Magazine

5 Emerging Technologies in Manufacturing

This feature explores five transformative currents shaping the future of manufacturing and heralding a new era of improved production, efficiency, and sustainability.

Artificial Intelligence: How Cloud Technology and AI Drive a More Productive Future

This new era of technology eases the twin challenges of capacity and complexity and offers more flexibility than ever for businesses to respond to a fast-changing world.

6G: Will It Trigger a Manufacturing Revolution?

The next evolution in mobile networks is on the horizon with 6G. Set to surpass 5G with enhanced speed, reduced latency, and expanded capacity, countless applications will benefit. Manufacturing is anticipated to be one of the greatest beneficiaries.

Digital Twins: The Next Steps

According to researchers, Interconnected Digital Twins will challenge existing understanding of value creation and capture. The discrete and composite twins will be integrated within and between manufacturing firms and other key stakeholders.

Extended Reality: Immersing into the Future of Manufacturing

Extended reality (XR) technology has emerged as a key catalyst for innovation, offering a spectrum of benefits that redefine the way industries operate.

Sustainable Manufacturing: Re-Imagining Production

Given that manufacturing is responsible for 37 percent of global energy consumption, industry is feeling the pressure to address the challenge. Here are a few key trends that are accelerating the push to become more sustainable.

Optimizing a Chemical Vapor Deposition Process for a High-Performance Tungsten Material

To make fusion power not only physically possible but also economically possible, we need to develop high-performance fusion reactors. However, these reactors call for high-performance materials.

Photoelectric Sensor Essentials

Photoelectric (PE) sensors represent a discrete sensor technology widely used throughout industry. They use the presence or absence of light to provide an on/off output to supervisory automation and monitoring systems, and are often the better choice for sensing manufacturing products.

Optical Concentration Sensor for Liquid Solution

The optical concentration sensor has been demonstrated to effectively measure pretreat concentrations in both still and flowing liquid conditions and is resistant to contamination issues as necessitated by the UWMS.

Single Drop of Ethanol to Revolutionize Nanosensor Production

Macquarie University engineers have developed a new technique to make the manufacturing of nanosensors far less carbon-intensive, much cheaper, more efficient, and more versatile — substantially improving a key process in this trillion-dollar global industry.

Snake-Like Robot for Traversing Extreme Terrain on Earth, Moon, and Beyond

Called EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor), the self-propelled, autonomous robot was inspired by a desire to look for signs of life in the ocean hiding below the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus by descending narrow vents in the surface that spew geysers into space.

Dynamic Hydrogel Makes Soft Robot Components and Building Blocks

Using a new type of dual-polymer material capable of responding dynamically to its environment, researchers have developed a set of modular hydrogel components that could be useful in a variety of soft robotic and biomedical applications.

A Temperature-Modulating Robotic System

A research team has developed a robotic system that can be unobtrusively built into the frame of a standard honeybee hive. Composed of an array of thermal sensors and actuators, the system measures and modulates honeybee behavior through localized temperature variations.

A Precision Arm for Mini Robots

A team at ETH Zurich has developed an ultrasonically actuated glass needle that can be attached to a robotic arm. This lets them pump and mix minuscule amounts of liquid and trap particles.

New System Uses Only Solar Energy to Generate Hydrogen

The system harnesses the sun's heat to directly split water and generate hydrogen — a clean fuel that can power long-distance trucks, ships, and planes, while in the process emitting no greenhouse gas emissions.

Add-On Device Makes Home Furnaces Cleaner and Safer

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an affordable add-on technology that removes more than 99.9 percent of acidic gases and other emissions to produce an ultraclean natural gas furnace.

Baking Soda Could Turn Concrete into an Effective Carbon Sink

Recent discoveries by MIT engineers have revealed that introducing new materials into existing concrete manufacturing processes could significantly reduce their carbon footprint without altering concrete's bulk mechanical properties.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including Keystone Technologies' THM Test Points, Nikon IMBU's CT systems for non-destructive inspection, Renesas' SoCs and MCUs, Rad Source NDT's X-ray Inspection System, the Precision Specimen Loader from Instron, and more.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including ultra-fast mode-lock lasers, an accurate speech decoder, and an ultra-thin e-tattoo.

5Ws of the Silk Transistor

Researchers at Tufts University have created microprocessor-scale transistors that can detect and respond to biological states and the environment.

Contact-Free 3D Hybrid Printing with New High-Performance Materials

Javier Ramos, CTO, and his team from Inkbit Corporation, Medford, MA, along with researchers from MIT and ETH Zurich, have developed a 3D inkjet printer that uses contact-free computer vision feedback to print hybrid objects with a broad range of new functional chemistries.

Beyond the Shadows: Engineering Solutions for Surviving the Lunar Night

Passive thermal control systems have been developed over years of research and product development and will serve as enabling technology for NASA’s VIPER and future missions.

‘Digital Winglets’ for Real-Time Flight Paths

Traffic-Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR), developed by NASA, is a piece of software pilots and ground operations teams can use to find better routes in transit.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including battery-free force stickers, 3D holographic displays, an AI co-pilot.

Managing the Evolution of the EV Charging Standard

Grayson Brulte, host of SAE’s Tomorrow Today podcast, interviewed Christian Thiele, Director, Global Ground Vehicle Standards, SAE International, and Dr. Rodney McGee, P.E. Chairman, SAE J3400 NACS Task Force, regarding the work of the J3400 Task Force. This Q&A is an abbreviated portion of that interview.

Mistakes to Avoid When Integrating a Battery Test System

It’s not easy to configure a battery cycle test system for EV batteries and similar high-power batteries. This article covers the mistakes that engineers sometimes make when integrating a battery test system.

Improving Battery Performance with More Efficient Electrodes

To improve battery performance and production, Penn State researchers and collaborators have developed a new fabrication approach that could make for more efficient batteries that maintain energy and power levels.

New Technique for Environmentally Friendly Battery Recycling

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have created a new and efficient way to recycle metals from spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The method allows recovery of 100 percent of the aluminum and 98 percent of the lithium in EV batteries.