Industries & Applications
Medical
The medical industry is characterized by a diverse number of applications ranging from critical care to diagnostics to patient comfort. Since human life is at stake, the final product must meet federal safety standards in addition to normal engineering design standards. These include: UL, CE, ISO, low voltage, increased isolation, low noise, safety features, safety record, reliability, size/shape/form-factor, application specific.
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Products marked - Modified started with a standard product and then were optimized to meet the customer's system requirements.
Products marked - Custom were designed from the ground up based on the customer's specifications.
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Patient Handling
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Diagnostic Imaging
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Radio Surgery
Before surgery, the tumor must be carefully mapped using an integrated CT or MRI. This ensures that only the affected tissue is treated. Radio Surgery reduces complications and recovery times. Because there is no incision the occurrence of infection, hemorrhaging and damage to surrounding tissue can be eliminated. Some conventional surgeries that require a 15-day recovery at the hospital can be treated as an outpatient procedure using radio surgery!
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Ventilation (breathing)
One type of ventilator uses a turbine that eliminates the need for an additional air compressor which makes it much more portable. The ventilator can move with the patient from the Emergency Room to the Operating Room to Recovery. A custom B12A6 precisely accelerates and decelerates a turbine to ventilate the patient. Another type of ventilator uses small pulses of oscillating air at 3-15Hz that is superimposed on a bias pressure that keeps the lungs open. High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation provides better flow and gas diffusion while reducing the chance for lung injury. One version of this machine is designed for neonatal and pediatric patients while another version is for adults. A standard 30A8 drives a piston driven diaphragm. Case Study: Patient Ventilator
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Drug and Contrast Dye Injection
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Corrective Eye Surgery
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Resuscitation
New technologies have been developed to automate the pumping action during a heart attack that provides blood flow rates near 100 percent! These portable servo-controlled units automatically compensate for patient size and efficiently pump the heart for up to 30 minutes per charge. Many lives have already been saved by these devices.
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Haptic Surgery RobotSurgery requires a steady hand and microsurgery even more so. The word 'haptic' means 'touch'. A haptic device gives the user force feedback so they can sense how strong the device is holding onto something. Haptic feedback coupled with electronic gearing gives the surgeon the ability to perform intricate procedures that would be completely impossible if attempted by hand. Force feedback lets the surgeon 'feel' how the scalpel is cutting or how the suture needle is penetrating. Electronic gearing takes the surgeons movements and miniaturizes them and makes them more precise. The result is faster more precise surgeries and the introduction of new procedures that were previously impossible.
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Remote Breast Exam
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This includes patient beds, operating tables and treatment tables. Under servo control, tables can rise, lower and tilt. In the case of medical imaging such as MRI and CT, an automated table can have up to 7 axes of motion all coordinated with each other and with the imager. The table and the imaging system work together to obtain detailed 3D images by observing the area of interest from many angles.
Similar to diagnostic imaging, however the projected radiation is used to destroy cancer growths and tumors instead of diagnosing them. X-rays or heavy particles are projected from many sources and converged to a point within the brain. The beams are not individually strong enough to cause damage, but when the beams meet at the convergence point, the combined energy is enough to destroy the affected tissue. This allows the surgeon to remove diseased tissue without damaging healthy parts of the brain.
For obvious reasons patient ventilation is a critical application. Servo drives must be absolutely reliable to work in this application.
Contrast Dyes are used to enhance images on MRI, CT and x-rays. Servo controlled injectors deliver dye or medication with more accuracy and better rate regulation than humans can.
Laser eye surgery is commonplace, but have you ever wondered how it works? The laser points into a set of mirrors that position the laser on an X-Y plane. The mirrors are controlled by a pair of servos, one for each axis of motion. Position accuracy is important but the thing that makes this extremely difficult is the ability to track and compensate for the constant involuntary eye movements of the patient. To achieve this you need to first be able to track the eye, then you need a servo system that is fast enough to respond to the constant changes. These are very high bandwidth systems capable of extreme accuracy.
Even when rested, it's difficult for a rescuer to perform CPR with good technique. As the rescuer begins to fatigue - usually only after a few minutes - the compression efficiency progressively gets worse. During a heart attack, standard CPR performed by an expert only maintains about 10 percent of normal blood flow! Portable chest compressors are the answer to this problem and have proven themselves to be better at delivering blood flow during cardiac arrest.
This technology is in development and is listed on our Previous Industry -- Next Industry