Industry News

News • July 12, 2017 • Lauren Hettler

Acorns, user experience and optimization

With the advent of technologies like the iPad, the field of predictive maintenance has become an accessible and achievable goal for many businesses. The iPad allows anyone from small companies to large multi-facility corporations to implement and commit to a predictive maintenance program utilizing technology that is constantly improving.

News • July 11, 2017

AMT: U.S. Manufacturing technology orders still gaining strength

The U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders report for May 2017 showed gains for the month and year over year, according to AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. May orders were up 3.1 percent over April, and 21.8 percent over May 2016.

News • July 11, 2017

BLS: Manufacturing employment up by 1,000 in June

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that manufacturing employment rose by only 1,000 in June after falling by 2,000 in May. Manufacturing sectors with gains in June included machinery, electrical equipment and appliances, primary metals, and computer and electronic products.

News • July 11, 2017

Cisco Survey: Almost 75% of IoT projects are failing

The worldwide installed base of Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints is expected to grow from 14.9 billion at the end of 2016 to more than 82 billion in 2025. However, a study conducted by Cisco shows that 60 percent of IoT initiatives stall at the Proof of Concept stage and only 26 percent of companies have had an IoT initiative that they considered a complete success. A third of all completed projects were not considered a success.

News • July 10, 2017

24-year-old leads Ripley Machine & Tool Co.

Amidst the ongoing discussion of how to interest young people in manufacturing careers comes news of one young person who certainly is. The Westfield (N.Y.) Republican profiles Andy Reinwald, the 24-year-old owner of Ripley Machine & Tool.

News • July 7, 2017

Toolmaker gains market share with linear motor technology

An Australian manufacturer of rotary shank cutting tools, Sutton Tools, has gained market share in the highly competitive aerospace industry by producing superior tools using the linear motor technology on ANCA's MX7. To gain traction in the aerospace market Sutton's needed to push the boundaries of what could be expected from a tool machining materials in the aviation industry.

News • July 7, 2017

3D-printed bone drill improves surgical procedures

Metal laser melting is used in many sectors. The advantages of the technology over machining not only lead to peak performances in motor sports and aerospace, but even pave the way for ground-breaking success in the medical technology sector. One example of this is the use of a 3D-printed bone drill, which is capable of preventing possible tissue damage caused during operations with traditionally manufactured drills.

News • July 5, 2017

ISM: Manufacturing expanded in June; employment growing

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in June—up 2.9 percent from May—and the overall economy grew for the 97th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

News • July 3, 2017

U.S. manufacturing growth credited to foreign investment

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: "Years before President Donald Trump began promising to bring back good manufacturing jobs by getting tough with U.S. trade partners, such jobs had already been on the rise, largely thanks to foreign companies now cast as villains in Trump's narrative. A Reuters analysis of federal jobs data shows that out of 656,000 new manufacturing jobs created between 2010 and 2014, two-thirds can be attributed to foreign direct investment."

News • July 3, 2017

The Atlantic: ‘Death of Manufacturing Exaggerated’

The sector has shrunk, but "it still draws more than a third of foreign direct investment in the country, and foreign companies still employ nearly 1 in 5 people in manufacturing jobs," the feature points out.

News • July 3, 2017

‘Deburring by explosion’ at Basin Precision

A profile of Basin Precision Machining LLC in the Jefferson Co. (Wisconsin) Daily Union describes the company's pioneering use of an ATL iTEM400/600 thermal deburring machine--the first to be used in the U.S. In the feature, Basin president and CEO Erik Anderson contrasts traditional deburring via cutting or drilling with the new ATL process: "We actually take the sharp edges off of a part with an explosion." The machine uses a controlled explosion to generate 6,000 degrees in 20 milliseconds, which oxidizes burrs off of a part.

News • June 30, 2017

Start ’em old? 70-year-old graduates from welding course

Canada's CBC News reports on Allan Robichaud, who decided to go back to school at age 69—making him twice as old as his instructor—after nearly a decade of retirement. Now 70, he just completed a year-long course in welding and metal fabrication at New Brunswick Community College—the best year of his retirement, he said.