Midway between Houston and Austin sits Brenham, Texas, home to Blue Bell ice cream and the world’s largest BBQ pit. Within this smallish town you’ll find a not-so-small contract manufacturer, MIC Group LLC.

Today’s aircraft propulsion systems are wonders of technology. Aircraft industry suppliers are modernizing production technology to meet the challenge of rapidly growing demand for global air travel.

Back in the early days of the Internet, when new sites were popping up selling everything from office supplies to dog food, I told a friend that I would never shop on the Internet. Too sketchy and unsafe. Well, some of it is still sketchy and unsafe, but I shop online—like billions of other people.

Two new production resins are available for 3D printing: one from 3D Systems is a thermoset that thinks it’s a thermoplastic and another from Carbon is a hybrid that’s 30 percent biomaterial, the company’s first resin with a reduced carbon footprint.

As I walked through the DMG Mori factory in Davis, Calif., during the company’s Manufacturing Days event in October, there was something noticeably different about it compared to other factories I’ve visited: it was brightly lit and quiet.

With younger generations migrating to cities and embracing digital lives, living habits are changing dramatically and ideas are spreading faster than ever. For the auto industry, these include ideas like the concept of shared transportation that will disrupt the automotive landscape.

With today’s focus on lightweighting, hollow parts made from composite materials—such as ducting, fuel tanks, mandrels, and rocket shrouds—are in higher demand than ever before.

The North American manufacturing Research Institution of SME (NAMRI | SME) held its 47th annual conference on manufacturing research (NAMRC 47) in Erie, Pa., from June 10-14.

Thanks to millions in investment and new tailored workforce training for Gen Z and above, aerospace manufacturing is reaching new heights in Guilford County, N.C. Home to 200 aerospace companies and 400 suppliers, North Carolina has the second-fastest growing aerospace business cluster in the country.

Additive manufacturing (AM) once was called “rapid prototyping.” Its earliest forms made prototype parts—and nothing else. However, manufacturers were intrigued by the prospect of using it to make cost-effective metal parts in production. That day is here.