manufacturing
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GE’s huge 3D metal printer makes aircraft parts
GE has unveiled its previously-announced 3D metal printer, suitable for making aircraft parts. At the manufacturing trade show formnext in Germany, the GE Additive team revealed the as-yet-unnamed machine, demonstrating its ability to print parts as large as 1 meter in diameter directly from a computer file. Using additive manufacturing technology, the machine fuses together thin layers of metal powder with a 1-kilowatt laser.
What is Intel Coffee Lake?
Intel's 8th-generation "Coffee Lake" CPUs are now on the market. These chips come with a modest bump in CPU frequency, but the big news is that Intel is finally adding 6-core processors to its mainstream i7 and i5 lines. More cores means these chips will perform better at tasks that benefit from multithreading, such as content creation and data processing, and the increase in frequency and cores will give a boost to gaming frame rates. Intel used to release chips on a "tick-tock" cycle that saw every release alternate either a new design, or a new manufacturing process - called a "node." A new process node, like moving from 45nm to 22nm, means smaller transistors and a faster or more power-efficient chip. But manufacturing challenges made tick-tock falter a few years ago, and now new releases are much harder to predict. "Coffee Lake" is the fourth chip Intel has released at 14nm, and the third based on the "Skylake" design from 2015. New designs and nodes are coming, but we'll probably have to wait until they arrive in 2018 to see a big jump in performance.
Google is buying HTC's Pixel team for $1.1 billion
After weeks (months, and years) of speculation, HTC has announced that its "Powered by HTC" R&D division -- the team behind Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones -- will be purchased by Google for $1.1 billion in cash. According to HTC's CFO Peter Shen, this will mean about half -- yes, half -- of the 4,000 people in his company's R&D team will be joining Google, but he emphasized that HTC will continue developing its own range of smartphones, including its next flagship product. The agreement also grants Google a non-exclusive license for a large part of HTC's intellectual property. The deal is expected to be approved and closed by early 2018. Curious about what all of this means? You could do worse than to check out our guide to the subject from last week.
Ford invests in Michigan's autonomous car testing grounds
Ford might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of autonomous vehicles (unless you really like Domino's pizza), but that doesn't mean the automaker is sitting by while everyone else is making leaps and bounds in the space. The company just announced that it's making a $5 million investment in the American Center for Mobility. "This is an investment in the safe, rapid testing and deployment of transformative technology that will help improve peoples' lives," Ford's CTO Ken Washington said in a press release (PDF).
Nike made me a pair of custom sneakers in 46 minutes
Last week, Nike announced the launch of its Makers' Experience, an invite-only, limited-time event where people can design a pair of shoes and have them made in less than hour. And today we had the chance to check it out for ourselves at the company's By You Studio in New York City, a space created to take you through the process of making your own custom shoe from start to finish. That means being able to choose from a set of four different graphic packs, including the camouflage pattern pictured above, and the colors you want on the upper of your sneakers. The midsole will be white by default.
Why BMW bets on versatility over pure EVs
Behind the wheel of the BMW 330e you almost forget it's a hybrid. Then you floor it on an uphill climb while in electric mode and the car automatically switches to the gas engine -- with a warning you've outstripped the electric motor's capabilities. The $43,700 (about $10,000 more than a regular 3 Series) version of BMW's iPerformance brand is a near seamless integration of the automaker's past, present and future.
Apple supplier Foxconn announces plan for Wisconsin display factory
Foxconn, supplier to companies like Apple, BlackBerry, Nintendo and Microsoft, formally announced its plans to open a factory in Wisconsin, which is part of a $10 billion investment in production in America. The Taiwanese company's upcoming facility in the American Midwest is expected to employ at least 3,000 people and potentially increase to 13,000 total jobs, a win for Trump's agenda to return manufacturing jobs to the US.
Trump says Apple CEO promised to build three factories in US
President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that Apple CEO Tim Cook promised him the tech titan would build "three big plants, beautiful plants" in the US. He didn't elaborate on potential locations or construction dates for the manufacturing facilities, and Apple declined to comment on the subject to the Wall Street Journal.
Apple invests $200 million in Corning's US glass manufacturing
Apple is awarding $200 million of its billion-dollar Advanced Manufacturing Fund to Corning Incorporated for research and development, "capital equipment needs" and high-tech glass processing. In a statement, Corning's CEO Wendell P. Weeks said that this has created around 1,000 jobs domestically, and will benefit its Harrodsburg production facility in Kentucky, specifically.
Apple pledges $1 billion to support manufacturing jobs in the US
Apple probably won't start building iPhones and iPads in the United States any time soon, but CEO Tim Cook is happy to help other companies keep their manufacturing businesses stateside. Apple will pour $1 billion into a fund aimed at promoting advanced manufacturing jobs in the US, Cook announced on Mad Money today.
