By Dr. Kenneth Church, Founder and CEO, nScrypt

Dr. Kenneth Church

As we stand at the threshold of 2024, advancements in technology continue to transform our industry. Two key areas that are poised to shape the future are technological innovations in electronics and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI).

Electronics has been on an evolutionary track for decades. Tubes and wires have been replaced by physically smaller transistors and traces. Now, driven by the demand for higher frequency and higher power, glass and cloth are emerging as the next frontier. Intel’s announcement about the advantages of glass in accommodating tightly packaged and heat-resistant circuitry signals a pivotal shift toward more advanced, next generation solutions.

6G will be talked about more before true implementation, but discussions have prompted industry to brace for what is coming by making sure that new demands on data flow and data handling is more fact than fiction. Traditional users are already consuming vast amounts of data, usage will continue to surge in 2024, and this is just the beginning. Next-generation packaging, particularly in the realm of 3D technology, offers a lifeline as the limitations of 2D packaging become increasingly apparent. 3D packaging will enable industry to chase what consumers want – data, and a lot of it.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions 2024 – Nscrypt

By Andrei Kharatsidi, CEO & Co-Founder, SprutCAM Tech Ltd.

Andrei Kharatsidi

Let’s be honest, predictions for the industry in 2024 won’t differ much from what we expected in 2023. However, the CAD/CAM industry still might see the emergence of trendsetters.

The development of our industry is significantly influenced by, firstly, key technologies of Industry 4.0, secondly, the high degree of consolidation of the engineering software market, and thirdly, the shortage of qualified professionals in various industrial sectors.

Considering the main themes of Industry 4.0 in relation to CAD/CAM in the near future, we are betting on artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, 3D printing, and additive manufacturing.

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

There are still high hopes connected with the implementation of AI technologies for achieving a level of fully automatic machining of parts. For now, machine learning in CAD/CAM systems solves more down-to-earth tasks, in particular, optimizing the workflow and interface, suggesting commands that users will need for subsequent actions. SprutCAM X introduced Ency, a smart chatbot based on ChatGPT, which explains G-code and can answer various questions. However, this is clearly not enough, and just as automakers are working on increasing the level of autonomous driving, CAD/CAM software vendors are investing more in industrial AI solutions.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions 2024 – SprutCAM

By Christian Buckner, SVP, Data Analytics and IoT,
Mark Do Couto, SVP, Data Analytics
Yeshwant Mummaneni, Chief Engineer, Cloud
Keshav Sundaresh, Global Director of Product Management, Altair

Christian Buckner Mark Do Couto Keshav Sundaresh Yeshwant Mummaneni

Data/AI

1. AI Fuels the Rise of DIY Physics-based Simulation. The rapidly growing interaction between Data/AI and simulation will speed up the use of physics-based simulations and extend its capabilities to more non-expert users. (Christian Buckner, SVP, Data Analytics and IoT, Altair)
2. AI Will Need to Explain Itself. Users will demand a more transparent understanding of their AI journey with “Explainable AI” and a way to show that all steps meet governance and compliance regulations. The White House’s recent executive order on artificial intelligence will put heightened pressure on organizations to demonstrate they are adhering to new standards on cybersecurity, consumer data privacy, bias and discrimination. (Mark Do Couto, SVP, Data Analytics)
3. Blockchain Plays the Hero in Securing Data Lineage. As AI/ML models play key roles in critical decision-making, whether supervised by humans or in a completely autonomous fashion, model provenance/lineage becomes crucial. The foundational technology that powered blockchain to provide immutability of records, digital identities, signatures, and verifications leveraging cryptography will become a key aspect of enterprise AI to provide tamper proof model provenance. (Yeshwant Mummaneni, Chief Engineer, Cloud, Altair)
4. MLOps Moves to the Edge. MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) will significantly evolve to not only provide operational capabilities such as deployment, scaling, monitoring etc. but will include model optimization. This will encompass everything from hyperparameter tuning to tweak model performance to model size/quantization and performance optimization for specific chipsets and use cases such as for edge computing on wearable devices or cloud computing. (Yeshwant Mummaneni, Chief Engineer, Cloud, Altair)

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions 2024 – Altair

By Doug Lawson, CEO, ThinkIQ

Doug Lawson

The Future of Manufacturing: AI, Industry 4.0, Sustainability, and Global Collaboration

As pressure from impending ESG regulations, economic headwinds and geopolitical tensions grow, manufacturers are increasingly looking at cutting-edge technologies to help navigate these challenges. While many manufacturers are still effectively blind to a staggering percentage of events on the factory floor and in their supply chains, Smart Manufacturing solutions will be key in the next year to reduce manufacturing inefficiencies, increase productivity and, ultimately, weather the economic storm.

Here are a few manufacturing technology trends we expect to see in the coming year.

Manufacturers Will Increasingly Embrace Artificial Intelligence to Combat Inflation

With inflation wreaking havoc up and down the entire supply chain, manufacturing companies are looking for ways to stabilize their operations and increase efficiency. The constant increase in prices of raw materials has forced manufacturers to look for ways to improve efficiency and productivity, at reduced costs, with a dependable output of high-quality products. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is opening up greater possibilities for more optimized manufacturing processes to these ends.

Over the next year, we expect inflation to drive more and more manufacturers to look to AI to successfully navigate the challenges posed by a higher cost in materials.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – ThinkIQ

By David BASSETTI, founder and CEO, Bassetti Group

Digitalization is key!

