New Motion Feedback

The field of motion control is heavily dependent on the feedback device.  There are a world of issues encompassed in this statement.  But I will skip the majority of them and jump to the conclusion that magnetic encoder technology has long been a favorite of mine as a potentially ideal solution for a number of reasons.  Magnetic position technology tends to be more resistant to environmental problems such as temperature, dust, dirt and humidity.  Since all motors are heat producing systems, temperature restrictions for feedback technology can be a problem.  And since electric motors are frequently found in environments where there is dust, dirt and humidity, magnetic feedback would be ideal.

On the other hand, magnetic feedback has been complex and expensive in the past.  Resolvers require high precision windings in the sensor and precision power supplies to excite them.  Can you spell “expensive”?

Enter the Hall sensor.  In spite of the fact that the Hall Effect has been understood since 1879, the use of the technology has only recently become widespread with the fabrication of semiconductor level Hall devices.  The Hall sensor as a transistor found very popular application in sensing the three phases of brushless dc motors’ permanent magnet rotor.  The bldc motor technology was essentially impossible without this crucial piece of technology because in the early versions of the control, it was impossible to start the motor without knowing which phase to energize.  This has been less of a problem with the advent of low cost, high performance microprocessor controls that are able to run brushless dc motors with or without Hall sensors.

New arrangements of the Hall devices into arrays with greater capabilities is where the Hall effect technology intersects the position feedback technology.  The Hall arrays are capable of sensing small permanent magnet domains on rings that permit rotorary position to be sensed in either analog or digital form.

While there are a number of suppliers of Hall sensing arrays for motion control, a couple of new twists have been added.  The Timken company has added some new features to the Hall array that have additional benefits.  Among them are the ability to program the numerical value of the digital output, which can be a very helpful feature that eliminates fractional remainders and rollover error in control systems.

In addition, Timken is introducing a new linear version of the technology which is a real first for the motion community.  Most linear motion is the result of converting the rotary motion through a linear mechanical device, either a belt or leadscrew.  But the control system is measuring the position from the feedback  on the motor that’s driving the system and not on the load.  So the mechanical error of the leadscrew or belt is the limiting factor in high performance linear.

And to make the new magnetic feedback really interesting, it is comparable in cost to conventional optical encoders.  Which is really going to create some new opportunities for everyone in the motion control field.

DASH, The Robotic Cockroach, To Save Lives In Haiti

UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering is developing mini-robots to help locate earthquake survivors easily, cheaply, and quickly, and without jeopardizing the lives of rescuers.

First Robotic Radical Cystectomy Deemed a Success

The first first robotic radical cystectomy, a surgical procedure to treat invasive cancer of the bladder, was recently performed at Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta. Dr. Rajesh Laungani, Director of Robotic Urology at Saint Joseph’s, performed the minimally-invasive surgery.

Invasive bladder cancer has a very high mortality rate and generally results in death if not treated. During a radical cystectomy, the entire bladder (and prostate, if the patient is male) is removed. According to Laungani, performing this robotically allows for a minimally invasive approach. The advantages include less blood loss, less pain, and quicker recovery. Just as importantly, it provides comparable rates of cancer cure as compared to more traditional surgery.

In 2004, Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta was designated as the exclusive training center in the Southeastern United States (Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi) for robotic surgical systems. Since that time, Saint Joseph’s has become the world-wide site for surgeons to train on robotics.

www.stjosephsatlanta.org

Innovation and Growth in Robotics

The robot industry has gone through some interesting changes over the years.  Most of the companies that were involved in the start of the real robot revolution are gone, unable to meet the extraordinary cost reductions that were sure tocome in order to make robots cost effective in most industries.  The biggest lesson, in my opinion, was the idea that robots had to be narrowly defined in terms of their application.   There was a time where there were only a few companies with the control technology to be able to make the multi-axis coordination work correctly.  So every application had to be programmed from scratch and the learning curve was huge.

The fact is that a welding robot is nothing like a Cartesian robot for electronic assembly.  And part of the learning curve of the industry was understanding what applications to focus on.  This first big reality set in when many companies began to compete for welding applications because the automotive market  opportunity was huge.  And just figuring out one application was a big enough task that it consumed most of the development resources available in  companies like GE and ABB robotics.

