In the second part of a four-part series, Manufacturing.net examines the risks facing the manufacturing industry this year and how manufacturers are handling them.

Explore gear failure analysis in this hands-on seminar where students not only see slides of failed gears but can hold and examine those same field samples close up. Experience the use of microscope and take your own contact pattern from field samples.

Jeff Bezos has high hopes for his new Glenn rocket and its development has just received a nice helping hand. The U.S. Air Force announced it will be handing Bezo’s space company Blue Origin half a billion dollars as part of its plan to usher in a new generation of heavy lift boosters.

German automaker BMW is taking a majority stake in its China joint venture and investing 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in factories there, underscoring the importance of the Chinese market as the company prepares to meet increased demand for electric vehicles. 

Learn to make use of steel properties in a system solution and understand the potential that different steel options can offer for their various applications. Explore how performance of the material and thus the component and system depends on how the steel is produced.

Hitachi and General Electric Co. will jointly develop a new type of nuclear power plant with small modular reactors. The two companies, longtime partners in the nuclear business, aim to commercialize the reactors, which they hope will be cheaper to produce and safer to run, by the 2030s.

Industrial companies are taking smart manufacturing strategies from the whiteboard to the production floor to bring new value to their operations. To help executives keep current with technologies and trends that can accelerate their digital transformation, Rockwell Automation is launching an executive podcast series, "State of the Industry: Your Guide to the Future of Smart Manufacturing." 

Intelligent CIO Europe hears from Prasad Satyavolu, Chief Digital Officer – Manufacturing and Logistics, Cognizant, who gives his advice on how businesses can integrate robot co-workers into the workplace and reap the benefits of advanced technology.

One year from the launch of the European Batter Alliance (EBA), the Commission Action Plan is in place, the first pilot production facilities are being built and further projects are announced to establish the EU as the lead player in the strategic area of battery innovation and manufacturing.

Cybercriminals now consider manufacturing companies a target-rich environment. Learn why and what can be done to get off that list.

For all the focus manufacturers have been placing on digitization, and especially on intelligent automation technologies, AI has yet to have a significant impact on the factory floor. This is about to change, believes Harald Bauer of McKinsey. 

The Office of Naval Research awarded Lockheed Martin a two-year, $5.8 million contract to explore how machine learning and artificial intelligence can make complex 3D printing more reliable and save hours of tedious post-production inspections. Lockheed Martin has multiple partners on the contract, including Carnegie Mellon University, Iowa State University, Colorado School of Mines, America Makes, GKN and Wolf Robotics, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The market for all-electric trucks you might one day be able to buy – from Tesla or Bison, for instance – is really heating up. Last year, Bollinger was among the start-ups to flash a glimpse at an upcoming all-electric truck, the shape-shifting B1 "sport utility truck" capable of quickly transforming between 4x4 utility vehicle and small pickup. 

The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) is launching the V4 Institute (V4I), an industry-led consortium with the mission of providing advanced assurance in product development and manufacturing through virtual verification, validation, and visualization. V4I offers value-driven computation modeling and simulation solutions for research and development (R&D) of product and processes to advance cross-industry innovation and support the digital thread.

Cruise, the young startup backed by a giant automaker, is fast proving its potential to propel General Motors into a leadership role in self-driving vehicles. Cruise, which GM acquired in 2016, now has the backing of a renowned technology investment firm and a rival automaker, Honda Motor Co., which last week agreed to invest $2.75 billion in Cruise over the next 12 years. That includes an immediate $750 million infusion for a 5.7 percent stake in the company.

Tungsten is a dense, robust metal that has a number of valuable applications, particularly in the chemical industry thanks to its corrosion resistance. Its hardness and extremely high melting point, however, have made it a difficult material to 3D print. 

There are always risks for new manufacturing technology programs. To ensure progress, you’ll need to consider five key aspects.

What is eating manufacturing executives right now? Is it the availability of new smart technologies and how to implement them? Nope, it’s the usual culprit — change management.