All Features
Nicolas Lachaud-Bandres
Imagine a factory where quality assurance actually increases the production speed. Advanced metrology equipment is well on the way to making this a reality by introducing new levels of connectivity with other pieces of equipment and software throughout the factory.
Communication between different…
Master Gage and Tool Co.
Calibration is essential in almost every facet of industrial processes. The calibration process verifies test instrument accuracy by comparison with recognized standards, and measurement validity hinges on one crucial concept: traceability.
Traceability adherence ensures a continuous link between…
Scott A. Hindle, Douglas C. Fair
Parts 1, 2, and 3 of our series on statistical process control (SPC) have shown how data can be thoughtfully used to enable learning and improvement—and consequently, better product quality and lower production costs. Another area of SPC to tap into is that of measurement methods. How do we ensure…
NIST
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have built a superconducting camera containing 400,000 pixels—400 times more than any other device of its type.
Superconducting cameras allow scientists to capture very weak light signals, whether from…
Tara Fortier
Measuring and keeping track of time has allowed people to plan and coordinate locally with others for millennia.
As the world has modernized and our pace of life has increased, our relationship to time has changed. Time has become a scarce commodity. The standardization of time has also become…
Douglas C. Fair, Scott A. Hindle
Data overload has become a common malady. Modern data collection technologies and low-cost database storage have motivated companies to collect data on almost everything. The result? Data overload. Unfortunately, few companies leverage the information hidden away in those terabytes of data.
There…
Chris Anderson
A cost-effective process that yields solid welds for long-term performance, resistance spot welding (RSW) remains a top joining method for a variety of structural parts. RSW was one of the first applications leveraged by robotics, and advances in robot hardware and software have enhanced it.
With…
Eric Whitley
Historically, manufacturing processes have often involved substantial waste. From the early days of industrialization, companies have prioritized production speed and volume over efficient resource use. As resources seemed abundant and environmental consciousness was low, excessive waste became an…
Silke von Gemmingen
The manufacturing sector is currently facing a number of challenges. Technological change, pressing environmental issues, and globalization require a number of adjustments, such as investing in new technologies, conserving resources, and optimizing and securing supply chains.
Shifting production…
Julie van der Hoop
We’re all familiar with photos of Ford’s production lines in 1920. But would we recognize them today? As part of a broader trend referred to as “Industry 4.0,” systems in many factories have modernized considerably in recent years. This digitization of the manufacturing sector aims to apply…
Adam Zewe
Imagine grasping a heavy object, like a pipe wrench, with one hand. You would likely grab the wrench using your entire fingers, not just your fingertips. Sensory receptors in your skin, which run along the entire length of each finger, would send information to your brain about the tool you are…
John Davis
Over the past decade, one of the biggest advances in enterprise resource planning (ERP) has been the ability to communicate and integrate with machines and external software programs to lower costs and increase efficiency. For example, BOM Compare software can reduce engineering costs and get jobs…
Ron Cowen
A single atom-thick sheet of carbon known as graphene has remarkable properties on its own. But things can get even more interesting when you stack up multiple sheets.
When two or more overlying sheets of graphene are slightly misaligned—twisted at certain angles relative to each other—they take…
Matthew Greenwood
It’s no secret the automotive sector is racing to find ways of tapping the potential of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to design and build the next generation of vehicles. This technology has promise, from redefining manufacturing processes to helping carmakers design smarter, safer,…
Sabine Terrasi
Robots do monotonous workflows and less pleasant, repetitive tasks with brilliance. Combined with image processing, they become “seeing” and reliable supporters of humans. They’re used in quality assurance to check components, help with assembling and positioning components, detect errors and…
Harish Jose
Today I’m looking at some practical suggestions for reducing sample sizes for attribute testing. A sample is chosen to represent a population. The sample size should be sufficient to represent the population parameters such as mean and standard deviation. Here we’re looking at attribute testing,…
Kristopher Lee
A leader in asset integrity management and inspection services, Kakivik Asset Management recently held an intro to phased-array class at its Anchorage, Alaska, office. The training was attended by nearly two dozen ultrasound specialists and was conducted by Shane Walton from the University of…
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A team of scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has investigated the behavior of hafnium oxide, or hafnia, and its potential for use in novel semiconductor applications.
Materials such as hafnia exhibit ferroelectricity, which means that they are…
David Suttle
You often hear about self-driving cars and their levels of autonomy. When can drivers completely remove their hands from the steering wheel? This also applies to robots. How can robots become fully autonomous?
What are autonomous robots?
Let’s look at the levels of freedom for self-driving cars…
Eric Whitley
Manufacturing has come a long way from manual labor and assembly lines. The industry has evolved through various phases, from the Industrial Revolution to mass production, and now to Industry 4.0. Each phase has brought its own set of challenges and opportunities, shaping the way goods are produced…
InnovMetric
Today, manufacturing companies have sophisticated 3D measurement labs with portable and CNC coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), laser scanners, laser trackers, and digital gauges, and every brand of hardware uses its own software solution. When relying on multiple software programs, multiple…
Vivian Lam
The microscope is an iconic symbol of the life sciences, and for good reason. From the discovery of the existence of cells to the structure of DNA, microscopy has been a quintessential tool of the field, unlocking new dimensions of the living world not only for scientists but also for the general…
Chandrakant Isi
Apple’s Vision Pro announcement has sparked a renewed interest in the world of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Looking through the lens of industrial environments, these technologies have already made significant contributions in manufacturing, maintenance, and training processes.…
Jennifer Chu
Getting blood test results can take anywhere from a day to a week, depending on what a test is targeting. The same goes for tests of water pollution and food contamination. And in most cases, the wait time has to do with time-consuming steps in sample processing and analysis.
Now, MIT engineers…
NIST
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines can clearly view non-bony parts of the body—soft tissue such as the brain, muscles, and ligaments—as well as detect tumors, making it possible to diagnose many diseases and other conditions. However, the powerful magnets in conventional MRI machines make…
