Medical Archives - TBG Solutions

University Of Southampton Case Study

Renowned for its award-winning research projects in science, technology and engineering, The University Of Southampton is a world-famous research facility.

Key Fact

Adaptive algorithms enabled the system to be robust and capable of reducing multiple and varying noise frequencies.

Testimonials

“Implemented on embedded system technology providing a state of the art, highly reliable, compact and adaptable system.”

Understand

The TranQuil project is a collaboration with Princess Yachts, The University of Southampton and TBG Solutions. Princess Yachts, designers and manufacturers of motor yachts, are regarded as the finest exponent of contemporary yacht design. The project was aimed at the luxury yacht market. Yachts often use a secondary generator to provide power whilst the yacht is stationary, however, this generates considerable noise and vibration, which can upset passengers during silent hours.

The challenge was to develop a scalable and frequency adaptable solution that nullified generator noise and reduced vibration thus providing maximum comfort to passengers.

Engineer

The proposed system was a set of actuators that sit beneath the generator moving in anti-phase and amplitude to the generator, thus eradicating noise and vibration. This presented additional challenges as the system needed to be reactive to multiple points of contact and react in real time (microseconds) to vibrations in order to be effective.

Adaptive algorithms enabled the system to be robust and capable of reducing multiple and varying noise frequencies.

Deliver

TBG Solutions achieved active noise cancellation by implementing a Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm.

The system successfully reduces cabin nose by 10dB providing passengers with a highly reliable, compact and state of the art system to ensure maximum comfort. This system can be built-in to new boats, retrofitted to existing boats and applied in other industries where noise and vibration cancellation is required, such as in coaches and buildings.

Tridonic Case Study

Tridonic is a global business working to control, regulate and operate lighting systems in accordance with its customers’ needs. With over 50 years’ experience and a 2,000-strong team of experts, Tridonic is a global leader in the lighting industry.

Key Fact

The unit is fully equipped to test a full range of products without the need for adjustments

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions’ delivered system integrates seamlessly with a whole variety of hardware.”

Understand

Tridonic is a leading manufacturer of lighting components, developing innovative solutions that are used worldwide in the lighting industry. The company is highly focused on customer satisfaction and quality.

The brief was to engineer a bespoke and specialised test system that could efficiently test and quality check a range of different lighting products before being sent to customers to ensure they were fully functional and of the highest quality.

Engineer

The system needed to be highly adaptable so that it could be used to test a full range of LED products and test each unit using multiple AC/DC power supplies. The system needed to be capable of testing light levels, voltage/current tolerances and perform flash testing, all whilst keeping test time to a minimum and efficiency high.

The engineering challenge was to develop a generic system that was able to test a full range of products. This was overcome by the use of multiple product carriers along with an object-oriented architecture allowing for future expandability and maintenance of the bespoke system.

The solution was designed so that the product to be tested is placed in a drawer where specially designed, air driven probe blocks (two at the back and one underneath) are positioned to make the required physical connections, successfully testing and quality checking each product before shipping.

Deliver

The testing unit was successfully delivered and stands at over six feet tall. The unit is fully equipped to test a full range of products without the need for adjustments by simply placing the product into the testing platform drawer. The system tests each product at a high degree of accuracy at peak efficiency; it also has the benefit of being fully scalable for future projects.

Bedside Equipment Alarm Management System Case Study

Our revolutionary BEAMS system provides healthcare facilities with the ability to improve response times and provide consistent high levels of patient care. The system detects Bedside alarms and alerts the relevant persons.

Key Fact

Our revolutionary BEAMS system provides healthcare facilities with the ability to improve response times and provide consistent high levels of patient care.

Testimonials

“BEAMS can ensure all patients get the care they need in potentially life threatening situations.”