Consider the huge learning curve that has taken place in 35 years.  Medical robots have matured to the point where orthopedic surgery by a robot is faster and more precise than the best surgeons.  Researching the human genome would have been impossible without the high speed sample management systems of bio-assay robots.  And autonomous robots have searched the inside of volcanoes, taken samples on the moon and roamed and photographed Mars.  Pretty impressive.

Consider the forecast for the future of robotics. Motors and controls have become incredibly sophisticated and costs have dropped dramatically.   Computing power has increased to the point where memory and processing costs are almost trivial.  The First Robotics Competition is bringing 150,000 school children into the field of robotics through its programs with schools all over the US.  And the knowledge base and experience is so pervasive that we have Lego making teaching systems for grade school children to begin to get exposure to robotics.

Among the amazing developments, Barrett Technology has an anthropomorphic arm and “hand” gripper that is designed to low force, low power consumption and safe enough to be in proximity to humans.  The Robots and Mechanisms Lab at Virginia Polytechnic has demonstrated many new solutions to common problems of robot locomotion culminating in the Darwin soccer playing robot that operates autonomously.  Their goal?  Team Darwin wants to be able to compete with human soccer players by the year 2050.

With this kind of innovation, the future of robotics is going to be great.

Robotics Industry Optomistic for 2010

The robotics industry, like the world economy, is slowly emerging from the most trying economic times since the 1930s. The automotive sector, traditionally the core of the robotics industry, is depressed requiring robot manufacturers and integrators to find substitute markets in North America and beyond.

“My outlook for the robotics industry in 2010 is cautiously optimistic and unsettled. Some projects are coming back alive that have been dead a long time,” says Joseph Campbell, Vice President Sales and Marketing of ABB Robotics. (Auburn Hills, Michigan). “Industry analysts are trying to gauge if fourth quarter activity is by companies who have not done any capital investment in 2009 or is it the start of a true recovery.” Orders for new robots declined 30 percent through the third quarter of 2009, with the automotive industry slipping at approximately the same rate. Automotive-related companies typically account for about 60 percent of robots ordered in North America.

Finding Opportunities in Crisis
With the fall in robot orders by the automotive industry in 2009, robot makers and integrators accelerated efforts to find new opportunities. “The robotics industry is in a transitional phase because the automotive industry has been decimated. The robotics industry is trying to find its footing, trying to grab an industry to be its main go-to,” says Patrick O’Rahilly Jr, Director at Compass Automation (Elgin, Illinois). “The automotive sector has been the main hub of the robotics industry for a very long time. Renewable energy could be the new main industry for robotics.”

“The bottom fell out of the automotive market, which the robotics industry heavily relies on. That fallout has forced the robotics industry to look outside of its comfort zone and move into emerging energy technologies like batteries, wind, and solar power,” says Roger Christian, Vice President of Marketing and International Groups at Motoman Inc. (West Carrollton, Ohio). “Returning to historical levels of selling robots in renewable energy will be slow because these industries at first do not offer the same unit volume that automotive did.”

While the automotive market took a big hit in 2009, some signs of life remain in North America, says Christian. “The Ford Fiesta program in southern Mexico and the Volkswagen program in Chattanooga, Tennessee provided unit volume from these OEM’s and their Tier One suppliers.”

Solar panels could be a saving grace for the robotics industry. “Solar panels will take off in 2010, but it is difficult to say how fast. Manufacturing solar panels requires robotics,” says Åke Lindqvist, a member of the Robotic Industries Association’s (RIA, Ann Arbor, Michigan) board of directors and Vice President of ABB Robotics. “I see smaller fuel cells that can power laptop computers for 40 hours rather than four hours. If fuel cell manufacturers want to produce millions of those per year, they will need robotics.” Lindqvist expects increased opportunities for robotics in fuel cell and solar power during 2010.

Roger Christian adds, “Making solar panels has a demand for robotics such as handling the silicone wafers throughout the slicing, polishing and stringing processes, as well as assembling the panels. Solar is a great growth area for robotics.” A newer type of panels, thin film solar, is a bright spot for robotics too, says Christian. “Companies in Silicon Valley are looking at thin film solar and have launched prototype manufacturing cells that have included robotics. I see thin film solar as an area of growth for robotics.”

