Hexapod Robot Gives 10lbs Of Force For Medical Applications

The miniature hexapod system provides more than 10 lbs of force and motion in all six degrees of freedom.
It can be used for manufacturing and placing of parts requiring very high precision, for microscopy applications or laser and optical alignment

After two decades of experience with the design and production of hexapod robots, PI’s electro-mechanical / piezoelectric six-axis positioners are among the most advanced multiaxis precision motion control systems in the world.

Features and Advantages of the M-810 Miniature Hexapod

• Operation in Any Orientation
• High-Stiffness 6-Axis Hexapod with 5 kg Load Capacity
• Very Compact: 10 cm Diameter, 11.8 cm Height
• 0.2 Micron Minimum Incremental Motion (40 nm Resolution)
• Long Travel Ranges to 40 mm (linear) and 60° (rotation)
• Powerful Controller with Freely Definable Virtual Pivot Point
• High Velocity of 10 mm/s
• Linear and Rotary Multi-Axis Scans

Parallel Kinematics Advantages
Parallel-kinematic motion systems have a number of advantages over standard serial kinematic (stacked) positioning systems:

Virtual Pivot Point: Rotation Around any Point, not unlike the Human Hand
Only one Moving Platform, No Accumulation of Guiding and Lever-Arm Errors
No Moving Cables for Improved Reliability and Precision
Smaller Package Size
Increased Stiffness, Reduced Inertia, Better Dynamics

Smaller Motors and Encoders, Controller & Software Included. The limited space necessitated the usage of new  technologies for encoders, motors and other integrated electronic components.  The M-810 is compatible with PI’s tried and proven hexapod controllers that are supported by windows software and a library of drivers and programming examples for applications such as optical alignment etc.  PI also provides simulation tools for hexapod integration.

PI Hexapods come with load ranges from 2 kg to >1000 kg.

Applications

Precision manufacturing, high precision placement of parts; alignment of optical components & lasers, microscopy applications, neuroscience.

www.physikinstrumente.com

Motor and Drive Combinations

There is a subtle premise that often escapes us as we talk about motors and the controls that run them.  It is that the motor and controller operate as a package.  In most situations, a customer specification is for input voltage and output torque and speed.  That’s all that is important.  How you get there doesn’t matter a great deal.

But ironically, most motor manufacturers are predominately mechanical engineering centered.  And most drive electronics companies are electronics centered.  And they have very little in common with each other.  Except that their products must work together.  And oftentimes, that’s where the trouble starts.

The drive manufacturer warrants that his drive will produce current and voltage.  But the the motor can have very complex constraints to deal with in response to the excitation of the electronics.  How accurately a 6 step approximation of the sine wave performs, for example, can result in overheating in the motor depending on the loading of the system.  And as the motor winding heats up, the resistance in the motor can change dramatically, especially in the low inductance windings that are common in many specialty motors available today.

Then there are the cabling issues for connecting the motor and drive electronics.  The ac drive industry found out quickly that long wire runs can result in stored energy in the wires themselves.  Standing wave phenomena could cause higher voltages than expected and blow holes in the winding insulation in the motor.

Power semiconductor prices have fallen considerably in the last few years creating situations where it is sometimes cheaper and more reliable to put in parallel devices than to attached single power devices to large heat sinks.  This leads to some serious new options for packaging the electronics.  How about drive circuits in the end bell or junction box attached to the motor?  Actually, some models of the GE ECM motor (now owned by Beloit) are ac fan motors with variable frequency drives and intelligent controls built directly into the motor end bell.  You may have one in your main air handler in the air conditioning system of your home.  I was surprised to find out that I did.

I used to think that thermodynamics of these systems would be impossible to manage.  But the fact is that the drive efficiencies are getting really good.  One team I worked with was producing a 500 Watt brush drive that only shed about 20 Watts of loss at full load.  That’s some incredible efficiency.  So the notion of integrating motors and drive electronics is much more reasonable than it used to be.  And there are stepping motor packages that have been doing it for years.

So where is this all heading?

The fact is that the motor and drive electronics must work together as a package.  There is an increasing need, and an opportunity to create further performance enhancements, by the two technologies working more closely together.  More innovation will lead to better energy efficiency and new design opportunities and a chance to recharge (pun intended) an industry that has been losing share to offshore competition in the last few years.

Scientists Create First-Ever Circuit Powered By Light

For the first time, scientists have created a circuit that can power itself, as long as it’s left in a beam of sunshine. Created by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, the world’s first photovoltaic circuit could eventually power a new line of consumer devices or even model the human brain.

