Energy & Power Generation

When Johnathon Wojciechowski of Bensenville, Ill., was 7 years old, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and for the last 7 years has altered his life to battle this debilitating disease. Now recently having started high school at Fenton, Johnathon has received a highly trained Diabetic Alert Dog (D.A.D.) from the Ron & Vicki Santo Diabetic Alert Dog Foundation, with partial sponsorship from Heidenhain Corp., Schaumburg, Ill.

Monaghan Tooling Group (MTG), Dayton, Ohio, a marketing and engineering company that provides the metalworking industry with world-class engineered tooling and services-is pleased to announce that Nick Coates has joined the company as Marketing Manager.

While the Trump administration focuses on trying to bring back coal-industry jobs, the outlook for renewable-energy employment, including in manufacturing, has increased. Solar showed bright prospects in 2016 and the wind industry is picking up.

Reuters reports that America's manufacturers are urging President-elect Donald Trump to back off from his most threatening trade rhetoric and pursue a more nuanced approach to trade with China and Mexico, avoiding unilateral tariff actions and focusing on negotiations. Corporate lobbying groups, some chief executives and pro-trade lawmakers also say they eventually even hope to persuade Trump that free-trade agreements can help grow the U.S. economy and create jobs.

At GreenBiz, Mark Johnson, director of the Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office, describes the importance of manufacturing innovation to the burgeoning U.S. clean-energy industry.

Jarvis Cutting Tools is constructing a 500W AC solar panel array in front of its property in Rochester, N.H. Jarvis President Costikyan Jarvis said the solar project will help the company cut production costs and capitalize on incentives for producing solar energy, according to a report on fosters.com.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, manufacturing accounts for one-fifth of the annual energy consumption in the United States—approximately 21 quintillion joules (20 quadrillion BTU) or equivalent to 3.6 billion barrels of crude oil. To reduce this staggering amount and improve sustainability, manufacturers need to accurately measure and evaluate consumption of energy and materials, as well as environmental impacts, at each step in the life cycles of their products.

American National Carbide (ANC), which manufactures tungsten carbide products for the metalworking, agricultural, and energy industries, recently announced a major reorganization, according to a news release issued by the Tomball, Texas-based company. Newly appointed CEO D. Greg Stroud has named new vice presidents to lead the four major areas of the company.

Machine tool idling, unnecessary pump rotation and continuously running peripheral equipment drive up machining costs. These energy wasters are in the crosshairs of a new suite of power-cutting control applications from Japanese machine tool builder Okuma Corp.

New aluminum alloys can pose machining challenges, but they can be mastered with sound cutting strategies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) produced this video report to highlight some of the backstory behind building a 3D printed electric car in full view of everyone who attended IMTS 2014 in Chicago. The video notes that the collaboration among Local Motors, Cincinnati Inc., the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office helped spur the advancement of 3D printing technology.

Producing prototype automotive parts via 3-D printing helps reduce time to market while boosting vehicle quality and fuel efficiency.