The Stimulus Act passed by Congress in early 2009, a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, and government contracts, has made some impact on the alternative energy market in favor of robotics, remarked Mick Estes, National Distribution Sales Manager at FANUC Robotics America Inc. (Rochester Hills, Michigan). “Stimulus money is getting companies to think about the solar market and other alternative energy areas. We see activity in the battery assembly market.” Money from the Stimulus Act is making its way to automate “green” production such as wind and solar power, says Estes.

The push for wind power is creating an opportunity for robotics in gear manufacturing, says Patrick O’Rahilly. “Gear manufacturing is an important and large industry and one that Compass is pursuing related to making wind turbines.”

Richard Litt, RIA’s out-going Chairman and founder of Genesis Systems Group LLC. (Davenport, Iowa) also sees wind power as an opportunity for robotics in 2010. “Genesis has seen a little business in machine tending applications in machining the giant gear sets for wind turbines.”

Similarly, Christian sees increased possibilities for robotics in putting together wind turbines, especially their gear assemblies. “I see three areas where robotics will play an increasing role in the wind turbine market. One area is deburring or hardening the huge gears in the nacelle. Fabrication of the towers also requires robotics with adaptive welding software to make them.” Christian explains that 200-foot high towers are constructed in 10-foot lengths. Due to their size, turbine towers cannot be transported across oceans but are assembled on-site.

Christian’s third area of robotics for wind turbines is fabrication of the blades. “Manufacturing wind turbine blades is a promising area for robotics, particularly in coating and finishing operations.”

Pharmaceutical and life sciences could prove to be promising areas for robotics in 2010, says Estes. “I anticipate growth in the life sciences and pharmaceutical markets, which are expected to be strong areas of focus for FANUC Robotics in 2010.”

ABB is offering more tabletop robots for the pharmaceutical and life science market, declares Joe Campbell. “In 2009, ABB introduced a small six-axis tabletop robot for pharmaceutical, life science, and medical device assembly and handling applications. This robot can be used for testing medical devices and assembling consumer electronics.”

Stuart Shepherd, President of KUKA Robotics Corp. (Clinton Township, Michigan) has a similar take on openings for robotics in the pharmaceutical and life sciences markets in 2010. “Medical device, drug discovery and laboratory applications are experiencing a tremendous amount of growth. We see these industries growing in 2010 as well as a few others.”

Food for Thought
Food and beverage applications have promise for the robotics industry in 2010 according to Rich Litt. “Food and beverage applications continue to have nice growth and we are seeing a trend away from hard automation in these applications and more towards robotics. At PACK EXPO last October, I was stunned at the amount of robots in the show and the migration from hard automation to robotics in food processing.”

ABB’s Campbell agrees, saying, “The food industry is looking to find ways to remove the human touch from food processing and packaging, which is a health and cleanliness issue. The combination of the nature of food processing jobs and the movement of these jobs to locations outside of urban centers makes for increased opportunities for robotics.” Campbell goes on to say, “When a food company comes out with a new food line, they invest in the manufacturing equipment that will go into that new product, such as robotics.”

In spite of unemployment levels, some jobs are difficult to fill, like food processing.” Food processing is notoriously dangerous contends Campbell, which drives manufacturers to invest in robotics. “When food processors find an unsafe process or a process that has significant risk for repetitive stress injury, they increasingly invest in robotics.”

The food and beverage market also offers an area of growth for Motoman, observes Christian. “The food and beverage market will continue to generate a large amount of revenue. In 2010, we predict further growth in this area of about two percent. When food processors started to use robots, they realized that robotics offers a tremendous amount of robustness and flexibility.”

Christian points out that food processors understand the limitations of hard automation. “If a food processor bought dedicated machines for packaging a certain size of potato chip package but need to change that size because the market demands variety packs, that food manufacturer lost flexibility. Food manufacturers are getting excited about robotics, so I think that this market will continue to grow in 2010.”

Going Where the Growth is
While North America and Western Europe are experiencing tough economic times, other places in the world hold out hope for robotics. “China is continuing to grow and they believe it is the end of the world when their gross domestic product growth is below nine percent. China is sitting on a lot of cash and continues to invest in robotics,” says Litt. “Genesis is doing business in China for our North American customers who moved some of their production there. In many cases, the source of robotics in China is North America.”

Opportunities abound in China, says FANUC’s Mick Estes. “China has seen a significant increase in robotics to increase productivity and quality to meet the needs of a growing middle class.”

