Engineering

How much do countries invest in R&D?

As the UN General Assembly prepares to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UNESCO Institute for Statistics has released a new data tool showing the leaders and emerging players in research and development (R&D). “Innovation is key to achieving each of the Sustainable Development Goals. So it is essential to track R&D investment in the knowledge, technology and thinking that drives innovation in countries,” said Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. SDG 9 calls on governments to promote sustainable industrialization and innovation by ramping up spending on R&D and increasing the number of researchers. Both indicators are featured in the new data tool entitled: ‘How much does your country invest in R&D?’ The top five R&D performers in absolute terms (R&D expenditure) are all large economies: United States followed by China, Japan, Germany and Republic of Korea. But the ranking changes dramatically according to the data that will be used to monitor SDG 9 (R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP): Republic of Korea is the world leader followed by Israel, Japan, Finland and Sweden. Regions have been setting their own spending targets for some time: the best-known being the European Union (EU) target to raise overall R&D investment to 3% of GDP by 2020. According to UIS data, only six countries worldwide have managed to surpass the 3% target, and three are smaller EU economies: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. These, in turn, lag behind Japan with 3.6% and Israel with an impressive 4.1%. And all of them trail behind South Korea – the world leader – with 4.3%. Austria, Germany and Switzerland hover around 3% as does the biggest spender of all: the United States. Few countries in other regions compete with these proportions. In Central and Eastern Europe, Slovenia leads with 2.4% compared to […]

New version of SIMATIC PCS 7 enhances production processes

Siemens has further developed its SIMATIC PCS 7 process control system and released Version 8.2 to meet the rising demands of automation. This version comes with a range of new functionalities to improve user convenience as well as the performance and efficiency of the process control system over the entire life cycle of process plants – from the planning stage through to maintenance. Plant engineers will benefit from more efficient engineering solutions, while operators will experience greater convenience in daily operations due to greater system availability and lower overall running costs. Jessica Liao, Senior Consultant for Southeast Asia, Process Automation, Siemens Pte Ltd, said, “It is critical for businesses to respond swiftly to market requirements that are constantly changing. An integrated control system enables operators to have a holistic view of the entire work process and be able to make informed decisions more efficiently to reduce downtime. With the new version of SIMATIC PCS 7, our customers will have an edge in today’s competitive manufacturing environment.” “The Southeast Asia region is an important market for Siemens and we have a proven track record in industries such as Oil & Gas, Pharmaceutical, Glass as well as Water, to name a few. We look forward to working even more closely with our customers to ensure that all operations are running smoothly and efficiently with the new offerings of SIMATIC PCS 7,” added Liao. Mobile plant monitoring To allow production processes to run with the greatest possible stability and efficiency, Version 8.2 of SIMATIC PCS 7 offers individual, networked and reliable plant monitoring. Web systems can now also be operated and observed over the Intranet/Internet. For this, operators can use extensive configuration possibilities for individual and secured online access to the operating and monitoring level of a production plant, enabling the implementation […]

Faster Trans-Pacific cable system ready for service

The 9,000 km submarine cable system linking Japan and the West Coast of the U.S. completes construction and is ready for service FASTER, a consortium of six international companies, together with its supplier NEC Corporation, today announced that construction and end-to-end testing of a new trans-Pacific submarine cable system, the “FASTER Cable System,” has been successfully completed and will start service on June 30, 2016. The 9,000km trans-Pacific cable, the FASTER Cable System, lands in Oregon in the United States and two landing points in Japan, namely Chiba and Mie prefectures. The system has extended connections to major hubs on the West Coast of the U.S. covering Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland and Seattle. The two landing points in Japan facilitate the cable’s easy access to major cities in Japan. FASTER’s robust and resilient connectivity to many neighbouring cable systems extends the cable’s capacity beyond Japan to other Asian locations. FASTER is the first trans-Pacific submarine cable system designed from day one to support digital coherent transmission technology, using optimised fibres throughout the submarine portion. The combination of extremely low loss fibre, without a dispersion compensation section, and the latest digital signal processor, which compensates for the huge amount of cumulative dispersion at the end of the cable, enable this six-fiber pair cable to deliver 60 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth across the Pacific. “From the very beginning of the project, we repeatedly said to each other, ‘faster, Faster and FASTER,’ and at one point it became the project name, and today it becomes a reality. This is the outcome of six members’ collaborative contribution and expertise together with NEC’s support,” said Hiromitsu Todokoro, Chairman of the FASTER Management Committee. “This was the first trans-Pacific submarine cable built solely by NEC Corporation, employing the latest 100Gbps […]

