MCADCafe Editorial Ben Mund
Ben has been involved in the manufacturing industry for more than two decades, helping grow the Mastercam CAD/CAM software brand and evaluating how changing markets impact the industry. MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – MasterCAMJanuary 11th, 2019 by Ben Mund
The global manufacturing business climate remains very encouraging. Based on our observations, we were expecting that the manufacturing sector would be a little stronger in the first half of 2018 than in the second. This played out as expected until the very end of 2018 when we saw a significant spike in multiple manufacturing sectors. That strong year-end growth has also driven an excellent beginning to 2019. Manufacturing in the U.S. continues to strengthen, and general global manufacturing growth continues into this year with some extremely exciting hotspots. We’re expecting additional growth in the aerospace sector, as well as rapid expansion of machines and software that encourages fast, efficient machining with fewer setups. Multitasking centers and advanced multiaxis machines are two examples that we expect will become even more popular throughout the year. It’s also interesting to take a step back and look at the manufacturing output for the last decade. We saw the beginnings of a steep decline in 2008 and hit and alarming valley in early 2009, with the financial crisis in full swing. Manufacturing, and everything that supplies it, took an enormous dip. Since the end of 2009 until today, however, we’ve seen slow, steady growth in manufacturing output. This pattern of growth has brought machine tool manufacturers, software suppliers, shops, and machinists along with it. It’s exciting that everyone – us, you, your readers – all can benefit as part of an industry that’s proven to be the backbone of economic recovery. MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – RIZE Inc.January 11th, 2019 by Andy Kalambi
Execution will be paramount in 2019. Many 3D printing companies are bubbling with innovation, but some of those companies will not make it; that is the nature of any industry. The companies that execute well will succeed. This means machines and technology that deliver on promises, management teams geared toward solving customer problems and technology that is easy to use for both non-expert and expert users. The recent trend toward building trust into functional 3D printed parts with secure marking, such as QR codes, will intensify. 3D printing is a digital technology, not just a physical technology – combining the virtual and real. Users will look to 3D print more digital information into parts for authenticity, traceability and compliance and then extract that information on demand. This will become a major area of focus as people try to solve problems in the areas of service, production and engineering. Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – RIZE Inc. MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – CarbonJanuary 10th, 2019 by Dr Joseph M. DeSimone
2018 was a big year for the 3DP/AM industry as the field showed signs of bifurcation to now include clear capabilities for digital manufacturing at scale. The powerful convergence of hardware, software, and molecular science is enabling production at a scale the industry hasn’t seen before. At Carbon, we launched the largest digital fabrication example in history with the launch of the adidas Futurecraft 4D franchise. More than 100,000 pairs of 4D running shoes were fabricated and we are on track to manufacture into the millions in 2019. Other customers of ours also have examples of manufacturing with our Digital Light Synthesis™ technology, which will be announced in the first half of 2019. These production examples in the aggregate have triggered an important tipping point for the industry: we now see, for the first time, a cost-down curve with volume in the digital manufacturing world akin to the cost down-curve with volume that everyone relies on in the injection molding industry. As a result, Carbon was able to take the price of our large volume resins from $300/L to $150/L last year to an unprecedented $50/L here in 2018. Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Carbon MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Adion SystemsJanuary 9th, 2019 by Paul Van Metre
Manufacturing is becoming ever more competitive, with high stakes for execution of complex manufacturing systems with more automation, and fewer workers producing more output than ever before. IIOT and I4.0 is ushering in an era where the office and the shop floor need to be more connected than ever before. ERP companies will need to either partner with MES companies more closely, developing collaborations to allow the free flow of data from the shop into the office, or develop their own tools to help workers on the factory floor reach peak efficiency. Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Adion Systems MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Tebis AmericaJanuary 8th, 2019 by David Klotz
Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Tebis America MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – The Uber CloudJanuary 7th, 2019 by Wolfgang Gentzsch
Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – The Uber Cloud Collaborate to Innovate with Simulation Applications and Digital TwinsJanuary 4th, 2019 by Brianne Christopher
Multiphysics software is invaluable for simulating designs, devices, and processes in engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. One of the greatest challenges of incorporating simulation into product development is making it accessible to everyone involved. COMSOL turns this challenge into an opportunity with tools for creating and deploying simulation applications and digital twins. For simulation to be beneficial to the broader organization, it must be accessible in two distinct ways. First, team members in R&D, manufacturing, laboratory testing, and design should be able to run analyses without relying on simulation experts. The Application Builder, available in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, makes this possible. Applications provide all collaborators with the capability to perform simulations, avoiding bottlenecks in the development process. Read the rest of Collaborate to Innovate with Simulation Applications and Digital Twins MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Request for SubmissionDecember 19th, 2018 by Sanjay Gangal
ATTENTION ALL VENDORS AND TECHNOLOGISTS! Please send me (sanjay@mcadcafe.com) your industry predictions for 2019 by January 7th for inclusion in an editorial to be published in January. Please keep your submission to 100-500 words, with author’s name, email address, photo and short bio. The editorial will be included in the MCADWeekly e-Magazine sent to our 30,000 subscribers. Do have a safe and wonderful holiday season and look forward to hearing from you in or before the New Year! — Customers and Partners Demonstrate Continued Confidence in ESPRIT CAM SoftwareNovember 8th, 2018 by Jeff Rowe
A couple times this year, I have met up with CAM developer DP Technology. Each meeting impressed me with the company itself and where its ESPRIT CAM Software product line is heading. DP Technology is the developer of the diverse ESPRIT CAM Software system sold and supported via the company’s regional offices and its network of resellers throughout the world. ESPRIT has also developed close partnerships with several leading milling, turning, and wire-EDM machine tool manufacturers, such as Okuma, Mazak, DMG Mori, Citizen, Mitsubishi, and GF AgiCharmilles. From the beginning and still one of the company’s main goals is ease of use, and greatly reducing the learning curve, which Don Davies, VP of Americas, DP Technology Corp., said is usually on the order of a year or more for most competing CAM products. Learning is one thing, mastering is another, and DP Technology is more interested in providing its customers the potential at mastery.
Video Interview with Don Davies of DP Technology at IMTS 2018 When asked about the state of the CAM market, Davies said that it is largely fragmented into distinct segments – integrated CAD/CAM vendors, and independent CAM vendors. He said each has its own advantages but thought that the dedicated efforts that independent companies specializing in CAM bring the most to the table, and obviously, he felt that DP Technology had the ability to serve up the most comprehensive product/technology lineup in the competitive CAM market. Read the rest of Customers and Partners Demonstrate Continued Confidence in ESPRIT CAM Software Altair Acquires SIMSOLIDNovember 1st, 2018 by Jeff Rowe
Altair, a company that promotes and enables “Simulation-Driven Innovation” has acquired SIMSOLID, a company founded by asking a simple question: “Why does the geometry used in the Design and Structural Simulation worlds have to be so different?” SIMSOLID works on full-fidelity CAD assemblies to provide fast, accurate, and robust structural simulation without requiring geometry simplification, cleanup, or meshing. Its underlying technology is based largely on the work of Dr. Victor Apanovitch, a former professor at Belarus Polytechnic University and the cofounder of SIMSOLID Corporation. |