RESOURCES

blog article

Mar 14, 2019

A major element of defining your part is to consider which type of plastic you’ll want to use. A variety of plastic materials are available. In raw form, they’re called resins. Resins can be combined with other resins or with filler materials to give plastics special properties. All of t...

blog article

Mar 13, 2019

At one time, lasers were nothing more than science fiction dreams. In the last 60 years, we’ve transitioned from imaginary cosmic ray guns to harnessing the power of light strategically. Today, lasers are everywhere, in subtle surgical equipment, optical media readers, and in the brute-force s...

blog article

Mar 11, 2019

Walk across the spotlessly clean and well-lit floors of Pratt & Whitney’s 1 million-square-foot manufacturing plant in North Berwick, Maine, and you’ll pass by dozens of closed-door CNC machines, each the size of a large refrigerator. The machines quietly whir and hum as they turn, m...

blog article

Mar 08, 2019

Three years ago Acura turned many heads with the Precision concept. Said to be the future of Acura design language, the latest RDX crossover is the most full-bodied expression of the Precision Crafted Performance design language. The rest of the range has only gone as far as the Diamond Pentagon gri...

blog article

Mar 08, 2019

McLaren designed the Senna to be a track car that was just barely legal enough to drive on public streets. Hinderances such as safety restrictions keep it from being the full-out ballistic projectile it was born to be. So McLaren asked the question, "What if we took the Senna out of that box?&q...

blog article

Mar 08, 2019

Boeing plans to increase production of the 787 to a rate of 14 per month in 2019. The company delivered 145 aircraft in 2018, up from 136 in 2017, and looks to be on track to make its goal for the new year. The move is not without risk. Production of the competing Airbus A350 is ramping up, and the ...

blog article

Mar 05, 2019

Fully electric vans aren't all the rage yet, but Mercedes is trying to change that with its EQV Concept at the Geneva Motor Show. Mercedes promises this concept is going to spawn an extremely similar production vehicle. The specs on the concept are promising, too. The EQV Concept will travel 249...

blog article

Feb 14, 2019

A guitar pick is a simple design, right? It’s just a flat piece of flexible plastic, after all. Well, Paul Holcomb, founder of Bog Street LLC and designer of the LEAP series of guitar picks, begs to differ. He has reimagined the guitar pick with an all-in-one design with variable thicknesses a...

blog article

Feb 12, 2019

Now that Additive Manufacturing (AM) has traversed the Hype Cycle to the Path of Enlightenment, an increasing number of manufacturing concerns are focused on learning how to leverage the benefits of AM to bolster the strength of their value streams. Most who are successful at understanding the gains...

blog article

Feb 12, 2019

Partnering with an industrial manufacturing marketing agency may be just what your business needs to boost growth and achieve goals. However, once you’ve established a partnership with an agency, you must make sure they are delivering an ROI return on investment.

blog article

Feb 12, 2019

Few would argue that cost-effective and efficient postprocessing of 3D-printed parts is a necessary aspect of the industry’s continued growth. Yet it’s important to recognize that postprocessing is far more effective if it’s considered early in the design process-not treated as an ...

blog article

Feb 11, 2019

At Autodesk University (AU) last November, it was not surprising that several speakers representing the company, including CEO Andrew Anagnost, discussed the convergence of design and manufacturing. This has been a theme at several prior sessions of the annual AU event. However, another convergence ...

blog article

Feb 11, 2019

Manufacturing teams are all striving for continuous improvement - more output, better quality, lower costs, increased flexibility, and agility, etc. There is a global wave of digital transformation in manufacturing, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution. Attend Liv...

blog article

Feb 08, 2019

Two of the most popular forms of carbon steel for manufacturing-galvanized and galvannealed-start with the same process, but that’s where the similarities end. The difference between these two is the addition of an important manufacturing step that could affect your choice of materials for cer...

blog article

Feb 08, 2019

There have been plenty of discussions lately around the mounting skills gap dilemma facing manufacturing and fabricating industries. It’s quite a different conversation compared to a decade ago, though. Between late 2007 and 2010, the U.S. economy was suffering through a financial crisis-led r...

blog article

Feb 08, 2019

For those utopians starry-eyed about emerging 3D printing/additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, former President Barack Obama’s enthusiasm was rather encouraging. As a new era has dawned in the White House, what is helping and hindering the growth of 3D printing today?

blog article

Feb 07, 2019

Steady industry growth was a trend for manufacturers in 2018. According to a recent Forbes report, U.S. manufacturing has rebounded since the Great Recession, with a gain of 1.1 million jobs over the last eight years. Those numbers are expected to climb in 2019.

blog article

Feb 06, 2019

After high school graduation and a few years at a technical school, or maybe four years at a university, you’re done, right? Racking up 14 to 16 years in classrooms, full-time, should be more than enough for a career, shouldn’t it? How much education does the modern world really need fro...

blog article

Feb 05, 2019

The benefits of automating repetitive operational procedures are clear, at least in theory. Workload automation can provide improved process efficiency, better visibility and allow a more agile response to an ever-changing technological landscape. But it’s that ever-changing nature that causes...

blog article

Feb 04, 2019

Even if you think your operation couldn't get better, there's always room for improvement. Thanks to rapidly developing technology, you have new options to implement quality control on your shop floor. With a few tweaks to your process, you can see distinct improvements in quality while main...

blog article

Feb 03, 2019

The best way to demonstrate the transformative benefits of 3D post-print automation is through a customer’s real-world success story. This prominent consumer goods company utilizes multiple additive manufacturing technologies within their prototyping department. With volumes ramping annually, ...

blog article

Feb 02, 2019

January’s jobs report released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that U.S. companies added around 304,000 jobs last month and average hourly wages grew 3.2 percent for private-sector workers from one year ago. The unemployment rate rose to 4 percent mostly due to the r...

blog article

Feb 01, 2019

Metal 3D printing crosses markets. And those in machining, fabrication, and other areas of conventional manufacturing have been paying attention. A high-end, previously machined part could be totally redesigned to take advantage of all that additive manufacturing (AM) has to offer, complete with imp...

blog article

Jan 30, 2019

For the past few years, one of the biggest trends in manufacturing is Digital Transformation. Most manufacturers have created some type of Digital Transformation roadmap, started their search for relevant use cases, and in some instances, began their implementation. These transformations are either ...

blog article

Jan 29, 2019

The digitalization of your manufacturing operations is an essential component of not only working to improve operational efficiencies today – but also preparing for what’s next.  Define specific objectives based on the level of automation, data processing and connectivity you need i...

blog article

Jan 29, 2019

Modeling and Simulation is defined as an imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system. In other words, a simulation in practice is a way to evaluate virtual scenarios using a process model to mitigate the risk of an investment. This means that Manufacturers can fail quickly and inexp...

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

Surface finish is fundamental to the performance and appearance of any customer-ready part. For example, in the way of performance, an uneven surface can create aerodynamic drag that is the difference in a part meeting or failing a critical test. In the way of aesthetics, it can also be the differen...

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

The town I live in is home to four companies involved with additive manufacturing: a builder of 3D printers, an international distributor of resins, a multinational consultancy, and a 3D printer of small toys. That certainly doesn’t make the town a hotbed of AM activity. But it’s an impr...

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

What is the ideal operating speed for your stamping press to deliver the highest productivity? What’s the optimum clean-in-place interval for the vats in your beverage production line? Your operators are running an asset hard. What’s the consequence of the machine’s future health? ...

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

American manufacturers are facing another big threat to growth and profitability in the future. It is the threat of rising healthcare costs. Both the costs of insurance premiums and deductibles continue to rise. Many people and companies are asking why the per capita cost is so high in the United St...

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

Nascar was an early adopter of 3D printing because it enables their engineers to prototype faster, testing more design iterations to determine what makes the car go the faster. The drivers are often involved in the testing process and thus exposed to the wonders of 3D printing. Brad Keselowski got b...

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

A luxury footwear brand called Ica & Kostika has used 3D printing technology to create a range of shoes which it dubbed as its Exobiology collection. Inspired by nature, the shoes are shaped and designed to comfortably fit the natural form of the foot.

blog article

Jan 28, 2019

A team of engineers at the University of Maryland has created the smallest-ever 3D printed fluidic circuit element. Fluidic circuits are a lot like electrical circuits, where different components of a circuit board control and direct the flow of fluid/electricity. They’re used in medical devic...

blog article

Jan 25, 2019

The standard robot (overlord) is usually equipped with rigid actuators, also known as grippers; they may have a soft coating to limit scratching the surface of whatever object the robot is interacting with, but ultimately the actuators have to be relatively stiff in order to bear the weight of lifte...

blog article

Jan 25, 2019

A study out of North Carolina State University investigates a process for 3D printing soft robotics that can be controlled with magnetic fields. Soft robotics is a subfield where robotic objects are constructed of materials that mimic tissues of living organisms; they generally achieve motion withou...

blog article

Jan 25, 2019

Kallista’s Grid bathroom faucet and Cube handles are stunning examples of minimalist design. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Kallista, part of the Kohler (Wis.) Decorative Products Group, recently received a Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum for its faucet set.

blog article

Jan 24, 2019

Manufacturing companies are hoping to continue their revenue growth in 2019 by focusing on three key areas. Deloitte has released the results of its annual manufacturing industry outlook report, which finds that the optimism from 2017 and 2018 will continue this year. With promises of tax reform, de...

blog article

Jan 23, 2019

Composites manufacturing is inherently an additive process and has always been about structural efficiency in our three-dimensional world. However, the 3D printing community has been slow to catch on. For more than 30 years, 3D printing has been stuck in 2.5D, building parts a layer at a time on a f...

blog article

Jan 23, 2019

Xiaoyu Rayne Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, and a member of the Macromolecules Innovation Institute, and his team have developed methods to 3D print piezoelectric materials that can be custom-designed to convert movement, impact, and stress from a...

blog article

Jan 22, 2019

Climate change is indisputable, as is its impact on our planet’s invaluable but finite resources. Indeed, this is one of the most pressing paradoxes of our time: how do we strive for industrial growth while also being mindful of the traditional environmental impact of production?

blog article

Jan 22, 2019

Every few months or so I read about a university, government agency, or manufacturing company that’s opening a research center devoted to advanced technologies. These organizations tend to be large and well-funded. GE, for example, invested approximately $1.5 billion in its Global Research Cen...

blog article

Jan 22, 2019

Industry 4.0 is commonly defined as the next wave of manufacturing technology advances, which characterize the fourth industrial revolution. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and cloud and cognitive computing. Industry 4.0’s attraction is not only in the digitization o...

blog article

Jan 21, 2019

In the case of Attl A Spol, a company producing stainless steel tubes for a Volkswagen supplier, automated robots allowed them to perform monotonous manual labor with heightened precision and 20 hours a day, 6 days a week without any required downtime or service outages.

blog article

Jan 21, 2019

Made in America considerations have come into play over the past few years with regard to iron and steel products used by cities, counties, and states when they repair or build drinking water and sewer systems. That trend continues as Congress fights back efforts to change the rules.

blog article

Jan 18, 2019

A Zero Waste Lab was just opened in Thessaloniki, Greece that directly recycles plastic into outdoor furniture. For the public, closing the plastic waste loop with direct recycling is one of the more compelling selling points of 3D printing as we all feel the guilt of our plastic waste.

