The new Yaskawa PL190 and PL320 robots expand the payload range of the PL mobile product line | Image credit – Yaskawa Yaskawa announces the availability of two new 4-axis palletizing robots that extend the range of payloads for the Yaskawa PL (palletizing) product line. The Yaskawa PL190 has a 190 kg payload capacity and…
ABB YuMi cobot helps Dutch manufacturer stay competitive
Collaborative robots can help small and mid-size enterprises stay competitive, providing the benefits of industrial automation but with greater ease of use, affordability, and flexibility. Dutch manufacturer DEONET is an example of how robots that work alongside people can boost quality and productivity. DEONET was founded 25 years ago and is based in the technology…
California Small Manufacturers See Increased Sales
Southern California small manufacturers reported an overall $243 million increase in sales in the previous year, as a result of implementing changes recommended through consulting services provided by the California Manufacturing Technology Consulting under the federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program. When including the sales impact due to needed beneficial improvements, an additional $377 million […]
Manufacturers Turn to IT to Beat Downturn
IT will be a key factor in the ability of manufacturing companies to cope with a downturn by enabling them to cut costs, build longer and more complex supply chains and respond faster to changing demand. Technology already underpins the move to offshore and demand-led production by making it possible for manufacturers to communicate with […]
Inc. Asks: Is Manufacturing Weighing Down the U.S. Economy?
Ever since Inc. started ranking the Best Cities for Doing Business in 2004, the bottom rung of the rankings has been largely dominated by older industrial cities where factories have long been abandoned and once booming economies have dried up. The 2008 list bears this sobering fact: among the largest regions surveyed, Detroit sits on […]
Manufacturers Take Note: Tax Deductions Going Green
High energy costs, an unprecedented level of government mandates for green building, heightened demand for green construction, and improvements and better pricing for environmentally sustainable materials have many building owners, architects, and facility managers considering significant updates to save cash. Sec. 179D of the IRS Code provides a significant deduction for the cost of energy-efficient […]
German Industry Tools Up to Face Global Slowdown
Falling orders, a strong euro, and high oil prices have put Germany’s manufacturers in a tight spot, but they are responding to the challenge and are better placed to handle the global slowdown than their euro zone peers. The recent news flow from the manufacturing sector has made for grim reading: orders fell for the […]
Minority of Manufacturing Companies See Their Business as Thriving
Economic concerns driven by accelerating inflation in energy and commodity costs have drastically eroded confidence in most manufacturing and wholesale distribution segments in the U.S., according to the RSM McGladrey 2008 Manufacturing and Wholesale Distribution (MWD) National Survey. Overall, business conditions for most industries responding to the survey have eroded since 2006. Only […]
EASTEC 2008 Brings Together Manufacturing’s Generations
EASTEC 2008, the East Coast’s largest annual manufacturing event, recently brought together generation “now” and “next” of manufacturing buyers and practitioners. Held in West Springfield, Mass., this Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ event attracted some 14,000 decision makers representing a variety of industries. While years and experience may separate these generations, the technology presented at EASTEC […]
NanoGram’s Solar Cell Manufacturing Process Wins DOE Award
A laser-based silicon-deposition technique developed by NanoGram Corporation (Milpitas, CA) for solar cell manufacturing has won an Energy Innovator Award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The process reduces solar cell cost to the level of thin-film photovoltaics while delivering high efficiency, according to NanoGram. Making crystalline silicon […]
Discovery May Lead to Faster, More Powerful Processors
Researchers at Princeton Universityreported that they have found a way to literally melt away miniscule defects in computer chips, a discovery that could help manufacturers build more powerful processors. As chips get smaller and smaller, tiny defects in shapes, lines and dots that are etched into them can ruin performance. By getting rid of the […]