dng de-11012014
TRANSCRIPT
$10.00 | November/December 2014
PM 4
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LIVE LONG and PROSPER
14 Low cost alternatives to pricey 2D/3D CAD applications
18 Top 10 best practices of successful design-driven companies
37 Canadian photography drone flies by crowd-funding goal
Toronto’s Cloud DX aims to win the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE with mobile diagnostic device.
1-DES.indd 1 14-11-27 2:13 PM
Some say they’re FAST...
But do they have theto deliver?SCALE
At Proto Labs, we’re optimized to deliver quick-turn additive, machined and molded parts in as fast as one business day. Our three distinct services allow us to manufacture prototype and production parts for thousands of customers each day, many with dozens of designs that need to be simultaneously tested. Since 1999, we’ve shipped millions of parts to product designers and engineers around the world.
Our proprietary software and automated technology let us make parts for you faster than anyone else, but we back it up with large-scale manufacturing facilities on three continents that house hundreds of 3D printers, CNC machines and injection-molding presses.
Whether your project requires a single prototype or thousands of parts from 50 different designs, we have the capacity to meet your manufacturing needs every time.
© 2014 Proto Labs, Inc. | protolabs.com | 877.479.3680Visa/Mastercard Accepted | ISO 9001:2008 Certified | ITAR Registered
2015 Cool Parts CalendarRequest your free calendar at go.protolabs.com/DE4D
Guide and protect moving cables and hoses on automated machinery. From the smallest micro Energy Chain® to the world’s largest plastic Energy Chain®, igus® cable carriers are capable of long and short travel distances at high speeds in all axes. Delivered from stock, no minimum order value required, configured online. Free samples available!
Plastics for longer life®
2-3-DES.indd 2 14-11-25 10:05 AM
Some say they’re FAST...
But do they have theto deliver?SCALE
At Proto Labs, we’re optimized to deliver quick-turn additive, machined and molded parts in as fast as one business day. Our three distinct services allow us to manufacture prototype and production parts for thousands of customers each day, many with dozens of designs that need to be simultaneously tested. Since 1999, we’ve shipped millions of parts to product designers and engineers around the world.
Our proprietary software and automated technology let us make parts for you faster than anyone else, but we back it up with large-scale manufacturing facilities on three continents that house hundreds of 3D printers, CNC machines and injection-molding presses.
Whether your project requires a single prototype or thousands of parts from 50 different designs, we have the capacity to meet your manufacturing needs every time.
© 2014 Proto Labs, Inc. | protolabs.com | 877.479.3680Visa/Mastercard Accepted | ISO 9001:2008 Certified | ITAR Registered
2015 Cool Parts CalendarRequest your free calendar at go.protolabs.com/DE4D
Guide and protect moving cables and hoses on automated machinery. From the smallest micro Energy Chain® to the world’s largest plastic Energy Chain®, igus® cable carriers are capable of long and short travel distances at high speeds in all axes. Delivered from stock, no minimum order value required, configured online. Free samples available!
Plastics for longer life®
2-3-DES.indd 3 14-11-25 10:05 AM
Superior-quality products.Comprehensive reliable solutions.www.schaeffler.ca
©2014
TM
4-5-DES.indd 4 14-11-26 6:33 AM
5
Annual Subscription Rate In Canada: $53.95 (1 year) $72.95 (2 year) Outside Canada: $101.95 (1 year)Single CopyIn Canada: $10.00Outside Canada: $22.00Directory RatesIn Canada: $28.00Outside Canada: $46.00Reader Service Contact [email protected]: 416 442 5600 X 3538 Elsewhere: 1-866-543-7888Mail:Business Information GroupDesign Engineering Circulation Dept80 Valleybrook DriveNorth York, ONM3B 2S9
Printed in Canada
IN THE NEWS
8 Newly formed Amec Foster Wheeler reveals leadership
8 Delcam to open Quebec office
8 IDC pegs IoT market at $3T by 2020
8 Winnipeg pooch receives 3D printed kneecap
8 Canadian device turns old auto into smart car
10 Canadian sunscreen marker wins James Dyson Award runner-up spot
10 Canadian $100 3D printer draws closer to release
12 General Dynamics Canada lands two defence contracts
READER SERVICES
Contents | Volume 60, No. 6
14 CAD ReportMCAD for Less: Low cost 2D/3D alternative CAD applications give top-level software a run for the money
20 CAD BeatOptimizing Built-in Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors: Schrader Electronics leverages COMSOL multiphysics simulation
28 Additive ManufacturingSome HEFT Behind It: Additive manufacturing speeds Canadian “Dragons’ Den”-funded consumer product to market
30 Idea GeneratorThe latest in industrial products including motors, controllers, automation and sensors
37 Canadian InnovatorPhotographer’s Wingman: DreamQii’s PlexiDrone to buzz UAV market
Columns
18 Top 10 Best Practices for Design- Driven SuccessInnovative industry leaders share what puts their Canadian companies ahead of the pack
22 Ontario’s Lost EngineersOSPE research reveals only one third of Ontario engineering degree holders work as engineers
26 Live Long and ProsperToronto’s Cloud DX aims to win the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE with mobile diagnostic device
Features
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www.design-engineering.com November/December | 2014
Superior-quality products.Comprehensive reliable solutions.www.schaeffler.ca
©2014
TM
4-5-DES.indd 5 14-11-26 6:33 AM
6 EditorialViewpoint
I enjoy hearing from you so please contact me at [email protected] and your letter could be published in an upcoming issue.
@
www.design-engineering.com
EditorMichael McLeod (416) 442-5600 ext. [email protected]
PublisherAlan Macpherson (416) [email protected]
Group Editorial DirectorLisa Wichmann (416) [email protected]
Accounts Manager Taebah Khan (416) [email protected]
Technical Field EditorPat Jones, P. Eng.
Art DirectorKathy Smith (416) 442-5600 ext. [email protected]
Market Production ManagerCheryl Fisher (416) [email protected]
Circulation Manager Cindi Holder (416) 442-5600 ext. [email protected]
BIG Magazines LPExecutive Publisher Tim Dimopoulos
Vice-President of Canadian Publishing, Alex Papanou
President of Business Information Group, Bruce Creighton
Publications Mail Agreement #40069240ISSN: 0011-9342 (Print), 1929-6452 (Online)Privacy Notice: From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods:Phone: 1-800-668-2374 Fax: 416-442-2191 E-mail: [email protected]. Mail to: Privacy Officer, 80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON M3B 2S9Subscriber Services: To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information contact us at 1-800-387-0273 ext.3552. Subscription Price: Canada: $53.95 for 1 year; $72.95 for 2 years; $10 for single copy. Outside Canada: $101.95 for 1 year; $22 for single copy. Directory/buyer’s guide: Canada $28; Outside Canada $46.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. Published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. Tel: 416-442-5600, Fax: 416-510-514080 Valleybrook Dr., Toronto, ON M3B 2S9.Contents of this publication are protected by copyright and must not be reprinted in whole or in part without permission of the publisher. 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. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
Modern surgical procedures depend on blood donation, typically five units per patient, but it has never been easy to get people to donate. According to Canadian
Blood Services, the not-for-profit organization that manages the country’s blood supply, only about 3.5 percent of eligible Canadians donate blood annually.
So when a pair of young Toronto-based creative professionals, Taran Chadha and Jamie Umpherson, came up with a novel way of attracting new blood donors, you’d think it would be a welcomed innovation. Kickstarter.com, however, didn’t think so, and suspended the pair’s crowd-funding campaign a few short days after it launched.
Their project is a video game console hack called “Blood Sport” which, as its inven-tors describe it, is “the ultimate in immersive gaming.” The idea is simple – whenever a player receives virtual damage during game play, a small amount of their real blood is intravenously drawn.
According the project’s Kickstarter page, the hack takes advantage of the vibration feature common in modern console game controllers. When a player takes damage in the game, the electrical signals that cause the vibration are also passed to an Arduino controller, which in turn instructs a standard blood collection machine to draw a small quantity of blood. Before playing, users input their age and weight so the system knows when to stop collecting, presumably before they pass out from blood loss.
“Our goal is to develop a refined multi-player unit that can be taken across the country for blood donation gaming events,” the Blood Sport Kickstarter campaign page states. “We are not a charity and we are not a game manufacturer. We are simply creating the gaming hardware that will allow us to get gamers thinking about more important issues while still doing what they love.”
The idea is a bit ghoulish but would most likely attract a demographic of eligible donors: Healthy 20 and 30 something males who probably aren’t the first in line at blood drives. For its part, Kickstarter says it isn’t their policy to comment on why it suspends a particular campaign. In this case, it may been the fact that the system’s creators were offering the Blood Sport code to any $5,000 and up donor. Presumably, the site felt the project, in the wrong hands, was a PR disaster waiting to happen.
In any development process, there’s a point when a product’s design has to factor in its foreseeable unintended uses. Of course, designers can’t be expected to thwart the creatively reckless, but they can do their best to protect the merely stupid, especially when a gamer’s blood and honor are on the line.
