60 Years of Excellence

Since 1961, maxon has focused on customer-specific drives, quality, and innovation. The products are manufactured in state-of-the-art production facilities, for example, under clean room conditions.  Today, the company has more than 3,000 employees worldwide.

The name maxon pays homage to the enterprising founder Max Braun and his sons Erwin and Artur.
Now, maxon is celebrating 60 years of success – 60 years of excellence. 

Roll the anniversary film!
It all started with shearing foils for electric razors. Our anniversary film tells the tale of the fascinating journey of the maxon drives from the center of Switzerland to Mars. 
>  Watch now

Anniversary Magazine
In our anniversary magazine, we shine the spotlight on 60 wonderful years and celebrate the number 60. Read about the 60 spontaneous decisions made by the Braun family, and what happens at maxon in 60 minutes, and discover some bold predictions about maxon and the world 60 years from now.
> Read now

maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

A light-weight exoskeleton for the elderly.

Graduate students at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) have developed an improved exoskeleton design using maxon brushless DC motors and motor controllers.

Members of the Mechatronic Engineering department of NTNU have developed a lightweight lower extremity exoskeletal robot to assist people who have difficulty walking. The exoskeleton provides support for the hips and knees.

Exoskeletons have been in development since the mid-seventies and have continued to evolve following advancements with technology. Price, weight, safety, ease-of-use, and a proper fit all pose challenges to developing exoskeletons that are practical for the general public.

Graduate students in the Intelligent Automation/Robotic Lab at NTNU found that—due to heavy motors and batteries—most exoskeletons are difficult for users to put on without assistance. The lack of a user-friendly design means that most exoskeletons are inconvenient and can pose a safety risk to the user. Due to the high cost of hardware, they’re also expensive.

Using maxon DC brushless motors and motor controllers for the hip and knee joints, the students were able to develop a high-torque wearable unit that is smaller and lighter. By incorporating lightweight 3D printed components along with high-efficiency DC motors from maxon, the exoskeleton provides an agile, user-friendly solution to an aging population.

The team’s next goal is to extend the development an exoskeleton for the ankle joints and feet, exploiting the same easy-to-wear design as their exoskeleton for the hips and knees.

maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

maxon’s driven magazine is out now!

The latest edition of driven brings you interesting reports, interviews, and news from the world of DC motor and drive technology.

driven magazine from maxon is now available online and can also be ordered in print, free of charge. The magazine is published in three languages.

Which brushless DC motor to choose?

The technical article in the current issue of driven gives engineers an excellent overview of the various brushless DC motors made by maxon and their properties. All beautifully summarised using graphics. Least but not least, readers are transported to Great Britain and the gear motor specialist Parvalux. The long-established company joined the maxon Group in 2018. What has changed since then? And what synergies can be used in future?

Robot on four legs

Wherever it goes, it is sure to attract attention. The red walking robot ANYmal provokes a reaction, which is why it also made it to the cover of the maxon magazine driven – representing the ever-increasing number of inspection robots worldwide.

Climbing, crawling, walking, or flying: inspection robots can be found everywhere, whether in sewer systems, on wind turbines, or at the bottom of the ocean. And their numbers are expected to increase dramatically in coming years. This is because they do work that is either too monotonous or too dangerous for humans. One of the most well-known of their ranks is the red walking robot ANYmal developed by Zürich-based start-up ANYbotics. The editorial staff of driven magazine took a look behind the scenes and found out from the engineers how they taught their “baby” to walk.

BIKEDRIVE – the electric bike system

For readers who prefer two wheels to four legs, we have an interesting report about the new electric bike system BIKEDRIVE AIR. It makes it possible to design and produce lightweight electric sports bikes – for the mountain or the road. They provide a natural cycling experience and represent an alternative to electric bikes, which are increasing in weight and power.

For more information contact maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

Fully automated drone powered by solar energy

XSun designs and manufactures a drone that is both energy-independent and can make its own decisions, for fully-automated missions. The company needed reliable, high-performance sub-assemblies to design it’s SolarXOne. The start-up approached maxon for the propulsion system.

