Alexander Flemming wasn’t looking for a way to squash bacterial infections when he discovered penicillin. In fact, some stories described Flemming as basically stumbling upon one of the greatest medical discoveries ever made. In 1942, a team of scientists tried to develop a clear plastic gun sight to be used by the U.S. military. They… Read more »

3D printing is young but it is by no means new. It’s been used for models and prototypes by manufacturers for decades. Of course, additive manufacturing has never been anywhere near as capable as it is today, and improvements in 3D printing technology suggest that additive manufacturing will only continue to advance. It’ now conceivable… Read more »

It’s easy to forget just how incredible batteries are. We casually change out the batteries in our television remotes every few years, giving little thought to the fact that we just purchased power cells at the store while picking up milk and eggs. We grumble when the battery in our car dies, getting more upset… Read more »

Remote control has had a significant impact on the way that we live our lives. Think about how inconvenient life would be if we had to get up to change the channel. But remote control reaches far beyond time drains in the living room. Manufacturing would be just a shadow of what it is today… Read more »

You’ve been counting down the days and it’s finally here! As you undoubtedly know, February is National Canned Food Month! Actually, there’s a very good chance that you did not know that February is canned food month, and that you don’t even know what that entails. Are you supposed to eat nothing but canned foods… Read more »

William Blake once wrote, “Everything that lives / Lives not alone nor for itself…” While you can interpret this a few different ways, that brief line does remind us that what we do has an impact on the world around us. As our understanding of the world improves, so does our understanding of our effect… Read more »

History has shown us that automation does not eliminate jobs for humans workers. Instead, automation makes work environments safer for people, and it allows people to make better use of their time. Take automatic doors, for example. Automatic doors are so common place that they’re fairly unremarkable by today’s standards. We walk towards the grocery… Read more »

Indramat used to make some truly great products. The phrase “used to” is key. Indramat revolutionized industrial motion control with its servo drives, servo motors, and controllers back in the 1950s, but that company no longer exists today. In 1965, Indramat was acquired by Rexroth, and in 2001 Rexroth became Bosch Rexroth, and the only… Read more »

People have been worrying about automation killing jobs ever since automation has been around. In the same way that taxi drivers wake up from nightmares of autonomous cars driving away with their livelihoods, you can bet that there were plenty of stagecoach drivers cursing Henry Ford’s name as he churned out Model Ts back in… Read more »

There are a number of very important advantages that automation brings to the manufacturing and packaging industries. Increased productivity and lower costs are two of the big ones. Being able to get things done faster and more affordably are clearly beneficial for these industries. But there are other advantages that are just as important if… Read more »