GE Appliances (GEA) has been designing and manufacturing consumer appliances for over 125 years. The iconic brand, headquartered in Louisville, KY, employs nearly 6000 people, a number that rose to 12,000 employed globally after its acquisition by Haier, making the company part of the largest appliance manufacturer in the world.

Imagine applying for a job where your past mistakes are overlooked. Where there’s no stigma associated with a criminal record or struggles with drug abuse, and where everyone is given a helping hand on their road to a new life. If you’re applying at Pioneer Industries, a division of the social enterprise Pioneer Human Services (Seattle, WA), you’ve come to the right place.

DP Tool & Machine Inc. (Avon, NY) is a contract machine shop that benefits from a well-rounded array of advanced machining and manufacturing technologies. These include multitasking and five-axis machines as well as automation and some digital connectivity.

While attending my 40th Class Reunion at Allegheny College this past May, I got a chance to talk with current undergraduates about their research and study projects. I came away impressed not only with the depth of their understanding, but also with their boundless enthusiasm for learning and achieving. It reminded me, a bit wistfully, of my class when we walked that same campus so many years ago.

The very nature of manufacturing is changing. Future factories will be highly automated, distributed geographically, yet tied to a central information net, with fewer but highly productive workers. They will produce more, for less, delivering goods efficiently worldwide. As manufacturing changes, so should the methods used to ensure quality products are produced.

Some in the medical industry are using silicone rubber molds made with a 3D-printed master pattern for low-to-mid production runs of cast polyurethane device housings.

Earn a college degree, move to a major city, and land a white‐collar job in the knowledge economy—that’s the path many millennials have been taught to follow. But that route isn’t always viable. Crushing student loan debt, skyrocketing housing costs, and wage stagnation are making postgrad life unaffordable for many young people.

Manufacturers face the ongoing challenges of managing exponential product complexity, staying competitive, and avoiding disruption. For many of them that leads to the notion of digital transformation, but they are not always sure how to get started.

An international team of scientists led by Rice University (Houston) researchers has created a new 2D hematene material, an atomically thin form of the common iron oxide known as hematite, which holds potential for 2D magnetism and efficient light-assisted water splitting.

Sandvik Coromant (Fair Lawn, NJ) once offered a home study course for machinists. It was an orange 13-chapter series where people could study on their own time.

Attracting new customers requires focusing on the commercial side of the business, a focus that doesn’t come naturally to some otherwise skilled manufacturing leaders.

For the past year, I have had the incredible opportunity to pursue my passion for manufacturing by studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech (Atlanta); I would not be where I am today without the help of the SME Education Foundation Family Scholarship. Because of this scholarship and my interactions with SME, I am flourishing as an engineer, leader and student.

Constant refinement of medical machining from tooling design to finished product requires not only the ability to handle a broad range of plastic and metal materials but also to achieve predictable results—particularly in the face of strict regulations.

The use of additive manufacturing (AM) in the medical industry is well established in making dental implants, artificial hip joints, and molds for invisible braces.

Sometimes, too many choices can be a problem. That might be the case today for manufacturers of medical devices, who are facing a host of challenges and opportunities. Devices are small and getting smaller. Their complexity is increasing. End users are demanding tighter tolerances.

When making over-the-counter and prescription soft-gel products, the dosage that fills each gel cap must be precise. It follows, then, that the system for metering the amount of formulation demands the same exacting level of precision. Such is the requirement at leading contract manufacturers of nutritional and pharmaceutical soft-gel products. To keep their metering pumps and production equipment accurate and reliable, they look to Progressive Tool & Manufacturing Inc. (Greensboro, NC).