Industrial Data
Protolabs | January 09, 2024
Digital manufacturing leader Protolabs launched today its rebranded Protolabs Network service that leverages global manufacturing partners for expanded capabilities and pricing options. Formerly known as Hubs, the move signals Protolabs’ commitment to a singular global brand and unified customer experience. The transition comes almost three years after acquiring the Amsterdam-based manufacturing network, which has seen significant annual growth since the 2021 acquisition.
“We’re building a business model that the manufacturing industry has never seen before, and customers are beginning to harness the full potential it offers,” explained Rob Bodor, Protolabs’ President and CEO. “In the third quarter of 2023 alone, revenue fulfilled through Protolabs Network increased over 80 percent year-over-year! It is a true testament not only to our savvy customer base who is extracting that manufacturing value, but our entire Protolabs team of employees who have brought this model to life.”
The business model Bodor is referring to is a hybrid digital manufacturing model combining Protolabs’ internal digital factories with a global network of suppliers—Protolabs Network—to provide customers a manufacturing resource throughout a product’s entire life cycle.
Protolabs Network includes more than 250 highly vetted supply partners, to serve customers’ broad needs across the life cycle of their products—from innovation and prototyping to production and end-of-life product support. Customers can access tighter tolerances, enhanced finishing options, and higher volumes at lower cost, among other benefits. The manufacturing partner network complements the low-volume, on-demand manufacturing services also available from Protolabs.
“This is the future of the industry manufacturing that is completely tailored to what customers need, when they need it, and at the price point they want,” said Pjotr Horowitz, managing director for Protolabs Network. “It’s exciting to be on the frontlines driving that evolution.”
The newly rebranded Protolabs Network is now live. To learn more about Protolabs’ hybrid manufacturing model that combines factory and network capabilities, check out its breakdown of the framework for the future.
About Protolabs
Protolabs is the fastest and most comprehensive digital manufacturing service in the world. Our digital factories produce low-volume parts in days while Protolabs Network unlocks advanced capabilities and volume pricing through its highly vetted manufacturing partners. The result? One manufacturing source—from prototyping to production—for product developers, engineers, and supply chain teams across the globe.
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Additive Manufacturing
Caterpillar Inc. | January 08, 2024
Caterpillar Inc, announced it has signed an electrification strategic agreement with CRH to advance the deployment of Caterpillar's zero-exhaust emissions solutions. CRH is the number one aggregates producer in North America and the first company in that industry to sign such an agreement with Caterpillar.
The agreement is focused on accelerating the deployment of Caterpillar's 70 to 100-ton-class battery electric off-highway trucks and charging solutions at a CRH site in North America. Through the agreement, CRH will participate in Caterpillar's Early Learner program for battery electric off-highway trucks, testing and validating the units in real-world applications. CRH will also provide voice of customer feedback to address safety, performance, operational and compliance requirements for the aggregates industry.
"We are pleased to work with CRH, as our first aggregates industry customer, to expand our electrification solutions beyond mining. When it comes to sustainability, the quarry and aggregates industry requires diverse solutions. Our collaboration with CRH is an exciting opportunity to learn together and gain valuable insights into how our products can best support CRH's long-term objectives to decarbonize its operations," said Resource Industries Group President Denise Johnson.
The collaboration supports CRH's climate-related objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by utilizing more sustainable equipment. CRH has set a target to deliver a 30% reduction in absolute carbon emissions by 2030 (from a 2021 base year) and an ambition to be a net-zero business by 2050.
Scott Parson, President, CRH Americas Materials Solutions said, "At CRH, we recognize that collaboration and innovation are critical to delivering our industry-leading decarbonization targets and achieving our ambition of net-zero by 2050. Through this partnership with Caterpillar, we will advance the use of sustainable equipment in our operations and build on our shared commitment to a low-carbon future."
About Caterpillar
With 2022 sales and revenues of $59.4 billion, Caterpillar Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. For nearly 100 years, we've been helping customers build a better, more sustainable world and are committed and contributing to a reduced-carbon future. Our innovative products and services, backed by our global dealer network, provide exceptional value that helps customers succeed. Caterpillar does business on every continent, principally operating through three primary segments – Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation – and providing financing and related services through our Financial Products segment.
About CRH
CRH is the leading provider of building materials solutions that build, connect and improve our world. Employing c.75,800 people at c.3,160 operating locations in 29 countries, CRH has market leadership positions in both North America and Europe. As the essential partner for road and critical utility infrastructure, commercial building projects and outdoor living solutions, CRH's unique offering of materials, products and value-added services helps to deliver a more resilient and sustainable built environment.
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Robotics and Automation
Kardex | January 25, 2024
Kardex has agreed a strategic partnership with Addverb in the area of intralogistics software. Addverb is a leading global robotics and warehouse automation company based in India. The cooperation combines Kardex's expertise in the area of compact storage systems with Addverb's outstanding warehouse management technology. Addverb's highly innovative warehouse management system is based on a modern microservices architecture and fully operable in the cloud.
The partnership between Kardex and Addverb enables an integrated and efficient solution package with the latest technologies in the area of warehouse management and automation. The overall package of Addverb software and Kardex storage systems offers seamlessly integrated and optimized storage processes for companies of all sizes in all industries.
Addverb's warehouse management solution is based on a microservices architecture that makes it seamlessly scalable and extremely flexible. In addition to which it features a user-friendly interface that eases the implementation and administration. With its algorithms optimizing the handling of resources and materials, the Addverb system ensures optimized workflows and greater productivity. The cloud-based architecture meanwhile guarantees global access and real-time data for optimal decision-making with the highest possible security standards.
The partnership between Kardex and Addverb is an important step forward in the advancement and innovation of warehouse management technologies. Both companies are convinced that their joint effort will contribute to boosting the efficiency and agility of companies worldwide.
"Thanks to the partnership with Addverb, we are able to offer our clients one of the most advanced warehouse management solutions for highly efficient storage. The combination of our technologies will set new standards in the integration of logistics systems" emphasizes Dr. Volker Jungbluth, Head of Corporate Technology at Kardex.
The strategic partnership enables extensive synergies between the two companies. "Together with Kardex, we will be able to offer our clients first-class solutions that will revolutionize their warehousing processes and make them more competitive", says Pieter Feenstra, CEO Addverb EMEA.
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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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