Helping smaller companies in U.S. with cyber defense April 23, 2019 Cyber criminals are increasingly setting their sights on today’s digitized manufacturing industry as an entry point into government and commercial supply chains.
How to Automate to Efficiency Without Sacrificing Agility April 26, 2019 There is no shortage of competition in a global market. As a manufacturer trying to get ahead of the pack, automation can help with problems like a limited skilled labor force, quality control issues and suboptimal throughput. But the high initial cost and extended implementation time can be deterrents.
A Free-Wheeling Taxi Service of Sorts Can Set Workers Free April 26, 2019 Manufacturers are facing shrinking product lifecycles with frequently changing customer demands. As a result, they need agile production and flexible factory layouts that can easily be modified whenever needed.
Augmented Reality: In this Case, the Writing’s on the Work Station April 10, 2019 A Michigan company that displays instructions for manual manufacturing processes on work stations via augmented reality (AR) is adding wearables to provide similar guidance.
Structured Vision in Manufacturing April 4, 2019 Structured light systems measure surfaces by projecting a pattern of fringes, then using cameras and sophisticated software to convert them into point clouds of metrology data. Accuracy can reach the single-digit microns over millions of points.
Five Suggestions for How to Retain Tribal Knowledge August 7, 2019 What is tribal knowledge and why should a company care? It is valuable, exclusive information stored only inside someone’s mind and communicated only verbally (if at all). The “someone” may have played an important role in an organization for decades and knows a thing or two that the company treasures yet cannot duplicate.
To Prepare for Blockchain, First Check These Three Things August 6, 2019 The value-add of blockchain for businesses is estimated to grow into the trillions by 2030. Experts believe product recalls alone—estimated to cost $8 million today—could be practically eliminated through improved track and traceability enabled by blockchain.
Sunnen to Open Manufacturing Plant in Monterrey, Mexico September 3, 2019 Sunnen Products Co. is expanding its global production footprint, opening a manufacturing facility in Monterrey Mexico to complement its production in the U.S., China, Switzerland, and Brazil. Sunnen, a large, integrated manufacturer of precision bore creation and finishing equipment, will move a portion of its abrasive and tooling products from its St. Louis operation to the Monterrey facility.
Process Control by Analyzing Metal Temperature Gradients with Fixed Thermal Imaging November 22, 2019 Producing metal products is one of the most energy intensive industries. Improving both energy and production efficiency, as well as ensuring product quality is at the top of any manufacturers to do list. Engineers should consider using fixed thermal imaging cameras to optimize their manufacturing process.
Barriers to robot deployment falling one by one October 16, 2019 Industrial robots are becoming easier to program, more versatile, more cost-effective, more accurate and more mobile. These changes are lowering barriers to entry, shortening return on investment and making robots a more practical investment.