3D-PRINTER WITH NANO-PRECISION
Florian Aigner, Phys.org, March 13, 2012
Watch this video clip of the nano-print in action.
Read more: http://phys.org
Keywords: Nanoscale, 3D printing

BRINGING WATERJET CUTTING INHOUSE: A LUCRATIVE DECISION
MetalForming, April 2012
A wind-turbine manufacturer makes waterjet cutting a core competency.  Bringing the process inhouse has added 20 percent to the firm's top line, allowing it to pay for its cutting machine in less than 2 years.
Read more: http://www.metalformingmagazine.com
Keywords: Waterjet cutting

FUNDAMENTALS OF ULTRAPRECISION MACHINING
Tom Solon, Machine Design, May 10, 2012
Ultraprecision machining (UPM) originates in the optics industry.  However, the technology has the potential to revolutionize the way manufacturers finish parts or make fine-featured patterns.  "High precision" in this case refers to tolerances in the neighborhood of the submicron.  Conventional machining and grinding get typical values of no better than 0.1 um.
Read more: http://machinedesign.com
Keywords: Ultraprecision machining (UPM)

PRODRIVE SHIFTS 3D PRINTING INTO HIGH GEAR
Beth Stackpole, DesignNews, April 27, 2012
Prodrive, a leading motorsport company and the primary engine behind the design and engineering of the MINI John Cooper Works World Rally Car, is one of the companies leveraging 3D printing advances to bring efficiencies to its development processes and optimize its car designs.  The company has used 3D printing for a long time; but, this was to be the first car that was designed as a unitary CAD layout and the first car to be designed in a single package.  In addition to the single virtual model, the Prodrive team wanted to build a full physical mockup in parallel so it could spend time refining the areas that were most likely to cause problems.
Read more: http://www.designnews.com
Keywords: 3D Printing, 3D Modeling

TEENY TINY TRANSISTORS
Erin Biba, Wired Magazine, May 2012
A new chip construction process creates transistors so small (22 nanometers wide) they can be measured in smatterings of atoms.  A few dozen of the transistors combine to create a base layer that helps control the flow of electricity on computer chips. The base is made from hafnium rather than the standard silicon oxynitride. The manufacturing process is what is particularly unique: the company has devised a way to keep several interconnected manufacturing machines in a near-total vacuum. 
Read more: http://www.wired.co.uk
Keywords: Nanotransistor manufacturing process

ACHIEVE PROCESS TRANSPARENCY WITH IN-MOLD CAVITY SENSORS
S. Montgomery, V. Gallo, Plastics Technology, May 2012
In plastic injection molding, the primary objective is to manufacture dimensionally and structurally consistent parts, independent of the molding machine being used.  In-mold cavity-temperature and cavity-pressure sensors each have their own merits, but offer powerful benefits when used together.
Read more: http://www.ptonline.com
Keywords: Plastics injection mold sensors

PROCESS ALLOWS PLASTIC TO ADAPT ON DEMAND
Ann Thryft, DesignNews, April 23, 2012
An engineering team at Duke University has invented a process that can change the texture of a soft polymer by changing the voltage applied to it. The plastic's surface texture can be switched from rough to smooth, and back again, in a few milliseconds.  The dynamic electrostatic lithography process changes a plastic's surface texture to patterns with various shapes and sizes, or smoothness, in a few milliseconds.
Read more: http://www.designnews.com
Keywords: Dynamic electrostatic lithography, Plastics

THE RISE OF BIO COMPOSITES
J. Fletcher, Composites Manufacturing, May/June 2012
Consumers are interested in eco-friendly products that reduce the impact of oil prices.  Organic composites are on the rise in terms of diversity and quantity; and innovators are incorporating a wide range of bio materials, such as crop waste, feathers, spider silk.
Read more: http://www.cmmagazineonline.org (Registration required)
Keywords: Bio composites, Bio materials

KAIKAKU: MANUFACTURING RE-IMAGINED
Alistair Munro, Manufacturing Engineering, May 2012
Kaikaku refers to "Radical Change." Beyond TPS and Kaizen, this method of attacking stagnation on the factory floor and overhauling production is needed for the next generation manufacturers to be competitive. While both Kaizen and Kaikaku can be applied to production, Kaikaku goes beyond production to break the existing paradigm to create a breakthrough using a new system or model.  Kaikaku has to be a "top down" change. In fact, just as Kaizen is fundamental to the Toyota Production System, Kaikaku is the fundamental concept to the little talked about (or understood) executive system used at Toyota.
Read more: http://www.sme.org
Keywords: Kaikaku, Radical change

MANAGING YOUR INNOVATION PORTFOLIO
B. Nagji and G. Tuff, Harvard Business Review, May 2012
People throughout your organizaiton are energetically pursuing the new.  But does all that activity add up to a strategy?  Everyone knows that the viability of a company depends on its ability to innovate.  Yet most companies have not yet learned to manage innovation strategically.  Learn how to manage for "total innovation."
Contact the ITC library to request this article.
Keywords: Innovation management

