Smart manufacturing is now being rapidly adopted by a much wider range of business sectors.
The COVID-19 black swan event disrupted the global economy and forced companies to rapidly rethink their processes, operations and supply networks.
To get to smart manufacturing, the industry needs integration, simulation and analysis.
Like the United Nations’ international delegates who use interpreters to understand each other, robots, machines and other industrial components from various vendors speak different computer languages and need translators to help them communicate.
LIFT recently expanded the focus of its desire to “create innovations faster, better and cheaper” to the materials, processes and systems involved in moving innovations from concept to commercialization.
3D Systems and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) said they have entered into a contract to employ additive manufacturing solutions to better serve veterans with next-generation medical devices produced at the point of care.
Auto racing is a global business and Quick Drive LLC is a key part of the supply chain. The Parker, Colo.-based company manufactures a proprietary line of high-performance drivetrain components for auto racing. Its parts are designed, engineered, prototyped, and manufactured in-house.
Rich, General Motors recently invested in 17 production-grade FDM printers, intending to use them for 3D-printed tooling. The term “tooling” is quite broad, however. Can you share details about what types of tooling GM and others are 3D printing, and why?
EnvisionTEC CEO Al Siblani—whose firm is being purchased by Desktop Metal—discusses photopolymers’ move from prototyping to production. He gets into how he sees the sale will impact his company, as well as Desktop Metal and the 3D printing market in general. For the uninitiated, he also patiently explains how the 3d printing of polymers has progressed over the years. Last but not least, he details EnvisionTEC’s plans for growth—and asserts that the cost of 3D printing has reached a point where it is disrupting plastics.
I first wrote about substitute skin in 1993. And at the time, it seemed that stand-in organs—at scale—were imminent.