World’s largest trade fair for robotics and automation has started

Power machine – or intricate technician. At the AUTOMATICA in Munich you will find them all because the robotics business is booming worldwide. Every reputable manufacturer is present at this leading trade fair to present innovations from all areas of automation and mechatronics. AUTOMATICA has recorded a registration record. Exhibitors have already booked more space today for the trade fair in Munich on June 21 to 24, 2016 than at the previous event. In five exhibition halls, more than 800 companies are displaying their solutions for the optimisation of production processes and professional service robotics and will show that the era of smart robotics and automation has begun. One of the key focus points at the fair is Integrated Assembly Solutions: intelligent, economical and integrated assembly and production solutions. It is essential to have the necessary hardware and the right brainware such as analysis, conception, planing and software for the realisation of complex production processes. AUTOMATICA’s leading role is palpable in the sector of image processing too. The crux here is the integration of sensors and image processing systems for example within Industry 4.0 solutions. The advantages can be seen for example in quality control, flexible parts handling or orientation between different components. A further key focus at AUTOMATICA 2016 is robotics. Whether it is for regular production, or outside the factory in medical technology, agriculture, logistics or professional service robotics; robotics promises a huge growth potential. Human-robot collaboration is extremely popular amongst robotics manufacturers. In the near future, these machines will be as normal as an electric drill for employees. Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 are pivotal here, therefore it is vital that IT and industry grow and develop further together. Messe München discovered this development early on and created their own platform with the IT2 Industry. It is now […]

Fujitsu develops cyber attack technology

KAWASAKI, Japan- Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of new technology that, in response to targeted cyber-attacks on specific organizations, rapidly analyses damage status after an attack has been detected. In the event of malware attacks, which infect organizations to cause a great deal of damage, including information leaks, it was previously necessary to analyse a range of logs on networks and devices to clarify attack status. However, in order to grasp the whole picture of the attack, analysis by an expert over the course of many hours was required. Now, by automating and improving the efficiency of the information collection components necessary for attack status analysis via network communications analysis, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed forensics technology to analyze the status of a targeted cyber-attack in a short period of time and show the whole picture at a glance. This means that it has become possible to do security incident analysis, which previously required an expert and took a great deal of time, in a short period without an expert, and come up with rapid and comprehensive countermeasures before the damage spreads. This technology will be exhibited at Fujitsu Forum 2016, to be held on May 19 and 20 at Tokyo International Forum. Background In recent years there has been a sharp rise in increasingly ingenious targeted cyber-attacks that aim to steal particular information from specific organizations or individuals. After having infected an organization, attackers can remotely control their malware, causing important information to be leaked outside the organization. This results in huge damage, not only to the organization attacked but also to its partners and customers. As this sort of malware attack is extremely difficult to completely prevent, there is a pressing need for countermeasures predicated on malware intrusion. Issues At present, the usual method to assess the […]

From challenges to opportunities: favourable climate for the plastics industry

The plastics industry in ASEAN remains unperturbed by global developments that are also impacting the growth path of key industries. With K 2016, the world’s largest trade fair for plastics and rubber, coming up in Düsseldorf, Germany, from 19 to 26 October, we take a closer look at this market. The new norm of economic growths and trends such as oil prices, variable supply and demand, and weakening of most Asian currencies against the US dollar, have allowed the region’s countries to rediscover their strengths to sustain growth either individually or as a part of the collective grouping of the 10-member ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation), which comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. ASEAN’s fertile consumer base with a combined population of over 600 million and a combined GDP of US$ 2.6 trillion, as well as presence in the global market, enables the region to tap the right opportunities, hinging on the region’s rising middle class sector. One of ASEAN’s top export sectors by value is plastics and plastic products earning US$ 39.3 billion in export revenues in 2013. The sector’s production rates have witnessed a steady average growth over the recent years, especially in the ASEAN-6: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, which account for more than 95 % of regional GDP, according to McKinsey & Company. Vietnam’s relatively nascent plastics industry had an average annual growth of 16-18 % between 2010 and 2015. Packaging accounts for 37.4 %, followed by consumer goods (27 %), construction (18 %) and technical products (15 %). Yet, the industry is still at the “low end and of low value”, according to Vietnam Plastics Association (VPA), with a majority of exports being plastic bags to Japan. It also relies heavily on imported raw materials, like […]

Defining the IoT

-Dr. Hai Wang, Senior Vice President, Technology & Operations, NXP Semiconductors. At NXP, we believe that we are entering a new era of computing technology that many are calling the Internet of Things (IoT). We see the IoT as billions of smart, connected “things” (a sort of “universal global neural network” in the cloud) that will encompass every aspect of our lives, and its foundation is the intelligence that embedded processing provides. IoT is made up of smart machines interacting and communicating with other machines, objects, environments and infrastructures. As a result, huge volumes of data are being generated, and that data is being processed into useful actions that can “command and control” things to make our lives much easier and safer—and to reduce humanity’s impact on the environment. How would IoT affect people and businesses now and in the future? IoT affects individuals, businesses large and small as well as industries. Today there are an estimated 2.9 billion people online, or 40% of the world’s population. Analysts expect that as nations and technology develop, 50% of the world’s population could be online by 2017. We could see up to 30 billion connected devices in coming years, three times more than today’s 10 billion connected devices. The major impact of IoT will be in consumer and business sectors, security and safety, education and healthcare, as well as in governments and policy shaping. What benefits do NXP Smart Solutions bring to businesses? A critical value that NXP brings is secure connectivity solutions. In fact, NXP is currently the world’s leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, enabling secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world. Our solutions work behind the scenes, helping partners in the global ecosystem as they work to are create and deliver complete hardware and software solutions […]