Understand

Patients are commonly connected to many different monitors that can measure cardiac rhythm, blood pressure, respiratory rate and many more vital signs. If a monitor sounds an alarm a nurse needs to attend to the patient immediately. Worldwide economic recession has put intense pressure on healthcare budgets at a time when wards are getting bigger, contain more single-bed bays, and patients are becoming more audibly and visibly isolated from nursing staff. The United States’ Joint Commission attributed 22% of deaths and injuries involving ventilator monitors to the alarms being inaudible so it’s imperative something changes. However, tight budgets, combined with a worldwide shortage of nurses, means the economic reality is that nurse numbers cannot be increased to manage these isolated patients in the traditional manner and the monitors can’t be replaced to make them more noticeable.

In the UK’s National Health Service, staff account for 40% of the total NHS budget so there is a need for innovation to maintain or improve patient care without increasing staffing levels. Ensuring alarms for existing monitors and pumps are acted on early so that nursing staff can intervene quickly is an area of concern.

Engineer

The BEAMS device is a wall-mounted device which detects and identifies specific medical alarms and ignores ambient sounds. Upon detecting a medical equipment alarm BEAMS then alerts hospital staff via the existing nurse call system.

The BEAMS device can detect and identify specific medical alarms above the surrounding cacophony, alert nurses immediately and help hospitals to improve patient care without increasing staffing levels; an example of reducing costs but improving patient safety through innovation. BEAMS can ensure all patients get the care they need in potentially life threatening situations.

Deliver

The final BEAMS product is currently on trial in Sheffield Children’s Hospital and will be rolled out across all wards over the coming months. A second trial is planned with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals which, if successful, would see the device adopted across Sheffield’s hospitals. Furthermore, the NHS is advising that patient rooms in newly built hospitals should be 50-100% single occupancy. With approximately 200,000 hospital beds in England, there is a huge market for the BEAMS product.

Apply for a free trial of BEAMS at your healthcare institution by visiting the Tutum Medical website.

Automated Test System for Functional and In-Circuit Testing Case Study

The automated test system we developed for functional test and in-circuit testing allows testing for multiple product ranges and is easily scalable for future expansion requirements.

Key Fact

New products can be supported by designing additional interchangeable test adaptors (ITA) which can be easily fitted to the system

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions delivered a functional test system that is effective and easily expandable.”

Understand

TBG Solutions have produced a PXI based generic automated test system performing both functional test and in-circuit testing on multiple products ranges.

The system leverages the MacPanel scout interface to provide a reconfigurable base platform from which the system can easily and quickly adapted in order to test a wide range of products. The system comprises enough hardware to support most test functions and can be expanded to support additional hardware where required.

The software architecture is modular and comprises elements common to all product test applications such as user management, calibration and diagnostics. The software is expanded to facilitate product specific testing by implementing custom TestStand sequences. New products can be supported by designing additional interchangeable test adaptors (ITA) which can be easily fitted to the system. New software sequences can be written specifically for each ITA expanding the functionality of the system.

Engineer

Design Challenges

The challenge was to design a versatile PXI based system incorporating a mixed suite of measurement hardware that can be re-configured and re-used for testing multiple product types using a commaon base platform. A product specific Interchangeable test adaptor is attached to the base system to provide the signal routing and configuration applicable to the tests required for that specific product.

Due to the nature of the project there would be a lot of electrical noise, limiting the distance that data could be transmitted. This posed a problem since operations needed to be logged at high accuracy and in real time.

System Design

National Instruments PXI measurement hardware provides the basis for the Generic Manufacturing Defect Inspection Automated Test Equipment (GMDI-ATE) which is further augmented using Excelsys Xgen™ range power supplies. The system is mounted in a standard 19” rack enclosure and incorporates a MacPanel Scout interface for configuring the system for different applications.

NI-PXI hardware modules provide a large number of analogue and digital channels working in tandem with high density switch and relay matrixes. In addition, we include a high precision DMM, arbitrary function generator, fully reconfigurable FPGA, RS232/485 serial communications, CAN and JTAG boundary scan.

Deliver

The systems delivered to date have successfully managed to reduce the cost of ownership and lead times on providing new test capabilities whilst improving test performance, accuracy, traceability and throughput. TBG can augment your test capabilities by designing and producing an ITA in under eight weeks.