Flex Wrap Circuit Assembly for Precise Wearable Ring Optical Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Manufacturing wearable devices with integrated optical components is challenging due to size constraints and manual alignment requirements, leading to manufacturing deformities, increased costs, and unreliable physiological measurements.
Innovation Solution
An automated manufacturing process that aligns optical components with sensors using a flexible circuit wrapping system, involving a structure to hold the circuit, a mandrel, pneumatically controlled arms, and a robotic arm for adhesive application, ensuring precise alignment and reduced deformities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual assembly methods are used to integrate optical components, then flexibility in assembly is maintained, but manufacturing precision and productivity deteriorate due to alignment difficulties and irregularities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical assembly operations with an automated system that uses a mandrel and positioning mechanisms to hold and align optical components. The automated assembly system precisely positions optical components relative to sensors without relying on manual dexterity, thereby improving alignment precision while maintaining operational efficiency through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a mandrel as an intermediary tool that facilitates the precise positioning of optical components during assembly. The mandrel serves as a temporary holding structure that ensures correct radial spacing and alignment between optical components and sensors, enabling high-precision assembly that would be difficult to achieve through direct manual manipulation alone.
2Device complexity
If manual assembly methods are used, then device complexity is reduced, but productivity and manufacturing consistency worsen due to time-consuming processes and irregularities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the assembly process into distinct functional modules: a mandrel for holding optical components, positioning mechanisms for alignment, and automated assembly operations. This segmentation allows each component of the assembly system to perform its specific function efficiently, improving overall productivity while keeping individual module complexities manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The mandrel serves multiple functions simultaneously: it holds optical components, provides positioning references for alignment, maintains radial spacing, and facilitates automated assembly operations. This multi-functionality reduces the need for multiple separate tools and fixtures, thereby improving manufacturing throughput without proportionally increasing system complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If optical components are manually positioned, then adaptability in positioning is maintained, but measurement precision and reliability worsen due to alignment irregularities
Solution Approach 1:
The mandrel acts as an intermediary that enforces precise geometric relationships between optical components and sensors. It provides fixed radial spacing and alignment references that ensure consistent positioning, thereby improving measurement precision. The mandrel's structured design maintains adaptability by accommodating various optical component configurations while enforcing precise positional relationships.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent controls the radial spacing and positional parameters of optical components through the mandrel's designed geometry. By fixing these parameters in the mandrel structure, the system achieves high measurement precision. The system maintains adaptability by allowing different optical component arrangements while preserving the critical spacing and alignment parameters through the mandrel's constraints.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and devices for manufacturing a wearable ring device are described. The manufacturing assembly may rotate, by a rotational component, an inner housing member of the wearable ring device to a radial orientation based on an optical alignment process. A positioning component of the manufacturing assembly may insert and align an optical component of a flexible circuit assembly into at least one aperture of the inner housing member by moving the flexible circuit assembly from a first position adjacent to the inner housing member to a second position on the inner housing member. The manufacturing assembly may secure one or more edges of the flexible circuit assembly onto the inner housing member using a plurality of arms of the positioning component and apply, by an automatic adhesive dispensing device of the manufacturing assembly, a polymeric material to adhere the flexible circuit assembly to the inner housing member.