Industry News

Microencapsulation expertise since 1992 MicroCapture is a market leader in biodegradable microencapsulation applications with more than 75 years of combined experience, a dedicated R&D team, and an in-house laboratory for product development and testing. Having recently celebrated 31 years in business, the UK-based company employs 9 FTEs and boasts a yearly turnover edgi...

Modern enterprises are up against significant pressure to prove their capabilities and demonstrate value. The race to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving technology landscape is forcing innovators to push their boundaries and deliver results that have historically seemed too far-fetched. A major driver of this transformation is the way products are manufactured, whi...

To analyze the current state of the material handling automation market, Vecna Robotics partnered with CITE Research to survey over 1,000 supply chain professionals across industries including automotive, third-party logistics (3PL), consumer goods, manufacturing, e-commerce and retail to uncover the key trends, challenges, and opportunities in the market. You can read ...

Spot is not your average factory worker. For starters there’s the unusual name and the fact Spot has four legs and is painted bright yellow. While Spot may look out of place on a factory floor amid a sea of human factory workers, the ‘robot dog’ developed by US engineering group Boston Dynamics could play a vital role in ensuring food manufacturing plants function smoot...

The manufacturing industry continues to be at high cyber risk as a result of global competition and geopolitical tensions. Companies up and down the supply chain are demanding more transparency into their customers’ and suppliers’ reliability in order to mitigate risks from disruptions. Some are starting to require cybersecurity assurances, a trend that will only gain mo...

The company says its robot is “a game changer for asset operators”, adding that the impact of deploying ANYmal X is driving companies to accelerate automating robotic inspections. With over 500 ANYmal X units already reserved, ANYbotics is scaling production output with its global manufacturing partners. ANYbotics opens the availability of its ANYmal X inspection solut...

How digital technology can cut costs and boost efficiency will feature case studies from Pete Hooper, production manager at £115m cheese brand Wyke Farms and Richard Morris, production director at The Bury Black Pudding Company. Keith Thornhill – head of food and beverage, Siemens - and Carolyn Newsham – financing partner for Siemens Digital Industries - will also give ...

Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation Business, says: “The world is constantly evolving – businesses are shifting existing structures and adopting new technologies to future-proof their operations for a variety of challenges and uncertainties, with robotic automation playing a key role. “We need significant investment in continuous education to...

SolidRun rolled out the first in a new family of so-called “software-defined” data processing units (DPUs) based on off-the-shelf Arm-based SoCs. It will find homes in everything from cloud data centers to edge devices. The SolidNET DPU is powered by a general-purpose, 16-nm Layerscape LX2-Lite SoC from NXP outfitted with 16 Cortex-A72 CPU cores that clock at 2.0 GHz. T...

This voltage range and power level make the solution ideal for a variety of 3-Phase BLDC motor drive applications with 36 V – 80 V input including eBikes, eScooters, power tools, drones, robots, DC servo, medical robots, and factory automation. The use of the EPC23102 integrated GaN-on-silicon device offers higher performance in a smaller footprint with significantly re...

Everyone has witnessed the explosive growth of the Internet in recent decades and is familiar with its benefits and shortcomings. According to Nvidia, the Internet is about to change again, morphing into more of a virtual reality that will further revolutionize how we do business and get entertained. “The next big evolution of the Internet will be fueled by advances in ...

Smart factories, in particular, could transform the automaking industry to reach its full potential. As the sector grows more competitive, manufacturers that embrace this trend early could see promising results. What Is a Smart Factory? Smart factories are the embodiment of the data-driven fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. They leverage multiple new technolo...

THE CUSTOMER Operating in more than 100 countries, ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a worldwide leader with a comprehensive offering for digital industries. Their ABB Ability™ Smart Sensor is transforming the way equipment is monitored and maintained by changing traditional motors, pumps and mounted bearings into smart, wirelessly connected devices. OVERVIEW Among one of ABB...

This delivery was piloted at Ohio State University this spring, and a full roll out is expected when students return to campus this fall. Grubhub partners with more than 250 college campuses across the United States to give students the ability to integrate meal plans directly into their Grubhub account and access restaurants both on- and off-campus for delivery and pic...

We’ve designed these updates to make robot machining, fabricating and all other robot programming tasks faster, easier, and more intuitive. Since our last product update in March, we’ve added a huge 25 updates to the software to make RoboDK even better. That includes 7 bigger changes and a bunch of smaller ones. Keep reading to see what’s new… 1. Improved Support for ...

Operational robot stock in food and beverage manufacturing has almost doubled since 2014, according to the latest data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Now, over 90,000 robots are in use in the global food and beverage manufacturing industry, picking and packing confectionery or placing different toppings on fresh pizzas or salads. Some 37% of these a...

“We’re headed toward a situation where AI is vastly smarter than humans and I think that time frame is less than five years from now,” he told the New York Times. Musk has also repeatedly warned of the potential dangers of AI, even invoking the “Terminator” movie franchise by way of illustration. And yet, the very same Elon Musk recently unveiled the prototype for a di...

Taiwan is well-known for its semiconductor fabrication plants. But silicon chips are not the only thing it has to offer manufacturers across the world. Taiwan’s smart machinery leaders are helping global manufacturers embrace the future. From high-precision CNC cutting machines, power presses and machine tools to industrial automation and collaborative robots, let’s take...

