A partnership between the University of Northern Iowa, Youngstown State University and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) will leverage $10 million in first-year funding to increase the number of small to midsize enterprises using advanced technologies, bolster critical areas of the defense manufacturing supply chain and create jobs. The partnership will provide hundreds of businesses each year with support to remove barriers to adopting Industry 4.0 technologies, enabling a faster output of quality parts while expanding and strengthening the supply chain. Those technologies include 3D printing, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

Laser Hard Inc., a partnership between commercial heat treater Peters’ Heat Treating and laser welder Phoenix Laser Solutions, invested in a mobile robot designed for targeted laser hardening and tempering of metal surfaces. The company, which held an open house at its Meadville, Pa., headquarters June 20, says it is the first production system of its kind in the United States.

Each month, new advances in automation are taking shape that will create opportunity or eliminate your heat-treat company's business model.

How might today’s speeding technologies impact our businesses?

Penna Flame Industries broke ground on an expansion at the company’s facility in Zelienople, Pa.

Our monthly musings in this column often are based on what’s hot in the news over the past reporting period. For this reason, it seemed that the natural story this month would be about robots.