Manufacturing & Prototyping

New Products

See the new products, including igus' aluminum version of its drylin ® NT-60 telescopic rail; Tolomatic Inc.'s online Drive Integration Tool; Flexiv's KURAVIZON adaptive robot; Thomson Industries' upgrade to its stepper motor linear actuator online selector tool, which adds the ability to include encoders in the design process; and more.

3D-Printed Soft Robotic Joint Allows Greater Bending Angles

Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have developed a new soft joint model for robots with an asymmetrical triangular structure and an extremely thin central column. This breakthrough, recently patented, allows for versatility of movement, adaptability and safety, and will have a major impact in the field of robotics. Read on to learn more.

Gear Motors Help Put the Squeeze on Materials Requiring Dewatering

The applications that require dewatering are too numerous to list in their entirety. Dewatering is a process that — as its name suggests — separates fluids from solids, often converting what would otherwise go down the drain or end up in a landfill into saleable products. Read on to learn more about it and how gear motors come into play.

Cobot Cuts Cost and Risk While Boosting On-Time Delivery

Los Angeles-based plastics contract manufacturer Kal Plastics deployed UR10e trimming cobot for a fraction of the cost and lead time of a CNC machine, cut trimming time nearly in half, and reduced late shipments to under one percent — all while improving employee safety and growth opportunities. Read on to learn more.

MIT Engineers Develop a Fully 3D-Printed Electrospray Engine

An electrospray engine applies an electric field to a conductive liquid, generating a high-speed jet of tiny droplets that can propel a spacecraft. These miniature engines are...

Artificial Muscles Could Lead to Soft, Wiggly Robots

A team has developed a method to grow artificial muscle tissue that twitches and flexes in multiple coordinated directions. As a demonstration, they grew an artificial, muscle-powered structure that pulls both concentrically and radially.

Intel's Progress on Developing Next-Generation Computer Chips for Defense Applications

Watch this video from Aerospace & Defense Technology to learn how Intel has been advancing the development of prototype computer chips for defense applications in recent years, as well as insights about their Intel18A technology.

Bioprinting Artificial Organs in Space to Benefit Human Life on Earth

Recent successes in cultivating human heart tissue, knee cartilage, and pharmaceutical crystals in space have relied on technology that was initially developed decades ago with support from NASA.

Readers Select 2024 Products of the Year

Last December, Tech Briefs readers were asked to select one product from our 2024 Products of the Month to be named Readers’ Choice Product of the Year. Thanks to all of our readers who cast their votes. Read on to learn the 2024 winners.

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: IDEC Corporation's FS1B Safety Controller, an upgrade of the popular FS1A.

Is Advanced Packaging the Next Large Leap for Mission-Critical Microelectronics?

The U.S. government’s microelectronics needs have evolved significantly over the decades. Now, we have entered the era of Advanced Packaging. This is the next microelectronics evolution to enhance and extend the performance of modern military and commercial systems. Read on to learn more about this.

3DEXPERIENCE World 2025 Unleashes Generative AI Power for Design

Designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, makers, and students gathered at Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE World 2025 event in Houston, TX, from February 23-26, to explore how AI is transforming design and manufacturing.

Mass 3D Printing in Space for the First Time

Auxilium Biotechnologies has successfully deployed its 3D bioprinter aboard the ISS. The platform is the first of its kind, making history by printing eight implantable medical devices simultaneously in just two hours.

AI-Driven Manufacturing Efficiency Tool

Qing “Cindy” Chang and her team at the University of Virginia have made a significant advancement in manufacturing technology by developing an AI-driven system that could transform how factories operate. Using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL), the team has created a more efficient way to optimize manufacturing systems, improving both speed and quality while reducing waste.

How Much Do You Know About Microwave Heating?

Almost everyone has a microwave oven, but do you really understand how they work? How much do you know about microwave heating? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

UxV/35: A New Approach to Lowering the Cost of Designing Drones

On the first episode of Season 7 of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Dom Koenig, Marketing Manager, Kairos Autonomi, explains how the UxV/35 standard could be used to lower the cost of designing and manufacturing drones in the future.