Monthly Archives: April 2020

Robot Safety

Forget the killer robots and the rescue robots — how about robots saving lives by taking on dangerous jobs? Robot safety isn’t always about avoiding robot danger. It’s also about letting robots take on the dangers. Milk tank inspection In New Zealand, robots are inspecting milk tanks. A list of safety concerns related to milk… Read more »

Rexroth and 5G

5G is in the news a lot right now — but not always as a manufacturing game changer, which it is. What is 5G, what difference will it make, and what should you do to get ready? What is 5G? 5G is the fifth generation of wireless communications technology. It’s expected to be much faster… Read more »

Legacy Parts

Legacy. Mature. Obsolete. Secondary. Classic. These are words you’re likely to hear when you have a problem with your machinery or a decision to make about your machinery. They may sound good, but they’re generally euphemisms for “old.” Do you want to stick with your old machine, you’re being asked, or get a new one?… Read more »

Manufacturing Productivity Falls

The Federal Reserve’s Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report is like a report card for the U.S. manufacturing industry. The most recent report shows that manufacturing production fell nationally in March by 6.3%. That’s the worst drop since 1946. That year, the government held a conference on productivity to tackle some difficult questions that had… Read more »

CDC’s New Guidance for Workplaces

The Centers for Disease Control have had recommendations in place for workers who catch the coronavirus. They’ve told us how and when to bring people who survive the infection back onto the factory floor. However, those recommendations were based on the idea that people would be tested for the infection. In reality, lack of access… Read more »

COVID-19 Manufacturing Paradoxes

Once the pandemic slows down enough to allow people to stop thinking too much about death, they begin thinking about economics. And there we are already seeing some surprising events. For one thing, many manufacturers have been shut down. Homeland Security lists the kinds of businesses which are allowed to stay open: “Workers necessary for… Read more »

Get to Know the Indramat CLM Control

dog

In school we learned how to write papers according to a certain formula. “There are three kinds of dogs,” we’d scribble, “First, there are big dogs. Then there are medium dogs. Finally, there are little dogs.” We’d run through a few examples of each, pointing out the bigness of Great Danes and St. Bernards, the… Read more »

Autonomous Vehicles Step up for COVID-19

A robot is just the right coworker for the coronavirus pandemic. Autonomous vehicles are one type of robot that may benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mayo Clinic’s Florida branch in Jacksonville, Florida, is using robotic vehicles to transport COVID-19 tests from a drive-through clinic to the lab where they will be analyzed. Facility workers load… Read more »

COVID-19 Affects Manufacturing

It’s hard to say how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting manufacturing. On the one hand, 18,000 manufacturing workers are unemployed. On the other, consumer packaged goods are selling like hotcakes and some manufacturers are having trouble keeping up with demand. Packaging World conducted a survey of CPG and food, beverage, and personal product manufacturers to… Read more »

Rexroth Makes Medical Masks

Rexroth has been involved with many great adventures, from Arctic exploration to building the Panama Canal. Now, Rexroth is involved with the effort to provide medical masks for healthcare professionals around the world. Tectra Automation Mechatronics is a South African subsidiary of Bosch Rexroth. Technicians there designed a reusable medical-grade mask that can be 3-D… Read more »