IDTechEx

Quad Industries now a Strategic Partner of Henkel

Collaboration to accelerate the prototyping, scale-up and production of innovative smart products across multiple industries

Slender Robotic Finger Senses Buried Items

Discerning buried items in granular material like sand is a taller order. To do that, a robot would need fingers that were slender enough to penetrate the sand, mobile enough to wriggle free when sand grains jam, and sensitive enough to feel the detailed shape of the buried object.

Stratasys

Stratasys is one of the world's largest 3D printer manufacturers, focusing on industrial polymer 3D printers and materials. On April 28th, 2021, Stratasys held a virtual event to launch three new 3D printers: the F770, Origin One, and H350.

NanoAL

NanoAL develops and commercializes high performance aluminum alloys. In 2020, the company launched Addalloy® 5T, an aluminum powder product for additive manufacturing. IDTechEx spoke with Matthew Simmers (Product Market Director) about this and their market outlook.

Nanocyl

Nanocyl is one of the longest running MWCNT producers. IDTechEx caught up with Carla Sottili (polymers business unit manager).

Aqua Membranes

Aqua Membranes has developed a 3D Printer Spacer Technology for the membrane filtration industry. IDTechEx spoke with Craig Beckman (CEO).

Non-toxic, Flexible Energy Converters Could Power Wearables

A wide variety of portable and wearable electronics have become a large part of our daily lives, so a group of researchers wondered if these could be powered by harvesting electricity from the waste heat that exists all around us.

Your Kids Won't Learn to Drive, and Here's Why

Learning to drive is a coming-of-age moment many kids (and parents sick of being taxi services) dream about. But all of this could become relegated to the realm of nostalgia due to the massive focus on automation sweeping the personal transport industry.

Long-Duration Battery System for Microgrid in Patagonia

Edelaysen's grid is served by run-of-river hydropower that varies daily and seasonally. This resource requires the company to operate supplemental diesel generators throughout the year to compensate when customer demand exceeds hydro output. With Chile implementing cleaner forms of generation and aiming to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions across the country, a sustainable alternative to continuous diesel dependence in their operating area was essential.

Stratasys Agrgessively Advances Additive Manufacturing Strategy

Stratasys Ltd has introduced three new 3D printers that together address a large portion of the multibillion-dollar market opportunity in additive manufacturing of end-use parts.

Smart Fabric Allows Users to Track Data Directly Through Clothing

Nextiles is launching into the sports and performance market to provide smart thread technology that captures biometric and biomechanics data.

Better Hearing with Optical Cochlear Implants

Cochlear implants enable people with profound hearing impairment to gain a great deal in terms of quality of life. However, background noises are problematic, they significantly compromise the comprehension of speech of people with cochlear implants.

Vertical Turbines Could be the Future for Wind Farms

The now-familiar sight of traditional propeller wind turbines could be replaced in the future with wind farms containing more compact and efficient vertical turbines. New research has found that the vertical turbine design is far more efficient than traditional turbines in large scale wind farms, and when set in pairs the vertical turbines increase each other's performance by up to 15%.

Evonik Launches New Product Line of Photopolymers for 3D Printing

Evonik has developed two photopolymers for industrial 3D printing applications. The two ready-to-use materials mark the start of a new product line of polymer resins suitable for use in common VAT polymerization technologies such as SLA or DLP.

Greener Alternative to Lithium in Brisbane Manufacturing Deal

Brisbane-based Graphene Manufacturing Group will manufacture battery prototypes for watches, phones, laptops, electric vehicles and grid storage under a research agreement with scientists from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

UK Government Allows Self Driving Cars on Motorways

Motorists could see self-driving vehicles on British roads for the first time later this year, the Department for Transport has announced today. Following a landmark call for evidence, the government has set out how vehicles fitted with Automated Lane Keeping System technology could legally be defined as self-driving, as long as they receive GB type approval and that there is no evidence to challenge the vehicle's ability to self-drive.

Safe and Precise Surgical Catheter Guiding by Robots

By utilizing a single collaborative robot arm, this ARMM platform (Advanced Robotics for Magnetic Manipulation) could potentially fit easily into the OR while ensuring a small footprint.

Toyota Subsidiary Woven Planet Acquires Lyft's Level 5 Division

Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota, has agreed to acquire Level 5, the self-driving division of Lyft, Inc. one of the largest ride-hailing companies in the world. This marks the first major deal for the newly established Woven Planet.

Holistic Approach to Genetics and Plant Breeding

The research shows how, with the help of a fast, non-destructive and green analysis method, near-infrared spectroscopy, we can obtain a global overview that mirrors how the entire chemical composition of nutrients in a barley grain is changed, for example, by a mutation in a single gene. This is in contrast to current conventional plant breeding, where you do not have an overview of all the changes that the barley grain undergoes when a single gene is modified.

Fully Recyclable Printed Electronics

Engineers have developed the world's first fully recyclable printed electronics. By demonstrating a crucial and relatively complex computer component — the transistor — created with three carbon-based inks, the researchers hope to inspire a new generation of recyclable electronics to help fight the growing global epidemic of electronic waste.