David Bassetti

One of the key challenges for the industry in 2024 will continue to be the indispensable digitalization of all production and business processes. The steady advance of Industry 4.0, in which the intelligent interconnectivity of machines, processes and data becomes part of everyday life, will be a pivotal factor for competitiveness. Companies that miss out on this transformation run the real risk of being left behind. At the same time, they must also meet a growing and increasingly complex number of regulatory and environmental requirements. Without investing in new technologies that guarantee complete documentation and traceability, it is almost impossible to comply with all the existing and upcoming e.g. quality requirements or ISO standards. In relation to the technological changeover, there is also the increasingly decisive factor of making know-how and implicit knowledge of high added value usable and accessible, especially for industrial companies that are heavily dependent on skilled workers. Here, from a digital perspective, an openness to restructuring must also be established so that key issues, such as the increasing need to automate processes, can progress and a focus on the company’s core competencies can be retained. The main challenge here is to find a balance between human expertise and automated processes. The integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analyses can and will make a major contribution to this allowing well-founded decisions to be made and realize efficiency gains.

Personally, I am firmly convinced that whether it’s in times of crisis (to save costs and focus on value-adding activities) or economic upswing (to promote innovation and remain competitive) – the digitalization of processes and the management of technical and tacit knowledge will be the key to every industrial company.

In order to meet this persistently growing demand for digital transformation, we at BASSETTI are pursuing a comprehensive growth strategy in the new year, which is paired with major investments in product and tool innovations.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – BASSETTI

By AlphaStar Team

The year 2023 has passed and we are in the New Year. Before we make predictions, it may be helpful to make requests. Let us hope 2024 is a time of peace.  Let us remember how much we need each other and how much we can accomplish together.  Peace may be difficult; but it is also necessary for the progress we all desire.

Let us remain positive.  Thankfully that means getting down to business and engineering.  Fortunately, technology, like people, marches on and 2024 should be a banner year.

New Roles and Applications for Polymer Additive Manufacturing (AM),

Polymer AM has always been the little engine that could.  From rapid prototyping to hobbyist to complex geometry, it has pioneered growth in AM.  Yet it always seems it is in a relay race with AM metal.  Thank you polymer, now pass the baton to AM metal for the real breakthroughs. Fortunately, what we have are two heavy stems of a strong and robust tree.  Explorations in new fibers, continuous fibers, chopped fibers, inclusions, particulates, resins, multi-materials, curing and fabrication technologies have amplified the capabilities of this venerable science.  Improvements in strength, stiffness, performance in elevated temperatures mean polymer AM can take on challenges that seemed impossible ten years ago.  Light weighting, selective critical components, and massive scaled fabrication are all within the crosshairs.  Polymer AM is ripe for reasserting its place as a major contributor to AM expansion and development. It should be noted that AlphaSTAR’s ICME based GENOA 3DP toolset provides virtual process simulation and build optimization for polymer AM parts.  The tool can also assess the durability and damage tolerance of the virtual as build part in response to service loads.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – AlphaStar

By Alex Hussain, the Co-Founder & CEO of 3DChimera

Alex Hussain

Additive Manufacturing in 2024 – Predicting a Course Through Market Correction to Innovation

For anyone that follows the stock market closely, the Additive Manufacturing Industry has been top of mind…but not for the reasons that the rest of us might have guessed based on the headlines of years past.  By the end of 2023, virtually every publicly traded company in the additive manufacturing industry was significantly down, with some of the major players facing difficult decisions on what the future may hold.  The root cause of these declines has been varied and unclear, ranging from a general market slowdown in capital equipment purchases to the consequences of overly aggressive market forecasts and overvaluations.  In 2024, we predict a major market correction with a consolidation of several large players in the industry, and more than one of the publicly traded companies shutting their doors for good.

While this prediction may seem dire, rest assured, the additive manufacturing industry is not going anywhere.  In fact, while growth has slowed in the stock market, many of the smaller players in the industry are thriving.  New entrants to the market, with disruptive price points and capabilities, are expanding the promise of additive manufacturing to more companies than ever before.  Additive manufacturing tools are no longer only for huge companies with giant budgets.  At the end of 2023, 3DChimera saw a huge surge of business from small and medium sized companies looking to add equipment and capabilities, taking advantage of a short window of opportunity where their competitors took pause due to corporate budget freezes.  We predict these trends will continue into 2024, and that the smaller businesses adopting additive manufacturing will begin to lead in their respective markets by unleashing the potential of this transformative technology. Additive manufacturing is a perfect tool for our time, allowing companies to leverage technology to accomplish more with less investment and fixed costs than has been required in years past.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – 3DChimera

By  Theo Saville, CEO, CloudNC

Theo Saville

 The main manufacturing tech trend for 2024: what happens when you start applying generative AI to physical problems.

For example… what if you could create anything you wanted – at the touch of a button?

It’s a dream of humanity, rendered (and parodied) ad nauseum in science-fiction, from Star Trek to Iron Man to Red Dwarf – that with a single click, a smart computer could create whatever you need: from hot drinks and food, to a super-powerful exoskeleton – and everything in between.

We are, of course, still some distance from any such vision becoming a reality. But recent advances in generative AI mean we aren’t quite as far away as we think.

Artificial intelligence tools like Chat-GPT and DALL-E can create new words, images and video, based on only a few inputs. The results can range from the curious (such as new AI-generated episodes of the Simpsons) to the scary (like Bing’s AI telling a NYT reporter in a chat that it wants to be alive), to the pretty funny (and genuinely impressive).

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – CloudNC