Manufacturing & Prototyping

Medical device manufacturers that collect and analyze patient data are developing innovative ways to integrate electronics and wireless technology into their products. These innovations often present new design and production challenges. That was the case for American TeleCare Inc. (Eden Prairie,...

According to an interview published in MIT Sloan Management Review, innovation expert Eric von Hippel argues that product innovation comes, fundamentally, from users who improvise and improve upon existing products — not companies that manufacture those technologies. It may be the case...

The Tacit, a haptic sonar glove that helps a visually impaired person navigate complex environments, has been released as a public prototype. The invention uses ultrasonic sensors to sense objects from about 1 inch to 10 feet away, and translates that information into pressure on the user's wrist.

An article from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society calls attention to a recent study published in Ergonomics in Design, "Using Storytelling to Elicit Design Guidance for Medical Devices." In the study, human factors/ergonomics researchers evaluated the use of storytelling as a qualitative research...

Incorporating machine vision engines into an OEM system with automated handling provides a wide range of benefits to the manufacturer. Machine vision engines are self-contained vision systems that include the optics, lighting, image sensor, electronics, and software...

A medical device undergoing design and classified as sterile will be confronted with various obstacles, not the least of which is how to determine and maintain its proposed Sterility Assurance Level (SAL) as it approaches its ultimate goal: delivery to market.

Jabil (St. Petersburg, FL) has opened a Class 100K clean room for rapid prototyping of disposable medical devices. The new facility provides capabilities for ultrasonic welding, ultraviolet curing, solvent bonding, overmolding, laminar air flow, and bag and blister packaging and testing. The room was designed to offer the same...

IRphotonics (Hamden, CT) offers the Visible Optical Filter for the iCure® AS200 Thermal Spot Curing System to enable heating of heat-sensitive plastics used in disposable medical devices. The optical filter eliminates all visible wavelengths except for a mild red pointer glow to provide infrared energy above...