The new ultrasound patch developed at UC San Diego can continuously monitor blood flow – as well as blood pressure and heart function – in real time.
Engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a soft and stretchy ultrasound patch that can be worn on the skin to monitor blood flow through major arteries and veins deep inside a person's body.
Knowing how fast and how much blood flows through a patient's blood vessels is important because it can help clinicians diagnose various cardiovascular conditions, including blood clots; heart valve problems; poor circulation in the limbs; or blockages in the arteries that could lead to strokes or heart attacks.
The new ultrasound patch developed at UC San Diego can continuously monitor blood flow – as well as blood pressure and heart function – in real time. Wearing such a device could make it easier to identify cardiovascular problems early on.
A team led by Sheng Xu, a professor of nanoengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, reported the patch in a paper published July 16 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
The patch can be worn on the neck or chest. What's special about the patch is that it can sense and measure cardiovascular signals as deep as 14cm inside the body in a non-invasive manner. And it can do so with high accuracy.
"This type of wearable device can give you a more comprehensive, more accurate picture of what's going on in deep tissues and critical organs like the heart and the brain, all from the surface of the skin," Xu says.
"Sensing signals at such depths is extremely challenging for wearable electronics. Yet, this is where the body's most critical signals and the central organs are buried," says Chonghe Wang, a former nanoengineering graduate student in Xu's lab and co-first author of the study. "We engineered a wearable device that can penetrate such deep tissue depths and sense those vital signals far beneath the skin. This technology can provide new insights for the field of healthcare."
Another innovative feature of the patch is that the ultrasound beam can be tilted at different angles and steered to areas in the body that are not directly underneath the patch.
This is a first in the field of wearables, explained Xu, because existing wearable sensors typically only monitor areas right below them. "If you want to sense signals at a different position, you have to move the sensor to that location. With this patch, we can probe areas that are wider than the device's footprint. This can open up a lot of opportunities."
How it works The patch is made up of a thin sheet of flexible, stretchable polymer that adheres to the skin. Embedded on the patch is an array of millimeter-sized ultrasound transducers. Each is individually controlled by a computer--this type of array is known as an ultrasound phased array. It is a key part of the technology because it gives the patch the ability to go deeper and wider.
The phased array offers two main modes of operation. In one mode, all the transducers can be synchronized to transmit ultrasound waves together, which produces a high-intensity ultrasound beam that focuses on one spot as deep as 14cm in the body. In the other mode, the transducers can be programmed to transmit out of sync, which produces ultrasound beams that can be steered to different angles.
"With the phased array technology, we can manipulate the ultrasound beam in the way that we want," says Muyang Lin, a nanoengineering Ph.D. student at UC San Diego who is also a co-first author of the study. "This gives our device multiple capabilities: monitoring central organs as well as blood flow, with high resolution. This would not be possible using just one transducer."
The phased array consists of a 12 by 12 grid of ultrasound transducers. When electricity flows through the transducers, they vibrate and emit ultrasound waves that travel through the skin and deep into the body. When the ultrasound waves penetrate through a major blood vessel, they encounter movement from red blood cells flowing inside. This movement changes or shifts how the ultrasound waves echo back to the patch – an effect known as Doppler frequency shift. This shift in the reflected signals gets picked up by the patch and is used to create a visual recording of the blood flow. This same mechanism can also be used to create moving images of the heart's walls.
A potential game changer in the clinic For many people, blood flow is not something that is measured during a regular visit to the physician. It is usually assessed after a patient shows some signs of cardiovascular problems, or if a patient is at high risk.
The standard blood flow exam itself can be time consuming and labor intensive. A trained technician presses a handheld ultrasound probe against a patient's skin and moves it from one area to another until it's directly above a major blood vessel. This may sound straightforward, but results can vary between tests and technicians.
Since the patch is simple to use, it could solve these problems, says Sai Zhou, a materials science and engineering Ph.D. student at UC San Diego and co-author of the study. "Just stick it on the skin, then read the signals. It's not operator dependent, and it poses no extra work or burden to the technicians, clinicians or patients," he said. "In the future, patients could wear something like this to do point of care or continuous at-home monitoring."
