Design World articles

At last month’s NFPA International Economic Outlook Conference, John Manzella, of the Manzella Report, spoke on “Labor, International Trade, and What’s Ahead,” an insightful talk to the 200-ish attendees, many of whom were manufacturing executives in the fluid power realm. Manzella had few kind words for politicians on either side of the aisle, and I…

At the National Fluid Power’s annual International Economic Outlook Conference, Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics spoke on “U.S. & Global Macro Trends and Impacts,” and the overall outlook is positive for the manufacturing world. In examining the U.S. economic leading trends, it seems clear that there will be a slowing ascent in the next calendar…

After a full 15 months of being homebound, it was exciting — and a little daunting — to take my first business trip since the COVID-19 pandemic began. But it was great to see other fully vaccinated people meeting and networking at the NAHAD Annual Convention in Scottsdale, and wonderful to feel even a little…

By Leslie Langnau Early in the 3D printing industry, there were efforts to take wood byproducts and use that material to make parts. These early efforts were interesting for the novelty. Today, however, there’s a more serious effort to turn wood into a usable 3D printable material. Desktop Metal launched Forust, a process to sustainably…

As we move through our careers, it’s often interesting to watch the trajectory of our peers and compare their paths to our own. In many companies, there’s a natural corporate ladder we all climb, sometimes in stops and starts, depending on the overall structure. But we’ve all seen coworkers who rise faster, deftly navigate past…

When it comes to sustainability, plastics have a bad reputation among many consumers. “The problem here lies less in the explicit use thereof, for plastic has a number of positive material properties. It’s not just unbreakable and flexible, for instance, but also effectively protects the packaged item from various damaging factors,” said Martin Thyssen, packaging…

By Chris Noble, Business Development F&B/IIoT Consultant Emerson Automation Solutions Today’s packaging machines are becoming better equipped with sophisticated automation systems that often include some type of pneumatics technology for actuation, filling, positioning, palletizing, depalletizing, etc. However, the digitalization and IoT benefits that can be realized from modern pneumatic systems are often overlooked. The packaging…

The news has been filled with cyberattacks on a number of companies’ networking systems, several of which are critical to the U.S. economy. As the IoT, IIoT, Industry 4.0, and similar networks inch forward, recent digital events on networking held sessions on how to secure the transmission of data. One of those sessions was at…

Pneumatic solenoid valves make it possible to remotely operate and automate equipment, with a range of product and technology options available for upgrading designs. By Kevin Kakascik and Pat Phillips, AutomationDirect Pneumatic systems provide one of the essential methods designers can employ to create motion and force for equipment and manufacturing systems. These systems are…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com I once worked for a company whose business was a mix of publications and trade shows. The trade shows made a lot of money. The publications were profitable, but not nearly as much as the shows. That made those of us writing for the company’s magazines…

Public health concerns have put a new emphasis on contactless credentials. The blossoming variety of reader formats complicates the task of reading and verifying IDs. Kiran Vasishta • ELATEC, Inc. Contactless credentials can be divided into two categories: soft credentials that include mobile phone apps transmitting data via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) or NFC (Near…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler There once was a lot of hand-wringing in the U.S. technical community about the number of engineering students who never practice engineering once they graduate. Much of this angst was directed at engineers who went into Wall Street finance jobs where the…

Linear position sensing is a specific and common industrial automation need — with many options for solving application challenges. By Andrew Waugh, AutomationDirect Industrial equipment and machinery usually involve a good amount of rotating and actuating parts. Effective automation of these elements calls for sensors to reliably detect the position of actuators and associated mechanisms.…

Here’s a novel way to create more environmentally friendly manufacturing facilities across the world: remanufacturing robots. This practice, being instituted by manufacturer ABB, enables existing robot users to sell inactive or legacy robots with an attractive buy back service, rather than scrapping them or leaving them unused in a corner of the factory. Over the…

Leading industrial companies from the automotive, pharmaceutical and food industries have clear CO2 targets for their products. These require machine builders to make significant energy savings in new machine generations compared with previous machines. Festo’s energy efficiency module MSE6-C2M offers a smart solution for the compressed air system market. When it comes to condition monitoring…

While this is an opinion column, I generally stay away from things of a political nature. Instead, here I mostly focus on engineering, manufacturing and management topics. But the social upheaval and protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have surely caused many of us to think about these issues in our…

Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler A study by the nonpartisan think tank Pew Research Center made headlines recently when it concluded that almost 90% of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the state of the country. Before we get too discouraged over current events, it might be good to consider…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com On Twitter @ DW_LeeTeschler Ever heard of the K890 sub-machine gun? A a prototype came out during the 1950s, but there were hardly any made. The reason was its awkwardly shaped stock which made the gun difficult to shoot accurately. It also had a weirdly short…

Recently, while listening to the excellent Freakonomics Podcast, one of the guests provided some great insight into our current situation. Marshall Burke, an Associate Professor at Stanford University explained that many times it takes an outside event to force society to move in directions that it had been technologically ready for, but not psychologically ready…

Reduced effort, high value for automating hydraulic systems By: Theobald Herrmann Product Management / Hydraulic Valves, Bosch Rexroth AG The introduction of fieldbus technology in the 1980s was the starting point for horizontal connection of decentralized actuators within machinery. Serial wiring lead to a considerable reduction in cabling and opened new possibilities for modularization in…

I’d like to offer some positive news in the midst of the dire outlook that’s been the regular diet of late on news stations. Last week, we asked renowned economist Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics to provide our readers and advertisers with a 90-minute webinar looking at what the COVID-19 crisis realistically means for the…

One of the things that’s most enjoyable about covering the design engineering space is seeing, on a continual basis, the amount of new technology being used in so many industries, from the component to the system level. But it’s important to realize that much of what feeds that pipeline of new tech is the invention…

Teschler on Topic Leland Teschler • Executive Editor lteschler@wtwhmedia.com Here’s a quick way to make yourself unpopular and bruise egos among researchers in your field: Check the statistics in their research findings for errors. It turns out that researchers in many fields aren’t particularly good statisticians. So when they apply statistical tools to data they’ve…

Today, carbon dioxide levels are at an all-time high — with CO2 being the primary contributing gas to GHG emissions-caused climate change. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that global warming will reach 1.5° C by 2040 and, in order to avoid dangerous climate change, we need to limit it to…

Engineering students at Stanford are well acquainted with the ME310 course. This year-long design course, now in its 53rd year, is built around problem-based learning. Students work in small teams, focusing on actual engineering problems presented by outside companies that partner with Stanford. The history and evolution of this infamous class are chronicled in the…