Pratt & Whitney’s Industry 4.0 initiative marks a major transformation from the labor-intensive manual processes that once defined manufacturing to those that are now digitized and automated. The changes here helped P&W improve key metrics—production volume, quality assurance, labor reduction, cycle time, to name a few—by up to 65 percent. This article takes a closer look at how companies not only have to update the types of machines and systems they use to remain competitive, but they also have to change the way they recruit, hire, and train the engineers and technicians who work on them.

The new data sharing network that defines so many technical applications would be almost impossible without 5G. Because it transmits data more efficiently, 5G has the potential to be 40 times faster and suffer shorter lag times than the current 4G standard. That speed is critical for autonomous cars, where timely decisions need to be made to avoid crashes. In this article, learn how 5G will impact automotive and a host of new technical applications.

Universal Robots and Rethink Robotics burst onto the scene ten years ago with seemingly similar breakthrough products—collaborative robots, or cobots—that were safe enough to work next to people on the factory floor. Rethink Robotics, however, shut its doors in October 2018 while Denmark’s Universal has become the clear cobot leader. Why did one company succeed while the other crashed and failed? In this article, robotics experts and customers tell a complicated story of how Rethink’s designs failed to meet the needs of its target market.

Proper fabrication and regular inspection of chemical holding tanks can head off problems before they become serious. But those steps entail a cost that many companies often would rather put off. So far, only Delaware has adopted the ASME International Standard RTP-1, “Reinforced Thermoset Plastic (RTP) Corrosion Resistant Equipment.” Requiring companies to follow the standard would provide a measure of safety and reliability to some dangerous industries.