The Pulse of Manufacturing Life

This week: your life is manufactured, carbon free aluminum smelting, dancing humanoids swarm, can you hear me on the moon, electronic polymers, GenAI DataOps, Majorana 1 quantum chip.

Feb 23, 2025

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Shop Talk

Capturing this week's zeitgeist

I spoke with an automotive client's IT team this week about a new process monitoring system, and was struck by a telling detail: none of them had ever visited their own factory floor. It perfectly captures a growing problem in modern manufacturing - we're becoming masters of data while losing touch with the physical reality of how things are made. Yes, sensors and analytics are powerful tools, but there's irreplaceable value in understanding how materials feel, how machines sound when they're running right, and how experienced operators instinctively spot problems before they show up in the data. We need both: the digital insights and the tangible knowledge that only comes from time spent where the work is actually done. Tim Minshall’s new book, “Your Life Is Manufactured,” provides a first hand account of the ingenious sophistication of modern production processes.

Last week's 'Custom Quote' will provided insights into operational transparency. Exponential Industry will be decommissioning our archives at the end of the month, upgrade now to retain access with bonus media 👇

Assembly Line

This week's most influential Industry 4.0 media.

Carbon Free Aluminum Production with Inert Electrodes for Clean Energy Storage and Production

Arctus Aluminium, based in Iceland, has been focused on addressing direct emissions in the aluminum smelting process. The company is working on the development of a smelting process that utilizes inert anodes, which are able to produce oxygen instead of CO2 as in the conventional smelting method. In addition, the company has joined the European REVEAL project, which aims to revolutionize energy storage by considering aluminum as a powerful energy carrier.

Arctus Aluminium has been developing its own inert anode technology in cooperation with IceTec, an Icelandic research organization, and its industrial partners, Nordural, a smelter in Iceland, and Trimet Aluminium, the largest primary aluminum producer in Germany. The Arctus technology involves the vertical electrode cell (VEC), which features vertical inert anodes and wettable inert cathodes. In the VEC, the electrolyte is kept at a relatively low temperature of 800°C (1,472°F). The inert anodes are made from a non-consumable metal alloy and the wettable inert cathodes are comprised of TiB2 plates.

The Arctus cells are also designed to reduce power consumption (by 20% compared to conventional smelting) due to the low-temperature electrolyte and placement of the anodes and cathodes. The vertical positioning allows for both sides of the anodes and cathodes to be exposed, and the short anode-cathode distance (3–4 cm) improves efficiency. The cell is also designed to allow for modular power feeding during peak hours to optimize power pricing.

🦾🤖🦿 Keep the Music Going, Keep the Dance Flowing!

Figure releases Helix, a generalist Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model that unifies perception, language understanding, and learned control to overcome multiple longstanding challenges in robotics [Figure]
How OpenUSD and Synthetic Data Are Shaping Humanoid Robots [NVIDIA]

🛰️🌕📶 Nokia is putting the first cellular network on the moon

✍️ Author: Jacek Krywko

The shift from mostly point-to-point radio communications to a full-blown cell network architecture should result in higher data transfer speeds, better range, and increase the number of devices that could be connected simultaneously, Klein says. But the harsh conditions of space travel and on the lunar surface make it difficult to use Earth-based cell technology straight off the shelf.

During the IM-2 mission, the 4G cell network will allow for communication between the lander and the two vehicles. The network will likely only work for a few days— the spacecraft are not likely to survive after night descends on the lunar surface. To legally deploy the 4G network on the moon, Nokia received a waiver specifically for the IM-2 mission. “For permanent deployment we’ll have to pick a different frequency band,” Klein says. “We already have a list of candidate frequencies to consider.” Even with the frequency shift, Klein says Nokia’s lunar network technology will remain compatible with terrestrial 4G or 5G standards.

🦾🧫 Autonomous platform for solution processing of electronic polymers

✍️ Authors: Chengshi Wang, Yeon-Ju Kim, Aikaterini Vriza

The manipulation of electronic polymers’ solid-state properties through processing is crucial in electronics and energy research. Yet, efficiently processing electronic polymer solutions into thin films with specific properties remains a formidable challenge. Argonne introduces Polybot, an artificial intelligence (AI) driven automated material laboratory designed to autonomously explore processing pathways for achieving high-conductivity, low-defect electronic polymers films. Leveraging importance-guided Bayesian optimization, Polybot efficiently navigates a complex 7-dimensional processing space. In particular, the automated workflow and algorithms effectively explore the search space, mitigate biases, employ statistical methods to ensure data repeatability, and concurrently optimize multiple objectives with precision. The experimental campaign yields scale-up fabrication recipes, producing transparent conductive thin films with averaged conductivity exceeding 4500 S/cm. Feature importance analysis and morphological characterizations reveal key design factors. This work signifies a significant step towards transforming the manufacturing of electronic polymers, highlighting the potential of AI-driven automation in material science.