blog article

Jan 17, 2019

CNC Machining is a manufacturing process in which a set of pre-defined computer codes are used to manipulate how the existing machinery such as lathe, grinder, milling machine, would behave. These codes are generated with the help of CAM software that converts CAD drawing of parts into a series of s...

blog article

Jan 17, 2019

The technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) practice at Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has revealed its latest digital trends for 2019 in its annual UK technology, media, and telecoms (TMT) report. 2019 will see the first mass-market generation of 5G-enabled handsets go on sale.

blog article

Jan 17, 2019

TAHOE Boats, part of White River Marine Group, the marine manufacturing arm of Bass Pro Shops, has announced its new and revolutionary T16 boat design engineered with families in mind. Using innovative 3D printing technology, the T16 delivers a lightweight design and better affordability with an unc...

blog article

Jan 17, 2019

3D printing company Carbon (Silicon Valley) showed the first digitally manufactured polymer parts in production for Ford Motor Co. at the Additive Manufacturing for Automotive Workshop at the 2019 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit.

blog article

Jan 17, 2019

January is a great time to look at the year ahead and sketch out a few ways the automation market needs to evolve in 2019, to the benefit of both vendors and customers. Digital Darwinism, or slowly falling behind the competition as you fail to adapt to new technologies, is a real thing. And it&rsquo...

blog article

Jan 16, 2019

One of the biggest (pun totally intended) trends occurring in 3D printing right now is printing bridges. We just covered the opening of China's first 3D-printed footbridge in Shanghai, but another record-setting 3D-printed concrete pedestrian bridge was unveiled on the same weekend and also in S...

blog article

Jan 16, 2019

3D printing with concrete is all the rage right now amongst the big wigs in the construction industry, and Europe is jumping on that enthusiasm with the opening of its first industrial concrete 3D printing facility, which is in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The project is a collaboration between BAM Infra...

blog article

Jan 16, 2019

We talk a lot on this blog about Chinese New Year and for good reason! It’s a major multi-week holiday that puts production at a complete standstill, and if companies do not properly prepare, it could cause major headaches. It’s not just Chinese New Year, though.

blog article

Jan 15, 2019

One of the most exciting things about working in manufacturing is the fast-paced nature of the industry. However, the constant change and continuous innovation can also create a challenge - keeping up with everything. As a supplier, you need to know what trends are driving demand for your products a...

blog article

Jan 15, 2019

Roaming the vast halls of CES, you realize the show isn’t just about the brightest TVs or the fastest drones. It’s also about deliciousness. As you’ve probably seen from our numerous dispatches from the show, we found a bunch of cool startups developing new ways to make tasty treat...

blog article

Jan 15, 2019

Fortify, a Boston-based additive manufacturing company specialized in composite material systems, has announced today a seed round of $2.5M with strategic funding from Neotribe Ventures, Prelude Ventures, MainspringCapital, Ocean Azul Partners, and McCune Capital.

blog article

Jan 15, 2019

Industry 4.0 is upon us, but what exactly does it mean? Not just in defining the term, but in understanding the potential benefit it can bring, then once prepared, how to go about implementing Industry 4.0 technologies in your shop. Recent years have seen a resurgence in manufacturing activity that ...

blog article

Jan 11, 2019

A 3D printed sponge could absorb excess drugs from entering the bloodstream of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, reducing the side effects of treatment while also allowing for higher dosages to combat more resistant tumors. The toll of cancer doesn’t stop at the illness; the treatments c...

blog article

Jan 11, 2019

While President Trump and others extol manufacturing sector growth, the year ended with the standard manufacturing production number dropping from 59.3 percent in November to 54.1 percent in December. While any PMI number over 50 still indicates growth, this is the lowest figure since November 2016 ...

blog article

Jan 10, 2019

Metal additive manufacturing is on the rise. The most recent numbers show that over 50% of service providers are producing some level of metals parts, and almost 25% are producing metal exclusively. However, metals have more challenges when it comes to meeting the final surface finish specifications...

blog article

Jan 09, 2019

This past December, I took part in a three-day workshop conducted by the American Management Association on behalf of my employer, the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International (FMA). The entire organization took part in the program, entitled Building Better Work Relationships: New T...

blog article

Jan 07, 2019

When the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released its monthly Report on Business last week, the manufacturing industry got a bit of a jolt when December’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) plummeted more than 5 percent from the previous month. The drop to 54.1 percent is a 25...

blog article

Jan 07, 2019

And here is the result, the first stab at a bicycle light - in this case, one based on a pair of Carclo 26.5mm collimators. Good citizen note: With powerful leds behind them, it is only fair to use such optics as a switchable main beam to go alongside a properly controlled non-dazzle dip beam.

blog article

Jan 06, 2019

Digital manufacturing promises to improve productivity on the shop floor, offering manufacturers sensors, software and connectivity to capture and leverage data about their operations. However, truly digital manufacturing extends beyond the shop floor; it follows and encompasses the entire product l...

blog article

Jan 04, 2019

Additive manufacturing promises a revolution in the way we manufacture and distribute goods in a range of industries. The opportunities for the MedTech sector are immense, for business, healthcare professionals and patients alike. Ultimately, the benefit of this technology lies in the deskilling and...

blog article

Jan 03, 2019

Flutura has helped various batch manufacturing companies move from Standard Operating Procedures to Dynamic Operating Procedures to achieve high-quality benchmarks for their products. The key to this is through better decision making for shop floor personnel in real time by identifying deep insights...

blog article

Jan 02, 2019

By now, you’ve probably heard the troubling statistics. IndustryWeek reports that nearly 25% of manufacturing employees are age 55 or older, and many will soon be leaving to enjoy a well-earned retirement. Unfortunately, there’s no influx of new talent waiting to take their places.

blog article

Jan 01, 2019

There has been sustained excitement about IOT and the data capabilities it will bring to the industry. In 2013, McKinsey&Company had predicted that IOT would bring $3-6T economic impact in 2025. With margins getting smaller and competition getting more intense, manufacturing companies are gettin...

blog article

Dec 28, 2018

Recently, a potential client asked if we The Barnes Group Advisors could give a presentation to their stakeholders. Requests like these are common and topics typically include Industrial Additive Manufacturing or The Future of Additive Manufacturing.

blog article

Dec 27, 2018

One would be hard-pressed to find many commentators ready to say Europe’s manufacturing industry is coasting. Rather, the last decades have been quite competent at throwing several challenges towards our economic model. The 2018 European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) Conference “The World...

blog article

Dec 27, 2018

We cover heaps of research and development concerning the 3D printing of bone, and while the technologies of the field are advancing at a rapid pace, most of the techniques and materials are years away from being applied. That’s why it’s especially exciting when we get to report on prese...

blog article

Dec 27, 2018

Every maker’s 3D printer is working overtime around the holidays as family and friends request trinkets, figurines, and custom name tags. But arguably, the most popular Christmas-time objects to 3D print are ornaments. Some designers go to extremes by incorporating moving parts into their 3D p...

blog article

Dec 26, 2018

In only a few years, nearly all vehicles will include 3D printed components. This is evidenced by the growing number of automotive manufacturing companies already using additive methods as well as those in the research and development phase of incorporating 3D printing into their supply chains and a...

blog article

Dec 21, 2018

It’s true that there is no place like home for the holidays, but during these months of sweater weather, family gatherings, seasonal celebrations, and greeting cards, it is easy to take the creature comforts that make all these things possible for granted. Let’s take a look at how manufa...

blog article

Dec 21, 2018

Data shows that the additive manufacturing industry grew 21 percent from 2016 to 2017 (Wohlers Associates). With so many businesses now embracing industrial 3D printing, it is natural for them to move from R&D to prototyping to the production of parts. At each stage, 3D printing supply chains be...

blog article

Dec 21, 2018

There are only a few manufacturers on that planet that are so important and so specialized that their production of a brake caliper would warrant any amount of attention. Bugatti is one of those few. After premiering a 3D-printed titanium caliper early in 2018, Volkswagen Group released a video of e...

blog article

Dec 21, 2018

If Santa Claus ran a toy company, he’d have the best lean manufacturing operations in the industry. A lean analysis shows that he delivers custom tailored products to every one of his clients; providing immense value. He is also able to accomplish this with minimal waste and able to adapt to s...

blog article

Dec 20, 2018

2018 is almost over and what a year it was! We found needles in strawberries, saw a surge in food fraud and an outbreak in listeria from contaminated rockmelons. We observed the rolling of another Australian prime minister, while the positive growth in Australian manufacturing continued. We watched ...

blog article

Dec 20, 2018

Meeting your prospective electronics manufacturing partner face-to-face can be a valuable part of the process of assessing whether or not they're the right fit for your company. Manufacturing trade shows offer the perfect opportunity to meet and compare a whole range of contract manufacturers un...

blog article

Dec 20, 2018

The article discusses an engineering course at Michigan Technological University in which students designed and additively manufactured adaptive aids for arthritis sufferers. They 3D-printed a light switch extender, a device that actuates fingernail clippers, and a toothbrush holder - to name a few....

blog article

Dec 19, 2018

Over the last few months, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program has been commemorating our 30th anniversary. The Program has enjoyed taking a step back to look at our beginnings, the reasons the Program came to be, and how we can continue to deliver on our mission to strengthen and e...

blog article

Dec 19, 2018

Let me guess – you’ve designed a killer product that you want to manufacture in China, but you’re worried that a cheaper version of your product will appear on Alibaba in a month. Who wants to spend the R+D dollars to then have their intellectual property (IP) stolen in a flash? Ta...

blog article

Dec 19, 2018

The survey of 346 manufacturers found that output growth picked up in the three months to December, rising further above the long-run average. Output expanded in 15 out of 17 sub-sectors, with growth driven predominantly by the food, drink, & tobacco, mechanical engineering, and chemicals sub-se...

blog article

Dec 18, 2018

People around the globe are quick to laud Britain for its prowess in the likes of financial services, education, and media. But few are willing to accept that the nation is a world leader in manufacturing. Despite having remained in the top 11 production countries for the past decade, UK manufacturi...

blog article

Dec 18, 2018

In many ways, the promise of industrial-grade 3D printing additive manufacturing as a production method is already here. Case in point: BMW. The Germany-based luxury automaker recently announced that it had just fitted its one-millionth 3D printed part in production: a window guide rail for the new ...

blog article

Dec 18, 2018

You don’t have to be a bank or insurance company to know the value of having bulletproof compliance and governance structures in place. In multi-national, multi-platform business, correctly handling and generating the masses of data required between on-premises, private and public cloud deploy...

blog article

Dec 17, 2018

Looking for leaders in disruptive technology? Just pull out your smartphone there's a good chance your screens are peppered with apps of companies that have transformed how everyday products and services are consumed. How people shop. How they move from spot to spot. How they watch and listen to...

blog article

Dec 17, 2018

It’s December. That means holiday cheer and a spate of articles, columns, and blogs predicting trends that will shape manufacturing in 2019. A good trends piece about additive manufacturing was posted recently on the website of the Belgian software company Materialise.

blog article

Dec 17, 2018

Tomer Gluck of FennecLabs recently posted a tutorial on 3D printing transparent objects such as lenses on desktop FDM 3D printers. While there are many transparent filaments available for FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printers, there are few transparent 3D prints that come out of the popular de...

