Prototyping & Design

Articles • May 23, 2018 • Robert Weinstein

Changing workflow: Bringing work to the workpiece

Picum MT, a startup at Leibniz University in Germany, is collaborating to redefine the manufacturing workflow, which traditionally has involved moving a workpiece from machine to machine or from station to station.

Articles • February 22, 2018 • Robert Weinstein

Collision detection minimizes damage to machine tool, workpiece

Last year, Sandvik Coromant Co. introduced its CoroPlus Collision Detector, which is designed to effectively use data to minimize damage to both a machine tool and a workpiece in the event of a crash.

News • January 19, 2018

Research on the factory floor

Since 2013, members of the MIT Media Lab community have set out from their research groups every summer to observe work in about 10 factories in China. Last summer, they went with a different approach—not just to visit but to collaborate on experimenting and cooperative design with two facilities in or near the city of Shenzhen. The hacking manufacturing summer course in August focused on the theme of soft robotic materials, and three instructors and seven lab students worked with a digital knitting factory called K-Tech and a flexible printed circuit board manufacturer called King.

Articles • August 24, 2017 • Patrick Kuhlemann

3D-printed bone drill improves surgeries

Metal laser melting has made possible a number of groundbreaking developments in the medical field. One example is a 3D-printed bone drill that, unlike some traditionally manufactured drills, is designed not to damage tissue during surgery.

Articles • June 20, 2017 • Michael C. Anderson

Look Ahead: 3D printing picks up the pace

Desktop Metal Inc., a 2-year-old startup, developed a different method of metal 3D printing that it calls an "office-friendly" system for rapid prototyping. The Desktop Metal (DM) Studio system is based on a new approach—Single Pass Jetting (SPJ), which was created by the inventors of the binder-jetting and the single-pass inkjet processes.

Articles • March 31, 2017 • Kip Hanson

Rapid prototyping on a CNC machine tool

Machine tool builders, tool suppliers and software developers now deliver technology that makes it possible for CNC operators to set up jobs in minutes rather than hours, and deliver parts in days instead of weeks.

Articles • January 20, 2017 • Kip Hanson

Low-cost 3D printer for shop operations

A new breed of 3D printers has begun producing parts made of engineering-grade plastics and fully dense metals suitable for long-term use in a variety of applications. These include jet engine components, engine mounts, medical implants and a host of other products that were once machined or fabricated by conventional means. And, compared to earlier-generation machines, the new additive-manufacturing equipment offers enhanced part accuracy and has lower processing times and acquisition costs.

News • November 23, 2016 • Michael C. Anderson

NIST: Fortify Manufacturing, Save $100 Billion, by Closing Tech Gaps

To spur significant innovation and growth in advanced manufacturing, as well as save over $100 billion annually, U.S. industry must rectify currently unmet needs for measurement science and "proof-of-concept" demonstrations of emerging technologies. This is the overall conclusion reached by economic studies funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of four advanced manufacturing areas used to create everything from automobile composites to zero-noise headsets.

Articles • October 1, 2016 • Michael C. Anderson

Finite element analysis in the supply chain

As component design optimization tasks flow down the supply chain, finite element analysis programs proliferate.

Videos • July 21, 2016

Non-profit engineering research group adds electron beam system to toolbox

EWI, a non-profit organization dedicated to innovating and implementing advanced manufacturing technologies for industry, soon will add an Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) system to its R&D toolbox. Chicago-based Sciaky Inc. announced the sale of its EBAM system in a news release issued July 20.

News • April 29, 2016

Small shop with new tech on aerospace radar

Once word got out that PTooling, a self-described small, family-owned machine shop in Amherstburg, Canada, had added a Lasertec 65 3D laser deposition welding and milling machine to its arsenal, major aerospace manufacturers began knocking on its door.

Articles • March 1, 2016

Neat ripple effect

Lindquist Machine Corp. is a custom-machinery builder that relies on its CAD/CAM system to keep its workflow flexible, break bottlenecks and reduce lead times. The Green Bay, Wis., shop has one programmer to do complicated programming, but most of the workers on the shop floor can write, or at least modify, programs.