Originally Published EMDM May/June 2009
MIXED MEDIA
New literature, CD-ROMs, Videos and Podcasts
Lithium-ion battery podcasts
One in a series of podcasts available through a materials supplier’s website discusses the ways in which chemistry is manipulated to enhance the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries and explains how the company is contributing to general ongoing R&D relating to this battery technology. Offering unsurpassed efficiency, lightweight lithium-ion batteries provide high performance and fast charge-up. Further improvement in the technology is expected to make these batteries a principal energy storage choice in the future, for both mobile and stationary device applications. The audio podcast is available in English and German and, like others in the two-year-old web-based service, reports on the company’s R&D activities in a manner designed to be entertaining as well as informative and easy to understand.Production line conveyors
An English-language version of a production logistics company’s new product catalogue is available in print and as a file downloadable from the web. A featured highlight of the catalogue is the just-introduced X85 conveyor system and associated pallet-handling system. The robust conveyor is distinguished by generating little noise and offering a very long mean time between failures. Also new in this edition of the catalogue are standard wedges that provide fast and gentle transport both horizontally and vertically, a pallet control system that provides standardised control enclosures for distributed line control and standardised pallet elevators. A version of the catalogue forthcoming on DVD will include engineering tools and translation into several languages.
Assembly and test white paper
A technical guide on test-centred assembly is available to medical device manufacturers seeking ways to minimise costs and increase throughput in test-intensive assembly operations. The white paper, titled Test-Centric Assembly, is issued by a company whose testing applications laboratory pioneered many of the methods and techniques described in it. The approach outlined involves considering real-world testing requirements in test-intensive assembly operations up-front to discover inefficiencies in the production line that can be removed before production. The complimentary white paper discusses in-line versus in-process testing, differentiating between defective parts and defective tests, variations in test and assembly fixture design, generic versus custom software for testing and the cost savings potentially available with various assembly and testing techniques.Product guide on skin-contacting adhesives
A 40-page product guide showcasing a manufacturer’s medical device adhesives for skin-contact applications provides product data, general information and application guidance. The comprehensive reference book focuses on the Acrysure and Silk adhesive lines, skin-friendly adhesives available in such constructions as films, foams and nonwovens for use in assembling such products as disposable electrodes, surgical drapes, wound dressings and ostomy devices. It features illustrations of various types, including product images, diagrams and presentations of applications. Besides specifications and descriptions of products, the literature contains such technical information as performance testing procedures and results, units of measure, typical values for various parameters and measurements of adhesive rolls. User-friendliness is enhanced by a glossary of terms and summaries of each product line.
Assembly adhesives brochure
Medical device manufacturers seeking assembly adhesives and equipment can consult a supplier’s product brochure or a website dedicated to presenting adhesive products and programmes specialised for medical device applications. The brochure on adhesives for medical device assembly provides an overview of Loctite adhesive technology, products and applications, along with information on a comprehensive and diverse line of dispensing, curing and process monitoring equipment. The literature includes a product selection guide that charts technical data for more than 40 assembly adhesives. Visitors to the medical technology–oriented website have immediate access to literature, white papers, training programmes, biocompatibility certificates and technical data sheets relating to the adhesives line.Nanomanufacturing DVDs
As nanotechnology increasingly suggests itself as the basis of the next stage of industrial development, a trade association and conference organiser provides information on nanomanufacturing for high-technology companies wishing to get up to speed in this area, in the form of three DVDs. One disc is on nanomanufacturing specifically, another on nanometrology and the third on the molecular-level science behind nano-scale technologies. The nanomanufacturing DVD presents current and near- and long-term future applications of molecular nanotechnology, animations of nanosystems and the first nanomechanical modelling software developed. Serving as companion discs to this exploration of how the technology can be used, the other DVDs provide more-advanced and in-depth examinations of the key steps in making nanomanufacturing a real-world option. The nanometrology DVD looks at cutting-edge technologies that enable nanostructures to be measured in units of 1 billionth of a metre, shorter than the wavelength of light.
Copyright ©2009 European Medical Device Manufacturer
