Manufacturing & Prototyping

An Energy-Storing Concrete-Based Supercapacitor

Two of humanity’s most ubiquitous historical materials, cement, and carbon black may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study by MIT researchers.

Fully Stretchable Fabric-Based Lithium-Ion Battery

The future of wearable technology just got a big boost thanks to a team of University of Houston researchers who designed, developed, and delivered a successful prototype of a fully stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.

The Road to Net-Zero EV Development Labs

As the automotive sector continues to transition to a significant portion of their portfolio being electric, they must either build the needed test facilities to support this transition or update their current facilities.

AI and AM: A Powerful Synergy

In the digital-design-engineering world, at the foundation of innovation in advanced manufacturing, AI’s “deep learning” has the potential to transform how the world makes products — in highly positive ways.

New Ferroelectric Material Could Give Robots Muscles

A new type of ferroelectric polymer that is exceptionally good at converting electrical energy into mechanical strain holds promise as a high-performance motion controller or...

Print 3D Metal Objects at Room Temperature Using a Conductive Metallic Gel

Professor Michael Dickey, of North Carolina State University, and his team have developed a unique process that allows you to print 3D metal objects that have good electric and thermal conductivity as well as good structural properties.

An Approach to Inexpensively Mass Manufacture Micro-LED Displays

The new method paves the way to creating large-scale arrays of optical components and could be used to rapidly manufacture micro-LED displays.

How Much Do You Know About eVTOLs?

How much do you know about eVTOLs? Test yourself with this quiz.

Product of The Month

See the product of the month: InnoPhase IoT, Inc.'s Talaria TWOTM Ultra-low power (ULP) Wi-Fi optimized market-ready solution for cloud-connected IP video IoT devices.

New on the Market

See the new products on the market, including Clean-in-Place Utilities and Automated Reporting Analytics software, radar-level sensors, power ultrasonic transducers, and more.

Nanomaterial Promises Big Benefits for Bendable Electronics

An international team of scientists is developing an inkable nanomaterial that they say could one day become a spray-on electronic component for ultra-thin, lightweight, and bendable displays and devices.

Printing Microchip Patterns on Curvy Surfaces

There’s still more to explore with REFLEX, but this process could open new possibilities for new materials and microstructures across fields from electronics to optics to biomedical engineering.

Six Considerations When Choosing Machine Vision in Collaborative Applications

Machine vision dates back to the beginning of the modern industrial robot age in the 1980s. Augmenting cobots with vision allows them to perform with higher precision, flexibility, and intelligence. However, integration is not a one-size-fits-all process.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on the VersaBlade wire-to-wire connectors from Molex, one on 3D-printed food technology, and more.

A Gripper That Grasps by Reflex

Looking to give robots a more nimble, human-like touch, MIT engineers have now developed a gripper that grasps by reflex. Rather than start from scratch after a failed attempt, the robot adapts in the moment.

Improved Grasping with an Energy-Efficient Robotic Hand

Grasping objects is a problem that is easy for a human, but challenging for a robot. Researchers designed a soft, 3D-printed robotic hand that cannot independently move its fingers but can still carry out a range of complex movements.

North Sea Rig Operators Discover a Solution for Frequently Tangled Service Loops

A company from Denmark found a problem with its oil rig, where wind caused service loops to swing, become entangled and snag, resulting in downtime. The company solved the problem with a 33.5-meter e-loop from igus, the Germany-based manufacturer of high-performance plastics.

How Much Do You Know About PLCs for Industrial Control?

Industrial PLCs were first used in 1969 and are still in wide use today. Test your PLC knowledge with this quiz.

How Much Do You Know About Additive Manufacturing?

How much do you know about additive manufacturing? Test yourself with this quiz.

3D-Printed Mars Habitat Simulated on Earth

CHAPEA is a series of analog missions that will simulate year-long stays on the surface of Mars. Insights from these missions will help NASA make informed decisions to design and plan for a successful human mission to Mars.

Smart Material Challenges Newton’s Laws of Motion

The team has developed a prototype metamaterial that uses electrical signals to control both the direction and intensity of energy waves passing through a solid material.

Megawatt Electrical Motor Could Help Electrify Aviation

Aerospace engineers designed a 1-megawatt electrical motor that is a stepping stone toward electrifying the largest aircraft.

3D-Printed Talking Robot Heads Could Improve Audio Tech

The Augmented Listening Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is using 3D-printed, humanoid robots for research to improve acoustics.

Engineers “Grow” Atomically Thin Transistors on Top of Computer Chips

Emerging AI applications, like chatbots that generate natural human language, demand denser, more powerful computer chips. But semiconductor chips are traditionally...

The World’s First Wood Transistor

Transistors are considered by some to be an invention just as important to humanity as the telephone, the light bulb, or the bicycle. Today, they are a crucial component in modern electronic devices, and...