Technology is changing ever more rapidly. Sometimes this means topics learned in engineering or technical school become obsolete. Whole new fields emerge within a few years, so that even those with freshly minted educations suddenly find themselves faced with new challenges.
With Lantek MES, the entire manufacturing process can be tracked from planning through execution, allowing operators to group parts according to various criteria, such as machines, materials, thicknesses, customer and delivery date.
There could be a better way for manufacturing. One that teams additive manufacturing (AM) with green materials, while promising to erect structures much faster and cheaper.
Claudia Jarrett, U.S. country manager at automation parts supplier EU Automation, explains why robots are more than affordable for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs).
An Eaton executive describes the automotive supplier's plans to utilize Industry 4.0.
In the early days at CNC Software, we saw that our Mastercam CAD/CAM system was only part of a larger manufacturing solution and that an open architecture foundation could allow seamless data communication with complementary devices and systems across the shop floor.
Shops today must track or measure their manufacturing operations to improve them. This need drives the growing use of MTConnect—an open, royalty-free protocol for extracting data from practically any piece of equipment, including machine tools and other manufacturing systems. The integration of MTConnect is a major undertaking, and can be a bit challenging unless certain preparations are made ahead of time.
Manufacturers and fabricators need to consider the application and performance requirements of materials.
Cobots are an ideal, entry-level robotic device for smaller shops to begin using automation.
Having a plan for maintaining and improving the performance and reliability of every machine on a shop floor is vital to manufacturing operations. Reliable machines make short-notice production runs possible. And the more flexible manufacturers are, the more new customers they’ll attract.