Austin Weber

Industry 4.0 technology promises to transform plant floors during the next two decades. It will also change the way that engineers and assemblers interact with machines.

Designing a new medical device is a bit more complicated than designing a toaster or an automotive cooling system. Besides the issues common to any product—feasibility, usability, and design for manufacture and assembly—there are also issues of biocompatibility, sterilization and FDA regulations to deal with.

Whenever anyone mentions hybrid-electric vehicles today, most people automatically think of cars, buses and trucks. But, up in the sky, the technology is also getting a lot of attention from aerospace engineers. That’s because electric systems are greener, lighter, quieter and more energy-efficient than traditional alternatives.

Seating is something that most people never think about when they get behind the wheel. But, it plays an important role in overall customer satisfaction.

Quick change is a popular type of magic in which performers appear in entirely different costumes within just a few seconds. It’s an act that takes tremendous skill and lots of practice to perfect.

In the nautical disaster movie, “The Perfect Storm,” three weather fronts converge off the coast of New England to create one of the fiercest storms in U.S. history. A similar convergence is occurring in the manufacturing world today. It’s called Industry 4.0 and it promises to transform the way that engineers design and build products over the next two decades.

With all the hype surrounding self-driving cars these days, steering wheels seem a bit archaic. Some experts claim the humble device will soon find itself alongside bench seats, carburetors, chrome bumpers, hubcaps and other relics of the past.