Adapting space technologies for use at lower altitude was the idea behind creating a fully automated solar powered drone. Benjamin David started his company XSun, and with a decade of experience at Airbus Defense & Space his idea produced SolarXOne: A solar-powered, electrical, self-contained drone with a tandem wing design.

SolarXOne, with its dragonfly-like design, has excellent aerodynamic performance and a large surface area of solar panels, to collect as much solar energy as possible. This is all within a very high-performance, fully-electric environment.

“We firmly believe that a combination of new technologies and renewable energy sources will best meet current environmental, economic and societal challenges,” says Benjamin David. He also points out that solar power increases the on-board battery life by a factor of 3.

Just like a satellite, SolarXOne is packed with technologies. Half airplane, half drone, this UAV weighs 25 kgs and has a 4.50 metre wingspan. With a daily flight range of 600 km it can fly over thousands of acres, producing image resolution within centimetres of accuracy. Many industries could benefit from the drone for a wide variety of missions:

• Mapping and topography of large areas on land or at sea, such as natural bush reserves
• Very high-resolution photographic surveys for large-scale linear infrastructure (pipelines, electricity lines, roads, rivers, etc.)
• Photographic surveys for precision agriculture, for example forest mapping
• Monitoring and inspection missions.

maxon motors are “definitely the best”

The guiding principles of the SolarXOne design was a DC motor system that was efficient, top quality, reliable and durable. “Because of the fully electric design, we had to strive for cost and energy efficiency in every assembly. This is why it was essential to work only with the best, and that means maxon for the propulsion system,” said David. For propulsion, the challenge was to find the most reliable, highest performance, and smallest systems possible, with virtually the same requirements as in the aerospace sector. “In those three areas, maxon is definitely the best. There are very good reasons why they supply NASA with its robot motors! We were delighted to see maxon enter the drone market, and our collaboration was set up very quickly,” adds  David.

Every aspect of the technology had to be pushed right to the limit for the drone to be able to fly independently for more than 12 hours. XSun took advantage of maxon’s expertise in controllers, DC motors and propulsion.

“From an energy point of view, the aim was to keep consumption as low as possible while remaining as light as possible: a genuine technological challenge”, recalls Michael Niemaz, Aerospace Project Engineer at maxon, who has been working with XSun since 2019. Back then, maxon had just released its first drone motor range. To meet XSun’s requirements, maxon adapted one of its brushless drone motors, the ECX 87 Flat DC motor.

Luise Löskow, Aeronautics Project Manager at maxon, says: “When we started working with XSun, the design of this type of DC motor only existed in its basic form. This is why we had to customise a product that was still under development, to which we had to incorporate new features such as sensors. Our experienced team (design engineers, test engineers, quality engineers, purchasers and production operatives), had in-depth discussions about the various technical requirements and problems, so as to find appropriate solutions. Finally, we increased the power of the ECX87 Flat DC motor and modified its winding for optimum propulsion. SolarXOne is now equipped with two adapted ECX87 Flat DC motors positioned at the front of the aircraft.”

“For SolarXOne to be able to fly over cities in total safety, XSun wanted to have its drone certified as far as possible. This where maxon’s expertise played an important role, because we provide a build quality that guarantees a sufficiently reliable DC motor to be certifiable in the future,” Michael Niemaz pointed out. The founder of XSun agrees with this, adding: “It would have been hard to achieve the same level of quality with a partner other than maxon. Very few companies would be able to provide a highly detailed 25-page test report!”

Ever since they met at the Paris Air Show in 2019, the maxon and XSun teams have been working in close collaboration. In July 2020, for its first long-range solar flight, the SolarXOne succeeded in flying silently for 12 hours without any CO2 emissions, and completely independently. Since then, it has completed operational assignments for various clients in France and other parts of Europe.

For more information, visit: XSun.fr

maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

Brushed DC motors for higher temperatures.

DC motors that withstand high temperatures up to 200⁰C were exclusively the domain of brushless DC motors. maxon has now changed that with the new HT (High Temperature) brushed DC motor.

