Rarely does a major spending bill in Washington draw bipartisan support and yield immediate results. Behold the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden Aug. 9. The act provides more than $52 billion in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the U.S.

An autoinjector is a medical device designed to deliver a dose of a particular drug. The devices were designed to overcome the hesitation associated with self-administration of a needle-based drug delivery device. 

Knowing exactly where to find things is essential, whether it’s a custom-made part, an urgent production order, or the last few modules required to reassemble an engine after maintenance.

How many times do you open and close the gas cap on your car? Once a week? Twice a week? More often? Over the life of a vehicle, you might fasten and unfasten the cap thousands of times.

In May, BMW’s assembly plant in Munich celebrated its 100th anniversary. Spanning nearly 5.4 million square feet and employing some 7,800 people, the factory assembles 1,000 cars and 2,000 engines daily. 

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) into law on Aug. 16. The law is a major accomplishment for Democrats, who have been struggling for months to pass Biden’s ambitious social and climate policies, as well as his vision to raise taxes on the rich. 

Hot-plate welding is one of the simplest and most versatile methods for joining two plastic parts. The technology can weld small parts or large ones, flat parts or contoured ones. 

At first glance, press-fit assembly would seem to be much simpler than, say, welding or installing threaded fasteners. However, there’s a lot more to the process than simply jamming one part into another part. 

At the Moscow Chess Open in July, a tabletop six-axis robot equipped with a two-finger gripper was programmed to play chess with three opponents simultaneously. During one match, an overenthusiastic seven-year-old boy reached for a piece before allowing the robot to complete its move. 

If the factory of the future will run on data, new types of hardware will be needed to collect, route, process and display it. That means more than just new PLCs, but gateways, edge computers, tablets and other hardware.