Christian also sees market possibilities overseas. “China, Brazil, India and Russia, in that order, will be the fastest areas of growth for robotics in the traditional application areas.

Turning his attention to Brazil, Christian says, “Brazil is doing very well: Their recession was shallower and less lengthy than in the US. The Brazilian currency has stabilized, and with the weak dollar, buying automation from the US is popular now.” Christian maintains that Brazil is on the cusp of considerable growth in the next few years. “Brazil is energy-independent, has tremendous agricultural capabilities, and is upgrading their ports. With 190 million people who consume almost three million cars a year, Brazil is poised to really explode in the automotive and durable goods markets.” The robotics industry sees Brazil as a bright area for growth and will take advantage of that in 2010.

2010 Robot Buzz
What concepts will the robotics industry embrace in 2010? “Lean robotics for lean manufacturing” is Joe Campbell’s buzz phrase for 2010. “I see a new respect and understanding for ‘lean’. ‘Lean manufacturing’ used to imply no automation and people with simple tools making products that can be changed easily.” Campbell believes that robotics goes to the heart of lean manufacturing. “When properly implemented, robotics supports all the tenets of a lean process. ‘Lean robotics for lean manufacturing’ has been a good theme for ABB.”

Taking a similar track, Roger Christian foresees “lean and flexible” as the robotics industry’s buzz phrase in 2010. “As lot sizes get smaller in a production environment, manufacturers need to be able to manage capital equipment to make a variety of products quickly,” Christian says. “‘Lean and flexible’ is rethinking a typical robot work cell to incorporate moving parts and handing parts once while moving these parts from one process to the next.”

“‘Save your factory’ is a great term and a great presentation but it has not caught on yet,” says Rich Litt. “Genesis and other RIA companies participate in Save your Factory because automating domestically is smarter than moving to countries with low labor costs.”

Mick Estes concurs, saying, “Save your Factory’s message is that the move to low-wage countries might not have been everything manufacturers hoped it would be.”

2010+
While the economy is showing indications of recovery, the robotics industry is not holding its breath. “The outlook in 2010 will be better than 2009 but not near 2007 levels unless the economy gets an unexpected resurgence in consumer confidence and people start buying more durable goods. Also, a glut of 4,000 to 7,000 used robots is on the market due to plant closings,” says Roger Christian. “Robots are built so well that they keep running.” Christian concludes, “I am excited to see the robotics industry returning to a billion dollar industry,” but cautious, “it will take a couple of years to get there.”

“From a global perspective, we expect to see continued rapid growth of robotics in China, India, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries with growing manufacturing operations, which creates opportunities for our members,” said Jeff Burnstein, RIA President. “And, I agree with those who say that manufacturing in North America may show a revival as companies realize that automating manufacturing here is a better solution than sending manufacturing operations offshore. So, long-term I remain very optimistic about the outlook for the robotics industry.”

www.robotics.org

Magnetics 2010 and Motion, Drive & Automation

There is a small industry conference that takes place every year with a lineup of industry experts that is top notch by any standard.  It’s called the Motion, Drive and Automation Conference put on by E-Drive magazine.  This year it is located at the Disney Hilton Resort in Orlando and is taking place on January 28 & 29.   The conference includes a wide range of industry experts from many fields of advanced electric motor design, advanced motor control concepts, power semiconductors and state of the art motor testing system.  There will be a lot of technical and product presentations that showcase leading edge technology in electric motors, precision gear reducers, new technology for motion sensing, and a number of improved power semiconductor devices for the motor control industry.  This is a great place to get up to date on the latest technology that will impact of motor and control technology across many industries over the next few years.

In addition, the Magnetics 2010 Conference will be running concurrently at the same venue.  Magnets are a strategic material without which many motors would simply not operate.  In the ever-changing motor industry, there is always a new design that seeks to make an enhancement over previous solutions, or introduce a new solution to old problems.  Declining prices for Neodymium Iron Boron magnets over the last few years have created a number of novel design shifts which have been instrumental in bringing more varieties of permanent magnet machines into the forefront of motion control and mechatronic technology.  To the point where over the last two years a resurgance of permanent magnet rotor designs have been created to improve the energy denisty and lower the cost of specialty motors in washing machines and air conditioning compressors.

