Industry News

ODENSE, Denmark, August 30 – Purple Robotics, which has just developed an innovative vacuum gripper within just one year—the world’s first gripper specifically for cobots—has now been acquired by OnRobot.

Accenture believes that investment in artificial intelligence has the potential to double the annual economic growth rates of major developed economies, such as Germany, and triple Japan’s economic rate by 2035. In the manufacturing industry, Accenture believes that the power of AI technologies will increase profitability by 39 percent, boosting gross value added by almost $4 trillion in 2035.

Haas Automation, Inc., is pleased to announce the installation of the 200,000th Haas CNC machine – another major milestone in the company’s history as a machine tool builder.

In addition to TIR (total indicator runout) is the dimension of the grinding wheel side flutter, runout, roundness and tolerance. This is accomplished by truing, dressing, forming and conditioning.

We talk extensively about the “skills gap” facing manufacturing. The problem is this only partially true. Yes, there's a deficit in our skilled trades pipeline, and as employers, educators and communities, we need to rally around the value of skilled trades and support the growth of this critical workforce - starting in junior high and beyond. Yet, there's another gap that mid-market manufacturing is facing - The Strategic Gap - and it has many facets.

ARCH Cutting Tools is pleased to announce and welcome Bill Orris as Manager of Technical Product and Sales Training.

Manufacturing is booming. Many say that's great news for the stock market because increased manufacturing activity is evidence of a stronger economy. This seems logical, but does data support such a conclusion? And is it prudent to use manufacturing indicators to time your exposure to stocks?

While this statement may not applicable across the board with machine tool applications, it certainly rings true when used in context with air supply to machine tool spindles. More often than not we have found that poor quality air supply to spindles is a significant factor in premature machine tool spindle failures. Whether it be a dirty (particulate contaminant) in the air supply or more predominantly moisture contaminated air supply. This is a recipe for disaster.

There are no collaborative robots, only robots with collaborative applications. That’s according to Simon Whitton, regional division manager of North America for KUKA Robotics Corp., Shelby Township, Michigan.

Birmingham, AL – Motion Industries, Inc., a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operation replacement parts and a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, announced the promotion of Pamela Sims to Vice President of Marketing, effective September 1, 2018.

Tolland, CT – CNC Software, Inc., the developers of Mastercam, announced that Mike Nicholson has been hired as the European Territory Manager to further develop the company’s European distribution channel.

The International Manufacturing Technology Show was great. It was fun to actually meet some of the people I’ve worked with over the past couple of years, plus there were the new machine tools, Industry 4.0 and industrial-internet-of-things technology, software systems, cutting tools, robots, metrology equipment and 3D printers. My dogs were killing me every night, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. And Chicago—what a cool town. As the saying goes, I wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s a nice place to visit.

Although automation is occurring in manufacturing, as it is in other sectors of the economy, the evidence does not support the idea that automation was the main cause of the sudden decline in manufacturing employment after 2000. It’s difficult to precisely pin down what was to blame, but a large body of research suggests that economists and pundits are wrong to so quickly dismiss trade and to blame machines.

Texas could be in line to land thousands of additional aerospace-related manufacturing and engineering jobs if companies in the fast-growing sector heed a new ranking of the most competitive places for them to operate. The report by PricewaterhouseCoopers lists Texas behind only Washington state as the top location in the United States for “aerospace manufacturing attractiveness.”

In preparation for this year’s celebration of Manufacturing Day on Oct. 5, I read the book "Finding America’s Greatest Champion: Building Prosperity Through Manufacturing, Mentoring and the Awesome Responsibility of Parenting" by Terry M. Iverson, president of machine tool distributor and rebuilder Iverson & Co., Des Plaines, Illinois. The word “champion” in the title connects with the organization Iverson started called CHAMPION Now! CHAMPION is an acronym for Change How American (or Advanced) Manufacturing’s Perceived In Our Nation.

The metal fabrication and manufacturing industry has adjusted in recent years to meet the demands of an evolving global economy, impacted by social, political, economic and technological advancements that effect all aspects of the industry. In changing times and in a historically male-dominated industry, manufacturing has seen a steady rise in women playing key roles in the industry, shaping the next generation of manufacturing to be more gender diverse, innovative, and rewarding for those who pursue a career path in this compelling field.

Robots and the programming they rely on have certainly made huge leaps in recent years. But manufacturers have little use for jumping or cuddling machines. They need performers that can do specific production jobs. Do robots fit the bill? Will they replace all our manufacturing employees?

ROWLEY, MA (August 29, 2018) – Harvey Performance Company is proud to announce, effective immediately, the entire end mill tool libraries for both Harvey Tool and Helical Solutions, representing more than 14,000 SKU’s, are available to upload into Autodesk’s Fusion 360 CAM Software.

Syracuse, NY – Gear Motions announces long-time employee Dan Bartelli has been promoted to Director of Operations of Nixon Gear, and Anna Pastore has been hired to the position of Corporate Controller.

West Dundee, IL – August 29, 2018 – Renishaw, a manufacturer of advanced metal additive manufacturing (AM) systems, has opened a new Additive Manufacturing Demonstration Center in Newbury Park, California.