Industry News

DALLAS, TX — OCTOBER 25, 2018 — OnRobot, a specialist in end-of-arm tooling for collaborative robots, has opened its first US headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

Blairsville, Pa. — October 25, 2018. The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) proudly announces that its Board of Directors approved the addition of six new Alliance Partners: Advanced Technologies Incorporated; Aleph Objects, Inc.; Mission Critical Composites; MZA Associates Corporation; Verify Inc.; and Youngstown State University (YSU).

HARTLAND, Wis., (October 25, 2018) — Darren McKune has been named Regional Sales Manager covering Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi for Dorner.

Birmingham, Ala. – Motion Industries, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, is pleased to announce the addition of Hal Midkiff as Product Sales Manager, Process Pumps and Equipment.

Fives has joined forces with Simsa to create Fives Grinding Mexico.

Heimatec Inc., a specialist in live tooling for the North American machine tool industry, announced today that it will become part of a new corporation, Platinum Tooling Technologies, Inc.

umati (universal machine tool interface) moves one step ahead towards becoming a generally accepted standard. VDW, the German Machine Tool Builders' Association and the OPC Foundation establish a so-called joint working group. Interested parties are cordially invited to participate with immediate effect.

Russ Hubbard - Creating Unique Environments in Portland, OR

The manpowered shop floor of the past is being replaced by smart manufacturing facilities where tech-savvy workers, aided by intelligent robots, are creating the products and services of the future. As Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise approaches 2019, it's looking ahead to the trends that will define intelligent manufacturing, as well as help empower clients to better evaluate and manage operations, build innovative products and services and grow manufacturing businesses.

Many headlines today allude to a skills gap in manufacturing, referring to a lack of skilled labor needed to fill rapidly expanding employment opportunities in the manufacturing industry. After all, U.S. manufacturing added 327,000 jobs in the past year, pushing the industry to its best annual job gain in more than 20 years. When manufacturing companies collaborate with schools to show students that manufacturing is not just a viable career path but a rewarding and lucrative one as well, we all benefit.

Materials scientists at Duke University and UC San Diego have discovered a new class of carbides expected to be among the hardest materials with the highest melting points in existence. Made from inexpensive metals, the new materials may soon find use in a wide range of industries from machinery and hardware to aerospace.

I recently read an article discussing how the Environmental Protection Agency will now allow asbestos-containing products to be manufactured and sold in the United States on "a case-by-case" basis, apparently reversing parts of the organization's 1963 Clean Air Act and the 1989 Asbestos Ban and Phase-Out Rule. While that's good news for the mesothelioma attorneys you see every night on TV, it's bad news for American workers, a number of whom will soon be tasked with mining and processing the dangerous material once known as "the magic mineral" for its heat, electrical and chemical resistance.