All Features
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville have created an innovative method to visualize and analyze atomic structures within specially designed, ultrathin bilayer 2D materials. When precisely…
NIST
In the wake of Covid-19 and widespread wildfires, demand skyrocketed for air cleaners, machines that could remove potentially harmful particles from the air in a home. Manufacturers responded by producing a wider variety of air cleaner devices designed for single rooms.
The main purpose of an air…
Zach Winn
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- People are increasingly turning to software to design complex material structures like airplane wings and medical implants. But as design models become more capable, our fabrication techniques haven’t kept up. Even 3D printers struggle to reliably produce the precise designs…
Susan Robertson
Sharon, a corporate HR leader, spends her days managing her team and helping shape a culture that supports innovation and creative thinking. But when fall rolls around, her evenings are spent with foam wreath forms, mesh ribbon, and a glue gun.
She makes holiday wreaths. Bold ones. Glittery,…
Quality Digest
(Automation Alley: Troy, MI) -- Project DIAMOnD, the nation’s largest distributed 3D printing network led by Automation Alley and funded by Oakland County, has launched its new additive manufacturing marketplace. This is a secure, peer-to-peer platform where companies can submit 3D printing jobs at…
Knowledge at Wharton
Nano Tools for Leaders—a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management—are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in fewer than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly improve your success and the engagement and…
Quality Digest
(LMA: Claremont, CA) -- Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, a leading expert in manufacturing strategy and supply chain transformation, and president of LMA Consulting Group Inc., is releasing a new e-book, AI & Advanced Technologies in Manufacturing (LMA Consulting, 2025), on how manufacturers…
Adam Grabowski
Capturing real-time data in all areas of the business is vital for maintaining long-term success. When manufacturers conduct business with separate systems, data end up in silos, and information can’t flow in an efficient manner. This prevents smooth coordination of data between people and…
Donald J. Wheeler
When administrative and managerial data are placed on an XmR chart, the first reaction will frequently be that the limits are far too wide: “We have to react before we get to that limit.”
So what are we to do when this happens? Are the limits really too wide? There are three cases to consider:•…
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a broad agency announcement (BAA) soliciting proposals for research, prototyping, and commercial solutions that advance U.S. microelectronics technology. Proposals will…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Oak Ridge, TN) -- A wave of aluminum auto body scrap is set to enter salvage systems over the next decade. This scrap is often too impure to be safely reused in new, critical automotive parts, limiting its value.
That’s changing thanks to a team of researchers at…
Zach Winn
Artificial intelligence models that turn text into images are also useful for generating new materials. During the last few years, generative materials models from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta have drawn on their training data to help researchers design tens of millions of new…
Gleb Tsipursky
In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) has emerged as a transformative force, reshaping industries and redefining operational paradigms. It offers unprecedented opportunities for organizations to enhance efficiency, innovation, and…
Quality Digest
(X-Rite: Grand Rapids, MI) -- X-Rite Inc., a global leader in color science and technology, added the Pantone TPG color library to its PantoneLIVE digital color ecosystem.
Part of the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors (FHI) system, the new library enables accurate digital visualization and…
Quality Digest
(FlackTek: Landrum, SC) -- FlackTek, a pioneer in high-performance materials processing, has launched the MEGA FlackTek—the world’s most sophisticated and largest high-speed bladeless planetary mixer. It’s now available for commercial orders.
With an hourly output measured in tons per hour, the…
FLIR
Recent developments in thermal signature analytics have expanded the applications of thermal cameras beyond routine troubleshooting; they now contribute to paper machine control, energy usage benchmarking, wet streak detection, and the identification and prediction of certain classes of sheet…
Quality Digest
(Marposs: Auburn Hills, MI) -- In today’s highly competitive manufacturing environment, efficiency, accuracy, and reliability are more critical than ever. Tool setting plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals. Toward that end, Marposs has introduced the ML3G, a noncontact tool measurement…
Troy Harrison
A recent company meeting revealed what management called a “handoff problem.” The sales team would close deals, then toss them over the wall to the service team, which would promptly fumble the relationship because they didn’t understand what had been promised or why the customer bought in the…
Quality Digest
(ANSI and America Makes: New York) -- America Makes and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have announced the release of the September 2025 Gaps Progress Report.
This report details efforts over the last six months by standards developing organizations (SDOs) and other stakeholders…
Scott Ginsberg
In manufacturing, the term connected worker has quickly gone from emerging concept to executive mandate. As companies grapple with turnover, skill gaps, and increasing complexity, the urgency to modernize frontline work has never been clearer.
What is a connected worker platform?
A connected…
Mike Figliuolo
Most negotiations have an opening bid. That bid becomes the anchor that the rest of the negotiation centers upon. If you’re good at setting anchors—and avoiding being anchored to a number you won’t like—you’ll get more out of your negotiations.
An interesting dynamic that can happen in…
Quality Digest
(NIBS: Washington, D.C.) -- The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration, announced the release of its Report for a Central Building Information Modeling (BIM) Transportation Library (CBTL), a landmark road map for creating national,…
MIT Sloan School of Management
Meritocracy—the idea that individuals should advance and be rewarded on the basis of their talent and hard work—is one of the most widely celebrated ideals in education, business, and government. It shapes how organizations recruit, evaluate, and promote, promising a fair system where the best rise…
Quality Digest
(Physik Instrumente: Auburn, MA) -- Physik Instrumente (PI), a leader in precision motion control, introduces the A-361 air-bearing XY-rotation stage, a compact nanopositioning platform engineered for ultrahigh precision and stability in demanding research and industrial applications.
The A-361 XY…
Nick Haase
Imagine this: A production line hums along smoothly. Operators clean and check equipment between cycles to spot problems before they snowball. No scrambling. No surprises. That’s what autonomous maintenance looks like.
It’s a concept born from the principles of total productive maintenance (TPM),…