In tests, the patch performed as well as a commercial ultrasound probe used in the clinic. It accurately recorded blood flow in major blood vessels such as the carotid artery, which is an artery in the neck that supplies blood to the brain. Having the ability to monitor changes in this flow could, for example, help identify if a person is at risk for stroke well before the onset of symptoms.
The researchers point out that the patch still has a long way to go before it is ready for the clinic. Currently, it needs to be connected to a power source and benchtop machine in order to work. Xu's team is working on integrating all the electronics on the patch to make it wireless.
Paper: "Continuous monitoring of deep-tissue haemodynamics with stretchable ultrasonic phased arrays." Co-authors include Baiyan Qi*, Zhuorui Zhang*, Mitsutoshi Makihata, Boyu Liu, Yi-hsi Huang, Hongjie Hu, Yue Gu, Yimu Chen, Yusheng Lei, Shu Chien and Erik Kistler, UC San Diego; Taeyoon Lee, Yonsei University and Korea Institute of Science and Technology; and Kyung-In Jang, Daegu Gyeonbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant 1R21EB027303-01A1) and the Center for Wearable Sensors at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
Olivier Cremoux to lead pharma, medical device for Stäubli Robotics North America; Stefan Steenstrup appointed president of Seco; Mahr appoints Manuel Hüsken as CEO
Mahr Inc. officials announced that Manuel Hüsken has been appointed as the company’s new chief executive officer (CEO). After almost 30 years at Mahr, Stephan Gais leaves his post as CEO and joins the company’s advisory board.
Manuel previously served as the company’s CSO. In his new role as CEO, he will lead the executive board and will be responsible for group strategy, corporate communications, and direction of various business unit metrology departments. Together with his colleagues Udo Erath (COO) and Dr. Lutz Aschke (CFO/CIO), the board managers are responsible for implementing the Mahr Group’s strategy.
Stefan Steenstrup has been appointed president and CEO of Seco as of October 1, 2021, succeeding Fredrik Vejgården who decided to leave Seco to start his own business.
Steenstrup has been working for Sandvik for more than 20 years most recently serving as president of Dormer Pramet since 2017. Prior to that, he held various positions at Sandvik Machining Solutions (SMS), such as global sales director, business development manager, and product service manager.
Steenstrup holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen. He is Danish, and is currently living in Milan, Italy with his family.
Steenstrup’s extensive experience and solid understanding of the machine tooling industry with a strong customer focus creates an excellent foundation to continue the growth of the Seco business around the world.
Stäubli announced that Olivier Cremoux has been appointed deputy head of pharma and medical device for Stäubli Robotics North America.
Cremoux joined Stäubli Group in 2015 before transferring to Stäubli Corp. as the north american business development manager for robotics in 2018. Most recently, he became key account manager – pharma and will maintain this role throughout the transition period. Cremoux will use his experience to help build the Medical Robotics team while focusing on the pharma and medical device specific markets.
Cremoux graduated from the National Institute of Science Applied of Lyon (France) with a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering.
Join us July 29 for an encore panel reviving the discussion about collaborative automation, spanning from basics to burgeoning trends.
From every American toolbox to Industry 4.0 – KEO brans is a legacy of trust.
The KEO brand is marking its 80th anniversary. A brand within the portfolio of ARCH Cutting Tools since 2011, KEO, founded in 1941, still stands for all-American quality, integrity, and trust. And building on that legacy, the brand is important to the ARCH Cutting Tools goal of leading the cutting tool industry into Industry 4.0.
“When we launched ARCH in 2011, we saw the potential of the highly-respected KEO brand in the industry,” recalls ARCH CEO Eli Crotzer. “Our long-range strategy was to build upon the trust and reputation of the brand, and to acquire diverse and complementary companies to drive our overall growth.”
With that comes a special responsibility, Crotzer notes.
“That trust in the KEO brand was important to the evolution of ARCH Cutting Tools and has contributed to the leadership in innovation that we’re known for today,” he says. “But, with that comes the responsibility to maintain the standards of the brand and all the related customer expectations.”
That outlook is shared by Jeff Cederstrom, president – ARCH Cutting Tools.