Right now the creators can only coax minuscule amounts of electricity from their photovoltaic circuits, far too little to power consumer electrical devices, although those amounts could quickly skyrocket.  There are plenty of other ways they say that they can squeeze more electricity from light. Right now only about 10 percent of the photovoltaic circuits on a glass side work. Increasing that number will boost the power output.  Another way to get more power is by turning their 2D structures into 3D structures. Stacking multiple layers of light-collecting and electricity-using circuits would also boost power.

The photovoltaic circuit is a scientific breakthrough, not a technological one. These new circuits will most likely never replace their silicon counterparts.

Photovoltaic circuits could be ideal for other applications, however, such as powering tiny robotic devices or running computer calculations at the speed of light.  Far into the future, these circuits could even be used to set up as artificial neural networks that could model the brain.

At their most basic, computers represent data as on or off, a “0″ or a “1.” Using light instead of electrons, these photovoltaic circuits could store data from, say, one, two, three or four. Each number would correspond to a certain wavelength or color of light — red, green, blue and yellow, for example. To model the human nervous system, each color of light could correspond to a different neurotransmitter, say red for dopamine and blue for serotonin.

The potential applications of the technology are huge, but will take years to develop into any kind of practical equipment.

www.news.discovery.com

New Motion Feedback

The field of motion control is heavily dependent on the feedback device.  There are a world of issues encompassed in this statement.  But I will skip the majority of them and jump to the conclusion that magnetic encoder technology has long been a favorite of mine as a potentially ideal solution for a number of reasons.  Magnetic position technology tends to be more resistant to environmental problems such as temperature, dust, dirt and humidity.  Since all motors are heat producing systems, temperature restrictions for feedback technology can be a problem.  And since electric motors are frequently found in environments where there is dust, dirt and humidity, magnetic feedback would be ideal.

On the other hand, magnetic feedback has been complex and expensive in the past.  Resolvers require high precision windings in the sensor and precision power supplies to excite them.  Can you spell “expensive”?

Enter the Hall sensor.  In spite of the fact that the Hall Effect has been understood since 1879, the use of the technology has only recently become widespread with the fabrication of semiconductor level Hall devices.  The Hall sensor as a transistor found very popular application in sensing the three phases of brushless dc motors’ permanent magnet rotor.  The bldc motor technology was essentially impossible without this crucial piece of technology because in the early versions of the control, it was impossible to start the motor without knowing which phase to energize.  This has been less of a problem with the advent of low cost, high performance microprocessor controls that are able to run brushless dc motors with or without Hall sensors.

New arrangements of the Hall devices into arrays with greater capabilities is where the Hall effect technology intersects the position feedback technology.  The Hall arrays are capable of sensing small permanent magnet domains on rings that permit rotorary position to be sensed in either analog or digital form.

While there are a number of suppliers of Hall sensing arrays for motion control, a couple of new twists have been added.  The Timken company has added some new features to the Hall array that have additional benefits.  Among them are the ability to program the numerical value of the digital output, which can be a very helpful feature that eliminates fractional remainders and rollover error in control systems.

In addition, Timken is introducing a new linear version of the technology which is a real first for the motion community.  Most linear motion is the result of converting the rotary motion through a linear mechanical device, either a belt or leadscrew.  But the control system is measuring the position from the feedback  on the motor that’s driving the system and not on the load.  So the mechanical error of the leadscrew or belt is the limiting factor in high performance linear.

And to make the new magnetic feedback really interesting, it is comparable in cost to conventional optical encoders.  Which is really going to create some new opportunities for everyone in the motion control field.

DASH, The Robotic Cockroach, To Save Lives In Haiti

UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering is developing mini-robots to help locate earthquake survivors easily, cheaply, and quickly, and without jeopardizing the lives of rescuers.

First Robotic Radical Cystectomy Deemed a Success

The first first robotic radical cystectomy, a surgical procedure to treat invasive cancer of the bladder, was recently performed at Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta. Dr. Rajesh Laungani, Director of Robotic Urology at Saint Joseph’s, performed the minimally-invasive surgery.

Invasive bladder cancer has a very high mortality rate and generally results in death if not treated. During a radical cystectomy, the entire bladder (and prostate, if the patient is male) is removed. According to Laungani, performing this robotically allows for a minimally invasive approach. The advantages include less blood loss, less pain, and quicker recovery. Just as importantly, it provides comparable rates of cancer cure as compared to more traditional surgery.

