Remember 3D manufacturing? Or additive manufacturing, as those in the know called it? We’ve all played with 3-D printers by now, but for a while there we were seeing extravagant claims for this technology. We were expecting 3-D printed clothing, food, and prosthetic body parts. Ordering a pizza would take place entirely in your home… Read more »

Realizing that there’s a problem with your machinery is the easy part. Strange noises crawling out of your motion control system – or the entire machine coming to a halt – is usually a good indicator that something isn’t working right. It’s diagnosing those problems that can cause frustration. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to… Read more »

Are humanoid robots even a good idea? After all, they can’t do much, tend to be either smart or strong but not both, need recharging frequently, and creep people out. What’s more, most of the humanoid robots so far are not practical. People get excited about a humanoid robot that can mimic human facial expressions,… Read more »

The Manufacturing Institute reports that 72% of manufacturers in their most recent survey say that they consider diversity a key focus for their company. That’s up from 64% a year ago. More than 60% of respondents said they have more female employees now than they had a year ago. Still, 50% said they had trouble… Read more »

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that gets you. Well, it’s both when it comes to industrial servo motors. Hot weather can cause a boatload of issues for your Indramat motion control system. Both the temperature and the humidity play their part in causing your servos to overheat or malfunction. Here are a few… Read more »

The United States used to be a manufacturing powerhouse. Over the past 50 years, we’ve shifted to a service economy. In 1953, manufacturing accounted for 32% of non-farm labor in the U.S., compared with 22% in 1979, and  just 7% now. Service jobs? Including warehousing and logistics, that stands at 80%. Yes, 80% of all… Read more »

Gartner Risk & Audit produced a report on emerging risks, and generative AI leads the pack. The Quarterly Emerging Risk Report follows up on six AI-related risks Gartner had previously identified: Fabricated and inaccurate answers Data privacy (or the lack thereof) Bias (which we’ve already seen in hiring software) Intellectual and copyright risks Cyber fraud… Read more »

You like to keep extra batteries around the house, or a couple of replacement tire tubes for your bicycle in the garage. It’s reasonable to want to keep spare Indramat repair parts on hand. Downtime costs rack up quickly, and you want to fix your Indramat system as soon as you possibly can. There are… Read more »

Humanoid robots are getting all the press these days. Most robots are of course not humanoid, but the dozen or so that are put there have caught the public’s fancy in a way that industrial robots generally don’t. Especially with AI and Large Language Model involvement, humanoid robots are beginning to elicit questions. Should they… Read more »

Quite simply, automation makes our lives easier. Automatic windows in our cars keep us from fiddling with a mechanical crank to get a breeze, automated bill paying ensures that we never forget to pay the electric bill, and how would we ever get our grocery carts out of the store without automatic doors? Sometimes automation… Read more »