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Understanding Wave energy and Oil Spill Management
July 12, 2021 7:54 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: Ohmsett National Oil Spill Response & Research Renewable Energy Test Facility< Industry: Marine

Understanding Wave energy and Oil Spill Management made easier with a new test platform

A national renewable energy test site was looking to upgrade its facility. The site is the largest outdoor saltwater wave/tow facility in North America. Sigma Design Company was awarded the engineering design contract to design and manage the construction of the new test platform. Advanced engineering analysis expertise was needed for this job. The design challenges were to develop a larger test structure that was safer and easier to use. Quicker operational setups that reduced the overall weight, and increased operational test load capacity were the goals of this project. Sigma analyzed, designed and managed every part of the new testing system using 3D design software, FEA structural analysis methods and years of solid mechanical engineering competencies to make this project a success.

Sigma developed the system and provided construction and installation management.

Services Performed: Design Concepts, Structural Analysis, FEA Simulation, Detailed Welded Fabrication Design, Filed Engineering, Welding Services, Engineering Consulting, Overseeing all Testing & Manufacture.

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Medical Device Semi-Automatic Assembly Workstation
July 9, 2021 10:22 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: Global Fortune 100 Medical Device Manufacturer
Industry: Health and Life Sciences

Sigma Design Selected to Develop New Concept in Wound Care Device Manufacturing
When a global medical device manufacturer needed help with advanced engineering and design, they reached out to Sigma Design. The 3-year program started within the realm of an R&D investigative program. Concepts trials and tests were performed to help validate the process and develop a manufacturable solution.

From start to finish Team Sigma worked with the R&D and company manufacturing teams from around the world to fine tune the solution for each location.

In the end, the program was a big success, and these workstations are being installed at medical device manufacturing sites worldwide.

Services Performed: Concept development, advanced engineering simulation and analysis, concept testing, detail design, material selection, ergonomics, safety, automation & controls, sensors, electronics, welding, machining and fabrication, pilot validation and testing. Followed by a large manufacturing order for production systems.

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Pilot Testing at Sag Harbor, NY
10:06 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: GCK Technology
Industry: Clean Energy – Tidal Hydropower

Sigma Design Support Clean Energy Development
Hydropower is a clean energy source, but it requires huge, expensive dams that flood vast areas, displacing people and disrupting the environment. The Gorlov helical turbine taps alternative sources of water power without the widespread environmental harm of large dams. Gorlov’s design consists of blades twisted into the shape of a helix , the shape of a DNA molecule. The turbine’s blades rotate at twice the velocity of the water current flow, and capture’s more of the water’s energy than a conventional turbine. After Gorlov developed the helical design concept, GCK engineers needed to take laboratory and prototype data and turn it into a real working machine. They wanted to determine loads on the blades , shaft and bearings so they could optimize the design, reduce manufacturing costs, and ensure reliable operation.

Services Performed: System development, computational fluid analysis and simulation, bearing load analysis, design for manufacturability, input on testing protocol, supported field testing.

Tidal-Power Turbine

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Sigma Designs for the U.S. Army
July 7, 2021 5:58 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Industry: Clean Energy

A modular platform developed for Hydroelectric Turbine Maintenance
Sigma Design solved a very unique problem for the clean energy industry. We developed and manufactured a modular, 26 foot diameter maintenance platform for Hydroelectric Power facilities to service the underside of vertical power turbines. This presented a unique challenge, as all of the pieces of the platform had to be passed through a 24” x 30” manway. Sigma designed a platform that could be broken down into much smaller sections, taken into the turbine area, and assembled by a small crew. This required Sigma to complete detailed assembly instructions, and also assemble and load test it in-house.

Services Performed: Structural analysis and design, large structure fabrication, load testing, work instruction drafting, assembly, test and analysis.

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Ag-tech Vertical Farm Development
5:48 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: Large International Food and Beverage Supplier
Industry: Food and Ag-tech

Sigma develops fluid handling and nutrient injection system for the dynamic indoor farming industry
Sigma Design collaborated with a multinational food and beverage giant to develop a nutrient dosing system for their newly developed indoor hydroponic agriculture farm. We used our extensive background with fluid handling systems across many industries to perfect a water and nutrient dosing system in a well packaged and well engineered skid to fit their final dimensional layout required at their facilities. Pumps were selected after Sigma Design did a review of components suggested by our customer, and our background helped us optimize some components to better fit expected operating conditions.

Services Performed: Fluid handling skid design, component selection and optimization, metal fabrication, hydrostatic pressure testing, design optimization

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A Mechanical Butter Churn
June 14, 2021 8:47 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: Churncraft LLC, CT
Industry: Housewares
Sub Heading: A Better Butter Churn

Artisan Butter – Local Food.
A well-worn, antique butter churn was the inspiration for this family business. The client fondly recalled the process of making butter as a child using the family’s butter churn. Sigma Design Company was hired to create a modern, mechanical butter churn that would be skillfully engineered for superior functionality and sleek design. Even the simplest product can require dozens of challenging manufacturing decisions. Matching the client’s vision for an elegant product with the realities of manufacturing methods and food safety drove the design process.
For more info: www.churncraft.com
Sigma designed and manufactured the prototype.

