“You can't download a patch for human stupidity.”
– Kevin Mitnick
1. PMMI and Festo Tag Team the STEM Skills Gap
“Festo Didactic and PMMI are bringing highly customizable training options to packaging and processing companies. The customized curriculum and hands-on training offers a wide range of topics and skills related to mechatronics and factory automation such as robotics, CAD/CAM/CNC and PLC. Festo’s factory automation learning systems are designed to simulate the most technically advanced processing plants, focusing first on individual stations with the option to scale to more complex Industry 4.0 cyber-physical systems.”
2. AddUp Opens Up
This past Wednesday, June 22, AddUp opened the doors of their new Solution Center in Cincinnati to the public. The Solution Center is AddUp’s first location outside of France and sports an industrial-grade additive makerspace, metallurgical laboratory, education and training facility, and post-processing (subtractive) department.
3. Legoland in Virginia?
Not yet, but I can hope! Apparently, the governor of Virginia likes him some Legos. What’s not to love? OK, stepping on a Lego kinda sucks, but only quitters grow out of Legos! I mean, I have two Lego cars on my desk right now (and a juice box). They’re model Porsche 911s, thank you very much, and I’m rather proud of them. But for real! You know we talk a lot about bringing manufacturing back to the United States, but never in my wildest dreams did I think we would bring Legos! And in AMT’s backyard of all places! … Never mind, the facility is 20 miles south of Richmond. I love Legos, but I don’t love Legos enough to hop on I-95 south. Sorry.
4. Hexagon’s Two Favorite Startups
For real, this is a thing they do to recognize potential. The two winners from Hexagon’s Sixth Sense cohort of startups are: RIIICO – Makes creating a digital twin of your facility as easy and as fun as the Sims ... but for industry! SmartParts – Has created an embedded digital barcode for 3D printing utilizing “data-rich” particles that can be embedded into the materials of 3D-printed parts. When scanned, they reveal the material and part’s full specifications and history.
5. Desktop CT Scanning
Oh, snap! Look what might be becoming a trend – accessible CT scanning! To be fair, I don’t know how “accessible” Shimadzu’s XSeeker 8000 is, but I do know it’s fun-sized enough to be put on a workbench! The key takeaway is: Lumafield might not be alone!
To get the latest tech developments delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe to the weekly Tech Report here.
To access Tech Trends, log in to or register for an MTInsight account at https://www.mtinsight.org/
