When you walk into the Redeye On Demand facility in Eden Prairie, MN, you enter into one version of the factory of the future. There you will see a bank of 100 high-end Fortus fused-deposition modeling (FDM) machines from Stratasys that provide the capacity to build real, functional parts with production-grade thermoplastics directly from CAD data.
Manufacturing got smart when companies figured out how to make products in one market and sell them in another. Today, we call this supply chain logistics. But somewhere along the way, the innovation chain connecting supply (manufacturing) and logistics (the supporting infrastructure) started to diverge.
Full line of fiber and diode laser machines for cutting and hardening
Marposs, announced on March 24 the availability of its Aeroel MecLab.X laser micrometer systems. These provide diameter measurements for components such as electric motor shafts, gage or piston pins, hydraulic components or any number of ground or turned parts.
Dedicated in-house labs create and optimize laser welding processes for electric motors and batteries.
BLM GROUP USA announced on March 17, 2020 the enhancement of its E-FORM tube end forming machine with a fully CNC electric rolling device.
Glenn Bridgman describes the difference between his shop’s manual grinders and its newest state-of-the-art CNC ID/OD grinder, a Studer CT960 OD/ID from United Grinding (Miamisburg, OH), as “feel vs. facts.” Bridgman, president of Bridge Tool & Die (Buckley, MI), believes that manual grinding is a somewhat personal operation.
More and more manufacturers are seeing productivity as a crucial factor to their business success. In the meantime, business models are changing from the large quantities and few variants to small quantities with frequently changed variants. This change requires high flexibility during production.
The concept of attaching data to CAD models, such as GD&T, seems to be growing. Using model-based definition, the industry is beginning to take advantage of the technique.
Navigating lingering industrywide concerns that make bottom-line sense.