Mike McLeod
Blood SportCOMMUNICATIONSGet the PRO in
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With Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation becoming effective earlier this year, companies are eager to prove their compliance with one of the world’s strongest anti-spam measures. Business Information Group (BIG) – owner of Design Engineering magazine –was one of those companies engaged in a third-party audit with AAM to ensure its email systems and procedures were meeting the standards outlined by the law.
As a result, BIG is the very first publisher to receive third-party CASL certification. The audit verifies that BIG’s commercial email system is compliant with all legislation and that the organization employs policies and procedures to ensure continued compliance with the law including proper request documentation, completing unsubscribe requests and email list maintenance.
To learn more about BIG’s CASL certification, please contact Alan Macpherson, publisher of Design Engineering magazine, at [email protected] or 416-510-6756
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All prices are U.S. published prices. AutomationDirect prices are from October 2014 Price List. Allen-Bradley prices taken from www.plccenter.com 9/10/2014.
1 Thermocouple module from AB is 6-Ch vs. Productivity3000 8-Ch.
Base (if required)
110VACpower supply
CPU
16pt AC IN
16pt 24 VDC IN
32pt 24 VDC IN
32pt 24 VDC OUT
8pt IsolatedRelay OUT
16 ch 0-20mAAnalog IN
4 ch volt/mAAnalog OUT
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$1,023.001756-PA75
$11,917.001756-L74
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$611.001756-0B32
$427.501756-0X8I
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Total SystemPrice $2,533.50 $20,760.00$10,655.50
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* See our Web site for details and restrictions. © Copyright 2014 AutomationDirect, Cumming, GA USA. All rights reserved. 1-800-633-0405All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
OtherControllersDrivesUniversal
I/OEthernet Cable
We make it easier to communicateNow with EtherNet/IP™ as a native protocol, wemake it easier to connect the powerful, cost-e� ective Productivity3000 controller to your existing systems. Con� gurable as a Scanner, Adapter, or both simultane-ously, the P3-550 CPU supports Explicit or Implicit “I/O” messaging. Connect to EtherNet/IP enabled devices such as ControlLogix and CompactLogix controllers or Flex drives using the Productivity3000’s � ll-in-the-blank style con� guration and Message instructions.Whether you are con� guring a new application orlooking to expand an existing one, we can get you in control and connected for less.
Performance+ Value
=www.productivity3000.com
Our shippingpolicies make iteasier than ever
to order directfrom the U.S.!
Free standard shipping is available for orders totaling over $49 U.S. (except for orders which require LTL shipping, see Web site for details). Also, save on brokerage fees when shipping standard ground to Canada - allow AutomationDirect to choose the broker.
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Newly formed Amec Foster Wheeler reveals leadership
Amec Foster Wheeler plc, the new global engineering firm formed following the merger of AMEC plc and Foster Wheeler AG, announced the appointment of its leadership team. Under CEO Samir Brikho, the company’s group presidents include Simon Naylor (Americas); John Pearson (Northern Europe & Common-
wealth of Independent States); Roberto Penno (Africa, Middle East, Asia & Southern Europe); and Gary Nedelka (Global Power Group).
Amec Foster Wheeler designs complex infra-structure projects with an emphasis on the onshore and offshore oil and gas market. The new company has a workforce of more than 40,000 in over 50 countries with revenues of £5.5 billion last year, the U.K.-based company says. www.amecfw.com
Delcam to open Quebec office Delcam announced it will open an office in Quebec to meet the growth of its Canadian French-speaking customer base, the company says. To support the new office, Delcam has brought on board the staff of its former reseller, Technologies C.F.A.O. Inc.
The new office joins the existing sales, support and training network for Canada in Windsor and Toronto. The company’s other direct offices in North America include Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Washing-ton, Pennsylvania; Rockford, Illinois; and Pasadena, California. www.delcam.ca
IDC pegs IoT market at $3T by 2020 According to analysis by International Data Corpo-ration (IDC), the worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) market will grow from $1.3 trillion in 2013 to $3.04 trillion by 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13 percent. For the report, IDC defines the IoT as a network of networks of uniquely identifiable endpoints (i.e. things) that communicate without human interaction using IP connectivity. The research firm’s view of the IoT ecosystem includes intelligent systems, network equipment, connectivity services, data integration, and other types of software, applications, services and security.www.idc.com
UP FRONT Winnipeg pooch receives 3D printed kneecap The Winnipeg-based
Orthopaedic Innovation Centre (OIC), a research and testing facility for the medi-cal device market, announced that has successfully 3D printed and implanted a replacement kneecap (patella) for a six-year-old dog named Oreo.
In 2012, a Winnipeg vet-erinarian called OIC hoping to find a potential option for the mix-breed. Oreo had suffered a dislocated left hind patella that was surgically removed to relieve the pain, but left him with a limp after surgery.
Although the OIC regularly uses additive manufacturing to shorten production cycles and create customized products, 3D printed objects can’t be used directly in humans yet. Oreo, therefore, presented a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the procedure’s viability.
To create the new canine patella, OIC 3D scanned a donated kneecap to create a CAD model that was then modified based on an X-ray of Oreo’s other patella. Using a Stratasys Fortus 400mc, OIC built the replacement
kneecap from a biocompatible polycarbonate. After testing it for mechan-ical strength, the implant was then attached to Oreo’s tendon and quad-riceps using polypropylene sutures.
According to his owners, Oreo recovered full function of his leg within two months following the surgery and today, more than three years later, leads an active lifestyle without complications.
“FDM is an ideal 3D printing technology for implant manufactur-ing because it is capable of producing strong, durable, biocompatible parts with the right physical properties,” said OIC president Martin Petrak. “With FDM, we can tailor the implant to perfectly match the recipient’s anatomy which has the potential to provide dramatic improvements in functionality and recovery time.”www.orthoinno.com
Canadian device turns old auto into smart carA Vancouver startup is looking to connect older model cars to the Internet with a cellular device called Mojio and open some interest-ing IoT-type functionality. According to the company, the connected automotive market will be worth $422 billion globally by 2022, con-sisting of 700 million newer model connected cars and 1.1 billion aftermarket devices.
Mojio consists of a small device that plugs into a car’s onboard diagnostic port and connects to a cellular carrier’s network via an embedded GSM radio receiver. The unit can then send and receive
DesignNews
November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
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©2014 TELUS Corporation. © 2014 Samsung Electronics Canada Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., used with permission. Screen images simulated. © 2014 by Sonim Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Sonim, Sonim Technologies, Inc., all Sonim logos are trademarks of Sonim Technologies, Inc. *The TELUS Link free trial is offered at no additional charge for the fi rst 30 days and can be added to a new or existing TELUS Link compatible device and rate plan. If you decide to keep TELUS Link and do not notify TELUS otherwise, normal charges will apply after 30 days. The 30-day trial applies only to the $15 feature add-on called TELUS Link 15. Add-on is subject to terms and conditions as outlined in the Customer Service Agreement. 14_00490
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10
data, including speed, location and diagnostics, as well as tap into information from the driver’s smartphone.
At launch, the company says Mojio will come with a set of standard smartphone apps, although the device’s open platform will allow 3rd party develops to add to its functionality. At the most basic level, Mojio will provide vehicle diagnostics by inter-preting a car’s ODB port codes and alert drivers if something goes wrong.
Using the device’s built in GPS and accelerometer, Mojio will also monitor a vehicle’s location and notify
drivers if the car is moved when they aren’t in the car. In addi-
tion, an app will allow users to share vehicle location and estimated arrival time without hav-ing to text while driving.
For safety, an app will alert users if the car is driven above
a set speed limit or disable text and in coming calls when the car is in motion.
According to the company, Mojio will be available later this year and carried over the TELUS wireless network.www.moj.io
Canadian sunscreen marker wins James Dyson Award runner-up spotFor the first time, a Canadian team has made it to the final stage of the international James Dyson Award. The group of fourth-year University of Waterloo nanotechnology engineering students landed the international runner up spot in the annual product design contest with its skin-care product, Suncayr.
Applied with a dry erasure-style marker, Suncayr incorporates a UV-sensitive nano-particle ink that changes color when exposed to sunlight. Users draw a design on their skin before applying sunscreen. When the sunscreen washes or wears off, the ink changes colour, signaling when it’s time to reapply.
While the product possesses a certain amusement appeal, it addresses a serious problem. According to the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation, more than 80,000 Canadians are diagnosed with skin cancer each year. In fact, one in every three cancers diagnosed worldwide is skin cancer.
As a runner-up of the James Dyson Award, the group will receive approximately $9,000 CAD (£5,000) to further develop, test and ultimately commercialize their project.
The 2014 James Dyson Award international winner was a low cost, inflatable incubator called MOM, created by James Roberts, a recent graduate from Loughborough University, UK. Designed for use in the developing world, the incubator inflates manually and is heated using ceramic heating elements. More importantly, it costs just £250 to manufacture but performs as well as a £30,000 modern incubation system.www.suncayr.ca
Canadian $100 3D printer draws closer to releaseThe creators of the Peachy Printer, the Canadian-made $100 3D printer that raised more than CAD$650,000 on Kickstarter last year, have released the latest test prints of its unique machine. Since its crowd-funding campaign wrapped in October of 2013, the 3D printer’s inventor Rylan Grayston and the Rinnovated Design team have been working toward a 2015 ship date to its initial backers and pre-orders.