Motors capable of operating at high ambient temperatures are nothing new to maxon. The HD (Heavy Duty) brushless DC motor range, developed to operate in ambient temperatures up to 200⁰C, has been on the market for over a decade. Until now, these temperatures were exclusively the domain of brushless motors; maxon has now changed that with the new HT (High Temperature) brushed DC motor.

A major oil and gas company approached maxon looking for a brushed DC motor capable of operating in ambient temperatures up to 180⁰C. Their established multi-imaging tool, utilised for pipework casing inspection, used a high temperature brushed DC motor. However, when new tools with higher seismic shock levels were added, the current DC motor system failed as it wasn’t robust enough. Unsurprisingly the company didn’t want to redesign the entire system as this would be expensive and time-consuming; instead, they turned to maxon to provide a solution. maxon’s engineers set about developing a tailored DC motor drive system based on the standard DCX 22mm brushed DC motor series for the downhole application.

The main fundamental parts of the DC motor, namely the winding and magnet, were the first to be dissected. Unlike the HD brushless DC motors that use Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) magnets for high temperatures, the engineers elected to use a new high-temperature grade Neodymium (NdFeB) magnet. The reason being: strength. Samarium Cobalt magnets capable of elevated temperatures have been available for several years, but they are not as strong as Neodymium magnets. As well as being slightly weaker, using Samarium Cobalt magnets would mean the size of the DC motor would have had to increase to meet the torque requirements.

High-temperature windings are not new to maxon. The maxon configurable DCX motor series using standard winding operates to a recommended maximum of 125⁰C. If the temperature increased above this level, the insulation in the winding would become soft and unstable and could collapse onto the magnet. So maxon’s engineers created a customised winding and produced some samples. Once this was validated, the electro-magnetic circuit was complete.

A DC motor is much more than just the magnet and winding, so once a viable design for these was complete, the engineers looked at the rest of the motor to ensure all the other elements were capable of enduring the temperatures. The standard polymer brush cover required a new design using high-temperature capable material.

maxon produced the first samples and then came the validation testing. maxon’s test laboratory facilitates extensive environmental testing. The motors were heated up to 180⁰C in the test chamber and then run. Also, the stability of the rotor was tested at 180⁰C and 200⁰C. Once the maxon engineers were happy that the solution would work in the application, they supplied the customer with samples for their testing. These passed with no issues, and the motors released to production standards.

The DCX22S HT DC motor works with the GPX22 and GPX26 gearbox ranges, including the high-efficiency gearbox GPX22UP. These can have extended temperature lubrication to match the motors ambient temperature capability. Your local maxon sales engineer will help you match the motor and gearbox combination to your application.

maxon Group Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

Australian company develops world’s smallest Robotic Arms and Gripper for Harsh Environments.

Australian company Blueprint Laboratories combine mechatronic engineering and their passion for surfing and diving for their latest innovation – the world’s smallest ROV manipulator that operate in the harsh environment of the ocean floor.

In the following article we discuss how one company employs creative design techniques and online configuration tools to provide customised motors and gearheads for their latest robotic arm and gripper – able to fit into a wide variety of applications.

The CEO of Blueprint Lab, Paul Phillips has combined his passion for mechatronic engineering with his love of surfing and diving in the ocean. The company, located in the Sydney, Australia, designs and manufactures products that operate in the harsh environment of the ocean floor. According to Paul, “I realised at an early stage that subsea vehicle manufacturers were in need of specialised hardware for performing remote manipulation tasks. Developing such tools themselves was prohibitively expensive and complex. The Blueprint Lab team “love tech more than anything else” which is why we are intent on inventing technically innovative products. We love what we do,” he explains.

The unique selling point of the company’s robotic manipulators and grippers is size. The Reach Alpha 5 is the world’s smallest ROV manipulator, according to Paul. When curled up, it’s only 23x15x4cm and is approximately 58cm at full extension with a dynamic reach of 40cm. The arm is able to lift 2kg of weight at full reach and an axial load rating of 100kg. End-effector closing force is about 600N. The units are designed to operate at depths of up to 300 meters.

