Hydraulics, as the primary source for metal-forming machines, has been dependable, does its job, and is well understood within the industry. However, machine builders are losing new business opportunities because of noise problems and environmental concerns. What's out there to overcome these issues?

Got this response to my post about MAG's "no coolant" machining center. I'll repost the link to it below Dal's comments if you don't know what this about

After doing a bit more snooping around to try to confirm the freshness of the joint project between MAS-IAS; Creare, the cryogenics experts; and the U.S. Navy, to build a titantium machining center that doesn't use tool coolant [that's what I said, it doesn't use coolant], and doubles the rate of titanium cutting [ that's in 2x ] and increases ridiculously tool life, I'm still thinking this is an important industrial innovation that actually lives up to the word.

Don't know what I'm talking about?  read more »

Sustainable manufacturing is a convenient word to collect all the energy and material saving initiatives that are applicable to manufacturing. Many initiatives already are routine as part of the mandate to build machines that are more efficient, more productive, and more flexible. But it's unclear what else is being practiced by machine builders. Can recyclable materials replace certain machine components, reclaimable at the end of machine life? Can you replace wire and cable with wireless alternatives? Is there a value proposition for you? If you can, even if you want to, is green manufacturing important to customers? Do you think you have a role to advocate for greener machines?

Energy efficiency and environmental concerns top the list of green issues these days. Which of these opportunities can you or will you implement on your machines because of enabling automation and technology?  read more »

Over the last few years, green has become an all-encompassing and often meaningless marketing buzzword. But in the real engineering-based world of machine builders, robot builders and their customers – greening the environment is inseparable from saving some green.  read more »

Bags Made Out of Rocks

Your humble correspondent was at the WestPack packaging trade show in Anaheim yesterday and saw signs of life. In fact, this year's show appeared to be just about as busy as last year's, certainly a good thing. Some speculated that the slowdown wouldn't begin to hit trade shows hard until later this year, we'll see.

Interesting things I saw at the show:  read more »

Despite recent dips, it's apparent that energy and raw material prices have risen to new and permanently higher plateaus. It's also apparent that these higher prices will have a profound affect on machine design over the next few years in ways that are sometimes obvious but oft obscure. Let's start with energy prices, an item that is foremost in the minds of many machine builders.  read more »

At the recent Wonderware WonderWorld conference, Tesla Motors founder Martin Eberhard shared his vision for creating the world’s first sexy electric car. As Eberhard demonstrated via his multimedia presentation, electric cars have long been seen by many as “glorified golf carts”.Eberhard showed a series of slides that contrasted electric cars surrounded by geeks to gas-powered vehicles draped with lovely bodies.  read more »

Are customers ready for energy-efficient motors? Does total cost of ownership matter? Does anyone have a machine- or line-specific power-consumption metric? Does rewinding a motor still trump spending capital on a new one?

Find out more by reading "A New Ear in Machine Automation" and "Energy Blockbusters"