3D Printing
Align Technology, Inc. | January 04, 2024
Align Technology, Inc. a leading global medical device company that designs, manufactures, and sells the Invisalign® system of clear aligners, iTero™ intraoral scanners, and exocad™ CAD/CAM software for digital orthodontics and restorative dentistry, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of privately-held Cubicure GmbH, a pioneer in direct 3D printing solutions for polymer additive manufacturing that develops, produces, and distributes innovative materials, equipment, and processes for novel 3D printing solutions.
The acquisition of Cubicure will support and scale Align’s strategic innovation roadmap and strengthen the Align Digital Platform™. Cubicure will also extend and scale Align’s printing, materials, and manufacturing capabilities for our 3D printed product portfolio which now includes the Invisalign® Palatal Expander system, Align’s first direct 3D printed orthodontic device and a safe, comfortable, and clinically effective* alternative to traditional palatal expanders. Cubicure’s patented Hot Lithography technology uses a special heating and coating mechanism that enables the processing of highly viscous resins to produce particularly tough and temperature-resistant polymers. This high precision 3D printing process facilitates the unprecedented additive manufacturing of resilient components with an astonishing first of its kind material quality performance.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Joe Hogan, Align Technology president and CEO said, “The acquisition of Cubicure brings a talented team and unique cutting-edge technology into Align and will enable us to scale our 3D printing operations to eventually direct print millions of custom appliances per day. Direct 3D printing enables Align to create 3D printed solutions without the added step of first creating a mold, making 3D printing more sustainable and efficient. I am excited to take this important step in our relationship with Cubicure, which began several years ago as a joint development program.”
“Align has invested billions of dollars on innovation over the past 27 years, including next-generation 3D printing technologies to process high-performance polymers,” said Srini Kaza, Align senior vice president, product research & development. “We’ve been working with Cubicure for years and I am thrilled that they are now officially employees of Align and members of our R&D organization. We're at the beginning of this next wave of direct 3D printing additive manufacturing and I believe we're poised to transform the orthodontic industry again with our unprecedented ability to direct print devices.”
The acquisition closed on January 2, 2024, for approximately €79 million subject to final closing adjustments and adjustments for Align’s existing ownership of capital stock of Cubicure.
Based on a survey in August 2023 in Canada of 10 Invisalign trained orthodontists who participated in the Invisalign Palatal Expander System Technical Design Assessment and have treated at least 1 patient age 6-11 years with IPE. Data on file at Align Technology, Inc. as of October 30, 2023.
About Align Technology, Inc.
Align Technology designs and manufactures the Invisalign® system, the most advanced clear aligner system in the world, iTero™ intraoral scanners and services, and exocad™ CAD/CAM software. These technology building blocks enable enhanced digital orthodontic and restorative workflows to improve patient outcomes and practice efficiencies for approximately 252 thousand doctor customers and are key to accessing Align’s 600 million consumer market opportunity worldwide. Over the past 26 years, Align has helped doctors treat over 16.4 million patients with the Invisalign system and is driving the evolution in digital dentistry through the Align Digital Platform™, our integrated suite of unique, proprietary technologies and services delivered as a seamless, end-to-end solution for patients and consumers, orthodontists and GP dentists, and lab/partners.
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Additive Manufacturing
Teledyne Relays, Inc. | January 29, 2024
Teledyne Relays, a leading provider of cutting-edge relay solutions, introduces its new Multi-Function Timer product series, showcasing the company's commitment to delivering advanced, reliable, and versatile solutions for the industrial automation sector.
Teledyne Relays Multi-Function Timer MFT series is a state-of-the-art solution designed for a wide variety of applications that demand precise timing control. The user-friendly design features three potentiometers for easy selection of timing functions and ranges, while the LEDs provide at-a-glance feedback of timing and relay status. The MFT series also features
7 selectable timing functions for a wide variety of applications
Timing ranges from 0.1 seconds up to 100 hours
Compact 17.5mm housing preserves valuable panel space
Supply Voltages: 24VDC & 24-240VAC OR 12-240VAC/DC
5A SPDT output relay
Engineered with the needs of electrical engineers, panel builders, and automation engineers in mind, these timers find application in various industries, including but not limited to
Industrial Automation
Manufacturing
Process Control Systems
HVAC and Refrigeration
Agriculture and Irrigation
Power Distribution
“With the new Multi-Function Timer series, Teledyne Relays continues to lead in providing reliable and versatile solutions for industrial automation, ensuring precise timing control,” said Michael Palakian, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Teledyne Relays.
