Guide to Post-Printing Advanced Polymers

whitePaper | March 3, 2022

Thanks to innovations in vision, mapping, safety and other technologies developed for self-driving vehicles, AMRs have overcome traditional barriers to automation in distribution centers (DCs) and complex manufacturing operations. They’re smart enough to “share the road” with human co-workers and other vehicles, find a different route if their original path is blocked, and respond to rapid changes in orders or logistics needs — all without human intervention. AMRs are also highly cost-effective, requiring minimal information technology (IT) or infrastructural changes and only a short integration period to learn their surroundings.

whitePaper | January 2, 2023

Additive Manufacturing (AM) and Injection Molding (IM) are often perceived as competing plastic processing technologies. However, organizations must be ready to utilize and switch between different production technologies to address changing product requirements, shift production schedules based on market demands, or respond to supply chain crises. This includes making both technologies complementary, not exclusive.

whitePaper | September 24, 2022

Manufacturers across industry segments face cut-throat global competition, increased product complexity, logistics challenges related to offshore production, shorter product life cycles, and new Industry 4.0 technology requirements throughout most aspects of their businesses.

whitePaper | November 2, 2022

This white paper entitled "Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing" reports the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in European manufacturing, and its potential to enhance competitiveness and technological leadership in the future. The paper is based on research conducted by the Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing NETwork (AIM-NET), which represents the viewpoint of the manufacturing community on the achievements and challenges of AI solutions. The document covers topics such as AI in manufacturing processes, robots, machines, and operations support in manufacturing, and AI in manufacturing systems. It also includes discussions on cross-cutting aspects such as regulation, education, systems engineering, and data augmentation. The paper also presents the maturity achieved TRL levels of existing AI-based applications in manufacturing, typical KPIs used to assess performance, and barriers and limitations to wide adoption. It also provides a roadmap for future work on AI, with efforts needed in short-term and long-term time horizons. Overall, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current status and future vision of AI in manufacturing for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers.

whitePaper | December 30, 2022

In recent years, Data and analytics capabilities have made a good progress resulting to numerous recent advancements. Majority of advancements have been made in various ways like development of more sophisticated algorithms, exponential growth in the volume of available data, and storage and computational power have uninterruptedly improved. The combination of these trends has led to business disruptions and fueling rapid technology advances.

whitePaper | March 8, 2023

Agile Manufacturing is a manufacturing philosophy that emphasizes flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness in production processes. It is an approach that allows manufacturers to quickly respond to changing market demands and customer needs. The term Agile refers to a set of principles and practices aimed at delivering high-quality products that meet the needs of customers in a fast-changing environment. The term Agile Manufacturing was first coined in the early 1990s, during a time of increasing global competition and rapidly changing market conditions. As a result, manufacturers began to explore new ways to improve their competitiveness and responsiveness to changing customer needs, leading to the development of the Agile Manufacturing strategy. In January 1991, the term appeared in an important report entitled “21st Century Manufacturing Enterprise Strategy” by the Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University in the United States.