The Future of Manufacturing

-Tony Glockler, CEO of SolidProfessor, talks to Asia Manufacturing News People love to predict the future: whether they will score a 100 on a test, receive a promotion, or win the lottery. Humans make predictions because it gives them a sense of hope and feeling of control over their future. Predictions also free people from fear and prepare them for the unknown. With the rapid speed of technological advancements, many ponder how this will affect the future of manufacturing. Robots, the Internet of Things, and technological obsolescence are a few technological factors that will shape the future of manufacturing. Understanding how these will affect the manufacturing industry will allow one to properly prepare for the future. Robots The number of robots being used today for industrial work is close to one million. Robots are highly sought after by manufacturers due to their productivity, efficiency, and quality. Manufacturing robots are typically utilized for assembly line work at automotive plants, energy plants, and hospitals. They are useful for their ability to do a variety of repetitive tasks effectively and tasks that are dangerous to humans including heavy lifting, handling chemicals, and cutting and polishing objects. Because of their usefulness, robots will only become more and more common, shaping the future of manufacturing. Many may wonder if robots will replace human factory workers. While this is inevitable, it will also create new professions that work alongside these robots. Robots are still imperfect and their abilities will never be sufficient to replace humans. Though it may change with the increased use of robotics, human labor will continue to be important, regardless of how mechanised industry becomes. Internet of Things The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a network of physical objects including devices, buildings, vehicles, and other items becoming embedded with electronics, software, sensors, […]

SL-400 hydraulic gantry simple to operate

A compact, simple-to-operate and safe hydraulic gantry crane is being introduced by Enerpac South-East Asia to facilitate precision lifting and positioning of heavy loads, up to 408 metric tons, when using four towers. The SL-400 Super Lift Series is a cost-effective alternative to a traditional crane for numerous applications including building and infrastructure, manufacturing, mining, logistics, ports, oil and gas and maintenance. The SL-400 hydraulic gantry is the company’s highest capacity bare cylinder gantry. Equipped with three stage lifting cylinders, the SL-400 lifts up to 9.14m at the top of the third stage and can handle up to 408 metric tons at the top of the second stage. Designed to meet stringent safety requirements, the SL-400 complies with the safety standards set by ASME B30.1-2015. To ensure quality performance, each gantry is tested to 120 percent of capacity at full extension and witness tested by a qualified third party organization. The SL-400 is also CE compliant. “The SL-400 has a smaller footprint compared with larger gantry cranes and overhead cranes, making it ideal for heavy duty lifting in confined spaces, limited hook approaches or low headroom areas, such as heavy machinery, turbine or generator positioning and press installation,” says Enerpac Integrated Solutions Manager for South-East Asia, Mr Maxim Lee. Hydraulic Gantries are a safe, efficient way to lift and position heavy loads in applications where traditional cranes will not fit and permanent overhead structures for job cranes are not an option. Hydraulic Gantries are placed on skid tracks to provide a means for moving and placing heavy loads. “The SL-400 is also a very cost-effective solution for installation and maintenance across a huge range of industries. It doesn’t need expensive foundations or permanent structural support columns for the installation of heavy equipment such as industrial presses, turbines and generators. Workshops […]

Entegris expands operations for semiconductor process liquid filtration in South Korea

Entegris a leader in yield-enhancing materials and solutions for highly advanced manufacturing environments, announced today the expansion of its liquid filtration/purification analytical science and research and development facility in Suwon, South Korea. As an addition to its existing Korea Technology Center (KTC) facility, the expanded lab includes advanced chemical/water analysis and material characterisation capabilities, along with filtration device instrumentation. These new capabilities will allow closer collaboration with local customers to solve specific liquid filtration challenges by providing optimised solutions for their advanced processes. “Sophisticated analysis of the interaction and compatibility between complex process chemistries and filtration devices are increasingly important as technology nodes advance. We continue to invest in these technologies ̶ close to our customers ̶ to optimize the performance of our filters with the unique chemical solutions our customers require,” said Entegris Vice President of Liquid Microcontamination Control, Clint Haris. “Expanding the KTC liquid filter lab allows us to increase collaboration with Korean customers and to integrate new developments into new process solutions faster.” The expansion represents Entegris’ on-going commitment to serving the Korean semiconductor manufacturing market and its continued effort to work directly with customers on a local level to solve critical issues for advanced technology processes. Entegris is the leading provider of liquid filtration and purification technologies for the most advanced semiconductor applications. In addition to the expanded analytical and R&D liquid filtration services, Entegris’ KTC also provides wet and dry chemistry development, chemistry formulation and pilot scale-up, on-site metrology with real-time reporting, and microcontamination and liquid filter characterisation. Entegris is a leading provider of a wide range of products for purifying, protecting, and transporting critical materials used in processing and manufacturing in the semiconductor and other high-tech industries. Entegris is ISO-9001 certified and has manufacturing, customer service and/or research facilities in the United States, China, […]

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