Hack the Crisis: Engineering through COVID-19

In 2020 COVID-19 devastated the global manufacturing industry, including Taiwan’s smart machinery industry. The original goal of reaching US$68 billion in output value by 2025 may not be met. In response to the pandemic, Taiwan quickly formed a national mask production team. Machine tool manufacturers took the initiative to assist in the production and assembly…

Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. And so has been the case since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although much of the focus on product development and innovation since the pandemic began has been centered around treatment and critical care technologies such as ventilators, some of these pandemic-inspired inventions are […]

Trinamic Motion Control GmbH & Co. KG, now part of Maxim Integrated, today announced the TMC4671+TMC6100-TOSV-REF design board, a BLDC servo driver capable of 12V to 36V with up to 6A RMS to accommodate medical ventilator and respiratory system design. To shorten design cycles, the open-source module features a session border controller (SBC) connector in…

igus, a German manufacturer of high-tech, low-cost, and sustainably engineered plastics, has announced its plans to donate more than 220,000 face shields to schools in Rhode Island and Florida to help protect students and staff in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. igus’ North American headquarters are in Providence, R.I. Frank Blase, the Chief Executive…

Registration is now open for the PTDA Virtual Industry Summit to be held October 21-23, 2020. The Virtual Industry Summit will provide the high-quality networking and education experience PTDA members have come to expect at the live event. In addition, this year, the Virtual Industry Summit is open to distributors and manufacturers in the power […]

Trimantec, a manufacturer located in Winston Salem, N.C., has recently released a line of personal protective equipment (PPE) products. In response to COVID-19, masks have made a societal shift and will continue to change the way we interact in public and in the workplace. Mask extenders and sneeze guards are two popular products being sold…

Festo and Fraunhofer IPA were awarded one of the three top category honors recently in Munich during the Give a Breath Challenge award ceremony. The two companies developed the Virus Fighters Handbook, an information delivery app for field hospitals, where newly designed emergency ventilators and other new emergency devices are being set up, operated, and…

The metal additive manufacturing market will be negatively impacted by the 2020 pandemic. Despite this short-to-mid-term setback, the industry is forecast to rise and exceed $10Bn within the next 10-years. The emerging and established printer players grab nearly all of the headlines, but most of this forecast annual revenue will be in material sales in […]

With the ongoing impact of Covid-19, its re-emergence in many regions and travel significantly affecting many companies, changes in some normal activities must be considered. According to Roger Grace, President of Roger Grace Associates, a MEMS and sensors industry marketing consultancy, marketers need to consider “pivoting” their marketing strategies and need to objectively assess what […]

As the COVID-19 pandemic rips through much of the world this year, 3D printing has emerged as an agile and effective technology for producing personal protective equipment, medical equipment prototypes and nose swabs. But GM, which has been steadily upping its investments in 3D printing over the past couple years, is betting that the business […]

In addition to wearing a mask and frequently washing your hands, social distancing provides the third leg of the COVID-19 prevention stool. Unlike in public settings, private companies have their own interest to ensure their employees and other customers are safe and social distancing is an undisputed deterrent for the virus. In fact, recent research […]

RS Components (RS) is providing ongoing support for makers, manufacturers and engineers around the world eager to support the fight against COVID-19 through building and supplying ventilators. Ventilators are highly complex electromechanical devices, requiring specialized design schemes and quality electronic and mechanical components. RS has collated four supplier solutions from Maxim, Microchip, STMicroelectronics and Renesas,…

The Jersey City Rapid Maker Response Group (JCRMRG) hosted a nationwide virtual health hackathon from July 10-13, to tackle supply chain, sustainability, and wearability challenges related to personal protective equipment (PPE).  The competition featured 100 hackers from across the world, including countries such as Mexico, Nepal, and India.  Hackers also ranged in experience from high-school-aged participants to professional […]

A dozen Boston area anesthesiology residents launched an eight-week hackathon hosted on GrabCAD.com to design a rapidly deployable, minimum viable mechanical ventilator for patients with COVID-19-related ventilator-dependent lung injury. The CoVent-19 Challenge was open to teams and individuals anywhere, and finalists worked directly with Stratasys 3D printing experts and the CoVent-19 Challenge team to turn […]

Printing equipment is increasingly open – allowing materials from diverse suppliers to be used on more additive manufacturing machines. The FDA is working with manufacturers, service bureaus and material suppliers on best practices. With strong support from all corners of the industry, healthcare device designers are gaining new resources that can expand additive manufacturing’s horizons […]

Hundreds of senior decision-makers in healthcare, robotics, and other industries report damaging COVID-19 impact, focus on digital transformation, and emphasis on building supply chain resilience through agility. The global manufacturing and supply chain ecosystems have been among the hardest-hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fictiv’s newly released 2020 State of Manufacturing Report reveals industry leaders […]

Have an idea for a better surgical face mask? Consider teaming up with a youngster to enter the latest XPrize invention competition: A design for a surgical face mask to protect against COVID-19 that doesn’t suffer from the drawbacks of existing masks. Organizers say resistance to wearing face masks stems from their numerous downsides. An…

HP Inc. announced the deployment of HP D300e BioPrinters, associated supply cassettes, and training, free of charge, to research laboratories in the U.S. and Europe to help accelerate drug and vaccine research to combat COVID-19. “Each of us has a role to play to combat this pandemic, and HP and the HP Foundation have donated…

Bosch Rexroth’s latest offering of personal protective devices, made from modular aluminum structural framing, helps protect patients, customers and employees who may be in close proximity with one another. Ideal for factories, medical facilities, retail locations and other operations, Rexroth protective devices can be used in virtually any business application to create a physical separation…

Sciaky, Inc., a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries, Inc. (PSI) and supplier of electron beam (EB) welding and metal additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, announced that demand for its Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) and EB welding solutions, has not been adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two months, Sciaky has reported […]

“The global markets will continue to need high-quality electric motors and fans in the future,” said Ziehl-Abegg SE’s CEO Peter Fenkl. That’s why the Künzelsau-based company is now investing $18 million (16 million euros) in the expansion of its production buildings at the Kupferzell site. “The new construction project is a clear commitment to Baden-Württemberg…

The ventilator has come to the fore as a vital piece of equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Put simply, ventilators exist to help patients who can’t breathe, breathe. The novel coronavirus’ attack on the respiratory system brought ventilators into the spotlight, forcing the U.S. to turn to its strategic national stockpile as manufacturers scrambled to…

CERATIZIT USA has joined forces with several companies to make ventilators. The company’s experience in the carbide production process allows special-purpose tools to be developed for user-specific applications. Staub Precision Machine recently chose CERATIZIT reamers to perform a finishing operation of high-precision holes to size. The reamer was a solid carbide PCD tipped (polycrystalline diamond)…

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, industrial transformation continues unabated. The mega topics of digitalization, individualization, climate protection, and demographic change will be the focus of the Hannover Messe Digital Days. This new two-day digital event provides an overview of current developments in the fields of industry, energy and logistics and provides orientation for the time during…

The Beckhoff Automation headquarters in Verl, Germany, and its regional production facilities remain completely operational despite a COVID-19 outbreak in the Gütersloh district. Local authorities instituted a regional lockdown until June 30 after 1,600 employees at Germany’s leading meat production plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück tested positive for coronavirus. “We would like to report to our customers,…