U.S. Manufacturers looking to retain customers and maximize profits need to innovate their operations, including changing how they get paid.
Buckle Up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride to economic recovery—but, hopefully, a relatively short one.
Manufacturing has been in the middle of the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) from the start. The impact is expanding as the virus spreads.
Additive manufacturing (AM) once was called “rapid prototyping.” Its earliest forms made prototype parts—and nothing else. However, manufacturers were intrigued by the prospect of using it to make cost-effective metal parts in production. That day is here.
I’m among the first to dive into the latest manufacturing innovations and see how they can improve our customers’ operations. Yet, I’m also among the first to advise them to pause and ensure that the fundamentals of their manufacturing processes are in place before adding something new into the complex mix of functionality and desired outcomes.
When it comes to materials, artificial intelligence can automate the screening process, simulate the performance of different materials and identify the best option.
It’s easy to become dazed by the continuing stream of buzz words. For those of us in manufacturing, all this buzz creates a sense of impending change, but no clarity on what that change might be. Uncertainty means anxiety.
Not all threaded connections serve similar purposes.The load-carrying needs of an aerospace engine support bolt in a tension assembly greatly exceed those of a simple screw that fastens a cover plate to an electrical wall socket. International thread-acceptance documents and standards recognize this basic engineering fact, and incorporate different thread-inspection requirements into their verification standards.
Claudia Jarrett, U.S. country manager at automation parts supplier EU Automation, delves into the pros and cons of both gigafactories and microfactories.
It’s time to redefine AM and DfAM by what is possible from advanced LPBF systems—and to look ahead with the same determination the semiconductor industry used to better our lives.
