Hey, Job Shops: Time to Automate! March 25, 2020 Robots and job shops have not typically been talked about together. After all, everyone knows that automation is only suitable for high-volume production, and the typical mom-and-pop operation is anything but—its schedule filled with orders for high-mix, low-volume, and often highly complex work.
CESMII briefs U.S. leaders March 24, 2020 U.S. manufacturing in general, and small- and medium-sized manufacturers in particular, are in danger of being left behind as Europe and Asia move faster toward Industry 4.0, John Dyck, CEO of the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), told congressional staff, federal agency staff in a February briefing.
The Promise of Next-Level Automation March 24, 2020 Edge. Cloud. Digital twin. AI. AR. VR. Cobots. Once they were buzzwords. Now, they are becoming technical realities in mid- to large-scale manufacturing plants in North America.
How Amber Beverage Group put a lid on its inefficiencies March 23, 2020 As we enter Industry 4.0, the lines continue to blur between the digital and the physical. With this, the workplace is rapidly changing at every level in every industry.
America Makes reaches significant milestone March 18, 2020 America Makes, the public-private partnership that the Obama administration set up to foster research and innovation in additive manufacturing, achieved a significant milestone late last year: an online portal to track gaps in additive manufacturing (AM) standards.
Simulation Software For Error-Free Metalcutting February 26, 2020 Manufacturers must avoid costly machine errors that cause catastrophic damage to both machine tools and expensive workpieces. Even a minor error in, say, a titanium aerospace component can be a major expense.
Gear Machining Made Easy: TNC Cycles for Skiving February 24, 2020 Machining gears is still regarded by many machine tool operators as a true challenge and a realm reserved exclusively for specialists.
Are Cobots Inherently Safe? February 21, 2020 The “Global Robotics Report 2019” found that 79 percent of automation distributors do not believe their customers understand the safety requirements of installing a collaborative robot, or cobot.
Metal Milestones in 3D Printing February 21, 2020 Compared to machining and other traditional metalworking processes, additive manufacturing (AM) is a newcomer. Most industry experts trace its birth to 1987, when Chuck Hull of 3D Systems fame introduced the first commercially available stereolithography machine, the SLA-1.
What My Inbox Tells Us About AM February 20, 2020 One of the informal ways I keep track of industry trends is by counting the number of press releases I get on particular topics. As the editor in chief of Manufacturing Engineering, I get a lot of them, as many as 50-60 per day.
