Design Engineering – May-June 2019

May/June | 2019 http://www.design-engineering.com

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| TC11-02USA

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System-integrated IIoT with

standard PC-based control

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cloud communication, predictive maintenance, as well as comprehensive analytical functions

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services right from the machine engineering stage. In addition to fault analysis and predictive

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DES_MayJune_Beckhoff.indd 1 2019-05-08 9:41 AM

DesignNews

E

ngineers from UBC’s Okanagan campus announced the

development of a surface coating that can shed ice from

large areas using little effort. The coating is one of a class of

surfaces called low interfacial toughness (LIT) materials, that

is changing the way scientists understand ice adhesion, the

UBC researchers say.

According to Kevin Golovin, assistant professor at the UBCO

School of Engineering and study lead author of a paper published

in the journal, Science, LIT materials work by causing cracks

to form easily beneath the ice, allowing it to readily dislodge.

He compares the effect to a string of dominos.

“If designed correctly, the force to knock down a single

domino is enough to topple them all – adding more dominoes

doesn’t require you to push any

harder,” he says. “It’s the same

with LIT materials. Once you

form a crack, it can de-ice the

U of T Engineers 3D

print microrobotic

gripper

E

ngineering researchers at

the University of Toronto

say they created a way to

make magnetized micro-ro-

botics, capable of traveling

through the human body,

using only a 3D printer.

In the lab of U of T Pro-

fessor Eric Diller, each

micro-robot is built by pre-

cisely arranging microscopic

sections of magnetic needles

atop a flat, flexible material.

Once deployed, the research-

ers apply magnetic fields that

induce the mini machines to

worm through fluid chan-

nels, or close their tiny

mechanical ‘jaws’.

“These robots are quite difficult and labor-intensive to fabri-

cate because the process requires precision,” says graduate

student, Tianqi Xu. “Also because of the need for manual assem-

bly, it’s more difficult to make these robots smaller, which is a

major goal of our research.”

According to the researchers, smaller and more complex

micro-robots are needed for future medical applications, such

as targeted drug delivery, assisted fertilization or biopsies. The

researchers say their optimized approach opens the doors for

developing even more complex micro-robots that are 10 times

smaller than the current millimeter-size.

“As a robotics research community, there’s a need to explore

this space of tiny medical robots,” Diller says. “Being able to

optimize designs is a really critical aspect of what the field needs.”

http://www.engineering.utoronto.ca

entire interface, whether it’s the length of a windshield, an

airplane wing or a turbine blade.”

Golovin says LIT materials can be fabricated from com-

monplace paints and plastics and exhibit superior performance

compared to state-of-the-art anti-icing materials.

“Ice buildup has adverse effects on a range of commercial

and residential activities, from downed power lines to air travel

delays to scraping one’s windshield,” he says. “This development

is definitely a game-changer.”

https://ok.ubc.ca

UBC engineers create windshield de-icing

coating

UBC engineer Kevin Golovin is

helping change the way scientists

understand ice adhesion through

the development of LIT materials

(PHOTO CREDIT: SAM CHARLES,

UBC OKANAGAN)

U of T grad student Tianqi Xu

holding a micro-robot fabricated

using an automated additive

manufacturing process.

(PHOTO CREDIT: LIZ DO / UNIVERSITY OF

TORONTO)

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