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They were supposed to showcase this week at the MHLC conference, part of LogiMAT, their micro-fulfillment solution that supports e-commerce strategies for retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers. We spoke with Crystal Parrott, Vice President of the Robotics Center of Excellence at Dematic before the event was canceled due to Coronavirus concerns to find out more about ...

This is the case for the French company Tesalys which has just exported its first machine to Beijing for the on-site treatment of at risk medical waste. It will send up to 50 machines over the next six months. The Covid-19 outbreak recently highlighted the activity of a small company based in the Toulouse area (southwest France) whose technology for decontaminating in...

Automation Fair, Chicago, November 2019. Like every year, Rockwell Automation, the American leader in PLCs, present their latest technologies at their major international event. And for several years now, CEO Blake Moret’s keynote has begun with a list of the latest acquisitions and partnerships with other companies. This year, the alliance with consulting company Accent...

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), over 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally since the 1950s and we now generate 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. The organization suggests only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled, with 79% ending up in landfills, dumps or the natural environment. With drin...

The rapid development of information technology and its seamless integration within manufacturing processes is the main driving force behind today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution. With machine tools playing a unique and leading role in manufacturing, digital innovation in machine tool technology is already playing a pivotal role in efforts to heighten manufacturing sustai...

Originally designed for small businesses, their solution could also find applications at home, where the number of connected objects is exploding. We spoke with the CEO David Legeay. The story starts with David Legeay’s observation of the difficulty of cybersecurity for small businesses. In 2015, he was working as the CIO of a large company when he realized that...

Whether it is described as a miracle solution to treat genetic diseases or a powerful tool to augment humans and create a more resistant human kind, CRISPR-Cas9 has become a wonderful field of research for the scientific community. One that involves AI. Richard Sherwood, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Harvard Medical School (Boston) cr...

Their goal? To create an “augmented worker” who can focus on the most interesting and valuable tasks while the machine handles the easiest cases where a high level of expertise is not required. The idea is to create a system that enables the semi-automation of repetitive and visual tasks with a human ultimately remaining at the helm of the project. Célia Sampol, Editor-i...

Japanese manufacturing products, particularly in the electronics and automotive sectors, remain world leaders. Japan is a country with advanced technological expertise, a formidable manufacturing base, world-class infrastructure, and a large and affluent consumer market. Yet today Japanese industry faces mounting population pressures, increased global competition and ...

Officially opened in 2005, this 70,000 square meter facility has a manufacturing capacity of more than 210 million units per year. In 2015, it became L’Oréal’s first CO2-neutral site in Asia. At the COP 21, the facility was even awarded the Initiative Prize. L’OREAL’S FIRST CARBON-NEUTRAL SITE IN ASIA Over the course of 10 years, the $32.3 million facility has implem...

China is the largest market for industrial automation and artificial intelligence. Four of the five most powerful domestic robot manufacturers in the world are from Beijing. And the Chinese market is growing faster than any other robot market in the world. The International Federation of Robotics expects that China will be responsible for 40% of the worldwide robotic dem...

DirectIndustry e-magazine interviewed Jürgen Böhler, CEO of thyssenkrupp Elevator Asia Pacific to find out more about the group’s strategy in China. DirectIndustry e-magazine: Could you introduce us to the tower ? Jürgen Böhler: Our Zhongshan test tower is 248 meters high, the tallest test tower for thyssenkrupp Elevator globally, and also one of the tallest in the...

But that’s just what happened last November when two apartment buildings in the city of Lappeenranta were victims of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. This type of hacking targets networks, disabling them temporarily. According to experts, the heating systems lacked proper security because the network they were linked to lacked strong firewalls. This attack ...

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...

Stepping piezoelectric actuators are new, long-stroke linear piezoelectric motors for micro and nano positioning applications, locking mechanisms, valve actuators, instrumentation such as microscopes, non-magnetic equipment, micro robots and space telescopes. They operate by the addition of small steps. The TrAC can be blocked in any position (locking without power suppl...

The Houston-based manufacturer of oil and gas BOPs and well intervention systems says the design places a backup system in the body of the shear ram mechanism. A BOP is a specialized valve or mechanical device used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells to prevent blowouts. The shear ram is its closing element, normally used as a last resort to regain control ...

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...