End of the Line

NASCAR is America’s favorite motorsport, but it has been historically resistant to change. With the launch of their Next Gen car, the sanctioning body has moved in a single leap from steel bodied, solid axle 1980s technology to full modern race car technology. Baidu’s Apollo AI business has launched a robotaxi system in Beijing, using factory equipped luxury cars in one of the future venues for th...

One of the addicted impacts of the global shift to electric vehicles is the death of the major internal combustion engine related technologies. Plain bearings, pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts engine blocks will disappear, along with valves, timing year and fuel delivery systems. But if you work in powertrain engineering, will still find familiar technology in the EV space. Jim Anderton descr...

Recycling of post-consumer waste is a cornerstone of environmental movements worldwide. But new technologies like high temperature pyrolysis promise to make incineration of solid waste a clean and viable alternative that creates heating and electricity. It compares very favourably to recycling in efficacy, efficiency and cost, yet can’t shake the old image of 20th-century pollution-causing inciner...

Artificial intelligence has been predicted in popular culture for over a century. The idea that human beings can make thinking machines is so popular, and so pervasive that we tend to call any sophisticated algorithm, intelligent. There is no artificial intelligence, at least not yet, it’s possible that there will never be. Coming to terms with this however, isn’t easy. Access all episodes of&nbsp...

Almost everything we use in daily life is software control. Mechanical and analog actuation and feedback control systems are rapidly disappearing, and everything from a smartwatch to a turbofan engine relies on thousands, sometimes millions of lines of code to function properly. Traditionally, the people that write the code have operated in a sort of vacuum, free to generate algorithms as they wis...

65 years ago, the Eisenhower Administration authorized a number one priority missile program to develop an ICBM as fast as humanly possible. That program, Atlas, combined R&D;, design, development and manufacturing into one process, compressing a decade of engineering into a couple of years. It worked, but was very expensive and the prime contractor, Convair, blew up a lot of equipment getting...

We were all promised the future would be like the Jetsons, with pushbutton flying cars. What happened? Well, multiple firms are developing flying cars right now, but the inhibiting factor for widespread adoption may not be in the hardware or software: but due to an unlikely source: insurance. These vehicles are expected to be radically different from either helicopters or fixed wing aircraft, and...

That exploding Boeing 777 engine that rained parts all over a Denver suburb last month looked dramatic. The fix involves a unique, proprietary inspection system that uses heat generated by soundwaves to detect cracks not visible with surface inspection techniques. In each episode of  End of the Line , manufacturing veteran Jim Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the st...

Major manufacturers routinely support production equipment with extensive online documentation. But smaller integrators and makers of bespoke production systems may rely on pass-through documents from their vendors. It isn’t enough. In each episode of  End of the Line , manufacturing veteran Jim Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the state of the manufacturing sector....

With the Industrial Internet of things, everything is sensor equipped. And with wireless, cloud connected production equipment, the amount of data that can be aggregated is immense. But are those sensors telling the truth? Jim Anderton relates that with increasing sophistication, industrial sensors are surprisingly misunderstood on a fundamental level. There are three things to keep in mind. In ea...

Battery electric vehicles appear poised to take over ground transportation in the form of passenger cars and trucks. With the increasing capability of better electric drones, work to create personal air vehicles using similar technology is underway worldwide as well. None of this however will replace jet aircraft as we know them. Here’s why. Interested in watching more episodes of End of the Line?...

COVID-19 has forced engineering teams to collaborate through video meeting software. Many engineering professionals privately admit that it’s a lot more difficult to get an idea across than it should be. Here’s why. In each episode of  End of the Line , manufacturing veteran Jim Anderton expresses his compelling and unique opinions about the state of the manufacturing sector. He shares his th...

New combinations of AI driven monitoring and control systems and cloud connectivity promise to change the way manufacturers design, produce and service the things they make. We know what works for multinationals. But will it benefit SMEs? Interested in watching more episodes of End of the Line? Check them out along with many other series only on  Engineering TV .

A global shortage of integrated circuits is hobbling auto production just as the industry is poised to rebound from a Covid caused sales slump that’s the worst seen since the 2008 recession. But the root cause isn’t a shortage of silicon.

Statistics are the backbone of both industrial quality control and epidemiology. Engineering professionals use statistics to gain meaningful insight into how defects occur in production systems and where. There are similarities to the current Covid 19 pandemic and government response to it. Can government take a page from the manufacturing experience?

The air freight industry has been disrupted by COVID, but 2021 may give manufacturers a much needed break. Click here to watch the latest in video.

The AMNESIA:33 attack is just the latest of a series of malware assaults on connected systems around the world. Control of industrial systems from anywhere is useful, but can it exist in the shadow of a determined and skilled hacker community? Jim Anderton comments. Click here to watch the latest in video.

AC induction motors are the backbone of industrial production worldwide. MRO operations for large firms are data driven, but what about smaller companies? Jim Anderton talks about some simple things engineering SMEs can do to keep motors turning. Click here to watch the latest in video.

Covid 19 is nominated in the media in 2020, but in American manufacturing there are seminal forces at work which now decide future of this critical sector in the 21st century. Jim Anderton comments on how vertical integration, finding and developing a skilled workforce, and the challenge of automation are issues that must be resolved to keep the US economy vibrant. Click here to watch the latest i...

Jigs and fixtures form a considerable part of the cost and time to production for many manufacturing processes. But what if advanced robotics could reduce or eliminate jigs and fixtures in production? For complex assemblies and large weldments, the technology already exists and promises to reduce unit costs in both high mix low volume, and mass production applications. Jim Anderton looks at how it...

Electric vehicles are everywhere in popular media today, led by the spectacular growth of Tesla. Many in the mass media and on Wall Street predict that the coming EV revolution will be the death knell for legacy automakers. Will the end of the internal combustion engine mean the end of Toyota, Volkswagen, GM and Ford? In this episode, Jim thinks that the story is a lot more complicated than the no...

In this episode, Jim discusses that what makes robots different was that they were programmable and general purpose and could be adapted to multiple in plant uses. Overall, the idea was to let the machines to the complex tasks and simplify the manufacturing process overall. But has it? Click here to watch the latest in video.

Bad as the Covid 19 pandemic is, it’s heartening to see that US and global manufacturing is starting to look at what the world will look like after it subsides. We're a consumption economy, and in mass-market of consumer goods; convincing people to open their wallets and make significant purchases may be a struggle. Or it may be easy. But if the past is any indication of the future, it will be inn...

In this episode, Jim discusses the self-driving car, a staple of sci-fi books and movies and predicted by automakers as far back as the 1930's, as was shown in a 1935 Chevy promotional film. With Cruise Automation’s application with the California DMV for a permit to operate autonomous vehicles in the city of San Francisco with no safety driver board, the future is about to enter the present. Clic...

In this episode, Jim discusses the Vernier caliper vs the steel rule - common tools in the engineer's pocket, but are they being used correctly in the right setting? Click here to watch the latest in video.