At IMTS 2018, like at any industrial trade show, the predominant theme was Industry 4.0. Although Industry 4.0 still has not scaled up to cover a significant percentage of manufacturing setups, its vision of near-total automation—and the promise of resulting cost savings—has clearly captured the industry’s imagination.
Though buzzier than ever in 2019, 3D printing has existed for at least 35 years, beginning with the invention of stereolithography in 1984 and accelerating with the development of fused deposition modeling in 1988. More recently, however, additive manufacturing for series production, paired with an uptick in lower-cost metal 3D printers, has elevated the industrial 3D printing industry to previously unreachable heights.
Composite materials combine particularly beneficial properties of their components. For this reason, they are used extensively in industrial applications. However, the inhomogeneous structure of the material must also be taken into consideration.
The height gage has transformed. From its infancy to today, the height gage has been in the grittiest shop environments. In spite of that, height gages also have the ability to meet the quality measurement demands of any precision laboratory. Regardless of how they are used or where, height gages have stood the test of time and remain an essential tool in every workshop.
Since the economy climbed out of the last recession, “Help Wanted” signs have become a common fixture near manufacturing facilities all over the United States. With 10,000 baby boomers reaching 65 each day, retirements are leaving a significant experience gap to be filled.
Simply put, product quality is always on the mind of a production manager. But what exactly characterizes a quality product? Is it when CMM inspection data reads good versus bad?
Despite the mountains of paperwork and sophisticated systems, occasionally a glitch makes all of that effort appear to have been a waste. It happens to the best of us with the only winners being therapists and system developers claiming to have the answers that will save us from a repeat in the future.
Creativity—the ability to imagine things that do not exist and make them a reality—is said to be one of the things that elevates humans above other species.
Lean and agile can work alone but can be very powerful together.
May 15, 2019
Lean and agile are well recognized in the manufacturing sector and in the quality community. Like many quality methodologies, lean and agile work in tandem and separately, depending on an organization’s needs. Where do these methodologies meet and diverge, what are their driving principles, and how you can add them to your toolbox (or convince others to do so)?
For anyone who’s worked in product or service industries, it’s a safe bet that you’ve encountered situations in which problems, once thought to be resolved, resurfaced later.
The cameras, lenses and illumination used in a machine vision system all make significant contributions to the overall quality of the images that are produced. The rapid developments in CMOS image sensor technology over the last few years have created significant challenges for lens manufacturers.
The robotics industry is not slowing down. Last year the robotics industry shipped more robots to North America than ever before. And companies today are figuring out that they can utilize machine vision and robotics in many new applications.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a term used to describe interconnectivity in relation to factory automation. The term captures the complex interrelationship of smart hardware feeding actionable data over a network, in order to drive deep learning systems toward optimized factory output.
Smart cameras and vision sensors have been key tools for monitoring and controlling the manufacture and movement of products in industrial environments for many years.
The new 4200 Series Cable Testers are the latest easy-to-use testers from Cirris Systems. Available in two configurations, the high voltage 4250 tester and the low voltage 4200 tester, these systems have the same quality expected in all Cirris products.
JAI introduces a new industrial color line scan camera in the Sweep+ Series. The Sweep+ SW-4000T-10GE is a prism-based color line scan camera equipped with three CMOS sensors and a 10 GigE interface including backwards compatibility to 5, 2.5 and 1 Gbps Ethernet standards.
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division today launched PC-DMIS 2019 R1, the latest edition of the world’s most popular measurement software. This is the first of two major releases scheduled for 2019, with continued service pack updates to ensure maximum reliability of the platform.
The Master3DGage development team announced the all new, third generation, Master3DGage – the affordable and portable rapid 3D inspection and reverse engineering solution that enables machine shops to increase efficiency, improve part quality, and reduce scrap.
Titan Tool Supply, Inc. announced the introduction of its new model ZDM-3 vertical displacement microscope to measure minute variations in height. The Z-Axis electronic depth measuring microscope features a built-in LED co-axial illuminator to allow the user to focus on the top or bottom of the part being inspected.
ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. unveiled Illuminate™ Manufacturing Intelligence, a next-generation factory optimization Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform solution.
Inspection Arsenal® adds even more versatility with the all new Skinny-Vise™. Improve visibility, and repeatability on your CMM and Vision Systems. With the gentle twist of the thumb screw, inspectors can easily hold small, thin and odd parts with simplicity and precise repeatability.