Industry 4.0: When humans and robots go hand in hand
Kristie Thong for Eco-Business: Amid concerns that the rise of industrial robots may soon render humans obsolete, Swiss automation giant ABB’s latest innovation may help shine a new light on what the future will look like when humans and robots can work together as partners. Full Article:
LSIS offers glimpse into smart factory
Lee Min-hyung for Korea Times: LSIS, the nation's top electric equipment maker, aims to apply integrated automation systems into all of its manufacturing facilities as a core strategy to slash operating costs and dominate the nation's energy efficiency market.
The so-called "smart factory" initiative comes amid growing popularity for efficient management systems in the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). Global equipment manufacturers are jumping on the "smart" bandwagon for management efficiency, but only a few companies here have achieved significant feats on the area.
LSIS's manufacturing facility, however, offers a glimpse of what automated factory is all about, ranging from assembling parts to packaging.
In particular, the company's G production line is equipped with fully-automated production system operated by its programmable logic controller (PLC).
The PLC is interconnected with the manufacturing execution system (MES), serving as a network hub to manage every level of manufacturing processes within the factory. Cont'd...
Collaborative Robots Are Broadening Their Marketplaces
In a human-machine study conducted by an MIT professor, it was shown that teams made of humans and robots collaborating efficiently can be more productive than teams made of either humans or robots alone.
U.S. manufacturing isn't dead; factories are running at close to a record pace
Rex Nutting for MarketWatch: U.S. manufacturing sector doesn’t get any respect.
Ask a random sample of people on the street and you’re likely to hear that America doesn’t make anything anymore, that China, Mexico and Vietnam took all of our factories, and that the only jobs left in America are flipping burgers and cleaning hotel rooms.
“Throughout history, at the center of any thriving country has been a thriving manufacturing sector,” says presidential candidate Donald Trump. “But under decades of failed leadership, the United States has gone from being the globe’s manufacturing powerhouse — the envy of the world — through a rapid deindustrialization.” Cont'd.. .
Developing Manufacturing Workers Who Are Job-Ready on Day One
Over the next decade, 3.4 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed, and 60% of them are likely to be unfilled due to the talent shortage. How can we close that number (and the skills gap)?
Greycork Challenges Ikea With A Flat-pack Living Room In A Box
From Dezeen: Rhode Island furniture company Greycork has created a collection of quick-assembly, flat-pack pieces that are intended "to be a better alternative to Ikea"...
...Each piece is shipped for free in a thin, flat box and is designed to be assembled by the customer in under four minutes...
...The company's first line, the Brooks Collection, featured a folding dining table, coffee table and bench – all made of wood and priced from $500 to $950... ( full story ) ( Greycork site )
Robots: A New Kind of Manufacturing Workforce
Improving the effectiveness of small and medium manufacturers could help stimulate the economy and drive job creation. Adding robotic employees to the manufacturing mix might just make manufacturers in the United States more competitive with their counterparts in Asia.
Unique Hybrid Cnc Tool Solution Uses Beckhoff Controls To Integrate Additive Manufacturing With Standard CNC Machining
Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies has developed a unique CNC-based hybrid tool control solution that enables virtually any CNC machine or robotic platform to deploy both metal-cutting and metal-adding heads in the spindle and conveniently change between them.
How Innovators Overcome Smart Factory Challenges
Brad Done for Manufacturing.net: Smart factories are the manifestation of what's being called the Fourth Industrial Revolution — a concept that's been in the conceptual-buzz phase for years.
While the last revolution saw the widespread digitization of manufacturing technology, allowing information to be produced, replicated and shared on an unprecedented scale, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, could take manufacturing to a place verging on self-awareness.
What does this look like? Smart components will interact directly with other devices — independent of human micromanagement and oversight. It means our technologies will be capable of building and interpreting a more nuanced understanding of the manufacturing environment. People and machines will have access to real-time virtual representations of all manufacturing functions.
It's a vision that's fast becoming a reality. Experts have expounded on the challenges, but this hasn't prevented early-adopters from making significant headways. Full Article...
Innovative And Compact Automation System Helps Lens Coating Company Put Others In The Shade
Thanks to advanced automation technology from Beckhoff Automation, Shyre Ltd., a new company based in an enterprise centre in Shropshire, UK, is set to take on the giants of the worlds optical market, thanks to a machine and process it has developed that uses dip coating to achieve the photochromic effect seen in top-end personal eyewear.
5 Easy Steps to Choosing a Conveyor
This graphic walks you through all of the components and pieces of a conveyor, the options and configuration varieties available for each part, and the ideal context and product for that specific element.
This Factory Robot Learns a New Job Overnight
MIT Technology Review: Fanuc’s robot uses a technique known as deep reinforcement learning to train itself, over time, how to learn a new task. It tries picking up objects while capturing video footage of the process. Each time it succeeds or fails, it remembers how the object looked, knowledge that is used to refine a deep learning model, or a large neural network, that controls its action. Deep learning has proved to be a powerful approach in pattern recognition over the past few years.
“After eight hours or so it gets to 90 percent accuracy or above, which is almost the same as if an expert were to program it,” explains Shohei Hido, chief research officer at Preferred Networks, a Tokyo-based company specializing in machine learning. “It works overnight; the next morning it is tuned.”... ( full story )
NASA is sending a 3D printer to space that you can use
Emily Calandrelli for TechCrunch: NASA is preparing to send its first commercial manufacturing facility to the International Space Station (ISS). The 3D printing company Made in Space has partnered with NASA to send their Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF) to the space station on a launch scheduled to take place next Tuesday.
Users on Earth can pay to use AMF, a 3D printer specially designed to operate in a microgravity environment, to print products on the space station. Once it arrives, Made in Space will be able to command AMF remotely from their headquarters in the NASA Ames Research Park.
Spencer Pitman, head of product strategy at Made in Space, told TechCrunch that the company has already secured 20 paying customers for AMF. Their customers include high schools that are hosting space-related design challenges, universities that will print medical research components, and companies that will print commercial parts for satellites and other spacecraft. Cont'd...
3D Printing Reboot
Dana Blankenhorn for SeekingAlpha: While many people consider 3D printing dead, given what has happened to the stocks of industry leaders such as 3D Systems, Stratasys, ExOne and voxeljet , it's more accurate to say the industry has rebooted and is preparing for another run.
This means the industry's excitement is now coming from college campuses and startups. As an investor you want to keep an eye on this, but withhold your investment.
Industry leader 3D Systems has been drawing a bid this year as it undergoes a restructuring, bringing in more professional management, anddropping the Cube, its consumer printer, from the product line. For all of 2015 it reported a loss of $664 million, $5.85/share, on revenues of $666 million. The stock, which once traded as high as $96/share during the last boom, is now at around $13, but it had been as low as $6.42 in mid-January. Founder Charles Hull, 76, has been kicked upstairs to a Chief Technology Officer role. Cont'd...
2016: Six Trends Affecting Safety In The Workplace
Safety is a complex topic, but these six factors are helping to not only increase workplace safety this year but also efficiency, quality and employee well-being.
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