blog article

Dec 17, 2018

As of the end of 2018, it has now been seven years since SmarTech Publishing believes the additive manufacturing (AM) industry reached its most significant inflection point when the mass influx of low-cost desktop machines catalyzed public attention in the technology like never before.

blog article

Dec 14, 2018

There’s been a lot of buzz lately in the additive manufacturing realm about generative design, developing AM-friendly materials, and shifting printer processing speeds into overdrive. Generative design is an iterative process whereby specialized software and cloud computing produce multiple, e...

blog article

Dec 13, 2018

November was an exciting month for HUI, as we built our first run of sellable parts on our brand new TruMatic 6000 TRUMPF machine. This is great news for both our customers and our teammates. Once the machine is functioning at full capacity by the end of December, we’ll see improvements in pro...

blog article

Dec 12, 2018

The manufacturing industry has been making rapid advancements in recent years, paving the way for cutting-edge technologies. With each new innovation, manufacturing gets more efficient and more precise, leading to the cost-effective production of safer and higher-quality products.

blog article

Dec 12, 2018

Nano Dimension builds machines for additively manufacturing printed electronics used in the medical, aerospace, telecommunications, defense, and automotive industries. The company’s DragonFly Pro System simultaneously 3D-prints dielectric polymers and conductive metals. The Israeli firm, which...

blog article

Dec 11, 2018

Biofuel manufacturers can now breathe a sigh of relief with a new announcement that opens and encourages enhanced business operations. Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has ascertained that biofuel manufacturers are now permitted to import raw material without any restrictions.

blog article

Dec 11, 2018

You’ve already installed antivirus software, so your operations are now protected, right? Don’t be lulled into a false sense of cybersecurity. If you haven’t implemented the first cybercrime prevention steps to protect your Operational Technology (OT), your networked equipment may ...

blog article

Dec 10, 2018

As you may have heard, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program is commemorating its 30th anniversary this year. It’s got me thinking about that milestone in light of the MEP National Network’s mission to strengthen and empower U.S. manufacturers and its emphasis on deliveri...

blog article

Dec 07, 2018

The U.S. Department of Labor released its November labor report today, and the overall takeaway shows numbers that are, well, mostly meh – nothing great but nothing too unpleasant. Although November’s 155,000 new jobs were a little less than the 198,000-forecast and below the yearly 209,...

blog article

Dec 06, 2018

As operational technology merges with ICT, mobile communication has an important role to play towards the manufacturing industry. With that said, 80% of Industrial IoT is wired and fixed networks dominate in factories. These long-established physical constraints have contributed to a fixed mindset i...

blog article

Dec 05, 2018

We are excited to announce that we are a founding member of MIT’s Center for Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies (ADAPT). The group is focused on scaling new manufacturing technology through research and education, bringing together the best minds in academia and industry. We...

blog article

Dec 04, 2018

Despite the fact that manufacturing remains a top sector when it comes to targeted cyber attacks, manufacturers haven’t focused on cybersecurity as a key aspect of their businesses. This is likely due to the fact that manufacturers don’t know how at risk they are, much less where they ca...

blog article

Dec 04, 2018

AI, most regularly associated with Artificial Intelligence, has become a bit of a stand-in term for what is really a broad selection of technologies that encompasses machine learning, predictive analytics, natural language processing, object recognition and more. To the uninitiated, it can be a bit ...

blog article

Dec 04, 2018

Digital technology is shaping businesses and reducing conventional ways of structuring and conducting them. In a nutshell, digital transformations are happening in leaps and bounds and as far as the packaging industry is concerned, it has run on set business models until recently. With digitization ...

blog article

Dec 03, 2018

There are sure to be many new challenges (and opportunities) for manufacturing companies in the wake of the Brexit fiasco. Whilst we’re currently embroiled in an uncertain political, economical and technological climate that’s creating more questions than answers, we can be certain that ...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Manufacturers who excel at orchestrating analytics, Business Intelligence (BI), quality management and real-time monitoring to improve manufacturing strategies are growing 10% faster than their peers. 81% say real-time monitoring is improving their business, and 60% say analytics and Business Intell...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Manufacturing is at a turning point. At a time when we walk around with supercomputers in our pockets, plants that have been around for decades are still operating like the world hasn’t changed. Sure, there are many businesses undergoing a digital transformation, but the perception remains tha...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

The demand for healthy and convenient ready-to-eat (RTE) food is on the rise. Already the largest segment in the overall conventional and non-conventional food industry, the RTE food market is forecasted to grow at a 21.8-percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2018 and 2023.

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Ceramic has become a popular material in the 3D printing world. It’s heat resistant, food safe, relatively strong, and has a look and feel that’s just more pleasant than plastics and polymers. That explains why more companies are 3D printing with ceramic. Now, even makers can join in on ...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Our world is full of networks. Our social networks are abstract, but others, such as the circuitry in our brains or the underground networks of fungi that trees use to communicate, have to exist physically. Physical networks, which are restricted by the laws of three-dimensional space, captured the ...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Day to day productivity is vital to the success of any manufacturer. And the manufacturing industry has historically been considered a key driver in productivity growth in the UK. But since the financial crisis of 2008, manufacturing - along with the rest of the economy - has seen an undeniable slum...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Is your company liked? The question may sound silly, but the reality is that companies making themselves available online and through social media are the ones most likely to succeed. It’s no secret that television and radio commercials aren’t as effective as they once were, and print ad...

blog article

Nov 29, 2018

Cybersecurity compliance is a concept that has been talked about abundantly in recent years. Whether it is in reference to the alleged interference in an election process or the latest retail breach of customer’s credit card information, it is hard to deny that the risk is real. But, what does...

blog article

Nov 28, 2018

The term disruptive technology is everywhere these days. How do you separate the truly disruptive from the hype? And what does it mean for technology to truly be disruptive, instead of just new? When it comes to IIoT, Anurag Garg, VP and Head of Analytics & IoT, Plex Systems believes there is on...

blog article

Nov 28, 2018

We understand how hard you have worked to build a secure factory and digital framework. We know the landscape has changed dramatically over the past ten years, and we get how hard it has been to sit with uncertainty throughout this process. It’s one thing to acknowledge where you may have gaps...

blog article

Nov 28, 2018

Running as lean and fast as they can to capitalize on every growth opportunity in 2018, manufacturers are taking bold steps to digitally transform operations in 2019. According to a recent survey of 151 North American manufacturers conducted by Decision Analyst on behalf of IQMS, technologies that b...

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Nov 28, 2018

The global EV offensive is forcing some manufacturers to look for alternative ways of cashing in from their experience in the field. BMW recently announced that their Thailand branch will be kicking off local high voltage battery production starting next year. The plant will be located at a new prod...

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Nov 27, 2018

Space Florida’s board of directors voted Tuesday to throw almost $20 million at new projects estimated to add over 270 high-paying space-related jobs at Cape Canaveral. The biggest project would include $52 million in new facilities for a new player in launch operations and launch vehicle (roc...

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Nov 27, 2018

Imagine if you could immediately and continuously identify the companies that are researching you online. Imagine being able to track those companies throughout the buying journey, ensuring you never miss a sales opportunity. Imagine having all of this actionable information at your fingertips, so t...

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Nov 27, 2018

It was Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, who said, “Change is the only constant in life,” highlighting the strong need to always expect and plan for change throughout our lives. This is certainly true for the manufacturing industry as cultural and technological changes increasingly place ...

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Nov 27, 2018

Manufacturers throughout the United States are facing a new set of challenges and exciting growth opportunities. Given the manufacturing industry’s important role in providing both direct and indirect jobs, how firms react to these changing conditions is critical not only to the companies them...

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Nov 27, 2018

The market for additive manufacturing in the general and commercial aerospace industry has undergone several radical changes over the past three years, all targeted toward implementing the AM process in part manufacturing. Although following very different dynamics, these changes concern both the me...

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Nov 27, 2018

Automotive industry stakeholders worldwide are now racing toward full industrialization and integration of the AM process within their end-to-end production workflow, beginning with software and materials, passing through the AM hardware, and ending with services and a growing number of possible app...

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Nov 27, 2018

Few materials in the world of manufacturing offer as wide a range of applications as ceramics. When it comes to additive manufacturing, the wide range of ceramic applications and material types is further expanded by the even wider range of different ceramics additive manufacturing processes that ha...

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Nov 27, 2018

No other year in the history of the dental industry has seen as great a push towards global adoption of digital dentistry than 2017 and, as a result of this, attention from dental professionals on 3D printing technologies is at an all-time high. This, of course, is a net positive for the dental 3D p...

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Nov 26, 2018

It’s probably not a bad idea for smaller and mid-sized manufacturers (SMMs) to adopt us against them attitude as they become aware of the prevalence of cyber-attacks in the digital age of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0.

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Nov 26, 2018

In the last couple posts in this series, we’ve considered coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) past and present as well as the various calibration standards and probe types that a shop should be aware of when in the market for one of these metrology systems. In this last post, let’s take...

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Nov 23, 2018

Mercedes-Benz is continuously expanding its range of genuine replacement parts from the 3D printer. The brand has already been offering 3D printed replacement commercial vehicle parts since 2016, now Mercedes-Benz announced that further replacement parts have passed the strict quality assurance at M...

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Nov 22, 2018

It’s the first day of a promising new career. The candidate you recently offered a job to is now waiting patiently in reception. They are excited and nervous at the same time. They have a million and one questions racing through their head which they hope will be answered during the induction ...

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Nov 22, 2018

The manufacturing industry has always been influenced by the demands of society – which remain permanently in flux. Britain has a reputation for lagging behind other nations when it comes to manufacturing, focused primarily on moving goods in high volume at the lowest possible cost.

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Nov 22, 2018

Lean manufacturing is a big buzzword in the industry – and with good reason. A belief system that has helped to propel manufacturing into an exciting new era, lean ideology is one of the most important and influential movements of our time. At The Manufacturing Institute, we’ve seen firs...

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Nov 21, 2018

Facing a crisis of shrinking profit margins, Manufacturing Alliance leaders have been asking for some tips on trimming overhead costs. For this article, OVERHEAD COSTS are considered any resource, task or thing that does not directly touch the product being produced for sale. Also, a couple of sugge...

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Nov 21, 2018

The pushback against President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs appears to be gaining momentum. In an open letter addressed to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer this week, 34 U.S. organizations representing a wide variety of manufacturers - ranging from the Association of Eq...

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Nov 20, 2018

They say study the past to know the future. In the migration from subtractive manufacturing to additive, we may be following the existing paradigm too closely. Both subtractive and additive manufacturing span a three-step process: part design, part build and the post-processing of the part to make i...

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Nov 20, 2018

Business dynamics for manufacturers are changing more rapidly and becoming more disruptive than ever before. The changes are driven by the rising expectations of consumers and business customers, increasing complexities of global supply chains, growing competitive pressures, constantly shifting regu...

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Nov 20, 2018

Well for starters, Pittsburgh is ranked 8th nationally for manufacturing output. There are 3,000 manufacturing businesses and more than 100,000 manufacturing professionals in the Pittsburgh metro area. So when the Manufacturing & Technology team was researching the best place to hold our 2019 ev...

