Just how important the counterfeit-proof marking of genuine parts has become for German industry today is evidenced by a figure published by the VDMA: Lost sales through product piracy amount to some 6.4 billion euros annually in the German machine and plant construction industry alone. With the world’s first authentication robot, the Brandproof® from Polysecure, detecting and differentiating between genuine and fake parts can be automated. Not only parts without markers, but those with (…)

Until July 16, 2012 it is possible to apply for the 10th Materialica Design + Technology Award, which has been granted each year in Munich since 2003 in parallel with the international specialist trade fair Materialica. Application deadline: July 16, 2012 The Materialica Design + Technology Award has meanwhile become one of the most important and recognized awards for innovations in the field of intelligent material development and design-oriented material applications. The top-notch (…)

Spring 2012 Hauzer Techno Coating organized the conference ‘Environment Protection by Plasma Coating Technologies’, which attracted more than one hundred attendants.Feedback! The Hauzer Metalliner, an inline coating production platform. “As technology leader Hauzer wanted to bring together well-known experts in the field with interested people worldwide in order to make a step forward in our aim to help protect the environment by plasma coating technology,” Thomas Krug, CEO of Hauzer (…)

With an LX15 linear guide, Misumi follows the trend towards miniaturisation in automation technology. LX15, the latest linear guide from Misumi, follows the trend towards miniaturization. The LX15 is just 20.2 mm tall, only 44 mm wide and the available lengths are between 75 and 200 mm. The latest linear unit in the product range of the Japanese manufac-turer and supplier of standard, purchased and made-to-order parts is therefore consid-erably smaller than the previous smallest linear (…)

Tool manufacturers can now automatically create dimensioned engineering drawings of machine tools showing their precise geometry, by using a new facility for NUM’s renowned Numroto grinding software. By producing cross-sectional views of a tool – at any position along its length – the new Numroto Draw function can effectively automate production verification. The drawings can also incorporate images obtained directly from 3D simulation of a tool, enabling even complex grinding details to be (…)

The readers of the US magazine “Photonic Tech Briefs” (PTB) have chosen Cognitens white light measurement systems as one of three products of the year 2011. The PTB readers have voted for the Cognitens WLS400A and WLS400M white light measurement systems as one of three “Products of the Year 2011”. This award goes to the most significant new introductions to the photonics engineering community. Digital stereo vision The manual Cognitens WLS400M and the automated Cognitens WLS400A, Hexagon (…)

After seeing the success of the first Cool Idea! Award program, Proto Labs, the world’s fastest manufacturer of CNC machined and injection-molded parts, has announced the expansion of its program to include the European Union in 2012. The Cool Idea! Award, which launched in the United States last year, gives product designers the opportunity to bring innovative product ideas to life. In addition to the expansion, Proto Labs has also increased the award amount from $100,000 to $250,000 worth (…)

Micronarc Alpine Meeting (mAm 2012) – Equipment for Microproducts. 3rd Edition. January 22-25, 2012, Villars-sur-Ollon. In order to benefit from a reduced price, you should register on or before January 13, 2012. Following in the success of the first two editions, The Micronarc Alpine Meeting 2012 will continue its focus on equipment for manufacturing microproducts. The MAM 2012 programis now on-line. 4 reasons why you should not miss mAm 2012 Excellent speakers and program Single (…)

Following in the success of the first two editions, The Micronarc Alpine Meeting 2012 will continue its focus on equipment for manufacturing microproducts. From January 22 to 25, 2012, Villars-sur-Ollon. This 2.5 day conference intends to stimulate networking and discussions in the casual atmosphere of Villars, a charming village and ski resort located at 1250 meters of altitude. A selection of invited speakers and presentations will comprise the program. A small, table-top exhibition (…)

In the area of consumer electronics, multi-touch has not only changed the ergonomics of devices, it has changed user habits as well. In industrial automation, this technology has the potential to make machine operation more intuitive, faster and safer - in essence, to bring about a revolution in ergonomics for machine and system visualization units. B&R introduces devices that allow multi-touch input in industrial environments. In industrial automation, there has been a strong and (…)