Emuge Corp., a manufacturer of high performance taps, thread mills, drills, end mills, and other rotary tools, held a grand opening ceremony of its significantly expanded, custom-designed manufacturing facility last week. Marking a 35 year presence in the U.S. along with increased growth in North America, the Emuge expansion includes more manufacturing and tool reconditioning space, the addition of a new PVD coating center, as well as an expanded technology and training center. The expanded facility doubles the size of the original building to over 50,000ft² total.

More than 150 attendees joined Emuge to celebrate the occasion. The Grand Opening featured a formal ribbon cutting, a special unveiling of a statue of Emuge Founder Richard Glimpel, a full facility tour, and live machining technology demonstrations. The impressive gathering demonstrated the importance of retaining and growing manufacturing technology in Massachusetts and the U.S.A.

“The expansion will allow us to better serve our customer base in the U.S. and Canada," Bob Hellinger, president of Emuge Corp said. "The expanded facility will provide additional capacity to domestically manufacture special solid carbide tooling and other standard solutions within our milling tools portfolio.

“Our facility expansion will also allow us to continue our commitment to creating jobs in Massachusetts. We project to add 25 to 30 new employees over the next five years to our current roster of 75. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all our employees who made this happen, and with special thanks to the Glimpel Family, owners of EMUGE-Franken, for making this expansion a reality.”

Commenting on the facility opening, John Killam, president/CEO for the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP) said, "I would like to extend my congratulations to Emuge Corp. for its impressive facility expansion as well as its progressive employee training program.”

Acknowledging the commitment and hard work of all the Emuge employees and the support of the Glimpel Family, Thomas Zeus, technical director, EMUGE-Franken said, "Today marks a very significant step in Emuge's history. We are dedicated to hiring and training the right people and to expanding our building footprint and technological capabilities to meet today's and tomorrow's manufacturing challenges."

EMUGE-Franken’s Managing Director, Gerhard Knienieder, thanking everyone in the Emuge family that made it possible, noted that this expansion “lays the foundation for future growth where new ideas can be shared and innovation can continue."

Construction began in September 2018 and accelerated rapidly throughout 2019. Emuge currently has tool reconditioning capabilities in West Boylston for taps, end mills, and drills, combined with the ability to manufacture tools such as spot drills, chamfer mills, carbide end mills, carbide special tooling, carbide step drills, and make other round tool modifications.

There’s been so much news on manufacturing and advancements in research for medical device design I wanted to offer a quick look. Starting out is a story from the University of Southern California (USC) about researchers developing a virtual human hand by combining visual effects techniques and medical imaging to create precise model of the human hand in motion.

© USC

“The team, which recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to take their work to the next stage, plans to build a public dataset of multi-pose hand MRI scans, for 10 subjects over the next three years. This will be the first dataset of its kind and will enable researchers from around the world to better simulate, model, and re-create human hands. The team also plans to integrate the research into education, to train PhD students at USC and for K-12 outreach programs.”

Watch a video and read more about the research.

So as the human hand is being viewed in a new way thanks to USC researchers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers are helping give robots a grip. Using an algorithm, the MIT engineers have found a way to significantly speed up the planning process required for a robot to adjust its grasp on an object by pushing that object against a stationary surface. Whereas traditional algorithms would require tens of minutes for planning out a sequence of motions, the new team’s approach shaves this preplanning process down to less than a second.

© Image courtesy of the researchersr

Both the USC and MIT researchers are exploring and advancing in the areas Schunk’s Dr. Martin May, head of research advanced technology for Schunk GmbH & Co. KG, Lauffen/Neckar, discusses the company's approach to gripping systems and skilled hands.

The human hand is still regarded as the benchmark when it comes to flexibility of gripping tools. Whereas grippers were previously designed for industrial automation based on robustness, longevity, and performance, with gripping hands the focus is on flexibility of motion. The closer human beings and robots work together, the greater the relevance of humanoid 5-fingered hands will be.

© Schunk | https://schunk.com/us_en/homepage

"In extreme cases, human beings and service robots will share one and the same workstation, including all tools and auxiliary equipment," explains Dr. Martin May, head of research/advanced technologies at Schunk, which is why Schunk had the SVH 5-finger hand certified by the DGUV as the world's first gripper for collaborative operation in 2017.

Nine drives for its five fingers carry out many gripping operations while numerous gestures can be performed, facilitating visual communication between humans and the service robot for easier integration into human environments. 

Sharing a desk with a robot
Schunk research determined that the human hand is much more than just a highly flexible tool for handling.

“Unlike with industrial grippers, users always associate emotional aspects with humanoid gripping hands," May explains. "Gripping hands are always in demand wherever a robot has to imitate human handling methods."

This concerns manipulation as well as gestures. In its research projects, Schunk has focused in particular on domestic-type applications of service robotics and assembly-oriented applications in industrial assistance robotics.

"Gripping hands are a sensible option wherever the environment of an activity is configured for human beings, who are then to be assisted by a robot, for example in domestic kitchens but also in industrial assembly workstations or in picking and logistics applications." 

© Schunk | https://schunk.com/us_en/homepage

Different variants
Schunk has various gripping hands within its portfolio, starting from a 2-fingered hand reduced to the basic functions of gripping for service robotics, to the industry-compliant 3-fingered hand Schunk SDH and the complex Schunk SVH 5-fingered hand. The latest model, the Schunk SIH, is also equipped with five fingers with a structure similar to human beings but differs from the SVH in terms of drive and kinematics.

