Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for January 21, 2017

Biopharmaceuticals manufacturing: Strict but supple

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Robert Harrison, pharmaceutical industry manager of industrial software expert Copa-Data, explains how industrial automation solutions could change the face of biopharmaceutical manufacturing in the years to come

Despite producing innovative drugs that save millions of lives, the pharmaceutical sector is one of the most conservative areas of industry. This cautious approach to new technologies is particularly clear in pharma’s less matured subsectors, including biopharmaceuticals.

Biopharmaceuticals represent the fastest growing sector of the pharmaceutical industry, making up about 20 per cent of the market. Annual growth rates of the biopharma subsector are around eight per cent – double that of more traditional pharmaceutical sectors.  [Read more…] about Biopharmaceuticals manufacturing: Strict but supple

Electric power: Clean energy infrastructure driving switch from AC to DC

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nikola tesla
Nikoa Tesla, pictured in his Colorado Springs lab in 1899. Picture courtesy of Smithsonian.com

Nikola Tesla was a famous scientist who developed alternating current, the means of distribution for electricity for the vast majority of devices, appliances and machines in households and factories and just about every other electrified thing in the world today. 

But even as Tesla was inventing much of the technology used in the alternating current electricity supply system, another famous inventor, Thomas Edison argued that direct current was the best way to distribute electricity.

By the time Tesla tech came onstream, DC had already been in use for a decade, but within a relatively small area, and Edison lost that argument mostly because the components of an alternating current grid enabled electricity to be carried far and wide beyond the power generating facility.  [Read more…] about Electric power: Clean energy infrastructure driving switch from AC to DC

Robotic suitcases: Who needs them?

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Whenever you have a good idea, you can be sure someone, somewhere has got the same idea, and has probably already built a prototype or even a business out of it. 

In the internet age, you’ve gotta move fast if you’re going to succeed in the making business. Or maybe try and think of an entirely original idea no one can steal.

So it was that we were thinking if we could find a robotic suitcase to take on our travels this year, to industry events and such. And sure enough there’s at least three we found on the market, and probably several others we don’t know about or haven’t got time to list.  [Read more…] about Robotic suitcases: Who needs them?

World’s largest manufacturing companies

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samsung chip

It’s a couple of years old, and we will update it as we go along, but this list provides an overview of the global manufacturing landscape over the past few years.

It shows that traditional companies – meaning those with a long history – are still dominant. Giants like Samsung, Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, General Electric, and General Motors have each been around for a century.

Samsung is relatively young, having been established in 1938. And it’s probably perceived as being even younger, since it’s the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones, a product which has been in existence for barely a decade.  [Read more…] about World’s largest manufacturing companies