When 3D-printed parts leave the build chamber, they often require secondary operations such as machining, support removal, polishing, heat treatment, etc. AM practitioners call this
Ever wonder just what the heck they're doing out there on the production floor? If you had an MES, you'd know what jobs are running, which ones have problems, and what you should do about
Because "cobots" are limited in force and speed, they are suitable for use in close proximity to humans and typically require little or no guarding. They are not, however, as
A vision system uses cameras, programmable lighting, and image processing software to "look at" and automatically measure a part or part feature. Think of it as the next generation of that
Just as robots can take the tedium out of machine tending, RPA can automate everyday business tasks like processing customer sales orders and product returns, responding to service requests,
A theory of constraints (TOC) term, bottlenecks are what occur when you spend hours optimizing a turning operation, only to find that the department doing the next operation can't go
AM legend has it that Stratasys founder Scott Crump invented fused deposition modeling at his kitchen table. It uses a spool of weedwacker-like plastic filament that is forced through a
Instead of making more parts than are needed and sticking them on the shelf in hopes of selling them later, manufacturers have found they can improve cash flow and avoid
When L-PBF first became commercialized, its detractors noted that the metal particles were not fully melted (only sintered), and several companies built a business on that distinction. Today, the
The (almost) universal language of CNC machine tools. It uses commands like G00 (positioning mode), G01 (linear interpolation), G02 (clockwise circular interpolation), and so on, along with