IEN Radio

Getting your hands on Tesla’s Cybertruck is going to be difficult for the foreseeable future. But soon you may be able to pick up a Cybertruck-inspired gym hammer. Electrek this week found a trademark application from Tesla for a “Cyberhammer.” It’s filed under the fitness equipment category. So, there’s a good chance it will be a fitness hammer shaped like a Cybertruck on a stick. And the publica...

For this episode, I welcome Ankur Verma, a 26-year-old Ph. D. candidate in industrial and manufacturing engineering at Penn State University. Verma is also the co-founder and CEO of Lightscline , a company that offers AI-based data-reduction software. Verma said his interest in manufacturing began in high school in Western India and cited his father’s background as a professor of mechanical engine...

Engineers at the University of Glasgow have designed, developed and fired Ouroborous-3 (ear-uh-bore-us), the first unsupported "autophage" (aa-taa-fuh-j) rocket engine that eats parts of its own body for fuel.  The concept seems futuristic, but the idea is actually nearly 100 years old. The hope is the rocket engine can fly far beyond the Earth's atmosphere and make the United Kingd...

Last week, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences started work on phase three of a DARPA project to make a full-scale X-plane, the X-65, which could change aircraft design as we know it.  Well, the X-65 isn't the only experimental aircraft under Boeing's wing. This week, the airplane maker started modifying an MD-90 aircraft, including removing the engines and taking 3D scans. The proj...

An investigation into a sea vessel collision, which caused more than $6 million in damages, has determined the accident was caused by some untimely maintenance and lack of a proper lookout. The National Transportation Safety Board this week revealed its findings after looking into the 2022 collision involving a containership and a fishing vessel. In October of that year, the MSC Rita was traveling...

Hyperloop One, a transportation technology startup that focused on commercializing high-speed travel through tube-encased lines, has reportedly shut down. Bloomberg cited an anonymous source familiar with the situation who claimed that Hyperloop had laid off most of its employees and is attempting to sell its remaining assets, including machinery and a test track. The report added that the startup...

When Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully flew the first controllable aircraft in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the 12-second flight was achieved using wind warping, a system of movable, external control surfaces that nearly every aircraft has used for flight control since. The CRANE project from DARPA and Aurora Flight Sciences could change everything we know about modern flight. 

In March, Stellantis idled its plant in Belvidere, Illinois, as part of a transition from internal combustion to EVs. At the time, CEO Brad Tavares said Stellantis needed to "adapt to this new world," and some 1,350 workers were laid off indefinitely.  Well, about seven days before Christmas, some 165 Stellantis employees came back to work. This week, the workers returned to full-time po...

A joint investigation into a meat processing and packaging plant in Elk Grove, Illinois, has uncovered $3 million in back wages, damages and interest for 283 workers following violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Illinois Office of the Attorney General discovered that deli products manufacturer Greenr...

As the Russian war in Ukraine continues to drag on, collateral damage persists, impacting land, people and the business community. The latest corporate victim in this saga is multinational automaker, Hyundai, who announced this week that it will sell its plant in Russia for a tremendous loss. The Hyundai factory in St. Petersberg, which suspended operations back in March of 2022, is believed to be...

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that members at Anheuser-Busch have voted to authorize a strike if the brewing company does not meet demands for a new contract. The vote received 99% approval. Should the labor union and Anheuser-Busch fail to agree on a new contract by the upcoming Leap Day (February 29th), up to 5,000 workers across the company’s 12 breweries in the U.S. coul...

On Friday, the Justice Department announced a new complaint against Insect Shield and the company's late founder, Richard Lane, under the False Claims Act for allegedly submitting fake claims to the Department of Defense regarding contracts to provide Army combat uniforms. Insect Shield manufactures insect-repellent clothing technology that gives apparel invisible and odorless protection agai...

