Leah Pickett

It’s an exciting time to work in nondestructive testing (NDT) for aerospace, particularly now that significant strides in NDT techniques have transformed how the industry approaches aircraft maintainability and safety.

Have you heard of Line Confocal Imaging (LCI)? Perhaps not, since the technology is relatively new to the already high-tech, high-resolution 3D measurement industry. Companies like Axiom Optics are dipping their toes in the water with STIL’s line of noncontact, chromatic confocal sensors. 

Environment testing equipment is integral to the management of manufacturing shop floors, though it doesn’t get talked about much. 

In the manufacturing world, the buzzword “Industry 4.0” is on seemingly everyone’s lips for a reason. Not only do manufacturers have to keep up with rapidly evolving technology, but also  with the changes in consumer trends that go along with it in order to survive, much less triumph, in an increasingly competitive and high-tech marketplace.

Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, published in his thesis Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) in 1687, are what modern-day physicists and metrologists refer to when they describe force as any interaction that, if unopposed, will change the motion of an object. 

In June, three student teams from the Chicago Tech Academy (ChiTech) presented their innovations in front of an audience of manufacturing industry professionals at the 2016 SAP Manufacturing Industries Forum.

In May, thousands of quality professionals from across the globe gathered to attend ASQ's 2016 World Conference on Quality and Improvement.

When it comes to testing aerospace components, the costs of imperfections go far beyond the financial. Thus it is critical that nondestructive testing (NDT) for aerospace vehicles and parts is made foolproof in finding even the tiniest hint of damage or defect.

To find out more, Quality spoke with John Nesi, Vice President of Market Development at Rockwell Automation, and Bryce Barnes, Senior Manager of Cisco Systems’ Machine and Robot Segment globally under Cisco’s Internet of Things Manufacturing Solutions Group.

Automation may seem like a relatively modern concept, with its buzzworthy contribution to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and already monumental importance to the future of global enterprise. However, the technological birth of automation as we know it today dates
back centuries.