Manufacturing.net
Integrating data and analytics from production equipment with design, engineering and continuous improvement in manufacturing leads to faster optimization of production and new product design.

AGMA Foundation
The AGMA Foundation Get Into Gears Employment Recruitment Toolkit is designed to help you recruit people into a great career in the gear industry. If you are having trouble finding employees, especially at the operator level, then download our FREE toolkit to amplify your search.

Associated Press via Manufacturing Business Technology
The Army is looking for a few good robots. These robots aren’t taking up arms, but the companies making them have waged a different kid of battle. At stake is a contract worth almost half a billion dollars for 3,000 backpack-sized robots that can defuse bombs and scout enemy positions. 

Bloomberg
The he global manufacturing index from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and IHS Markit fell in December to the lowest level since September 2016, as measures of orders and hiring weakened, data show. That followed other IHS Markit reports showing factory conditions slumped across Asia’s most export-oriented economies, with China’s signaling contraction for the first time since mid-2017 as Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea also point to declines. 

Machine Design
Metallurgy is an interesting science. You would think for the thousands of years humans have been working with it we’d have it pretty well figured out. Well, recently Purdue published a paper titled “Material-independent Mechanochemical Effect in the Deformation of Highly-Strain-Hardening Metals,” which presented the idea of improving the plastic-flow in the cutting of metal.

Design News
Upon determining that 72 percent of manufacturing tasks are done by humans, researchers say their study reveals a need for greater investment in human efficiency.

Star Tribune
Midwest manufacturing picked up the pace in December after three months of slowing, but continued to experience setbacks in trade, with imports and exports both contracting for the first time in several months, a widely watched economics report said.

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. This course also includes a tour of Integrated Machinery Solutions. 

IndustryWeek
The mining industry is shaping up to be a significant player in the IIoT space. According to the MineLens productivity index, mining productivity has declined by 28 percent over the past decade. The mining industry is facing an upward cycle, and IIoT presents opportunities to maximize profitability.

Utility Dive
ABB’s sale of its power transmission business to Hitachi reflects a wider trend in the global market for power equipment. The global technology company is turning its focus to Europe and the growing market for distributed energy while Hitachi is gearing up to compete in the Asian market for heavy electrical grid equipment, such as transmission lines, transformers and substations.

Industry Week
A digital twin is a virtualized replica of an actual facility or plant, either hosted on premises or in the cloud. It draws data from a number of sources, including real-time control systems, asset management systems, historians, records of employee/customer interactions and other sources. With IoT implementations providing more and more data, high-fidelity digital twins are becoming easier to create and maintain.

Upstate Business Journal
From simulated factories and concept vehicles, to robotics and virtual reality, these were some of the top stories from last year.

Manufacturing.net
The manufacturing industry continues to evolve and transform at an accelerated rate. Nowhere is change more pronounced than in commerce. Virtually every aspect of B2B commerce is being impacted and manufacturers must prepare for the disruption hitting the industry if they are going to stay ahead of the game.

TechLink
This tech roundup highlights the top six Department of Defense technologies that were viewed the most often.

New Atlas
Sikorsky and Boeing have been working on this high-speed, long-range, ultra-maneuverable military helicopter design for some time, and now they’ve released the first photos of what is expected to become a highly effective US Army utility helicopter sometime in the 2030s.

Fortune
We’ve just concluded a year in which countless events demonstrated how rapidly and profoundly new technologies are changing our world — in ways both promising and threatening — writes Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum.

Gain a better understanding of various types of gears and bearings. Learn about the limitation and capabilities of rolling element bearings and the gears that they support.  Grasp an understanding of how to properly apply the best gear-bearing combination to any gearbox from simple to complex.

Forbes
Sometime in the very near future, the U.S. Army will announce the winner of a competition to develop a new engine for most of the service’s helicopters. Called the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), it is a multibillion-dollar effort that has often been described as the Army’s top aviation modernization priority.

IndustryWeek
The shift will be gradual, as some tasks are better handled by AI than others, and job descriptions and skill sets will need to change.

Design Engineering
Quebec-based Robotiq, known for their gripper attachments within the collaborative robotics market, has raised $31 million (CAN) in its first round institutional financing. Directed toward product development, the investment comes by way of global investment firm Battery Ventures.