Unlike typical entry-level 3D printers that are driven by an x- and y-axis extruder nozzle, the photo-lithographic Peachy Printer uses laser light, reflected by two electro-magnetically controlled mirrors, to solidify layers of photo-sensitive liquid polymer. The z-height is controlled by a drip system that raises the level of the polymer within tank-like build space for each successive layer.
DesignNews
November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
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Similarly unconventional, the Peachy Printer receives model geometry via the audio-out port of a computer sound card rather than by USB. 3D data created or imported into the open-source 3D modeler, Blender, is output by way of a plug-in. Each slice of the overall geometry is converted to a digital waveform that
controls the Peachy Printer’s mirrors and thereby dictates where the laser will solidify the polymer for any given layer.
At the beginning of October, the Rinnovated Design team announced that, through its work and contributions from beta testers, the team
has rooted out a number of technical challenges that pushed back the final ship date by four months. At present, the team antici-pates an early summer 2015 ship date.
www.peachyprinter.com
General Dynamics Canada lands two defence contractsGeneral Dynamics Canada announced that it has been awarded two Canadian defence-related contracts totaling more than $350
million. Worth CAD$59.1 million, the first contract is for the design and build of seven Mercury Global anchor stations across Canada. The network will provide access to the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) constellation and Canadian Forces with high speed secure communications. The defence contractor will also provide support services, worth an additional $8.5 million.
In a separate contract, General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada was awarded a contract to equip 66 upgraded Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV) with a new reconnaissance and surveillance system. The system improvements include integra-tion of radar sensors within the LAVs and new infra-red equip-ment to improve night-time vision as well as upgrades to the vehicle’s firepower and mobility.
According to the company, the new contract will maintain 60 full-time positions at General Dynamics, mainly in its Lon-don, Ontario facility. www.gdcanada.com
DesignNews
November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
Up to 100% Speed Increase Dramatically Raises Throughput for Laser Processing
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November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
14
Low cost 2D/3D alternative CAD applications give top-level software a run for the money.
By Ralph Grabowski
On average, the price for MCAD software starts at around $5,000 and then goes
up from there. Autodesk’s Ultimate bundles, for example, cost as much as $10,000, while installations of Pro/E and Catia can add up to $15-$20,000 a seat, once all the bells and whistles are accounted for.
Prices have always been high, but when the recession of 2008 hit, it affected sales of CAD hardware and software for the first time in the history of computer-aided design. During previous recessions, CAD was seen as a cost-saving move; companies laid off employees to pay for the new tech-nology, which in turn made their design offices run more efficiently.
This time around, with the CAD mar-ket nearing saturation, CAD users are looking elsewhere for efficiencies. Smaller companies like Bricsys, Graebert, IMSI/Design, and ZWSoft offer versions of their MCAD-capable software in price ranges that tend to hover around $1,000:Bricsys BricsCAD: $610 (Pro) to $1,530 (Platinum with Communicator)Graebert ARES: $795 (the price of 2D ARES Mechanical is unknown)IMSI/Design TurboCAD: $130 (Deluxe) to $1,695 (Platinum bundle)ZWSoft ZW3D: $1,300 (Lite) to $4,000 (with three-axis machining)
As I recently returned from conferences put on by two of the vendors, I’ll describe their current offerings, future plans and rationale for charging four times less than the big boys.
MCAD from GraebertGraebert Gmbh is headquartered in Ger-many, and has been writing its own DWG-
based software for two decades. You might not recognize the names, which include SiteMaster, FelixCAD, PowerCAD, and ARES, but you probably have heard of DraftSight, the free drafting software from Dassault Systemes, or maybe even CorelCAD. (See figure 1.)
CEO Wilfred Graebert is not all that interested in selling his flagship ARES software through dealers. That’s because, in the 1990s, he found a better way: OEM-ing. He licenses his software to other companies, who then sell it under their names. A number of surveying companies use Graebert’s SiteMaster software, and some CAD vendors resell ARES under the brand names DraftSight, CorelCAD and progeCAD for Mac. Graebert handles tech support for the OEMed brands.
When it comes to the MCAD market, Graebert is taking a two-prong approach. The first involves improving the very inter-esting relationship the German company has with Dassault Systemes. Back in the day, the French company was irritated by Autodesk’s aggressive marketing of its then-new Inventor against Solidworks. In response, Dassault launched DWG Editor, a free IntelliCAD-based CAD program designed to attack sales of AutoCAD. It didn’t turn out well. Autodesk sued Dassault over using “DWG” in the name. What’s more, the IntelliCAD consortium in those days didn’t update its code quickly enough.
Dassault instead turned to Graebert and licensed ARES under the name “Draft-Sight,” still distributing it as a free version to keep poking a stick at Autodesk, and adding Pro and Enterprise versions for which annual fees apply.
The second attempt has been more suc-cessful. According to Dassault, approxi-
MCADfor Less
CADReport
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www.design-engineering.com November/December | 2014
15
mately 3 million free and paid licenses of DraftSight are currently in use, second only to AutoCAD,
Enthused by the rousing success, Das-sault went further and transferred some of its MCAD technology to Graebert, such as its mechanical parts library and a brand-new API. I don’t know what sort of deal is going on behind the scenes, but I wonder if the tech transfer is in lieu of royalties Dassault might not want to pay Graebert for the unexpectedly large number of downloads, from which Dassault mostly doesn’t receive income.
Whatever the case, Graebert is in the envious position of possessing an eco-nomical CAD system that’s, in part, sup-ported technically and financially by the world’s largest CAD vendor.
The second of Graebert’s two prong strategy involves the company writing a new 2D MCAD program meant for areas such as factory planning, a field that com-bines architectural design with 2D mechan-ical planning. Graebert already has architectural versions of their software that targets building owners, surveyors and kitchen designers, and now they want the other side of the market, mechanical.
Launching a new CAD program in 2D seems counterintuitive in today’s 3D-obsessed MCAD market. However, attend any user conference and the biggest cheers are reserved for new functions that save labour on the 2D side of things, like automatic balloon placement. In any case,
Graebert is limited to 2D so as not to com-pete with Solidworks.
To distinguish it from competitors, such as TurboCAD Platinum and AutoCAD Mechanical, Graebert is designing the new software for infrequent users, and so the Hatch command, for instance, is modified to place mechanical patterns with a single click. Advanced users still have access the Hatch dialog box. Other ideas being worked on include:• Factory planning functions, such as
minimum distances • Highlighting dimensions modified as a
result of change requests• Snapping to the object in focus, depend-
ing on the target layerThe company hopes to ship the first beta
of ARES Mechanical early in 2015.
MCAD from BricsysBelgium’s Bricsys NV had its initial claim to fame in the 1990s when they sold their Tri-Forma architectural software to Bentley Systems. They regrouped using IntellICAD as the platform for BricsCAD, but when they became impatient with the pace of develop-ment, they branched off with their own code.
CEO Erik de Keyser feels the key to his company’s success is third-party developers, the people who write add-ons that custom-ers want and so incidentally purchase Bric-sCAD. Today, the company is closing in on Autodesk with 900 third-party developers who offer 1,200 add-ons. When third-party developers don’t write add-ons Bricsys feels
CADReport
Figure 1: ARES 2015 in drafting and annotation workspace
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16
are important, only then does the com-pany take the plunge.
As a result, the company invested heavily in MCAD development. They acquired employees and purchased source code to a parametric engine and a 2D/3D constraints manager from Russian software firm Ledas. With this talent, they wrote a 3D direct modeler inside BricsCAD (Autodesk had to write a separate one, Fusion), added 2D and 3D constraints (AutoCAD has only 2D constraints), parametrics, kinematics, assemblies, parts library and a sheet metal module – all for 900 bucks. (See figure 2.)
Currently, the company is working on hooking BricsCAD up to CAM through the XML-based OSM (open sheet metal) format from LVD Group; it is also available as a plugin for Solidworks.
Next year, Bricsys plans to add more MCAD functions to BricsCAD, like lofting, mirrored and arrayed parametrics, clash detection and exploded views. To tweak the noses of big com-petitors, the company also plans to add automatic assembly
structure recognition, and then import assembly structures from Solidworks and Inventor. It’s a big hill to climb; we’ll see if the company reached the summit a year from now.
Bricsys is one of the very few MCAD vendors to have its own high-end R&D division, giving it the advantage of not having to pay royalties, or rely on release schedules of components like D-Cubed by Siemens PLM Software.
CADReport
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Figure 2: BricsCAD designing a sheet metal part
14-17-DES.indd 16 14-11-26 9:27 AM
17
How Can MCAD Be Priced So Low?One reason for MCAD’s expensive price tag is that it’s what the market bares; it costs $5,000, because customers will pay $5,000.
Another reason is the overhead. Old-style corporations like Autodesk and Dassault employ thousands of employees (7,400 and 10,100 respectively) and spend lavishly each year on market-ing. By contrast, Bricsys and Graebert have around a hundred employees each. The marketing budgets are small – to their detriment, I would say.
So where is the catch? All these small companies are privately owned, and so we know nothing of their financial situation. Programs like ARES and BricsCAD simply don’t do as much as the Solid Edges and Creos of the world. You pay less and get less.
