Advanced Manufacturing Now

A more diverse workforce that includes more women can help manufacturers fill the growing skills gap. In this podcast, Sandra Bouckley, president of SME, talks with Senior Editor Jim Lorincz about the need for increased diversity in the workforce and how it can increase productivity and creativity while producing new solutions to manufacturing issues. She also examines why women make up just 29% o...

Markforged has played a role in advancing the art and science of additive manufacturing. They have helped companies make great strides in getting the best results out of their 3D printing operations. Now, the company is helping manufacturers that are not involved in 3D printing to identify the opportunities where 3D printing could be used to make stronger products, manufacture them at less cost, a...

Manufacturing operations are looking for the fastest, most reliable equipment to deliver components machined quickly and with the highest accuracy possible. At SOUTH-TEC, we discussed the advantages of the Swiss-style machine tool equipment offered by Tsugami/Rem Sales (Windsor, CT). Bob Budnovitch, engineering manager, training/turnkey, and Frank Maiocco of Tsugami/Rem Sales, spoke with Senior Ed...

At the SOUTH-TEC show in Greenville, SC, we're joined by Greg Cooke, applications engineer for Promess Inc., in Brighton, MI, who talks about how manufacturers are looking for flexible assembly solutions in a variety of manufacturing industries. Promess, a manufacturer of turnkey monitoring and motion systems used in a wide variety of Assembly and Test applications around the world, began expandin...

In an interview in Shanghai, Eric Green, VP, user experience & marketing for the DELMIA product brand at Dassault Systèmes, weighs in on what "super fab labs" in Beijing and Moscow might well produce. He also describes how Dassault's 3D Experience Lab works. He identifies the three most important smart manufacturing trends to watch in China, in his opinion. He says Huawei has one of Dassault's mos...

Nick Sondej, application engineer of Markforged, talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about the company's carbon fiber and metal 3D printing for strength, performance, and accuracy. Learn about how businesses in a variety of different industries, such as aerospace, robotics, and consumer electronics, are using Markforged technology to innovate faster at...

In a wide-ranging interview at at Dassault Systèmes' 3DExperience Forum North America in South Florida, Subham Sett, director of strategic initiatives for AM and materials at the French software giant, outlines its  approach to AM, the biggest challenges his customers face in the production process, certification needs by the FDA and FAA, and "the infinite capacity you have to engineer a material...

"MAKE IT IN LA" is helping develop and advance the large and growing manufacturing community in Southern California. Likewise, an innovative podcast, "The Art of Manufacturing," is telling the powerful personal stories of innovators involved in new manufacturing companies, processes and technologies. In this podcast, Krisztina 'Z' Holly, host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and Founder & Chief...

At EMO, 3D Systems launched the latest version of its GibbsCAM software. The new release, GibbsCAM12, includes the first new interface for the software in many years. In this podcast, Chris MacBain, product marketing manager for 3D Systems, talks with Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about GibbsCAM and its role in the manufacturing industry; why the updated interf...

Metrology plays a key role in manufacturing, but that role is changing. In this podcast, Alan Rooks, editor in chief for Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with David Wick, manager of product management for Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, about key trends in metrology in terms of software, sensors, and networking; customer challenges and how metrology tools help meet those challenges; and...

Bjorn Schwarzenbach, communications and project coordinator at Rollomatic, talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about how Rollomatic is addressing the public perception of the manufacturing industry and how Manufacturing Day, a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers, plays an important role to educate co...

Brian Ayers, vice president of sales and marketing at Arch Global Precision, talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about the company's entrepreneurial values and philosophy about manufacturing in the US. Arch Global Precision, a consolidated precision machining services company, combines the expertise of American manufacturers and expanding technologies t...

SME has an 85+ year history of supporting US manufacturing. In this podcast, Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with Jeff Krause, Chief Executive Officer of SME, about the role of SME, how that role is evolving, the growth of smart manufacturing, new education venues, and the importance of workforce development.

Cajo Technologies President Ismo Rantala talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about the company's patented technology, which is based on an innovative application of the traditional laser beam, allowing for precise and permanent marking or color patterning on almost any material without additives or pigments. The company is headquartered in Kempele, in N...

Verisurf Software CEO Ernie Husted explains why there are still many legacy fixed CMMs in the market that are perceived to be obsolete due to outdated software, difficult programming interfaces and lack of trained operators--and how his metrology software firm is working to address this market truth. For example, Verisurf 2018 allows users to program, operate and collect measurement data directly...

More manufacturers are using electronic work instructions, such as VKS, to improve productivity and streamline their operations. In this podcast, Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with Shannon Bennett, Implementation & Sales Engineer at Visual Knowledge Share Ltd., about the need for electronic work instructions in manufacturing, the development of VKS, the t...

So, you've inherited older and/or disjointed systems and processes (and perhaps an unhelpful company culture) but you want to gain a competitive edge. What to do? Look at how systems can be integrated with a centralized tooling database, not at each individual process as a separate entity, Dan Speidel of TDM Systems says. Make sure you digitally tie and integrate the tool crib with CAM systems and...

Drawing upon his firm's work with NEC, Schlindler Elevator, Exelon and Pitney Bowes, Sergey Patsko of GE Digital advises manufacturing execs looking for value to focus on compute power and ways to process and analyze data.  He also suggests a couple of ways manufacturers can begin trying out the "digital transformation" approach. One approach is theoretical. Another is to start with proofs of conc...

Sharing findings from a survey of 300 automotive industry manufacturers, Jeannine Kunz, VP of Tooling U-SME, says the introduction of new technology is seen as the main contributor to the skills gap in manufacturing. "Essentially, technology is outpacing our people." Yes, the pipeline is still an issue. Yes, baby boomers leaving the market is still an issue. But the swift current of new technology...

Pratt & Whitney's Kimberley Hagerty, whose "year of living digitally" was featured in the May issue of Smart Manufacturing magazine, quickly reviews lessons she and her team learned, outlines three main challenges they faced and how she solved them, and describes some of the organizational changes she sees Industry 4.0 demanding of manufacturers.

Rego-Fix Corp., a manufacturer of precision tooling, has been on a deliberate, long-term growth and expansion program. Starting a few years ago in the company's home base of Switzerland, this year the program came to fruition in the US Vice President Sales and Marketing Bill Obras sat down with Manufacturing Engineering's James D. Sawyer at Eastec to discuss the program and provide details on the...

Manufacturing Engineering's James D. Sawyer interviews Chris Pollack, East Coast regional business manager for motion control , Siemens Industry, about the growing skills gap in US manufacturing and the challenges and opportunities inherent in training new users to operate the controls of machine tools.

As the technology has matured, the manufacturing world has seen an explosion in the number of metal parts, components and products manufactured additively. Yet despite this improvement the cost of metal 3D printing has not really become more affordable. In this sponsored podcast, Markforged Applications Engineer Peter Kootstra explains to SME's Jim Sawyer how his company has developed a process th...

As water jet technology has improved so, too, has the precision of these abrasive cutting machines. Along the way the applications for water jet cutting has expanded as well. At Eastec, Michael Ruppenthal, Omax vice president for North American sales, sat down with Manufacturing Engineering's James D. Sawyer to detail how the MicroMax, an ultra-precise fully enclosed water jet, has carved out a pl...

Hermle Machine Co., a manufacturer of high-end machine tools, annually employs 100 to 120 apprentices in its German operations. The apprentices make up about 13% of that workforce. Manuel Merkt, executive vice president of operations at Hermle's US operations (Franklin, WI), is working with the German American Chamber of Commerce to establish a similar program in Wisconsin which would provide grad...