This last development, combined with the forecast increase of hybrid electric car sales coming this year, are expected to increase the sale of permanent magnets by 10-15 percent by 2011.  That’s a staggering jump in a market that is almost exclusively supplied by China.  And there is no assurance that China can meet the forecast production.

The US Department of Commerce usually has a say in the sale of products or businesses to foreign countries that are deemed to be strategic or sensitive technology.  In fact, I got stuck in a situation where my employer was told specifically that we could not sell a CNC controller to a Korean customer.  That’s pretty small potatoes compared to controlling the supply of permanent magnets which influences billions of dollars worth of electric motors manufactured and sold all over the world.  So it strikes me as a little odd that the sale of Magnequench to its current owners, Neo Materials, was completed without a much discussion. leaving the US without a domestic magnet supplier.

There will surely be a lot of discussion about this situation at the conference, and I will be in attendance to get the latest information on the subject.  So look forward to a review of the conference in an upcoming post.

Leadership in Engineering

Leadership in Engineering

This is the 3rd annual Leadership event announcing the winners in the 2009 Leadership Awards Program. The Design World User Community have cast their votes and we are pleased to announce the winners.

ADVANCED MATERIALS

Da/Pro Rubber is a custom manufacturer of precision rubber, TPE, and plastic molding products. The proprietary Da/Pro process adjusts for rubber compound and rubber part configuration variables so that it can produce high tolerance parts of consistent quality. The company offers complete in-house capabilities from design for moldability, rubber compound development, lab testing, mold construction, subassembly, and quality assurance.

Digital Manufacturing

Proto Labs’ quick-turn Protomold® injection molding and First Cut® CNC machining services are the fastest in the world at providing design engineers with real parts based on their 3D CAD models. We achieved this unique ability by applying proprietary software and parallel processing technologies to the automation of standard manufacturing processes, so engineers can finally have it all : real parts in as little as one day.

Electrical & Electronic

Since 1976, Glenn Taylor’s vision of an enterprising engineer has been our guiding force. Our goal is to design and manufacture standard industrial control products that meet or exceed customer and industry specifications for quality and operation. We engineer more features, more functions and more flexibility into our products, and we are able to offer a lifetime warranty for them.

Fastening & Joining

Bal Seal Engineering, Inc.’s original product was a plastic ring with a groove to house a coiled spring. Today, the company’s patented canted coil spring energized PTFE is at the core of its product offerings. Bal Seal offers custom-engineered sealing, connecting, conducting, and shielding products for medical electronics, medical device aerospace/defense, energy management, automotive, and industrial applications.

Fluid Power

Norgren’s vision is to create competitive advantage for its customers. By exploiting the potential of motion and fluid control technologies. For Norgren customers this means better results, faster/more efficient machines, improved machine performance, increased reliability/uptime and lower cost of ownership. Application specific solutions frequently involve integrated or modular combinations of actuator, control valve and air preparation technologies. Within the field of motion control Norgren develops solutions for automation applications and within the field of fluid control Norgren combines proven brands to offer solutions for handling air, water, oil and other fluids.

Mechanical

Arrow Gear Company is among the most technologically advanced gear manufacturers in the world. With a facility of over 145,000 square feet, Arrow is equipped for a full range of precision gear machining, heat treating and inspection capabilities for spiral bevel gears, spur and helical gears, curvic couplings – as well as complete gearboxes.

Arrow has earned a reputation for providing high precision gears to the global market for a wide variety of aerospace and commercial applications.

Arrow’s advanced technologies reach beyond machine tools alone. Arrow is equipped with design and development capabilities that are on the leading edge of the industry. Utilizing Gleason CAGE, GAGE, MINIGAGE, Finite Element and Fully Loaded TCA software, Arrow engineers can create computer models which accurately predict gear design performance. This process for contact pattern development is dramatically more efficient than conventional methods.

Motion Control

PBC Linear is a leader in providing linear and rotary solutions, specializing in everything from out-of-the-box components, to mechanical sub-assemblies, to complete linear systems. PBC Linear’s team of expert engineers draws experience from years of mechanical and design engineering both in the classroom and in the field. Their skilled staff, sophisticated tools, and innovative products create long lasting solutions for the toughest motion control problems.

Software

COMSOL Group provides software solutions for multiphysics modeling. A fast growing engineering software company with a proven track recor, Comsol was founded in July 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden, and has offices in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, India, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and U.S.A.