In the real world, however, this sometimes doesn’t matter. When I speak with users at conferences, many come from medium-size shops (75 or 150 seats) that still have AutoCAD or another heavyweight CAD program on approximately ten percent of their workstations
These high-end CAD applications remain to be compatible with clients and for creating things like dynamic blocks, which the low-cost systems don’t do yet. The other ninety percent are BricsCAD or DraftSight seats handling the grunt work of detail-ing or even just plain being legal with licenses.
Replacing 90 percent of seats with licenses that are 75 percent
cheaper is attractive to firms looking to complete with firms overseas. To cut costs even further, both CAD vendors offer Linux versions with almost identical feature sets to the Windows one. Graebert also has a Mac version, and Bricsys hopes to ship a Mac version soon. Running on the free Linux operating system saves on Windows license fees.
One more benefit to consider is that these low-cost MCAD systems don’t use proprietary formats, as do Inventor and oth-ers. Instead, BricsCAD and ARES store their data in DWG files, which eliminates most of the translation problems other MCAD users face.
I say most, because some graphical elements are stored as proxy data, and BricsCAD’s constraints are incompatible with AutoCAD’s. Compatibility extends to APIs: Both programs run LISP and DCL, as well as their own versions of ARx, which are mostly compatible with Autodesk’s API.
Companies like Bricsys and Graebert don’t have the market-ing budgets of the big five CAD vendors, and so have a hard time selling into the North American market. Nevertheless, both companies have 30-day demos available, giving you a chance to test out how well their AutoCAD workalikes operate. DEwww.bricsys .comwww.graebert.com
CADReport
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German engineers wrote the book on dependability. Around the globe discriminating designers and end-users know there is no substitute for NORD when it comes to dependability. Wherever our products are deployed in demanding applications, industry places its trust in our precise German engineering. They know we will never compromise on the reliability of our products. And that they won’t have to compromise either. Choosing NORD is your guarantee of lasting performance. You know our name and you’ve got our word on it.
14-17-DES.indd 17 14-11-26 9:27 AM
November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
18
Innovative industry leaders share what puts their Canadian companies ahead of the pack.
By Arlene Gould, Kevin Stolarick and Melanie Fasche
Design plays an increasingly vital role in innovation, com-petitiveness and the determination of economic value. It’s
also a crucial factor in many activities that successful organiza-tions do well, from innovation and new product development, to operations and human resource management, to communi-cations and branding.
To find out why successful organizations have invested in design and how their leaders think about design’s role in inno-vation, the Design Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC), working with the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, conducted a series of video-taped interviews with industry leaders. The people interviewed lead internationally recognized organizations working at the cutting edge of innovation.
The companies interviewed include plastic plumbing prod-ucts manufacturer, Canplas Industries; Healthcare Human Factors in the University Health Network; MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op); office systems and furniture manufacturer, Teknion; and housewares manufacturer, Umbra.
Although these organizations operate in different sectors, their leaders all expressed a common set of design-related best practices, summarized below, that are important to the sustain-ability of their organizations:
1 Far-Sighted: Positive impact of design comes with long-term investment and some short-term risk. All of the subjects
interviewed talked about the importance of investing for the long term and continuing to invest in design even in recession-ary times.
2 Disruptive: Design is a catalyst for change. All of those interviewed talked about using design as a disruptive force
for change and differentiation in their industries with positive financial implications.
3 Embedded: Design is embedded in the culture of these organizations; everyone thinks like a designer, including
the CEO. These leaders view design not as a discrete discipline but as integrated with other disciplines.
4 Intensely Focused: These leaders are intent on getting to know their clients and customers. They invest in research
to track behaviours and workflows and then conceive solutions to address unmet (and often unarticulated) needs.
5 Owned by the CEO: Design leaders are extremely passion-ate about innovation and achieving their goals. They own
the design vision and the implementation of that vision. Many of them are involved with innovation and design projects in a hands-on way.
6 Tested: Quality is closely aligned with design excellence, brand building and fostering trust with stakeholder groups. Early
stage prototyping, attention to detail, continuous testing and evaluation of feedback ensure that usability and resilience are built into the end products by the time they reach the marketplace.
7 Technology-Centric: Advanced technology is central to innovation in these organizations; there is a symbiotic relation-
ship between technology and design. Design makes new technol-ogy accessible to users and ensures that the specific technology products are matched to user needs.
8 Process-Driven: Designing the process is as important as the end result. Sophisticated process and systems design
ensure that these organizations are using human, physical and financial resources efficiently, with minimal waste. Process design is also linked to sustainable business practices in operations, facilities, manufacturing and product life-cycle management.
9 Holistic: These organizations take a holistic approach to the design disciplines, going beyond products to invest in
brand management, and strategically designing workplace environments, retail stores and showrooms to reflect the orga-nizations’ vision and values.
10 Diverse: These organizations work with a diverse creative talent pool comprised of staff and external consultants.
Diversity on creative teams (i.e. a mix of different disciplines, cultures and professional experience) is key to achieving the vision. Continuously engaging creative staff in challenging innovation and design projects is a way to keep valuable employ-ees interested and committed to the organization. DEwww.diac.on.cawww.martinprosperity.org
This is article is adapted from the study: “Why Invest in Design? Insights from Industry Leaders” co-authored by the Design Indus-try Advisory Committee and the Martin Prosperity Institute. Funding for this research was provided by Industry Canada, with additional support from the City of Toronto. For the complete report and video excerpts, visit http://www.diac.on.ca
Industrial Design
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You see the world differently –including your retirement
Great-West Life and key design are trademarks of The Great-West Life Assurance Company (Great-West Life), used under licence by its subsidiaries, London Life Insurance Company (London Life) and The Canada Life Assurance Company (Canada Life). As described in this advertisement, the group retirement and savings products are issued by London Life and the payout annuity products are issued by Canada Life.
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November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
20
Miniature sensors that regulate automobile per-
formance are designed in a very particular way to
operate properly while housed directly on mov-
ing automobile tires. They need to have the sen-
sitivity to pick up measurements while in motion
and the durability to withstand the elements.
By Laura Bowen
Tire pressure is the unsung hero of automobile performance. When inflated to the proper pressure, tires are the exact
shape that the designers intended. As air pressure decreases, the tires need more energy to move.
Drivers can easily forget to maintain their tire pressure in the day-to-day routine of moving from one place to another. Punctures can take place and go completely unnoticed.
That is why having an onboard sensor that alerts the driver when it’s time to add more air makes all the difference. Creating these sensors requires careful consideration of all the fine details, and simulation provides the tools for finding just the right design.
Tire Pressure Sensors Shape Driving ExperienceOne consequence of low tire pressure is a significant reduc-tion in fuel economy. Additionally, vehicles running on low tires can add tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere over time.
Low tire pressure can also make it hard for the vehicle to stop, or cause the car to slip on wet surfaces. Automakers are generally required to attach pressure monitoring sensors to wheels that inform drivers if a tire falls below the intended pressure, and Schrader Electronics is currently the global mar-ket leader in tire pressure monitoring technology.
The company manufactures 45 million sensors annually and provides sensors to leading automotive companies including
GM, Ford and Mercedes. For a sensor to survive road conditions throughout the life of a vehicle, reliability and durability are key.
Consideration is given to shock, vibration, pressure, humid-ity, temperature, and various dynamic forces when designing for the necessary functions, geometry, and materials.
Christabel Evans, an engineer with the Schrader Electronics mechanical design team, has been using finite element analysis (FEA) and multiphysics simulation to build successful, efficient tire sensors for all kinds of vehicles.
OPTIMIZING Built-in Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors
CADBeat
Figure 1. Top: A Hi-Speed Snap-In Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensor
(TPMS) used to monitor tire pressure and send measurement info.
Bottom: 10x amplification of stress and deformation on the transmitter
housing as a result of centrifugal loading produced by the wheel’s
rotation.
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www.design-engineering.com November/December | 2014
21
Designing Better Sensors with FEAThe Hi-Speed Snap-In Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensor, shown in Figure 1, is a frequently-used product at Schrader that mounts directly on the wheel assem-bly and measures tire pressure—even when the car is in motion. When the tire pressure decreases too much, a warning goes off, alerting the driver that it is time to stop and re-inflate the tire.
Schrader Electronics has been creating sensors for almost 20 years, but Christabel Evans and her colleagues wanted a more efficient approach for product design and testing. They simulated their designs using FEA and iterated the process—this allowed them to minimize experimental cost and to evaluate design performance during development.
Schrader Electronics found that the existing FEA software options were expensive if they wanted to deploy it to their entire team. They turned to using the Structural Mechan-ics Module and the CAD Import Mod-ule of COMSOL Multiphysics. They started with a series of tests, comparing standardized samples with simulations to validate the software and build confidence in the results.
Improving Sensitivity and DurabilityOver time, the researchers began incorpo-rating more natural parameters into their simulations, from dynamic loads such as centrifugal force, to environmental stresses such as temperature change, to static factors such as pressure and crush load.