In 2004, Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta was designated as the exclusive training center in the Southeastern United States (Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi) for robotic surgical systems. Since that time, Saint Joseph’s has become the world-wide site for surgeons to train on robotics.

www.stjosephsatlanta.org

Innovation and Growth in Robotics

The robot industry has gone through some interesting changes over the years.  Most of the companies that were involved in the start of the real robot revolution are gone, unable to meet the extraordinary cost reductions that were sure tocome in order to make robots cost effective in most industries.  The biggest lesson, in my opinion, was the idea that robots had to be narrowly defined in terms of their application.   There was a time where there were only a few companies with the control technology to be able to make the multi-axis coordination work correctly.  So every application had to be programmed from scratch and the learning curve was huge.

The fact is that a welding robot is nothing like a Cartesian robot for electronic assembly.  And part of the learning curve of the industry was understanding what applications to focus on.  This first big reality set in when many companies began to compete for welding applications because the automotive market  opportunity was huge.  And just figuring out one application was a big enough task that it consumed most of the development resources available in  companies like GE and ABB robotics.

Consider the huge learning curve that has taken place in 35 years.  Medical robots have matured to the point where orthopedic surgery by a robot is faster and more precise than the best surgeons.  Researching the human genome would have been impossible without the high speed sample management systems of bio-assay robots.  And autonomous robots have searched the inside of volcanoes, taken samples on the moon and roamed and photographed Mars.  Pretty impressive.

Consider the forecast for the future of robotics. Motors and controls have become incredibly sophisticated and costs have dropped dramatically.   Computing power has increased to the point where memory and processing costs are almost trivial.  The First Robotics Competition is bringing 150,000 school children into the field of robotics through its programs with schools all over the US.  And the knowledge base and experience is so pervasive that we have Lego making teaching systems for grade school children to begin to get exposure to robotics.

Among the amazing developments, Barrett Technology has an anthropomorphic arm and “hand” gripper that is designed to low force, low power consumption and safe enough to be in proximity to humans.  The Robots and Mechanisms Lab at Virginia Polytechnic has demonstrated many new solutions to common problems of robot locomotion culminating in the Darwin soccer playing robot that operates autonomously.  Their goal?  Team Darwin wants to be able to compete with human soccer players by the year 2050.

With this kind of innovation, the future of robotics is going to be great.

Robotics Industry Optomistic for 2010

The robotics industry, like the world economy, is slowly emerging from the most trying economic times since the 1930s. The automotive sector, traditionally the core of the robotics industry, is depressed requiring robot manufacturers and integrators to find substitute markets in North America and beyond.

“My outlook for the robotics industry in 2010 is cautiously optimistic and unsettled. Some projects are coming back alive that have been dead a long time,” says Joseph Campbell, Vice President Sales and Marketing of ABB Robotics. (Auburn Hills, Michigan). “Industry analysts are trying to gauge if fourth quarter activity is by companies who have not done any capital investment in 2009 or is it the start of a true recovery.” Orders for new robots declined 30 percent through the third quarter of 2009, with the automotive industry slipping at approximately the same rate. Automotive-related companies typically account for about 60 percent of robots ordered in North America.

Finding Opportunities in Crisis
With the fall in robot orders by the automotive industry in 2009, robot makers and integrators accelerated efforts to find new opportunities. “The robotics industry is in a transitional phase because the automotive industry has been decimated. The robotics industry is trying to find its footing, trying to grab an industry to be its main go-to,” says Patrick O’Rahilly Jr, Director at Compass Automation (Elgin, Illinois). “The automotive sector has been the main hub of the robotics industry for a very long time. Renewable energy could be the new main industry for robotics.”

“The bottom fell out of the automotive market, which the robotics industry heavily relies on. That fallout has forced the robotics industry to look outside of its comfort zone and move into emerging energy technologies like batteries, wind, and solar power,” says Roger Christian, Vice President of Marketing and International Groups at Motoman Inc. (West Carrollton, Ohio). “Returning to historical levels of selling robots in renewable energy will be slow because these industries at first do not offer the same unit volume that automotive did.”

While the automotive market took a big hit in 2009, some signs of life remain in North America, says Christian. “The Ford Fiesta program in southern Mexico and the Volkswagen program in Chattanooga, Tennessee provided unit volume from these OEM’s and their Tier One suppliers.”

