Recent geopolitical uncertainty has intensified the climate crisis. The availability and price of oil are in flux, underscoring a global necessity to look for alternative energy sources. Fossil fuels are in any event a finite resource, so it makes no sense to continue to rely on them for manufacturing or…

Before the pandemic, research suggested that adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) in business was increasing at a rate of about 25% per year. 60% of those surveyed reported that AI was yielding significant cost savings, with the greatest benefits being shown in manufacturing and supply chain…

New technology constantly produces new concepts in manufacturing, along with new terminology to describe them. One such term is JIT, or Just-In-Time manufacturing. It’s a concept with a fairly long history that began more than 50 years ago as a management philosophy. It was originally devised at the beginning of…

IIoT stands for the Industrial Internet of Things. You’ve probably seen a similar set of letters, the IoT, which is the Internet of Things. IoT refers to all digitally-connected devices, over and above such familiar items as phones, tablets, laptops and PCs. Any stand-alone product that’s connected to the internet…

We’ve talked before about 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, a technology rapidly coming into much greater prominence. Every day sees more developments, including producing components made from metals, plastics, and even diamonds. 3D printing is particularly valuable for recreating obsolete parts. …

For those who have not yet assimilated the term “Industry 4.0”, it’s the short form of “the fourth industrial revolution”. This in itself may still be baffling, but it refers to the technological movement of our industries from the first mechanisation to today’s smart factories. Said to have originated in…

As Industry 4.0 has developed, the manufacturing landscape has become more and more comprehensively automated. In today’s factory, all the work of setting up, integrating and running industrial machinery is handled by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). These small, special-purpose computers handle automated systems of varying complexity, and enable them to…

Size matters, especially in pneumatic systems, where everything must fit precisely for the system to perform at its best. Specifications for pipework differ across geographical areas, and knowing how to measure BSP fittings starts with where they’re going to be used. …

Most industries these days use solid-state sensors in their electronic devices, meaning that they use solid semiconducting components like transistors to switch the sensor’s output when it detects something. When dealing with electronic connections, for example to a PLC, people usually refer to PNP or NPN sensors. However, this designation…