Switches & Sensors

MTS Sensors, a division of MTS Systems Corp., is the global leader in the development and production of magnetostrictive, linear-position and liquid-level sensors. Using MTS’s patented Temposonics® technology, the Sensors Division is continually developing new ways to apply magnetostrictive sensing technology to solve critical applications in a variety of markets worldwide, including steel, wood, plastics, metalworking, automotive, and off-highway. It also applies megnetostrictive technology to the packaging, oil, gas, food and beverage, and medical industries. MTS Sensors Division has facilities in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, and is an ISO 9001 certified supplier committed to providing innovative sensing solutions that deliver customers with reliable, cost-effective position-feedback devices.

Test & Measurement

Omega is a major US company that manufacturers more than 80% of its product offerings in house ─ and this percentage is continuously increasing. At a time when “outsourcing” seems to be the foundation of many US manufacturers, Omega Engineering, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, remains a notable exception. Omega enjoys this leadership position because it strongly advocates process automation to achieve high productivity and create quality products. When commercial equipment is used, in-house automation handles the input and output processes. Omega’s automation engineers are among the most talented, and it has invested substantially in the model shops and labs needed to support them. Working with an equally talented staff of software engineers, they produce a wide range of custom automation equipment.

Multi-Touch ‘Resistive’ Touchscreen Controller Chip

As the latest high-tech devices such as smartphones, mobile internet devices and netbooks adopt multi-touch touchscreens to support increasingly sophisticated ‘apps’ and games,STMicroelectronics has introduced a multi-touch ‘resistive’ touchscreen controller chip to optimize the Bill of Materials of the electronics supporting this advanced capability. The STM32TS60 is the first member of ST’s new STMTouch family, which offers a broad portfolio of solutions including multi-touch devices and proximity and touch-key sensors.

The new multi-touch controller detects up to ten simultaneous touches with fingers, nails or stylus, enabling application designers to replace complex menu sequences with more direct and natural user controls. Actions made easier with multi-touch capabilities include browsing and selecting options, handwriting and data entry, arranging and sizing windows, picking up and dragging images, and fast and intuitive game play. Other abilities include drawing pictures, using touch pressure to adjust line thickness.

Employing resistive touch-panel technology, the STM32TS60 controller offers customers a real alternative and complements the recent industry trend for using capacitive touch technology. Resistive technology is a cost effective and mature high-volume solution that has seen dramatically improved performance over the past few years in terms of durability and display transparency. In addition, it easily overcomes EMI (electromagnetic interference) noise issues, which can be an inherent limitation with alternative touch technologies. Resistive technology is already widely used in PDAs and similar touch-enabled devices and the screens are readily available in standard LCD sizes and at competitive prices.

The new chip combines the company’s STM32 microcontroller architecture with PMatrix^TM Multi-Touch technology from ST‘s partner Stantum to achieve fast response times while minimizing system complexity and component count.

The STM32TS60 single-core microcontroller is an added-value solution compared to other expensive multi-core processor or digital signal processors (DSPs) requiring specialized programming expertise.

The STM32TS60’s high EMI immunity makes it suitable for use in multi-function wireless products such as cellphones, notebook PCs, netbooks and mobile Internet devices. Moreover, its low power consumption helps to maximize operating times and recharge intervals, and is a direct benefit of the STM32’s energy-saving design features and ARM® Cortex™-M3 processor conceived for power-sensitive embedded applications. In addition, very-low-power idle mode with ‘wake-up on touch only’ helps further extend mobile battery life.

The STM32TS60 is housed in a 7 x 7mm 144-pin UFBGA package, and is now sampling to lead customers. Volume production is expected for Q2 2010.

www.st.com

Inventing Industry in the (near) Future

The future of the US economy, and our future as an industrial power will be the result of our cumulative creativity.  New industries will be the result of new ideas, new technologies, new thinking.  It’s gratifying to see programs like the First Robotic Competition getting 215,000 junior high school and high school students exposed to and involved in robotics.  Problem solving, finding solutions, getting their creativity flowing to make a box of parts into a working machine with real world performance.  It will be even more interesting to see what those same kids will be into 5 to 10 years from now as they begin their careers in the many technology pursuits they are likely to follow.

Technology is a major driving force in the economy.  The ability to create whole new industries that have never existed before.