New Product Introduction

Highlighting new and innovative facilities, processes, products, and services

Litmus Unveils Next-Generation AI Capabilities at ProveIT, Revolutionizing Industrial DataOps

The enhanced Litmus Edge platform now features comprehensive AI integration, including:

A structured API interface for Data and Metadata that allows grounded AI agents to be integrated with Litmus Edge and Litmus UNS. Agents can now use historical data, context, and asset models from Litmus Edge for precise data interpretation with deeper context.
Optimized support for Nvidia GPU drivers, enabling local runtime of Computer Vision and other GPU-intensive AI applications right at the edge.
Locally hosted SLMs (small language models) now in beta, such as Microsoft Phi and Llama, to keep sensitive data secure in air-gapped environments – suitable for strict regulatory compliances.

Microsoft’s Majorana 1 chip carves new path for quantum computing

Microsoft introduced Majorana 1, the world’s first quantum chip powered by a new Topological Core architecture that it expects will realize quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades.

It leverages the world’s first topoconductor, a breakthrough type of material which can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits, which are the building blocks for quantum computers.

In the same way that the invention of semiconductors made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible, topoconductors and the new type of chip they enable offer a path to developing quantum systems that can scale to a million qubits and are capable of tackling the most complex industrial and societal problems.

Business Transactions

This week's top funding events, acquisitions, and partnerships across industrial value chains.

🇺🇸 Saronic Raises $600M Series C to Take on Autonomous Shipbuilding

Saronic Technologies announced it has closed $600 million of funding for its Series C round to advance its mission of redefining maritime superiority for the United States and its allies. The round was led by Elad Gil and values the company at $4 billion. This most recent round quadrupled Saronic’s valuation just seven months after the company hit unicorn status in July 2024. Saronic welcomes General Catalyst as a new investor and recognizes commitments from existing investors, including a16z, Caffeinated Capital, and 8VC.

With this funding, Saronic plans to build Port Alpha, a next-generation shipyard capable of delivering new classes of unmanned ships at the speed and scale needed to protect and defend the maritime domain. Port Alpha will enable the expansion of Saronic’s Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV) fleet into medium and large-class autonomous ships for defense applications.

🇮🇱 Augury Announces $75 Million of Funding and Maintains $1B+ Valuation, as it Accelerates Leadership in Industrial AI Solutions

Augury has announced that it has raised $75 million, with the round being led by Lightrock with participation from several of Augury’s existing investors - Insight Partners, Eclipse, Qumra Capital as well as Schneider Electric Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. The new round represents an increase in valuation for Augury, which maintains its position as the only ‘unicorn’ startup in the Production Health category.

Augury drives rapid Industrial AI adoption and strong ROI for global leaders like PepsiCo, DuPont, and Colgate-Palmolive. Since its last funding round Augury has tripled its number of $1 million-plus accounts, and has achieved over 500 million hours of machine data analyzed by its platform and an estimated $1 billion of value generated for customers utilizing its machine and process health solutions in over 40 countries. Augury’s solutions drive significant sustainability gains, including reduction of up to 37% process waste and 2% energy efficiency gain per manufacturing plant. It has also been estimated that by 2040, Augury’s solutions will cut emissions by ~12%, resulting in 3 MMt of CO2 reduced annually across the world.

🇺🇸 Resynergi Secures $18 Million in Series B Extension Led by Taranis to Accelerate Plastic Recycling Innovation

Resynergi, a leading innovator in modular advanced plastic recycling technology, announced it has raised $18 million in Series B extension funding led by Taranis, the investment and asset management company of Perenco Group. This milestone funding round will allow Resynergi to commission its first commercial scale site, equipping the company to address the outsized demand for sustainable, circular plastic resin and advance its mission to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

🇨🇭 Eleven Dynamics bags €3.7 million for automated production solutions in metrology

Eleven Dynamics AG, a software developer and full-breed integrator of automated and open production solutions, has announced its latest Seed+ investment round, securing €3.7 million. The round was led by the newly acquired lead investors EquityPitcher Ventures and seed + speed Ventures, as well as other new investors, including Zürcher Kantonalbank and angel investor Bertrand Gili. Existing investors Bloomhaus Ventures and Schauenburg Ventures also joined. In addition, the company raised €3.1 million through a loan from the Swiss Technology Fund.

Founded in 2020 by Santiago Droll, Eleven Dynamics AG is a provider of automated production solutions that “ensure 100% quality assurance“, trusted by companies such as BMW, Audi, and Sauber Motorsport. The company focuses on automating inline metrology to establish new industry standards. Its open platform looks to offer flexibility and integration, enabling predictive maintenance, sustainable infrastructure, and global data connectivity.