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AMETEK
(Ametek: Largo, FL) -- A new single-column materials-testing machine from Lloyd Instruments, the LS1, provides enhanced speed, accuracy, and flexibility for all materials-testing applications under 1 kN force. High-precision displacement measurement is ensured by the LS1’s linear guide…
Donald J. Wheeler
Last month’s column looked at how to fix some of the Problems with Gauge R&R Studies. This month I will show you how to learn more from your gauge repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) data with less effort. Rather than getting lost in a series of computations, the "evaluating the…
University of Nottingham
Pay-for-performance targets set for general practitioners in the United Kingdom are failing to improve the health of patients with high blood pressure, according to a joint study funded by U.K., U.S., and Canadian research organizations.
The study, which presents the strongest evidence yet that…
Claudia Jackson
Twitter is not at all what I expected. After a few months, I now use Twitter to improve my knowledge in health care quality, expand my professional network, and save time. Through Twitter, I’ve connected with an amazing variety of people, including health care providers, marketing pros, e-patients…
ASQ
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The American Society for Quality (ASQ), the world’s largest network of quality resources and experts, celebrates 65 years of providing insights, ideas, and tools to advance the global quality community. Using its recently unveiled new tagline—The Global Voice of Quality—ASQ is…
LRQA Business Assurance
(LRQA: Coventry, UK) -- Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) has been accredited to certify companies to FSSC 22000, a complete certification scheme for food-safety management systems. Food safety is a global concern, not only because of the importance for public health, but also because of…
American National Standards Institute ANSI
As President Barack Obama met with President Hu Jintau of China earlier this month, members and staff of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) welcomed a delegation from the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), led by SAC administrator, Ji Zhengkun, for a series of high-level…
Qualitest USA LC
(Qualitest: Fort Lauderdale, FL) -- The Digi-TEST II hardness measurement system from Qualitest USA LC comes with many easy-to-use features and important engineering advances that allow for quick handling and user-friendly operation.
The system is a modular design and allows users to combine…
Dytran Instruments Inc.
(Dytran Instruments: Chatsworth, CA) -- Dytran Instruments Inc. a leading manufacturer of piezoelectric and DC accelerometers, force and pressure transducers and associated electronics, has introduced the model 1022V, an IEPE force sensor, designed to offer low-mass dynamic measurement capabilities…
MSC Industrial Direct
(MSC Industrial Direct: Melville, NY) -- With precision, quality, and value in mind, MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc., the country’s leading supplier of cost-down metalworking solutions, presents the Swiss Precision Instruments (SPI) brand of precision measurement products. The SPI product line…
David L. Chandler
In a finding that has met with surprise and some controversy in the scientific community, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and elsewhere have discovered a basic property that governs the way water and many other liquids behave as their temperature changes.
Liquids…
Bill Kalmar
It seems every day we view “breaking news” reports on television or read about a particular event in the paper that catches our attention. It might be acres of brush fires that level hundreds of homes, a new law that restricts the number of calories that can be consumed in school cafeterias, or…
Mark R. Hamel
My teenage education was (maybe) enhanced by substantial doses of Monty Python. Occasionally, I discover a lean metaphor somewhere within their body of work. One of my absolute favorite scenes is from the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The three-minute scene goes by two names: “The…
Tracker Handbook by Javier Vera
The technology from which the laser tracker is drawn has a diversified beginning, from the laser instrumentation to the methods of capturing the beam. Unmistakably, it is the integration of all components, along with its portability, that makes the laser tracker an appealing measurement tool.
Many…
The worst U.S. environmental disaster in history and a leading automaker beset by recalls: Was 2010 a year that we’d all like to forget? As we launch into 2011, Process Excellence Network looks back at two of the top stories that shaped last year and the lessons learned for operational excellence…
SICK
(SICK: Minneapolis)--SICK, a global leader in the manufacture of sensors, safety systems, machine vision, and automatic identification solutions for factory and logistics automation, has announced the launch of its W9-3 photoelectric sensor, a high-performance sensor in an extremely tough plastic…
Mettler-Toledo
(Mettler-Toledo Inc.: Columbus, OH) -- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) makes lab asset management easy. By embedding RFID tags into every model of Pipet-Lite XLS, pipette and tip manufacturer Rainin has taken lab asset management to a whole new level, transforming pipette management with…
MVTec
(MVTec Software GmbH: Munich, Germany) -- MVTec Software GmbH is working closely with NVIDIA, a global leader in visual computing technologies, on developing a powerful new machine vision solution that dramatically improves the process of product inspection.
HALCON 10, machine vision software…
Advanced Photonix Inc. API
(Advanced Photonix: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Advanced Photonix Inc. (API) announces that its terahertz system, the T-Ray 4000, will be deployed on a factory line for quality and process control at a major manufacturer of extruded web products. This ground-breaking advancement in terahertz deployment is…
GBMP
(GBMP: Boston) -- GBMP Inc. has released The e2 Continuous Improvement System: Managing and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation through the e2 “Everybody, Everyday” Approach (GBMP, 2011). The book details GBMP’s “lean-by-doing” process that uses continuous improvement to unlock readers’ intellects…
Electro Standards Laboratories
(Electro Standards Laboratories: Cranston, RI) -- The CellMite Model 4337 Digital Signal Conditioner with a 16-character auto identifying display is ideal for use with strain gauge extensometers used to test steel or with other industrial testing applications. The Model 4337 connects directly to a…
I was a 30-year-old quality project manager on a continuous metal processing line. We coated metal for a broad range of consumer and industrial products. Just like many metal-processing facilities, particularly back then, we used a bunch of processes involving chemistry of varying evilness for a…
Umberto Tunesi
I am a chemical engineer by education and training. Therefore, some might expect me to work with numbers, but I don’t. Early in my career, after spending a few years in research and development (R&D) labs, I took a road that has led me to inspect and audit organizations for their continuous or…
Michael Blair
Every year the government struggles to prepare a new military budget in the face of serious challenges with mandated reductions in our national defense. At an Air Force conference in Denver, Colorado, in November 2010, the deputy chief management officer for the Air Force spoke about the Air Force’…
Sparta Systems Inc.
(Sparta Systems: Holmdel, NJ) – On Jan. 4, President Obama signed into law one of the most comprehensive changes to U.S. food safety since the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The Food Safety Modernization Act gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and related government agencies the…
