Manfuacturing.net
New Jersey has set lofty new goals, as Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill boosting the number of electric vehicles in the state over the next five to 15 years and establishing an incentive of as much as $5,000 for people who buy them.

Wired
Hyundai and Kia have announced that they are investing $111.5 million in Arrival, a startup British automaker building electric delivery vans. The three companies will jointly develop vehicles and share know-how as Arrival scales up its operations and moves to put a vehicle on the market in the next few years.

Manufacturing.net
Sandvik has announced that it is reviewing the potential closure of a round tools production plant for its Walter AG division in Frankfurt, Germany. If closed, production would be transferred to other units within Sandvik Machining Solutions.

The Washington Post
As Tesla inaugurates a $2 billion electric-car factory in China this month, a brief stroll around an upscale shopping district nearby shows the company already has plenty of local competition.

In this report, a test gear geometry for investigating contact fatigue strength (pitting) of high-performance clean steels is determined, and based on two well-established test gear geometries for contact fatigue test, a detailed comparison with regard to their potential of maximum contact pressure is performed.

The Verge
Joby Aviation, a California-based aerospace company that has been working on electric aircraft for over a decade, just closed its latest round of financing with $590 million in venture capital funding — and a major new partner.

Electrek
Sandy Munro is a manufacturing expert who rose to fame in the Tesla community after his breakdown of an early Model 3. 

Gear Technology
The Timken Company has announced that renovations are complete and new services operational at the Philadelphia Gear Southeast Regional gear repair facility in Birmingham, Ala. The project includes an isolated assembly bay, the addition of a retractable paint booth and a large industrial parts washer, all designed to facilitate a “clean assembly” environment.

3D Printing Industry
Predicting the future is impossible But that doesn’t stop 3D Printing Industry from inviting CEOs, CTOs and other AM experts to give their 3D printing predictions for 2020.

Tech Crunch
Robotics startup company Soft Robotics has closed its Series B round of funding, raising $23 million led by Calibrate Ventures and Material Impact, and including participation from existing investors including Honeywell, Yahama, Hyperplane and more. This round also brings FANUC, the world’s largest maker of industrial robots and recently announced strategic partner for Soft Robotics.

Gear Technology
The AGMA Technical Division recently announced the release of AGMA ISO 18792-A19, lubrication of industrial gear drives. Gear lubrication is important in all types of gear applications. Through adequate lubrication, gear design and selection of gear lubricant, the gear life can be extended, and the gearbox efficiency improved. In order to focus on the available knowledge of gear lubrication, ISO/TC 60 decided to produce this Technical Report combining primary information about the design and use of lubricants of gearboxes.

The Robot Report
Earlier this month, Naio Technologies SAS closed a €14 million ($15.53 million U.S.) Series A funding round. The French agricultural robotics company has been developing field robots for weeding. They are intended to reduce physical strain on farmers and reduce reliance on chemical herbicides, which can harm the environment.

Future IoT
The oil and gas (O&G) industry is one of the first verticals to embrace the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in digital transformation. With aging equipment and legacy infrastructure that were constructed decades ago with non-regular updates, potential breakdowns and major spills have become a real worry in the industry. Thus, while the integration of modern monitoring and advanced IoT technologies is not easy and cheap given the legacy environment, the O&G industry is biting the bullet.

3D Printing Media Network
This month’s AM Focus Automotive is mapping out the most accurate and up to date scenario for automobile additive manufacturing in final part production, including an analysis of the latest progress made by each major automaker group and some of the key activities — either publicly disclosed or confirmed by reliable sources. Here’s a look at BMW additive manufacturing. In the previous episodes, we looked at Volkswagen, General Motors, Daimler Benz and Ford.

AGMA
Discover key factors in the inspection process that lead to better design of gears. Develop a broad understanding of the methods used to manufacture and inspect gears. Interpret how the resultant information can be applied and interpreted in the design process. 

Forbes
Toward the end of last year, the UN’s UNCTAD report forecast showed continuing disruption and uncertainty in the global economy over the course of the next 12 months. In addition to this, in December, the U.S. manufacturing sector fell into its deepest slump in more than a decade.

 AGMA
This course provides an introduction and emphasize the difference between parallel (the experience base) axis and worm and crossed axis helical gears. Describe the basics of worm and crossed axis helical gears, their fundamental design principles, application guidelines and recommendations, lubrication requirement, a discussion of accuracy and quality and summarize with a brief review of common failure modes.