Smart factory systems benefit from improved technologies, as well as proven applications.
Modernizing the smaller shop with the latest digital tools available from enterprise resource planning (ERP) software developers
Sales of cars and light trucks plummeted during the Great Recession and General Motors Co. and Chrysler emerged from government-back bankruptcies in 2009. Since then, total industry deliveries have surged, hitting a record 17.47 million in 2015, according to Autodata Corp.
Materials researcher Metalysis Ltd. (South Yorkshire, UK) recently announced that it has developed a new synthesized graphene material that holds potential for future industrial production. Metalysis, which is focused on commercializing its proprietary electrochemical metal-powder manufacturing technology, said its R&D successfully produced graphene using the company’s own process.
New ISO safety specification helps automation developers design safer robots for close encounters on the factory floor
I traveled to Toyota headquarters in Japan with Jeff Liker for a research project. We wanted to learn more about the engineering and collaboration that created the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), the strategy and innovation behind hydrogen vehicles, and how they had adapted and improved their development system to meet the increasing demands of the ultra-competitive global auto industry.
Cutting tool and tooling systems specialist Sandvik Coromant has unveiled its CoroPlus suite of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions aimed at helping manufacturers prepare for Industry 4.0. The concept is designed specifically to improve the control of productivity and costs through a combination of machine connectivity and CoroPlus – the suite of connectivity solutions from Sandvik Coromant – helps manufacturers prepare for Industry 4.0 access to manufacturing data and expert knowledge.
The nexus of cyber and physical security threats is the stuff of nightmares, and while manufacturers are waking up to it as a reality, experts worry that the awakening is happening too slowly.
When it comes to using new materials, medical and dental device makers are ultra-conservative—because they need to clear devices through a thicket of federal regulators.
A dynamic safety concept has been implemented in the Industrie 4.0 demo production plant of the SmartFactoryKL consortium on the basis of an industrial, Ethernet-based communications protocol.