The Hi-Speed Snap-In TPMS consists of a transmitter made up of a circuit housed in an enclosure and attached to a valve stem with a cap. The valve stem connects to the tire rim and allows air to pass through. On the Hi-Speed TPMS, the valve geometry includes a rib that helps retain the assembly in the rim hole.
In Figure 1, Schrader Electronics mea-sured the stress on the enclosure from outside forces like tire fitment, shock, or vibration from the road conditions, and the deformation that occurs when the device is loaded under these conditions.
Figure 2 shows a component designed for a spin test machine that rotates the part at high speed. This component was analyzed to verify that the material choice would be able to handle the required loads.
By analyzing several models simulta-neously, Evans and her team were able to find the one that works best and improve upon their design. They focused on test-ing different geometries, materials and load scenarios.
The researchers at Schrader were able to learn COMSOL Multiphysics software much faster than similar simulation pack-ages, and deployment through the orga-nization was easier because of flexible licensing options.
According to Evans, “COMSOL is user-friendly and it is fast to learn—the engi-neers picked it up right away.”
At the moment, Schrader plans to spend most of their focus on design and growth, with some emphasis on failure analysis, but they hope to improve their development-focused approach with the aid of simulation tools. They are working hard to improve driver comfort, environ-mental impact and road safety with each new design. DEwww.schraderinternational.com
CADBeat
Figure 2. A spin test simulated on the collar
of the device shows stress induced by the
centrifugal force concentrated at the bolt
locations.
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November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
22
OSPE research reveals only one third of engineering degree holders work as engineers.
By Lee Weissling, PhD and Terra Lariviere
Last spring, OSPE published the results of a study that raised some troubling questions about Ontario’s engineering
graduates and their employment situations. Using data from the Canadian National Census 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), the report (From Classroom to Career: A Snapshot of Employment and Underemployment among Ontario’s Engineering Graduates) highlighted a number of issues relating to the employ-ment of engineers in Ontario that seem to be unique or certainly more pronounced here than in most other parts of the country.
One particularly striking finding was that only 29.7 per cent of employed people who held a Bachelor’s degree or higher in
engineering were actually working as engineers or engineering managers. This is in stark contrast to other regulated professions, such as law, medicine or nursing, where the number of those working in the professions they studied and/or trained for were often about twice the rate of engineers.
Reasons for this mismatch are speculative and varied. Other OSPE research has found, for instance, that employers often seem to prefer hiring graduates who have had co-op experience. Perhaps some engineering graduates who aren’t working in engineering jobs lack this experience and are losing out in the job market to those who do. It could be that there’s a glut of engineers in the job market or too few engineering jobs being created. Perhaps employers are looking for candidates who bring
specialized knowledge or skills to the job, saving them the cost and time of training them, or universities are graduating engineers who just don’t have the specific skills employers are demanding.
For whatever reason — social pressure, parental direction or encouragement, or just misguided decision-making — students may be deciding to pursue engineer-ing studies when they really lack the aptitude or the sustained interest to be good engineers. This “lack-of-fit” may be coming through during the engineering job-search-selection process and discouraging employ-ers from hiring them. Or the candidates themselves may just not be pursuing engineering jobs, or not pursuing them as aggressively or enthusiastically as others who are more successful.
OSPE Report
All marks used are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Henkel and its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere. ® = registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ©2014 Henkel Corporation. All rights reserved. 13073. AD-184-14 (08/14).
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November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
24
A second interesting finding relates to geography. Compared to several other provinces, Ontario lags in the number of people with engineering degrees who are actually working in engineering jobs. In Alberta, 46 per cent of those with engineer-ing degrees work as engineers or engineering managers compared to less than 30 per cent in Ontario.
British Columbia surpasses even Ontario in the “underem-ployment” of engineers, with 35.4 per cent of engineering graduates working in jobs that don’t necessarily require a uni-versity degree, compared to Ontario’s 33.3 per cent.
It may not be a coincidence that these two provinces contain two of the top three cities (Toronto and Van-couver) known to attract the greatest numbers of immigrants. Historically, immigrants have a higher rate of underemployment than those educated in Canada.
No matter what the cause or the term used — skills shortage, labour shortage, skills mismatch, underem-ployment — finding a remedy for this situation of university-educated engineers working in non-engi-neering jobs and in jobs not necessarily requiring a degree must involve all stakeholders to tackle the problem. OSPE will continue to address these issues and work to improve the situation through its advocacy
efforts with government, and its partnerships with educational organizations and industry associations to help foster better alignments between learning and the skills our industries need. The future of our profession just might depend on it. DEwww.ospe.on.ca/join
This article first appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of The Voice. Lee Weissling, PhD is Manager, Policy and Government Relations at the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. Terra Lariviere is a Toronto-based writer, editor and communications consultant.
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Colouris the new black.
1. Compared with large-format colour MFPs under $25,000 USD. Based on the fastest-rated colour speeds as published by manufacturers as of January 2014. Test methods vary.
Meet all your black-and-white and colour needs with the HP Designjet T3500 Production eMFP. The most productive large-format MFP* offers advanced copy-and-scan features and low-cost, unattended operation. Built for rigorous IT demands and top security.
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Figure 2: Comparison of employed holders of Bachelor’s degrees and higher in
engineering in Canada and other provinces (Source: StatiStic canada, 2011 national
HouSeHold Survey)
22-25-DES.indd 24 14-11-26 6:36 AM
© 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Colouris the new black.
1. Compared with large-format colour MFPs under $25,000 USD. Based on the fastest-rated colour speeds as published by manufacturers as of January 2014. Test methods vary.
Meet all your black-and-white and colour needs with the HP Designjet T3500 Production eMFP. The most productive large-format MFP* offers advanced copy-and-scan features and low-cost, unattended operation. Built for rigorous IT demands and top security.
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22-25-DES.indd 25 14-11-26 6:36 AM
November/December | 2014 www.design-engineering.com
26
Toronto’s Cloud DX aims to win the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE with mobile diagnostic device.
By Treena Hein
A Star Trek-style tricorder that can diagnose medical problems instantly has been a science fiction staple for decades but
such a device may soon become reality. This is due, in large part, to the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition, an interna-tional contest that promises $7 million to the first team to deliver a portable instrument capable measuring key health metrics and diagnosing 16 health conditions.
This past August, the field of tricorder contenders was nar-rowed to ten finalists. Of them, Toronto-based Cloud DX is the only Canadian company remaining in the competition. For Joel Yatscoff, lead product designer at Cortex Design—one of eight partner companies on the Cloud DX team—the opportunity represents a significant historical first for Canada.
“It’s amazing,” says Yatscoff, whose firm is responsible for the XPRISE entry’s design and project management. “Not only are we the only Canadian team in this competition, but also the first Canadian team to have ever become a finalist in any XPRIZE competition. That feels really great and adds that extra desire to do really well.”
Established in 2014, Cloud DX’s genesis began in 2009 as Cloud Diagnostics, a healthcare IT distribution company acquired by medical device manufacturer Biosign Technologies Inc. in 2010. During that period, the company developed the Pulsewave Health Monitor, a multi-function virtual medical device and cloud diagnostics software application.
“At the start, all that we could measure was blood pressure,” recalls Cloud DX president and CEO Robert Kaul, who founded Cloud Diagnostics, served as Biosign CEO and led the by-out that created Cloud DX earlier this year. “By 2011, we could measure respiration rate, and in 2012, we introduced the heart rate anom-aly detector. So we’ve added more capability over time.”
Today, Pulsewave is the only automated wrist blood pressure platform approved in Canada, Europe and by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that can measure both heart rate vari-ability and respiration (in beta release now).
For the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition, Cloud DX is taking its Pulsewave technology to the next level with Vitaliti, an integrated health tracking system that will monitor five vital signs continuously for 72 consecutive hours, process blood, urine and saliva samples, analyze the data and return a diagnosis that’s comprehensible by a layperson.
Providing all this in one system is a tall order and it’s being developed at lightning speed, as the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition ends in May 2015. Is Cloud DX feeling the pressure? Kaul admits the pressure is substantial, but feels they’ve assembled a really strong team – from medical experts to user interface and hardware designers – that will rise to the challenge.
Dealing with PressureAny XPRIZE Tricorder entry team must first figure out a way to accurately monitor a user’s vital signs, including electrocar-diogram (EKG), blood pressure, pulse O2 saturation and core body temperature – but do this in an unobtrusive way. Accord-ing to Cortex Design’s Yatscoff, getting a consistent blood pres-sure reading without repeatedly using a cuff over time is particularly difficult.
“It’s not a simple procedure to measure blood pressure: The cuff needs to be wrapped tightly around your wrist/arm, inflated to constrict the blood vessels and then deflated in steps,” he explains. “Doing this every 30 seconds or so, for hours on end, would likely mean we’d receive a lower overall user-experience score from the judges, and so we knew we had to come up with a novel solution.”
The solution is a Vitaliti Continuous Vital Signs Monitor (CVSM), a collar-like device with electrodes that lay against the
CoverStory
LIVE LONGand PROSPER
Vitaliti, the Cloud DX Top-10 Finalist Entry in the Qualcomm Tricorder
XPRIZE, consists of four wireless devices, connected to and managed
by a mobile application running on a tablet or smartphone.
