Automation, Controls and Technology News

Screw Extrusion Additive Manufacturing (SEAM) technology from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU is a high-speed system that is said to take only 18 min. to produce a plastic component that is 30-cm high. The extruder is installed above a construction platform that can be swiveled in six axes by using a motion system akin to that of a machine tool. Plastic is deposited in layers on the construction platform. The motion system ensures that the construction panel slides along under the nozzle in such a way that the previously programmed component shape is produced. The...

My childhood was spent listening to songs piped out of an AM transistor radio, selected at the whim of a DJ. Today my 4-year-old grandson merely needs to tell his virtual assistant named Alexa the music he would like to hear. Technology has changed so dramatically in my lifetime that it’s hard to envision a future state when there isn’t the kind of exponential growth we’ve seen since the mid-1990s.  Arguably the most significant technological advance for American business—the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which holds the promise of unimagined productivity gains and untold benefits to consumers—isn’t assured. That’s the...