Design World

We kick off the new year of Design World's Executive Edition with Tom Kelly, Executive Director and CEO of Automation Alley. Over the past two years, Tom has been the driving force behind Automation Alley's transformation into Michigan's Industry 4.0 Knowledge Center and is a nationally and globally recognized expert on the smart manufacturing revolution and its impact on business. Today, we talk...

A Minneapolis-based startup, Sprowt Labs, has developed a “personal malt-house” for those who enjoy home brewing beer. Part of the build involved using injection molding to create a humidifier box for the Acro. Sprowt Labs worked with Protolabs on the development of the humidifier box.

Design World's VP, Editorial Director Paul J. Heney chats with Bradford L. Goldense, one of the 18 judges for this year's inaugural LEAP Awards. Goldense discusses the challenges of such an immense undertaking, as well as some of the technology that most impressed him.

In this episode of Design World's executive edition, we are joined by Nitin Mathur, TE Connectivity's chief digital and e-business officer. With its official launch in September, the new TE store is offering thousands of its products to users in the United States. Mathur highlights how TE plans to use this concept along with online design as an incubator for ideas of engineers and inventors.

Design World's VP, Editorial Director Paul J. Heney speaks with Adam Livesay, the Chief Revenue Officer for Elevat-IoT about his company's work on the Internet of Things in the fluid power space, including some fascinating applications.

Steve Gosk, President and CEO of Fischer Connectors, talks about the future of connectivity.

Design World's VP, Editorial Director Paul J. Heney speaks with Adaptall's General Manager, Mike Rennie, about the fittings business and the industry as it moves into 2019.

John Kawola, president of Ultimaker North America discusses the role 3D printing can have in manufacturing.

Driven by a successful Kickstarter campaign, Boulder, Colorado-based, connected-musical applications company Specdrums had a challenge on its hands. With orders in the queue, the growing company needed production help – they needed it fast, and in a manner that could scale for future growth. The company’s success is due to its game-changing innovation that brings drumming to your fingertips, liter...

In this issue of Executive Edition, Greg Paulsen, director of applications engineering at Xometry, discusses additive manufacturing and service providers.

The BattleBots competition has become a popular entertainment. But it is also an opportunity for engineers to hone their fast design practices and study failure analysis. One of the more recent winners of the BattleBots is Hal Rucker, an engineer designer, builder, and co-driver, most notably of DUCK. DUCK won in Season 3 of the show.

Design World's Vice President, Editorial Director Paul J. Heney speaks with Orange Seal's COO, Gordon Kolasingh about the company, the fluid power market in his native Caribbean region, and how the coming year is looking for this broker.

A number of prototyping processes are available for the design engineer. Rapid Manufacturing, Nashua, NH, offers rapid prototyping with sheet metal. (The company was recently acquired by Proto Labs.) Here are a few quick tips on making the most out of prototyping using sheet metals.

Gordon Styles, president and CEO of Star Rapid, a service provider in China takes a look at some of the changes he sees coming to additive manufacturing. Styles looks at plastic and metal 3D printing, and how metal desktop 3D printers may affect the manufacturing landscape.

Design World Editorial Director Paul J. Heney talks with Ryan Schroeder, President of the Americas, for IMI Precision Engineering, about his company's impending purchase of Bimba Manufacturing, the IoT and green engineering.

Recently 3D Systems introduced Geomagic® Control X 2018 inspection platform and GibbsCAM 12 manufacturing software. We spoke to Chris MacBain, product marketing manager, 3D Systems to learn more about key features that help design engineers work more efficiently in their product design and prototyping functions.

Drawing inspiration from traditional Zen gardens, the kinetic art table uses a metal ball to create unique and complex designs in sand under a glass top. The table is in a perpetual state of motion, continually creating and erasing patterns in the sand.

Tervis Tumbler leverages rapid injection molding for both prototypes and end-use parts

In this age of non-GMO, home grown and fully traceable produce, backyard food gardening is on the rise. But it’s not without a few challenges—weeding, proper watering, and so on. What if you could automate many tasks of personal gardening?

In the latest episode of Design World’s Technology Tuesdays Podcast, Editorial Director Paul J. Heney speaks with Ray Szparagowski, Engineering Fellow with Freudenberg NOK Sealing Technologies about the latest in high performance engineering plastics. These materials are increasingly being used for bearing/bushing applications. They offer design flexibility and reduced weight. However, performance...

In plastic injection molding, 3D printing of cores that include conformal cooling channels are set to become more of a mainstream choice. But there are a few rules that apply when creating such parts for plastic injection molding.

In this Technology Tuesdays podcast, Brian Scott, application engineer at Nippon Pulse America, chats with Lisa Eitel of Design World about linear motors such as iron core, U-channel, and tubular linear motors … and the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Fluid Power World and Design World Editorial Director Paul J. Heney chats with Allen Carlson of the University of Florida (and retired CEO of Sun Hydraulics) about engineering education. Carlson will be a Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Fluid Power Technology Conference in Milwaukee on May 16-17, 2017 (fluidpowertechconference.com). Carlson covers a lot of timely topics, including encouraging wome...

Design World Technology Tuesdays Podcast for April 4th 2017 • In this Technology Tuesdays podcast recorded in Irwin, Pennsylvania, Jeremy Miller, product manager of linear mechanics at the Parker Hannifin Electromechanical & Drives Division, chats with Lisa Eitel of Design World about how an increasing number of design engineers are turning to electromechanical offerings instead of fluid power — e...

Insert molding is the process of overmolding thermoplastic material around a preformed component (an insert) to create a finished part that incorporates multiple materials. The inserts are generally metal parts used to reinforce the mechanical properties of the plastic part. The metal inserts are placed into the mold to form the part.