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CoverStory 27
upper chest. These sensors form a sin-gle-lead EKG that monitors the user’s heart rate. In addition, an earbud-like device wired to the CVSM houses an infrared thermometer, to monitor body temperature, and a PPG (Photoplethys-mogram) sensor to monitor blood oxygen saturation.
Based on the data from these two devices, both respiration rate and blood pressure can be derived—the latter by using the PPG and EKG signals to pro-duce ‘pulse transit time,’ which, Kaul explains, researchers have shown are related. In addition, the CVSM is cali-brated once or twice a day with a tra-ditional cuff reading.
“The programming involves con-tinuous simultaneous vital sign gather-ing, advanced digital signal processing and some pretty high level math,” says Kaul. “Part of the challenge is also to compensate for noisy signals generated by movement and other signal artifacts.”
After collection, vital sign data is then transferred by Bluetooth to the Vitaliti app running on a smartphone or tablet and uploaded to the company’s servers where it is parsed by Cloud DX’s algo-rithm. The filtered data is then sent back and displayed on the tester’s smartphone. In total, the system returns ten results, including blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, body temperature, EKG, average respiratory rate and heart arrhythmias.
“In material selection, we need to address user comfort over this prolonged period that includes sleeping, exercising, work-ing, making dinner and so on,” says Yatscoff. “So it’s a significant task to select forms and materials which hopefully will be unobtrusive at worst and comfortable at best.”
It’s all about answering the question of whether hardware should be hard and conform as much as possible to the body’s natural contours, or soft and embedded with technology. The Cloud DX team is heading down the middle.
“We are trying to blend soft and hard, hopefully making the most of both worlds,” Yatscoff says. “Most likely, we’ll be encasing the hardware in protective enclosures and connecting these ‘shells’ with soft flexible segments or over molds made from a low durom-eter silicone or other similar material. This gives the benefit of traditional hardware retainment in plastic, with the soft sections creating some compliance to adjust to different body shapes.”
Yatscoff points out that all the diagnostic software and devices to win this competition already exist in one form or another. Because of the tight timeline, the team has had to make a lot of hardware decisions that would not normally have to be made in a typical product development process. The challenge for the Cloud
DX team, he says, is to integrate them together into a cohesive and easy-to-use device – and one that goes well beyond simply performing diagnostic tests.
Taking SamplesIn addition to vital statistics, the win-ning medical Tricorder must also pre-cision-measure blood, urine and saliva samples. For this component, Cloud DX is developing the Vitaliti In Vitro Diag-nostics Platform (IVDP), a customized version of the LRE Compact Point-of-Care Reader developed by German medical instrumentation manufacturer, LRE Medical GmbH.
Similar to a home insulin tester, users interact with the IVDP by prick-ing their finger and placing a drop of blood (and other bodily fluids) in a multi-strip IVD test cassette. The cas-sette is then inserted into the IVDP, which takes measurements and sends the collected data to Vitaliti App. As with the Vital Signs Monitor, data pro-cessing is performed either locally or in the cloud and the results are then dis-played. The Vitaliti App presents infor-mation to the patient on vital signs and
medical conditions mainly using easy-to-understand graphics. Supporting text explanations are given in plain language: No medical jargon but lots of detail and appropriate terminology.
Once a diagnosis is given, the Cloud DX Tricorder also educates the user about his or her condition, as well as things like the mar-gin of error for the tests that have been conducted. Links to pre-screened healthcare information on third-party websites may be offered, along with explanations about additional steps to confirm what’s been found and to give guidance on pathways of treatment.
At the same time, symptoms are tracked and, if they persist or worsen, the system will initiate contact with a provided healthcare professional/facility, or one that’s found within the Cloud DX database. The software can also import contacts from social media apps if the user would like to share information with others, but strict privacy controls are in place at all times.
Many other challenges lay ahead in this truly multi-faceted and colossal undertaking, but trust among team members is strong.
“We have all the people in place we need to complete the project and have the confidence that we will do really well given the abilities of everyone involved,” Yatscoff says. “Milestones still to come are getting the highest possible accuracy from the vital sign monitoring devices, accurate diagnosis from our In-Vitro Diag-nostic Platform, integrating the whole thing together, and produc-ing 50 prototypes for May 2015…We’re a little busy.” DEwww.clouddx.comtricorder.xprize.org
In addition to heart rate, the Vitaliti smartphone
app displays all pertinant vital signs and medical
condition diagnoses through easy-to-understand
graphics and plain language explanations.
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Additive manufacturing speeds Canadian “Dragons’ Den”-funded consumer product to market.
Regardless of your current climate, it’s likely that your week-ends or after work hours have been dedicated to raking
leaves, digging gardens or shoveling snow. No matter the chore, raking, shoveling or digging can all be strenuous and can amount to various aches and pains. A Canadian entrepreneur set out to change the way individuals use day-to-day tools while avoiding the associated aches and pains.
The concept for the HEFT (Highly Effective Fulcrum Tool) came to fruition after co-inventor, Marco Longley, was severely injured in 1990 after being hit by an impaired driver while riding his bicycle. After the accident, Marco went through major back surgeries as well as the re-building of his shoulder, making physical activities, such as shoveling snow and raking leaves, extremely painful and difficult. Ultimately, the discomfort lead Marco to create the original design for the HEFT—a tool which made such strenuous activities more feasible.
Development of the HEFT started in Marco’s garage in 2008 where he began to create the original prototype for the product. After different ideas and iterations, Marco’s wife and HEFT co-inventor, Anne, suggested that a change to the HEFT’s collar, which lead to the patented locking collar design used in the original product design.
The original handmade prototypes crafted by Marco were very time consuming to create and originated from fiberglass, metal inter core and PVC piping. Nearly four years after the original idea came to life and Marco had a working prototype, he pitched his idea on the iconic Canadian television series “Drag-
ons’ Den,” airing during the Christmas special in 2012. The idea was well received and sparked the interest of all of the Dragons, but an agreement was ultimately made between Marco and Arlene Dickinson. After much deliberation, Arlene’s group decided to pass on the HEFT due to the high cost of manufacturing.
Fortunately for Marco, approximately two weeks before the airing of the Dragons’ Den episode, Start Up Canada, a network
AdditiveManufacturing
SomeHEFT
Behind It
Through consultation with additive manufacturing products and services
firm Cimetrix Solutions, Canadian entrepreneur and inventor, Marco
Longley 3D printed these prototypes of his Highly Effective Fulcrum Tool
(HEFT). Made from PC-ABS, the functional prototypes helped secure a
deal with a national retailer to distribute across Canada.
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of entrepreneurs who seek to develop environments where all entrepreneurs can develop platforms together, took a tour of AssentWorks. A not-for-profit Maker-space and idea hub located in Winnipeg, AssentWorks dedicates itself to providing hands on access to 3D printing and rapid prototyping equipment to innovators and community members alike.
Start Up Canada connected Marco with AssentWorks’ co-founder, David Bernhardt. With an extensive background in industrial design and an excellent knowledge and connection to the world of 3D printing, David turned to additive manufac-turing technologies to redesign the HEFT and create less expen-sive, functional prototypes.
Within two weeks of accessing the concept for the HEFT, David had altered the design and had created four functional prototypes with the use of AssentWorks’ uPrintPlus 3D printer. David presented his ideas to Marco and his family at the Drag-ons’ Den airing party. The sleek, light and functional designs were well received; so well in fact that they captured the atten-tion of another Dragon: David Chilton. Chilton heard about the expedited prototypes and was very interested to see them first hand. After seeing the prototypes and testing them, Chil-ton only had one thing to say “I’m in.”
Then, the real challenges began: Testing and manufacturing. Although the uPrint ABS parts were great for preliminary test-ing and communication, they needed something more robust for functional testing. Bernhardt contacted the experts at Cimetrix Solutions for advice on material selection as well as injection molding applications. The new prototypes were print-ing on a Fortus 400mc using PC-ABS allowing for a strong part with some flexibility.
“We were able to do all of our ergonomic and functional test-ing with the PC-ABS prototype,” explains Bernhardt. This would ultimately be the prototype in which the HEFT team secured a deal with a national retailor to distribute across Canada.
The implementation of 3D printing proved to have a sig-nificant impact on the product design as well as the production of the prototype. From the ideation stage to manufacturing, over 40 prototypes were produced, some of the earlier ones were basic wire to foam and PVC seen on the Dragons’ Den pitch. Although effective, manufacturing of these prototypes was very time consuming and cumbersome.
As with most products, the HEFT was not an overnight success. It was a five-year journey from idea to retail with many hiccups throughout the development. Once additive manufac-turing was introduced, however, communication between all parties became clear and it went from prototype to product in less than a year.
