Why Surface Contact Pressure In Your Manufacturing Process Matters

whitePaper | November 1, 2022

Many businesses are experiencing an increase in supply chain disruptions reverberating down to the customer. A rapidly growing population adding to the swell of demand, the threat of a looming recession, and complex logistics systems create an incredibly delicate balance. We are facing a pivotal time for the future of supply chains.

whitePaper | July 7, 2022

Change has always been a factor in manufacturing, but traditionally, market conditions have evolved over several months or even years. By contrast, in today’s global economy, incidents both local and thousands of miles away are shifting market demand quickly, impacting the availability of materials, and reshaping supply chain dynamics at breakneck speed. Manufacturers need to adapt to these changes immediately without sacrificing product quality, customer relationships, or valuable employees. And that requires an adaptive manufacturing strategy.

whitePaper | October 23, 2021

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will increase the level of intelligence in the manufacturing industry by promoting, inter alia, the matching of production and demand, improving quality inspection, increasing product yield, reducing product failure rates, and improving production efficiency.1 While the last decade of Industry 4.0 was determined by technology-driven innovation, the coming years will focus on data- and intelligence-driven innovation. In this perspective, AI is an enabler for the transition from smart factories towards intelligent factories with self-optimising and self-healing characteristics. While smart factories are capable of applying previously acquired knowledge, intelligent factories will be able to autonomously acquire new knowledge and apply it for self-optimisation purposes.

whitePaper | November 12, 2022

Since the first Industrial Revolution, the manufacturing process has been revolutionised from water and steam-powered machines to electrical and automated ones. The term "Industry 4.0" or simply I4 was introduced by the German government in 2011, which encourages the use of modern technology in the manufacturing process. It defines that automation technology can be improved by offering different methods of self-configuration, self-optimisation and self-diagnosis. The fourth era of revolution (Industry 4.0) is all about connectivity trends, advanced material, processing technology, service orientation and collaboration in advanced manufacturing networks. It presents a unique level of control and coordination over the whole value chain of the products. Internet of things (IoT) and machine to machine communication (M2M) are merged to improve communication and automation. It creates a new set of design principles for effective and computerised control of the manufacturing process which includes

whitePaper | September 1, 2022

A tale as old as industrialization itself. The former driven by producers, the latter by consumers. Every business is subject to the supply and demand paradigm, but manufacturing organizations in particular, since they determine the supply side of the equation. When we talk about “demand,” we are talking about the quantity of a specific good or service that consumers are willing and able to purchase during a given period of time. When we talk about “supply,” we are talking about the quantity of that specific good or service that is available to consumers.

whitePaper | January 9, 2023

Silicone rubber has many applications, from hearing aids to handles and grips on consumer goods. This report provides an overview of 3D printed tooling for silicone part production, including two part injection molds, overmolds, compression molds, and eggshell molds. These methods can be employed for the prototyping of soft silicone products, small-batch production of customer beta units, or production of custom end-use goods. A step-by-step guide is provided for producing a silicone keychain with an encapsulated Apple AirTag, employing mold design best practices from several Formlabs product design customers. We also present information about successful material workflows from Formlabs users, including silicone-resin compatibility and recommended mold releases for both tin and platinum cure silicones.