Industry News for 05/2023

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, allows Seco Tools to create products that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to manufacture. The advantages include shorter lead times, improved tool life and increased sustainability.

The tool manufacturing industry is embracing automation solutions at an unprecedented pace. This is a worldwide trend driven by several factors, and manufacturers need to be more flexible and responsive than ever before.

The automotive industry has the largest number of robots working in factories around the world. Operational stock has hit a record of about 1 million units.

Safety managers take on the hefty responsibility of keeping employees safe. Here are five tips to make the job easier.

PVI Esskå in Landeryd, Sweden, manufactures chassis and body parts for trucks and uses hydraulic presses supplied and installed by AP&T. In summer 2022, AP&T upgraded and future-proofed one of the company’s press lines by rebuilding the control systems and installing new automation equipment. The investment reduced the line's cycle times by about 50% and increased production capacity by about 500 hours a year.

“Accelerate Success” was the theme of this year’s Zoller Open House & Technology Days, which took place May 9-11 at Zoller Inc.’s headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Presented here are highlights from the May 10 agenda.

Aerospace and defense giant Leonardo — tasked by the Ministry of Defense to provide AgustaWestland AW101s for the British Royal Navy — found that its pre-existing main rotor blade restraint cradles were not living up to its standards. Additive manufacturing may have provided a solution.

In metal additive manufacturing, post-processing of parts introduces time and financial constraints to the overall cost per part that can negate the benefits of AM altogether. How can you transition to automated support removal (and finishing) solutions, and what are the advantages of CNC systems?

CNC time is expensive, and engineers always look to decrease machining time to improve productivity. Today’s operations managers need more skilled help and are strategizing to reduce cycle time, automate more processes and be more productive. 

For customers looking to embrace the possibilities that exist through the micromolding of parts or components, there is a given. They need to understand what micromolding can do in terms of stimulation of innovation, what it can deliver in terms of manufacturing efficiency and what — above all — it can do to achieve increased functionality in parts that are often required to be smaller and smaller.