Industry News

Manufacturers are looking to lower costs and increase speed without sacrificing quality. This means getting more done in less time with less manpower, less scrap and fewer mistakes. To do this, the manufacturing industry is investing more in automation.

The manufacturing industry got a huge boost from President Donald Trump's election, seeing a groundswell of job gains during his first year in office. But the trade war with China has undone that progress. Jobs in the sector have stalled out and turned negative in 2019.

U.S. companies aren’t likely to pack up manufacturing operations in China and move back home amid the trade war. That’s because supply chains are “very difficult to put together and equally difficult to disentangle,” said Stephen Roach, senior fellow at Yale University.

Smart manufacturing, or Industry 4.0, is transforming manufacturing back into an economic powerhouse. Industry 4.0 helps companies digitally transform manufacturing operations to provide new capabilities, reduce costs, empower teams, improve decision-making and create better ways of doing business. An integral part of smart manufacturing is the concept of the digital thread, which is key to capturing and managing the information associated with manufacturing operations.

Factory work used to be dirty, dangerous and bleak. Technology has changed that, creating a manufacturing sector that looks radically different.

New robots will be able to generate savings in manufacturing and plug short-term gaps while helping create future jobs.

Private equity firms are snapping up manufacturing companies at a quick pace, setting off a merger and acquisition gold rush while leaving multicloud manufacturing systems unprotected in a zero-trust world.

It’s hard to believe that the phrase “war for talent” was coined more than 20 years ago. Today, the fight to attract and retain talented employees rages on in virtually every industry — and manufacturing is no exception.

Continental needed a high capacity system capable of rapid inspection cycles combined with fast surface scanning and accurate feature measurements, the aim being to gain more comprehensive insight into the company’s products. The range includes electronic and hydraulic brake and chassis control systems, wheel and engine speed sensors, airbag electronics and electronic air suspension systems.

MachineMetrics, a leading data analytics platform for manufacturers, has announced the release of its much anticipated 2019 State of the Industry (SOTI) for CNC Machining. Driven exclusively by real manufacturing data collected from hundreds of companies and thousands of machines globally, MachineMetrics’ report is a first of its kind to deliver confirmation for many gut feelings about the industry as well as to uncover unexpected manufacturing behaviors and trends never made visible before.
“Our unique ability to easily connect to any machine has allowed the MachineMetrics platform to quickly gain tremendous traction and aggregate what we believe is the most powerful global dataset of machine performance in the world. We can now use this data to provide the highest level of insight back to our customers, partners, and the manufacturing community.” says Bill Bither, CEO of MachineMetrics, “We are excited to continue to break new ground for the industry as a whole.”

Clippard, Cincinnati, produces fluid control products and other high-precision components, and prides itself on having been vertically integrated for decades, since its founding in 1941. The company operates two ISO-certified manufacturing locations in Ohio and does advanced machining of all types to produce its extensive catalog of standard and custom product for a myriad of markets worldwide. At the heart of its machining capabilities are 12-axis CNC Swiss machines, CNC milling centers and CNC wire EDMs, plus numerous post-finishing operations, including anodizing, EN plating and thermal deburring.

According to a new market report pertaining to the global electric discharge machine (EDM) market, that market is projected to reach a value of US$ 6.1 billion by 2027. The EDM market is expected to expand at a CAGR of ~6% from 2019 to 2027, in terms of volume. Growth of the EDM market can be attributed to increasing need for EDMs for the development of high-end machining designs in various industries. Asia Pacific is anticipated to lead the global electric discharge machine market, followed by North America during the forecast period.

Being a Tier 3 supplier to automotive and appliance OEMs is high-volume, extremely competitive work, where success depends in large part on fast, accurate and above all dependable equipment. Fortunately for Bill Overbay, manufacturing supervisor at Miyama USA Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, his latest round of machine tool purchasing gave him exactly that. “We now have five Kent USA machining centers in all, and most have been running nonstop for the past four years,” he said. “We’ve had no problems whatsoever.”

Mazak Corp. has launched All Axes, a new podcast developed to keep manufacturers in-the-know about all things manufacturing. The podcast features original content on a wide range of industry-critical subjects and issues affecting today’s North American manufacturers – from additive technologies, automation, multitask machines and the skilled labor shortage to the industrial internet of things, digitally connected factories, cybersecurity and more.

Headquartered in Marijampolė, Lithuania, industrial manufacturer Stevila offers precision CNC milling and turning and assembly services on a subcontracting basis, producing parts based on customers’ designs in varying batch sizes. Employing an impressive array of CNC equipment in combination with traditional non-programmed metalworking machines, the company serves clients and partners throughout Europe’s energy, automation, medical, printing machines and other industries. Parts produced by Stevila include everything from expansion bushes and cleaning nozzles to drive-sensor adjust blocks and parts for brake discs.

Enhanced operational efficiency offered by industrial lubricants is bolstering their use in the constantly expanding manufacturing sector, as well as other industries such as power generation and oil and gas. Growing use of high-performance lubricants in these end-use industries is expected to drive market growth in the forecast period (2019-2027). As indicated by a new study, the global demand for industrial lubricants will progress moderately through 2027, reaching a value of US$ 28 Bn.

At ANCA, the company's success has been underpinned by listening to its customer’s needs. Rather than only offer a standard product range, the builder of grinding machines often delivers custom solutions. ANCA’s engineering team can custom design mechanical, electrical, software and process solutions to enhance the standard product range and meet unique customer requirements.

Toolcraft, a machine shop in Monroe, Washington, was immediately impressed by the 30 µm repeatability and built-in force/torque sensing in Universal Robots’ new flagship line of collaborative robots. The company needed to automate a challenging, three-operation machine tending task inside its CNC machine and has saved 23% on production costs and increased throughput 43% by using the UR5e cobot.

Sales of mass finishing consumables are primarily driven by the increasing demand for surface finishing from various end-use industries such as automotive, aerospace, and general and industrial engineering. As indicated in a new study, the global mass finishing consumables market is estimated to be valued at over US$180 million by the end of 2019, demonstrating moderate growth at a less than 5% CAGR during the forecast period, 2019 to 2029.

Nueva Precision, Milliken, Colorado, is, for the most part, Eddie Casanueva and his wife Leandra operating out of a garage. And while many job shop owners would want to grow and expand their businesses, the Casanuevas are content with keeping the shop at its current size because, according to them, customers benefit from dealing directly with the person making their parts. This, as well as the shop’s advanced manufacturing technology, makes Nueva Precision a trusted partner to its customers and an agile supplier.