Case Studies

Medical devices, combination products, consumer products, and manufacturing processes often include components that slide past each other. These products and processes can fail when the friction forces between the surfaces are too high, due to surface roughness, lubrication, materials, or environmental conditions. Here Veryst introduces a specialized fixture to measure the friction between a small metal wire and three polymer materials, to select a backup supplier for dual sourcing that would maintain low friction in a medical device.

Some of the most sensational goals in soccer history came from free-kicks and long shots. (Remember Roberto Carlos’ famous 1998 free-kick?) Veryst investigated the effect of friction between ball and boot, the ball’s internal pressure, and ball materials on the ball’s rotational velocity to understand ball/boot interaction.

How does a soft fluidic gripper perform when inflated and how does it interact with its environment? This is a challenging, yet essential, question to the design and integration of soft robotics in the industry. Veryst Engineering developed a finite deformation Abaqus model to study the behavior, performance, and stability of soft fluidic grippers, providing insight to the design and assessment of soft robots and devices.

Veryst can predict the ultimate strength and failure modes of design concepts generated using topology optimization and produced using additive manufacturing. We use advanced finite element analysis (FEA) that accounts for the nonlinear behavior of the material being used to make the part.

During sloshing, liquid exerts a dynamic force on the surrounding vessel, which may cause leakage or damage to the vessel or its supporting structure. We used a mesh-free smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to predict liquid sloshing and its effect on the deformation and stresses in a vessel.

Tempered and plate glass are manufactured to produce very different fracture patterns when they break. Veryst can use this information to identify installed glass products and discuss the implications of their use.

Shape memory alloys, like nickel titanium alloy (nitinol), are common in medical device applications. Nitinol is often used in fine wire form and can be difficult to test. Veryst has developed methods to test fine nitinol wires in uniaxial tension at different temperatures to obtain a stress-strain curve.

The material properties of a climbing shoe’s outsole rubber directly affect a rock climber’s performance. Veryst performed friction and compression testing of two climbing shoe rubbers to quantify and compare their performance.

Many engineering applications require understanding the behavior of polymers under cryogenic temperature conditions. Veryst developed a test fixture and method to test materials submerged in liquid nitrogen (LN2) at its boiling temperature of -196°C.