May 16, 2019 – Rockwell Automation has released the new ThinManager version 11.0 software, which delivers production information from any FactoryTalk application to operators wherever they are in a facility.

May 15, 2019 – B&K Precision has expanded its portable data recorder line with the DAS220-BAT.

May 14, 2019 – New Scale Robotics has released a new metrology solution including a precision gripper, metrology fingertips kit, tech note, and software examples that allow users to automate small part measurement and sorting using collaborative robots (cobots) from Universal Robots. 

May 8, 2019 – Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division is launching a new wireless, inline, gap and flash measuring system.

May 7, 2019 – Rittal is highlighting its Blue e, wall-mounted, UL listed, Type 3R/4 air conditioning units for indoor or outdoor enclosures ahead of the summer.

May 3, 2019 – ROEQ has developed a new conveyor top module for use on Mobile Industrial Robots' (MiR) MiR500 autonomous mobile robot.

May 2, 2019 – Schneider Electric has introduced the Galaxy VS, a modular 10-100 kW three-phase Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) designed to meet the critical power requirements of IT, commercial and industrial facilities.

May 1, 2019 – The Kistler Group has launched KiXact, a technology that enables measurement uncertainty to be reliably and automatically calculated and interpreted by the user.

April 30, 2019 – H2W Technologies has debuted a redundant voice coil motor with a multiple coil design.

April 29, 2019 – B&R Automation has released the Power Panel C50, a new HMI device that combines a controller with a projected capacitive touch screen.

April 26, 2019 – Twin Spring Coupling has debuted a servo coupling replacement (beam, elastomeric, bellows) that runs at high speed and high torque and higher angles of misalignment for less maintenance than universal, servo and flexible couplings.

April 10, 2019 – The Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC), an organization that promotes knowledge sharing and resources to 13,000 Canadian manufacturers, is hosting the Advantage through Excellence Conference October 8 – 10, 2019 in Vaughan, Ont. 

April 9, 2019 – Beginning in May, Matrox Imaging will offer its next series of classroom training on the Matrox Imaging Library (MIL) software development kit (SDK) and the Matrox Design Assistant integrated development environment (IDE).

April 8, 2019 – Universal Robots (UR) has launched a worldwide network of authorized training centres that expand on the company’s Universal Robots Academy online training modules.

March 20, 2019 – The federal government released its annual budget yesterday, which includes a potential benefit to help workers train and upgrade their skills.

February 1, 2019 – The Ontario government has implemented an online training course program to certify workers who promote health and safety at businesses in the province. 

January 31, 2019 – It’s well known that innovation and continuous product/process improvement are necessary for manufacturers to keep or expand their market share. It’s also well known that many incentives exist to offset the costs involved.

January 21, 2019 – Emerson has launched a portable automation technology training solution that helps workers safely and efficiently maintain their plants. 

January 14, 2019 – Toronto’s Humber College is set to open the new Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation (Barrett CTI) early this year, backed by a number of major partnerships that will see advanced manufacturing companies working with students and faculty to further knowledge of Industry 4.0–enabled equipment and develop solutions for real-world problems.

January 7, 2019 – The Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC) has kick-started a new three-year program to help Northern Ontario manufacturers become more productive and globally competitive.

January 7, 2019 – Heidenhain has established its first authorized training partner in North America focusing on its CNC controls, at the Community College of Denver’s (CCD) Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC).

January 4, 2019 – SICK and Humber College have partnered to build awareness of new industry automation sensor solutions and Industry 4.0 ready sensor technologies as part of Humber College's Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation (Barrett CTI). 

May 9, 2019 – A manufacturer of chemical products has been fined $100,000 by the Ontario Ministry of Labour after a worker was critically and permanently injured at its plant.

May 6, 2019 – In early 2016, JTEKT Automotive, a Tennessee-based automotive supplier, had a simple goal: Upgrade certain machining capabilities for a new project with a global automotive company.

April 29, 2019 – Kaizen, a Japanese term meaning improvement, is more than a Lean strategy; it is a philosophy that affects the entirety of an organization.

April 24, 2019 – The industrialization of our economies around the world owes a debt to forging and the men and women who operate forging equipment. 

April 24, 2019 – "Pressure has been building on workplaces to provide physically as well as psychologically healthy and safe workplaces," says Krista Schmid, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services consultant. "Many employers are talking about it and wondering what to do."