The EPA revealed that it would begin the process of prioritizing toxic chemicals used to manufacture and process plastics under the Toxic Substances Control Act.  The statutory process will last a year, during which the agency could designate the chemicals as high-priority substances. If they receive the designation, it would spark risk evaluations that could result in restrictions or outright ban...

In yet another instance of the cost of catastrophic failure likely outweighing the cost of maintenance, a rope has racked up millions in damages after failing. In July 2022, cargo ship Thorco Basilisk was offloading part of a wind turbine at Greensport Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel in Houston. In the process, a hoisting rope broke on the ship-mounted crane. When it did, it caused the compon...

The last few weeks have been packed with news on electric pickups – from the delivery of the first handful of Tesla Cybertrucks to – now – news from Ford that it will be scaling back its electric version of the F-150. Automotive News is reporting that Ford plans to reduce production of its Lightning full EV pickup by 50% starting in January. They cite a document allegedly sent to a Ford supplier e...

Energy harvesting is a novel way to keep devices charged, primarily in remote and harsh environments. Well, it doesn't get more harsh or remote than aerial warfare, which makes a new deal between Raytheon and DARPA, the Department of Defense’s arm that invests in breakthrough technologies for national security, all the more intriguing.  Raytheon recently received a $10 million contract from t...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, California medical device company Decision Diagnostics (DECN) was in trouble. Keith Berman, the 70-year-old CEO of the manufacturer of low-cost home testing devices and test strips, said his company needed a "new story." According to internal emails, he said the company needed a new narrative to "raise millions." So, he got creative, a little t...

Bi-drectional charging is one of those concepts that sound really good in theory. When your power goes out, an electric vehicle with a full battery could send power back to your home, eliminating the need to waste the contents of a full refrigerator. Up to this point, automakers have been dabbling with these capabilities and, while it isn’t exactly mainstream just yet, Volkswagen just announced so...

Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young workers about their jobs in the manufacturing industry and what they look for from an employer. For this episode, I welcome Davis Latham, a 24-year-old vice president of operations at CADmore , a design and engineering company that helps customers with a range of services related to manufacturing and product de...

A 69-year-old facility manager has been sentenced to 42 months in federal prison following a guilty plea for a kickback scheme that defrauded his employer of over $20 million.  According to a Department of Justice press release , Elliott Dennis Kleinman and fellow facility manager Eugene DiNoto used their management positions to launch a fraudulent billing scheme at their workplace, dubbed "C...

RemArms, the gun maker behind the Remington brand, has decided to shut down its manufacturing facility in Ilion, New York. RemArms anticipates the plant will close in March 2024, according to a letter sent to union officials that was obtained by the Observer-Dispatch . The closure will bring to end a long relationship between Remington and the small upstate New York town. The company has been maki...

The FDA sent a warning letter to a Wisconsin chemical company, accusing it of manufacturing hand sanitizer with the same equipment used to produce automotive brake parts cleaner. The FDA contends that Brenntag Great Lakes’ actions violated Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations.  The issue dates back to inspections, when the FDA alleged that Brenntag used the same equipment to make...

On April 29, 2022, the 600-foot-long chemical tanker, the Endo Breeze, was in the Raritan Bay between New York and New Jersey when oil spray from a fuel injector pump on the starboard main engine ignited off nearby hot surfaces and caused a fire. The crew successfully stopped the fire from spreading by removing fuel and oxygen sources and activating the vessel's fixed fire extinguishing syste...

In June 2021, firearms maker Dark Storm Industries announced plans to relocate manufacturing from New York to Titusville, Florida. The company intended to build a new 25,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing plant in the Sunshine State, foreseeing a capital investment of approximately $3.2 million and 87 new jobs. However, Florida Today has reported that the company , which caters specifi...

Back in September, U.S. Steel announced that it would be temporarily idling a blast furnace in Granite City, Illinois and pointed the finger at the UAW. At the time, leadership at the plant called the shutdown “risk mitigation” as the strike softened demand for steel from automotive customers. Fast forward a few months, and the strike has been resolved but things for U.S. Steel’s Granite City faci...