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Nov 20, 2018

To support a potential, future lunar base, researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) have 3D-printed and baked fake moon dust into screws, gears, and even a coin. Both private and government space agencies have expressed serious intentions and started developing plans to build a human-inhabited...

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Nov 20, 2018

There are more and more non-dairy milks hitting the shelves, from soy and hemp to pecans and flax seed, but a milk alternative (hopefully) coming in 2019 is actually a dairy product, despite the fact that it comes out of a 3D printer and not a cow’s udder. Founded by Ryan Pandya and Perumal Ga...

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Nov 20, 2018

GBP/USD has edged lower in the Tuesday session. In North American trade, the pair is trading at 1.2809, down 0.33% on the day. On the release front, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney testified about inflation before Parliament’s Treasury Committee. British CBI Industrial Order Expectations ...

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Nov 19, 2018

Looking to increase your sales? Although successful, well-executed B2B marketing strategies take time to build and require ongoing, consistent effort, there are some things you can do today to help drive sales - and they only take a few minutes.

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Nov 19, 2018

Australia’s FMCG market presents myriad challenges for both suppliers and retailers - geographic scale and distance, relatively high costs of transportation, population density, supply chain complexity, and the diverse and fast-evolving expectations of our customers.

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Nov 19, 2018

To compete in a world of continuous product innovation and expanding market opportunities, your company needs to implement strategies that deliver a competitive advantage. Learn how to make this possible by unifying the major elements of your design, manufacturing planning, and resources on a common...

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Nov 16, 2018

Digital twin technology has gained significant traction across industries. Analysts predict that connected products, backed by actionable real-time data, will be represented by digital twins in the future. With the unprecedented growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), there is a sudden burst of inte...

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Nov 16, 2018

Here in the U.S., the manufacturing sector is regaining its health and optimism remains high, but challenges remain. Chief among these challenges is the job skills gap. Not surprisingly, major themes at FABTECH 2018 revolved around automation, robotics, and the Connected Factory/Industrial Internet ...

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Nov 16, 2018

The opening of McLaren’s new production facility in Rotherham may have been rich in pomp and ceremony - a 3,850 horsepower convoy of supercars racing to meet the more sedate Royal fleet of Bentleys, for example - but behind the showmanship, there are vital lessons for UK manufacturing.

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Nov 16, 2018

Amid all the hype and wide-eyed growth predicted for virtual reality, it's often difficult for stakeholders to decide which of its two words to focus on. Will VR deliver only indirect, virtual benefits to the manufacturing industry or direct, tangible benefits that become a bottom-line reality?

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Nov 16, 2018

Dependent upon your perspective, the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) invokes one of two opinions: One, eventually the machines will rule the world. Or two, you appreciate the benefits of modern technology. But either way, one thing is certain: The human workforce relinquishes a bit of respon...

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Nov 16, 2018

Robotics is a field concerned with the intuitive connection of perception to action. Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence is used in every industry to automate applications throughout the product line to save time and money. Robots are now used to handle most tedious and dangerous manufacturing applica...

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Nov 15, 2018

While a good deal of the talk at this year’s International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) focused on big data, automation, and 3D-printing technologies, what struck me most was the undercurrent of change in our industry. There was a palpable uptick in the number of female attendees learn...

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Nov 15, 2018

In the manufacturing industry, there is more to measure now than ever before. This we all know. And while every production process is different, taking a data-driven approach to uncovering insights is a great strategy no matter what is being produced. We all know this, too.

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Nov 15, 2018

IoT Analytics, a leading provider of market insights & competitive intelligence for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M, and Industry 4.0, today published a comprehensive 375-page market report titled Industry 4.0 & Smart Manufacturing 2018-2023.

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Nov 15, 2018

The rise of the 4th industrial revolution (4IR)has brought with it digital inter-connectivity that offers unprecedented opportunities for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs.) But with that openness, there also comes risk - the threat of the loss of data, the theft of capital or intellectual prop...

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Nov 14, 2018

You already know that your customers mean everything to your manufacturing business. Every once in a while, however, it's important to let those customers know it, too. You likely spend a lot of time, money, and energy bringing in new clients, but very few companies expend anywhere near that muc...

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Nov 14, 2018

This particular printer, a Fabrikator Mini v2, has a few foibles - although fewer than many - one of which is that the heated bed cables (for heater and thermistor) foul a screw sticking out of the base, as well as the z-axis (vertical) lead-screw, and they also rub on one of the y-axis rails.

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Nov 14, 2018

Have you ever wished for an easy, all-in-one-place guide to the most cost-effective locations for specific manufacturing processes? Maybe you’re thinking, No, but now that you mention it. Such a guide would probably do very well, but because of the nature of contract manufacturing - no two pro...

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Nov 14, 2018

The seventh annual Manufacturing Day was a resounding success in California! MFG DAY continues to draw more and more participants each year, and 2018 was no exception, with nearly 2,800 events held across the country. For those not in the know, here’s a brief recap of what MFG DAY is all about...

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Nov 13, 2018

The only constant in business today is changing, and the only certainty is that change will likely accelerate in the future. In order to survive and thrive in this environment, manufacturers must be able to rapidly respond to changes by adjusting their business processes or models to meet the requir...

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Nov 13, 2018

Mark Twain once famously wrote that reports of his death had been an exaggeration. More than a century later, in 2008, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said much the same thing in his own Mark Twain moment when Bloomberg erroneously reported Jobs’ passing. I’ve noticed that a similar prematur...

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Nov 12, 2018

McKinsey & Co. recently revealed the findings of its annual survey that monitors the adoption of digital transformation trends. The survey results, highlighted in an article in Design News, revealed rampant adoption of Industry 4.0 with McKinsey concluding that everyone in manufacturing is leadi...

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Nov 09, 2018

Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has spawned a lot of incredible ideas. Ideas like digital twins and digital threads that enable a complete understanding of the product lifecycle and up-to-the minute data on how the product is actually being used, serviced and performing.

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Nov 08, 2018

Who doesn’t love a sandwich from Subway? Apparently, there are 37 million possible sandwich variations, made possible through different filling, salad, bread, and condiment combinations. Jonathan Wilkins, marketing director of industrial parts supplier EU Automation, explains how the future of...

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Nov 07, 2018

Help is out there, you just need to know where to look. Each year, billions in funding for research and development and workforce initiatives is available for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) in order to help them get off the ground or aid in expansion efforts. Here are seven organization...

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Nov 07, 2018

Just think about it for a second. Every day you interact with hundreds of products that at one point were nothing more than an idea. But have you ever wondered what it looks like to take a product from prototype to production? It's a complex process that combines creativity and procedures. There...

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Nov 06, 2018

Manufacturers are operating in a highly competitive business world marked by constant changes in consumer demand as well as competitive and regulatory environments. Customers are demanding better services and products at lower prices and changing the way they consume them. New and non-traditional co...

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Nov 06, 2018

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) enable supply chain networks and manufacturing to stay synchronized, scale and flex to fluctuations in demand. The best MES implementations bring greater accuracy, control, scale, and speed to shop floors and are one of the strongest growth catalysts any manufac...

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Nov 05, 2018

Thank you to the over sixty manufacturing business leader members who responded to the recent Manufacturing Alliance survey. Your input is invaluable to ensure the Alliance is providing our manufacturing community with the information and services needed. Results came back pointing to nine major top...

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Nov 05, 2018

The long-awaited resurgence of American manufacturing has arrived. Too bad there aren’t enough workers to fill the jobs. More than 500,000 positions in manufacturing are going begging at the moment, according to Steve Menaker, national industrial product industry leader with RSM US LLP, an aud...

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Nov 05, 2018

At our ARC European Industry Forum 2018, Chris Hazlewood, Senior Manager at Mitsubishi Electric, gave an important Key Note speech about the three key technologies forming the digital enterprise; Edge Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 3D printing, with focus on AI.

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Nov 05, 2018

There was a time in the not-so-distant past that many moldmakers could be their own suppliers for individual components, tasking lower-level staff with fabricating one-off metal pieces needed for new tools. These days, however, with tool rooms shorter staffed and new orders keeping the mold makers a...

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Nov 04, 2018

Blockchain’s greatest potential to deliver business value is in manufacturing. Increasing visibility across every area of manufacturing starting with suppliers, strategic sourcing, procurement, and supplier quality to shop floor operations including machine-level monitoring and service, blockc...

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Nov 01, 2018

Yes, machines can learn too! Put simply, machine learning is the ability for computerized machines to learn how to make predictions and/or perform classifications without explicitly being taught or programmed. Just like humans have different learning styles and problem-solving techniques, so do mach...

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Oct 30, 2018

ASM PT, the world’s largest equipment supplier to the electronics manufacturing industry, is investing in the Portuguese company Critical Manufacturing, a developer of state-of-the-art MES software. Both companies signed a deal to that effect in late July in Porto. We talked with Guenter Laube...

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Oct 29, 2018

President Trump’s trade fight with China continues on multiple fronts. This dispute the president is prosecuting against Beijing is a big deal that is regularly overtaken by other events in the news cycle, and it isn’t helped that the president himself is, ummm, an imperfect messenger to...

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Oct 25, 2018

Not only do factories provide better-paying jobs, they lift up entire communities. There's nothing that upsets us more here at the Alliance for American Manufacturing than when someone tries to argue that manufacturing doesn't matter anymore.

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Oct 25, 2018

Often in business, the question isn’t what you should be doing, but rather what you can get approval to do. Your rich study of new technology and advancements in your chosen discipline is often out of alignment with corporate expense objectives. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to capi...

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Oct 25, 2018

Keeping your manufacturing staff happy is critical if you plan to grow your business and continue to delight your customers. Disgruntled employees have the ability to sap the lifeblood from your organization. And in some cases, one or two negative views can spread quickly throughout a business like ...

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Oct 24, 2018

With a relatively new technology like additive manufacturing (AM), the path for adoption has been trail blazed by high value, low volume parts such as those required in aerospace and motorsports. To date, it has been the arsenal of larger manufacturers that have the money to invest in R&D, have ...

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Oct 23, 2018

The manufacturing sector has long been at the forefront of innovation, with the cost of production a primary driver of profit margins. Ford Motor Co.’s assembly-line model was one the most significant advances in manufacturing over 100 years ago, making it possible for nearly every American fa...

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Oct 22, 2018

U.S. manufacturing sector has been witnessing resurgence under the Trump administration since last year, shrugging off its lengthy spell of weak productivity and sluggish growth. Under Trump’s presidency, the manufacturing sector is flying high as manufacturers have increased capital spending ...

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Oct 22, 2018

National Manufacturing Day is the nation’s largest, one-day celebration of the Manufacturing Industry.  It is designed to raise awareness about the modern dynamics and opportunities that a career in manufacturing present for the next generation of workforce talent. MFG DAY addresses commo...

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Oct 22, 2018

One of the most important quotes in business management couldn’t be more important for Australian manufacturers today. With the right metrics, you can understand what’s working in your production line, and what’s not. You can find weak spots and barriers to efficient production. Yo...

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Oct 22, 2018

The Internet of Things (IoT) is no longer just about smart, connected devices. Other megatrends, such as big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have put IoT on steroids and elevated to one of a few drivers of a new industrial revolution that promises to completely transform the way ...