As a usable addition to any ROV, the Reach Alpha 5 is an all-electric device that runs off of 18-30 V DC motor. The system is fast and easy to integrate through standard RS232/RS485 protocols. The unit offers leak detection for peace of mind prior to vehicle launch. Interchangeable end-effectors include standard pincer grips as well as quad jaws, specialised recovery jaws, needle nose grippers, soft jaws, parallel jaws, and rope cutter jaws. The units are primarily made of hard anodised AL6061aluminum. Both arms and end-effectors can be made from stainless steel for harsher environments and where increased strength is needed.

The Reach Alpha 5 is driven by maxon DCX 16mm DC motors and planetary gearboxes. The motors are integrated in a side-by-side arrangement so that they are able to drive in both directions efficiently. An in-house designed controller fits between the motors to maintain a compact arrangement. A spiroidal gearbox assembly, also designed in-house, is used as the final drive element. Feedback for the system is supplied by a built-in hall-effect absolute position encoder. “For the higher torque joints, we use high-torque gearboxes due to their increased load capacity. For other joints, such as the grabber and the inline rotation motors, the standard DCX components were sufficient,” Paul said.

“Because we developed the hardware, firmware, and software for our products in-house, we were able to deliver much higher levels of optimisation, serviceability, and support to our customers,” Paul said. The biggest challenge for the company has been taking a product from the prototype to production stage of development. The need to get everything perfect every time is essential in order to provide the conformance, process capability, and repeatability in production that customers require. Because of this, Blueprint Lab sees one of maxon’s major advantages is their online configurator for customising DC motors—with production in 11 days—which allows customers to order motors 24/7. And then deliver the product in production level quantities as the market demands.

The maxon DCX program includes motors that offer high power density, high efficiency and are a smooth-running line of motors. The motors are available for online configuration in sizes from 6mm to 35mm. Customers can choose between precious metal or graphite brushes, ball or sintered bearings, and much more in a contained or frameless package. maxon allows users to configure and combine DC or brushless DC motors and planetary gearheads and sensors according to their individual specifications. Through the different generations of the product the DC motor and gear ratio changed to better meet customer requirements and improve robustness. According to Paul, “The DCX range allowed for these changes to be seamless without requiring any mechanical design”.

During the development stage for an actuator, for example, the company might order as many as 20 motor variations online before settling on the right product. This actually saves the company money, since research time is so much more expensive. Plus, it allows Blueprint to test all available options prior to selection.

During a brainstorming session with maxon’s Board of Director and Head of Internal Audit, Dr Bianca Braun and Australian Managing Director, Brett Motum, additional ideas were offered. During the session, Paul and his team turned to maxon controllers as a subject. One initial desire for the company would be to incorporate a stripped-down version of maxon’s ESCON servo amplifier to suit motor diameters. The conversation further drifted into methods where a controller could be configured by an engineer. The designer would select from features already resident in the motor controller hardware and then configure the shape of the controller online. “maxon’s openness to new ideas is important,” Paul said.

Most applications for the company’s robotic manipulators are in hard to reach or dangerous locations. Units are used on ROVs for search and recovery operations, conducting offshore infrastructure inspection for oil and gas operations, collecting samples for marine science research, as well as in Special Recovery Operations by the military and civil first responders. Besides operating under the ocean for research, the Reach Alpha 5 can be used for police and military operations such as bomb disposal robots and for close visual inspecting in petrochemical and nuclear operations.

The build-up of core technologies in-house for the Reach Alpha 5 provides Blueprint Lab with a strong technical advantage over other companies while they expand into broader markets, such as nuclear, petrochemical, land, and aerospace applications. “We are always thinking of the next developments,” Paul explained. For example, machine learning algorithms are a hot topic at the company as they are implementing hardware in their latest products that will help lead them into the AI future.

Blueprint Lab is a forward-thinking, tech-savvy company operating with more than 20 creative engineers who love what they do. Paul admits that he’d like to see more women engineers applying at the company. “It would be great to see more female mechatronic engineers in Australia,” he said. “We are always looking for dynamic people and there are simply not enough female graduates for the robotic industry right now.”

It’s amazing what can be done when you put together the right engineers and the right products. Blueprint Lab has made it their mission to incorporate precision components such as maxon motors in their products. With the growth in remotely operating vehicles of all kinds that are using robotic arms and grippers, there will be a place for companies like Blueprint Lab for years to come.

maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

maxon reports a steady result for 2020.