“The KEO brand, with its legacy of trust and reliability has helped us build today’s ARCH Cutting Tools. Manufacturing is now more complex and that means we had to expand our portfolio. The new KEO for the 21st Century is part of that expansion,” he says. “For example, the Patriot High Performance portfolio is built on our experience engineering specials, and in parallel to that, we’re building up the engineered solutions we offer – all through the new KEO brand.”
Historical perspective Fire. The wheel. Cutting tools.
Each of these contributed to the growth of modern manufacturing. While fire and the wheel considerably predate cutting tools, which first appeared during the Industrial Revolution, in the late 18th century; the contribution of cutting tools is equally important.1
And a milestone in history the year that KEO was founded drove the overall growth of the industry.
Wartime production of cutting tools during WWII skyrocketed, peaking in 1942, once the manufacturing industry realized it needed these to make planes, trucks, and tanks. Collectively, more tools were manufactured between 1940 and 1943 than had been made between 1900 and 1940.2
And KEO was just getting started.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, when CNC technology was becoming common in manufacturing3, KEO was already ahead of the development curve.
KEO legacy, reputation – building better tools “The KEO brand has made its imprint on American manufacturing,” says Bill Orris, sr. director, Product Development and Custom Solutions – ARCH Cutting Tools. “Throughout all industry segments within metalworking, KEO means true American craftsmanship. I like to say that there’s a KEO tool in every toolbox in America.”
KEO had a keen understanding of exactly what was needed in the mid-20th Century – reliability and uncompromising quality, Orris notes. That unprecedented quality – with accuracy of cutting edge and quality of substrates second to none – led to an unmatched sense of pride within the KEO brand, he added. That sense of pride, developed in the mid-20th Century, underpins an approach that led to sustainability and industry leadership in cutting tool solutions into the 21st Century.
“Eighty years ago, more than 60% of what customers were cutting was iron-based steel material,” Orris says. “Now, material classifications have grown exponentially – heat-resistant super alloys, exotic materials like Inconel and titanium, and higher silicon-based aluminum non-ferrous materials have made material removal more challenging for customers. Early on, KEO established its leadership by understanding the equipment, understanding cutting temperatures involved and delivering reliable solutions that customers could trust and rely on.”
As the cutting tool environment has changed dramatically, KEO, through its decades of insight and industry leadership, has remained ahead of the curve in delivering what customers need says Orris.
“Manufacturing and the cutting tool environment are now focused on efficiency,” he adds. “Everything is 10-times faster and more capabilities are required to maximize equipment utilization. CNC machine technology is driving this innovation. The greater their capabilities, the greater the demands on cutting tools.”
The company is meeting these accelerated 21st Century industry demands with its Patriot High Performance by KEO portfolio.
“The new Patriot HP portfolio offers more, and more versatile, high-performance tools from solid carbide to indexable milling options, in addition to indexable and solid drilling,” Orris says. “This is the result of our unique development process. Our engineers and craftsmen, using knowledge and proven solutions learned over decades of success, now provide the industry a comprehensive collection of high-performance products that significantly elevate our new KEO product portfolio.”
The evolution of the new KEO brand includes a transition to digital innovation as well.
Industry 4.0 “We’re proud to have evolved this KEO legacy into Patriot HP – that is true innovation,” Orris says. “Our next biggest step is the integration of digitalization and the adoption of Industry 4.0 principles. We are bridging the gap between a physical cutting tool that you can hold and we’re now allowing that tool – with its 80 years of legacy reliability – to communicate digitally. We’ve built out the assemblies of all the digital attributes and they can be shared digitally through any engineering software.”
In the 21st century manufacturing environment, companies are embracing Industry 4.0 technologies, and efficient access to digital product data is essential to meeting the level of precision that is required in the cutting tool industry today, according to Orris.
“In a recently announced relationship with MachiningCloud, that organization will now export tooling data of KEO products directly to our customers’ CAD/CAM, ERP, and other shop environment digital platforms, fast-tracking solid modeling and simulations,” he adds.
But over the past 80 years, it hasn’t just been about making better tools. For insight in how the business itself has evolved, Cederstrom again offers some insight.
