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The manufacturing sector is currently saturated with Industry 4.0 (aka the Industrial Internet of Things or IIoT) hype and jargon. This is no surprise given the evidence showing that the connectivity of systems and exploitation of data can add significant value to modern manufacturing processes and supply chains.

Polymers and plastics are used in nearly everything we touch every day. These materials deliver a huge diversity of performance properties that are required for many different market areas. 

The current trends in manufacturing can be summed up pretty much as they always have been: more for less. In other words, manufacturers always want to be able to do more with less.

With continuous advances in optical inspection technology yielding 3D scanners that are today capable of stunning speed and accuracy, a growing number of companies are including this technology in their first article inspection (FAI) procedures.

As far as origin stories go, the technology behind helium leak detection is more glamorous than most. That is, when compared to the bubble test, a method many will remember experimenting with during childhood after a popped bicycle tire.

Nowhere is the need for material integrity more obvious than in medical devices that are implanted into human beings. A failed device inside an aircraft or power plant may, under some circumstances, cause a problem.

Ductile iron is an iron-carbon casting material whose matrix includes carbon in the form of nodular graphite particles. Rounded graphite nodules in the ductile iron matrix offer greater resistance to stress concentration when compared to graphite flakes (as in gray cast iron) and, therefore, inhibit the creation of cracks.

External thread inspection can seem confusing and, in some cases, frustrating. There is a wide variety of inspection tools available for external threads.

If you have a problem, you want to have Katherine Cox around. The senior quality assurance director of medical device startup Procyrion is known for her calm problem solving manner, collaborative attitude and straightforward approach to quality.

As manufacturers charge ahead in 2017, there is a renewed sense of optimism and excitement as they gear up for growth, investing in equipment, new manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, and software to support digital transformation and new collaborative, connected factory floor competencies.