Determine Viability Through New Product Introduction

Now celebrating new products weekly! Custom machines, new robots, manufacturing copilots, will be highlighted in the 'New Product Introduction' section. Closing the machine-to-cloud and IT OT gap.

Dec 03, 2023

Shop Talk

Capturing this week's zeitgeist

The only way to determine commercial viability in manufacturing is by doing it. Whether you’re a cloud manufacturing startup like Toolpath or a chemical manufacturer; just do it.

Hungry to run parts to show viability. (Source: Andy Powell on X)

The Polymerist

Commercializing is Viability

When I’ve been discussing strategy with founders in the chemicals and polymeric materials space, I think that sometimes the vision of what the world could be (needed for raising money), can get in the way of commercializing a business. This vision is often described as a world that needs less crude oil (or none), produces less emissions, and “trash” is …

a year ago · 14 likes · 7 comments · Tony Maiorana

Assembly Line

This week's most influential Industry 4.0 media.

Custom Machine Builder Develops Automation Solution That Increases Production Capacity Four-Fold

✍️ Authors: Derek Limesand, Ben Toskey

While the metal housing and circuit boards were made efficiently and cost-effectively in high numbers, adhering three plastic covers to each housing with a quality seal was slow and labor-intensive. As demand for the component increased, the bottleneck of plastic cover application became a concern.

A closeup view of the Y axis, center, and the Z and X axes, above. On the Z axis from left to right are the Nordson adhesive applicator, Banner vision system and plasma gas applicator. The pick-and-place guided actuator is mounted behind the plasma applicator and is not easily distinguished. A box of die-cast housings is visible on the lower left.

In the new automated process, the machine operator places two die-cast metal housings on fixtures and six plastic covers on a cover fixture (three covers for each housing). Vacuum holds the metal housings and plastic covers in place. Manually loading the machine made sense from a cost standpoint and only required seconds. Housings and covers in place, the operator starts the machine.

‘Revolutionary’ digital printing technology uptake expected to accelerate for packaging

✍️ Author: Katie Pyzyk

Rolls of paper being printed on industrial machinery.

“Print is the traditional bottleneck in a converting facility, and if you remove that bottleneck you can streamline both upstream and downstream processes,” Wettersten said. “What we’re seeing today is large corrugated companies starting to invest in web presses to totally change workflow,” he said. “The impact on lead times is rather eye-opening: You can take conventional lead times of 18 to 20 days for repeat orders down to fewer than five days on a digital press.”

OT-IT Integration: AWS and Siemens break down data silos by closing the machine-to-cloud gap

🔖 Topics: IT OT Convergence, Cloud Computing
🏢 Organizations: AWS, Siemens

AWS announced that AWS IoT SiteWise Edge, on-premises software that makes it easy to collect, organize, process, and monitor equipment data, can now be deployed directly from the Siemens Industrial Edge Marketplace to help simplify, accelerate, and reduce the cost of sending industrial equipment data to the AWS cloud.

LLM-based Control Code Generation using Image Recognition

✍️ Authors: Heiko Koziolek, Anne Koziolek
🔖 Topics: Large Language Model, ChatGPT, Programmable Logic Controller

LLM-based code generation could save significant manual efforts in industrial automation, where control engineers manually produce control logic for sophisticated production processes. Previous attempts in control logic code generation lacked methods to interpret schematic drawings from process engineers. Recent LLMs now combine image recognition, trained domain knowledge, and coding skills. We propose a novel LLM-based code generation method that generates IEC 61131-3 Structure Text control logic source code from Piping-and-Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) using image recognition.

New Product Introduction

Highlighting new and innovative products and services

Universal Robots continues its innovation journey by launching new 30 kg collaborative robot

Universal Robots, the Danish manufacturer of collaborative robots (cobots), has announced that it will expand its leading product portfolio with a new 30 kg payload cobot. Despite its compact size, UR30 offers extraordinary lift, and its superior motion control ensures the perfect placement of large payloads allowing it to work at higher speeds and lift heavier loads. This makes UR30 ideal for several applications, including machine tending, material handling and high torque screw driving.

Fast and efficient PLC code generation and more with artificial intelligence

🏢 Organizations: Beckhoff Automation

Industrial Policy

How governments are shaping the future industrial landscape.

🇰🇷 South Korean defence industry rides global order wave

Seoul has devised a “niche marketing strategy for countries newly seeking to invest and develop their own defence industrial bases”, setting up production in the buying country while offering generous terms on tech transfer, said Haena Jo, research analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.

🇲🇽 The city where Mexico’s nearshoring hype is becoming reality

✍️ Author: Christine Murray

Monterrey, a business-friendly city a few hours’ drive from Texas, is a bellwether for Mexico’s ability to reap the rewards of nearshoring — a shift that is taking place thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, trade tariffs between the US and China, and geopolitical instability since Russia invaded Ukraine. “A week doesn’t go by for us without meeting Chinese, Korean, Japanese executives, looking to open offices or a plant,” said Lorenzo Barrera Segovia, chief executive of Banco Base.

🇪🇺 ABB signs €500 million EIB financing to further drive smart and sustainable electrification technologies

ABB and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, have signed a €500 million financing agreement to support ABB’s research and development in its Electrification business area. The EIB financing supports the European Green Deal, the European Union’s plan to become net zero by 2050. Investment in green innovation is necessary for Europe to create a sustainable economy capable of protecting its people and creating high-quality jobs.

Business Transactions

This week's top funding events, acquisitions, and partnerships

Braincube raises €83 million of growth equity investment from Scottish Equity Partners and Bpifrance

🔖 Topics: Funding Event
🏢 Organizations: Braincube, Bpifrance

Braincube, a market-leading manufacturing data software platform with specialist industrial applications, has raised €83 million of growth equity investment. The investment was led by Scottish Equity Partners (‘SEP’). Braincube’s Industrial Internet of Things (‘IIoT’) platform helps manufacturers increase their profits using data insights to improve quality, productivity, and sustainability in their factories.

PhysicsX raises €29.2M to reinvent AI and simulation engineering technologies

London-based PhysicsX, a deep-tech startup building artificial intelligence(s) to power engineering, has secured $32M (approximately €29.2M) in a Series A round of funding. The investment was led by General Catalyst. The startup uses generative AI to facilitate groundbreaking engineering solutions across various advanced industries such as automotive, aerospace, renewables, and materials production.

Expedition Growth Capital and EIFO invest $16 Million in Factbird to boost international growth

The Danish tech company Factbird, which supplies intelligent, cloud-based technology for the optimization of manufacturers production lines, has landed USD 16 million. The money comes from the English capital fund Expedition Growth Capital and Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund, EIFO. The funds will help Factbird’s international expansion after its 2021 separation from consulting firm Emendo Consulting Group as an independent tech company.

Retrocausal Raises Oversubscribed $5.3M Round

Retrocausal, a leading platform provider for manufacturing process management, announced a $5.3M financing round co-led by Glasswing Ventures, One Way Ventures, and Indicator Ventures. Funding will be used to meet the increased market demand for its proprietary generative AI technology, Retrocausal’s Kaizen Copilot software for Manufacturing Assembly Optimization.

HP and Materialise Partner to Drive Volume 3D Printing

🔖 Topics: Partnership, Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing
🏢 Organizations: HP, Materialise

As an HP preferred partner, Materialise will provide the industry with an end-to-end manufacturing solution that is integrated with an additive technology that is designed for productivity and scale — MJF and Metal Jet systems.

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