April 4, 2019 – If you are someone who wants to improve your workday, then Lean manufacturing can empower you to make lasting impact.

March 27, 2019 – In the highly competitive world of custom machine design, being open to change is a key to sustaining success.

March 27, 2019 – Ontario's Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS) will focus on the individual – the ‘safety superhero’ who advocates for health and safety in their workplace – at its annual Partners in Prevention conference. 

March 22, 2019 – CS Wind Canada Inc., a manufacturer and supplier of wind towers that is currently in a state of shutdown, has been fined $60,000 by the Ontario Ministry of Labour after a worker suffered permanent injury at its facility in Windsor, Ontario. 

March 20, 2019 – WorkSafeBC has unveiled new health and safety resources for British Columbia's craft beer manufacturers.

March 11, 2019 – WorkSafeBC has announced it will focus its 2019 high-risk strategy for manufacturing on preventing slips, trips and falls, which cause a wide number of injuries throughout the sector.

May 16, 2019 – A new white paper by Schneider Electric aims to create a structure for tackling IT problems at the edge that includes an ecosystem of system integrators and other vendors to ensure security.

May 15, 2019 – What is artificial intelligence (AI), how can it integrate into your business and why should you care?

May 9, 2019 – Siemens and HP will expand their partnership and integrated additive manufacturing (AM) solution to include overall product lifecycle management (PLM), AM factory optimization, industrial 3D printing and data intelligence, manufacturing execution, and performance analytics.

May 9, 2019 – When I first stepped into SICK AG’s sparkling new 4.0 NOW Factory in Freiburg, Germany earlier this year, the first thing that struck me was how quiet it was.

April 30, 2019 – Between collaborative robots (cobots) and artificial intelligence, humans and machines are working together more closely than ever before.

April 25, 2019 – Javelin-Cimetrix is opening an expanded industrial 3D printing lab next month in Oakville, Ontario.

April 24, 2019 – Canadian Solar is a fast-growing global company that knows how to leverage technology to streamline its processes.

April 10, 2019 – The HAHN Group, which acquired Rethink Robotics in November 2018, says it plans to continue development of the defunct robot company's Sawyer collaborative robot (cobot).

April 9, 2019 – Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and ROS-Industrial have developed a solution that enables industrial robots to scan and manipulate metallic objects that had previously been too “shiny” for machine vision to process.

April 3, 2019 – Nokia is showcasing the second generation of its Factory in a Box concept at Hannover Messe 2019, in collaboration with several industry ecosystem partners, in the fair's 5G Arena.

April 3, 2019 – OnRobot has won the 2019 Robotics Award at the Hannover Messe industrial technology trade fair for its Gecko Gripper system.

April 1, 2019 – Ottobock, a German manufacturer of medical technologies, is debuting its industrial exoskeletons for the first time at the Hannover Messe trade show, running April 1-5 in Hannover, Germany.

May 13, 2019 – Ever since the German government introduced the concept of Industry 4.0 at the Hannover Messe trade show eight years ago, connected manufacturing has been the main topic of conversation at the annual fair.

May 6, 2019 – Hardly a day goes by without a political headline, and unfortunately, most of those headlines have little to do with anything that makes a difference to manufacturers, but the significant policies that lawmakers put in place do.

April 30, 2019 – Radio-frequency identification – RFID – is coming in from the cold.

April 17, 2019 – According to the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada, over 29,000 manufacturing workers suffer a job-related injury each year, accounting for nearly 12 per cent of all workplace lost-time claims. How can automation help to reduce this figure?

April 11, 2019 – I spent this past weekend volunteering as a timer at a swim meet hosted by my granddaughter’s club. There were 800 swimmers and 1,500 race heats. At eight lanes per heat, it meant about 12,000 individual races had to be timed, each lane manned by three qualified timers and a strokes-and-turn judge in order for the time to be “official.”

March 29, 2019 – In my last letter, I asked you about how artificial intelligence (AI) factors into your operations. We’ve published one comment in our March/April 2019 issue (p. 4) from a reader who notes that unless a manufacturer solves pre-existing production inefficiencies, a costly AI system won’t provide much ROI.

March 25, 2019 – Industry 4.0 – or the fourth industrial revolution – refers to a cyber-physical environment that self-optimizes.

March 22, 2019 – Manufacturing chief information officers (CIOs) are busy people with a wide range of duties.

February 27, 2019 – Machine vision technology has been in use in some form or another since the late 1960s.

