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Long regarded as a premier research and development organization, five years ago Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle began teaming with OEMs to develop techno-advanced products faster and more efficiently.
With more than 20 "integrated product development" projects to its credit, one of Battelle's most successful is the Teledyne Sensonic(TM) Plaque Removal system, introduced four years ago.
"Teledyne came to us to develop creative ideas for the mechanism itself," says Keith Schleiffer, project manager. "At a time when such brushes were running at oscillating speeds of 45 Hz to 50 Hz, the goal was to develop a brush capable of oscillating at 250 Hz."
Coming up with technologically advanced ideas was not difficult for the R&D minds at Battelle. The challenge was to come up with ideas that could be applied and brought to market within a 12-month time frame, says Schleiffer.
"The biggest lesson we learned from this project and have since been able to apply to other projects is the importance of allowing for schedule-driven decision making. It's not about being technical purists and achieving perfection. It's about managing the process and achieving, within a short time-frame, a level that is good and effective, without becoming obsessed with perfection."
Schleiffer offers as an example the wire coil spring developed to achieve the high oscillating brush speed. Originally, Battelle was going to eliminate the wire coil spring and instead use a cast-elastomer part around the motor shaft that would be flexible enough to achieve the same spring-like movement of the wire coil, thus allowing for high-speed brush movement. Battelle also fully intended to develop a "ball-bearing-less" motor, but instead opted for a DC brushless motor with bearings. While perhaps not perfection in terms of what Battelle originally proposed to develop, these are solid examples of effective, schedule-driven designs.
"We could have taken additional time and achieved the bearing-less motor and cast-elastomer spring, but our client's goal was to have a market-ready product within 12 months," says Schleiffer.
The custom motor by Battelle features a separate feedback coil that senses motor velocity. It picks ups the signal so that when the motor tightens up the spring and slows to a stop, the sensor is able to detect that and reverse the direction of the field of commutation,...