The Multi-Function Timer series from Teledyne Relays ensures precise timing control, offering unparalleled reliability across diverse applications and is available for ordering from Teledyne Relays or an authorized distributor.
About Teledyne Relays
Teledyne Relays is a world leader in high-performance coaxial switches, electromechanical, and solid-state relays, offering a wide range of solutions for various applications in the aerospace and defense, telecommunications, test and measurement, and industrial markets. With over 60 years of experience, Teledyne Relay has established a reputation for quality, reliability, and customer service excellence.
About Teledyne Defense Electronics
Serving Defense, Space and Commercial sectors worldwide, Teledyne Defense Electronics offers a comprehensive portfolio of highly engineered solutions that meet your most demanding requirements in the harshest environments. Manufacturing both custom and off-the-shelf product offerings, our diverse product lines meet emerging needs for key applications for avionics, energetics, electronic warfare, missiles, radar, satcom, space and test and measurement.
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Robotics and Automation
Formic | January 23, 2024
Formic Technologies, a provider of Robotics-as-a-Service automation for US manufacturers, announced the release of a suite of software tools to accelerate and simplify the deployment of robotic automation systems for businesses with no internal expertise, while also empowering their existing workforce to thrive and grow with the new technology. The Formic software is based on data and experience gathered from hundreds of thousands of hours of real production time across the Formic robot fleet - from state-of the-art Fortune 500 production facilities to small 30 person local manufacturing plants. Formic’s software enables operations teams and delivers results for every business size.
The Formic Core operating system makes working with robotic automation solutions as easy as using your smartphone, Apple CarPlay, or Netflix. The intuitive multilanguage touchscreen UI allows all existing employees to operate Formic robots and program the equipment to meet production needs - all without any advanced training. At the same time, the software transforms the robot into a “smart system” capable of automatically adjusting to new obstacles in the vicinity of the robot, connecting to any new peripherals, and monitoring all sensor data, production rates, uptime, cycle times and more.
“As the labor shortage continues to impact US manufacturing to the tune of more than one million jobs going unfilled in 2023, business leaders need to figure out how to get more out of what they have,” said Formic CEO, Saman Farid. “Formic Core makes it simple for business leaders to adopt automation by leveraging the existing capabilities of their workforce to streamline production while improving safety, quality, and throughput - all without any required capital expense.”
All of the process information captured by Formic Core feeds into the powerful Formic Colony 2.0 performance dashboard. This command center software monitors total system performance across a wide range of deployments and uses AI to analyze the data coming from all robots, enabling predictive analysis of anomalies and preventative operations to minimize downtime and even prevent it. This data is accessible to facility owners and operators in real-time through the Formic App available for download on the Apple App and Google Play stores. Formic's technicians can use this data and the remote system access provided by the new software to resolve issues from a distance, enabling a swift return to production should any stoppages occur. While the Formic Colony toolkit is primarily leveraged by the Formic operations team to service customer deployments, it is also available for larger businesses to use internally with more advanced teams responsible for automation systems in multiple locations.
The Formic FAST software suite enables the Solutions Engineering team to provide robotic system specification, quoting, and augmented reality (AR) demonstrations faster than ever before, reducing design and deployment times from months to weeks. This accelerated service delivers a best-in-class customer experience by expediting the path to greater productivity on the production floor.
“Advanced automation has historically been elusive for all but the largest manufacturers,” said Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital. “Formic is changing that. By leveraging advanced AI and proprietary algorithms, Formic has automated the labor-intensive and expensive process of automating a work cell, and makes automating as easy as hiring workers for all logistics and manufacturing companies - large and small alike.”
