Industry News

The Innovation and Research Center (IFC) Tuttlingen of the Hochschule Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences (HFU) and FOBA Laser Marking + Engraving have officially launched their innovation cooperation for medical technology. At a ceremony on March 20 in the new rooms of the IFC on Katharinenstraße, a modern laser marking system was presented, which is now available to the university for its research as well as interested parties from the industry for demonstration purposes.

Process optimization is key to increase the productivity and quality of the machining processes and thus ensure the competitiveness of machining companies. Valid measurements of physical parameters are necessary for the ideal assessment of optimization and measures as well as the efficient use of production resources at their performance limits. MITIS, a leading manufacturer of systems for vibration-assisted drilling, relies on measuring systems from Kistler for cutting force measurement.

ARCH, a Strength Capital Partners and Main Post Partners platform company that is focused on manufacturing precision cutting tools, precision machined industrial components and medical implants and instruments, has been acquired by The Jordan Company ("TJC") effective April 1, 2019. Eli Crotzer, president and CEO of ARCH Global Precision and the entire ARCH senior management team intend to continue operating in their current roles under TJC's ownership.

For the second time in its North American Headquarters, Zoller Inc. is hosting an Open House and Technology Days Event May 8-9.

A Ph.D. candidate from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, has been awarded a $15,000 prize for developing a 3D-printed steel tool capable of cutting titanium alloys as well as—if not better than—traditionally manufactured steel tools. The achievement marks a first and could pave the way for increased applications of 3D printing in tool production.

At many facilities, when there's a problem on the factory floor, the high-value, highly salaried engineers spend their time collecting data from different machines and systems, exporting it to spreadsheets and wrangling with it to find a solution. This process of data collection and analysis can take from days to weeks—and sometimes longer. There are two ways to transform this process: the traditional way and the intelligent way.

North American sales of machine vision components and systems that provide vision intelligence to robots and other machines reached $2.874 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.2 percent over 2017 and a new record for the market. According to statistics from the AIA, the industry trade group and part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), application-specific machine vision (ASMV) systems led the growth with $1.998 billion in sales in 2018, an increase of 7.8 percent over 2017, followed by smart cameras with $466 million, an increase of 14.2 percent.

Precision Micro announces that Karl Hollis, previously technical sales manager, will be appointed to director of engineering as of April 1, 2019.

Join Haimer USA LLC at its North American headquarters for an exclusive first look at the latest Haimer technologies. The company will introduce new innovations surrounding industry 4.0 – with products that enable enhanced data communication and collection.

Wohlers Associates Inc. announced the publication of Wohlers Report 2019, the 24th annual installment of its industry-leading report on additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing. The worldwide study provides the "pulse" of the industry by reporting on growth, development and the future of AM materials, applications, systems, services, design, software, patents, startups, standards, investment and research.

Recently, even astrophysicists have started taking an interest in EMO Hannover. Garching, Germany-based Dr. Theo Steininger and Dr. Maksim Greiner, former PhD students at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, have developed artificial intelligence software that makes use of the latest statistical analysis methods developed for astrophysics. They have successfully deployed the software for door assembly by a German car manufacturer, but are now looking to conquer the metalworking market as well.

According to a new study, sales of high-speed steel (HSS) tools in 2019 are estimated at nearly 218,000 thousand units, projected to register a Y-o-Y growth at 4.8 percent over 2018. HSS tools sales have witnessed sheer proliferation, despite intense competition from solid-carbide tools, as these are best suited for shop production environments, wherein tool cost and versatility are of paramount importance.