Services Performed:
Concept Layouts, User Interface and Ergonomics, Aesthetics, Simulation, Product Development, Material Selection, Detail Part Design, Manufacturing Review.

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Mobile Water Cart
8:45 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: WaterStop Carts, NYC
Industry: Food and Beverage

Mobile Water Cart Provides a Green Alternative to Bottled Water: 36 Ounces of Water Are Needed to Produce One 12-ounce Plastic Water Bottle.
Nan Harris CEO of WaterStop Carts approached Sigma Design to develop a new mobile water distribution technology. WaterStop Carts are mobile water filtering units that transform municipal, recycled, reclaimed, and desalinated water to the taste and purity of bottled water. With refillable cups and containers instead of manufactured plastic water bottles, WaterStop Carts are an environmentally sound way to distribute water. The tank on each WaterStop Cart holds 50 gallons, the equivalent of 400 16 oz. bottles of water. Each refill generates a savings of 100 gallons of water used in the manufacturing and distribution of bottled water. This 4-minute video of the prototype WaterStop cart shows how it works.

Sigma is the manufacturer of the WaterStop Cart. We will be developing a second generation cart which will also serve as a WiFi Hot Spot to better connect students and communities to the world via internet.

Services Performed:Water purification technology development, electrical power and controls design, food safety review, mechanical system design, fabricating, testing and validation.

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Not Chicken To Take On Complex FEA
8:40 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: Point of Use Display Manufacturer, NJ
Industry: Food and Beverage

Serving Safe Chicken: Meeting FDA Requirements for Safe Food Holding Temperatures

How much heat does it take to keep food safe for consumption? Sigma used its advanced engineering skills to answer this question. A New Jersey-based company asked Sigma to analyze their warming tray prototype by performing a heat power analysis and thermal FEA on the heater element and control circuit.

The tray is designed to keep rotisserie chickens at a safe internal temperature of 140°F and breakfast sandwiches at a slightly lower temperature, determined by a high and low setting that is set by an operator’s switch.

Step one was to determine the steady state heat power requirements to keep the chicken at temperature by using hand calculations. Then a simplified FEA was run to verify that it matched the hand calculations.

Step two was to source heater elements that match the power requirements found in the hand and FEA calculations from the previous steps. The final step was to determine a control circuit to keep the surface temperature of the plate as constant as possible, meeting the FDA requirements for safe holding temperatures.

Services Performed:
Concepts, heat load FEA simulation, detail design, electronics, ServSafe food safety, product development, testing

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Mobile Filtration Laboratory
8:34 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: U.S. Navy
Industry: Water Treatment

Sigma Designs a Mobile Filtration Laboratory Developed for the U.S. Navy
To support the development of improved U.S. Navy shipboard desalination systems, several filtration devices were selected for evaluation and testing. In order to complete the evaluation a portable filtration test system was required. It included a contaminate injection system, contaminate mixing tank, seawater supply pump, filtrate headers with baseline filters for comparison, backwash/underflow headers, backwash/underflow cleanup filters, all piping, sample lines, valves, hoses, couplings, filtration component foundations, flow meters, and thermometers. Phase 1 of the testing evaluated and ranked the filtration components in a controlled laboratory environment. Phase II was an endurance-type test performed on filtration components at selected coastal sites. Sigma was able to then give the test results to the U.S. Navy, which provided essential data for the program.

Services Performed:
Water purification system development, testing protocol, detail design, controls, sensors, electronics, welding services, machining and fabrication, validation and testing.

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Hydrokinetic River Turbines
8:19 pm Leave a Comment
Customer: Free Flow Power, MA
Industry: Alternative Energy
Sub Heading: Sigma Design Develops a State of the Art, Run of River, Hydrokinetic Electric Generator.

Hydrokinetic River Turbines Capture Alternative Energy.
Sigma was approached by a Boston venture group who needed to develop a pilot renewable energy hydrokinetic generator system. It was a pivotal milestone for the ventures funding and they needed this fully submerged run of river device in the water and producing electrical energy in 6 months from our first meeting. In addition to the accelerated timeline, the project provided us with several other challenges. Most notably being the power generating electronics, hydrodynamic balancing, and marine submersion anti-fouling prevention. In the end we were successful in that the system was designed, manufactured and installed. In fact we understand that it is still running deep in the Mississippi River north of New Orleans.
Sigma Design led the Development, Manufacturing and Testing. Development Partners: Turbo Solutions, VT and AEC, NY

Services Performed:
Concept Development, Flow Simulation, Detail System Design, Electronics, Fabrication and Testing.

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