igus has announced the winners of its 2024 vector awards, a biennial competition that honors bold, exciting projects that incorporate igus e-chain cable carriers made of high-performance plastics. A U.S. company, TDK RF Solutions, took the silver vector award for its automotive test rig.

If you’ve recently purchased a Nord Drivesystems gear motor, you may have noticed a new sticker with a QR code located on the unit. Quick Response (QR) codes can store a wide range of data and enable the user to access information almost instantly. These stickers are a new development in Nord’s expansive digital services and provide users quick access to product specifications, documentation, and service requests on-the-spot via their mobile device. The codes can be scanned using a photo app or QR code app and will bring the user to Nord’s digital service webpage with their respective country’s language and contacts.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3), North America’s largest automation trade association representing more than 1300 organizations, has announced the winners of the inaugural Automate Innovation Awards. This year’s winners—AMD, ECM and GrayMatter Robotics—will be honored at a special ceremony on May 6 at Automate 2024 in Chicago.

Precision Drive Systems (PDS), a global provider of precision motor spindles, expert support, and repair services near Charlotte, NC, has announced that they have hired Kelly Johnson as a Design Engineer for new engineered products and services.

Fortifi Food Processing Solutions ("Fortifi") has appointed Victor Nieto as executive vice president of lean transformation and growth effective May 1, 2024. Fortifi's unified platform of leading global brands and products transforms food processing and automation solutions.

Registration has officially opened for Pack Expo International, scheduled for Nov. 3–6 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The event is the largest and most comprehensive packaging and processing show worldwide for 2024. According to show producer PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, the industry's growth underscores the need for manufacturers to access innovative solutions tailored to their diverse needs. From sustainability initiatives to automation advancements and AI integration, businesses now more than ever seek a central hub to discover solutions, stay abreast of the latest topics and trends, and build impactful connections.

The OPC Foundation, a global organization dedicated to interoperability in industrial automation, announces the formation of a new working group focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI). This initiative marks a pivotal moment in the convergence of AI and manufacturing, promising to redefine how engineers interact with data and systems to build cutting-edge solutions.

As engineers, we all know how to quickly create a sketch of a gearbox or transmission using a few lines. Using maybe black for shafts, green for bearings, blue for gears and red to indicate the power flow. We do this to remember a great idea, communicate with customers or to pass time waiting at an airport. 

KISSsoft emulates this approach in a much more orderly fashion. Using only the mouse, complex schematics can be drawn and edited, thereby converting the structure of a gearbox into a logical and 3D model. The schematic in the Sketcher also serves as a navigation and visualization tool and is complemented by an overview of some of the key data (e.g. module and number of teeth) of the components making up the gearbox.

Innomotics and the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering are thrilled to announce Josh Samuel Lubin as the recipient of the 2024 Peter Hammond Scholarship. A master’s student in engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lubin has been selected to receive the scholarship for $10,000. Now in its fifth year, this award is presented to outstanding graduate students pursuing studies in electrical engineering, exemplifying both academic excellence and innovative research.

Norway is the official partner country of Hannover Messe 2024. Under the headline “pioneering the green industrial transition”, Norway will showcase digital technology and sustainable solutions for manufacturing. There will also be a strong focus on clean energy, including renewables, hydrogen, ammonia and CCS.