New orders of manufacturing technology totaled $519.3 million in September 2022, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology.

New orders of manufacturing technology totaled $519.3 million in September 2022, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. September 2022 orders were up just under 13% from August 2022 but down 12.4% from September 2021, marking the first time an IMTS September had a lower order value than the year prior. Total orders in 2022 reached $4.2 billion, an increase of 2.7% over the first three quarters of 2021.

“We’re seeing the typical bump in orders brought on by IMTS and ‘the IMTS effect,’ but orders throughout 2022 are expected to fall short of 2021 order levels – the largest year in the program’s history,” says Pat McGibbon, chief knowledge officer at AMT. “The backlogs built over the last 18 months have lengthened delivery times and weigh on the decision to continue investing in additional equipment.”

Demand for additional domestic capacity and augmenting current production lines with automation has driven orders. In September 2022, that was particularly apparent in orders for forming and fabricating machinery. Appliance imports have fallen by nearly one-third but largely because of supply challenges, not a lack of demand. Appliance and HVAC manufacturers are increasing domestic capacity to bridge this gap, and that can be seen in the USMTO data. Supply chains for the aerospace sector are continuing to increase domestic capacity, particularly for cutting equipment, in an attempt to reduce reliance on foreign components. Likewise, manufacturers of agricultural equipment are continuing their investments in capital equipment. The agricultural sector has been feeling the brunt of recent labor shortages, which has necessitated the investment in more efficient, automated machinery. Additionally, with the growing unpredictability of Ukrainian grain exports, more reliance has been placed on expanded U.S. production.

Despite the anticipated slowing economy as 2022 closes and 2023 begins, the manufacturing sector remains humming at near-full capacity. “Quotations remain high, and anecdotally, we’re hearing that demand from our customer industries is not slowing,” McGibbon says. “While signs are positive now, we do expect orders to be softer the remainder of the year for most production equipment – with the exception of advanced and automation technologies. These technologies are in high demand to address the tighter labor market and increasing productivity of existing capacity. Also, continued efforts by North American manufacturers to increase their regional supply chain will continue to mitigate the modest decline in demand for durable goods. The softer order levels will provide the opportunity for manufacturing technology providers to convert their backlogs into shipped orders.”

Crucial to its workforce development strategy, Mazak North America credits veterans as essential to the company’s ability to overcome the manufacturing industry’s severe lack of skilled labor and fill vital positions. This year alone, Mazak has hired 13 veterans and now employs a total of 87 within Mazak departments ranging from field service and parts to production and purchasing.

Also, as part of its strategic workforce development strategy, Mazak leveraged its relationship with the Lucas Group to locate and hire more veterans. The recruiting firm specializes in matching up those individuals transitioning from the military with companies like Mazak seeking qualified, talented, and dedicated people.

According to Mazak Human Resources Director Bill Weier, managers praise the company’s veteran employees for their diagnostic skills and their ability to reason through solutions. "Their dedication, creativity and can-do attitude along with a strong work ethic, focused time management and problem-solving skills,” he said, “set an example of how to excel and advance within the industry. We are truly grateful for their service to their country and to have them as members of the Mazak team.”

Throughout the organization, veterans contribute their accountability, seasoned perspective, and mature outlook to make Mazak an even better place to work. The company is also committed to providing these veterans with the continuous training and development they need to build thriving, sustained careers with the company.

Veterans who are interested in manufacturing careers can apply for one of the many positions on the Mazak career page.

Blackrock Neurotech, a leading brain-computer interface company, revealed itsnext-generation neural interface, Neuralace, at Society for Neuroscience 2022. The ultra-high channel count, flexible electrode gives an important glimpse into the innovative technology that will fuel the company’s future BCIs.

“Neuralace demonstrates our belief in where the science must go in order to unlock the true potential of BCI,” says Marcus Gerhardt, co-founder and CEO of Blackrock. “This concept technology is the start of Blackrock’s journey toward whole-brain data capture that will transform the way neurological disorders are treated.”

Today’s BCI, reimagined
Blackrock’s long-tested NeuroPort Array, widely considered the gold standard of high-channel neural interfacing, has been used in human BCIs since 2004 and powered many of the field’s most significant milestones. In clinical trials, patients using Blackrock’s BCI have regained tactile function, movement of their own limbs and prosthetics, and the ability to control digital devices, despite diagnoses of paralysis and other neurological disorders.

While Blackrock’s BCI enables patients to execute sophisticated functions without reliance on assistive technologies, next-generation BCIs for areas such as vision and memory restoration, performance prediction, and treatment of mental health disorders like depression will need to interface with more neurons.

Neuralace is designed to capitalize on this need; with 10,000+ channels and the entire scalable system integrated on an extremely flexible lace-structured chip, it could capture data that is orders of magnitude greater than existing electrodes, allowing for an exponential increase in capability and intuitiveness.

“If our BCI today can help people move and feel again with only six hundred channels, imagine what we can do with ten thousand or more,” said Florian Solzbacher, Blackrock co-founder and president. “We are actively imagining new therapies–for anxiety, depression, and other neurological disorders–that this technology will enable. This is a glimpse of what’s possible in the future of BCI.”

 

Whole-brain data capture, seamless connectivity, improved biocompatibility
Thinner than an eyelash, Neuralace can be engineered with a variety of materials and patterns to interface with wide swaths of the brain’s surface. Because of its thin structure, Neuralace can conform to the fissures and sulci of the brain, increasing the surface area that data is gathered from. Neuralace’s adaptable structure also means improved biocompatibility. The body’s immune response has been a challenge for all neural implants, but Neuralace’s porous form factor would allow more natural integration with neural tissue, supporting the flow of cellular fluids and diffusion of biomolecules that could otherwise trigger immune response and/or inflammation.

“Decreasing the invasiveness of neurotechnological approaches without sacrificing device performance is one of the core challenges of neural engineering,” said Solzbacher. “The holy grail is a device that minimizes invasiveness and also enables the most powerful BCIs. With Neuralace, we are leapfrogging toward the dream of ‘neural dust’ by interfacing directly with ever larger portions of the brain while minimizing tissue irritation. This is the groundbreaking next step that will enable a paradigm shift in the design and architecture of high-performance implantable BCIs.”

While Blackrock prepares its NeuroPort Array-based BCI, MoveAgain, for commercial launch as a medical device, the company expects Neuralace to become available as a tool for the neuroscience research community by 2024, joining its extensive portfolio of clinical and research electrodes in the market. The company will later explore visual prosthesis applications in humans, with aims to have first-in-human demonstrations of a Neuralace visual prosthesis by 2028.

The digital world of manufacturing consists of 3 industry standard protocols: OPC UA, Modbus, and MT Connect. These standards make up how we communicate with the machine-tool world. Once you understand what protocol you want to use then you must decide how you want to visualize your data i.e., build your own system or use an existing system

Nowadays everyone has monitoring software to monitor machine tools but it’s how you use the tools inside that help you drill down to make progress. When you join this webinar, Joe will give a brief introduction into the software’s diagnosis tools as well as explain other tools you can use in the digital world such as the digital twin and remote monitoring to leverage the digital world in your current manufacturing process.

Registration is free for the December Lunch + Learn so sign-up today!