All Features
Emily Newton
It’s increasingly common for today’s warehouse managers to pursue robotic material-handling solutions. That approach can boost productivity, reduce injury rates, and enable companies to adjust to changing demands. However, before company decision-makers choose what kind of robots they want, they…
Scott Knoche
A very popular version of the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is the portable CMM “arm,” not to be confused with the “robotic arm” or simply, robot—as it is called in the factory automation world. Robots are motorized, machine-driven devices that have tube segments connected by articulating…
Mark Hembree
Now that AI is an acronym that doesn’t really need to be spelled out (artificial intelligence, just in case you’ve been off the planet the last couple of years), we are hearing and understanding more about its various applications and capabilities.
I’m not an early adapter, but I do recall midway…
Verdi Ogewell
Which product life cycle management systems lead the market in terms of discrete manufacturing? As always, this question is as topical as it is controversial—but that doesn’t stop industry analysts from trying to position these developers against each other.
One of the more prominent and ambitious…
Adam Zewe
Mass spectrometers are extremely precise chemical analyzers that have many applications, from evaluating the safety of drinking water to detecting toxins in a patient’s blood. But building an inexpensive, portable mass spectrometer that could be deployed in remote locations remains a challenge,…
Michael Glickman
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the healthcare industry by enhancing decision-making capabilities, improving quality of care, and reducing costs. In the age of supercomputers and technological advancement, the health sector generates vast amounts of data, which AI can process and…
Peter Büscher
Over the past few months, I’ve covered the common sampling techniques used in technical cleanliness inspections. So far, I’ve taken a closer look at the washing method, direct liquid filtration, and tape lift sampling. Now I’ll discuss the particle trap method.
What is the particle trap method?…
Rajas Sukthankar
Digitalization is transforming all areas of life as well as existing business models. It’s enabling the manufacturing industry to implement its product ideas by taking advantage of technology trends such as generative design and intelligent models. Production has become more innovative through…
NIST
Researchers have yet to get the additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, of metals completely down to a science. Gaps in our understanding of what happens within metal during the process have made results inconsistent. But a new breakthrough could grant an unprecedented level of mastery over metal…
Del Williams
In industry, fossil fuel-fired boilers are commonly used to produce steam or hot water for space and process heating. However, traditional boilers might not be flexible enough to respond quickly to demand surges during peak periods.
To compensate, processors and manufacturers often keep more than…
National Physical Laboratory
Through their exceptional material properties, graphene and related 2D materials have the potential to disrupt technologies such as energy-storage devices, composites, and electronics. Depending on the material, these properties can include high electrical conductivity, high mechanical strength,…
Steve Oliver
Alignment with Laser (AW Laser), a South African company, specializes in alignment. Using API laser trackers to align machinery and equipment in a range of industries, AW Laser provides measurement services, especially for shipyards, aluminum plants, steel mills, paper manufacturers, and sugar…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a machine learning-inspired software package that provides end-to-end image analysis of electron and scanning probe microscopy images.
Known as AtomAI, the package applies deep learning to…
Daniel Marzullo
Are you looking to drive innovation and growth within your company? Creating an entrepreneurial learning environment may be the answer you’re looking for. However, implementing this culture can be challenging for any leadership team.
This article includes a guide with some of the steps you can…
Magnus Edholm
Companies of all sizes and in all industries face a future full of disruption, uncertainty, and challenge. Product complexity is growing rapidly due to increased demand for connectivity, customizability, and integrated intelligence. Sustainability is a primary concern for companies around the world…
Phanish Puranam
It’s no secret that there are no universally applicable organization designs. What works in one context may not work in another because each organization has a different history, culture, and cast of characters. And yet there is a thriving segment of the management consulting business that…
Leslie Bloom
Our country has proven to be a place where workers who are skilled with their hands (and have a head for all things mechanical) can flourish, even during difficult times.
The value of resilience has been etched into the soul of our most famous products: • Thomas Edison’s phonograph in 1877 • Henry…
Adam Zewe
Inspired by the human finger, MIT researchers have developed a robotic hand that uses high-resolution touch sensing to accurately identify an object after grasping it just one time.
Many robotic hands pack all their powerful sensors into the fingertips, so an object must be in full contact with…
Manufacturing Automation Systems LLC
In today’s global manufacturing markets, the need for accurate measurement has moved well beyond micrometers, gauges, and calipers. That’s why manufacturers are replacing manual metrology tools with fully automated systems. But what is automated metrology?
Automated metrology, sometimes called 3D…
Rip Stauffer
A couple of years ago, my wife decided to surprise me by taking me over to our local Tesla dealership so I could test drive a Tesla. We put a deposit down to hold our place in line, and two months later took delivery of a Model Y Performance. I loved everything about it, took everyone who asked…
Matt Fieldman, Blair Milo
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only been to Indiana once—for a fun weekend in Indianapolis. I will say that its Children’s Museum is truly world-class, and it was great going duckpin bowling for the first time.
Though I haven’t taken full advantage of Indiana as a tourist destination (yet!), as a…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The Autonomous Systems group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is in high demand as it incorporates remote sensing into projects needing a bird’s-eye perspective. When it comes to collecting data for environmental and national security research, the team sends its…
Scott A. Snyder
Recently, ESG has become a main topic of shareholders, boards, and C-suites. Billions in capital have been deployed through Impact or ESG-rated funds. Ninety percent of S&P 500 companies now have ESG strategies, and ESG mentions grew more than 300 percent in investor briefings. Major indices…
Etienne Nichols
I have a bold opinion: The corrective and preventive action (CAPA) process is the second-most important component of your quality management system (QMS). (If you want to know what I think is No. 1, shoot me an email.) As you build medical devices, a well-defined CAPA program provides a framework…
Bruce Hamilton
There’s a certain irony in the recent attention paid to the application of robots on the shop floor. On a couple occasions in the past year, I’ve heard manufacturing colleagues talk about the benefits of deploying robots to handle material conveyance. “Better,” they say, “to redeploy humans to…