February 18, 2019 – Modern machine safety practices call for the use of guarding, personal protective equipment and proper training, but ensuring the appropriate levels of machine safety can be a complicated task.

February 13, 2019 – When you hear the words "connected mobility," chances are the first thing that comes to mind is Wi-Fi technology that connects mobile devices like smartphones, laptops and tablets. In fact, wireless technology is what enables mobility – and mobility drives data, voice, video and location applications.

May 17, 2019 – The TASI Group, a provider of test and measurement technology for manufacturers, has acquired Sierra Instruments, a global company specializing in the manufacture of flow measurement instrumentation. 

May 14, 2019 – KP Tissue Inc. and Kruger Products L.P. dedicated the construction site of their future Sherbrooke TAD tissue plant on May 13.

April 10, 2019 – At the Hannover Messe industrial technology fair last week, Tetra Pak launched a connected packaging platform, which it says will transform milk and juice cartons into interactive information channels, full-scale data carriers and digital tools.

April 9, 2019 – Endress+Hauser is now the exclusive sales and service source for SpectraSensors in Canada, whose gas analyzing technology is used to measure contaminant levels in natural gas and gas processing operations, refineries and chemical plants.

March 22, 2019 – A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China with a long record of safety violations has killed at least 47 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously.

March 14, 2019 – Seeq Corporation is adding more than 50 system integration partners for process manufacturing customers in North America, the Middle East, Europe, South America, and Asia—along with new offices in Malaysia and Europe.

February 28, 2019 – Cascades Inc. has announced it will cease operations of two tissue paper machines located in Ontario, affecting 68 positions at the plants.

February 22, 2019 – Saputo Inc. has signed a friendly deal to buy United Kingdom-based company Dairy Crest Group plc in an agreement valued at about $1.7 billion.

February 22, 2019 – Endress+Hauser, a specialist in process measurement and instrumentation, and electrical distributor Westburne have expanded their partnership to service Manitoba with automation solutions.

February 21, 2019 – Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger have partnered to create a new joint venture, which they are calling the first fully integrated digital oilfield automation solutions provider.

February 21, 2019 – Steel producer Stelco Holdings Inc. says federal protections for the industry have helped prop up earnings as it focuses more on the domestic market.

February 20, 2019 – Alberta is giving $80 million in future royalty credits for construction of a new methanol plant in the province's northwest.

May 14, 2019 – Automaker Volkswagen AG says it is investing 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) to set up a battery production plant in Germany.

May 5, 2019 – Search and recovery personnel found the body of another worker Sunday in the rubble of a northern Illinois silicone factory that exploded and burst into flames two days earlier, bringing the death toll to three employees with one more body believed to be in the debris, a fire official said.

May 2, 2019 – Bombardier Inc. says it is looking to sell its aerostructures businesses in Belfast and Morocco as part of a consolidation of its aerospace business into a single unit.

April 26, 2019 – Ford is sinking a half-billion dollars into electric vehicle startup Rivian in a deal that has the companies working together on a new Ford electric vehicle based on Rivian underpinnings.

April 23, 2019 – Google's self-driving car spinoff Waymo says it will reopen an axle plant in Detroit to convert conventional vehicles so they can drive autonomously.

April 22, 2019 – Honda is slowing production of Accord and Civic cars as U.S. buyers continue to favour SUVs and trucks.

April 17, 2019 – Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday it's "unrealistic" to think that Foxconn Technology Group will employ 13,000 people in Wisconsin as originally promised and that he wants to renegotiate the contract with the global electronics leader.

April 8, 2019 – Ford workers in Russia have started industrial action over plans to close a plant including stopping work if there are any equipment problems.

April 1, 2019 – Volkswagen said last Wednesday it is partnering with Amazon to develop cloud computing capacity aimed at improving efficiency and co-ordination across the automaker's vast global factory network.

April 1, 2019 – Ford said last Wednesday it will close three factories in Russia, causing heavy job losses, as it pulls out of passenger vehicle manufacturing in the country.

March 28, 2019 – Kontrol Energy Corp. and Toyota Tsusho Canada Inc. (TTCI) are pleased to announce they have signed an agreement to implement Smart Factory technology solutions for North American automobile and parts OEMs.

March 20, 2019 – Ford Motor Co. is repackaging a previously announced manufacturing investment in the Detroit area and now says it will spend $900 million and create 900 new jobs over the next four years.