a small team to manage the regulatory process and plan our future commercial efforts. Much like in Europe and the United States, successfully entering the market is impacted by our ability to provide interested parties with access to Senhance, be it through surgeons viewingin-person surgeries, proctoring or training.
As we mentioned on our last call, we’ve begun performing clinical cases at Saitama Medical University. We believe that having an established customer base within Japan will be extremely beneficial as we look to drive increased sales, initially through sales via physician’s import license, and once approved by the regulatory body, a traditional sales infrastructure. We’ve begun the regulatory process in Japan, but would remind you that registration of medical devices in this market is complicated and can take up to 3 years.
In Taiwan, we continue to progress through the regulatory approval pathway. Earlier this year, we received approval from the Taiwanese FDA for the Senhance system, and we are now working through the regulatory process for our instruments, and remain on track for a fourth quarter 2018 clearance. With this clearance, we would expect to see commercial momentum build in 2019 and beyond.
Before we move on from our commercial discussion, I would like to provide you with an update on our progress thus far in the third quarter. We currently anticipate three Senhance sales in the third quarter, one in the U.S. and two in EMEA. Given that the third quarter is traditionally slow, we’re encouraged by this performance. MMC Veldhoven, a major hospital in the Netherlands, has made a public announcement of their intention to purchase the Senhance, and this potential sale is included in our expectations.
Earlier this year, we announced several new product initiatives for 2018, and I’m pleased to report that we remain on track with the timeline we communicated on all of these programs. These programs are: obtaining FDA clearance in launching3-millimeter instruments in the U.S., launching the ultrasonic energy device and launching5-millimeter articulating instruments. We filed a 510(k) submission for the3-millimeter instruments in June, which was ahead of our expectations, and continue to expect clearance by the end of 2018. We continue to anticipate achieving a CE Mark for the ultrasonic energy device and articulating instruments by the end of 2018. And in addition, we intend to submit for 510(k) clearance of5-millimeter articulating instruments by the end of 2018. We believe that the launch of these products will not only drive additional revenue per procedure over time, but also accelerate our Senhance sales pipeline.
Shifting gears to our efforts to expand the Senhance’s indications for use. In the second quarter, we received FDA 510(k) clearance for expanded indications for Senhance to include both laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair and laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. These are both high volume procedures traditionally performed laparoscopically, and approximately double our addressable procedure market to over three million procedures per year.
In the U.S., Senhance is now cleared for laparoscopic, colorectal, gynecologic, inguinal hernia and cholecystectomy surgery. This enables Senhance to be used for some of the most common abdominal surgeries, including procedures in general surgery and gynecology. We believe this indication expansion significantly increases the applicability of Senhance to more institutions, particularly those with a busy general surgery practice.