Up until now, users in the metal and plastics processing industries often faced a difficult choice: with CNC lathes and milling machines, one opted either for the largest possible variance or for large volumes, i.e., high quantities. An innovative solution from the Netherlands makes both possible and simultaneously lowers the threshold for automation. In the servocontrol...

Silicon Valley. Silicon Roundabout. Bucharest. It may not seem like a logical progression, but the Romanian capital is showing signs of becoming one of the world’s next tech hotspots. This is underpinned by an expanding IT talent pool, cheap operating costs, high-grade digital infrastructure and buoyant national economic growth. AI-fuelled Growth Today, start-ups putti...

There’s nothing like a massive affliction of the labor force to make you think about labor-saving techniques. The pandemic, along with all its other disruptions, gave food and beverage processors an incentive to at least consider automation. Workers were getting sick or fearful of getting sick on the job – a fear that was all too justified in many cases. Automation is b...

As internet access becomes ubiquitous, the number of devices connected far outweighs the number of people. Consumer gadgets like smart home appliances get a lot of attention, but many of IoT’s practical applications are business-focused. By the end of 2020, 5.8 billion automotive and enterprise gadgets were expected to be connected as IoT devices, according to Gartner. B...

What is the name of your product? Modular safety relay myPNOZ What problem does your product solve? The modular safety relays myPNOZ enable tailored safety solutions. Precisely aligned to the customer requirements. myPNOZ combines the advantages of an easy-to-understand and easy-to operate safety relay with internal combinational logic. Clever product features, the inno...

The German Institute for Standardization e.V. (DIN), the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies of DIN and VDE (DKE) and the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) recently published the AI standardization roadmap, which recommends standards for artificial intelligence. “With the AI standardization roadmap, we are imple...

Twenty percent of those surveyed believe that machines will eventually take over the world. For those older than 65 years of age, the amount climbs to 25 percent, whereas for 16 to 29 year-olds it sinks to 15 percent. A good 28 percent of respondents do not believe that AI will fulfill the high expectations – this applies more to 16 to 29-year-olds (22 percent) than to t...

Infinite opportunities from infinite data The industrial world is facing urgent challenges that must met quickly and sustainably. The path to this success involves digitalizing and automating processes and, with an intelligent energy supply as a basis, making intensive use of the resulting data. This is the only way for companies to act swiftly under rapidly changing mar...

Equipped with visual sensors, Sparrow is able to collect data, then transmit and analyze it on its software platform AIM. Now Percepto’s AIM platform can also integrate with other robotic solutions such as Boston Dynamics‘ four-legged robot Spot. We spoke with CEO Dor Abuhasira. Autonomous drone maker Percepto announced this week it had secured $45 million in investme...

Čapek’s prescient production, in addition to using the word “robot” for the very first time, sparked longstanding debate on the social, moral and economic arguments over the development and use of artificially intelligent technologies. It is interesting to note that the word robot comes from the Czech for “forced labor”. The robots in R.U.R are not mechanical devices....

Abigail Saltmarsh, Daniel Allen, Hicham Dhouibi, Célia Sampol and Mike Farish contributed to this report. The pandemic has forced us to find reliable ways of maintaining distance from those infected with the virus and preventing the spread of germs. In hospitals or public areas, robots have been and continue to be particularly useful. First, they don’t get sick so the...

One model of success has been at Lamborghini where its Sant’Agata Bolognese factory was expanded in 2017 to incorporate cutting-edge technologies for the production of the Urus. Ranieri Niccoli, Chief Manufacturing Officer, says: “It is true that in theory Industry 4.0 technologies tend to be for efficiency and mass production. But there does not have to be a contrad...

DirectIndustry magazine has decided to partner with intelligence consultancy DCA Chine Analyse (DCA China Analysis) to offer our readers key information to help you understand and analyze Chinese industry in order to accurately evaluate the competition and your business potential. On the occasion of this partnership, DCA is offering DirectIndustry e-magazine readers a...

20 Years of AUTOMATION with Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation is an American provider of industrial automation and information technology headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company was founded in 1903 and is known for its Allen-Bradley logic controller. More recently, Rockwell Automation has been recognized for its FactoryTalk software. What are the g...

Thanks to the implementation of advanced manufacturing technology, they were able to triple their output and reach more malnourished people. Advanced manufacturing and humanitarian aid are not often thought of together. Edesia demonstrates an example of how modern technology can support non-profit organizations. Edesia takes its name from the Roman goddess of food. T...

In this interview, we focus on drones. Michael de Lagarde, CEO of Delair, gives his insights into 20 years of innovations in the drone industry. 20 Years of DRONES with Delair Delair is a France-based manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). It was founded in 2011 by aerospace experts. Delair also provides end-to-end, visual intelligence solutions that ena...

mdaaS is geospatial productivity made simple and affordable. Join us to learn how mdaaS can supply your surveying business with the necessary equipment to gather data using a UAV. This webinar is designed to help you understand the options within the program, and to configure what might be best for them. In this webinar we will cover: What is mdaaS How you pr...

In this article, we focus on robotics. Duilio Amico, Marketing and Network Development Director Robotics & Automation Products at Comau, gives his insights into 20 years of innovations in robotics. 20 Years of ROBOTICS with Comau Comau is a multinational Italy-based company specialized in industrial automation. Their competencies range from technologies and system...