Industry News

Virtual-reality glasses are everywhere, with the likes of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Playstation VR grabbing headlines as the future of video gaming. While the expense of headsets and lack of VR content is hampering their popularity among consumers, industry is realizing the potential of VR for training simulation. VR adds 360-degree video, but also a real-life, hands-on ...

Nanomaterials possess specific properties at the nanometer length scale, roughly 1 to 100 nm, explains Mark T. Swihart, executive director of New York State Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics. These could be colloids or powders of individual particles in that size range, but could also be larger materials with pores or other key property-determining feature...

Malfunctions due to deficient lubrication cause $240 billion in damage in the U.S. every year, and the resource waste resulting from excess friction exceeds 6% of GDP. High-performance lubricants are now being produced. But best practices also include reducing lubrication or even eliminating the need for it altogether. Oil-Free Air Atlas Copco has pioneered the devel...

It’s super thin, super sensitive and super strong, but does the super-conductive material called graphene have a so-called killer app? Graphene is created by isolating an atom-thick layer of graphite. After years in the labs, materials scientists are now creating prototypes for real-world products. Graphene could prove the miracle behind some of the 21st century’s most i...

The Lifeblood of the Airplane Dave Nickson co-founded U.K.-based Sil-Mid, which stocks a wide range of lubricants from manufacturers including Shell Aviation and Henkel Bonderite. He explains that the safe operation of the aircraft depends on lubricants that respond to the higher standards. An example of this is the aircraft’s wheel bearing grease. For several hours ...

High demands are made on sensors, particularly in the area of mobile hydraulic applications. There is a growing demand for precise measuring processes in the area of mobile hydraulics, given that a reliable and safe positioning of vehicle support legs is essential for the safety of the persons and equipment involved. The MH60 was developed, to ensure a reliable measuring...

It not only received great attention, but also the Bauma innovation award in the Design category. DirectIndustry e-magazine talked to Johannes-Jörg Rüger, president of Bosch’s newly established Commercial Vehicle & Off-Road Unit. DirectIndustry e-magazine: The Genius Cab is an innovative operator’s cab for construction machinery. What are its unique features? ...

The procedure involves melting together different materials (powdered titanium and aluminum, for example) on a substrate to form a single part. It is when the part cools down that this innovation gets interesting. Differential cooling of the layers causes the part to bend or curve in a particular way. These introduced internal stresses result in parts that are stronge...

More productive and efficient, safer and less environmentally damaging. Those are the four elements driving transformation of the mining industry through the introduction of new technology. Greg Smith is a General Manager at Hitachi Construction Machinery: Smart mining is simply a terminology used to define product developments and mining process improvements that foc...

The platform can resist extreme conditions—ice, corrosion, humidity—and offers 90 days of autonomous operation in case of bad weather. This infographic presents some of the major construction advantages that make this gigantic platform—its upper deck is as big as two football fields !—able to extract oil in the ice of the Arctic. Mouse over on the hotspot icons to kno...

Cooperation on safety issues transcends competition, says Chris Hawkes, safety director of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP). As is true of any industrial process, finding, producing, transporting and refining the oil and gas so essential to the global economy are all potentially hazardous activities. When major events occur, such as Macond...

The company has embedded OPC UA in the latest version of its CPX automation platform. As Festo Product Manager Sebastian Schnaitmann explained to DirectIndustry e-magazine: Imagine you are a machine builder willing to address very different customers working from different locations. Through OPC UA, you’ll be able to share information with all of them, without need...

pi4_robotics GmbH, which manufactures machine vision systems, automatic inspection systems and robots, designed a cobot that can operate in varied settings, carrying out production operations, as well as inspections and machine loading and unloading. It has long arms, a high load capacity and rotates at the waist. It can autonomously supply parts and correct errors, a...

In theory, graphene can do almost anything. It’s the first truly two-dimensional crystal and the thinnest, strongest and lightest material known. Its other properties also give it the potential to change the digital world. Kevin Curran is a senior member at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The importance of graphene is that electrons can t...

CNC Vision Measuring Machine CV series are automated type non-contact optical measurement device, it is with beautiful and generous structure. Combined with our CNC metrology software, the inspect device can achieve batch measurement with high efficiency.

At Hannover Messe, Swedish telecom and IT giant Ericsson launched its new IoT Accelerator program to facilitate such projects. Targeting public safety, utilities, transport and smart cities, it makes it possible to outsource and evaluate almost every IoT element, from platform to application and income generation. As an example, customers will be able to test an appli...

Henry Ford was always interested in using sustainable materials in his cars. In the 1940s, the prototype “soybean car” used soy-based plastic panels over a metal framework. Seventy years later, Ford is still involved with green materials. The average Ford vehicle includes between 10 and 20 kilos of renewables, depending on vehicle class. Around 300 parts used throughout ...

The end-game is maximum efficiency and the complete automation of business decisions. First Steps: Data Monitoring PdM is designed to avoid unplanned downtime and accidents, reduce unseen damage, wear, engine failure and emergency repairs, and make parts replacement merely a matter of scheduling. At its core, PdM systems can be very simple, says Mobeen Khan from AT&T...