Sachseln, Switzerland – The maxon Group based in Sachseln, Switzerland, succeeded in largely keeping its revenue stable in the demanding 2020 financial year, in spite of the difficult market conditions caused by the COVID-19 situation.

The revenue amounted to CHF 553.5 million, compared to CHF 567.8 million in the previous year. There were some revenue losses in the automotive and aviation sectors, however, maxon was able to largely compensate this with the huge demand for drives for precise laboratory automation and ventilators in the fight against the coronavirus. This quick pivot required a high degree of flexibility and pragmatism from the management and employees. Undeterred by all the crises of 2020, maxon invested CHF 50.3 million in new factories, machines and systems. The cash flow amounted to CHF 37.1 million, compared to CHF 44.9 million in the previous year. Worldwide, the maxon Group has 3,059 employees at nine production sites.   

“2020 was a rollercoaster ride like none we experienced before,” said Karl-Walter Braun, majority shareholder of the maxon Group. “In fact, it is our global presence and our international customers that are active in a wide range of markets and applications that enabled us to weather the pandemic.” Even during the shutdown, maxon managed to uphold the global supply chains. “This once again demonstrates the resilience of well-networked global value chains and a broad range of diversified contacts all over the world,” said Karl-Walter Braun.

The research & development (R&D) and sales departments in particular faced great challenges in the last year. “On the one hand, direct contact at the customer was impossible. On the other hand, direct contact with the suppliers, for detailed clarification of technical feasibility or delivery options, was difficult.” Around the world, maxon has some 330 employees in R&D and the company invests around CHF 35 million in this field.

Continued innovative strength

Even under the difficult conditions maxon faced, the company launched several new products in the field of precision drive technology. This includes micromotors for medical robots, but also multi-axis controllers for highly dynamic positioning tasks. A special highlight was the Mars expedition with the first excursions of the Perseverance rover, equipped with maxon BLDC motors, and the successful flights of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, equipped with six maxon motors,” said Eugen Elmiger, CEO of the maxon Group. “All expectations regarding the length, altitude and duration of its flights have already been met.”

And down here on Earth, maxon exhibits continued innovative strength. For example, in the medical field, the company and one of its customers cooperated to develop a minimally invasive aorta pump, which helps cardiac patients to heal quickly. And in intralogistics, intelligent motion control solutions for AGVs (automated guided vehicles) are increasingly being used. In the past few months, the drive specialist also developed an innovation in the field of e-mobility: this summer, maxon presents the BIKEDRIVE Air, an light and invisible e-bike system that consists of mid-mounted motor, integrated battery and control element. It weighs only 3.5 kg and can be incorporated into elegant frames by bicycle manufacturers. The e-bike system will be available exclusively to bicycle manufacturers worldwide.

Looking ahead with confidence

maxon is satisfied with the current financial year. “Due to high-volume orders, the suppliers reached their capacity limits,” explained Eugen Elmiger. “The result is that we are experiencing supply shortages.” In the future, the company will continue its development as system supplier. “The customers should be able to get everything drive-related that they need for their products from a single source. This includes motors, gearheads, electronics, motor controllers and plugin solutions,” said Eugen Elmiger. “Additionally, we are pulling out all the stops to become the digital leader in drive technology.” 

maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

DC motors at high temperatures

The majority of DC motors have a maximum ambient temperature between 85⁰C and 100⁰C, and a maximum winding temperature between 100⁰C and 125⁰C. Why is this?

Firstly, the difference between ambient temperature and winding temperature. Input supply is divided into voltage (V) and current (A). The voltage determines the speed, and the current determines the torque. When the motor is in use, the current will generate heat in the winding. This means that when a motor is specified for operation at high ambient temperatures, it cannot be worked as hard as if it was at regular workshop temperatures; otherwise, it will burn out.

What are the problems associated with heat?