And there is a second driving force, sometimes made less obvious by the flash of the latest technical breakthrough.  Cost.  What is the relationship of cost to the development of industry?  As costs decline volume goes up.  Steel manufacturing per man year of labor increased 500% during a period of intense competition between the US and Japan.  And interestingly, one of the breakthroughs was the creation of the “mini-mill” which could produce specialty steels more cost effectively by making them in smaller batches.  Sometimes the solution is counter intuitive.  The steel industry was all about increasing batch size.  But serving the market with more complex products turned out to be easier with smaller batches, ultimately increasing overall sales and defending the US market to some extent from foreign competition.

Are there other cases where innovation was economically driven?  In the machine tool world the majority of manufacturers develop bigger and more complex machines so that a single machine can handle any operation.  This complexity tends to drive costs up quickly.  So the tendency is to find high performance machine tools costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In contrast, the HAAS company re-invented the machine tool business by focusing on making a low cost, high quality machine tool that many shops could afford to buy.  They were one of the first companies to have several models of machine tool in the $50K range.

They did it by concentrating on the economics of a machine tool that was profitable in operation.  That means a machine with a low cost to purchase, low operating and maintenance costs, and sufficient precision to meet the requirements of most operations.   In order to reduce their machine cost they had to develop their own controls platform.  They restructured everything in the design and manufacture of the CNC system to meet the cost objective.

In act, they are so successful, that HAAS is the largest CNC company in the western world.

Many similar situations exist in other industries.  In small plastic parts manufacturing there are a number of breakthroughs that have created lower cost parts in smaller batches based on innovative new tooling systems.  In metal fabrication there are new process like thixotropic molding and metal injection molding that have been developed to lower the cost of metal goods by making parts at lower costs.  These solutions are focused on reducing costs and other barriers to the entre of new products like tooling costs and minimum batch sizes.  And they represent major new markets that were not possible in the past, because they are focused on the economics of the industry they serve.  Decreasing the cost of entry and the cost of part manufacturing opens up new markets

So inventing the future can be technology.  Or as it can be economics.   It’s all innovation.  And it’s all about delivering value.

The Road to Recovery

Economic recovery, job creation, whatever you want to call it, everyone is trying to figure out how to get employment numbers back up and get the economy back on track.  Seems that the situation is pretty severe, and we’ve managed to export it to all of our trading partners.  But there is controversy over the information being reported.  The news is in the position of impacting the tone, so they can make things sound bad, or not, depending on who’s data they use and how they phrase their comments.

Many analysts have commented that the reporting of employment data in the US has been manipulated over the last few years and, for example, there is a whole category of people who are unemployed and are not being counted because they are assumed to have quit looking for work.  (How’s that for cynicism)   And China has been accused of artificially holding it’s currency value low in order to minimize the impact of decreased exports.   Interestingly, US exports are up significantly due to the weak dollar, so there’s at least some silver lining to the clouds of an economic downturn.

But the real road to recovery is based on real value.  Technology is great, it enables a lot of new product concepts that make our lives more convenient.  But the root is in the value that is delivered.  That value can be something compelling, like the iPod, which offers the convenience of incredible portability and simplicity in delivering entertainment media, or a major improvement in the energy storage capacity of batteries which makes hybrid cars possible.  The value that a product delivers is what makes it attractive and drives a customer to own it.

This means that technology cannot be dissociated from it’s economics.  The electric car is still a challenge because a cup (about 20 cents worth) of gasoline contains enough energy to move a 2 ton car down the road to the gas station when you’ve run out.   Which is a very cost effective exchange instead of you and several of your friends pushing your SUV to the next station to fill up.  So an electric car should cost about the same to operate as a gasoline car unless there are many people who are willing and able to pay a premium to drive electric.  And it’s getting there, and there are quite people who will pay the premium.  About 300,000 a year now.

But there is no product on the market that is immune to improvement.  So the thing that will really get the economy moving, and get people working, is product development.  Any improvement that enhances the value of a product is important to the success of the US as a nation.  That means everything.

That’s why the current dialog in the alternative energy sector is so important.  Significant improvements such as direct drive generators in the wind market and lower cost tracking technology in solar offer big advantages in the overall economic performance of these technologies.  This will reduce the amount of tax dollars that have to be used to subsidize the emerging industries.  And I’m betting there are a lot more improvements to come.

So the road to recovery is improving value.  In any product, in any market.  And that’s change we can really count on.