Schaeffler solutions propelling the medical industry
Sustained performance and safety of equipment are imperative in the medical industry. In today’s climate, medical professionals especially, need to be able to rely on their equipment to assure the safety and well-being of patients in their care. Shortages in funding, staff and infrastructure in hospitals and healthcare systems have created an extremely challenging high-pressure environment where, now more than ever, medical equipment must perform effectively and be cost-efficient.
With its Industrial division, Schaeffler has been active in the medical device technology sector for many years. Components from Schaeffler are used mainly in medical imaging, such as C-arms, X-ray tubes and CT scanners. Schaeffler is both a development partner and a reliable supplier of medical technology components and provides customers with harmonised system solutions. This means that consumers can procure the drive and bearing arrangement from a single source, benefiting economically from entirely new performance and design options.
Schaeffler has also assembled nearly 40,000 designs from an enormous range of rolling bearing components and materials. These standard solutions are accompanied by bearing support for the machine part that is cost-effective and technically first-rate.
In addition, Schaeffler delivers entire assemblies that only need to be screwed on, with the bearing components perfectly fine-tuned to each other and to the adjacent element. The modular design is supported by extensive accessory and service packages that customers can choose from – from seals to a suitable surface coating for individual bearing components through to lubricant recommendations.
Schaeffler’s Medias® product selection and consultation program for rolling bearings, plain bearings, and linear guidance systems provides technical data for INA and FAG products, which aids in calculating rolling bearings according to the catalogue standard and linear guidance systems with BEARINX®-online Easy Solution and enables CAD data to be adopted right into the design.
With a dedicated operating engineering team in the field of medical technology, Schaeffler can work in unison with customers by utilising existing tools such as BEARINX®, which assist with calculation and testing as well as specific tools for simulation and testing to develop new concepts and help to achieve shorter development times.
The medical device technology is a strategic growth field for Schaeffler. The company intends to significantly grow its business in this sector and make it one of the key pillars in the Industrial divisions market. Ralf Moseberg, Senior Vice President of Industrial Automation, emphasise house mobility in that regard: CT scanners using drive systems from Schaeffler can be moved quickly from one room to another, increasing patient throughput and enhancing treatment efficiency.
Furthermore, the recently announced acquisition of linear technology specialist Ewellix underscores Schaeffler’s ambitions. Ewellix’s core products include actuators, lifting columns, robot range extenders, ball and roller screws, and linear guides (monorail guidance systems and linear ball bearings). It is a market leader in electromechanical industrial actuators, lifting columns, and planetary roller screws, which are used primarily in medical device technology – in dental medicine, care for preterm and newborn babies, surgical, rehabilitation, and fitness equipment.
Schaeffler’s expert Moseberg is a cobot fan, too. “Cobots interact directly with humans, and safety cages are no longer needed,” he explains. “As a result, their freedom of motion is higher than that of classic industrial robots, which opens up all-new fields of application.
These new fields present completely different challenges than mass production.” That calls for innovative technical solutions. “For example, in settings where medical robots are used, healthcare staff, patients and robots come into very close contact with each other and measuring even the smallest forces, for instance, due to the touch, is essential,” Moseberg continues. “For this purpose, we have incorporated torque sensors into strain wave gears that can measure such forces with high precision while maintaining high control accuracy.”