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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers
Silk Gets 20 New High-Tech Uses
May 18, 2011 6:23 am | VideosFlorenzo Omenetto demonstrates how silk is involved in transmitting light, improving sustainability, adding strength, and making medical leaps and bounds. If you’re having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.
Using Urine As A Power Source?
May 18, 2011 6:18 am | VideosAccording to some student researchers at Ohio University, urine could be used as a source of energy, thanks to the high levels of hydrogen that is present in the organic compound urea. That hydrogen is pumped to a fuel cell, which can be used to power a variety of gadgets and machines. Sound too good to be true? The math, unbelievably, supports the usefulness of this technology.
Branson: NASA Was A Monopoly
May 18, 2011 6:17 am | VideosRichard Branson, well-known for his wide-ranging business ventures, is now at the forefront of the private space industry. MSNBC asks, Will the end of the shuttle era mean more competitiveness in the space race? Branson certainly thinks so, saying that NASA’s minimizing will allow private companies to do the same work for a fraction of the cost.
Vinyl Manufacturing Making A Comeback
May 18, 2011 6:16 am | VideosA recent survey shows that sales of vinyl records is growing at 13.6 percent, just beating out digital sales, at 13 percent, which means that a whole industry is in the process of being reborn. CNN Money visited Brooklyn-based EKS Manufacturing to see what the industry uptick has meant for business.
'Made In USA' Flourishes Online
May 16, 2011 10:19 am | VideosTodd Lipscomb is the founder of www.madeinusaforever.com , an online retailer that specializes in a variety of goods that are only made domestically. The store deals mostly in products made by a wide range of small, family businesses, and interest has been picking up quickly. Lipscomb was an executive with Western Digital for years, living in Asia, when he realized the need to provide U.
Walking At Graduation Thanks To An Exoskeleton
May 16, 2011 5:31 am | VideosThis last weekend's graduates at UC Berkeley were witness to a unique event at their commencement thanks to Austin Whitney and a robotic exoskeleton. Whitney was paralyzed in a 2007 car accident, but was determined to walk across the stage and recieve his diploma. Enter Berkeley engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, who designed a bespoke exoskeleton for Whitney.
Making Baseball In The U.S.A.
May 13, 2011 6:17 am | VideosThis one is for you baseball fans out there. Like many other manufacturing niches, work for making baseball gloves was sent overseas in order to reduce costs. In contrast to the normal outsourcing swing, and in spite of the economic downturn, Insignia Athletics, of Worcester, Mass., has recently started high-end baseball gloves using American leather.
Melting Millions From Gold Scraps
May 11, 2011 11:47 am | VideosRhode Island-based Advanced Chemical Company recycles gold and other precious metals from industrial production through a variety of sophisticated reactions. Based on the almost continuously-rising price of gold, business is booming. If you’re having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.
GM's 50 Years Of Bumpy Roads
May 11, 2011 7:55 am | VideosGeneral Motors was once the highlight of the American industrial complex, but it's been a bumpy road over the last 50 or so years. Between bad management and partial ownership by the U.S. government at the UAW, the company has lost is once-blinding luster. Fortune 's Alex Taylor III helps explain some of the ups and downs of America's largest automaker, how their current CEO is performing, and what the company will look like in 2020.
Building A Civilization On $10,000
May 11, 2011 7:47 am | VideosMarcin Jakubowsi is a Polish-born “technologist” who moved to Missouri to start a farm of his own, and ended up creating a whole new approach to living off the land — for cheap. He found that buying traditional farming equipment was prohibitively expensive for anyone but the biggest of farms, so he designed and build his own equipment.
How To "Float" A Massive Ship
May 11, 2011 7:16 am | VideosAnyone in the marine or ship-building industries is probably familiar with the process of “floating” a ship, but for the rest of us, it's a pretty eye-opening (and nerve-wracking) scene. Just imagine how stressful automaking would be if each car had to undergo a similar process. If you’re having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.
Making Potato Chips — A Numbers Game
May 11, 2011 7:13 am | VideosCNN Money recently took a tour through an environmentally-friendly potato chip plant run by PepsiCo., where they make a wide variety of chips, including Lay's, Ruffles, Doritos, and more. Despite processing 21,500 pounds of potatoes per hour , the plant is still striving to become more sustainable.
What's With The Contradictory Jobs Numbers?
May 11, 2011 7:09 am | VideosThe Labor Department released some interesting employment data last week. The economy added 244,000 jobs last month. Private employers shrugged off high gas prices and created 268,000 jobs — the most since February 2006. However, the jobless rate edged upward at the same time. What gives? If you’re having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.
Stay Away From 'The Avalaunche'
May 10, 2011 5:33 am | VideosMost likely encouraged by the increasing amount of media hype around his inventions, Joerg Sprave has developed his most powerful slingshot yet — “The Avalaunche” — that shoots six 20mm steel balls. According to Joerg, each ball carries 60 Joules as it strikes the target, enough to punch through wood or make slurry out of watermelon.
The VW Passat: Made In America
May 9, 2011 6:29 am | VideosCNN Money takes a look inside Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tenn. plant, which was built at the height of the "Great Recession." The $1 billion facility was built in Chattanooga thanks to some $500 million in financial incentives from the state government, which helped sway VW over the other 400 cities that bid for the plant.