The product hit the store shelves of Home Hardware across Canada this fall in conjunction with an update feature on Drag-ons’ Den, which aired in October, 2014, as well as a Home Hardware commercial with details about the HEFT and where it can be purchased. DEwww.theheft.comwww.cimetrixsolutions.com
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Motors
Open Induction MotorsWEG Electric released a line of open, three-phase induction motors, available in standard frame sizes – from NEMA 254T to L6808/09. The W40 motor line comes with a rated output of 60Hz at 15 to 2,250 HP and either 2- or 4-pole models. Input voltage can be from 208 to 4,160V available with ODP (IP23) protection for frames 256T to L5810 and WPI (IP24) protection for frame L6808/09. As an option, models are also available with 5,000 – 6,000V, 6- or 8-pole, and WPI and WPII protection for frame sizes 5010 and up. W40 motors come standard with ball bearings, grease nipples, Class F insulation and are suitable for inverter operation up to 460V.www.weg.net
Motor and Drive SystemBaldor Electric Company introduced an adjustable speed direct drive cooling tower system that combines the company’s Baldor Reliance RPM AC motor with an adjustable speed drive that replaces the right-angle gearbox and jack shaft installation found in many conventional industrial process cooling towers. The fan couples to
the motor and is controlled by the ABB ACS880 cooling tower drive. This drive offers specific cooling tower parameters and provides a “quick start assistant” specifically for cooling tower applications.www.baldor.com
Ironless Linear MotorsETEL unveiled its ILF and the ILM series of ironless high-speed linear motors. Built for use in the semiconductor and electronics industry, the series utilizes an iron-free coil design, which guaran-tees zero-attraction force between the carriage and the magnetic way ensuring smooth motion along its length of travel with no force ripple. The ILF is a smaller-sized motor suited for high dynamic and low-moving mass applications, while the ILM is a more pow-erful version and has an option to be air-cooled. The ironless motors come in a variety of lengths and heights, which offer different degrees of forces and also share the same profile for inter-changeability. Each is also able to reach speeds of up to 20 m/s and reach a peak force of up to 2,500 N.www.heidenhain.com
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Automation
Servo DriveRockwell Automation released its Allen-Bradley Kinetix 5500 servo drive with integrated safety that uses the EtherNet/IP network for machine safety functions. In addition, the system allows users to unlatch the safe torque off function, program an unlimited number of set points, change safety zoning and re-use code to maintain system validation. End users also gain improved diagnostics information through the drive’s integration with the GuardLogix safety controller. Details on safety-related faults, such as safe torque off requests, are shown on the drive’s LCD display. This information can also be pulled into existing informa-tion databases and reporting solutions already in use.www.rockwellautomation.com
Embedded PCBeckhoff Automation unveiled its medium-performance CX5100 series of fanless embedded PC controllers with Intel Atom multi-core CPUs. The processors’ 22-nm technology maintains thermal balance and extended operating tem-perature range. The DIN rail-mountable series is offered in three different processor and housing sizes including the
CX5120 (single-core, 1.46 GHz Atom CPU); CX5130 (1.75 GHz, dual-core); and CX5140 (1.91 GHz, quad-core). The basic interface equipment corresponds to that of Beckhoff’s CX5000 devices: Automatic recognition of K-Bus I/O or EtherCAT Terminals; two indepen-dent Gigabit-capable Ethernet interfaces, four USB 2.0 ports; a DVI-I interface and a “multi-option” interface to support a variety of fieldbus systems. The series offers an extended operating temperature range of -25 to +60°C.www.beckhoffautomation.com
HMI/PLC IDEC has added the FT1A Touch 14 I/O to its series of combo HMI+PLC units. The HMI/PLC provides up to 158 discrete and analog inputs and outputs (using FT1A controllers as remote I/O slaves), PID control and Ethernet communications plus a built-in 3.8-inch touchscreen. The unit also features 14 I/O consisting of eight discrete inputs (two of which can be configured as analog) and four discrete outputs and two analog outputs. The discrete inputs can handle switching frequencies up to 10kHz. The analog inputs and outputs can be configured as either 0-10Vdc or 4-20mA. PID control functions include auto-tuning, anti-reset windup and bumpless transfer. The unit is CE, cULus, Class I Division 2 for hazard-ous locations, and has a -20 to 55°C operating temperature. www.IDEC.com
Quadlinear CameraTeledyne DALSA introduced its Piranha4 2k quadlinear line scan camera featuring RGB outputs plus a Near Infrared (NIR) channel for multispectral imaging. The CMOS image sensor design features wafer-level dichroic filters that enable spectrally independent RGB and NIR outputs. The camera is available in 2k resolution, with 14.08 micron pixel size and delivers a maximum line rate of 70kHz. In
addition to its multispectral capability, the camera also features sub-pixel spatial correction, horizontal parallax correction, multiple AOI and ROI and independent exposure time for each color channel. Flat field correction can be done on each channel or as a group.www.teledynedalsa.com
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Controllers
Servo ControllersSprint Electric introduced its XLV range of servo controllers designed for permanent magnet brushed DC servo motors rated from 4 to 12 Amps. Suitable for use on DC supplies up to 48V, the controllers can be used in either current (torque) or speed control modes. The 400 XLV model for motors rated up to 4A, the 800 XLV for 8A and the 1200 XLV for 12A are additions to the miniature 200 XLV model. Despite measuring
60mm wide, 120mm high and 105mm deep for the 400 and 800 models, and 69mm wide for the 1200 model, the XLV is a four-quadrant drive that can motor and brake in both directions of rotation.www.mdacontrols.com
Motor ControllerVelmex introduced its VXM Controller System, a 2-phase, uni-polar stepper motor controller that has the capability to drive and control precise movements, multi-axis and velocity. The controller is capable of controlling up to 4 motors, 1 motor at a time. Also two motors can be controlled simultaneously for coordinated motion. The VXM Controller features a single chip
micro-controller; resonance-free motor torque; automatically de-energizes motors at a standstill; and 10-bit analog input. The Velmex VXM System can be used with a PC, Tablet, Laptop or PLC and can run standalone. The Velmex has five VXM models that can control one to four motors plus one enhanced jog and auto-reverse single motor, single axis model that does not require a computer.www.velmex.com
Instrumentation
Outdoor Enclosure Sarnia-based Intertec introduced its Diabox 277, an enclosure designed for the protection of field-based process instrumenta-tion in extreme cold environments. The enclosure measures 600 x 750 x 600mm and has an internal volume of approximately 277 liters. For extremely cold conditions, the company’s “arctic” version is suitable for temperatures down to -60°C (-76°F). The standard Diabox 277 enclosures are rated to IP65 while the arctic version is available with an IP68 rating. The enclosure’s GRP composite material is available in an electrically conductive form to comply with the international IEC EN 60079-0 standard. For applications that demand purging, Intertec offers a sealed Ex p version in accordance with the IEC EN 60079-2 standard.www.intertec.info
Power SupplyABSOPULSE Electronics released its HBC65-D3-IP66/67 Series of watertight power supplies designed for heavy-duty indus-trial, mining, marine, military, oil & gas and transportation applications. The series accepts either AC- or DC-inputs includ-ing 115Vac (95–132Vac range), 230Vac (190–264Vac range), 250Vdc (210–290Vdc range), 300Vdc (250–350Vdc range) or custom. The supplies deliver 300W continuous output
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power without the need for cooling fans or forced airflow. Typical output voltages include 12Vdc, 24Vdc, 48Vdc, 125Vdc or custom. The units comply with EN60950-1 and UL and CSA international safety standards. The power supplies are packaged in a die cast aluminum IP66 enclosure with sealed circular connectors. Cooling is by internal conduction to the walls of the enclosure and by surface convection. This enables operation within a -25°C to +55°C temperature range. www.absopulse.com
OpenSAFETY control panelB&R introduced a control panel, which the company says eliminates the need for hard wiring of E-stop, operat-ing mode and start buttons. Instead, the company’s open-SAFETY control panels only require a bus and power con-
nection, allowing systems to be placed where needed without dealing with cable harnesses. The control panels are available in a wide range of configurations. In addition to different display sizes and ratios, it’s also possible to choose between various touch technologies. Just as configurable are the number and arrangement of buttons, switches and the E-stop buttons. The control panels are also available in housings rated up to IP65. B&R also offers custom devices for specific clients and solutions for specific industries, such as food and beverages.www.br-automation.com
Sensors
Rotary EncodersPepperl+Fuchs introduced its ENA58IL and ENA36IL magnetic absolute rotary encoders that combine precision and high-speed resolu-tion in a compact design. The encoders feature accuracies up to 0.1°, resolution up to 16-bit single turn and 32-bit multiturn, and a signal processing time < 100 µs. In addition to two-axis 14-bit Hall sensors, the units also house a Wie-gand sensor, turning them into multiturn abso-lute rotary encoders without mechanical gears. As result, the compact encoders feature hous-ings as small as 36mm in diameter. The ENA58IL and ENA36IL are suitable the most adverse applications such as offshore wind turbines or in the mobile equipment industry.www.pepperl-fuchs.us
Energy MeterLOVATO Electric has expanded its range of measuring instruments by adding the DMG600 and DMG610 digital multimeters. Both models
IdeaGenerator
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provide electrical measurements such as voltage and current val-ues, meters for active and reactive energy, both imported and exported, and harmonic distortion (THD). In addition, the multimeters offer differ-ent solutions for acquiring measured data. The instruments’ white-backlit LCD screen provides visibility, even in low light conditions. The built-in RS485 serial port allows the DMG610 model to be immediately inserted into an existing network; many other optional ports are available such as analog input and output, relay output, static output, communication port, Ethernet or USB. The models also allow users to connect directly, through an optical front port via a Wi-Fi dongle, to smartphones or tablets using the LOVATO SAM1 applications in the Android and IOS apps store.www.lovato.ca
