Seeing shop-floor steps clearly helps workers quickly learn on the job April 3, 2018 A talk with Shannon Bennett, implementation and Sales Engineer at Visual Knowledge Share Ltd.
Securely on the smart manufacturing path and looking at the next phase April 3, 2018 Smart Manufacturing sat down with KIMBERLEY HAGERTY, Industry 4.0 digital manufacturing transformation manager at Pratt & Whitney, at the Westec conference in Los Angeles in September to hear about the progress her firm is making adopting smart manufacturing processes, solutions and strategies.
New Chiller Technology Helps Industrial Lasers Keep Their Cool April 9, 2018 Industrial lasers require cooling to remove excess heat generated in the resonator power electronics and the optics system. The type of cooling required is determined by laser wattage, resonator efficiency, resonator and optics temperature requirements, and ambient temperature.
Good Times in Thermoplastic Composites March 30, 2018 Thermoplastic composites are gaining traction in manufacturing applications, offering benefits like lighter weight, faster production times, longer shelf life and easier shipping compared with metals or other composites.
Which Technologies Should Come First, Second, Third? March 6, 2018 Analytics solutions. The industrial Internet of Things. Robotics. Automation. Manufacturers looking for tech solutions that will help them control costs and gain a competitive edge have many great options. In fact, deciding what type of technology to invest in and why can seem overwhelming.
Three perspectives converge on smart manufacturing February 27, 2018 Manufacturers continue to be bombarded with an onslaught of technology terms, as well as different ideas on where to begin and how to proceed. This confusion has slowed the adoption of new technology. Yet a big opportunity for a huge increase in efficiency awaits.
Partnership between motion control, cameras more than stands test of time February 20, 2018 While cameras and motion control have worked in tandem for at least 15 years, their integration has improved because networks have gotten faster, more reliable, and more deterministic (i.e., nothing will interfere with a function that’s a priority).
Removing mental roadblocks to improving operations January 30, 2018 It’s a familiar scenario at the factory. Quality issues have reared their ugly heads, requiring rework, causing backorders, delaying shipments, and driving tense daily customer calls. Meanwhile, the team works to address production issues using a mix of day-old post-mortem reports, shop-floor observations captured on notepads, and other operational data summarized on spreadsheets and sticky notes.
Agile hardware development can quicken product lifecycle January 16, 2018 In today’s booming software landscape, you see highly dynamic teams quickly iterating to develop and improve their products. Yet while the world’s software creators have learned to “move fast and break things,” hardware developers are still (slowly) moving to adopt a more agile product development methodology.
SPECIAL REPORT: Sensors’ Meteoric Rise February 20, 2018 The devices quickly become less costly, sophisticated and independent, gaining wider influence.