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Oct 19, 2018

Terry Iverson, president of Iverson and Company and founder of ChampionNow!, is working to change the perception of manufacturing in the United States by writing a book for parents, mentors, and educators. The goal is to highlight the quality manufacturing career opportunities that are available to ...

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Oct 19, 2018

Regular readers will not be surprised to hear us say that the key to streamlining essential business functions and operations is efficiency. And that the secret to successfully using automation to improve efficiency in no small part lies in its security and visibility benefits.

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Oct 19, 2018

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity enabling these objects to collect and exchange data, according to Forbes. Products with wireless connectivity (from light bulbs to thermostats to Alexa) are most pre...

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Oct 19, 2018

I cover industry solutions for manufacturing and a few other industrial markets at AWS. My goal isn’t to work with customers on a specific technology, but rather on how customers can use technology to address business challenges. This role gives me an opportunity to work with global leaders on...

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Oct 18, 2018

The strategy has input from across the federal government. I know we say this a lot, but there’s a lot going on these days. So, we wouldn’t blame you if you missed this piece of news: Earlier this month, the Trump administration officially unveiled its strategy for strengthening American...

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Oct 18, 2018

The Internet of Things is one type of technology which has found applications in almost every industry. The aviation industry is adopting it, especially in the manufacturing sector. It can be used to streamline operations with the help of a highly detailed record of information pertaining to the exp...

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Oct 17, 2018

The world of manufacturing took a dramatic turn several years ago when a fuel nozzle was manufactured for GE’s Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion (LEAP) jet engine. An assembly that used to be built from 20 components was produced using additive manufacturing (industrial-grade 3D printing) in on...

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Oct 16, 2018

In the initial days of industry revolution, when the organizations were just shaping up, there was no information system to support their activities. Most of the decisions were impulsive, a lack of teamwork, and no means for information exchange. This can be classified as multiple dysfunction enterp...

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Oct 16, 2018

Learning about the positive benefits of machine monitoring is a catalyst for many manufacturers digitalization efforts. This first step towards data-driven manufacturing is a significant stepping stone in a manufacturer’s journey into Industry 4.0 and the Smart Factory. While the positive impa...

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Oct 16, 2018

Based in Stearns, Kentucky, with 250 employees, Outdoor Venture Corporation (OVC) develops, designs, and manufactures commercial tent systems, military tent systems, sleeping bags, and hunting products. In business since 1972, OVC was one of the first suppliers of automotive airbags in the United St...

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Oct 16, 2018

Our largest attendance for a Manufacturing Alliance event to date listened in on what’s new and what’s working in the on-going quest to provide skilled workers for the needs of local manufacturers. Once again highlighting just how important this topic is to all of us. Lisa Christman, Mas...

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Oct 15, 2018

Today’s manufacturing environment is highly dynamic & complex and consists of various stakeholders like multiple suppliers & partners, multiple distribution channels, multiple fulfillment partners, multiple customer types etc. Decisions have to be taken on business performance and over...

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Oct 15, 2018

Data is all grown up, with new multidimensional capabilities and broader horizons to offer the manufacturing community. Large data pools have turned manufacturers attention to Big Data solutions for an altogether new dimension of research and trend analysis.

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Oct 15, 2018

In 2005, the Council of Logistics Management changed its name to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals to add differentiation between logistics and supply chain management. Why? Because logistics is a component of supply chain management (SCM). While SCM is focused on the big picture,...

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Oct 15, 2018

Being a data-driven manufacturer is all the rage. We engage daily with global manufacturers looking to better use production data to predict machine failure, optimize processes, or increase output. Yet many of these manufacturing analytics projects stumble out of the gate.  Here’s why.

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Oct 12, 2018

In mathematics, the idea of bounded value generally refers to the notion that there’s a limit to the value of x. Conversely, unbounded value means there’s no maximum or minimum value of x. In automation, a similar notion carries through - there’s no minimum value you can extract by...

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Oct 11, 2018

American manufacturers risk losing their competitive edge without clean energy advances. The United Nations climate change report issued on Monday is nothing short of terrifying. But as scientists consistently exhort, we can stabilize our climate future - and another report finds that manufacturing ...

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Oct 11, 2018

They say study the past to know the future. In the migration from subtractive manufacturing to additive, we may be following the existing paradigm too closely. Both subtractive and additive manufacturing span a three-step process: part design, part build and the post-processing of the part to make i...

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Oct 10, 2018

How do electronic work instructions factor into Industry 4.0 and your digital transformation strategy? With advancements in technology, it’s time to reevaluate how these digital systems can improve your manufacturing operations. The capabilities of electronic work instructions (EWI) have evolv...

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Oct 10, 2018

Karen Leavitt from Locust Robotics believes robots can be used to help combat the labor shortage.  Learn about the ways in which humans and robots can flourish in the warehouse in this video from theCUBE.

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Oct 09, 2018

Open doors, open minds was the theme of this year’s Manufacturing Day which took place on October 5th. Manufacturing Day isn’t about us and we surely don’t need to tell manufacturers about the importance of nurturing the future workforce. For us, Manufacturing Day is about students...

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Oct 05, 2018

Happy Manufacturing Day! It’s not a federal holiday quite yet; rather, it’s a moment to appreciate our fellow Americans who work with their hands for a living. But we owe them some help. America can do a better job at recruiting and preparing people for middle-skill jobs that require mor...

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Oct 05, 2018

Every manufacturing job creates another 2.5 new jobs in local goods and services. From another perspective, for every $1 invested in manufacturing, another $1.37 in additional value is created in other sectors. Because of this rippling effect, investing in the manufacturing sector is one of the most...

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Oct 04, 2018

Cybersecurity is - and always will be - of the utmost importance to businesses around the world. The onset of advanced technologies and Industry 4.0 has ushered in a new age of security in the cloud, and with it a growing list of potential threats. For manufacturers, these threats are becoming more ...

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Oct 02, 2018

As a refresher, the DED process uses a powder stream and a laser to melt metal alloy powder layer-by-layer until the build is completed. This can be from the ground up or applied to a pre-existing part. Think of it like a traditional plastic 3D printer, that uses a powder stream instead of a plastic...

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Oct 01, 2018

Another productive (I do believe that manufacturing productivity is on the rise) year has flown by and it is once again time for Manufacturing Day. This year, Manufacturing Day, also known as MFG Day, will be held on October 5th - the first Friday of the month. It is a day devoted to celebrating mod...

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Oct 01, 2018

The ISM Manufacturing Index registered 59.8 points in September, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Institute for Supply Management. September’s reading indicates the twenty-fifth consecutive month of expansion in manufacturing, as readings over 50 points deno...

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Sep 28, 2018

The European Medical Device Regulation went into effect on May 25th, 2017, and manufacturers have until May 26th, 2020 to align existing devices with these regulations. For these manufacturers, thinking about this impending due date is cause for concern. Ensuring everything is constructed according ...

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Sep 27, 2018

While uncertainty around Brexit, electronic component shortages and the skills gap continue to loom within UK manufacturing, there is still much to feel positive about. The 4th annual EEF Manufacturing Fact Card, created in partnership with Santander and published in August 2018, provides a snapshop...

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Sep 26, 2018

The buzz in the auto industry these days is mostly over topics such as the dramatic decline in sales of sedans in favor of SUVs and giant pickup trucks Ford recently announced it will phase out sedans completely, and the continuing development of autonomous or self-driving cars. Beyond those headlin...

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Sep 25, 2018

Industry 4.0 Advances Technology and Inspires Manufacturers to Challenge Current Production Methods. While Industry 4.0 is improving efficiency on the factory floor, it’s also heightening the importance of data collection, robotics, automation, additive manufacturing and cybersecurity for manu...

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Sep 25, 2018

The rise of robotics is raising a number of concerns. Many are overblown or entirely unwarranted, but others need to be addressed and mitigated. The loss of jobs is the main concern associated with robotics that is getting much of the attention. But in my field - robotic process automation (RPA) - r...

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Sep 25, 2018

Imagine having an expert watch over your shoulder as you perform a difficult task. Gently guiding you through each step, they can stop you from making any mistakes and help you finish the task quicker than you ever could working alone. The concept is simple enough, but where do you find such an expe...

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Sep 21, 2018

Wham! Cyberattack slams enterprise IT, reverberating at lightning speed to a company's servers. The network crashes; email is down. Months-long delays ensue before email and other system layers are restored at all locations. What would earlier have impacted only IT systems now has the potential ...

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Sep 21, 2018

This story discusses the transformative outcome with additive manufactured titanium and nickel alloy shrouded impellers for Ingersoll Rand. After parts arrived off the printer with an Ra roughness average value that did not meet their specifications, Ingersoll utilized multiple traditional 3D post-p...

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Sep 20, 2018

Today, there are added factors that impact the supply chain and have input on how products are sold to consumers, such as suppliers, farmers, government regulators, and technologies. One area we focused on is how the entire process of a manufacturer to a customer to a consumer has changed.

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Sep 19, 2018

If you were to ask anybody about metal 3D printing technology, chances are today that a lot of people would actually know what you were talking about. Metal additive manufacturing has grown significantly in awareness over the last decade, after all. If you were to find somebody who knew a little bit...

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Sep 18, 2018

Lean manufacturing principles and some of the tools that go with them can seem a bit daunting. All of the Japanese phrases, acronyms, and occasionally bemusing maths often lead people to think that ‘lean’ might be great for large organizations but too much effort for what they do.

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Sep 17, 2018

While quality assurance is often thought of as a combination of in-process inspections and controls and dimensional verification after production, designing a part with the manufacturing process in mind is the first step in ensuring a quality molded part. That’s why we provide design analysis ...

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Sep 16, 2018

Have you noticed how recall notifications have soared recently? From listeria outbreaks to undeclared allergens and even faulty condoms, it seems barely a week goes by without Aussie news headlines warning about another major recall. Chances are the risk of a recall or withdrawal weighs on your mind...

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Sep 13, 2018

What is smart manufacturing? Essentially, smart manufacturing is the practice of making information about manufacturing processes available when and where it is needed, in the form it is needed, so that smart decision can be made about the course of critical business operations.

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Sep 13, 2018

Much has been written about the increasing shortages of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), surface mount (SMT) resistors and other semiconductor devices. Right now we are seeing price increases and greatly extended lead times. In some cases, the delivery time is so long that the component is all...

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Sep 12, 2018

In today’s world, why would you ever machine a custom jig or fixture component? Sure, if you have a heat-intensive, harsh environment, you may have no choice. But for 90 percent of the jigs and fixtures out there, which don’t need to endure high temperatures or high stresses, why would y...

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Sep 12, 2018

Rather than chalking your competition up as your arch nemesis or, even worse, to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named status), you can actually learn some useful lessons from them, courtesy of their successes, failures and habits alike. Whether you learn what to do better - or what to avoid at all costs - takin...

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Sep 12, 2018

Instead of a painful, time-consuming and costly process, what if being audited by the FDA, or any other regulatory body, was just part of the day to day routine? After all, the FDA is looking to shift the focus from inspecting product quality in at the end of a process, to ensuring quality is built ...