Solar panels could be a saving grace for the robotics industry. “Solar panels will take off in 2010, but it is difficult to say how fast. Manufacturing solar panels requires robotics,” says Åke Lindqvist, a member of the Robotic Industries Association’s (RIA, Ann Arbor, Michigan) board of directors and Vice President of ABB Robotics. “I see smaller fuel cells that can power laptop computers for 40 hours rather than four hours. If fuel cell manufacturers want to produce millions of those per year, they will need robotics.” Lindqvist expects increased opportunities for robotics in fuel cell and solar power during 2010.

Roger Christian adds, “Making solar panels has a demand for robotics such as handling the silicone wafers throughout the slicing, polishing and stringing processes, as well as assembling the panels. Solar is a great growth area for robotics.” A newer type of panels, thin film solar, is a bright spot for robotics too, says Christian. “Companies in Silicon Valley are looking at thin film solar and have launched prototype manufacturing cells that have included robotics. I see thin film solar as an area of growth for robotics.”

The Stimulus Act passed by Congress in early 2009, a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, and government contracts, has made some impact on the alternative energy market in favor of robotics, remarked Mick Estes, National Distribution Sales Manager at FANUC Robotics America Inc. (Rochester Hills, Michigan). “Stimulus money is getting companies to think about the solar market and other alternative energy areas. We see activity in the battery assembly market.” Money from the Stimulus Act is making its way to automate “green” production such as wind and solar power, says Estes.

The push for wind power is creating an opportunity for robotics in gear manufacturing, says Patrick O’Rahilly. “Gear manufacturing is an important and large industry and one that Compass is pursuing related to making wind turbines.”

Richard Litt, RIA’s out-going Chairman and founder of Genesis Systems Group LLC. (Davenport, Iowa) also sees wind power as an opportunity for robotics in 2010. “Genesis has seen a little business in machine tending applications in machining the giant gear sets for wind turbines.”

Similarly, Christian sees increased possibilities for robotics in putting together wind turbines, especially their gear assemblies. “I see three areas where robotics will play an increasing role in the wind turbine market. One area is deburring or hardening the huge gears in the nacelle. Fabrication of the towers also requires robotics with adaptive welding software to make them.” Christian explains that 200-foot high towers are constructed in 10-foot lengths. Due to their size, turbine towers cannot be transported across oceans but are assembled on-site.

Christian’s third area of robotics for wind turbines is fabrication of the blades. “Manufacturing wind turbine blades is a promising area for robotics, particularly in coating and finishing operations.”

Pharmaceutical and life sciences could prove to be promising areas for robotics in 2010, says Estes. “I anticipate growth in the life sciences and pharmaceutical markets, which are expected to be strong areas of focus for FANUC Robotics in 2010.”

ABB is offering more tabletop robots for the pharmaceutical and life science market, declares Joe Campbell. “In 2009, ABB introduced a small six-axis tabletop robot for pharmaceutical, life science, and medical device assembly and handling applications. This robot can be used for testing medical devices and assembling consumer electronics.”

Stuart Shepherd, President of KUKA Robotics Corp. (Clinton Township, Michigan) has a similar take on openings for robotics in the pharmaceutical and life sciences markets in 2010. “Medical device, drug discovery and laboratory applications are experiencing a tremendous amount of growth. We see these industries growing in 2010 as well as a few others.”

Food for Thought
Food and beverage applications have promise for the robotics industry in 2010 according to Rich Litt. “Food and beverage applications continue to have nice growth and we are seeing a trend away from hard automation in these applications and more towards robotics. At PACK EXPO last October, I was stunned at the amount of robots in the show and the migration from hard automation to robotics in food processing.”

ABB’s Campbell agrees, saying, “The food industry is looking to find ways to remove the human touch from food processing and packaging, which is a health and cleanliness issue. The combination of the nature of food processing jobs and the movement of these jobs to locations outside of urban centers makes for increased opportunities for robotics.” Campbell goes on to say, “When a food company comes out with a new food line, they invest in the manufacturing equipment that will go into that new product, such as robotics.”

In spite of unemployment levels, some jobs are difficult to fill, like food processing.” Food processing is notoriously dangerous contends Campbell, which drives manufacturers to invest in robotics. “When food processors find an unsafe process or a process that has significant risk for repetitive stress injury, they increasingly invest in robotics.”

The food and beverage market also offers an area of growth for Motoman, observes Christian. “The food and beverage market will continue to generate a large amount of revenue. In 2010, we predict further growth in this area of about two percent. When food processors started to use robots, they realized that robotics offers a tremendous amount of robustness and flexibility.”

