While FABTECH 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans are underway to bring FABTECH 2021 to Chicago in 2021. That means North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event will be heading to McCormick Place Sept. 13-16, 2021.
On an annual basis, machine tool orders dropped by 18.6% in 2020 versus 2019.
GF Machining Solutions said it will transition in phases to a direct sales and support model in several key states.
FANUC America and Plus One Robotics said they have paired their technologies to meet the needs of their mutual customers in e-commerce.
Manufacturers need to create more production setups as batch sizes get smaller. Skilled labor continues to be hard to hire and keep. Higher levels of automation are needed, not just in material handling but also in fabricating, machining, assembly, and inspection.
While water and fire tube boiler power plants may be considered archaic, they now power much of North America and will for some time, even as newer, cleaner, greener tech transitions into the mainstream and becomes practical.
According to a survey conducted by ISM, 75 percent of U.S. manufacturing companies experienced delayed resources and materials due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak has forced manufacturers to rethink supply chains to allow for product diversification.
The Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Research and Development (OMIC R&D), a manufacturing research campus hosted by Oregon Tech, has received a $154,000 sponsored project from SMW-AUTOBLOK Corp.