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Sep 11, 2018

The 3D printing revolution has already touched cars in a multitude of ways, but Volkswagen is planning to take the largest step yet: mass production of parts. We've seen 3D printers produce calipers, door sills, and even entire cars, but it's always been for limited production purposes. VW i...

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Sep 11, 2018

Whether you are spending this week at McCormick Place in Chicago or not, you have likely heard a stream of chatter surrounding the 2018 International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS). As America’s Largest Manufacturing show featuring over 1,900 exhibitors, IMTS is projected to attract over...

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Sep 11, 2018

Adidas new Futurecraft 4D sneakers released earlier this year are doing more than just revolutionizing shoe design and performance; the partnership between Adidas and Carbon may well be re-defining the consumer product supply chain, according to company leaders who spoke at last week’s Disrupt...

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Sep 11, 2018

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way in the last few years, bridging the gap between theoretical conversations and what is now practical possibilities, and nowhere are the possibilities more exciting than in the automotive industry. Between the design of the cars we currently drive (and ...

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Sep 11, 2018

One way to learn how to provide more value for your customers is to better understand what it's like for them to do business with your company, finding out what works well and what doesn't, and then improving their experience. An exercise to help you with this discovery process is customer j...

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Sep 10, 2018

Throughout the year, Modern Machine Shop (MMS) has written a lot about two topics-IMTS 2018 and June 1928. The former is the most influential event in the machining industry. The latter is the month and year Gardner Business Media introduced Modern Machine Shop to the machining industry.

blog article

Sep 10, 2018

Every week it seems as though a new additive manufacturing (AM) machine (or 3D printer) is being announced to the world, leading to a flurry of coverage over what the machine is claimed to do better, cheaper, faster, bigger than existing technology. Whatever the truth of these claims, it is clear th...

blog article

Sep 10, 2018

The revolutionary approach to digital integration is transforming manufacturing in more ways than one. Not only are manufacturers leveraging new technologies to create and sustain smart factories, but their businesses are experiencing more flexibility, reliability, stable outputs and increased produ...

blog article

Sep 07, 2018

Researchers from Virginia Tech and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a new way to 3D print with graphene. Graphene has previously been used in extrusion-based processes to print single sheets and basic structures at a resolution of around 100 microns, but this latest research sho...

blog article

Sep 07, 2018

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy added 201,000 last month, which America’s headline writers agree is a pretty good number. Earnings were up, too. The figure for the manufacturing sector wasn’t particularly rosy, though - factory jobs receded by 3,000 in Augus...

blog article

Sep 06, 2018

It’s just one month away! Manufacturing Day 2018 officially arrives on Friday, October 5. This annual celebration gives small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) the chance to showcase their products and capabilities to students, educators, businesspeople, politicians, and the media.

blog article

Sep 06, 2018

The number of individuals earning degrees in engineering has increased steadily over the past decade, and those numbers will only continue to grow. In particular, one subdiscipline of engineering is looking ever more appealing to students: manufacturing engineering.

blog article

Sep 06, 2018

Metal 3D printing has enormous potential to revolutionize modern manufacturing. However, the existing metal 3D printing processes, which use lasers to fuse together fine metal powder, have their limitations. The reason being that metals generally don't exist in a state that they can be readily e...

blog article

Sep 06, 2018

The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index registered 58.5 points in August, 2.8 percentage points above July’s figure. This was the 103rd consecutive month of expansion as a reading above 50 indicates growth. Sixteen non-manufacturing industries reported growth, while one reported a decrease. The majori...

blog article

Sep 06, 2018

Like manufacturing, warehouses, and the systems that manage them are going through an inflection point. The past role of the warehouse as a cost center is giving way to a more integrated, real-time role responsible for driving revenue and growth. New business models bring entirely new business chall...

blog article

Sep 06, 2018

Manufacturing is changing dramatically. Industry 4.0 is taking shape and being viewed as the advent of smart technologies based on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It’s affecting everyone, with impacts that ripple across the supply chain.

blog article

Sep 05, 2018

ArianeGroup, the space-launchers joint-venture between Airbus and Safran and the team in charge of the Ariane 6 project, on Sept. 4 awarded a contract to its Swedish supplier GKN Aerospace for turbines of re-usable rocket engine demonstrator, part of Prometheus project.

blog article

Sep 04, 2018

How optimized is your manufacturing process? Would asking this question hurt? Often it can, because setting up a manufacturing process is not easy. It takes time and a fine-tuning capacity that can make even the most ardent perfectionist feel tired.

blog article

Sep 04, 2018

Researchers from Harvard University’s John A Paulsen School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new 3D printing technique that uses sound waves to generate droplets from liquids with an unprecedented range of composition and viscosity.

blog article

Sep 04, 2018

Despite the industry-wide excitement associated with manufacturing analytics, I often see continuous manufacturers get bogged down early in these efforts. They get stuck discussing theoretical trade-offs between project feasibility and impact. The uncertainty inherent in hypothetical projects ultima...

blog article

Sep 04, 2018

The DMLS process uses a powder bed machine to melt metal alloy powder in layers that typically range from 20 to 100 microns thick. These layers are applied in the shape of the slice that is the design for that specific layer of the prospective build. If one was watching this process, one would see t...

blog article

Sep 03, 2018

Silicone molding is an affordable production method that can allow you to make a series of identical objects for prototyping and functional testing. Until now, however, fabricating molds for casting complex objects required a lot of experience and also involved manual work, which made the process sl...

blog article

Sep 03, 2018

Gene therapy is slowly stepping out of its niche, as new scientific insights and lessons learned from early-stage failures have led to several approvals. Now, manufacturing of the viruses used in gene therapy is about to become the next bottleneck. Can contract manufacturing organizations cope with ...

blog article

Sep 03, 2018

Those are the tangible innovations, meaning if you buy a new car, you will benefit in some way from said innovations. Then there are the not so tangible ones unless you work in the business. Or in this case, a manufacturing facility. At least for now.

blog article

Aug 31, 2018

Learn how leading manufacturers are leveraging a connected manufacturing platform to take advantage of the opportunities being presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, powered by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

blog article

Aug 30, 2018

Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing, as it is commonly known, is a technology that is being more and more used in manufacturing across many industries. The space industry is no exception, and slowly companies are embracing this technology in innovative ways to gain a competitive advantage.

blog article

Aug 30, 2018

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have garnered a lot of attention recently. IDC estimates machine learning and AI spending to increase from $19.1 billion in 2018 to $52.2 billion by 2021. With billions of dollars invested in ML and AI, tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon...

blog article

Aug 30, 2018

Trust is an important part of any business transaction. Trust within an organization is often implicit but it is a more difficult proposition when it comes to the need to share data to third parties, partners and other external organizations. Most often, this is done via a distributed database of so...

blog article

Aug 29, 2018

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota have fully 3D printed an array of light receptors on a hemispherical surface which could pave the way for future bionic eyes. And they believe that the 3D printed bionic eye could someday help blind people see or sighted people see better.

blog article

Aug 29, 2018

3D printers are great at creating objects that are small enough to fit within their printer tray. However, if someone wants to create a large-scale object, they are either forced to find a printer large enough to accommodate the job, or to print it in pieces that can be assembled later.

blog article

Aug 29, 2018

Innovation in manufacturing has made for surprisingly even footing among rivals in a variety of industries. The last remaining point of competition for market share, some argue, is found in speed and efficiency: even if two companies are making the same products, the business that gets the products ...

blog article

Aug 29, 2018

Collaborative robots or cobots are a new class of robots that are bridging the gap between fully manual assembly and fully automated manufacturing lines. This has become a critical competitive advantage for small and mid-sized specialty medical device manufacturers and is helping to fill automation ...

blog article

Aug 29, 2018

You made it through the RFQ process. Through the tooling, sampling and PPAP review. Now your world-changing product is - say it with me - in production. Oh, how good it feels. But don't be too quick to kick off your boots and celebrate. First production orders are notoriously plagued with unexpe...

blog article

Aug 28, 2018

Cast metal has been widely used in architecture - for facades, bridges, beams, columns, and connections. A historical example is the exposed cast-iron arches and columns in the Sainte-Genevieve Library France built by architect Henri Labrouste. Cast metal can find application in architecture whereve...

blog article

Aug 28, 2018

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences will establish a new facility in Harford City, Md. that will host industrial additive manufacturing lines, National Defense Magazine reported Monday. The organization is coordinating with public and private organizations such as Johns Hopkins University...

blog article

Aug 28, 2018

Unlike the Betamax/VHS technology debate, all the established polymer print technologies have a viable long-term role to play in the 3D-printing industry. SmarTech Publishing has two new studies on additive manufacturing trends. The Crozet, Va.- based firm is said to be a leading provider of industr...

blog article

Aug 28, 2018

Recent technology developments-including advancements in AI, IoT, and robotics-all driven by what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) have led to speculation in recent years that many industrial jobs could soon become obsolete. This week, Andy Haldene, chief economist of the ...

blog article

Aug 27, 2018

Wireless Headphones market report is a helpful tool to understand the Global and regional market situations and to determine how the market will evolve. Complete Wireless Headphones market data will play a central role in planning your next move.

blog article

Aug 27, 2018

By now it’s a given that demand for lidar sensors is heading toward levels never seen before. A few companies in the automotive lidar market have met this growing demand with factory expansions: Velodyne made the leap a few years ago. Now, the relatively new Quanergy has jumped in, announcing ...

blog article

Aug 27, 2018

The hype around digital transformation among manufacturers has led them to stockpile data for problem-solving and analytic decision making. While manufacturers continue to accumulate masses of data, most have yet to turn this asset into a tool for proactively managing operations.

blog article

Aug 24, 2018

Losing workers from the factory floor is never easy, especially for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) where the output of every employee can be critical to maintaining production quotas and keeping customers happy.

blog article

Aug 24, 2018

Automation and robots mean a lifetime of relaxation by the pool instead of endless toil at a desk, right? Not exactly – but neither does it have to be bad news. The gradual introduction of autonomous systems and processes isn’t a trend that’s going to go away, so rather than hope f...

blog article

Aug 23, 2018

Today (August 23, 2018) represents a milestone in the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Thirty years ago, on this date in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act (Public Law 100-418...

blog article

Aug 23, 2018

The Internet of Things is creating a 3-D map of your workplace, and it knows you have been taking too many coffee breaks. Every 15 minutes? Seriously, stop. In this connected map, devices, machines, and business processes are linked.

blog article

Aug 23, 2018

Information and communication technology (ICT) is reshaping modern manufacturing around the world, but a new report released today by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the world’s top-ranked think tank for science and technology policy, finds that US manufacturers, a...

blog article

Aug 23, 2018

Treat your industrial robot counterparts with some respect! Moving through tight spaces at high speed, these machines can seriously injure anyone who gets in their way. That’s why, to prevent injury they are usually kept inexpensive, space-consuming cages. In the last few years, however, a dif...

blog article

Aug 23, 2018

A responsible Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider will always make it a priority to keep customers abreast of any industry regulation that could have an impact on the manufacture of their product. Changes and updates to existing legislation is an ongoing process, and the introduction o...

blog article

Aug 22, 2018

U.S. jobs in manufacturing, including plastics, are continuing to grow, but hourly wages are not keeping up with the rest of the economy. This development has caught the attention of veteran economist Alan Tonelson. In a recent post on his RealityChek blog, Tonelson pointed out that average hourly w...