Christian points out that food processors understand the limitations of hard automation. “If a food processor bought dedicated machines for packaging a certain size of potato chip package but need to change that size because the market demands variety packs, that food manufacturer lost flexibility. Food manufacturers are getting excited about robotics, so I think that this market will continue to grow in 2010.”

Going Where the Growth is
While North America and Western Europe are experiencing tough economic times, other places in the world hold out hope for robotics. “China is continuing to grow and they believe it is the end of the world when their gross domestic product growth is below nine percent. China is sitting on a lot of cash and continues to invest in robotics,” says Litt. “Genesis is doing business in China for our North American customers who moved some of their production there. In many cases, the source of robotics in China is North America.”

Opportunities abound in China, says FANUC’s Mick Estes. “China has seen a significant increase in robotics to increase productivity and quality to meet the needs of a growing middle class.”

Christian also sees market possibilities overseas. “China, Brazil, India and Russia, in that order, will be the fastest areas of growth for robotics in the traditional application areas.

Turning his attention to Brazil, Christian says, “Brazil is doing very well: Their recession was shallower and less lengthy than in the US. The Brazilian currency has stabilized, and with the weak dollar, buying automation from the US is popular now.” Christian maintains that Brazil is on the cusp of considerable growth in the next few years. “Brazil is energy-independent, has tremendous agricultural capabilities, and is upgrading their ports. With 190 million people who consume almost three million cars a year, Brazil is poised to really explode in the automotive and durable goods markets.” The robotics industry sees Brazil as a bright area for growth and will take advantage of that in 2010.

2010 Robot Buzz
What concepts will the robotics industry embrace in 2010? “Lean robotics for lean manufacturing” is Joe Campbell’s buzz phrase for 2010. “I see a new respect and understanding for ‘lean’. ‘Lean manufacturing’ used to imply no automation and people with simple tools making products that can be changed easily.” Campbell believes that robotics goes to the heart of lean manufacturing. “When properly implemented, robotics supports all the tenets of a lean process. ‘Lean robotics for lean manufacturing’ has been a good theme for ABB.”

Taking a similar track, Roger Christian foresees “lean and flexible” as the robotics industry’s buzz phrase in 2010. “As lot sizes get smaller in a production environment, manufacturers need to be able to manage capital equipment to make a variety of products quickly,” Christian says. “‘Lean and flexible’ is rethinking a typical robot work cell to incorporate moving parts and handing parts once while moving these parts from one process to the next.”

“‘Save your factory’ is a great term and a great presentation but it has not caught on yet,” says Rich Litt. “Genesis and other RIA companies participate in Save your Factory because automating domestically is smarter than moving to countries with low labor costs.”

Mick Estes concurs, saying, “Save your Factory’s message is that the move to low-wage countries might not have been everything manufacturers hoped it would be.”

2010+
While the economy is showing indications of recovery, the robotics industry is not holding its breath. “The outlook in 2010 will be better than 2009 but not near 2007 levels unless the economy gets an unexpected resurgence in consumer confidence and people start buying more durable goods. Also, a glut of 4,000 to 7,000 used robots is on the market due to plant closings,” says Roger Christian. “Robots are built so well that they keep running.” Christian concludes, “I am excited to see the robotics industry returning to a billion dollar industry,” but cautious, “it will take a couple of years to get there.”

“From a global perspective, we expect to see continued rapid growth of robotics in China, India, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries with growing manufacturing operations, which creates opportunities for our members,” said Jeff Burnstein, RIA President. “And, I agree with those who say that manufacturing in North America may show a revival as companies realize that automating manufacturing here is a better solution than sending manufacturing operations offshore. So, long-term I remain very optimistic about the outlook for the robotics industry.”

www.robotics.org

Magnetics 2010 and Motion, Drive & Automation

There is a small industry conference that takes place every year with a lineup of industry experts that is top notch by any standard.  It’s called the Motion, Drive and Automation Conference put on by E-Drive magazine.  This year it is located at the Disney Hilton Resort in Orlando and is taking place on January 28 & 29.   The conference includes a wide range of industry experts from many fields of advanced electric motor design, advanced motor control concepts, power semiconductors and state of the art motor testing system.  There will be a lot of technical and product presentations that showcase leading edge technology in electric motors, precision gear reducers, new technology for motion sensing, and a number of improved power semiconductor devices for the motor control industry.  This is a great place to get up to date on the latest technology that will impact of motor and control technology across many industries over the next few years.

