Industry News for all/

Economic growth is expected to continue in the U.S. throughout the remainder of 2017, say the nation's purchasing and supply executives in their Spring 2017 Semiannual Economic Forecast. Expectations for the remainder of 2017 continue to be positive in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors. Sixty-four percent of respondents from the panel of manufacturing supply management executives predict their revenues will be 8.5 percent greater in 2017 compared to 2016, 12 percent expect a 9.6 percent decline, and 24 percent foresee no change in revenue.

The University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) is celebrating a quadruple success of new memberships with some of the United Kingdom’s most forward-thinking technology companies. The center has signed agreements with 3D Scanners, CGTech Vericut, Dontyne Systems and TMS CADCentre, each joining as tier two members.

Local high schools investing heavily in technical education have noticed interest from an unexpected subset of students: females. Late last year the Sheboygan Area School District built new advanced manufacturing labs at both high schools under a program called "Red Raider"—and similar manufacturing education centers have been constructed in high schools in Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls in recent years.

Heller Machine Tools will open its doors for Tech Days 2017, July 26 and 27, at its facility in Troy, Mich. The machine tool builder will demonstrate new 4- and 5-axis machining solutions for automotive, oil and gas, heavy-duty diesel and general machining applications.

In the 100th year of its history, 2016, the BMW Group ordered the 100th EcoCFlex system from Dürr Ecoclean. The anniversary specimen of the flexible robot cell forms part of a three-unit package and has received a special painting. The machines have been serving in a volume production environment at the Steyr engine plant since May 2017.

On May 16th at a reception held in conjunction with EASTEC, SME and AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology announced partnering on creating “a new kind of event,” designed to “help fast-track the adoption of Smart Manufacturing technologies.” That event, the Smart Manufacturing Experience, is scheduled to take place April 30 through May 2, 2018 at the Boston Convention Center.

By using software to automatically optimize NC program feed rates, parts manufacturers can achieve the benefits of high-efficiency machining. So says David Sutkey, sales engineers at Irvine, Calif.-headquartered CGTech, who presented a technical session about it on May 18 at BIG KAISER Precision Tooling Inc.’s Breakfast & Learn 2017. The May 16-18 event took place at the toolmaker’s headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

By now, most manufacturers have heard of the promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In manufacturing's future, newly installed sensors will collect previously unavailable data on equipment, parts, inventory and even personnel that will then be shared with existing systems in an interconnected “smart” system where machines learn from other machines and executives can analyze reports based on the accumulated data.

March U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $200.05 million according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) collaboration, was up 14.3% from February’s $174.98 million and up 8.4% when compared with the total of $184.57 million reported for March 2016.

Florence, Ky.-headquartered Mazak Corp. hosted its Midwest Technology + Education Event May 2-4 at the machine tool builder’s Midwest Technology Center, Schaumburg, Ill. The event featured a broad range of Mazak machines on display, exhibits and demonstrations presented by Mazak Value Inspired Partners and six daily seminars.

Recognizing that the future of American manufacturing lies with today's youth, Rockford Systems LLC launched its "Selfie for Safety" campaign to help raise student awareness of the importance of machine safeguarding and to help fund the upgrading of safety equipment in the machine shops of several high schools in Rockford, Ill., where the company's headquarters is located.

Last week, Desktop Metal, Burlington, Mass., a two-year-old startup, demonstrated the Desktop Metal (DM) Studio System, which it calls an “office-friendly” metal 3D-printing system for rapid prototyping, and the DM Production, a printer for the manufacturing market it claims is 100 times faster than current laser sintering machines.

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in April, and the overall economy grew for the 95th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

It takes knowledge and skill to get a robot to do exactly what you want it to do in a manufacturing environment--and those are hard to come by in this skills-gap era. A new interface designed by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers is simpler and more efficient than most interfaces, and doesn’t require significant training time. The user simply points and clicks on an item, then chooses a grasp. The robot does the rest of the work.

An issue slowing down 3D printing's advance into manufacturing is that the process itself is too slow to meet production requirements. Now, a collaboration between MIT, Steelcase and product designer Christophe Guberan presents a novel technique they call Rapid Liquid Printing, which can reduce the time of certain 3D printing applications from hours to minutes.

The Commerce Department on Friday provided its first statistical snapshot of the American economy in the first quarter, the gross domestic product estimate. The economy barely grew, expanding at an annual rate of only 0.7 percent. The growth was a sharp decline from the 2.1 percent annual rate recorded in the final quarter of last year. It was the weakest quarterly showing in three years. Consumption, the component reflecting individual spending, rose by only 0.3 percent, well below the 3.5 percent rate in the previous quarter.

ABB and IBM have announced a strategic collaboration that brings together ABB’s industry-leading digital offering, ABB Ability, with IBM Watson Internet of Things cognitive capabilities to unlock new value for customers in industry, utilities and transport & infrastructure.

One of the oldest die casters in the US, New Products Corporation, turned 95 on April 22. Founded in Benton Harbor, Mich., in 1922, the company is a global supplier of custom, precision die cast aluminum and zinc parts for applications in industries including automotive, military, industrial equipment, medical instruments, appliances, transportation, and furniture.

For years, cyber insurance was purchased mostly by consumer-facing businesses such as retailers and financial-service providers. But as factories are getting more tech-savvy and digitally integrated with other parts of the company, manufacturers are starting to realize that keeping those networks safe is essential, according to this Wall Street Journal report.

In a blog, Dann Demazure, applications engineer at Datron Dynamics, wrote: Machinists ask me all the time, “When do I go fast and when should I go slow with a single-flute endmill?” Well, as you can imagine, there are a lot of variables at play regarding feed rates for single-flute endmills, but let’s try to break it down.