Automation & Controls

Lincolnshire, Ill.-based GF Machining Solutions LLC's System 3R, which supplies modular workholding/tooling systems, automation and software, is celebrating its 50-year anniversary.

G2 Technologies has developed a customizable, automated 3D inspection system in response to a customer's need to inspect small electronic connectors. This niche is very specific, but impacts aerospace, automotive and other industries. The global market for the connectors industry is projected to reach $80.3 billion by 2022, according to G2.

Are your spindles cutting most of the time? Or are they often idle because you're getting ready to cut? If you answered yes to the latter, consider the lift that an automated pallet-handling system could provide. These systems allow pallets to be set up and moved into position while workpieces on other pallets are being machined.

Boeing and Georgia Tech formally opened a new advanced development research center designed to solve some of the toughest technical challenges in manufacturing. In the Boeing Manufacturing Development Center, company researchers and Georgia Tech engineering students will work together to implement automation in industrial applications.

Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute reports that manufacturers expect investments in smart factories will drive a 27 percent increase in their operation efficiency over the next five years. This would add $500 billion in annual added value to the global economy.

Creditsafe USA has released the findings of an in-depth analysis of the US manufacturing industry. Despite recent overall consistent performance, the study highlights several areas of concern across the entire sector in particular the rate of bankruptcy signaling the possibility of an industry slowdown.

In 2007 the KUKA Titan entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest and strongest robot in the world. A decade later a modified version of the behemoth has been given accuracy unprecedented for its size—better than 100µm (0.0039").

It takes knowledge and skill to get a robot to do exactly what a manufacturer wants. A new interface designed by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers is reportedly simpler and more efficient than most control interfaces and doesn't require significant training.

GE Power opened its "Factory of the Future," the 125,000-sq.-ft. Advanced Manufacturing Works (AMW) facility in Greenville, S.C., with great fanfare in April 2016. So, what's futuristic about the place?

Driven by end user demand for improved visualization into their automation solutions portfolio, Mitsubishi Electric Automation Inc. has introduced the GT2107 wide series human machine interface. The GT2107 is an interface that monitors and controls machine components with a graphical touch screen that connects to equipment such as PLCs, VFDs and servos.

In 2016, Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. installed new manufacturing systems for machining structural parts made of aluminum. To achieve the desired surface quality and precision during high-speed milling operations, the aircraft manufacturer continuously relies on the solutions provided by Haimer: a large selection of toolholders and the corresponding shrinking and balancing machines.

According to Frost & Sullivan's Industrial Automation and Process Control team, cognitive technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are "poised to transform all manufacturing sectors." Partnership, collaboration, and technology investment are crucial for growth opportunities in an era when "data is the new currency." n