Inside the motor, there is a magnetic circuit generated by the permanent magnet and the electromagnet – the motor winding. Both the permanent magnet and the winding are affected by heat. The neodymium magnets start to demagnetise at around 160⁰C, and they become weaker. Unfortunately, cooling the motor does not reverse the effect; it is a permanent degradation. The winding is encased in an insulating varnish, which provides stability as well as insulation. As the temperature increases above 160⁰C, the varnish softens, and the winding can deform, resulting in rubbing which wears away the insulation and causes a short circuit and motor failure. Very high temperatures can cause the varnish and insulation to melt, again resulting in a short circuit. The results are always the same: the motor is ruined.

maxon high-temperature motors

Not surprisingly, in some environments where people want to use motors, the temperatures are higher, for example when drilling into the Earth’s core for oil, gas or geothermal energy, or in valve actuators on an aircraft engines. maxon has a range of DC motors designed for these environments. The brushless HD (Heavy Duty) range can operate in ambient temperatures of up to 200⁰C, with a maximum winding temperature of 240⁰C.

How do these motors operate in such high temperatures?

The magnets in the maxon HD motors are manufactured from samarium cobalt (SmCo). Samarium-cobalt rare earth magnets can reach much higher temperatures before they start to demagnetise. The insulation of the copper wire used in the winding also has a higher temperature rating. Finally, the impregnation varnish is rated to a much higher temperature, which ensures that the winding remains stable throughout the operating temperature range.

Why not make all motors capable of reaching higher temperatures?

It is not easy to manufacture a high-temperature motor; the enhanced insulation on the copper wire is very rigid, which makes it much more difficult to wind. It also doesn’t work with all winding patterns. Another reason is cost, more specialised materials cost more. Why would people want a more specialised, higher-priced motor for an application where it isn’t needed?

In high-volume applications, maxon can upgrade standard motors for projects where higher temperatures are needed, if there is no suitable motor in the limited HD range. maxon will investigate the feasibility of producing the winding and create a production-size batch of windings to ensure there is high enough yield from the wire. Finally, if the yield is sufficient, sample motors will be manufactured, and the technical specification validated.

What do you do when your application is pushing the ambient temperature boundaries?

Contact your maxon technical sales engineer. We are all trained to specify the right product for the right application in the right environment.

First, we will ask a series of questions about the application. What speed and torque are needed at the output?  What duty cycle will the motor see? What is your input supply? We then look at the environment, temperature, shock/vibration etc. We will also enquire about other restrictions, space envelope, mass etc. Once we have collected all the data, we start examining the possible options to provide a solution.

When there are high temperatures, we must carry out a thermal analysis to ensure the motor is not going to burn out in service. We analyse the speed and torque profile over the duty cycle, based on the specific ambient temperature. The maxon-developed software we use gives us crucial information, including the winding temperature. Is it reaching or passing the maximum winding temperature? Is there enough time in the duty cycle to allow it to cool down? After multiple cycles, is it remaining below the maximum winding temperature?

With our training and the tools available, we will only specify a solution we are confident will meet the requirements.

For more information contact maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

Bacteria: access denied.

Tiny DC motor systems for use in the human body have to be built in a clean environment, free of microbiological contamination. Welcome to the GMP cleanroom of maxon, where discipline and gelatin meet.

Amongst the hustle and bustle of the busy manufacturing facility at the DC motor specialist’s headquarters in picturesque Sachseln, Switzerland lies a world very different from the rest of the areas of the maxon Group. Recently opened, is a production area for DC motors to be used in medical applications. The particle concentration in the air is low and constantly monitored. This clean environment is usually perfectly adequate because DC motors for insulin pumps, medical dosing units, etc. do not have to be completely free of germs and bacteria.

However, applications in the field of high-tech medicine are another story altogether, especially when it comes to implantable drive systems. For these applications, assembly is being moved to the new GMP area (Good Manufacturing Practice). In this cleanroom class, not only the particle concentration, but also the microbiological contamination of surfaces and the air is measured and examined for traces of spores, bacteria, or fungi. This clinical environment places high demands on the ventilation technology, the instruments, and especially the people that spend time inside it.

People who work in this environment always have to observe the same strict processes and rules. The two production staff members, Albane Lloqanaj and Ruth Da Silva, put on special pants and tops that arrived vacuum-packed from a cleanroom laundry. These uniforms are made from high-tech materials and are anti-bacterial. The two staff members then put on special hygiene masks, hair nets, gloves, labcoats and antistatic shoes.

