Advanced Manufacturing Now

At the SOUTH-TEC show in Greenville, SC, we're joined by Greg Cooke, applications engineer for Promess Inc., in Brighton, MI, who talks about how manufacturers are looking for flexible assembly solutions in a variety of manufacturing industries. Promess, a manufacturer of turnkey monitoring and motion systems used in a wide variety of Assembly and Test applications around the world, began expanding into the southern US manufacturing region about 10 years ago, as the downturn in the economy began. Cooke, who's based in Huntsville, AL, spoke with Senior Editor Patrick Waurzyniak about some of the ways Promess diversified to prosper in the recession and into the present with flexible assembly solutions.

In an interview in Shanghai, Eric Green, VP, user experience & marketing for the DELMIA product brand at Dassault Systèmes, weighs in on what "super fab labs" in Beijing and Moscow might well produce. He also describes how Dassault's 3D Experience Lab works. He identifies the three most important smart manufacturing trends to watch in China, in his opinion. He says Huawei has one of Dassault's most compelling smart manufacturing client stories to tell so far in China (and references a Smart Manufacturing magazine story, available at tinyurl.com/HuaweiCloud, about that firm). And he describes what changes will be needed because of the speedy adoption of robots in China.

Nick Sondej, application engineer of Markforged, talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about the company's carbon fiber and metal 3D printing for strength, performance, and accuracy. Learn about how businesses in a variety of different industries, such as aerospace, robotics, and consumer electronics, are using Markforged technology to innovate faster at a lower cost. Markforged is based in Cambridge, MA, and its team of engineers, designers and industry veterans live the company's mission of focusing on engineering, design, quality of parts, and software innovation.

In a wide-ranging interview at at Dassault Systèmes' 3DExperience Forum North America in South Florida, Subham Sett, director of strategic initiatives for AM and materials at the French software giant, outlines its approach to AM, the biggest challenges his customers face in the production process, certification needs by the FDA and FAA, and "the infinite capacity you have to engineer a material to fit a purpose." He also outlines what Dassault Systèmes will gain from its planned purchase of Massachusetts-based Exa, for about $400 million: "If you look at the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) technology and what's around us, there are a lot of fluid applications…, and Exa, being the world leader for lattice Boltzmann techniques for CFD, brings in a key piece of technology, which adds onto another acquisition we made last year—a [division of the Spanish firm Next Limit that produced the XFlo CFD software]. Between them, we have some of the best technologies that will help us drive our CFD offers. As well as, it starts addressing a marketspace that quite honestly is still evolving with all the work that is happening in aerospace and automotive and oil and gas."

"MAKE IT IN LA" is helping develop and advance the large and growing manufacturing community in Southern California. Likewise, an innovative podcast, "The Art of Manufacturing," is telling the powerful personal stories of innovators involved in new manufacturing companies, processes and technologies. In this podcast, Krisztina 'Z' Holly, host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and Founder & Chief Instigator of MAKE IT IN LA, talks with Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about how those projects came to be, the challenges and opportunities in manufacturing today, and key messages for people who are interested in getting involved in manufacturing.

At EMO, 3D Systems launched the latest version of its GibbsCAM software. The new release, GibbsCAM12, includes the first new interface for the software in many years. In this podcast, Chris MacBain, product marketing manager for 3D Systems, talks with Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about GibbsCAM and its role in the manufacturing industry; why the updated interface was needed; how it changes the way machinists work with the software, and new developments MacBain expects to see in CAM software in the coming years.

Metrology plays a key role in manufacturing, but that role is changing. In this podcast, Alan Rooks, editor in chief for Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with David Wick, manager of product management for Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, about key trends in metrology in terms of software, sensors, and networking; customer challenges and how metrology tools help meet those challenges; and how the personal computer industry offers a good analogy to the changing market for metrology products.

Bjorn Schwarzenbach, communications and project coordinator at Rollomatic, talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about how Rollomatic is addressing the public perception of the manufacturing industry and how Manufacturing Day, a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers, plays an important role to educate communities across the country about manufacturing career opportunities.

Brian Ayers, vice president of sales and marketing at Arch Global Precision, talks with Candace Roulo, managing editor of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, about the company's entrepreneurial values and philosophy about manufacturing in the US. Arch Global Precision, a consolidated precision machining services company, combines the expertise of American manufacturers and expanding technologies to serve the medical, aerospace and defense, and industrial markets.

SME has an 85+ year history of supporting US manufacturing. In this podcast, Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with Jeff Krause, Chief Executive Officer of SME, about the role of SME, how that role is evolving, the growth of smart manufacturing, new education venues, and the importance of workforce development.