One would be hard pressed to dispute that Medical Design & Manufacturing East is the world's largest conference and exhibition for medical manufacturing and related products. Taking up nearly one third of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, the event featured over 1,000 exhibitors from every area of the healthcare market. Although the primary focus of this event is medical products, there were a significant number of representatives from the electronics community demonstrating motion and motion-control components, power sources, interconnects, materials, circuit boards, and more.
W.L. Gore & Associates presented some incredibly small multi-conductor cables and wires, as well as extremely strong and resilient cables for hospital or other applications. Also on display at Gore's booth was an array of ergonomic probe cables promising to relieve the physical pain and damage ultrasound technicians experience from repetitive tasks associated with sonography.
Flex Interconnect Technologies offered an impressive array of flexible circuit boards and interfaces. Primarily custom components for specific designs, the samples on hand included flexible multiple-layer boards slightly thinner than a standard business card. Lambda was demonstrating its latest brute-force power source and Carlo Gavazzi was on hand with a generous array of components including a wide range of sensors, switches, terminal blocks, temperature controllers, and relays, to name a few.
In the motion-control arena Intelligent Motion Systems demonstrated their latest all-in-one motor drive and a number of other motion packages. Lin Engineering threw their SilverPak 23CE integrated stepper motor and controller into the ring as well. It’s definitely worth taking the extra minute or two to watch the demo videos for these items.
In terms of power sources, UltraLife presented their array of over-the-counter and custom batteries and battery packs. In addition to healthcare products such as hearing aids and other devices, the company's products also target applications in the military and commercial OEM markets. Unfortunately, some time constraints would not allow for a video, however we will be seeing products from UltraLife soon.
Overall, I would say that whether you are in the medical sector or not, the MD & M show is well worth a visit. And there's a bonus attached. When you register for the NY venue, you also get a free pass to four other shows: EastPack, Atlantic Design & Manufacturing, ATX Automation Technology Expo, and the Green Manufacturing Expo.
Reprints
