Ultra-large Press and Single Digit Microns

Hyundai unveils an ultra-large servo press for their Alabama facility, while Elon Musk seeks single digit micron precision for all parts at Tesla. Battery manufacturer race to automate.

Aug 27, 2023

Shop Talk

Capturing this week's zeitgeist

Did he really mean single digit microns? (Source: Chris Combs on X)

PFAS bans come into effect starting with Minnesota and eventually nationally. Manufacturers are still assessing their PFAS risks and closing facilities. Labor spats heat up in Arizona with TSMC and Detroit with the Big 3 automakers.

Spirit Aerosystems runs into more problems. Mid-week we discussed supply chain risk sharing in high-tech manufacturing and used Spirit as an example:

Paying for Defects in Leading Edge Manufacturing

David Rogers

August 23, 2023

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Assembly Line

This week's most influential Industry 4.0 media

🧀 Next Time You Buy Parmesan, Watch Out for the Microchip

📅 Date: August 17, 2023
✍️ Author: Eric Sylvers
🔖 Topics: Blockchain
🏭 Vertical: Food

Italian producers of parmesan cheese have been fighting against imitations for years. Now, makers of Parmigiano-Reggiano, as the original parmesan cheese is officially called, are slapping the microchips on their 90-pound cheese wheels as part of an endless cat-and-mouse game between makers of authentic and fake products.

The new silicon chips, made by Chicago-based p-Chip, use blockchain technology to authenticate data that can trace the cheese as far back as the producer of the milk used. The chips have been in advanced testing on more than 100,000 Parmigiano wheels for more than a year. The consortium of producers wants to be sure the chips can stand up to Parmigiano’s aging requirement, which is a minimum of one year and can exceed three years for some varieties.

“We don’t want to be known as the company accused of tracking people,” said Eibon. “I ate one of the chips and nobody is tracking me, except my wife, and she uses a different method.”

♻️ Plant-Based Plastics Gain Favor as Companies Pursue Sustainability Goals

📅 Date: August 17, 2023
✍️ Author: Dieter Holger
🔖 Topics: Sustainability

Bioplastics are expanding faster than recycled plastic in some cases, such as in Asian countries like China and Japan that are mandating more ecologically friendly materials, nova-Institute founder Michael Carus said. Even if global plastic recycling rates someday reach 70% compared with around 9% today, bioplastics alongside materials made from captured carbon dioxide will have a big role to play as the world transitions away from fossil-fuel-based materials.

🛰️ How Space Factories Are Becoming A Reality

🏢 Organizations: Varda Space, Space Forge

🔋🦾 Battery Manufacturer Boosts Output With Automation

📅 Date: August 26, 2023
✍️ Author: John Sprovieri
🔖 Topics: Industrial Robot

ESS Inc. of Wilsonville, OR, has developed iron-flow battery systems, the Energy Warehouse and the Energy Center, designed to meet the energy needs of customers ranging from small industrial facilities to large, utility-scale projects. The Energy Warehouse is built inside a standard 40-foot shipping container for easy transport and commissioning. It provides six to 12 hours of storage, with a nominal power of 75 kilowatts (kW), a peak energy capacity of 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) and a rated energy capacity of 400 kWh.

Initially, ESS assembled products manually. As volumes grew, it implemented a semiautomatic assembly line. Workers manually assembled the stacks of materials that made up the positive and negative electrodes of the battery. Those stacks would then be handed off to robots to ensure that the seal between all the layers is done with great precision. Even on the semiautomatic line, control software is used to reduce idle time and improve utilization of key equipment.

Challenging Edge Cases in Industrial Automation - Robotics, High-Speed

🏢 Organizations: B&R Automation, Beckhoff Automation

🗜️ Hyundai Rotem unveils ultra-large servo press line

📅 Date: August 24, 2023
✍️ Author: Hyung-Kyu Kim
🏢 Organizations: Hyundai

“Through the introduction of the ultra-large servo press, we have gained a technological advantage in the automotive production equipment market,” a company source said. “Through continuous research and development, we aim to capture a significant portion of the global press market.”

