All Features
Dmitriy Osnach
In precision machining there’s a particularly deceptive failure mode. Everything looks fine. The toolpath is clean, cutting is stable, the part’s almost finished. And then you discover that you took off too much somewhere. Or the opposite—you left a small island of stock that now must be removed by…
Mike DeCapua
Buffalo Metrology Inc. (BMI) was recently tasked with reverse engineering an 8 ft outside-diameter clarifier cover used in the mixing/agitation industry. The goal was to inspect the fracture on the tapered face of this component as part of a possible new cover fabrication.
Clarifier agitators are…
Vick Vaishnavi, Quality Digest
Octave, a new company from Hexagon, is one of the latest additions in a string of improvements and innovations. This company will unite several Hexagon departments and functions, increase the efficiency of Hexagon’s digital communication, and provide support for vital infrastructure. Vick Vaishnavi…
Scott Ginsberg
Quality leaders know that an audit rarely fails because a company lacks documentation. It fails because the information exists somewhere but can’t be retrieved, verified, or executed consistently when it matters. For decades, preparing for an audit meant assembling binders, tracking down…
Ben Kitson
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology recently found that manufacturing process selection influences product design outcomes, yet is still often guided by experience rather than structured evaluation of alternatives. Understanding the differences between chemical etching and other…
Global Shop Solutions
Picture this: It’s Monday morning. Coffee in hand. The schedule is full. Shipping is stacked. Your biggest jobs are lined up like dominos, ready to fall into place.
Then, the floor supervisor walks into your office with that look. “We can’t start Job 2471.”
You blink. “Why not?”
“Missing parts.”…
Angela O’Sullivan
Regulated manufacturers today face a paradox. As products become more complex and regulatory oversight more stringent, the volume of quality data required to demonstrate compliance has increased dramatically. At the same time, many organizations continue to rely on fragmented systems—documents…
Sabine Terrasi
The mountain of old textiles continues to grow in Germany every year. Less than 1% of this enters a closed recycling loop. Reasons for this include so-called “fast fashion,” which leads to an increasing amount of low-quality textiles, as well as the wide variety of materials, which makes efficient…
IDS Imaging Development Systems
Production companies are under enormous pressure today. Customers are demanding more variants, delivery times are shrinking, error rates must not increase, and traditional visual inspections quickly reach their limits.
Visual quality control is becoming one of the biggest challenges for…
Adam Zewe
A broken motor in an automated machine can bring production on a busy factory floor to a halt. If engineers can’t find a replacement part they may have to order one from a distributor hundreds of miles away, leading to costly production delays.
It would be easier, faster, and cheaper to make a new…
Quality Digest
(Molex: Lisle, IL) – Molex, a global electronics leader and connectivity innovator, has launched its Impress co-packaged copper solutions to meet the needs of next-generation data centers and AI workflows by delivering ultrahigh-speed data transmission and exceptional signal integrity.
Building on…
Ryan Pembroke
Walk into any machine shop today and you’ll hear about the same pressure points: tighter deadlines, rising part complexity, a stubborn skills shortage, and customers expecting “digital-ready” suppliers that can turn work around without delay. It’s no surprise then that artificial intelligence has…
Adam Grabowski
Freedom is generally defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The license to act as one pleases offers a host of benefits but can also produce consequences that limit your freedom. The same can be said of your manufacturing. The choices you…
AMPS Supply
Many warehouses consider peak season (November and December) as a finish line. Once peak season is over, demand stabilizes, pressure eases, and management immediately shifts its focus to the next planning cycle.
However, the period after peak season isn’t the epilogue but rather a transition that…
Alex Shipps
Generative artificial intelligence models have left such an indelible imprint on digital content creation that it’s getting harder to recall what the internet was like before it. You can call on these AI tools for clever projects, such as videos and photos, but their flair for the creative hasn’t…
Brian Brooks
The manufacturing world is undergoing a major shift. Supply chain shocks, reshoring, a busy merger and acquisition landscape, and other disruptions are prompting many manufacturers to rethink their operations with the hope of mitigating risk, building resilience, and gaining more control.
Although…
Bryan Christiansen
You finished the plan, you executed the work, and you know your team delivered results. But when it’s time to prove your budget request or show value to leadership, you struggle to give clear proof.
Maintenance teams can have a tough time transitioning from “doing work” to “reporting value.” The…
Gregory George
Timeless design, meticulous craftsmanship, and connection to the past: There are many reasons why classic cars are enduringly popular. Reverse engineering has brought them within reach of more people than ever before. 3D scanners and 3D modeling software make it possible to remake parts at a…
Data Physics
Vibration-related failures in aerospace involve satellites, launch vehicles, and aircraft components that are expensive to replace. While traditional vibration testing can overcompensate and damage parts, modal analysis performs tests on the product before physically examining its endurance. Using…
Creaform
Ultralarge hydraulic excavators for international open-pit mining are the core specialty of Komatsu Germany GmbH—Mining Division. A subsidiary of Japan’s Komatsu Ltd., Komatsu Germany develops and manufactures six models of ultralarge hydraulic excavators in Düsseldorf in the 300–900 tonne class.…
Eleazer Carmelli-Kim, Kevin Atkins
As the holiday season is left behind, many manufacturing leaders find a moment to step back from year-end deadlines to reflect on the bigger picture and look ahead. One question often surfaces during that quieter reset: Where will the next generation of engineers, designers, and problem-solvers…
Donald J. Wheeler
Performance indexes use the global standard deviation statistic to describe the past. Capability indexes use a within-subgroup measure of dispersion to characterize the process potential. However, some within-subgroup measures are better than others. This article will explain why you should not use…
Joe Curcillo
Most leaders you meet are losing almost a full workday every week to meetings that go nowhere. Same people. Same topics. Same problems. No real movement.
You’ve seen it in boardrooms and job trailers: different settings, but the same pattern. The problem isn’t meetings; it’s that your meetings are…
Zach Winn
There are some jobs human bodies just weren’t meant to do. Unloading trucks and shipping containers is a repetitive, grueling task—and a big reason warehouse injury rates are more than twice the national average.
Pickle Robot Co. wants its machines to do the heavy lifting. The company’s one-armed…
Kate Zabriskie
Something goes sideways at work—missed deadlines, bad customer feedback, you name it—and the first suggestion is, “We need training!” Sound familiar? It’s like reaching for a Band-Aid when what you really need is a lifestyle change. Training can be powerful, but it shouldn’t be your knee-jerk…