Manufacturing is moving towards high-mix production different products in very small lots. Advanced robotics may be needed to get there.
Last March when the pandemic hit, we had to shift in a lot of different ways, didn’t we? The lessons we learned and the actions we took in our personal and business endeavors during the early weeks of the pandemic may become a permanent pattern in the fabric of our lives.
Over the past decade, IMTS has been a good indicator of the changing status of additive manufacturing. The show’s floor space devoted to 3D printing expanded from 2014 to 2018, reaching pavilion status at the most recent show. It had been scheduled to grow even more at IMTS 2020 before the show’s cancellation.
Controls help make modern manufacturing go. Controls help shop floor employees monitor Industry 4.0 technology. Controls also boost productivity on the shop floor. Technology companies are highlighting improvements designed to maintain the forward momentum of advanced technology.
3D printing is as much about the software as it is about the unique technology of the printers, and a well-designed platform brings the power of agile software engineering to the world of industrial manufacturing.
The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), which would have been held in September in Chicago, has been canceled for the first time since World War II.
Ford Motor Co. is leasing four-legged robots from Boston Dynamics as part of a program to reduce cost and boost efficiency.
The Italian Trade Agency via its North American Offices is producing a 2020,Volume XIII edition of its Machines Italia magazine, highlighting solutions provided by Italian companies to a North American audience.
Before Industry 4.0, it didn’t matter that the CAM software didn’t talk to the ERP system, or that the CNC machine tools were mute. Islands of information were acceptable back then.
In the April 2020 Research Focus column, we discussed results from the first year of the SME Media Manufacturing Technology Harmonization Study.