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS - TREAT THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SYMPTOM!
Bill Lydon, Automation.com, April 2012
The root cause is the problem that ultimately created the undesired outcome, and if eliminated or modified, would have prevented the undesired outcome. The fundamental principal of root cause analysis is to use symptoms as clues to find the source of a problem, which requires analysis and/or testing to determine if something is a symptom or problem.  Root cause analysis is used in a range of industries including aerospace, transportation, nuclear power, health care, chemical processing, pollution control, information technology and manufacturing.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/75gnjy7
Keywords: Root cause analysis

CAD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Heather Livingston, Cadalyst, June 7, 2012
Technologies that were considered optional when they were introduced — such as 3D design, BIM, geospatial information systems and mapping, and wireless printing — are now a critical part of today's integrated design processes.  The latest step in this evolution has been to take these tools on the road, enabling design files to be accessed, modified, and shared from virtually any location using a tablet or smartphone.  Welcome to the world of mobile CAD.
Read more: http://www.cadalyst.com
Keywords: Mobile CAD

VIRTUAL INJECTION MOLDING PART I : SIMULATION OFFERS MORE THAN FLOW ANALYSIS
Clare Goldsberry, Plastics Today, June 11, 2012
For moldmakers who wish they could simulate the molding process without having to build a prototype mold first, Sigmasoft software, designed for 3D injection molding process simulation, may be the answer. Using a completely 3D-approach and the integration of a highly developed thermal solver, the injection molding simulation software allows the calculation of multiple consecutive production cycles, considering the thermal interactions throughout all the components in the mold. The accuracy of the entire simulation is thus dramatically increased.
Read more: http://www.plasticstoday.com
Keywords: Virtual injection molding, Simulation

VIRTUAL INJECTION MOLDING PART II: BENEFITS OF MOLD-ANALYSIS SOFTWARE FOR MOLDMAKERS
Clare Goldsberry, Plastics Today, June 11, 2012
Most mold manufacturers do not use material flow analysis software as a part of the mold design process as a general rule. Yet, because the mold is such a critical part of the success or failure of the entire molding process, all available tools should be used.  Some OEMs will spend money to do an engineering change on the back end, however they won’t spend money to make it right on the front end.  How mold analysis helps moldmakers and what costs and decisions are involved in moving this direction are covered here.
Read more: http://www.plasticstoday.com
Keywords: Virtual injection molding, Mold analysis, Simulation

VIRTUAL INJECTION MOLDING PART III: USING SIMULATION SOFTWARE TO FIND THE PROCESSING WINDOW
Clare Goldsberry, Plastics Today, June 11, 2012
When moldmakers commit the mold to steel without any idea of the processing window it can create a big problem.   The tool maker builds a tool and the molder takes three months to find a process window.   However, there are software applications to do the mold design and process development prior to the mold build.
Read more: http://www.plasticstoday.com
Keywords: Virtual injection molding, Mold design, Process development, Simulation

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS GETS OPEN-SOURCE BOOST
Ann Thryft, DesignNews, May 2, 2012
The same development software that's enabling the Raven II open-source surgical robotic research platform has been tweaked to bring open-source development to industrial robots.  The ROS-Industrial project is now extending the Robot Operating System (ROS) platform to develop robust, reliable software that meets the needs of manufacturing and industrial applications. All ROS-Industrial software can be downloaded free of charge.  ROS-Industrial aims to standardize the interfaces to industrial robot arms. Its capabilities include path-planning and dynamic pick-and-place.
Read more: http://www.designnews.com
Keywords: Industrial robots, Open source software

MOBILE INDUSTRIAL WORKER
Peter Granger, Control Engineering, February 28, 2012
Control engineering, instrumentation technicians, plant managers, maintenance personnel, troubleshooters, design engineers, and all manner of factory worker are becoming mobile workers -- they are all using wireless devices to do their jobs.  Many reasons contribute to the greater use of mobility on plant floors and manufacturing operations, but the reality is that industry has no choice.  We are in the midst of the biggest shifts in workforce availability and this dramatic reduction in worker resources means more automation in factories wherever possible, greater access to expertise globally, and more responsive organizations employing truly mobile workforces.
Read more: http://www.controleng.com
Keywords: Mobile workforce

THREE STEPS TO GETTING THE MOST INTELLIGENCE VALUE FROM YOUR EXISTING ERP DATA
Matt Walker, Manufacturing Business Technology, April 30, 2012
As manufacturers pursue performance improvements in cost, quality and delivery, they often find that data collected from their ERP systems do not provide an effective level of manufacturing intelligence. Data age and access are typically the two main issues interfering with gaining the level of intelligence needed. Rather than migrating to a new ERP system, which can often be a long, complex and expensive task, leading manufacturers are re-evaluating existing systems with the perspective of supplementing existing data and batch processing cycles to maximize the intelligence value of what is already available.  Included here are three basic steps to help you get started.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/7jfkj3r
Keywords: ERP, Business intelligence

WHERE IS THE “PLANNING” IN ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)?
Linda Cade, Digital Manufacturing Report, May 11, 2012
How does ERP fit with all the other practices you have adopted, such as Lean, Just-in-time, Kanban, Integrated Business Planning?  An effective ERP system provides the integration across multiple functions within your business needed to establish the foundation for any of these methods.  An ERP system provides the ongoing business intelligence to drive the decisions that are the key to the success of the method.   Follow this breakdown to determine how the pieces fit together.
Read more: http://www.digitalmanufacturingreport.com
Keywords: Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

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