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July 2014

Sustainable bending PIC

Sustainable bending technology from Germany

Picture: The new, easy-to-operate machine control from Schwarze-Robitec clocks the individual working steps synchronously for time-optimised production.   The rising costs for raw materials and energy make it clear: to remain competitive in the future, it is imperative to handle resources particularly carefully, to tighten production process and thereby increase efficiency. The resource Man can also be supported with labor-saving solutions, thereby also increasing repeating accuracy. To design tube processing especially resource-conserving and efficient, Schwarze-Robitec has developed a series of sustainable solutions over the last years. These include, for example, the integrated residual length optimisation for tube bending machines for the automobile industry suppliers, which reduce residual tube lengths to a minimum, thereby making considerable material savings. Trials have shown that the material input, depending on the respective tube system, could be reduced by up to 20 percent. The Terminal-End-Bender, which is used for the manufacture of tube systems in power plant construction, bends in both directions conducted subsequently at the rear end of the produced tube coil without having to interrupt the fully automatic manufacturing process. Therefore, the Terminal-End-Bender essentially helps to save time. A further new development of the tube bending specialist are the rapid clamping systems for bending tools in series and mass production, which enable fast and easy tool change. Unproductive set-up times are reduced significantly. The bending machine CNC 60 E TB MR which is equipped with multi-tools, allows production of different radii as well as bend-in-bend systems. It is particularly suitable for the manufacture of exhaust pipes with a bending radius of 1 x D without straight intermediate lengths between two bends. Thanks to the multi-bend tools, set-up times are reduced to a minimum. Further cost savings can be achieved with the separating system integrated in the bending system. Here, several individual tubes are […]

The Second Machine Age PIC

The Second Machine Age

Driverless cars and 3D printers are harbingers of a new era, argue MIT colleagues Brynjolfsson (Director/Center for Digital Business; co-author, Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping the Economy, 2013, etc.) and McAfee (Principal Research Scientist/Center for Digital Business; Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organisation’s Toughest Challenges, 2009, etc.). Some 200 years ago, the invention of the steam engine sparked massive amounts of mechanical power to drive factories and mass production in the first machine age. Now, computers and other digital advances are providing such “a vast and unprecedented boost to mental power” that technologies once found only in science fiction are becoming everyday realities. Drawing on research, including interviews with inventors, investors, entrepreneurs, engineers and others, the authors describe the forces driving the emerging age, notably the digitisation of nearly everything, which increases understanding and fosters innovation, and an amazing exponential growth in improvements. We’re now seeing “the emergence of real, useful artificial intelligence (AI) and the connection of most of the people on the planet via a common digital network. As machines complete cognitive tasks—as opposed to physical ones—engaging in pattern recognition and complex communication, AI will do more and more, for example, giving key aspects of sight to the visually impaired and restoring hearing to the deaf. Along with benefits, including greater amounts of individual choice, technological progress will bring economic disruption, leaving some people behind and workers without jobs. The authors describe the large differences that are already apparent among people in both income and wealth and explain how individuals can improve their skills to maintain healthy wage and job prospects. “Our generation has inherited more opportunities to transform the world than any other,” they write. “That’s a cause for optimism, but only if we’re mindful of our choices.”  

itSees PIC

itSeez3D turns iPad Into 3D scanner

When it comes to 3D scanning, more and more solutions are becoming available as the months go by. 3D scanning is allowing us to take photographs of people and things, in ways that we could never imagine before.  Instead of only being able to look at a flat, 2-dimensional photo, we can now interact with 3D photographs via our computers, and create 3D replicas with the use of 3D printers. A company called itSeez3D has come up with a new iOS application, that when paired with the Structure Sensor allows people to take full 3-dimensional photographs of people and objects. It has an incredible ability to capture color and structural information of a subject, and then process it into a realistic looking 3D model.  The app has the capability of capturing high resolution data, and features a unique augmented reality feedback system which enhances the scanning process (see video below). Once a scan has been captured, users have the ability to email the 3D representation to their friends, in .ply or .obj file formats, or simply upload it to sketchfab.com. Users can also 3D print it at home on their own 3D printers. If it is printed on an at-home FDM or SLA 3D printer, however, the colors will not print because of the current technology available. On the other hand, if a high quality 3D printer is used, the colors will be able to be preserved. For example, users could send their 3D scan to Shapeways or another service, to have it printed in full-color sandstone. itSeez3D has already uploaded 18 different models that they have created using the app, to their sketchfab profile, and I must admit, the quality appears to be excellent. Uploaded models include several people as well as a stuffed animal, a sneaker, a mug, […]