Novotechnik

In this issue:
• Sonographic Printing 2D, 3D to come?
• Tech Tip: Benefit from Sensor Diagnostics
• Application: Top Racecar Steering
• Sensor for harsh and safety applications

To view newsletter in your browser click here.

Featured video: Sonolithography video

After linking to site, scroll down to second image to play video.

      Sonolithography


Lithography is a form of 2D printing. Stereolithography is a type of 3D printing in a layer by layer manner. Technology announced recently describes creating ultrasonic standing waves to control, in air, placement of droplets and particulates on a substrate, that could lead to a new kind of printing.

This technology is called sonolithography. It uses arrangements of ultrasonic transducers, associated equipment and software transducer-driving algorithms to create: "acoustic radiation forces arising from the interference of ultrasonic standing waves to direct airborne particle/droplet accumulation in defined spatial regions." The quotation is paraphrasing the authors description from a recently published research paper1 written by Jenna Shapiro, Bruce Drinkwater, Adam Perriman and Mike Fraser. So an acoustic field placed around the substrate controls the pattern on the substrate like an "acoustic mask."

The authors further state, "Sonolithography is capable of rapidly patterning micrometer to millimeter scale materials onto a wide variety of substrates over a macroscale of 18 cm2 surface area in 30 seconds." Going further, Shapiro et al state that, "using complex sequential patterns including phase changes affecting the ultrasonic standing waves, could be used to create layers of specific particle distributions, much like the slicing function of a 3D printer."1, 2

"The process is 'tunable' so that patterning rate and area can be increased or otherwise adjusted depending on droplet quantity, distance to surface and field strength," according to Jenna Shapiro.

Sonolithography is also flexible in that different materials can be used in the same creation. An example Dr. Shapiro gives is cross-linking monomers/oligomers to create polymers.

Besides potential electronics or possibly mechanical applications, the technology lends itself to biofabrication and tissue engineering. See the video here, scrolling down to the second image to play the video.

The authors are are investigating how dynamically adjusting the acoustic field can create different patterns over time with an eye to building-up complex structures.

Sources: 1. Research paper published in Advanced Materials Technologies
2. Professor Bruce Drinkwater's website
 
What Sensor Diagnostics Can Do For You and Your Product's Customers

How Users Benefit
When savvy companies make a product, they ask themselves "what advantages and benefits can our product provide to leap-frog the competition?" One way to add value and demand to a product is to incorporate new technology. Especially technology that goes beyond satisfying a design requirement and adds additional capabilities. Ones that could well be needed by that manufacturer's customers.

Angle sensors with diagnostics have the potential to add value to many manufacturers' products that need to know the angular position of a moving part of their machine.

Here's how you can gain than advantage. Sensors that can provide operation status, safety or smooth limp-home modes can be very beneficial. If a wire breaks, an application's rotating part goes out of alignment or gap spacing is altered, or even if the sensor fails, your machine can now dynamically handle these situations. If another part, that is involved with the motion of the moving part the sensor is monitoring fails, and that takes the position of the part out of range, these sensors can trigger a warning or stop.

Another area that sensor diagnostics can be a substantial benefit are safety applications, where any time the moving part is out of its designed operating range, it presents a safety risk to the operator or others. A built-in accident avoidance capability has a lot of value.

So when your machine can add early fail detection and/or safety controls with the same part that is used to sense the angle of a moving part of your product, value can be added with little or no additional cost.

How Easy Is It to Use?
When a angle sensor is connected, it could be a basic analog output with signal and ground pins as well as power. If it is a sensor with a digital interface for an output there could be more connections depending on the interface type. Sensors with diagnostics capabilities can be found on analog and digital output devices. So, connecting a sensor with diagnostics could mean merely adding a second data line or a few in addition to the signal output.

Novotechnik has created a white paper on this topic that goes into much more detail and it can be downloaded here.
 

     Racecar Steering for Top U.S. and European-Based Race Organizations


 
RSM 2800 Series of sensors measures the steering wheel position and, because the wheel can be tuned beyond 360°, it also counts the number of turns. It was selected for reliability, versatility and Novotechnik's long history of supplying sensors to racing teams competing in top American _ _ _ _ _ _ and European _ _ races.

Click here for more information on the RSM 2800 Series sensor product used in this application.
 
 

Please email suggestions for technical subjects you would like to suggest for this newsletter to this link: Newsletter Editor