Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

Manufacturing

Smart factory: Audi opens advanced manufacturing plant in Mexico

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Audi bigwigs opened what the company claims is the first manufacturing plant to be opened in Mexico by a premium automobile manufacturer. 

Moreover, the company says the facility is one of the most advanced in the world, and is classed as a “smart factory”.

The company says the new development represents the further expansion of its worldwide production network and enables Audi to continue along its path of global growth.  [Read more…] about Smart factory: Audi opens advanced manufacturing plant in Mexico

Investing in robotics: Established companies or startups?

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Picture courtesy: Caixin Online

In this part of our series of articles about investing in robotics and automation, Brian Gahsman, managing partner and chief investment officer at GBSfunds, explains what type of robotics and automation enterprises his company, Gahsman Branton, is interested in investing in 

Check out realtime stock prices for companies in the robotics, automation and relating computing sectors

Robotics and Automation News: Are you mainly looking at investing in established companies or startups?

Brian Gahsman: Actually both. There is a great number of publicly traded companies in this space with established earnings and the leaders make a solid foundation of the holdings in my strategy. That being said, even these established companies began as startups in the not so distant past.

I believe that robotics and automation in itself is currently in its infancy stage so maintaining a solid blend of micro-cap, small cap, mid-cap and large cap stocks is the only way to assure my strategy as a whole rides the same wave as the technological evolution that it is based on.  [Read more…] about Investing in robotics: Established companies or startups?

Manufacturing: A different type of industrial cloud

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Not so long ago, computers were almost always in a business location – an accountant’s office, or something like that. But gradually, partly thanks to Apple iMac, the machines started making their way into homes in large numbers. 

But there are still categories of computers which don’t really belong in the home, or at least weren’t designed for domestic bliss. If you can comfortably fit a supercomputer or a mainframe into your house, that’s probably enough domestic bliss for you anyway.

For most of us, desktop computers – or increasingly laptop computers – are just about all the space we can share, and the largest manufacturers of such poor-man’s systems were recently listed by Gartner.

Worldwide computer shipments in second quarter of 2016

  1. Lenovo – 13.2 million units
  2. HP – 12.3 million units
  3. Dell – 10 million units
  4. Asus – 4.7 million units
  5. Apple – 4.6 million units
  6. Acer – 4.4 million units
  7. Others – 15.4 million units

[visualizer id=”7600″]
Source: Gartner

[Read more…] about Manufacturing: A different type of industrial cloud

Sewbots prepare to take millions of jobs off humans in clothes manufacturing sector

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More and more companies in the textiles, clothing and footwear business are turning to advanced manufacturing technologies – robotic sewing machines and connected systems – to reduce the number of humans in their factories, along with the financial and social costs of employing them.

One of the largest apparel manufacturers in India, Raymond, which employs 30,000 human workers, says it plans to replace 10,000 of them with robots over the next three years. [Read more…] about Sewbots prepare to take millions of jobs off humans in clothes manufacturing sector

Automation fails without aligning materials support function with demand, says Synchrono

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By Thomas R. Cutler

Robot-to-person solutions are on a rapid trajectory for 2017 and beyond. Yet discrete manufacturing organizations which initiate material replenishment automation programs without properly analyzing processes and priorities for internal and external stakeholders, find far less value than anticipated.

Manufacturers are unsure about current replenishment capabilities within ERP (enterprise resource planning) and other systems, and are even less clear whether to fix, buy, or build a solution to gain the capabilities needed.

Too often disruptions in leadership and a change-averse environment can create barriers to improved production flow and automating processes.

The manufacturing sector is well-served when considering whether a replenishment solution can enhance flow and enable continuous improvements; often best practice robotic solutions follow.  [Read more…] about Automation fails without aligning materials support function with demand, says Synchrono

Omron to showcase 16,000 factory automation products

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One of the world’s leading robotics and automation systems manufacturers, Omron, says it will introduce a total of 15,583 models in seven categories in its second wave of factory automation control devices built on a common design platform for unified product specifications.

Omron says it has been continuing to work for the innovation of making control panels which house and control factory automation devices on the production front line.

The company unified the design and size of factory automation devices, and introduced products in April 2016 which are built with the company’s proprietary wiring technology “Push-In Plus Terminal Block” for device and control panel makers in need of “downsizing and space-saving” of factory automation devices and control panels, “expedited delivery”, and “response to globalization”.  [Read more…] about Omron to showcase 16,000 factory automation products

Watchmaking robots: It’s a small world

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When Apple wanted to launch a watch, most people may have thought the company would name it iWatch, to go with iPhone, iPad and iLife. 

However, Swatch raised a legal objection on the grounds that it had the rights to a product called iSwatch, and Apple’s iWatch would be too similar. This week, the courts agreed and banned Apple from using the name.

But Apple had already changed its mind some time ago, and went with Apple Watch, which has gone on to sell 13 million units in its first year, estimated to be a faster sales rate than the iPhone.

But as a total, 13 million is barely a drop in the ocean of the global watch market.  [Read more…] about Watchmaking robots: It’s a small world

Adidas reveals ‘first’ robot-manufactured shoes

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Adidas has unveiled the first product to be created at its industry-changing SpeedFactory facility in Ansbach, Germany – in its Futurecraft MFG (Made for Germany) series, 500 pairs of which will be sold to the general public.

Designed to provide the “ultimate fit”, Adidas claims its Futurecraft MFG shoe is the first step in what Adidas believes will be a “game-changing” moment for the industry – mainly because the system customises the shoe for the shapes and motions of the individual customer’s feet.

The shoe is the first high performance footwear to come out of the Adidas SpeedFactory, which will ultimately allow for the creation of footwear made for the specific fit and functional needs of consumers.

The SpeedFactory is the name given by Adidas to its advanced manufacturing facilities, featuring high levels of robotics, automation and 3D printing. The first one was opened in Germany, and another one is being built in the US.

[Read more…] about Adidas reveals ‘first’ robot-manufactured shoes

Xerox launches new 3D printer featuring a nozzle ‘half the width of a human hair’

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New Xerox 3D printers sport a nozzle which is almost too tiny to see with human eyes

Xerox says it has developed innovative architecture featuring tiny, stainless steel nozzles inside its new Direct to Object Inkjet Printer.

The company says this means it has created a new, label-less, on-demand method of personalising three-dimensional objects.

The nozzles are contained in print heads – about the size of a deck of cards – that accurately spray ink on objects as small as bottle caps and as large as football helmets. The printer can print on plastic, metals, ceramics and glass, eliminating the need for costly labels.  [Read more…] about Xerox launches new 3D printer featuring a nozzle ‘half the width of a human hair’

Data in demand: Pressure Design flying high with automated hydraulics partnership

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The aerospace industry is hungry for tons and tons of data on everything that happens, and Pressure Design has the systems to feed it 

Traceability, data logging and graphical displays are in high demand in the modern hydraulics environment.

As customers’ requirements become more complex, the hydraulic control experts at machine builder Pressure Design focus on increasing their automated solutions offering, with the support of Copa-Data’s HMI/SCADA software, zenon.

Pressure Design offer a bespoke, fully inclusive service, satisfying all fluid power requirements, from the factory floor to the HMI. The company serves the hydraulic requirements of a wide range of primary and secondary manufacturing facilities.  [Read more…] about Data in demand: Pressure Design flying high with automated hydraulics partnership

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