Additionally, they have to follow a six-step hygienic hand disinfection procedure and disinfect their hands for at least 30 seconds using skin-friendly disinfectant. Subsequently, the gloves are disinfected with pure alcohol that evaporates without leaving any residue. This ensures that neither particles nor germs can stick to the gloves. All these process steps occur in a defined order. Additionally, care has to be taken that no contaminated air enters the GMP room from the outside. To this end, three zones that are separated by automated airlocks have to be crossed. It is only possible to open one door at a time, because the further you go in, the higher the air pressure in the respective room becomes.

Inside the cleanroom itself, the staff have to be highly disciplined. For example, they are not allowed to touch their faces. And if they do, it must always be consciously, so that they can immediately disinfect their gloves again. “I like this kind of work very much, because it’s challenging, varied and responsible. No mistakes are allowed when our drives are being used for implantable systems”, says production staff member Albane Lloqanaj. This also requires an open approach to errors. Team leader Stefan Kathriner: “It’s important that we immediately alert each other if something looks strange or we suspect an error. Criticism is never personal, always objective.”

The effort involved in operating such a GMP environment is immense, which is why only a few special customer orders for implantable systems are processed there. In the past few years, the cleanroom specialists at maxon have learned a lot from these projects. Stefan Kathriner says, “We have comprehensive know-how and hope that we will be able to handle more customer orders of this kind in future.”

To ensure that the amount of germs or bacteria on the work surfaces or in the air does not exceed a certain threshold, maxon regularly conducts tests with a nutrient-rich gelatin. These so-called agar plates are pressed onto surfaces or left open around the room. The gelatin serves as breeding ground for micro organisms. After 72 hours in the incubator, it is possible to see with the naked eye whether there is contamination and how high it is. 

For further information contact maxon Group Australia Tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

DC motors from maxon take surveillance to the next level.

A revolution in concealed threat detection – making the world a safer place.

Radio Physics Solutions (RPS) is a small technology company based on the outskirts of Cambridge in the UK. This small, modest company works on leading-edge surveillance technology and has won several awards.

Threat detection at public venues is a serious issue. Current technology methods rely on scanners screening individuals in high traffic areas and shepherded in sections. This requires people to physically walk through scanning areas, in turn creating bottlenecks. RPS launched its latest fully automated product, Optracon™, which uses multiple sensors mounted remotely, to detect concealed mass casualty threats, hidden weapons, explosives and other dangerous objects, at distances of up to 30m.  A true sensor fusion solution, Optracon™ collects data from radar, video analytics, LiDAR, machine learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence to provide a digital understanding of how people group and flow. The technology is small and automatically scans uncontrolled crowded public spaces beyond just an area or building. With an extended perimeter, responders have more time to act.

DC motors from maxon supported RPS to take surveillance to the next level. The motor housing in Optracon™ is custom made to the technology. A brushless maxon EC frameless 45mm flat DC motor drives the barrel and the shaft connected to a mirror. A brushless EC 32mm flat DC motor with hall sensors rotates the mirror. The barrel creates the essential scanning pattern. The mirror moves in a spiralling motion with varying diameter, and the frameless DC motor allows the mechanism to move this way without needing a personalised product.

David Leonard, head of engineering at Radio Physics Solutions, said “maxon was the only supplier offering frameless DC motors in such a convenient way, where a small company like ours, who are really designing from the ground up, can engage directly with the manufacturer. This is invaluable. maxon products come supplied with all required documentation, which is exceptional. You get excellent technical support on the assembly, even sharing the pitfalls. maxon really wanted to make sure we had the right product to achieve what we wanted to achieve. This outstanding customer support, coupled with the performance and accuracy of the product, is exactly what we at Radio Physics were looking for.”

The Optracon™ technology is unique to security screening infrastructure and represents a paradigm shift in understanding and responding to concealed threat detection.

Radio Physics Solutions have numerous deployments globally, for applications such as border control and security at governmental and royal facilities.

For more information please call maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.