All Features
Katie Rapp
A major focus of the current administration is revitalizing American manufacturing as new technologies are changing the way things are made. Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) director Pravina Raghavan recently appeared on Government Matters TV, where she discussed how MEP National Network…
Ray Hein
The manufacturing industry is at a make-or-break point. An underqualified workforce coupled with a disruptive pandemic has made it difficult for companies to attract top talent. Manufacturers are having trouble filling open roles with employees who possess necessary skills to carry out the desired…
Adam Zewe
Imagine using an online banking app to deposit money into your account. Like all information sent over the internet, those communications could be corrupted by noise that inserts errors into the data.
To overcome this problem, senders encode data before they are transmitted, and then a receiver…
Aaron Krol
As plastic pollution continues to mount, with growing risks to ecosystems and wildlife, manufacturers are beginning to make ambitious commitments to keep new plastics out of the environment. A growing number have signed onto the U.S. Plastics Pact, which pledges to make all plastic packaging…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
One of the biggest problems when reading about any kind of innovation in the press is the prevalent assumption that everyone understands the topic and how it works. Whether it’s cloud computing, edge computing, cold fusion, controlled fusion, or recently, artificial intelligence (AI), experts and…
Jennifer Lauren Lee
In a brightly lit subterranean lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) sits a room-sized electromechanical machine called the NIST-4 Kibble balance.
The instrument can already measure the mass of objects of roughly 1 kilogram, about as heavy as a quart of milk, as…
Association of Equipment Manufacturers
With 2022 firmly in the rearview mirror and the new year now underway, it’s clear many of the opportunities and challenges affecting equipment manufacturers today will remain as relevant as ever in the weeks and months ahead. And while it’s a fool’s errand to try to predict exactly how 2023 will…
Zeeshan Hussain
Every engineer dreams of having a virtual personal assistant like Jarvis, the disembodied voice that carries out Iron Man’s orders. Smart assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are a step in the right direction, but they can’t help an engineer design a new car. Or can they? Recent progress…
Lisa Apolinski
A not-so-surprising fact, according to HubSpot: 65 percent of consumers state that the experience they encounter on a website is a “very important” factor in recommending a brand. If that statistic’s not enough, HubSpot also reported that 75 percent of consumers expect new technologies to be used…
Adam Zewe
When deep-learning models are deployed in the real world—perhaps to detect financial fraud from credit card activity or identify cancer in medical images—they are often able to outperform humans.
But what exactly are these deep-learning models learning? Does a model trained to spot skin cancer in…
Edd Gent
Ever since deep learning burst into the mainstream in 2012, the hype around AI research has often outpaced its reality. However, during the past year, a series of breakthroughs and major milestones suggest the technology may finally be living up to its promise.
Despite the obvious potential of…
Matt Fieldman
I’m sure you’ve heard the buzz around the German apprenticeship system—but does it really live up to the hype?
That’s what a recent mission of 16 workforce professionals from around the United States set out to learn. Supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany,…
Belinda Jones
The worldwide pandemic presented unique challenges for every manufacturer in the United States. Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division was no exception. While its factory operations team has always pursued continuous improvement, the disruptions and slowdown related to the pandemic offered a…
NIST
As 2022 draws to a close, we ask NIST’s senior researchers to look ahead to the new year and beyond. They research topics that affect all of us, from indoor air quality to cybersecurity. So we ask our fellows, “How will the technology you are working on today affect society in the years to come?”…
Marni Baker-Stein, Bridgett Paradise, Rodney Petersen
There’s a growing movement to increase competency and skills-based education and hiring practices in both the public and private sectors.
For example, the Executive Order on Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates calls on the federal government to “ensure…
Rachel Gordon
The manufacturing industry (largely) welcomed artificial intelligence with open arms. Less of the dull, dirty, and dangerous? Say no more. Planning for mechanical assemblies still requires more than scratching out some sketches, of course—it’s a complex conundrum that means dealing with arbitrary…
Matthew Greenwood
Getting the most out of your older capital equipment is a priority for any manufacturer. Luckily, the technology needed to bring legacy equipment into the internet of things (IoT) is readily available.
Let’s take a look at some specific products and technologies businesses can use to bring legacy…
Adam Zewe
Engineers at MIT have developed ultralight fabric solar cells that can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power source.
These durable, flexible solar cells—thinner than a human hair—are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface. They can provide…
Jeffrey Heimgartner
As the U.S. manufacturing sector barrels toward a renaissance, the path ahead comes with challenges that many manufacturers may not be prepared for. The industry—which employs 12 million people and accounts for 11 percent of the U.S. GDP—has slowly crawled out of a decline, and it has the potential…
Vanessa Bates Ramirez
Austin, Texas-based 3D-printing construction company ICON has gotten some pretty significant projects off the ground in recent years, from a 50-home development in Mexico to a 100-home neighborhood in Texas. Recently the company won a NASA contract that will help it get an even bigger project much…
Bhushan Avsatthi
The very nature of healthcare construction and its specific infrastructural and functional needs pose significant challenges to the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector. Crucial hospital spaces such as operation theaters and critical care centers need fail-proof connections to…
Tom Spendlove
Simulation is a necessity for automotive companies in the 21st century, and there’s pressure to use more of it for many reasons: 1) Electrification produces more heat sources that need CFD and thermal analysis to design dissipation strategies; 2) industrywide moves toward minimal or “zero”…
Lee Seok Hwai
Think innovation, and what comes to mind? For many, it invariably evokes big names like Apple and Tesla, their epoch-defining products ranging from the smartphone to electric vehicles, and genius leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. But is innovation only for the select few?
Not at all,…
David L. Chandler
Terahertz radiation, with wavelengths that lie between those of microwaves and visible light, can penetrate many nonmetallic materials and detect signatures of certain molecules.
These handy qualities could lend themselves to a wide array of applications, including airport security scanning,…
Anton Ovchinnikov
In the age of mass production, the demand for customization is increasing. Customers prefer products catered to their individual needs and preferences over standard items—albeit at a cost.
Fortunately, recent advances in information technology, logistics, and advanced manufacturing processes such…
