Adding a new page to its high-performance, additive manufacturing playbook, Stratasys today inked an agreement with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, which competes in the NTT IndyCar Series. The team is leveraging Stratasys’ Fortus 450mc 3D Printer—capable of printing carbon fiber-reinforced FDM Nylon 12—and F370 3D Printer as part of its manufacturing process. The Fortus 450mc 3D Printer offers FDM Nylon 12 Carbon Fiber and ASA materials. This technology is aimed at creating functional prototypes, product components, and rugged tooling that match demands for strength and stiffness of carbon-filled composite material. “Competitive racing is the ideal test track to demonstrate the…
Robots are slowly working their way into a variety of applications, from moving goods in warehouses to delivering packages. An increasing shortage of healthcare workers is also prompting the use of caregiving robots. Right now, these robots are limited to activities like asking questions and monitoring patient safety. They aren’t designed to provide the type of hands-on care a nurse would. That may change, thanks to the development of 3D-printed “soft” robotics systems at Purdue. “Unfortunately, the external hard structure of current caregiving robots prevents them from a safe human-robot interaction, limiting their assistance to mere social interaction and not…
Siemens introduced the PAVE360 pre-silicon autonomous validation environment—a program established to enable and accelerate the development of innovative autonomous vehicle platforms. PAVE360 provides a comprehensive environment for multi-supplier collaboration across the automotive ecosystem for the development of next-generation automotive chips. PAVE360 also extends digital twin simulation beyond processors to include automotive hardware and software sub-systems, full vehicle models, fusion of sensor data, traffic flows and even the simulation of smart cities through which self-driving cars will ultimately travel. “PAVE360 represents the first output of an innovation process born from the combination of Mentor and Siemens employees, ideas, and technologies two…
Moxa Inc. is helping companies more easily connect their serial devices to cloud systems for IIoT applications by offering Moxa NPort IA(W)5000A-I/O Series wired or wireless serial device servers and MGate 5105-MB-EIP Series protocol gateways with ready-to-run cloud connectivity capabilities. Moxa's integrated connectivity solutions can collect multiple different field data structures, including serial, I/O, Modbus and EtherNet/IP, transforming IIoT manufacturing operations by uncovering insights. Powered by the MQTT messaging protocol, data is then transmitted securely to Microsoft Azure or other publicly and privately hosted cloud services, so that companies can analyze it to spur innovation and accelerate their IIoT strategies.…
Protolabs is celebrating its 20-year anniversary with the grand opening of its advanced manufacturing facility in Brooklyn Park, MN. The 215,000- sq.-ft. CNC machining facility, which currently houses nearly 300 mills and lathes, is Protolabs’ eighth manufacturing plant in the United States, and 12th globally. The new facility is the centerpiece of Protolabs’ 20th anniversary—a milestone the company reached in May. Founded in 1999, Protolabs has seen aggressive growth over the past two decades due to its manufacturing model that couples digital front-end part analysis with automated toolpathing to produce custom machined components in as fast as 24 hours. “We…
The Motion Research Group at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Automotive Research (WatCAR) has been contributing to the body of research around autonomous vehicles by working on a project related to self-driving vehicles, led by Professors Krzysztof Czarnecki and Steven Waslander. The project, known as Autonomoose, is an autonomous drive-by-wire vehicle project that operates within WatCAR. Its objectives include improved self-driving in extreme weather conditions and during emergency maneuvers to avoid obstacles. “Our team has many researchers working on autonomous cars and we wanted a real-world vehicle platform on which to test new research theories and algorithms,” Czarnecki says.…
Report from IoT World 2019 With attendees estimated at 12,500, IoT World 2019 took place in Santa Clara, California—the heart of the Silicon Valley. Many keynote presentations revolve around upcoming 5G connection. Some speakers express concerns that the U.S. is not doing enough to adopt and implement 5G, losing an edge in the global tech competition. Others point out 5G's disruptive potentials in autonomous vehicle development. The data-driven IoT products may also lead to consumers expecting product makers to anticipate their preferences and behaviors. One-Click VR from Luxion KeyShot Luxion has just released KeyShot VR, described as the one-click VR…
RightHand Robotics, a leader in integrated robotic piece-picking solutions, has announced its first put wall integration with Capacity LLC, a leading provider of technology-driven order fulfillment and e-commerce solutions. RightHand’s newest RightPick product platform will be integrated with existing warehouse material handling systems from Lightning Pick, a provider of light-directed and advanced order fulfillment systems. RightPick is an autonomous robotic piece-picking platform that handles the core task of picking and placing individual items as part of a wide range of workflows and processes in warehouse fulfillment operations. Initially released to support AS/RS tending and sorter induction, RightPick’s put wall offering…
As robots, automated equipment, artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies continue to make their way into the world’s warehouses and DCs, the number of companies using them is also proliferating. Driven by the need to manage high-velocity operations with limited labor resources while meeting the ever-changing needs of their customers, more companies are looking to automation to help them solve their most pressing fulfillment problems. Modern’s 2019 “Usage and Implementation of Warehouse and DC Automation Solutions” survey more than proves this point and paints a picture of a distribution landscape that’s ripe for innovation. Conducted by Peerless Research Group…
HP unveils a series of partnerships and innovations to complement its new Multi Jet Fusion 5200 3D printer. Together the new partnerships and products make the 5200 the center of a volume printing solution for production 3D manufacturing. The printing system counts BASF, Materialise and Siemens as strategic partners, creating what HP calls “a new global community of proven large-scale 3D printed parts providers.” The printer is the latest refinement of HP’s work in Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) printing technology, which prints on a line-by-line basis. HP says the method is inspired by its long history of 2D wide format…
The RIA R15.06 Standards Committee has finalized Technical Report (TR) R15.806-2018 to address the test methods and metrics for measuring pressure and force associated with quasi-static and transient contact events of collaborative applications. A collaborative robot, or cobot, is a type of robot intended to physically interact with humans in a shared workspace. Collaborative robots are experiencing rapid market growth. According to Markets and Markets research, the collaborative robots market is expected to reach a value of $4.28 billion by 2023, growing at an astounding 56.94% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). As new automation technologies emerge, the committee found, new…
Sintavia, LLC, has officially opened the new 55,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility, located in Hollywood, FL. The new plant, which also serves as the company’s headquarters, celebrated its grand opening on May 9 at an event with over 150 customers, industry partners and government officials. “This new facility is the first of its kind in North America to offer large-scale AM production coupled with a robust aerospace quality management system,” says Brian Neff, Sintavia’s chairman and chief executive officer. “As we grow, it will serve as a template for future vertically-aligned advanced manufacturing facilities around the U.S. and the world.” Sintavia’s…