Watson could be the key to smarter manufacturing robots
Some reports predict that robots will replace 5 million jobs in the next couple of years. Bill Gates thinks we need a "robot tax" to compensate for those losses. A new partnership announced today between Swiss automation firm ABB and IBM's Watson initiative could hasten that future while it seeks to improve efficiency in on the manufacturing floor.
Vinyl record production gets a much-needed tech upgrade
Ever wondered why you sometimes have to wait months after an album's launch to get the music on vinyl? It's not necessarily because the label hates vinyl -- in many cases, it's because the decades-old manufacturing process can't keep up with the format's resurgence. Relief may be in sight for turntable fans, though. Viryl Technologies is producing a pressing machine system, WarmTone, that should drag vinyl production into the modern era.
Apple wants to build more of its data center tech in Arizona
Remember how Apple salvaged that defunct sapphire plant in Arizona by turning it into a data center? That facility might soon become more useful... if not as useful as you might think. Apple has proposed expanding the Mesa location to make data server cabinets. While it's not initially clear why it's making the move, a Business Insider source claims that this is about consolidating data center production. The company normally builds the technology on-site at its data centers, the insider says, and it now wants to switch to a centralized model where it ships everything from Arizona.
Cuba opens its first computer factory
Cuba is slowly opening up to technology, but it hasn't actually been making technology. Its exports are dominated by natural products like nickel, sugar and tobacco. The nation is about to diversify, however: it just inaugurated its first computer factory, which officials claim will "promote technology and digital literacy." It's a modest plant, to put it mildly. The factory is only capable of producing 120,000 devices per year, and Chinese electronics giant Haier is shouldering a lot of the responsibility by supplying equipment, tech and training. The facility is thoroughly modern, however, and will make modern laptops (using Celeron, Core i3 and Core i5 chips, Cuba eagerly points out) as well as 8- and 10-inch tablets.
Inside the factory building GM's game-changing Bolt EV
At CES earlier this year, GM CEO Mary Barra announced, to much fanfare, that the Bolt EV would have a range of over 200 miles, cost less than $30,000 (after tax credits) and ship by the end of the year. So far, two of those three proclamations have come true. Fortunately for would-be owners, though, the automaker insists it'll deliver on that last one too, promising that the car will begin shipping by the end of the month. Getting the Bolt out on the street isn't just important for Chevy, but also for the future of motoring, and it's all coming together in Detroit.
Faraday Future delays EV production plant in Nevada
Construction on Faraday Future's Nevada EV manufacturing plant has stopped, putting projected electric car delivery dates at risk, according to the Financial Times. The Chinese company, backed by electronic giant LeEco, is overdue on millions of dollars of bills to its general contractor Aecom, Nevada state treasurer Dan Schwartz told the FT. Construction is set to resume early next year, but it's unlikely the factory -- still in the early phases of construction -- will be ready to produce vehicles by 2017.
Volkswagen will build EVs in North America starting in 2021
Volkswagen introduced its new e-Golf at the LA Auto Show last week and today the automaker announced more plans for its electric vehicles in North America. As part of its plan for the next decade, the company wants to "evolve from a niche supplier into a relevant and profitable volume producer." Part of that strategy includes building EVs in North America beginning in 2021.
Injection-molded vinyl could offer better sound and lower costs
The vinyl resurgence trudges on and a Dutch company is working on a new production method that could bring big changes to how the format is made. Symcon built an injection molding system for pressing vinyl records that not only reduces production costs and provides better audio quality, but it also uses 65 percent less energy during the manufacturing process. Energy is saved by not using steam to heat and press records and the company hopes it can eventually cut turnaround times from 12-16 weeks down to two.
Tesla buys an engineering firm to meet Model 3 production goals
Tesla is going to need to make a lot of cars if it's going to fulfill all those Model 3 pre-orders... 500,000 per year by 2018, to be exact. And it's making a big purchase to help it reach that lofty goal. The company is acquiring Grohmann Engineering, a German firm specializing in automated manufacturing. The buyout (which creates Tesla Grohmann Automation) should give Elon Musk and crew more of the expertise and systems they need for high-volume production not only at the Gigafactory, but elsewhere in the world. Grohmann will serve as the base for Tesla's Advanced Automation Germany facility, with more locations coming.
Samsung starts building 10-nanometer processors
Chip companies are battling Moore's Law tooth and nail, but Samsung says it's the first to start building processors using a 10-nanometer process, ahead of Intel and others. To put that into scale, the transistors will be just 50 times the size of a silicon atom, which is around 0.2 nanometers across. Samsung didn't say who it's building the system-on-chip for, but Korea's Electronic Times says it has an exclusive deal to build Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 830 processors using 10-nanometer tech.