Capital Investment

Major factory investments and line commissions. Tracked in the Atlas.

🏭🇨🇦 EcoProBM, SK On, Ford Investing in Québec; Building Cathode Plant to Solidify EV supply chain in North America

SK On, EcoProBM and Ford are announcing an investment of C$1.2 billion to build a cathode manufacturing facility that will provide materials that ultimately supply batteries for Ford’s future electric vehicles. Once production begins in the first half of 2026, the site will have the capacity to produce up to 45,000 tonnes of CAM per year.

This new facility – Ford’s first investment in Québec – is part of the automaker’s plan to localize key battery raw material processing in regions where it produces EVs. EcoPro CAM Canada LP will manufacture cathode active materials and, more precisely, high quality Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM) for rechargeable batteries that are targeting greater performance levels and improved EV range compared to existing products, thanks in part to EcoPro’s core shell gradient (CSG) technology.

🏭🇺🇸 A renewable energy battery plant will rise in West Virginia where a steel mill once stood

✍️ Author: Dharna Noor

A cutting-edge energy storage company is building its main manufacturing plant where a once-thriving West Virginia steel mill once stood in the city of Weirton. Form Energy, a Massachusetts-based company helmed by a former Tesla vice-president, broke ground on its iron-air battery manufacturing plant this past May. Workers will produce batteries capable of storing electricity for 100 hours, which will run on iron, water and air instead of the more common but less-abundant metal lithium. The $760m project will create 750 well-paying permanent jobs, the company said.

🏭🇺🇸 Two Towns, Two Factories: How a $500 Billion Boom Exposes American Failures

✍️ Author: Shawn Donnan

The new industrial boom has the potential to widen this divide rather than close it. Rockingham’s pet food plant in Eden, a fading mill town of 15,000, will employ 300 people; Chatham’s, 1,800. On average, the Rockingham workers will earn $42,000 a year; Chatham’s, $78,000. Or consider the sheer industrial and economic impact of each employer. Nestlé Purina is investing $450 million, the most valuable economic development project in Rockingham County history. Wolfspeed is investing $5 billion, the most in state history. Again and again, the Rockinghams are falling behind the Chathams even when both win economic prizes.

Business Transactions

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

🔋 Northvolt raises $1.2 billion convertible note as first energy storage systems are produced at Northvolt Dwa

📅 Date: August 22, 2023
🔖 Topics: Funding Event

As Northvolt assembles its first battery systems at Northvolt Dwa in Poland, the company today announced the raising of $1.2 billion to finance plans for its further European and North American expansion. The funding is an extension of the $1.1 billion convertible note signed in July 2022, and has attracted investment from funds labeled dark green in accordance with Article 9 of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Leading the extension are the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), BlackRock and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), as well as long-term financial partner OMERS, making its third major investment in the company.

🔋 American Battery Factory Raises Development Capital in Series A Funding Round to Support Continued Growth

📅 Date: August 21, 2023

American Battery Factory Inc. (ABF), an emerging battery manufacturer leading the development of the first network of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell gigafactories in the United States, today announced that it has raised significant development capital in Series A funding from investors, including a significant investment from Lion Energy. Results of the funding round mark a milestone to secure production equipment and security technology needed for the first development phase of its recently announced gigafactory in Tucson, Arizona.

🖥️🏭 Pico MES Announces $12M Series A to Boost American Manufacturing for Mid-sized Factories & Build a Connected Supply Chain

📅 Date: August 22, 2023
🏢 Organizations: Pico MES, Robert Bosch, Schneider Electric

Pico MES, a software company that is enabling digital transformation for small to medium-sized American factories, today announced a $12.35M Series A investment led by Bosch Ventures and joined by new investors from Counterpart Ventures and Momenta. Existing investors Lemnos, Congruent Ventures, Union Labs, and SE Ventures participated in the round as well.

