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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers
Britain Disappointed With Shady Tanker Contract
March 12, 2010 4:08 am | by Jennifer Quinn, Associated Press Writer | News | CommentsLONDON (AP) — The French and British leaders accused the United States of protectionism on Friday over a contract to build a new Air Force refueling tanker. A European-led consortium pulled out of bidding this week for the $35 billion contract, saying the Pentagon was favoring rival American bidder Boeing.
LG Chem To Build Chevy Volt Batteries In Michigan
March 12, 2010 3:54 am | News | CommentsHOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — Korean battery-maker LG Chem Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary Troy-based Compact Inc. will make battery cells for electric vehicles at a plant in western Michigan. The companies announced in a statement Friday that at its peak the $303 million factory in Holland will produce enough battery cells for 50,000 to 200,000 vehicle battery packs, including the Chevrolet Volt.
CPSC Recalls Coil Nailer For Eye Injuries
March 12, 2010 3:46 am | News | CommentsWASHINGTON, March 12 (Kyodo) — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Friday Hitachi Koki Co. of Japan is voluntarily recalling its coil nailers for free repairs due to the risk of serious injury. The CPSC, a governmental body, said about 50,000 coil nailers imported from Japan by Hitachi Koki U.
Ten Steps To DIY BPI
March 12, 2010 3:42 am | by Amy Radishofski, Features Editor, Manufacturing.net | Articles | CommentsCompanies are always striving to make their businesses leaner and more efficient, so the concept of business process improvement (BPI) is nothing new to them. However, many companies default to a third party to help with the process. “There are several reasons why companies use consultants, usually either because they think BPI is more complicated than it is, they don’t feel that their employees have the required skills to do the work, they feel that they need better facilitation skills to lead the work, or they don’t believe that existing employees will eliminate a step in a process if it negatively affects their job,” said Susan Page, Manager, HRIS for a major entertainment company located in Orlando, FL.
NHTSA Seeks Heavier Hand In Car Investigations
March 12, 2010 3:40 am | by Ken Thomas and Stephen Manning, Associated Press Writers | News | CommentsWASHINGTON (AP) — Government vehicle safety regulators may seek greater authority to investigate defects in cars and trucks and are weighing a range of new safety requirements in response to Toyota's recall of more than 8 million vehicles over brake and acceleration problems. David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Thursday his agency will take a "hard look" at the power it has to set safety standards for automakers.
GM's Lutz: Hybrid SUVs, Electrics Are Automotive's Future
March 12, 2010 3:38 am | by Dee-Ann Durbin and Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writers | News | CommentsWARREN, Mich. — General Motors Co. will keep making big trucks and SUVs because U.S. buyers demand them, but a major portion of them will be gas-electric hybrids in the near future, retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Friday. Lutz didn't give details, but said GM must apply hybrid technology to more vehicles in order to meet fuel-economy standards that will rise 40 percent to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
Feds Continue Recalls Of Cadmium-Tainted Jewelry
March 12, 2010 3:36 am | by Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writer | News | CommentsLOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal safety regulators recalled a line of Christmas-themed bracelets Thursday, expanding their effort to purge children's jewelry boxes and store shelves of items containing high levels of the toxic metal cadmium. The latest action by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission targeted "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" charm bracelets that released alarmingly high levels of cadmium in government lab tests, suggesting children could be exposed to a carcinogen that also can damage kidneys and bones.
Tubular Dock Lifts, Man
March 12, 2010 3:20 am | Product Releases | CommentsAdvance Lifts, Inc. (Winnebago, IL) announces the Instant Dock 6568 as the newest addition to its complete line of dock lifts. The new system uses all tubular legs for maximum rigidity, and also offers stainless steel, galvanized, FDA epoxy, and enamel finishes to fit the customer’s needs.
Pressurized Tube Cleaning
March 12, 2010 3:19 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe Saflex 3000 from NLB Corp. (Wixom, MI) is a semi-automated water jet system that cleans tube bundles more productively than manual methods and has wireless remote controls that let the operator stand clear of the action. The system can clean three tubes at once, on both the in and out stroke.
Rotating And Tilting On Scissors
March 12, 2010 3:12 am | Product Releases | CommentsHerkules Equipment Corporation (Walled Lake, MI) has designed and built a new Scissor lift Table that tilts and rotates, which was requested for an application that raises, spins, and tilts large containers during the production process to improve ergonomic conditions for workers.
High-Temperature Thread Locking
March 12, 2010 3:10 am | Product Releases | CommentsHenkel Corporation (Rocky Hill, CT) has introduced two new Loctite threadlockers formulated to withstand consistent operating temperatures up to 360°F. The new products tolerate the oils and lubricants typically found on “as received” threaded fasteners, and will also cure on plated, aluminum, stainless, and chromated fasteners without primers.
Siemens AG Expands, Creates 825 N.C. Jobs
March 11, 2010 5:41 am | by Emery P. Dalesio, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsRALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG plans to expand a North Carolina unit that makes equipment for electric utility plants, adding hundreds of jobs. The company plans to invest $135 million and create 825 engineering and manufacturing jobs in Charlotte in five years, according to a project description approved by a state incentives committee on Thursday.
Our 'Elements In Action'
March 10, 2010 11:22 am | Articles | CommentsThe Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) celebrates its centennial this year with this video dedicated to the importance four conspicuous metals have in our daily lives: iron, carbon, nickel, and aluminum. Although manufacturers deal with these materials on a daily basis, it’s easy to forget how our lives outside of work would be significantly different without them.
GM Robots Aim For Space
March 10, 2010 11:16 am | Articles | CommentsContinuing their long history of collaboration, NASA and GM partner up once more to design and build the R2, an industrial robot with human-like movements and dexterity. For GM, these robots are great at automating repetitive, dull, or ergonomically-challenging tasks. Whether it’s in manufacturing plants or in space, this new generation of robotics will help free workers up from repetitive manual labor and allow them to do things only humans can do: think.
Is Time Travel Possible?
March 10, 2010 11:13 am | Articles | CommentsTIME ’s resident science comedian Brian Malow asks a simple question: Is time travel really possible? According to Hollywood, it’s already happened, but if you ask world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, the answer is no. A few interesting paradoxes keep the nay-sayers with plenty of evidence, namely that if time travel were possible, we would already have seen travelers from the future.