The nanotechnology team at the Deakin Institute for Frontier Materials has been working on boron nitride nanomaterials for two decades and says the new material, which absorbs oil like a sponge, is ready for trials by the oil and gas industry. By 2013, the team had developed a powder with absorption capabilities but had to find a way to bind it into a sponge to soak o...

Pizzato Elettrica presents the new NS series safety switches with solenoid and RFID technology. The new NS series combines all the knowledge and innovations developed by Pizzato Elettrica for more than thirty years of experience in industrial safety. It is today's spearhead of this field. The NS series switches have a technopolymer body and are suitable for medium/li...

Jaime Lloret from UPV’s Research Institute for Integrated Management of Coastal Areas, says chemical pollutants require different cleanup techniques. But the most important factor for minimizing damage to the natural environment, human health and the economy is speed of detection. This is particularly important in the case of oil spills. The smart system is able to de...

Creaform, a worldwide leader in portable and highly accurate 3D measurement solutions and engineering services, announced today that its portable optical CMM solution and 3D scanners, which include the MetraSCAN 3D, C-Track and HandyPROBE Next, won Bronze during the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), a premier international design competition held each year b...

The Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces at the Polytechnic Institute of Lausanne (Switzerland) has designed stretchable biphasic conductors that can be drawn out a million times until four times their length without losing their conductive properties. This quality resides in their constituent elastic material, a partly-liquid thin metal film (<1µ thick). Compose...

The efforts of Hinowa’s research and development team still makes it the preferred platform for hire companies across Europe. It offers greater performance but it is also more compact compared to the previous models: the stabilization area is reduced by 8% thus measuring 2.8x2.8 metres. Overall dimensions in running conditions are also drastically reduced: without the ...

The Saarland Waste Disposal Association significantly increased its plant intake pump station availability by exchanging existing impeller channel pumps for pumps with patented vortex hydraulics. Results of a long-term test (12 years). Problems with blockages and wear prompted the Saarland Waste Disposal Association, which runs the wastewater treatment plants at Dagst...

Last year GE Intelligent Platforms Software announced a new production optimization project to connect BP oil wells around the world to the industrial internet. GE’s data management software would give field engineers real-time access to common machine and operational data across all wells, information that could improve efficiency, prevent failures and minimize downtime...

But accessing ultra deep-water reserves necessitates advanced technologies designed for extreme conditions. This interactive infographic presents some of the latest technologies for subsea facilities.

Drones get bad press. They’re often seen only as weapons of war or as a potential danger to aircraft. However, they are emerging as an important tool for better and safer inspections in the oil and gas industry, both on and offshore. Checking Pipelines with Cameras and Sensors Drones can check pipelines, infrastructure, transmission lines and entire facilities for ...

The E2 MA series joystick is a new product by Pizzato Elettrica, part of the EROUND line of control and signaling devices. Unlike the other products on the market, the main innovation of the E2 MA joystick is the combination in a single device of all the features that are normally found in various products. Available in two different heights, standard (55 mm) and r...

With the challenges of finite resources and waste disposal, packaging producers have to respond to pressure for sustainable answers. As the European Commission proposes increases of 80% in the recycling of packaging waste by 2030 and society looks towards greener living, so packaging producers are focusing hard on finding sustainable raw materials, achieving energy-e...

The BagTray was developed by McDonald’s Hungary and advertising agency DDB Budapest in a bid to find a solution that could act as both a food carrier and a tray. At first glance, it looks much like the standard large paper bag given to customers by McDonald’s staff around the world. The new bag, however, contains a built-in cardboard tray. At their destination, cus...

Gütersloh / Germany Schmedthenke Werkzeugbau ordered a second Droop+Rein milling machine with overhead gantry (Droop+Rein FOGS) from Starrag Technology GmbH, which began operation at the same time as the other FOG machine shut down for retrofitting. In Gütersloh, the success of a secondhand Droop+Rein FOG 2500 has paid off. In 2017, the machine underwent another retr...

An Intuitive HMI Technology Plant In Scharnhausen, southeast of Stuttgart, pneumatic and electronic automation company Festo has invested €70M in expanding and renovating their oldest factory, creating a new plant on the cutting edge of automation technology. Festo spokeswoman, Annette Ostertag: It is now our leading plant for valves, valve terminals and electro...

And in the case of FMCGs (fast-moving consumer goods), it can necessitate regular updates and reinventions to reflect fashion and market developments. But just as packaging is sophisticated, so are the machines and equipment that produce it. That means frequent changes in packaging design can be prohibitively expensive. Different Shapes, Same Machine Tetra Pak h...

According to the PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, at least 75% of manufacturing end users have installed robots on their lines. If packaging represents a small portion of total robot sales, per PMMI’s latest report, growth is significant: robotic usage on primary packaging operations is expected to reach 20% in 2018 (up from 8% in 2013). ...

We are proud to present the latest 2018 LYBRA evolution, merging 36 years of technical developments in angle cutting. The new LYBRA 2018 further improves the already amazing features of our historical angle cutting machine, which was sold in thousands all over the world since 1981. The main news are: - Weight of the machine only: 4.200 kg, 1.400 more than in th...