Week 37 in Manufacturing News

MIT Professor Timothy Gutowski discusses the energy and material savings additive manufacturing provides. Global manufacturing is experiencing its sharpest and most geographically widespread downturn in at least six years.

Car industry drags global manufacturing into sharp slowdown

Global manufacturing is experiencing its sharpest and most geographically widespread downturn in at least six years, as the US-China trade war weighs on factories around the world.

“The world trade slowdown has much to do with the manufacturing downturn,” said Adam Slater, lead economist at Oxford Economics. “World trade has contracted which is quite unusual outside a recession period and it might worsen.” 

Source: Financial Times.

UK Manufacturing Production rebounds 0.3% m/m in July, surprises positively

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the UK industrial and manufacturing production data on Friday, with the overall industrial activity witnessing an unexpected upturn in July.

Manufacturing output arrived at +0.3% m/m in July versus -0.1% expectations and -0.2% booked in June, while total industrial output came in at +0.1% vs. -0.1% expected and -0.1% last.

Source: FXStreet.

Study: Additive Manufacturing – Machines, Materials, Technologies, Applications, New Developments, Industry Structure and Global Markets

This study focuses on providing data about the size and growth of markets, company profiles, and industry trends in AM machines, materials and processes. The goal of this report is to provide a detailed and comprehensive multi-client study of the markets in North America, Europe, Japan, China and the rest of the world (ROW) for these machines, materials and processes, as well as potential business opportunities.

The study can be accessed here.

3 Actions Congress Can Take Now to Help Small Manufacturers

1.Support Long-Term Viability of the Manufacturing USA program

2. Fully fund the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program

3. Enact the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Act

Source: IndustryWeek.

How sustainable is 3D printing as a manufacturing process?

MIT Professor Timothy Gutowski discusses the energy and material savings additive manufacturing provides.

The Additive Report discussed 3D printing and its place in sustainable manufacturing with MIT Professor Timothy Gutowski, head of the university’s Environmentally Benign Manufacturing (EBM) research group. EBM focuses on examining the environmental effects associated with manufacturing products.

Read the discussion on Additive Report.