The SVH is driven via nine motors and complies with the typical aspects of a precision working robot hand.

The SIH is equipped with five motors and actuated via pull cables, based more on its human counterpart with its veins and muscles. Three of its fingers can be moved independently of one another and the two smallest in turn move together as a team. SIH can be more flexibly deployed, is more robust, and available at lower costs, which, according May, was a key requirement for the research project, particularly when it comes to service robotics applications in domestic environments as strict management of costs is a must if they are to be successful on the market.

In order to attain the goal of affordable, simple-to-operate 5-fingered hands for versatile applications, Schunk makes use of experience from bionics as well as the latest motor and electronics concepts. Using intelligent gripper control, a wide range of gripping projects can be realized via a simple-to-operate interface without having to program these precisely. 

© Schunk | https://schunk.com/us_en/homepage

Autonomous gripping
Schunk is dedicated to the gripping process as a whole and is on the lookout for ways of dealing with handling tasks autonomously. Intricate programming of the robot, which until now had to be done manually by the user or integrator, will in the future be replaced by a learning, autonomous assembly of components. Instead of individually defining positions, speeds, and gripping forces step-by-step, intelligent gripping systems will in the future detect their target objects via cameras and perform gripping planning of their own accord. Based on data records and algorithms, gripping systems will be capable of detecting principles and deriving corresponding reactions. In addition, Schunk R&D is working on algorithms for classifying different geometries and arrangements and developing optimum gripping strategies. Gripping systems should be able to handle parts autonomously and refine the underlying gripping workflows ever further. 

©  Schunk | https://schunk.com/us_en/homepage

Autonomous evaluation of gripping quality
The greater the variance of the parts to be gripped and the more complex the task, the sooner gripping hands will be deployed here too. By means of corresponding sensor systems in the gripper fingers, the motor current and intelligence integrated in the gripping hand, the quality of a grip can be detected, evaluated, and readjusted if necessary. In addition, characteristics of objects such as geometry, size, or flexibility can be sensed via the gripper alone and transferred to higher-level systems or upstream/downstream stations.

"Using artificial intelligence methods, it will also be possible to train service and assistance robots intuitively and create individual libraries for gripper planning and then add to these," May says. "Particularly gripping hands for versatile use will then no longer be deployed for repetitive tasks but it will be possible for them to be continually adapted to new objects and relations and their gripping strategies optimized on an ongoing basis."

August 2019 U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $205.1 million according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report collaboration, was up 3.3% from July's $198.5 million and down 8% when compared with the $222.8 million reported for August 2018. With a year-to-date total of $1.7 billion, 2019 is up 1.2% when compared with 2018.

These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals reported by the companies participating in the CTMR program. The totals here represent the majority of the U.S. market for cutting tools.

According to Phil Kurtz, president of USCTI, “August numbers reflected an increase from July but an 8% decrease from August 2018. While 2019 year-to-date market remains positive, the gain is deteriorating and may turn negative before year end as there are a number of reports now showing an overall manufacturing slow down.”

“Cutting tool consumption continues to decelerate in-line with the slowing U.S. industrial sector. Robust U.S. manufacturing activity of 2018 has slowed, impacted by uncertain economic growth both here and abroad as well as ongoing trade issues. The weakening economic outlook drives softening industrial production, manufacturing output and business spending. This means that the U.S. benefit from rising inventories is over and inventory liquidation has begun. With industrial production likely to continue to be sluggish for the foreseeable future, most manufacturing has begun an inventory liquidation of short-cycle components.”

“The cutting tool sector is not immune. Cutting tool demand M/M has been volatile for the 8 months of 2019; but 2019 YTD gains peaked in January and have continued to soften as the year progressed. August YTD data shows down 8% and we expect cutting tool activity to continue to decelerate – if not contract – for the remainder of 2019 and likely into next year,” said Eli Lustgarten, President of ESL Consultants.

U.S. manufacturing technology orders fell 3.2% from the previous month to a total of $365.6 million in August 2019, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report (USMTO) published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. Orders decreased 27.6% from August 2018, which was the best August on record at $505 million.

Orders for 2019 totaled just under $3 billion, a decline of 14.4% from the 2018 total to date. Despite the decline from 2018, the total value of manufacturing technology orders in 2019 are the second highest annual total through August since 2014.

The Southeast region experienced robust growth driven primarily by orders in the metal cutting category. The Northeast was the only other region to have positive order growth from July to August. The North Central – East had the largest month over month decline, decreasing orders by over a quarter from July. The West and South-Central posted losses while the North-Central-West region was near-flat from over the previous month.

“The consensus of analysts at MTForecast is that markets should pick up in the U.S. as early as next summer, and will pick up in Europe several months earlier, taking the pressure off the U.S.,” says Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology.

“This was reflected at EMO Hannover where we saw a great deal of interest on the floor, particularly in the Industry 4.0/IIoT pavilion, but not a high level of capital commitment, reflecting uncertainty and challenges in the European market.”

“Looking at Asia, it is likely the Free Trade Agreement with Japan will substantially reduce tariffs on U.S. machine tools imports from Japan, which will require some adjustments. Overall, it should have a positive impact on trade and improve the profitability and opportunities of U.S. agricultural, automotive, and aerospace sectors, which could well offset any negative effects of tariffs falling on manufacturing technology imports.”

Orders from machine shops were near-flat yet showed a slight increase over July. Construction machinery manufacturing vastly expanded orders over July. Aerospace orders increased by nearly a third. The automotive sector decreased orders overall despite modest increases from the transmission and powertrain manufacturing sector.