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Siemens Meet at the Machine: Be productive from day one of new CNC machine delivery

Traditionally, many programming, validation, and training activities begin only after a machine is installed. Not anymore. Meet at the Machine is Siemens' new initiative uniting machine builders, software, and automation for next-level CNC through a continuous digital thread across engineering, programming, virtual validation, and execution. By pairing a Digital Twin with Digital CNC powered by SINUMERIK, manufacturers can prepare, validate, train, and optimize workflows before your specialized machine's physical delivery! TRAK Machine Tools is the launch partner -- see what they are doing.
Learn more.

How to master metal powder management in 3D printing

What's the real cost of "good enough" powder tracking for powder-bed fusion 3D-printing machines? According to Tim Wischeropp, CEO and Co-Founder of amsight, the technology is rife with hidden costs. Every cycle, every handling step, every exposure, and every mixing decision plays a part. Surprisingly, though, with the right strategy, users can turn their losses into a competitive edge. Learn how.
Read the full article.

Aluminum oxide filament for FDM printers

Virtual Foundry, the company that brought us 3D-printable lunar regolith simulant, has a new product called Aluminum Oxide Filamet™, giving users the power to print alumina parts using the FDM printers they already own. This composite 3D-printing material allows researchers, engineers, and makers to bypass expensive ceramic tooling and produce pure ceramic components in-house. Print using a 0.6-mm hardened-steel, standard-flow nozzle on virtually any open-architecture printer.
Get all the material specs.

New metal extrusion retrofit system helps manufacturers get into ShAPE

A new invention from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory could soon help manufacturers more easily adopt the lab's patented Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE™) technology, enabling faster manufacturing of superior extrusion products while reducing costs and energy use.
Read the full article.

Pneumatics: Dual guide rod cylinders and exhaust silencers

Automation-Direct has expanded its guided actuator lineup with compact 12-mm dual guide rod cylinders from Metal Work. Ideal for packaging and material handling, these double-acting cylinders feature 10-mm to 250-mm strokes, magnetic pistons, and integral sensor slots. Additionally, new durable acetal plastic silencers are now available in multiple NPT/BSPP sizes to reduce pneumatic exhaust noise.
Learn more.

Expanded injection molding capabilities

Pexco LLC has acquired Recto Molded Products and Legacy Extrusions, expanding its capabilities in complex injection molding, tooling, assembly, and engineered thermoplastic solutions for OEM manufacturers. The Cincinnati-based companies bring more than a century of manufacturing expertise, advanced production technologies, and value-added services that strengthen Pexco's ability to support customers from product design through full-scale production. Injection molding presses ranging from 55 to 500 tons.
Learn about Pexco and its value-added manufacturing services.

Custom 3D-printed steering wheel for jet dragster

Jet dragsters use General Electric J85 engines -- the same turbines pulled from U.S. military F5 Freedom Fighters -- mounted to a custom 26-ft chassis. The racers achieve quarter-miles in 5.5 sec, but standard metal parts can fail custom ergonomic needs. Traditional manufacturing of low-volume aluminum steering wheels demands long, 8-day lead times, high costs, and multi-piece assemblies. Larsen Motorsports solved this by replacing metal with continuous fiber 3D printing using the Markforged X7. Embedding continuous carbon fiber into an Onyx nylon matrix allowed them to target specific load paths, delivering a custom steering wheel that is stiffer, lighter, and faster to produce than aluminum.
View the video.

Application Spotlight: Light-duty ring in an air vent nozzle

Explore how a light-duty Spirolox^® retaining ring is used in an airplane air vent nozzle to regulate airflow. This application spotlight shows how the ring fits into a groove in the plastic housing, securing the nozzle during rotation. Designed for light loads and axial positioning, it offers a simple, economical solution that is easy to install and remove.
View this informative Smalley video.

Fasteners for automotive and agricultural equipment

Norm Fasteners has acquired an automotive fastener manufacturing plant in Plymouth, MI, expanding its North American footprint beyond sales, engineering, and logistics. The local facility produces metric fasteners (M4-M24) and engine bolts. Norm’s portfolio includes wheel bolts, studs, custom fasteners, and licensed MAThread^® and TAPTITE^® products, serving diverse automotive and industrial assembly needs.
Learn more or contact Belgin Tunce for more information.

3M Cooling Film for vehicle roofs launched

New 3M Cooling Film is a roof-applied heat-management solution designed to help keep vehicle cabins cooler, reduce cooling demand, and improve operational efficiency. The aftermarket product uses advanced thermal management technology to reflect more than 85% of solar radiation. Interior vehicle temperatures can be reduced by up to 10 degrees F with this product. Installs like graphics by professional installers using 3M adhesive technologies. Initially designed for fleet and rail operators.
Learn more.

Test your knowledge: High-temp adhesives

Put your knowledge to the test by trying to answer these key questions on how to choose the right high-temperature-resistant adhesive. The technical experts from Master Bond cover critical information necessary for the selection process, including questions on glass transition temperature and service temperature range. Some of the answers may surprise even the savviest of engineers.
Take the quiz.