🗜️ Ontario Welcomes $5 Million Manufacturing Investment in Macrodyne Technologies

📅 Date: August 22, 2023
🏢 Organizations: Macrodyne Technologies

The Ontario government is welcoming a $5 million investment by Macrodyne Technologies Inc., North America’s largest manufacturer of hydraulic presses and automation systems, equipment used by manufacturers in over 40 industries to shape and mould materials such as metal, plastic, rubber and wood. With their $5 million investment, Macrodyne Technologies will purchase state-of-the-art, technology to expand their product line and add more automation and AI solutions. This new technology will also help the company double production to meet growing demand from customers around the world, including those in the steel and aluminum, automotive, aerospace and pulp and paper industries.

🦠 Cascade Biocatalysts Secures $2.6M to Scale Enzymes for Biomanufacturing

📅 Date: August 22, 2023

Cascade Biocatalysts, a biomanufacturing company catalyzing green chemistry, raised an oversubscribed $2.6 M pre-seed led by Ten VC with participation from Amplify.LA, Boost VC, Range Ventures, Spacecadet, and the Cool Climate Collective. Cascade aims to use the raised funds to scale its impact from the lab bench to pilot scale and to support its initial wave of customers. Cascade’s vision is to make the industrial use of enzymes more affordable to accelerate the transition to greener chemical manufacturing.

🖨️ EOS North America and 3YOURMIND Launch Rapid Part Identifier Program

📅 Date: August 24, 2023
🔖 Topics: Partnership, Additive Manufacturing
🏢 Organizations: EOS, 3YOURMIND

EOS North America’s Additive Minds team and 3YOURMIND have partnered to accelerate additive manufacturing (AM) adoption through their Rapid Part Identifier program. Now, organizations can benefit from the rapid part screening of 2D and 3D files, augmented by AM engineering expertise to create a holistic industrial 3D printing strategy. This new partnership agreement helps quickly scale part identification for AM, supported by the strategy and engineering required to achieve successful production.

🖥️ ABB invests in edge-to-cloud platform innovator Pratexo

📅 Date: August 22, 2023
🏢 Organizations: ABB, Pratexo

ABB is investing in a strategic partnership with Pratexo, an edge-to-cloud acceleration platform company. The partnership involves a minority investment in Pratexo through ABB’s venture capital unit, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV). The collaboration with Pratexo will help ABB’s customers deploy edge-based networks and solution architectures that provide real time insights, with the added benefits of reduced cloud data transfer volumes, improved data privacy and security, and the ability to run even when not connected to the internet.

🦾 Doosan Robotics to develop GPT-based collaborative robots

📅 Date: August 24, 2023
✍️ Author: Mi-Sun Kang
🔖 Topics: Partnership, Cobot, Large Language Model
🏢 Organizations: Doosan, Microsoft, Open AI

Doosan Robotics announced it has entered into a business agreement with Microsoft and Doosan Digital Innovation to develop a GPT-based robot control system” utilizing Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. Azure OpenAI provides cloud services that include cutting-edge open AI systems, including GPT. Doosan Robotics plans to apply GPT to its collaborative robots, enabling them to autonomously correct errors and perform tasks.

♻️ Amcor, Mondelēz International and Licella partner to promote circular economy

📅 Date: August 10, 2023

Leaders in the packaging value chain have today joined forces to further advance a circular economy for plastic packaging in Australia. Amcor and Mondelēz International, Inc. are investing in advanced recycling technology pioneer Licella in an important step towards ending plastic waste. The investments announced today will help Licella progress construction of one of the first advanced recycling facilities in Australia. Licella will use its innovative Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR™) technology to recycle end-of-life plastic back into a crude oil substitute suitable to produce new food-grade plastic packaging.

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Paying for Defects in Leading Edge Manufacturing

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