Prototyping & Design

One of the laments of the machinist is that designers don't always consider whether their designs can actually be made. Form Factory founder Brian Ross has embraced that thought and turned it on its head. Ross created his company to cater to clients in a wide variety of industries that all need one thing: high-precision prototypes.

Machine Technology: Association strives to facilitate the transmission of machine- and production-related data both within companies and to the cloud.

Get with the Program: InvoMilling, a flexible method for machining external gears and splines, cuts lead times.

The effective use of prototypes can lead the way to continuous improvement.

By 2020, 5G is expected to be the standard for mobile communications.

Western Precision Products backs up its commitment to high-quality service and a top-notch customer experience by investing in the equipment and technology to get the job done.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.