LOUISVILLE, KY—GE Appliances, a Haier company, has graduated the first engineer from its new Industry 4.0 Development Program, which targets recent engineering college graduates or midcareer employees who want to work at the company’s nine smart factories in the U.S.

WASHINGTON—President Biden has proposed a rule that would change the way the federal government assesses products made in America.

DETROIT—Lear Corp. plans to invest $48 million to build a new automotive seat assembly operation here that could create hundreds of new manufacturing jobs.

BUCKEYE, AZ—Kore Power Inc. is building a $500 million assembly plant here to produce lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicle charging stations, microgrids, utilities and other applications.

Short-cycle applications have a wide range of requirements. Manufacturing engineers must consider numerous aspects of transfer systems: Can the system move forwards and back again? How flexible is it? What sizes and weights can be transported? Can it be expanded if necessary?

The components in the pneumatic systems of production lines are subject to wear that can lead to leakage. When leaks go undetected, they can affect machine performance, increase energy use, raise operating costs and expand carbon footprints. Integrating a smart pneumatics package can prevent these rising costs and emissions. One critical part of this package is a smart sensor. The Emerson AVENTICS Series AF2 Flow Sensor helps engineers identify leaks in real time and address them quickly, which optimizes airflow, reduces costs and improves overall equipment effectiveness.

MALTA, NY—GlobalFoundries has announced plans to expand production at its existing semiconductor facility here and build a new facility to double the site’s current capacity and help address the global chip shortage.

WASHINGTON—Manufacturing activity in the U.S. remained robust in July, but slowed somewhat compared with previous months due to supply chain strains, reports the Institute for Supply Management in its latest Manufacturing Report on Business Purchasing Managers' Index.

NÖRDLINGEN, Germany—VARTA AG has opened a new lithium-ion-cell factory here with 15,000 square meters of production space on two floors. New customer orders are already being processed.

PITTSBURGH—Wabtec Corp. recently started operations at Neighborhood 91, an additive manufacturing production facility at Pittsburgh International Airport’s Innovation Campus.