In my capacity as the Chair of the Council of the Manufacturing USA institute directors, I often get asked about trends in U.S. advanced manufacturing.
Oerlikon AM, the additive manufacturing unit of technology group Oerlikon, and Siemens AG announced at Formnext a strategic agreement in which Siemens will provide Oerlikon AM with digital enterprise solutions that will help Oerlikon accelerate the industrialization of additive manufacturing.
MakerBot, a 3D printing company and subsidiary of Stratasys, announced at Formnext 2019 the METHOD Materials Development Program and MakerBot LABS Experimental Extruder for METHOD to enable 3D printing with a wide range of engineering-grade materials from leading filament suppliers.
Manufacturing faces “continued risk for disruption” and uncertainty in 2020, consulting firm Deloitte said in a report.
It doesn’t take long to see the changing face of manufacturing staples in Volusia County. Strategically located in the thriving central Florida marketplace east of Orlando along the I-4/I-95 highways, Volusia County has always been a good geographic location for manufacturers.
The ever-volatile oil and natural gas industry—roiled most recently by September’s drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities that temporarily reduced the kingdom’s output by nearly half (about 5 percent of global production)—faces particularly challenging requirements for machined components to meet evolving supply targets.
Pittsburgh International Airport has announced plans for Neighborhood 91, a development that condenses and connects all components of the additive manufacturing/3-D printing supply chain into one production “neighborhood” concept.
Fiber laser welding is all about control of the process, according to Kurt Magedanz, laser process engineer at Ace Precision Machining Corp., Oconomowoc, Wis. With its new Laserdyne 430 systems, Ace Precision has made huge strides with weld quality while reducing operator intervention in the process.
With much faster processing speeds and higher quality, you might think laser welding would quickly take over the field. But traditional welding hangs on. And depending on who you ask and what applications you consider, it may never go away.
Using lasers to cut metal, especially sheet metal or tubes, continues to show its value. The market is becoming dominated by the newer solid-state fiber laser over its CO2 gas rival. Fiber’s advantages in ease of operation, packaging and efficiency are clear.