Linear SensorAlliance Sensors Group released its MR Series of linear position sensors designed as a drop-in replacement for magnetostrictive sensors—specifically for port-mounted industrial, mobile or subsea hydraulic cylinders and large pneumatic actuators. MR Series sen-sors are based on a contactless inductive sensing technology. The
sensor series measurement ranges from 2 to 36 inches (50 to 900mm); operates to 5,000 psi; has a linearity error of less than or equal to ±0.1% of full scale output, and has a -3dB frequency response of 500 Hz. The sensor features an IEC IP-67 aluminum or stainless steel housing and operates in temperatures up to 85°C and 105°C for custom units.www.alliancesensors.com
Pressure Transmitters American Sensor Technologies announced that its line of Explosion Proof Pressure Transmitters has achieved ATEX certification for hazardous locations. The company’s AST4300 Non-Incen-dive Rugged Pressure Transmitter Series is qualified as ATEX Class I Zone 0 Ex d and the AST43LP Low Presssure Non-Incendive Pressure Sensor Series holds a ATEX Class I Zone 2 Ex nA rating. Each are also certified by Sira for Class I
Zone 2 Ex nA IIC T4 Gc. Both product families cover pressures from 1 to 20,000 psi. Pressure transmitters can be ordered with compound pressure ranges for compressor applications or bi-directional pressures for vapor recovery systems.www.astsensors.com
Proximity SensorsStandex-Meder Electronics introduced its MK15-501 magnetically operated reed proximity sensors for surface-mount device (SMD) mounting. Measuring 16 x 2.8 x 2.8mm, the sensors are suited for low-power operations, requiring no exter-nal power for sensor operation. It is espe-cially useful for magnetic systems requiring long operating distances with permanent magnets. Two lead designs are available: Straight leads and bent SMD gull wing leads. Offered in four operating sensitivities, the MK15-501 is also available for high power switches. The sensors are supplied taped and reeled according to IEC 286-3, suitable for auto-placement. The magnetic pull-in sensitivity is divided into several AT classes at 5 AT steps each. www.standexmeder.com
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Power Transmission
Shaft CollarsStafford Manufacturing Corp. unveiled a line of weather-resistant shaft collars for outdoor use. The collars feature a wide range of one- and two-piece, hinged and flange mount designs made from plastic, aluminum, paintable steel and 304 and 316 stainless steel. Available in sizes from 1/4 to 10 inches with various bore configurations, depend-ing upon the material, the collars can be modified with mounting holes, knurls and other secondary options to meet OEM design specifications.www.staffordmfg.com
Fluid Power
Needle ValveClippard introduced its GNV series of needle valves, available with
1/8-, 1/4- and 3/8-inch port sizes with flow rates up to 60 scfm at 100 psig. Needle valves are used to control the rate of flow in a pneumatic system by controlling flow in both directions. Material enters the input port, travels through an adjustable orifice and out the output port. Mounting options for the series include direct and in-line, as well as cartridge styles. Adjustment is achieved by either a recessed slot or knurled knob. The GNV series also offers a compact design with rotating input that allows for 360 degree positioning.www.clippard.com
Venturi Vacuum Pump Vaccon Company introduced its RTM Series of venturi vacuum pump cartridges. The pumps’
venturi design generates high internal velocities that carry dirt through and out of the pump,
as opposed to multi-stage pumps that use flap valves,
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www.design-engineering.com November/December | 2014
37
Photographer’sWINGMAN
CanadianInnovator
Klever Freire, CEO of Toronto-
based DreamQii and creator
of the PlexiDrone, a small UAV
designed for film-makers and
photographers. (© Michael
Barker/Acme Art & Design)
Toronto start-up DreamQii’s PlexiDrone to buzz UAV market with quad-rotor drone designed for commercial photography. By Mike McLeod
As the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) nears the estab-lishment of guidelines for commercial Unmanned Arial
Vehicles (UAV) south of the border and Transport Canada stream-lining applications at home, the market for small, light drones, with enough power to carry a payload, is heating up. A quick Google search or browse through crowd-funding sites like Kick-starter or Indiegogo shows the growing number of recent entries into the commercial UAV market.
Few, however, have sparked the buzz surrounding Toronto start-up DreamQii and its quad-rotor UAV, the PlexiDrone. Dur-ing its 30-day Indiegogo crowd funding campaign, the company attracted more than 2500 backers and approximately US$750,000, well past the original $100,000 funding goal. The drone has similarly coaxed distributors like photography equipment retailer Henry’s, which will offer the PlexiDrone on its shelves when commercial shipments of the drone start in early 2015.
According to the PlexiDrone’s creator and DreamQii CEO, Klever Freire, his UAV’s popularity comes down to a combina-tion of marketing savvy and tailoring the UAV to a high growth segment of the market.
“A few years ago, before we entered the market, photography stores started to pick up on what their customers were asking for,” he says. “But those first generation film and photography drones were being sold by accident because they were designed initially as recreational toys for RC hobbyists. It just so happened that they had enough power to take up a small action camera.
“Today,” he adds, “it’s really about having the compete pack-age, one that a photographer can just pick up and start using without having to be an expert in programming, flying remote control aircraft or modifying things with a 3D printer.”
While similar looking to other quad-rotor UAVs, the 2.2-pound PlexiDrone possesses a number of elements designed specifically with photographers in mind. For example, it features a tool-less, snap-together construction that allows the rotor arms, landing gear and camera mount to detach from the central hub. Once disassembled, the components pack neatly into a hard-shell back-pack for transport.
“There are a lot of benefits to making the arms detachable,” Freire says. “For example, the modularity makes the Plexidrone extremely portable. And, if you are using the UAV for your business and you damage a propeller, you may not have time to fix the entire frame, but you could easily swap out an arm.”
The system’s modular architecture also extends to its payload capabilities, allowing for any number of custom photographic configurations. In addition to mounts for GoPro and other compact dSLR cameras, the company offers a special harness to accommodate a spherical 360-degree panoramic camera called the BublCam made by fellow Indiegogo favorite and Toronto-startup, Bubl Technology.
No matter what the camera payload, the small UAV also accommodates 2- and 3-axis image-stabilizing gimbals which, Freire says, the PlexiDrone is uniquely designed to take advantage of since its landing gear retracts to provide an unobstructed shot.
“What is really important to film makers and photographers are things like an unobstructed field of view, great camera posi-tioning and being able to take up more than one camera type, along with hands-free portability and an attention to industrial design,” Freire says. “It’s important that it look like a completely
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38
ready-to-fly drone you can use immediately even if you didn’t knew anything about [remote control aircraft] previously.”
Beyond its modularity, the Canadian-made drone also pos-sesses a number of handy features for prospective aerial cinema-tographers, especially those without any prior RC pilot experience. Controlled via either an iOS, Android or Windows-based mobile device, DreamQii’s drone allows for standard waypoint-style programming but also incorporates a GPS-enabled “follow-me” option. Pressing a button in the drone’s companion PlexiGCS app tells the drone to follow behind, above, in front or to the left or right of the controlling smartphone’s location.
For safety, the system’s ultrasonic sensor can detect and avoid obstacles at distances of up to 30 feet and its voice notification system alerts users to potential problems. For shots that require more than one camera angle, DreamQii’s system also allows two or more PlexiDrones to be coordinated simultaneously via the PlexiHub. The Bluetooth-enabled wireless drone “router” allows one user to swarm multiple UAVs and film an event from mul-tiple angles, follow search grid patterns or survey larger areas.
Weighing 1 kg without payload, the UAV can produce 7 lbs of thrust and reach a top speed of 70 kph (43 mph). According to the company, the drone’s rechargeable battery lasts between 10 to 35 minutes of hover and 10 to 25 minutes of flight time, depending on payload weight.
Perhaps one of the PlexiDrone’s most attractive features, how-
ever, isn’t a component, spec or design element, but how it will navigate Transport Canada and FAA certification. After all, the best commercial-grade UAV on the market is useless if it’s illegal to fly. However, Freire says that a recent Transport Canada ruling, which allows UAVs under 2 kg to be used for commercial applica-tions without requiring an Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), levels the horizon for light UAVs like the PlexiDrone.
“Previously, the best a drone OEM could do was make sure that their product would be able to pass an SFOC certificate application,” he says. “For quite some time, this was looking to be an advantage for established but expensive UAVs on the market. Now, with the ruling, you can get a cheap drone, attach a camera to it and get the live video feed you were looking for without having to spend thousands of dollars.”
As the crowd-funding campaign drew to a close in November, Freire said the money raised will go toward fulfilling the approxi-mately 800 pre-orders for the sub-$1,000 PlexiDrone. The next step will finding the right mass-production partners, he says, to keep up with demand once the product has it retail debut next year.
“We are looking to keep things as Canadian as possible,” he says. “Within the next six months to a year, we definitely expect to start releasing the next version of the PlexiDrone. By then, we will have a much idea of what the demand is like in terms of volume.” DEhttp://plexidrone.com
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