Disruption Ahead: Automotive Manufacturers Look to the Future

Automotive manufacturers are seeking ways to simultaneously embrace big data, stay flexible, and continue to innovate ahead of fellow automakers and new competition from Silicon Valley.

Strategies to Strengthen Subassembly Sourcing

Selecting subassembly manufacturers with specific capabilities can speed turnaround, improve product performance and functionality, and increase an OEMs bottom line.

How Industry 4.0 is changing human-technology interaction

Ben Rossi for InformationAge: Accelerated by technologies such as 3D printing and intelligent robots, the role of the human machine interface (HMI) is becoming more sophisticated. This is altering the way industries approach increasingly complex processes of machines and systems in order to improve efficiency and decrease downtime. Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) are at the centre of new technological approaches, development, production and the entire logistics chain - otherwise known as smart factory automation. HMI is implemented in any industry where human intervention with a machine or automated device is necessary. The high rate of demand for HMI is being driven by the need for enhanced efficiency, data security and compliance, mobility, remote services and reliable hardware. Cont'd...

Siemens to buy Mentor Graphics amid push to digitize factories

By Christopher Alessi and Natascha Divac, Dow Jones Newswires:  Siemens AG’s planned acquisition of automation and industrial software provider Mentor Graphics Corp. is the German giant’s latest play to stay competitive in the race to digitize heavy industry. Siemens on Monday offered $37.25 a share in cash, equivalent to a 21 percent premium on Mentor’s closing share price on Friday, giving the U.S. company an equity value of around $4 billion.Wilsonville, Ore.-based Mentor, which has agreed to the acquisition, sells software and hardware design-automation tools for the development and testing of advanced electronic systems. The company has a field office in Longmont. Mentor’s shares gained 18.3 percent to $36.30 in recent Nasdaq trading on Monday. “It’s a perfect portfolio fit to further expand our digital leadership and set the pace in the industry,” Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser said.  Cont'd...

A Complete Review of Semiconductor Lasers And a Few Words About What You Can Do With a 5.6 W Semiconductor Laser

This is a detailed article about popular inexpensive semiconductor lasers and about what you can engrave and cut using a 5.6 W semiconductor laser, installed on a 3D printer or CNC machine.

Seebo and Autodesk Forge Team Up to Help Product Developers Launch Connected Devices

This comprehensive software solution streamlines the entire smart product development process, dramatically decreasing development time and costs.

Samsung SDS releases AI-based smart factory system

Yoon Sung-won for KoreaTimes:  Samsung SDS has launched its artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart factory system service Nexplant, the company said Wednesday. The system integration service affiliate of Samsung Group highlighted that the new service will help clients maximize production efficiency as the AI system analyzes manufacturing problems in real time. "Before the domestic release of the service, we have already drawn high interest from manufacturing businesses in overseas countries including the United States and India," Lee Jae-cheol, smart factory business director and senior vice president of Samsung SDS, said in a statement. "We will expedite business expansion on the global stage." In developing the Nexplant system, Samsung SDS said it has tapped into its expertise in manufacturing process optimization systems that it has accumulated during the last three decades while providing them to plants run by other Samsung affiliates.  Cont'd...

High Efficiency Motors

To understand the concept of high efficiency motors, you must first know how to calculate efficiency and the losses associated with the motor components themselves.

Trump promises to bring back manufacturing jobs, but robots won't let him

Lora Kolodny for TechCrunch:  For Americans struggling with stagnant wages, under- or un-employment, one of Donald Trump’s most appealing campaign promises was to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Navigating the complexities of policy, tariffs and geopolitics would make that hard enough already for the president elect. But technology will make this promise nearly impossible to fulfill. Why? Because manufacturing jobs are increasingly done by robots, not people. Robotics have already helped reduce reliance on labor overseas for manufacturers in automotive, electrical and electronics industries, according to a fresh policy report from the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development.  Cont'd...

China Adopts Cybersecurity Law Despite Foreign Opposition

Bloomberg News:  China has green-lit a sweeping and controversial law that may grant Beijing unprecedented access to foreign companies’ technology and hamstring their operations in the world’s second-largest economy. The Cyber Security Law was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, and will take effect in June, government officials said Monday. Among other things, it requires internet operators to cooperate with investigations involving crime and national security, and imposes mandatory testing and certification of computer equipment. Companies must also give government investigators full access to their data if wrong-doing is suspected. China’s grown increasingly aggressive about safeguarding its IT systems in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. spying, and is intent on policing cyberspace as public discourse shifts to online forums such as Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat. The fear among foreign companies is that requirements to store data locally and employ only technology deemed “secure” means local firms gain yet another edge over foreign rivals from Microsoft Corp. to Cisco System Inc.  Cont'd...

CNC Inspection Software Reduces Time Needed to Machine Composite Parts

PowerInspect has dramatically improved our ability to locate and align parts with complex curved surfaces

Automating One Acre Under Glass

Richmond Nursery in Ontario Saves More Than $50,000 a Year Using an Leviton Environmental Control System

Tesla is buying a German engineering company to automate factories

Matthew DeBord for Business Insider:  On Tuesday, Tesla announced that it will acquire Grohmann Engineering, a German automated manufacturing company. The terms of the deal, which is subject to German regulatory approval, weren't disclosed. In a statement, Tesla described Grohmann as a "world-renowned engineering company in Prüm, Germany, which will become Tesla Grohmann Automation."  Cont'd...

Lift Gate Provides Added Flexibility to SmartFlex System

With a typical lift gate conveyor, the entire conveyor pivots using the motor as a counter balance and a gas strut to assist in the lifting process.

For Visio, PDF is the new DWG

During discussions with the Visio product team I realized that PDF is the new intermediate file format for Visio, not DWG. For example, PDFs from AutoCAD are plotted at a specific paper size and scale, perfect for Visio.

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