5 Fascinating Things Happening In Manufacturing Right Now

Manufacturing’s reputation has for too long been about dimly lit assembly lines, dingy warehouses, grease, and grime. But the truth is that modern manufacturing is both highly advanced and very often downright fascinating.

Don’t believe me? Consider the small shop in an Iceland town with 3D printing machines that gut fish. Or the manufacturer helping residential builders stand up energy-efficient units on the fly. Or an innovative company that found a way to disrupt that so-ubiquitous part of the manufacturing world—the hard hat.

Here are five stories of interesting things happening right now in the world of manufacturing that we can all learn from.

1. Using 3D Printing Machines to Gut Fish

3D printers may no longer be grabbing the headlines they did in the 2010s. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t settled in as an extremely useful and empowering tool for manufacturers.

Case in point: an Icelandic company named Curio. Located in a small town south of Reykjavik, the company uses additive manufacturing to create more than 100 stainless steel parts for its fish processing machines, allowing the company to own and manage the entirety of its manufacturing operation. The company then assembles those parts and sells them to clients across the globe.

3D printing enables Curio to cut out casting and injection molding, processes for which American companies often rely on outsourcing. That also means the company controls its entire supply chain, so it’s less susceptible to disruptions that can pop up in the form of geopolitical conflict or, say, a global pandemic.

“In Iceland, we are a small stone in the ocean, and we cannot so easily run around to get help,” Curio founder Elliði Hreinsson told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. “You have to be able to do it all in-house.”

2. Creating a Smarter Hard Hat

Throughout industrial history the hard hat has more or less served one purpose: protecting the all-important head. But the folks at Guardhat wondered if manufacturers and other companies were missing a crucial opportunity for more.

So they developed a connected hard hat, one that allows companies to track their employees in case of emergency and help them stay diligent on real-time safety issues by communicating live. The hats are capable of video and audio calls, carry an SOS button, and are equipped with software to track and analyze data. Ultimately, Guardhat brings together the sensors and thinking behind the Internet of Things and combines it with human workers to create an Industrial Internet of People.

The end result? Your employees are safer and more productive, and your financial risk is minimized.

3. Producing the World’s First Flying Car

What’s even cooler than hard hats that talk? Cars that fly.

And after working to perfect their model for more than a decade, a Netherlands-based company named PAL-V is ready to put one into serial production in 2023, according to Assembly Magazine.

The Pal-V Liberty can travel as fast as 110 mph through the air and reach 100 mph on the ground. The company has the capacity to make 100 flying cars per year.

It has so far attracted commercial customers only, including an air ambulance company and a company that does aircraft inspection and management. In the future? Who knows.

4. Speeding Up Critical Maintenance with Metal 3D Printing

When you say 3D printing, most minds go to smaller and medium-sized parts. But Ohio-based manufacturer Lincoln Electric
LECO
has created a wire metal 3D printing factory with the ability to create parts up to 7 feet long and weighing more than—incredibly—5,000 pounds.

That came in handy for Chevron
CVX
recently. During scheduled maintenance at a refinery, extended lead times for certain parts were making it difficult to stay on track. “Our planned maintenance schedule was in jeopardy due to current supply chain issues,” says Robert Rettew, Chevron’s Materials Technology Engineer.

That’s where Lincoln Electric came in. The company printed eight nickel alloy replacement parts weighing more than 500 pounds each, allowing Chevron to restart its regular operations just in time.

5. Making Energy-Efficient Buildings Easier—and Faster—to Build

During the pandemic, as you may remember, builders had trouble finding timber at reasonable cost, which had the downstream effect of contributing to soaring home prices. A company named BamCore is out to lower the reliance on wood for new homes—but they’re not stopping there.

The California-based company also puts an emphasis on sustainability, producing bamboo walls that nearly eliminate the need for wooden studs while making energy-efficient design quicker and easier.

With a proprietary software solution, Bamcore can outfit the framing panels with nail patterns and even electronically mark them to signify key utilities info. “The device-agnostic web-based tool turns design plans into 3D ones that can be accessed by designers, contractors, plumbers, and electricians to delineate which panels will have utilities running through them,” says Fast Company.

BamCore walls covered 75,000 square feet of wall in 2022, a number expected to increase ten-fold, to 750,000 square feet, in 2023.

Their innovation—like the others on this list—may sound extraordinary, and it is. But these examples also represent a glimpse into the prospects inherent in the future of manufacturing. As the industry becomes more advanced and focuses on innovation, manufacturers will race past their competitors if they can summon an entrepreneurial spirit—and look at things like advanced technology and sustainability as opportunities, rather than burdens.

As the companies on this list prove, amazing things can happen when manufacturers embrace the intersection of innovation and technology, and when great ideas and great talent come together.