AM Producers Seek Solutions to Production Barriers February 28, 2018 Additive manufacturing holds potential for many possible new frontiers in the aerospace industry, and manufacturers in aviation and space flight are reaching for those new vistas. But they’re held back at less than warp speed due to a lack of awareness, unmet technological needs and the absence of a formal regulatory process in their highly regulated industry.
Heading to Mars? Pack a 3D Printer! November 30, 2017 If NASA’s Journey to Mars project succeeds, the astronauts who make the 140 million-mile (225 million-km) trip to the Red Planet in the 2030s will need someplace to stay. The space agency is looking at 3D printing, using on-site materials, to manufacture humanity’s first deep space home.
UL, Tooling U-SME Sign Letter of Intent on 3D Printing Training, Certification December 19, 2017 NORTHBROOK, IL, Dec. 19, 2017 – UL, a global safety science company, and Tooling U-SME, a leader in manufacturing workforce and education development, announce the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) focused on a new collaboration to enhance workforce training and development efforts for manufacturers wanting to increase their capabilities in additive manufacturing.
Test and Measurement Gear Evolves to Measure AM Parts February 5, 2018 Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is a fast-growing field that offers many advantages over traditional techniques. It can create more complex parts than either machining or casting, can fuse different materials together, and is sometimes less expensive in low-volume or prototype applications.
Getting a Clearer Picture with Advanced Simulation Software May 7, 2019 Simulation in manufacturing is becoming much more pervasive. Advanced visualizations are used everywhere, from machining on shop-floor CNCs to offline CAD/CAM programming of NC equipment.
Software: Making In-House Apps with Low-Code, No-Code Platforms October 4, 2019 Banking on the premise that sometimes the best ideas for solving problems come from the ground up, manufacturers are adopting no-code and low-code programming platforms to let employees solve problems by building their own custom apps.
Lasers Enhance Traditional Machining April 12, 2019 Metalworking machines are fast, powerful, and accurate, but they weren’t always as capable as they are today. Modern equipment is more nimble, flexible and adaptable. The machines collectively exceed the sum of their parts.
The Value of SME’s AeroDef Event April 10, 2019 My involvement in SME and its AeroDef event began in 2014, when I first presented an Adaptive Machining Overview at AeroDef 2014 in Long Beach, Calif. At the time, the conference was relatively small in terms of attendees and exhibitors in comparison to the explosion of other engineering conferences that began around that time.
Augmented Reality: In this Case, the Writing’s on the Work Station April 10, 2019 A Michigan company that displays instructions for manual manufacturing processes on work stations via augmented reality (AR) is adding wearables to provide similar guidance.
Facing Up to New Challenges in Aerospace April 8, 2019 Aerospace is an incredibly exacting industry. Everything from design to manufacturing to maintenance must go exactly as planned to keep planes flying safely, and even when they do, mistakes can happen, leading to tragedy.