blog article

Aug 22, 2018

Soldiers on the battlefield or at remote bases often have to wait weeks for replacement parts when a key piece of equipment breaks down. Now researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Marine Corps have found a way to fabricate these parts within hours using waste plastics, such ...

blog article

Aug 22, 2018

TED Talks have been a driving force of inspiration, information, and innovation since their inception in 2006. Born out of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference, the talks have become a global, viral sensation over the past decade. Below we've compiled seven of the best TED Talk...

blog article

Aug 22, 2018

As product development speeds up, the design rules are changing. Nowhere is this more apparent than when looking at the industrial 3D printing process of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). Direct metal laser sintering is an additive manufacturing technology with significant potential in medical an...

blog article

Aug 21, 2018

Additive Manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, has evolved rapidly in recent years. As new industries have begun to embrace the technology, they are discovering the many ways in which the technology is impacting their business. AM is helping them to reduce development and manufacturing costs; increase...

blog article

Aug 21, 2018

When people who are familiar with additive manufacturing talk about the post-processing step, they usually speak in terms of minimizing the time and labor associated with finishing their parts. Many companies who are new to 3D printing find out late in the game about the additional cost required whe...

blog article

Aug 20, 2018

Russian state conglomerate Rostec (Russian: Ростех) is investing almost 3 billion rubles ($44.7 million) to establish a specialized center to introduce advanced additive manufacturing to high-tech industries, the Rostec group announced on last Friday.

blog article

Aug 20, 2018

At Protolabs, we are seeing an increased adoption by our medical device partners of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), the additive manufacturing process that 3D prints industrial-grade metal parts. This is especially the case in the robotics, disposable instrumentation, and orthopedic segments.

blog article

Aug 20, 2018

Blockchain has already disrupted business processes in the financial sector and is poised to impact companies across industries. Because technology can provide an immutable digital record of contractual interactions and transactions across an ecosystem, we believe that manufacturing is likely next i...

blog article

Aug 18, 2018

One of the best strengths any manufacturer can strive to gain is the ability to improve and learn continually. A CEO of an electronics consumables company acknowledged he competes in a price-driven commoditized business. “Our finding out how to improve quality, order cycle times, take deals fr...

blog article

Aug 17, 2018

During Brazil’s worst recession on record, no economic sector lost more than industry. For 14 months in a row, Brazilian industry posted negative results. As a result, the industry started to account for a smaller share of the GDP - even in a scenario of economic retraction. Rock bottom came a...

blog article

Aug 15, 2018

Sensors have played a role in manufacturing for years, but until recently they have been largely constrained by issues such as system noise, signal attenuation, and response dynamics. Today, integration of local computing power and the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed ordinary sensors into s...

blog article

Aug 15, 2018

In his groundbreaking 2012 book, the Business Model Innovation Factory, Saul Kaplan argued that companies must treat their business models much like products. They should be constantly assessed, redesigned, prototyped and tested.

blog article

Aug 15, 2018

These and many other insights are from McKinsey’s latest study on digital manufacturing’s adoption, How Digital Manufacturing Can Escape Pilot Purgatory. The study is based on over 700 respondents from companies with more than 50 employees and over $10M in revenues, spanning a range of i...

blog article

Aug 15, 2018

HUI is excited to announce that in June of 2018, we officially upgraded our quality management system to the new editions of ISO 9001 and ISO 13485. We are now ISO 9001:2015 certified and ISO 13485:2016 certified! This is great news for our customers, but why?

blog article

Aug 14, 2018

‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) members JinkoSolar and Hanwha Q CELLS have both updated plans to start solar module assembly manufacturing in the US, post the US Section 201 trade case. Leading SMSL, JinkoSolar which continues to add manufacturing capacity in China across ingot/wafe...

blog article

Aug 14, 2018

Praemonitus, praemunitus, or for anyone without a knowledge of Latin proverbs, the more familiar forewarned is forearmed, originated as an expression used in the military to mean that knowing about problems in advance allows you to better plan for them.

blog article

Aug 13, 2018

Washington-based manufacturing business have a problem: they are short on skilled workers that can quickly adapt to ever-changing machinery and technology. Skagit Valley College (SVC) has recognized this and is updating its manufacturing technology program to better fit the needs of businesses in th...

blog article

Aug 13, 2018

Lauren Woeher wonders if her 16-month-old daughter has been harmed by tap water contaminated with toxic industrial compounds used in products like nonstick cookware, carpets, and fast-food wrappers. Henry Betz, at 76, rattles around his house alone at night, thinking about the water his family unkno...

blog article

Aug 13, 2018

In the 3D printing industry, polymer powder bed fusion technology isn’t what it used to be. It’s not just about two companies anymore. It’s not just about selling machines that are a few hundred thousand dollars to rapid prototyping service bureaus anymore. And, beginning late last...

blog article

Aug 10, 2018

What makes a great state for manufacturing? It takes a combination of factors, like an existing industrial base, the availability of talent, investment incentives, and favorable tax and regulatory environments. Here are Global Trade’s choices for the states that have the best combinations of a...

blog article

Aug 10, 2018

New research proves advanced materials containing molecules that switch states in response to environmental stimuli can be fabricated using 3D printing. Victor Sans from the Faculty of Engineering at University of Nottingham, explains. There is a profound and fundamental divide between the way engin...

blog article

Aug 09, 2018

Polymer material extrusion 3D printing is one of several really interesting markets for polymer additive manufacturing, and one that’s largely been responsible for the significant growth in public and corporate awareness of 3D printing technology which occurred since around 2011.  Materia...

blog article

Aug 09, 2018

Improved productivity is one of the primary measures of success within manufacturing. And as UK manufacturers seek to address the challenges of increasing efficiency, there's a greater emphasis on the value of high-performance working practices such as lean manufacturing.

blog article

Aug 08, 2018

In physics, a collision is defined as an encounter between particles resulting in exchange or transformation of energy. Within the MEP National Network, we don’t work with particles, but we do see collisions of this type all the time. Companies are transformed by the exchange of information an...

blog article

Aug 07, 2018

How much work you have to do to clean up after you prepare a meal at home depends on how many people you served. The more people you served, the more dishes you have to wash, generally speaking. You may only need to load a couple of dishes into your dishwasher, or you may need to roll up your sleeve...

blog article

Aug 07, 2018

On the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website you’ll find a comprehensive list of case studies about sustainable manufacturing. These are businesses that have cut energy consumption, reduced water usage and increased their use of recycling. Altruism may have played a part, but for ...

blog article

Aug 07, 2018

Last month, Protolabs became one of the first companies to join GE Additive’s newly launched Manufacturing Partner Network (MPN), committing to invest in GE Additive equipment, materials, software, and technology. As part of the agreement, Protolabs will use the GE Additive equipment and techn...

blog article

Aug 07, 2018

Positive indicators for Additive Manufacturing’s widespread adoption appear in the news every week. The recent announcement of a newly formed Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence is another sign of how the industry is growing up, realizing the need for standards to create a common langu...

blog article

Aug 06, 2018

Worldwide 3D printing spending will reach $23B in 2022, according to a new update to the Worldwide Semiannual 3D Printing Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC). The growth rate for 3D printing hardware, materials, software, and services carries a five-year CAGR of 18.4%.

blog article

Aug 04, 2018

Manufacturers that are traditionally product-focused will now need to place equal focus on developing and delivering new services to address quickly changing customer demands and preferences. As we move to the new everything as a service paradigm, manufacturers will need next-generation ERP solution...

blog article

Aug 03, 2018

3D printing has been around for over 30 years, and became a highly-utilized tool in the last 10 to 15 years. These machines have been used to create jewelry, toys, and action figures (just to mention a few). With the rise of open-source online blueprints, we’ve seen the uses and frequency of 3...

blog article

Aug 03, 2018

Audi and Ericsson plan to pioneer the use of 5G technology for automotive production. At Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, the two companies agreed on a range of activities exploring the potential of 5G as a future-proof communication technology that can meet the high demands of auto...

blog article

Aug 03, 2018

It’s no longer just for gaming! Virtual Reality (VR), sometimes referred to as Augmented Reality (AR), is shaking things up across all industries, including manufacturing. While the technology is currently being employed mainly by large manufacturers, like additive manufacturing and the cobots...

blog article

Aug 02, 2018

The last few years have seen renewed growth for manufacturing in the United States, both in terms of output and as a percentage of the labor force. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers report credits that phenomenon to a growing economy, workforce quality, tax policies, the regulatory environment, and transport...

blog article

Aug 01, 2018

The ISM Manufacturing Index registered 58.1 points in July, down 2.1 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Institute for Supply Management. July’s reading indicates the twenty-third consecutive month of expansion in manufacturing, as readings over 50 points denote expansi...

blog article

Aug 01, 2018

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s space division is using augmented reality headsets and software to speed up the time it takes for engineers to learn about and conduct manufacturing processes on spacecraft, said Yvonne Hodge, the division’s vice president and chief information officer.

blog article

Aug 01, 2018

The Internet of Things truly has become the Internet of EVERYTHING. In other words, everything is now on the internet. It was another big year for IoT, particularly in industrial applications like connected factory and process automation. Another area where the Internet of Things technology has been...

blog article

Jul 31, 2018

Manufacturers from across the Midwest gathered in Chicago to discuss the biggest trend facing their industry: The Industrial Internet of Things. Here are the top takeaways from The Internet of Manufacturing Midwest (#IoTMan) conference. Predictive maintenance is still the main value driver to implem...

blog article

Jul 31, 2018

General Motors has embraced smart manufacturing through its Zero Down Time robot program in partnership with Japan’s Fanuc three years ago. Today, the robots only continue to multiply. Dan Grieshaber, GM’s director of global manufacturing integration, told Automotive News in a Monday rep...

blog article

Jul 31, 2018

Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation is a private label, contract, and food service manufacturer headquartered in Chester, Illinois.  The organization produces over 8,000 items for more than 500 different private label brands across 14 manufacturing facilities. Spanning four states, this family-owned b...

blog article

Jul 31, 2018

You made it through the RFQ process. Through the tooling, sampling and PPAP review. Now your world-changing product is - say it with me - in production. Oh, how good it feels. But don't be too quick to kick off your boots and celebrate. First production orders are notoriously plagued with unexpe...

blog article

Jul 30, 2018

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), over 350 workers were fatally injured in manufacturing accidents in 2015. That is 350-plus hard-working employees who lost their lives while simply doing their job. What makes this statistic even more tragic is that many of these deaths could have b...

blog article

Jul 30, 2018

During Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency, he made advancing American manufacturing a foundation of his economic platform and promised to reduce the sector’s federal regulatory burden. In 2014, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the top industry association represen...

blog article

Jul 30, 2018

My passion for electronics started in elementary school when I wanted to figure out why one of the floppy disks stopped working. From there, I began to understand how computers worked. After that I was hooked; I took apart all sorts of electronics from TVs to radios, and even touch lamps.

blog article

Jul 30, 2018

Our latest IQMS Manufacturer’s Survey of North American manufacturers across 14 industries confirms what the VP of Operations for a plastics manufacturer says. 81% of all manufacturers interviewed are relying on real-time monitoring to improve their businesses.

blog article

Jul 27, 2018

It’s important to consider all risks and challenges that might occur and to plan for those when you move into high volume manufacturing. Work with contract manufacturing on design, timelines, and costs to give you a 360º view of your project. Doing this will help you establish accurate mi...

blog article

Jul 26, 2018

Printing body parts is not just for science fiction. It’s done by Brazilian company BioArchitects, founded four years ago by young entrepreneur Felipe Marques. Just out of college with a degree in economics, he saw potential in investing in medical 3D printing.

blog article

Jul 26, 2018

London-headquartered Evo, a surgical and high-precision engineering company that provides bespoke one-day full jaw dental implant treatment has received a GBP4 million investment from BGF, the UK's most active investor in growing businesses.

blog article

Jul 26, 2018

The skills gap continues to be an issue that looms large in the UK manufacturing sector, as companies strive to secure graduates with the right mix of technical knowledge, personal skills, and practical experience to operate in an increasingly fast-paced, challenging and evolving environment.

blog article

Jul 26, 2018

By bringing together the digital and physical, Augmented Reality (AR) has the power to dramatically change many manufacturing business processes such as training and asset management. It will also be an enabler for the digital transformation that so many manufacturers will undergo by giving humans a...

blog article

Jul 26, 2018

If you grew up watching The Jetsons, you probably expected we’d all be zipping around in flying cars by now. Similarly, if you’ve been paying attention to 3D printing, you’re probably wondering when it will truly take off beyond its prototyping origins. After all, 3D printing as a ...

