CASE STUDY
For US Military, ML6 High Friction Coatings Outperform All Others In The Field
Challenge
Meridian Laboratory was able to greatly diversify its product application and polyurethane ML6 usage after being selected by an American defense contractor to provide a solution for its next generation of an unmanned bomb diffusing robot. Challenged by the fact that the raw aluminum fingers were unable to provide enough grip to the items they were grabbing, Meridian Laboratory solved their dilemma through a high-precision, high friction, durable, custom profile. Since the addition of a thin layer of ML6 polyurethane, the robot is now able to accurately select delicate wires, grip slippery door handles, and puncture through glass with durable and high-friction pincers.
In designing the next generation of the bomb diffusing robot, the American based defense contractor had a problem. While plenty durable and lightweight, the aluminum pincer fingers they had designed weren’t able to do delicate tasks such as gripping wires, opening vehicle doors, or turning dials and other critical operations. After trying a variety of spray on coatings, molded rubbers, and adhesives they had run out of solutions that would provide high friction coatings with the durability they required.
Solution
Working collaboratively with Meridian Laboratory’s engineers they were able to reengineer the pincer fingers to have a thin yet intricate profile of polyurethane ML6 applied to their billet aluminum fingers. Featuring complex curves on almost all of the surfaces, Meridian Laboratory developed customized tooling to meet the demanding and exact requirements of the drawings. Meridian Laboratory was able to begin by coating SLA and SLS 3D printed prototype parts. Once a final design was completed, Meridian Laboratory was able to deliver numerous sets of polyurethane robotic fingers, all to exacting tolerances of +/-0.001” or better. The end result was a dramatically better performing robotic pincer, providing excellent gripping capability while remaining durable and rugged for over a year of harsh testing.
Key Statistics
- Polyurethane ML6 was applied to complex curved fingers with an intricate pattern
- Drastically improved gripping capability of pincer fingers on small and delicate objects
- High friction polyurethane ML6 able to endure harsh environments and usage
Google Rating
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Excellent service! We faced Meridian with a difficult part to make and asked for perfection. They took the challenge on … More and through repeated effort and determination, Vance and the team were able to get us the "perfect" product we needed. Although this was undoubtedly a frustrating project for all involved, they saw it through and proved Meridian Laboratory to be exactly the company we needed and want to work with in the future. Great work!
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Adam and the crew at Meridian Laboratory were a pleasure to work with! Adam was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and responsive. … More A slipring was purchased through Adam for the use of a university engineering capstone project, he was eager to help and very nice throughout the entire process to ensure our needs were satisfied. The slipring shipped and delivered in a timely manner and once the unit was received, all expectations were exceeded. The fit and finish of the slipring was great, and it performed exactly as expected. I highly recommend Meridian Laboratory if you require the use of a slipring, as I cannot say enough good things about the team over there and their American made products
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We contacted Adam Ellingson of Meridian Laboratory about acquiring a high-speed 3 channel ROTOCON slip-ring for our university … More capstone project. Mr. Ellingson was gracious enough to provide our team with a 6 channel slip-ring that performed excellent out of the box. The slip-ring assembly feels precisely machined and spins true with little mechanical resistance. It was the perfect product for testing our axial flux generator design and the extra channels came in handy. We appreciate the ease of mounting and excellent support from Mr. Ellingson.
