Conventional manufacturing suffers from a lack of innovation for one very obvious reason: Everything’s been tried before. Manufacturers already know what works and what doesn’t, so there’s little incentive to experiment — especially when it comes to new materials for product development. With additive manufacturing, that situation reverses. Manufacturers [...]
The largest time chunks in any product’s life cycle are in the design and engineering phases. This is because there are questions that need to be answered, both in how the product will perform and how the product itself will be made. Each of these [...]
A turbocharger client of ours wanted to improve durability and reduce warranty costs on cast wheels made from a nickel superalloy with a radially-solidified (RS) microstructure. A significant portion of their previous field failures had been attributed to high cycle fatigue (HCF). […]
Image by Praisaeng at FreeDigitalPhotos.net While plenty of industries abhor corrosion and its consequences, another sector has welcomed it as a step in the healing process: medical devices. Devices have evolved over the decades to be less-intrusive during (and after) implantation.The bio-inert nature of titanium (along with [...]
In the race to get products to market, does risk-mitigation get enough time in the winner’s circle? What do aerospace, medical device manufacturers, and auto racing all have in common? Answer: the need to minimize risk of premature/unexpected component failure while crossing the finish line first. While these industries [...]
The hottest word currently being spoken in offices and around dinner tables in the US is “sequestration.” Not since the seminal juror movie 12 Angry Men has the word enjoyed such buzz. While there are many ongoing debates concerning the political ramifications of this government budget-reduction action (that went [...]