Metalsa engineers previously spent an average of 32 hours per month quoting a typical three programs for automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This time was spent opening CAD files, obtaining information and a snapshot, and populating a spreadsheet with the data. Metalsa worked with CCE (www.cadcam-e.com) to develop an app using CCE’s EnSuite product that opens the CATIA files, captures the needed information and populates…

Recently, we had a discussion in the office about environmentally friendly procedures for our business.  One thing lead to another and we started comparing our drilling equipment to the competition’s as far as how environmentally responsible all of us in the industry were.

The discussion covered…

The Web is fast becoming a titanic, complex entity. By the year 2015, it’s estimated that one zettabyte of content will be added to the web each and every year. Navigating this sea of information presents more and more of a challenge -- particularly when much of that content is not easily accessed by traditional search engines.

The Surface Web

When most of us think of the Web, we think of the 'Surface Web', also known as the visible web - the webpages we…

The National Instruments Co. (NI) provides integrated software and hardware to scientists and engineers. Founded in 1976, three college students (James Truchard, PhD, Jeff Kodosky, and Bill Nowlin) developed this technology-based enterprise. The company's instrumentation hardware and graphical system design software…

Creo Elements/Direct 18.1– the latest release of PTC’s awardwinning 2D and 3D CAD, CAE and product data management (PDM) software solution–brings new levels of design flexibility to direct modeling teams a new Creo-style ribbon user interface further lowers the learning curve for new users. Plus new 2D and 3D modification capabilities optimize the design workflow for expert users. And, interoperability with Creo apps extends…

AMETEK, Inc. headquartered in Berwyn, Pa., was founded in 1930. Specializing in manufacturing and electromechanical devices, the company has approximately 13,300 colleagues working at more than 100 manufacturing facilities and more than 100 sales and service centers in the United States, Europe, and around the world. Most recently, it has opened an office in Bangaluru, India, and for many other AMETEK products a faciilty in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Brazilian facility handles motor…

“Enter a length and process your part… It’s just that simple!”  That’s what some people say.  Truth is, processing multiple hole drilling and/or tapping processes along with saw cut operations and the like can be extremely challenging to a manufacturing facility.

AutoDrill stands ready to help you solve your most complex processes with the help of our seasoned and highly professional machine builders.

Whether you are drilling and tapping holes on a rotary table in a multi-drill…

For engineers, scientists, researchers and other technical personnel, the ability to access and leverage knowledge is critical. Unfortunately, with valuable technical knowledge increasingly dispersed across and beyond an organization, product development teams often fail to find the information they need - resulting in waste, rework and redundancy.

Check out the infographic below for a snapshot of some of the challenges innovation practitioners wrestle with as they try to connect with…

When the Curiosity rover successfully landed on mars, the engineers at JPL became technology's new rock stars.

It was an amazing accomplishment, and all the people on the Mars Science Laboratory team at JPL deserve accolades.

From my perspective, as a long-time observer of the engineering software industry, I imputed a lot of their success to a combination of smart people, good tools, and strong processes.

Yet, something has been bothering me about Curiosity. In a word:…

8/31 9:20AM UPDATE: Interview has been rescheduled for next Friday (September 7th at 6:20AM). We will share details soon! 



The Bishop-Wisecarver team is very…

According to Kelly's info graphic, the "E" in "STEM", the engineering jobs future looks bright up to 2020. (Click pic to see Kelly's full info-graphic PDF)…

Often, potential customers call us with needs that we can meet in multiple ways…

A few weeks ago, a customer called and asked about drilling a single hole, over and over again into a soft piece of wood. They wanted an AutoDrill “no stroke” drilling unit so that they could mount it to a table top and manually feed the wooden part into the spinning tool. They would run this system for hours a day and the volume would depend on just how fast their “staff team member” could feed the…

When it comes to innovation, most companies rely on a blend of internal and external resources and inputs, with forward-looking organizations leveraging customers, partners and experts outside the company’s four walls. 

So, what tools and resources do engineers and other innovation workers use to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing and accelerate product development? 

The tools vary by…

At HP's Input Output site, Steven Vaughan-Nichols writes about the History of the Floppy Disk.  

He points to Alan Shugart, who, in 1967, was direct access storage manager at IBM, and was resposible for assigning David Nobel to lead the development of a reliable and…

Our team here at Design World has put together a follow up to last year’s Motion Control Handbook, this time with an emphasis on how to select the right components for your motion control system.

The goal is to make you aware of the most important considerations for sizing and selecting components for motion control applications. As you probably already know, entire textbooks have been written on just the physics and dynamics of the mechanical and electrical systems…

The use of Windform® XT and additive manufacturing (AM)/3D printing (3DP) technology demonstrates the fast adaptability and freedom of design possible in nearly any field. For the developers of the RAMPART Cube Sat, the use of this material and technology enabled them to modify, change, and add experiments without concern for having to develop tooling or modify an existing cube structure.

By Franco Cevolini, CEO, CRP Technology S.r.l; Walter Holemans, Planetary Systems Corporation;…

The food and beverage industries have a history of manual operations, from one end of the plant to the other, including lab and quality operations. In order to improve productivity and quality control, many food and beverage operations have begun integrating these operations and making them conform to automation standards.

See more information …

Silicon Valley is home to so many software startups, from giants like Facebook and Google in the South Bay to Twitter, Zynga and Salesforce in San Francisco. There seems to be a new app, social network or cloud tool emerging every day.

But software startups don't have all the fun. 

Even though software startups outnumber hardware startups in the Valley, new technologies are opening the door for a hardware startup renaissance. Take the popularity of …

There is much confusion about what interlaminar stresses are and how to calculate them using composites analysis. Interlaminar stresses are the source of failure mechanisms uniquely characteristic of composite materials; their existence is a major reason that laminated composites tend to delaminate near free edges, such as edges of a plate or around holes. However, there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding of how to define interlaminar stresses and how to predict them using finite element…

In this constantly shifting industry, it can be a challenge to keep up with all the changes and developments of who is offering what in the way of 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Tuan Tranpham, Referral Channel Manager at Objet Inc., has…