Into the future – building better business “We continually listen to our customers,” Cederstrom says. “The challenges and demands they face in today’s market have increased and, in addition to providing them the best cutting tools in the market, it’s critical that we also make it easier for them to do business.
“To that end, earlier this year, we launched a new digital integrated master catalog. Before that, in spring of 2020, we expanded our Warren, Michigan, campus and launched our state-of-the-art Centralized Distribution Center (CDC) – all at the original home of KEO. Combined, these moves further streamline how ARCH Cutting Tools provides its customers with the best products and professional service.”
This integrated catalog showcases the rich heritage of high-quality American manufacturing that defines ARCH Cutting Tools. And, in a sense, it also celebrates the rebirth of KEO, with the company’s expanded standard solid round tool offerings under the trusted KEO brand and its full indexable portfolio under the Ultra-Dex brand. The catalog integrates all the heritage KEO products, a full line of micro tools, and the Patriot High Performance milling and drilling tools in a format designed with the end-user in-mind, Cederstrom notes.
The next 80 and beyond Just as KEO began at a time in history when the industry was changing and demands were becoming greater, the brand faces significant industry changes and increasing demands now. ARCH CEO Eli Crotzer shares insight regarding what that means for the new KEO today and for the future.
“There are trends in play now that have been developing within the industry for years – micro-sizing, more complex componentry in every sector, increasingly intricate products – including consumer products, like smartphones, as well as precision instruments for robotic and minimally invasive surgery; and all of these are utilizing new and exotic materials,” Crotzer notes. “These require increasingly precision performance from our industry.
“And these things are important because they impact people’s lives; they rely on them. So, when those manufacturers come to us to be innovative, accurate and precise, their customers are also relying on us,” he emphasizes.
That’s when trust can be most important, according to Crotzer.
“It’s inspiring working with this team,” he says. “Products that you can trust come from people you can trust. I see pride in workmanship in every one of our facilities and in every team. Our people have embraced change, driven innovation and secured our evolution. Our products have evolved, even the way we do business has evolved, because our people have evolved.”
What does that mean to ARCH Cutting Tools and its 80-year-old KEO flagship brand?
“I’ve been working closely with this team for more than a decade now and I see the pride and spirit in the 80-year KEO legacy is even stronger now, and it’s supported by trust and that legacy of excellence.”
1 machine tool | Description, History, Types, & Facts | Britannica
3 The History of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) - CNC.com
Acme Manufacturing unveils new logo, branding to match innovative focus; PSG acquires Quantex Arc Ltd.; DMG MORI USA in Charlotte; Ipsen USA experiencing hiring boom as company grows ; HEULE celebrates 60 years; Precision Drive Systems (PDS) celebrates 25th anniversary
“Over the course of our 25-year history, our talented team of engineers and technicians has collectively saved our customers millions of dollars with spindle-root-cause failure reports, spindle repairs and rebuilds,” says Allen Turk, CEO of PDS. “Their unparalleled workmanship and quarter-century of experience in rebuilding and repairing spindles have meant significant savings to our customers versus the expense of factory repairs and unplanned downtime.”
The company was originally founded in 1996 in Bessemer City as the exclusive North American sales and service center of Giordano Colombo spindles. This location was chosen to be the PDS corporate headquarters because of its proximity to leading manufacturing centers in the southeastern United States. Today the company is known worldwide for the integrity of its workmanship and delivery-promise reliability. PDS serves U.S. customers from its service center in Bessemer City and European customers from its repair facility in Lohne, Germany, and has highly qualified hands-on technical service partners dedicated to assisting and supporting customers around the globe.
HEULE Precision Tools celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. HEULE opened its doors in 1961 when Heinrich Heule left his secure job with a large company to start his own business. After years of hard work Heinrich had a breakthrough in 1978 when he received a major order where the inside of automotive ujoints in large batch sizes had to be chamfered quickly and cost-effectively. Since there was no tool on the market that could do the job, Mr. Heule developed the tool himself. This tool would prove to be the steppingstone to an incredibly successful future for this company. Heinrich Heule continued to develop specialized tools while remaining focused on deburring.
For many years, HEULE has been a synonym for deburring solutions and innovative problem solving.