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

General Motors is using various new technologies such as robotic arm and 3D printing at its assembly plants. At a General Motors Assembly plant in Michigan, workers may gain grasp-assist from a wearable device called RoboGlove to handle 3D printed parts. At its Lansing Delta Township assembly plant ...

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

Let’s begin with the Richmond Fed regional manufacturing index which was better than expected. Factories are increasingly paying higher prices for raw materials and shipping, with many passing these higher costs to their customers.

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

Carbon fiber material recycling specialist Vartega and the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association on July 24 announced the formation of the Advanced Materials and Additive Manufacturing Infrastructure Development and Education (AMIDE) Alliance. The goal of the alliance is to provide critical reso...

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is in Washington, DC today to meet with President Trump in an attempt to calm the burgeoning trade dispute between the United States and the European Union. Looks like they’re having a nice time! Lots of elbows are being held.

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

Today’s column is the final installment of a three-part series on Protolabs approach to quality systems. Quality assurances play a pivotal role at Protolabs specifically and in manufacturing generally. Indeed, many manufacturers give high priority status to ensuring quality by gaining and main...

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

At LiveWorx 18, PTC CEO and chairman, Jim Heppelmann, explained the logic behind the $1 billion investment Rockwell Automation has committed to PTC. According to Heppelmann, the investment that was announced on June 11 will give both PTC and Rockwell a greater digital offering to manufacturers world...

blog article

Jul 25, 2018

With over 115,000 attendees and over 1,900 exhibitors, there is sure to be a buzz of activity at McCormick Place in Chicago during IMTS this September. Naturally, America’s largest manufacturing show can be a little overwhelming. Here at TechSolve, we want you to get the most out of your IMTS ...

blog article

Jul 24, 2018

Additive manufacturing (AM) will have an increased presence at the 2018 edition of The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), with more AM exhibits and content available to attendees than ever before. Why? There are a few big reasons.

blog article

Jul 24, 2018

Manufacturing can be a dangerous industry, and it’s vital that manufacturers are aware of health and safety regulations. According to the Bureau Labor of Statistics, in the last recorded year, there were approximately 2.9 million non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private i...

blog article

Jul 23, 2018

UK manufacturing has a lot to contend with. Coming to terms with the digitalization of the factory process, recruiting skilled labor, providing adequate training, boosting productivity and investment, let alone regulation and trade barriers. Manufacturers are faced with a very challenging economic e...

blog article

Jul 23, 2018

When seeking out a new job, potential employees want to understand what will be expected of them and how they will be evaluated if brought onboard; on the other hand, employers want to be sure they are interviewing the right candidates for the right job, and not wasting valuable time interviewing un...

blog article

Jul 23, 2018

The term 3D printing encompasses several manufacturing technologies that build parts layer-by-layer. Each vary in the way they form plastic and metal parts and can differ in material selection, surface finish, durability, and manufacturing speed and cost. Selecting the right 3D printing technology f...

blog article

Jul 21, 2018

When we think of additive manufacturing, we tend to think about the machines-the 3D printers capable of building parts bit by bit and fashioning never-before-seen part geometries. As new processes arrive and additive manufacturing machines continue to evolve, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds...

blog article

Jul 20, 2018

Balance might be the only thing on your mind the first time you stand on a surfboard, but the experienced surfers from the University of Wollongong (UOW) are all thinking about equipment. About those little tweaks to board design and materials that can optimize their performance and help them catch ...

blog article

Jul 20, 2018

As a consumer, it’s nearly impossible to get away from videos, advertising or otherwise. To give you a numeric sense of our collective obsession with online moving images: Since last year, YouTube has started registering over a billion hours of video viewing every single day.

blog article

Jul 20, 2018

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) takes networked sensors and intelligent devices and puts those technologies to use directly on the manufacturing floor, collecting data to drive artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. Learn how the IIoT can dramatically improve operating efficienci...

blog article

Jul 19, 2018

Industry 4.0 has revolutionized the manufacturing and industrial space by introducing new technologies, making it possible to enhance productivity, visibility, connectivity, and profitability like never before.

blog article

Jul 19, 2018

Manufacturers are complaining about tariffs. Manufacturers in all Districts expressed concern about tariffs and in many Districts reported higher prices and supply disruptions that they attributed to the new trade policies.

blog article

Jul 19, 2018

Bicycle design and production, like pretty much everything else these days, is being impacted by new technologies. Digital design tools, robotics, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and material science now enable new, exciting, and some surprising bike concepts, including essentially customized ...

blog article

Jul 19, 2018

Growth is usually seen by manufacturers as a good thing - a sign of success and a result of hard work. But if this growth isn't planned for, or the manufacturer can't react in time, growth can cause the same devastating results as if the business was in decline. Regardless of the sector, man...

blog article

Jul 19, 2018

With so much going on within the industry at such an astonishing speed, you need to take the necessary steps to keep pace. The very best manufacturers are the ones who never stop learning. By enrolling on a manufacturing course, you’ll not only acquire essential knowledge about the manufacturi...

blog article

Jul 18, 2018

Dumbfounded, I blinked at former Editor-in-Chief Bernie Pacyniak when he posed the question back in April. Bernie asked me at the end one of our standard 10:30 a.m. meetings, which usually involved an equal mix of housekeeping matters, progress updates, and chitchat.

blog article

Jul 18, 2018

In the near future, carbon is expected to replace metals in many applications of manufacturing goods. It could even be used to develop smart clothing capable of charging a cell phone. To prepare for a carbon renaissance, engineers at the Nanoworld Laboratories at the University of Cincinnati (UC) ha...

blog article

Jul 17, 2018

Allegheny Technologies today announced it has acquired New Britain, Connecticut-based Addaero Manufacturing (Addaero), a metal alloy additive manufacturing company that works in the aerospace and defense industries. Addaero Manufacturing was established in 2013 in New Britain, CT by three experience...

blog article

Jul 17, 2018

Implementing industrial robots in a manufacturing setting isn’t as simple as buying the robot and plugging it in. There are many different financial and logistical considerations to take into account before a robot can productively automate anything. While industrial robots may serve a wide va...

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Jul 17, 2018

Lockheed Martin and Arconic have signed a two-year partnership agreement to develop materials and processes for the production of aerospace and defense technology platforms. Both companies aim to create lightweight material and metal three-dimensional printing systems in a push to help industry adva...

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Jul 16, 2018

This report analysis the global Liquid Fertilizer Spreaders market status and forecast, categorizes the global Liquid Fertilizer Spreaders market size (value volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. A detailed qualitative analysis of the factors responsible for driving and restrainin...

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Jul 16, 2018

In continuous manufacturing, there is a revolution underway in how data is being used to drive operations. Corporate leadership is looking to better understand what is happening across the organization and driving manufacturing analytics initiatives to the plant floor. I continue to talk with manufa...

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Jul 14, 2018

“A few years ago, this session would have been dedicated to quality engineers,” said Norbert Hanke, president of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. Speaking at HxGN Live, parent company Hexagon AB’s annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mr. Hanke heads a division with roots in e...

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Jul 13, 2018

There’s new technology that can improve drug quality, address shortages of medicines, lower drug costs, and bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States. At the FDA, we’re focused on propelling these innovations, collectively referred to as advanced manufacturing.

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Jul 13, 2018

As the Trump Administration’s tariffs bite down, more companies are going to feel the financial crunch. But in the end, they won’t be the biggest losers in a trade war because it may be the consumer who stands to be hit the hardest.

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Jul 12, 2018

Ah, summertime - the time of year when many young children run off to camp. I’m getting nostalgic just thinking about the summers I spent at camp when I was a kid. There’s a camp out there for all kids, no matter what they’re interested in - adventure camps, religious camps, sports...

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Jul 12, 2018

3D printing is all about digital, with software-driven systems at every step of the additive manufacturing process until you get to the finishing step in post-printing. Software isn’t a focus in the traditional manufacturing finishing world today either. Traditional manufacturing finishing mac...

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Jul 11, 2018

American manufacturing begins with innovation. There are more than 12.5 million manufacturing workers in the United States that utilize these innovations every day, whether it be the operation of cutting-edge machinery or something as simple as the use of an improved tool or methodology.

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Jul 11, 2018

Oerlikon and Lufthansa Technik has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish processes for additive manufacturing (AM) in aircraft MRO. Lufthansa Technik, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for the aerospace industry.

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Jul 11, 2018

The manufacturing industry is changing just like any other sector. With the advancement of technology, the product is becoming more standardized, predictable and consistent with stable supply chain management. The focus of the manufacturing industry has shifted on the quality and efficiency.

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Jul 10, 2018

During a recent vacation to Italy, my wife and I had the opportunity to tour the Museo della Carta (Paper Museum) in the town of Amalfi. One source I came across referred to this museum as “a jewel of industrial archaeology,” and I fully agree. Built in the 14th century this is an oldest...

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Jul 10, 2018

In recent memory, no time has more effectively demonstrated the challenges facing the food and beverage industry than spring 2018. In addition to a widely publicized recall of romaine lettuce, several other companies have instituted noteworthy product recalls. While demoralizing for food and beverag...

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Jul 10, 2018

A few weeks ago, Elon Musk tweeted that “humans are underrated” and that heavy automation didn’t have the results expected in Tesla’s gigafactory. Isn’t it a great example of what’s wrong with digital transformation and smart factories?

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Jul 10, 2018

There is significant chatter about Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution. All the analysis bodies - such as Capgemini, Fujitsu, Gartner, and PWC - appear to have been researching and reporting on what Industry 4.0 is and what prize awaits us if we join the revolution.

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Jul 10, 2018

Recently, I’ve been talking to a lot of people in the 3D printing industry regarding competing for polymer 3D printing processes and their future. During the research process for the latest SmarTech market research study, Additive Manufacturing with Polymers and Plastics 2018, I’ve had t...