New Air Holster Safety Air Gun Mount

EXAIR's new Model 5930 Air Holster provides a simple and convenient way to keep Safety Air Guns secure and within easy reach at workstations throughout a facility. Designed to give operators a designated location for their air gun when not in use, the Air Holster helps prevent misplaced tools while keeping work areas organized and efficient. Its practical design makes it an ideal addition to manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, and other industrial workstations where Safety Air Guns are frequently used.
Learn more.

Southco access hardware in rail applications

Discover how Southco's rail access hardware solutions help improve safety, reliability, and operational efficiency across modern rail networks. The video showcases a range of rail applications where Southco's access hardware plays a critical role, including driver cabins, lighting systems, tray tables, headrests, armrests, and other passenger and operator touchpoints. Designed to support dependable performance in demanding moving environments, Southco's solutions help operators streamline maintenance processes, minimize downtime, and enable more proactive asset management.
View the video.

Multi-zone tension leveler for hard-to-flatten alloys

Redex USA's Levelflex^® is a modular, multi-zone tension leveler engineered for continuous processing lines, including coating and heat treatment of aluminum alloys and where flatness is critical to coating adhesion and downstream formability. By stretching material within 95% of its yield strength, it corrects stubborn flatness defects in fewer passes. It comes in open-loop pure stretch or closed-loop tension measurement modes to optimize surface integrity and eliminate crossbow.
Learn more.

Hold any shape with ID and OD Form Holding Clamps

These simple OD and ID clamping solutions from Fixtureworks clamp onto your part in one easy operation, eliminating the need for custom fixtures. They allow users to clamp onto the inner or outer diameter of small-size, irregularly shaped work parts fast. Lots of options.
Learn more.

Researchers make better magnets at a lower cost

By Matt Shipman, North Carolina State University

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique for manufacturing strong magnetic materials that improves the quality of the magnets, produces the magnets quickly, uses less energy, and is less expensive.

Strong permanent magnets are used in a wide variety of applications, and demand for these materials is increasing due to their use in technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, and robotic devices.

However, manufacturing these magnets is challenging.

"Currently, to manufacture a magnet, industry relies on sintering metal alloy powders into a bulk solid at high temperature and under high pressure," says Bharat Gwalani, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State. "This is a complex, time-consuming process that requires a lot of energy and often results in the creation of flawed magnets.

"For example, the conventional manufacturing process often results in uneven distribution of porosity throughout the magnetic material, with high porosity at the center," Gwalani says. "This means the magnetic properties of the material are also unevenly distributed.

"One last challenge we wanted to address is related to the fact that the rare earth metals used in producing magnetic materials are very reactive to oxygen," Gwalani says. "Oxidation adversely affects the magnetic properties of these materials, and high heat increases the rate of oxidation, so we wanted to see if a different process could improve magnet quality."

To that end, the researchers experimented with a new magnet manufacturing process that makes use of a technique called friction stir consolidation (FSC). Essentially, the alloy powder is placed in a chamber, placed under pressure, and stirred with a rotating tool.

"The energy from the rotational motion and the forge force -- the pressure -- sinters the powder into a solid without ever melting the alloy," Gwalani says. "Because the metal is not exposed to high heat and doesn't actually melt, this process results in less oxidation and unwanted phase transitions in the material. Also, while we are applying pressure, it's less than one megapascal (MPa), whereas conventional magnet manufacturing techniques apply more than 100 MPa."

The researchers also found that the new approach eliminated porosity in the magnetic material.

"This is because conventional techniques apply pressure in only one direction, which means the pressure is applied largely to the top and bottom of the material, forcing porosity into the center," Gwalani says. "Because our technique involves rotating the material as pressure is applied, that pressure is distributed throughout the material.

"In addition, our approach relies on the frictional heating caused by the alloy powder particles rubbing together," says Gwalani. "This means the heat is being generated at the exact site where it is needed to fuse the powders into a bulk solid -- there isn't an external source of heat being applied everywhere, as there is in conventional techniques."

Ultimately, the combination of pressure, rotation, and frictional heating means there are no pockets or bubbles in the magnetic material.

"The result is a faster manufacturing method that reduces energy consumption and produces strong permanent magnets with less oxidation and uniform magnetic properties throughout the material," says Gwalani.

"Now that we have figured out a way to consolidate magnetic materials without porosity, we are experimenting with the development of next-generation magnets that incorporate non-magnetic binder agents. Our goal is to develop strong permanent magnets that have more desirable physical properties. We want to make low-density, tougher magnets that are less reliant on difficult-to-obtain rare-earth materials."

The paper, "In-Situ Thermo-Mechano-Chemical Transformation and Consolidation of Sm-Co Powders via a Single-Step Route for Bulk Magnet Fabrication" appears in the journal Nature Communications. The paper was co-authored by Aniruddha Malakar, a former postdoctoral researcher at NC State who is now at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Andrew Martin, a postdoctoral researcher at NC State; Farhan Ishrak, Caleb Schenck, and Michael Lastovich, Ph.D. students at NC State; Joseph Tracy and Martin Thuo, professors of materials science and engineering at NC State; Anqi Yu, Mayur Pole, Jens Darsell, Tianhao Wang, Libor Kovarik, Glenn Grant, and Mert Efe of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Joseph Helsing of the Stevens Institute of Technology; and John Thornton of Bruker Nano.

This research was done with support from the Office of Naval Research and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is part of the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Published December 2025

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