I’ve had quite a month, again, covering clever software and gadgets that continue to inch their way into performing tasks once reserved for humans. These tasks range from mundane material handling to highly skilled engineering design. It has made me think quite a bit about how our world

Power- and force-limited robots can be easier to deploy, thanks in part to new controllers Have collaborative, six-axis robots reached a tipping point in establishing their niche in manufacturing? And could they be opening doors for manufacturers to adopt automation overall? “We&rsquo

In the early days at CNC Software, we saw that our Mastercam CAD/CAM system was only part of a larger manufacturing solution and that an open architecture foundation could allow seamless data communication with complementary devices and systems across the shop floor. Open architecture, along w

Manufacturing Engineering: Tell us about 3D Systems’ release of the new 3DXpert for Solidworks. Roy Sterenthal: 3DXpert for Solidworks is a complementary software solution for Solidworks, providing professional users, designers and engineers with a complete toolset to prepare and optimiz

Spend enough time on shop floors and you’ll learn about the two different groups of skilled workers that reside there. On one side are the old-school machinists—skilled craftspeople who use their hands, eyes and ears to guide machine tools. On the other side are the programmers and

Ongoing exchange between CAD/CAM software technology developers and cutting tool manufacturers is an excellent illustration of how technology collaborations can create productivity gains in manufacturing. Several examples involve our company and cutting tool manufacturers. Comprehensive traini

With the latest CAD/CAM and CAE software, moldmakers can greatly speed up design and compress the manufacturing cycle for high-quality molds and die Moldmakers are under constant pressure to speed up the moldmaking process, improving their processes and product quality while boosting productiv

New shop-floor data collection and analysis tools can ease the strain of digitizing factory operations in the IoT age As the move toward a more connected manufacturing industry gains momentum and manufacturers start collecting factory-floor data, the need for fast, efficient data analysis beco

If left on their own, material handling assets will slowly degrade and eventually fail, often at the most inopportune moment. But with a little planning, you can not only extend their useful life, you can also optimize performance. Automation assets typically evolve through four distinct stage

Manufacturing Engineering: Tell us about ECi Software; what types of software does your company develop? David Christensen: ECi services a multitude of industries, but we presently have four products that service manufacturing and what FABTECH attendees would be focused on: these include Ma

BOSTON, MA, January 31, 2018 – Anaqua, Inc., a leading provider of Intellectual Property (IP) management, today announced that Diebold Nixdorf has selected the ANAQUA platform to manage its global IP portfolio from its operations in the U.S. and Germany. Diebold Nixdorf, a financial self

New technologies—including machine learning, mobile apps and advanced analytics—help manufacturers keep tabs on fast-paced factory-floor operations Manufacturing operations depend on getting the right information at precisely the right moment, ensuring that products get built on ti

My original intention for this column was to discuss a phrase getting a lot of buzz lately, artificial intelligence (AI). By any measure, interest in AI is expanding exponentially, both in the number of articles one can read on the subject and, according to Google Trends, the number of searche

Aerospace and defense manufacturing is known for its complex designs, continual changes and the need to negotiate tight margin requirements. At Elite Aviation Products (EAP), a division of Elite Aerospace Group (Irvine, CA), we face these challenges every day. Meeting customer requirements and

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC; Urbana, IL) has a long, distinguished history and tradition in mechanical and applied engineering sciences, and the university will soon celebrate the opening of a long-planned, multi-million-dollar expansion to its Mechanical Science and E

Manufacturing Engineering: What’s new in your latest Mastercam CAD/CAM software?Ben Mund: We just opened up our public beta for Mastercam 2019. We started broad public beta releases several years ago and they’ve been a huge factor in moving the software forward. We get

At the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) in Chicago on March 27, Siemens demonstrated its approach to the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” At its annual U.S. Innovation Day, Siemens demonstrated real-world applications of digital solutions that it says wi

Manufacturing Engineering: Data mining and Big Data are hot topics. Your company develops process mining software; how does it differ from data mining? Alex Rinke: Data mining has traditionally been KPI [key performance indicator] oriented, focused on identifying patterns to predict future

Products from three additional tool companies—M.A. Ford, Dapra, and RedLine Tools—are now available on MachiningCloud. More than 4,600 cutting tools items from M.A. Ford (Davenport, IA) are listed on MachiningCloud (Camarillo, CA), with more to come.  M.A. Ford manufactures

With the right cloud-based security tools, manufacturers can lock down and seal off factory-floor equipment from would-be hackers Cybersecurity horror stories abound, enough to give manufacturing data security chiefs frequent nightmares. As if tales of Stuxnet and the “Wanna Cry” r