With the addition of these new software products, Formic now boasts a full complement of $0 CapEx robotic automation solutions, powerful workforce enabling software, a complete system monitoring platform, and solution identification, augmented reality, and simulation software to deliver US manufacturing businesses scale and growth. Formic is building a robotic workforce that can be used in every American manufacturing facility, with the aim to bring prosperity and abundance by making everyday items easy to produce and deliver.
About Formic
Founded in 2020, Formic makes robotics and automation accessible for all US manufacturing businesses. The Chicago-based “Robotics-as-a-Service” company delivers robotic automation for a low hourly rate, including 24/7 monitoring, 100% maintenance coverage, and guaranteed performance without the need for large, risky capital investments. Driving continuous improvement in safety, quality, and throughput is now possible for every business. With 7x growth in production hours YoY, Formic is currently entertaining Series B funding.
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Manufacturing Technology
Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS) | January 11, 2024
Wireless commercial vehicle charging took a big step forward with an agreement between Detroit Manufacturing Systems and InductEV. In the landmark agreement, DMS, a large-scale, U.S.-based assembly provider, will bring its operations, manufacturing, quality by design, and supply chain expertise to InductEV allowing the latter to more quickly scale to meet customer demand.
InductEV is reinventing how electric commercial fleet vehicles charge their batteries by charging on route, using clean renewable electricity. With its wireless induction solution now deployed worldwide and with 18 patents granted and 23 in process, the King of Prussia, PA-based company is the global leader in high-power, high-speed wireless EV charging and AI-software powered energy management.
Under the terms of this agreement, DMS will
Manufacture InductEV's hardware, including in-ground and under-vehicle inductive pads. Manage InductEV's supply chain and procurement. Utilize engineering expertise to facilitate high quality, design for manufacturing and assembly. Co-develop design optimizations to prepare for a 100-fold increase in production volume.
"We couldn't be more pleased to have a manufacturing partner, known for its high standards and operating rigor, combine forces with our proprietary engineering," said Barry Libert, Chairman and CEO, InductEV. "Our complementary areas of expertise will enable us to meet the growing demand from commercial fleet owners and operators, as well as Intermodal facilities and Ports, for our advanced, AI-managed wireless charging solution."
Among its product offerings, Detroit Manufacturing Systems currently handles manufacturing for the Ford EV F-150 Lightning signaling its expertise in advanced electric vehicle components and systems production. InductEV's patented technology is currently being used in locations throughout North America and Europe, including in Washington State, Indianapolis, Martha's Vineyard, and in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo's hometown. (Volvo Ventures is an InductEV investor.) The company is poised to announce the largest commitment by a U.S. port facility to its wireless charging technology.
"We recognize and applaud InductEV's efforts to wirelessly electrify commercial fleets, the biggest contributor in transportation to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide," added Bruce Smith, Chairman and CEO, Detroit Manufacturing Systems. "We look forward to bringing our manufacturing, quality and supply chain expertise to this partnership and creating a successful venture that will help reduce this sector's carbon footprint at a considerable cost savings for all involved."
InductEV's proprietary, on-route wireless charging solution shifts EV charging to daytime use of renewables. It reduces the need for large EV batteries, lowering vehicle costs, and eliminates the need for recycling by extending battery life by a factor of 4-8X. Wireless charging also enables the broad deployment of autonomous vehicles.
About InductEV
InductEV is revolutionizing how electric commercial fleet vehicles charge their batteries. With its proprietary on-route wireless solution now deployed throughout North America and Europe and with 18 U.S. patents and 23 pending, the King of Prussia, PA-based company is the global leader in high-power, high-speed wireless EV charging and AI-software powered energy management. The company just opened one of world's first R&D centers for wireless vehicle charging.
About Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS)
Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS) is a contract manufacturing and assembly company that is committed to and is constantly striving for manufacturing excellence and perfect quality. This is achieved through meticulous mistake proofing and a culture of continuous improvement. DMS' GIFTED & RICH fundamental beliefs, management principles, and core values guide the staff in proactively and transparently engaging with customers and suppliers. DMS is also committed to protecting the local and global environment and minimizing the environmental impacts concerning their activities, products and services.
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