News
- This 4-Station Catheter Lamination Machine uses Recirculated Hot Air to Shrink Tubing More Precisely.
San Jose, CA.- November 2006 - ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, is now offering an all-electric hot air lamination machine that shrinks tubing simultaneously over 4 catheters.
"There is no compressed air required as the patented design recirculates the air as it maintains precise temperature up to 650°F, "states the design engineer, Dale Henson, P.E. "Just load a catheter part with heat shrink tubing over the top and push the START button to laminate them in minutes."
The machine has two separately driven and heated chambers with 2 lamination areas in each. Two catheters can be laminated while two more are being mounted/demounted to maximize operator efficiency. The material is attached to stainless steel rods that extend through the raised heating chambers. The lamination length is 78", or whatever the customer requires.The touchscreen interface includes programmable recipes to vary the time and speed that the chambers descend over the catheters. Temperature is also set as part of each recipe. This machine was designed and assembled by Dale Henson and his support staff.
September 2006: ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, is now offering an all-pneumatic single-stroke version of the automatic frit punch/place machines that have been produced for international and domestic use.
"I got rid of everything electric and mounted 96 punch pins to a single cylinder slide to punch all of them in one stroke," states the design engineer, Dale Henson, P.E. "Just load a material sheet and empty microplate and push the START button to fill all 96 wells in seconds."
The machine presses 96 hardened and ground pins through a precut sheet of material and then through a 96-hole hardened and ground die plate to cut the discs. The pins then continue to push the cut discs directly into the microplate. The disc size can be from .09 "to .25" diameter and in any thickness from paper-thin to ¼" foam. The cut material can be fabric, plastic microtitre filter or almost anything soft enough to cut by conventional methods.
The material is cut about 3"x 5" to fit into the punching nest and is locked in place by a latching door. A microplate is placed into a pocket below the material nest and the assembly is slid into the machine. Safety covers and a fail-safe interlock prevent actuation unless the plate and material are in the closed position. This machine was designed and assembled by Dale Henson and his support staff.
January, 2004: ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, draws the attention of the editors of Machine Design with their use of advanced servo and machine vision systems in their line of coil winding machines.
"Our system of precisely controlling filament and mandrel tension, as well as wind angle, gives coil manufacturers the ability to produce coils with complex characteristics to extremely tight tolerances," states Dale Henson, P.E. and President of Engineering By Design. "Our machines offer features and capabilities not found in any other coil winding system."
February, 2003: ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, is producing custom processing machines that use an Ethernet network to communicate between all of the programmable components, allowing remote access to the entire system for software, firmware and production data acquisition.
"We install a network router or switch in all of our automated manufacturing machines so the customer can get service without waiting for a technician to fly there," states Dale Henson, P.E. and President of Engineering By Design. "Our machines installed in distant factories are often run around the clock, so downtime must be minimized. Acquisition of production data can also be done with the same system."
Many machine components can now use Ethernet for system communication. For those systems a network router can enable monitoring and programming over the Internet. This involves assigning an IP address to the machine and getting authority to pass through the customer's Internet firewall. If security concerns require an alternative, connecting to a phone line through an on-site PC can solve the problem. This latter solution is simpler and faster to execute, since it doesn't involve IT personnel and associated management approvals. Installing a phone modem in the machine can even eliminate the PC. The system and procedure was developed using personnel with expertise in networks, PLC systems, Internet and motion control technology.
April, 2002: ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, is producing a new machine that resizes plastic coated, braided tubing with a heated die, checks for exposed wires and cuts sections to any length.
"We optimized the performance, reliability and accuracy while adding features that make it easier to use," states Dale Henson, P.E. and President of Engineering By Design. "Putting the first pinch drive and the cutter on a pneumatic slides makes it much easier to load, while putting the heated die and the exposed wire detector on slides makes them easy to move out of the processing path when not used."
Program entry features an alphanumeric color touch screen. The new design features menu-selectable die heat, cut length and the relative speeds for each pinch drive up to 750 FPM. The braided wire under the surface of the tubing is easily cut through the use of a high-speed, replaceable blade.
April, 2002: ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, is producing a new machine that transfers fiber from a large supply spool to any size target spool or holder.
The primary uses are for making erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) and for re-spooling fiber, wire, tubing or similar materials.
"We applied the design concepts used in our production coil winders in a new configuration that is smaller and easier to use," states Dale Henson, P.E. and designer of the machine. "Adding a pinch roller with a one-way clutch simplifies the process of changing target holders."
An alphanumeric interface is used for entering process instructions and displaying material used, speed, pitch and target holder width. The large diameter guide rollers prevent damaging the fiber or kinking small tubing. The supply and target spool mandrels can be quickly changed to run a variety of processes. Adjustable wind tension applied through a dancer arm absorbs the discontinuous feed related to non-circular target holders. The innovative design can be reproduced in other configurations to fit a variety of manufacturing processes.
April 2002: ENGINEERING BY DESIGN, of San Jose, CA, is now offering an automatic version of the semi-manual frit punch/place machines that have been produced for international and domestic use.
"I added a processor, control panel and motor drive to take the place of manual positioning by the operator," states the design engineer, Dale Henson, P.E. "Just load a filter sheet and empty microplate and push the RUN button."
The machine presses 8 sharpened SST tubes into a precut sheet of filter paper to cut the frits and pick them up inside the tubes. The machine then positions the first row of the microtiter tray under the tubes and the frits are then placed into the bottom of each well using ejection pins. The machine keeps track of where each set of holes is punched from the filter sheet and indexes over one pitch to always get a clean set of frits. After 12 automatic punch and place cycles, the tray is filled.
The filter paper is cut to fit into the punching nest and is supported by a replaceable plastic block that can be reused for thousands of cycles. The sharpened tubes can last for years. Each sheet of filter paper can be repositioned to get four sets of 96 frits (384 total) per sheet. This machine was designed by Dale Henson and assembled, wired and programmed by his support staff.
March, 2002: Engineering By Design Completes Design and Manufacture of the latest addition to our line of Coil Winders -- the Double Vision Coil Winder.
Our newest Coil Winder incorporates a state-of-the-art Vision System to maintain extremely close wind-angle tolerances. The ability to measure the wind-angle without contacting the filament, in combination with the PLC-based machine control system incorporated in the design make it the most precise winder available on today's market.
Our motorcycle accessories continue to enjoy an overwhelmingly positive reception supported by recent reviews in Motorcyclist Magazine (12/01 issue) Classic Bike Rider (12/01), American Motorcyclist Magazine (Spring, 01), and Motorcycle Consumer News (12/00). Thanks to the positive magazine reviews and the referrals of our loyal customers we've shipped over 2,000 Rumble-strips® through the first quarter of 2002. Our Rumble-strips® product is an aerodynamic device that sticks to the top of a helmet to reduce buffeting and lift. It works like a combination of a spoiler and "vortex generator" to decrease unstable suction and noise. If you ride a motorcycle or have a helmet that needs protection (they also function as a bumper strip) or just a bit of stylish color, try one out.
Recent projects also include automated machines to wind fiber, tubing or wire from a supply spool to a target spool. Our first unit is in service as an erbium doped fiber amplifier (EFDA ) winder, however it is suitable for any application involving re-spooling or de-spooling of materials.
Of course we still specialize in micro coil winding machines and continue to produce new products and enhancements to our existing designs. We specialize in the extremely small coils that other machines cannot handle. Winding with .0005" wire requires tensions in the 1/2-gram range and we can maintain even lower tensions through our programmable servo controls.