October 2020
The October 2020 edition of Smart Manufacturing is now available as a digital magazine. Links to individual articles are below.
Rush job? No prob!
September 24, 2020
Improvements in manufacturing management software, robotics, additive manufacturing and thermal controls are making small batch sizes more cost effective—even for smaller shops. Manufacturing plants are able to reduce inventory, improve throughput and reduce demands on human operators.
Air Force researchers, industry finesse AM tools for large aerospace parts
September 28, 2020
After three years of work, military researchers are near the end of a project to find a faster, cheaper way to make tools for large aerospace parts like skins for wings and fuselages.
By Ilene Wolff
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
In the thick of the ‘herculean’ vaccine push
September 21, 2020
In January, as the new coronavirus was rapidly spreading around the world, scientists at Moderna teamed up with the National Institutes of Health to pursue a potential vaccine based on an experimental genetic technology involving messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecule in every cell that helps translate DNA into biological functions.
By Anastasia Ustinova
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Get ready for deep learning technology
September 28, 2020
To a discrete manufacturer, process manufacturing is odd territory indeed. It’s a world in which textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, and food and beverage are produced en masse.
By Kip Hanson
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Pandemic makes case for more automation, robotics
September 21, 2020
CEO Jason Walker and part of his team at Waypoint Robotics had just returned from the Modex 2020 show in Atlanta when the governor of his company’s home state imposed a stay-at-home order because of COVID-19.
By Ilene Wolff
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Upfront
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Expert OpinionWelcome to drugmaking in era of AI, synthetic biology
September 22, 2020We no longer need to accept that it takes a decade to create and make a safe and effective vaccine—thanks in part to smart manufacturing.
Manufacturing USA Update
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Smart ManufacturingARM counts wire-harness installation, pop-up boot camp among its successes
September 24, 2020With a single example, Ira Moskowitz makes the case for why the organization he leads may be critical for advancing manufacturing in the United States.
Passport to Innovation
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Additive Manufacturing & 3D PrintingHP exec traces AM progress, with likes of BASF, Oechsler
September 25, 2020In an announcement orchestrated from Barcelona, California-based HP in June announced an expansion of its 3D printing business.
Field Intelligence
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Smart ManufacturingLockheed Martin sees quick ROI after taking AMR plunge
September 23, 2020Lockheed Martin has had robotics and automation solutions as a component of its product portfolio for longer than a decade. -
Smart ManufacturingHow to tackle extraordinary fragility of U.S. manufacturing
August 20, 2020COVID-19 revealed some deep-rooted shortcomings in our approach to manufacturing and to supply chain design in the U.S. Well beyond the immediate and urgent need for PPE, we saw dramatic swings in both supply and demand for almost everything bought and sold here. -
Smart ManufacturingParagon Medical experiences what it’s like to work smarter
September 25, 2020If you ask any number of manufacturers exactly what they felt the first time they crashed a stationary machine tool or dropped portable measuring equipment, you’re bound to get a range of answers—though dread, terror and even nausea will almost certainly be on the list of responses. -
Smart ManufacturingFlanders’ digital move brings greater operational efficiency
September 29, 2020If you were to rebuild your manufacturing business today, would you build it in the same way, or would you shape it differently to address new challenges and future innovations? -
Smart ManufacturingMonitoring worker safety in real time with ‘edge AI’
September 29, 2020As businesses across the globe are returning to work amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many manufacturers are reconsidering policies and procedures to ensure worker safety and adhere to new regulations in the post-pandemic environment. -
Smart ManufacturingALPLA took to data planning, and its IIoT project worked
September 30, 2020It has become far too rare for manufacturers’ visions of an IIoT-fueled utopia to survive contact with reality. A Cisco survey finds that nearly 75 percent of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) projects are failing.