Today, HEULE is a leader in deburring all around the globe with subsidiaries in the United States, Germany, China, and South Korea and a worldwide network of sales partners ensures customer satisfaction. HEULE Precision Tools is the definition of quality tools and will continue to lead the market with innovation and dependability.
Ipsen USA, a leading international manufacturer of industrial vacuum furnaces, is hiring for several positions across the United States as new furnace sales increase and the focus on aftermarket support intensifies.
“As business levels climb, we are looking for talented people to help us achieve the next stage of growth,” says Ipsen President and CEO Patrick McKenna.
Positions in Cherry Valley include:
Other openings include two Regional Sales Engineer positions in the Northeast and Western U.S. Candidates located within any of the following states may apply: AZ, CA, CT, ID, ME, MD, MA, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, UT, VT, WA, and WY.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply at www.indeed.com/cmp/Ipsen-Inc/jobs or send their resumes to Resumes[at]IpsenUSA.com.
DMG MORI USA opened a new regional headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, in May. In the approximately 1,250m² building, the machine tool manufacturer is integrating the branches in Nashville, Tampa, and Charlotte to create a central sales and service location for the entire region in the Southeast and East USA.
“With around 40 employees we ensure smooth service processes and design state-of-the-art manufacturing solutions for our American customers,” says Daniel Medrea, COO East Region, DMG MORI USA Inc, referring to the new regional headquarters in Charlotte. A 260 m² solution center is available to them for this purpose. Training courses on all aspects of versatile CNC technology as well as the digitization of machine tool manufacturing and the use of exclusive DMG MORI technology cycles are also part of the range of services offered at the new location.
A showroom with four machine tools provides practical insights into our product range. The range there includes the NLX 2500 SY universal turning center, the NTX 2500 turn & mill center, the DMU 65 FD monoBLOCK milling & turning machine and the CMX 50 U 5-axis machining center. The latter is also automated with a PH 150 pallet handling system.
For those who missed the Grand Opening, DMG MORI USA invites customers to a visit in Charlotte to:
PSG, an operating company of Dover Corp. has completed the acquisition of Quantex Arc Ltd., a leader in single-use precision pumping technology. Following the close of the transaction, Quantex will become part of the PSG business unit within Dover’s Pumps & Process Solutions segment.
Quantex is headquartered in London, England, and has developed a fundamentally new innovative single-use positive displacement pump technology. Quantex’s products solve the challenge of enabling precision- and micro-dosing over a wide range of pressures, temperatures, viscosities and flow rates in hygienic and sterile applications where disposable pumps offer a superior value-proposition for Quantex’s customers. Quantex’s fixed-displacement rotary action ensures dosing accuracy without the need for periodic calibration. Single-use application requires no cleaning or maintenance, and reduces contamination risks, cleaning costs and maintenance downtime and expense.
“The addition of Quantex further expands PSG’s reach into biopharma and other hygienic applications. We are excited to add Quantex’s game-changing technology to our portfolio. The Quantex recyclable portfolio of products will enable us to expand our single-use application reach across the biopharma, hygienic, food and beverage and industrial markets,” says Karl Buscher, president of PSG.
Acme Manufacturing unveiled its new logo to symbolize its modern focus. The new design aligns with the company’s role as an industry leader in innovation.
With the new logo, Acme wanted to preserve their legacy by retaining similar elements of their past designs. The globe shape stands out from the text, serving as a modern representation of Acme’s expanding global footprint. The clean “Roboto” font style aligns with the automation technology that Acme engineers. The tagline “Shaping the future since 1910” contains a clever double meaning; it references the company’s fourth generation of family ownership, along with the company’s specialty in shaping materials through grinding, polishing, buffing, and deburring.
During the past year, Acme made many internal process changes that led to increased efficiency and more innovative solutions. This forward motion instigated the need for a new logo and branding to reflect the focus on perpetual innovation in a global market.
“Our business is expanding as the world shifts towards more automated processes and, with that, we will be expanding our digital footprint,” says Fritz Carlson, Acme’s president and CEO. “As automation continues to grow and advance in the subtractive manufacturing/surface finishing space, Acme wants to be the first place that customers look to find the most innovative solutions.”