufacturing industry for the past 12 years.Sales, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Commercial Operations.Former CEO Adam Cook will now chair the board.
Spirol has completed the expansion of its Connecticut global headquarters.Beginning in 2016, the expansion added additional manufacturing space, state-of-the-art raw material and finished goods warehouses, premium laboratory and office space, and significant investment in new production technologies, expanding the manufacturing area by approximately 40%.
Post time: Feb-18-2022