April 12, 2019 – OnRobot has launched the new Digital I/O Converter Kit to support seamless integration of its RG2, RG6, Gecko and VG10 grippers with a wider range of both collaborative robots (cobots) and traditional robotic arms.

April 11, 2019 – Festo debuted its new DGST series pneumatic mini-slide at the Automate 2019 trade show this week in Chicago. 

April 10, 2019 – FANUC America, supplier of robotics, CNCs, and machine tools, is demonstrating its Zero Down Time (ZDT) Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution at Automate 2019 in Chicago this week.

April 8, 2019 – ATS Automation Tooling Systems has unveiled a new platform for factory optimization with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) at the Automate trade show, running April 8-11, 2019 in Chicago. 

April 3, 2019 – Rockwell Automation has debuted two industrial control products with built-in security at Hannover Messe 2019.

March 29, 2019 – API has introduced its 6DoF vProbe, a handheld tactile probing system, to perform part inspections conventionally performed by large fixed coordinate measuring machines (CMM).

March 28, 2019 – The AutomationDirect line of inductive proximity sensors now includes additional harsh-duty sensors and new standard-duty sensors with quadruple sensing ranges.

March 27, 2019 – Carlo Gavazzi is launching the RG..M Series of single-phase solid state relays and contactors with integrated monitoring features.

March 26, 2019 – Emergent Vision Technologies has added four camera models with polarization image sensors featuring Sony’s Polarsens technology to its HR and HT series of cameras with a 10 GigE interface.

March 25, 2019 – Siemens has introduced the new Sinamics G120X drive, designed for use in pump, fan and compressor applications in process industries such as pulp and paper, water/wastewater and other industrial environments.

March 22, 2019 – Suhner has redesigned its precision slides with improvements such as rigidity and compact design, including a variety of optional slide assembly features and accessories.

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). 

December 10, 2018 – The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) recently opened the Manufacturing and Automotive Innovation Hub in London, Ontario, a 75,000-square-foot set of renovated scientific laboratories intended to bring together companies, governments, universities and colleges together to collaborate on breakthrough projects.

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.

March 5, 2019 – Ventra Group Company has pleaded guilty to an offence by the Ontario Ministry of Labour and has been fined $130,000 after a worker was critically injured in machinery at its plant.

February 21, 2019 – Ten years ago, tourists looking for a taste of the local life in Southern Canada may have asked for one of the region’s best wines. Today, it’s all about craft beer.From entrepreneurial newcomers to large-scale producers, brewers in Canada are cashing in on the thirst for craft beer. The number of microbreweries – producing less than 25,000 cases of 24 – has more than doubled in the last seven years.

February 13, 2019 – A fire and explosion at a wood pellet plant west of Edmonton that sent three people to hospital Monday, including one with serious injuries, also had a fire at its facility in January 2019.

February 6, 2019 – Automate 2019 takes place April 8-11, 2019 in Chicago, and organizers have announced a slate of conference sessions about automation around the theme Win the Future.

February 1, 2019 – Rex Pak Ltd, a food blending and packaging co-manufacturer, has been fined $60,000 by the Ontario Ministry of Labour after one of the Rex Pak's workers received a permanent injury while assessing a sugar-filling line at the company's industrial facility in Scarborough.

January 28, 2019 – Two Canadian manufacturing companies recently landed on the 2019 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World Index (Global 100), one of the world's leading sustainability indices.

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.

March 29, 2019 – Siemens will be exhibiting a host of smart solutions for Industry 4.0 during Hannover Messe, the world's largest technology fair, as part of the theme “Digital Enterprise – Thinking industry further!”.

March 21, 2019 – Avidbots, a Kitchener, Ontario–based robotics company, has raised $23.6 million in a new round of funding, which it says will be used to expand its staff.

March 21, 2019 – Petuum, an artificial intelligence software provider, has partnered with CEMEX, a global building materials company, to implement software for autonomous operation at its cement plants.

March 21, 2019 – Montreal-based machine vision supplier Matrox Imaging has launched a new training website for users of its vision systems and software. 

March 18, 2019 – Dragos, Inc. a provider of industrial asset identification and threat detection platforms, has acquired Atlanta-based NexDefense, a provider of industrial controls system (ICS) visibility technology.

March 18, 2019 – One of the hottest topics at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos was the wave of automation expected from advances in artificial intelligence (AI), and the consequent displacement of workers. This anticipated realignment was depicted as good or bad news depending on who was speaking and who was listening.

March 15, 2019 – Emerson has received the industry’s first ISASecure System Security Assurance (SSA) Level 1 certification for cybersecurity in its DeltaV automation system.

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.

January 28, 2019 – Does the term “artificial intelligence” (AI) scare you, or does it get you excited about the future?

January 25, 2019 – Measuring the right things is just as important as measuring things right. Measuring the wrong things can get in your way and impair your ability to grow, distracting you by putting your focus on the wrong things. Success and growth come from doing more of the right things right, and less of doing the wrong things right.

January 18, 2019 – If you’ve been reading Manufacturing AUTOMATION over the past few years, you’ve come across concepts such as digital twins, augmented reality, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and digitalization.

January 16, 2019 – The January/February 2019 digital edition of Manufacturing AUTOMATION is now available!

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.

February 12, 2019 – The Open Group, a vendor-neutral technology consortium, has launched a new standard to enable the construction of scalable and secure process automation systems.

January 11, 2019 – Algoma Steel, Canada's second-largest steel producer, will receive investments from the federal and Ontario governments totalling $150 million. 

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.

March 19, 2019 – Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will shift 550 jobs to its Kentucky Truck Plant to boost production of its Expedition and Lincoln Navigator to meet growing demand for its large SUVs.

March 18, 2019 – President Donald Trump stepped up his pressure on General Motors to reopen an Ohio manufacturing plant that recently closed and put 1,700 people out of work.

March 15, 2019 – U.S. regulators charged Volkswagen and former CEO Martin Winterkorn with defrauding investors during its massive diesel emissions scandal.

March 14, 2019 – Toyota Motor Corp. announced Thursday it is investing an additional $750 million at five U.S. plants that will bring nearly 600 new jobs, including the production of two hybrid vehicles for the first time at its Kentucky facility.

March 13, 2019 – Gov. Mike DeWine isn't optimistic that General Motors will bring a line of new vehicles to the sprawling Ohio assembly plant the automaker shut down last week, possibly for good.

March 4, 2019 – General Motors will end production this week at the first of five North American plants it wants to close by early next year as part of a company-wide restructuring.