LAKE TOWNSHIP, OH—First Solar Inc. has begun construction of a new $400 million solar module assembly plant near its existing factory in Perrysburg, OH.
CHARLESTON, SC—Volvo’s first U.S. manufacturing plant is now open for business.
The Charleston, South Carolina, facility joins two manufacturing plants and an engine plant in Europe, three car factories and an engine plant in China, and assembly plants in India and Malaysia that make Volvo’s expanding product lineup.
Engineers at BMW are working with the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop printed inflatable materials that self-transform, adapt and morph from one state to another.
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy recently launched a $3 million prize to revitalize domestic solar panel manufacturing. The program will support entrepreneurs as they develop transformative ideas into concepts and then into early-stage prototypes ready for industry testing.
Engineers at Audi AG are using full-color, multimaterial additive manufacturing to produce plastic parts. The technology will help reduce prototyping lead times by up to 50 percent.
PITTSBURGH—Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, a research consortium, has selected four projects to develop next-generation automation. The four R&D projects will focus on robotic composites manufacturing, automotive assembly line robots, robotic sanding and finishing, and robotic wire harness assembly.
A new research tool helps engineers quickly find the right adhesives for their assembly applications. The searchable Gluespec database from Ellsworth Adhesives was designed by engineers and contains curated, quality-checked data on more than 7,000 liquid adhesives, coatings, sealants and specialty chemicals from more than 70 suppliers.
A little positive feedback at work can go a long way toward improving assemblers' long-term mental health and well-being. Engineers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the European Factory2Fit research consortium are studying the effects of work performance.
In the popular children's book, "The Little Engine That Could," the main character chants "I think I can, I think I can." Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute are trying to use a similar approach to give robots the ability of self-assessment.
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