Swiss Mix: Niche Units Evolve Into Machining Centers February 2, 2018 B-axis milling … lasers … low-frequency vibration cutting … multiple tools in the cut, on multiple axes … thread whirling … wobble broaching. Who said Swiss-style machining was for millions of simple, round parts? As industry veteran Paul Cassella explained, “Today, Swiss-type machines are more like machining centers and the parts are more prismatic. I’ve seen setups where the only time we rotate the bar stock is during cutoff. Everything else is being machined by milling, cross drilling, or other similar operations.”
Bridging the Digital Transformation Divide with Advanced Manufacturing Analytics January 9, 2018 Q&A with Jon Sobel, co-founder and CEO of Sight Machine located in both San Francisco, CA and Ann Arbor, MI.
SPECIAL REPORT: Sensors’ Meteoric Rise February 20, 2018 The devices quickly become less costly, sophisticated and independent, gaining wider influence.
WPI, Quinsigamond Community College to Create Joint Lab January 11, 2018 Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) today were awarded a $4 million grant by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to create a comprehensive joint laboratory that will support the growth of the burgeoning integrated photonics industry across the Northeast, while also providing training and education to help build a skilled integrated photonics workforce in Central Massachusetts.
Industrial Robots: Accessible Opportunity January 5, 2018 Manufacturing is important to communities, regions, nations: In the US alone, manufacturing supports more than 17.6 million jobs—that’s one in six jobs–and accounts for nearly $6 trillion in GDP. More than 12 million Americans (9% of the workforce) are employed in manufacturing.
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.
FIRST, Caterpillar Partner to Strengthen STEM Pipeline; Drive Innovation in the Workforce January 16, 2018 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a global K-12 not-for-profit organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), announced Caterpillar Inc. as a strategic partner.
Global Autonomous Vehicle Sales to Surpass 33M in 2040, IHS Markit Says January 2, 2018 Worldwide sales of self-driving vehicles will exceed 33 million units in 2040, forecaster IHS Markit said today.
Machine Tool Orders Post Mixed Results in November January 15, 2018 Machine tool orders posted mixed results in November, slipping a bit on a monthly basis while recording a solid gain compared with a year earlier, according to a monthly report by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA).
To Each His Own: Batch Size 1 Arrives March 30, 2018 New systems, software and processes are replacing so-called islands of automation with seamless, automated manufacturing lines that boost overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) from 30 to 80% or more. Like a chess master, these systems think multiple moves ahead on the factory floor to ensure continuing production when circumstances change.
