It’s always interesting to witness the progression of companies between trade shows. Months or year(s) have gone by, and in between, exhibiting companies don’t idle — they find new ways to meet the ever-growing demands of the medical industry.

One of those demands is customization of orthopedic implants. At this year’s Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) East show, I spoke with Micron Products about their work with ConforMIS to develop a patient-specific knee replacement system, which allows a customized implant to be modeled and produced from a patient’s scans in a matter of days.

When it comes to medical components, everyone is still looking to go smaller and faster, without compromising on performance. A Mini Hybrid Connector from Colder Products Company is an example of a new product that fits this trend by combining air lines and electronics into a compact single connection point.

Bayer MaterialScience aims to meet another demand — for smaller, less intrusive medical devices — by launching a new grade of medical polycarbonate designed for molding devices with extremely thin walls (as low as 0.014 inches) and long flow lengths (150 millimeters).

Still, even if you’re in sync with the needs of the medical device industry, somtimes you just don’t have the funds to get your idea off the ground. Proto Labs is hoping to prevent that from happening with the Cool Idea! Award. Simply enter online by sharing a few details and uploading a 3D CAD model of your idea. Then, if you’re selected, you can use Proto Labs’ parts for prototyping, testing, or even an initial production run. The company plans to select “cool ideas” on an ongoing basis through 2011, until it has awarded $100,000 in services.

As the holidays fade and the New Year unfolds, it’s back to business for most of us. For NASA Tech Briefs, that includes a bunch of trade shows and conferences our editors will attend over the next few months.

One show I plan to attend is the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show, taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif., from February 9 through 11. The show will feature the latest design and manufacturing solutions from hundreds of companies. The diverse array of products and services include adhesives, CAD/CAM/CAE software and services, electrical and electronic components, fluid handling media and controls, instruments and controls, materials, mechanical components, motors and motion controls, testing and inspection products and services, and valves, switches, and controls.

No less than seven other shows are co-located with the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show. Three of the more significant shows are the Medical Design & Manufacturing Show West, Electronics West, and Green Manufacturing Expo. The Medical Design & Manufacturing Show West and Green Manufacturing Expo represent the burgeoning fields of medical technology and “green” technology – sectors that held their own during the economic downturn and are increasingly important to design engineers.

In coming weeks, I hope to get more details on some of the products and technologies being shown. If your company plans to exhibit, drop me a line and let me know what you’ll be showing. Hopefully, we can meet during the show to discuss what’s new and exciting.

Given increased time-to-market pressures, design engineers are caught in a never-ending quest to streamline design and production processes. The challenges are formidable: proprietary or incompatible software, poor design tools, incomplete parts documentation, equipment issues – all can slow down prototyping and production. Although the government and industry associations have undertaken efforts to standardize tools and processes, such efforts take time and often only succeed when major companies decide to follow.

Printed circuit board solutions provider Sunstone Circuits is taking a grassroots approach to knock down the roadblocks in the design-to-production process for printed circuit boards. Called the Sunstone ECOsystem®, the process would encompass the entire design and supply chain of IP, vendors, tools, and libraries needed to take boards from concept into production. It intends to find and make use of low- or no-cost design tools and produce quality working prototypes in fewer turns at a lower cost.

Sunstone is known for its ability to provide quickturn printed circuit board prototypes and short-run electronic assembly services. It is partnering with several industry heavyweights to help achieve this goal: Digi-Key, National Instruments, NXP Semiconductors, and Screaming Circuits. Digi-Key is a global distributor of electronic components for more than 400 manufacturers. National Instruments supplies graphical programming software to automate pc board design. NXP is the semiconductor giant founded by Philips, while Screaming Circuits also provides pc board prototyping and assembly services.

When the group gathered with journalists at a recent roundtable meeting in Boston, it became clear that the companies’ efforts have gone well beyond the initial discussion stage into concrete action. There is already an online link between National Instruments and Sunstone Circuits, and a link between Sunstone and Screaming Circuits to facilitate quoting and ordering will be announced in early October. The group showed a ECOsystem® step-by-step roadmap to create a seamless pc board design and production process over the next 18 months.

One participant cited an industry association’s statistics stating that 75% of the total cost of a printed circuit board was in design and 30% of an engineer’s time was spent resolving parts issues. In a market where any loss of time and cost can adversely impact a company’s bottom line, the Sunstone ECOsystem® effort appears to a step in the right direction.

CAD/FEA Software Named NTB’s June Product of the Month

ALGOR V20 from ALGOR, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) has been named NTB’s Product of the Month for June. An integrated CAD/finite element analysis (FEA) modeling environment for working with imported CAD models or building original models, the new release features design scenarios that let a single FEA model contain numerous analyses; a software wizard for creating bolts and fasteners; design studies and size optimization, which provide automated tools for achieving optimal designs based on user-supplied criteria; and improved meshing capabilities. The software supports multiple rotating frames of reference for 3D modeling of complex fans and similar systems, and the capability to define results-based load curves for Mechanical Event Simulation.