In addition, the Magnetics 2010 Conference will be running concurrently at the same venue.  Magnets are a strategic material without which many motors would simply not operate.  In the ever-changing motor industry, there is always a new design that seeks to make an enhancement over previous solutions, or introduce a new solution to old problems.  Declining prices for Neodymium Iron Boron magnets over the last few years have created a number of novel design shifts which have been instrumental in bringing more varieties of permanent magnet machines into the forefront of motion control and mechatronic technology.  To the point where over the last two years a resurgance of permanent magnet rotor designs have been created to improve the energy denisty and lower the cost of specialty motors in washing machines and air conditioning compressors.

This last development, combined with the forecast increase of hybrid electric car sales coming this year, are expected to increase the sale of permanent magnets by 10-15 percent by 2011.  That’s a staggering jump in a market that is almost exclusively supplied by China.  And there is no assurance that China can meet the forecast production.

The US Department of Commerce usually has a say in the sale of products or businesses to foreign countries that are deemed to be strategic or sensitive technology.  In fact, I got stuck in a situation where my employer was told specifically that we could not sell a CNC controller to a Korean customer.  That’s pretty small potatoes compared to controlling the supply of permanent magnets which influences billions of dollars worth of electric motors manufactured and sold all over the world.  So it strikes me as a little odd that the sale of Magnequench to its current owners, Neo Materials, was completed without a much discussion. leaving the US without a domestic magnet supplier.

There will surely be a lot of discussion about this situation at the conference, and I will be in attendance to get the latest information on the subject.  So look forward to a review of the conference in an upcoming post.

Inventing Industry in the (near) Future

The future of the US economy, and our future as an industrial power will be the result of our cumulative creativity.  New industries will be the result of new ideas, new technologies, new thinking.  It’s gratifying to see programs like the First Robotic Competition getting 215,000 junior high school and high school students exposed to and involved in robotics.  Problem solving, finding solutions, getting their creativity flowing to make a box of parts into a working machine with real world performance.  It will be even more interesting to see what those same kids will be into 5 to 10 years from now as they begin their careers in the many technology pursuits they are likely to follow.

Technology is a major driving force in the economy.  The ability to create whole new industries that have never existed before.

And there is a second driving force, sometimes made less obvious by the flash of the latest technical breakthrough.  Cost.  What is the relationship of cost to the development of industry?  As costs decline volume goes up.  Steel manufacturing per man year of labor increased 500% during a period of intense competition between the US and Japan.  And interestingly, one of the breakthroughs was the creation of the “mini-mill” which could produce specialty steels more cost effectively by making them in smaller batches.  Sometimes the solution is counter intuitive.  The steel industry was all about increasing batch size.  But serving the market with more complex products turned out to be easier with smaller batches, ultimately increasing overall sales and defending the US market to some extent from foreign competition.

Are there other cases where innovation was economically driven?  In the machine tool world the majority of manufacturers develop bigger and more complex machines so that a single machine can handle any operation.  This complexity tends to drive costs up quickly.  So the tendency is to find high performance machine tools costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In contrast, the HAAS company re-invented the machine tool business by focusing on making a low cost, high quality machine tool that many shops could afford to buy.  They were one of the first companies to have several models of machine tool in the $50K range.

They did it by concentrating on the economics of a machine tool that was profitable in operation.  That means a machine with a low cost to purchase, low operating and maintenance costs, and sufficient precision to meet the requirements of most operations.   In order to reduce their machine cost they had to develop their own controls platform.  They restructured everything in the design and manufacture of the CNC system to meet the cost objective.

In act, they are so successful, that HAAS is the largest CNC company in the western world.

Many similar situations exist in other industries.  In small plastic parts manufacturing there are a number of breakthroughs that have created lower cost parts in smaller batches based on innovative new tooling systems.  In metal fabrication there are new process like thixotropic molding and metal injection molding that have been developed to lower the cost of metal goods by making parts at lower costs.  These solutions are focused on reducing costs and other barriers to the entre of new products like tooling costs and minimum batch sizes.  And they represent major new markets that were not possible in the past, because they are focused on the economics of the industry they serve.  Decreasing the cost of entry and the cost of part manufacturing opens up new markets

So inventing the future can be technology.  Or as it can be economics.   It’s all innovation.  And it’s all about delivering value.

Next Page »