Security jitters are one of the main factors slowing down the adoption of smart factory technology — and last week’s DDOS attack, which took down Twitter and Netflix for a while, shows that these concerns aren’t paranoid. The hackers who orchestrated last week’s attack hacked into millions of devices, from Playstations to Nest thermostats, which… Read more »
Workplace safety is a primary priority in factories these days. Of course, safety has been regulated in U.S. manufacturing for at least a century, but consumers are now more aware and retailers are more insistent. As a result, machine makers including Rexroth have an even stronger focus on safety. But we also know that it’s… Read more »
The first fatal accident involving an automated vehicle took place in Florida. From the point of view of technology, the Tesla vehicle couldn’t tell the difference between the side of a white truck and the very bright Florida sky. The real cause of the problem, however, was that the human driver wasn’t paying attention, so… Read more »
Way before the internet of things, we quit getting up and walking to the TV to change the channel. We’ve had electric pencil sharpeners to save us from the effort of turning a crank and electric paper towel tearing machinces to save us from… Not really sure what that was supposed to save us from…. Read more »
The most exciting thing about new technologies in industry is that machines can communicate with one another as well as with humans, workpieces, and so forth. This provides opportunities for machine learning, for increased flexibility and speed, and for many new capabilities we haven’t even dreamed of yet. The most frightening thing about new technologies… Read more »
3-D printing, also called additive manufacturing, creates objects bit by bit, extruding molten plastic (and sometimes other things) onto a foundation with a 3-axis deposition head in painstaking layers that eventually build an object. To keep that molten plastic molten, the building is generally done in an oven. And this one feature has been the… Read more »
Human beings teach one another quite naturally. Other animals don’t teach, but they do learn from one another by copying behaviors that lead to positive results, like getting food. Machines can learn, in a very specialized sense of the word “learn,” but they never teach one another. Until now. Google is teaching robots to teach…. Read more »
The people who brought you Roomba, the automatic vacuum cleaner, are now sending a new robot into the seas to clean up invasive lionfish. Lionfish look very cool, but as incomers in the Atlantic they prey on fish that clean reefs. With no predators in that habitat, they’re doing significant harm. An organization called Robots… Read more »
Rexroth’s Fountain Inn, South Carolina, plant has been honored with the Assembly Plant of the Year Award for 2016. The largest of Rexroth’s U.S. factories, Fountain Inn produces specialized equipment for agriculture and construction industry needs. Most items produced at this factory are custom designed and made to order. Yet the cutting-edge technology here keeps… Read more »
It’s Manufacturing Day! This is not a holiday when all manufacturers take picnics into the woods. It’s a day when manufacturers open their doors and show off the great things about manufacturing. On the first Friday of October every year since 2012, Manufacturing Day gives the industry the chance to correct misconceptions about manufacturing. We… Read more »
