'Credit crunch' yet to damage manufacturing?

Maintenance free power and free conveyor chains with low-friction running rollers by Iwis have a built-in lubricant reservoir, which supplies the chain links and running rollers with lubricant

Iwis Antriebssysteme has introduced its Megalife range of maintenance-free power and free conveyor chains. Iwis has developed and patented a special link with specially sintered metal bushes (used along with metal casting and other technologies) and running rollers. In addition, the chains have a built-in lubricant reservoir, which supplies the chain links and running rollers with lubricant during the chain operation: The special sintered material is saturated with oil under vacuum conditions.

External Affairs director of Equifax, Neil Munroe, said: 'Business failures fell slightly by 2.8% in the Manufacturing sector year on year, down 6.8 compared to Quarter 4 2007'.

He said that the Transport and Communication Sector was the worst hit, seeing a substantial 16.3% increase year on year.

The gloomy picture was further supported by the latest CBI (Confederation of British Industry) report, which revealed that business volumes fell to a balance of -30%.

The CBI survey showed firms expect the credit crunch to get worse over the next six months, as they continue to find it difficult to raise funds, restricting business growth.

Munroe added: 'Retail shows a further 9% going bust in this quarter compared to 2007 and Services isn't far behind with an increase of 8.3%.

Construction sector was among the worst hit, with an 11% increase in businesses going 'bust''.

The regional picture revealed a 21.4% increase in failures in the North West, followed by 20.9% in the East Midlands and 20.3% in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Only Scotland continues to see a drop in the number of businesses in the region going bust, down 23.8%.

The South East saw a slight drop of 0.4% compared to the same period in 2007 and a 4.8% drop compared to Quarter 4 2007.

Munroe said: 'This is not a good start to the year for most business sectors across the country, with the credit crunch showing no signs of abating.

Banks are going to look at businesses just as closely as they are looking at individuals, making it harder for firms to get funding to pay off debts and bolster cash flow.

With this in mind we urge companies to protect themselves from 'not a good' debt by conducting rigorous credit checks, supported by ongoing monitoring of customers' and suppliers' financial status'.

He concluded: 'There are tough times ahead and smaller firms are the most vulnerable to the threat of business failure.

It only takes one customer going bust to jeopardise a business, but careful monitoring today, can reduce the threat of bad debt tomorrow.'

Magics 12.1 - A New Version Of Rapid Prototyping Software

Leuven (BELGIUM), March 20, 2008. Materialise NV launches Magics 12.1, the new version of its software for the Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RP&M) industry. Several new features in Magics 12.1 further increase Magics’ added value for RP&M professionals. Efficiency, quality and user-friendliness are the key words of this release.

Below you can find an overview of the main highlights of Magics 12.1. All of these new features streamline the RP&M process and aim to increase the productivity of RP&M professionals.

• With Magics 12.1 you can perforate a hole through a wall instead of through the entire part. This way you can easily make drain holes for hollow parts or trapped volumes;

• In addition to the existing advanced teeth cut, you can now also perform a more user-friendly teeth cut. This teeth cut assures a perfect fit of parts that had to be cut because they were too big to fit on the platform;

• A thumbnail preview of .magics files in Windows Explorer will help you to easily recognize files;

• Magics 12.1 allows you to automatically scale down parts that are too large to fit in the Magics workspace;

• You can edit textured parts with increased flexibility; 

• Magics 12.1 interfaces with e-Stage, the new and fully automated technology for support generation. e-Stage automates the work preparation process when supporting SLA parts by eliminating manual editing. The software also optimizes the build process and significantly cuts finishing time by generating its unique support structure. With e-Stage, Materialise takes a major leap forward in realizing its ambition to automate the entire RP&M process.

Rapid Manufacturing Spearheading Growth of the World Rapid Prototyping Equipment Markets

The evolution of 3D printers driven by severe pricing pressures has made concept modeling and rapid prototyping affordable to most end users. Undoubtedly, the growing trend toward rapid manufacturing has taken the industry to the next level.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.testandmeasurement.frost.com), World Rapid Prototyping Equipment Markets, reveals that the market earned revenues of $300.0 million in 2006 and estimates this to reach $859.4 million in 2013.

With prices of 3D printers ranging from $15,000 to $60,000, small companies find them extremely affordable to use for concept modeling and design optimization. In addition, the use of additive fabrication technology to directly manufacture the product has become increasingly popular, especially for low volume applications.

Rapid manufacturing is particularly useful when the part complexity is difficult to conceive in traditional manufacturing processes. Hearing-aid application in the medical industry is an example that is worth mentioning. Rapid manufacturing is expected to become mainstream in the future, and eventually drive the growth of the rapid prototyping equipment market.

"Even though rapid prototyping has been adopted early on by the automotive and aerospace markets, research indicates that only a handful of companies, about 15 to 20 percent of the end users worldwide, have taken advantage of the various rapid prototyping technologies," notes Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst S.Vidyasankar. "This clearly demonstrates that the technology's potential has not reached the end users over the years, and thus highlights the need to elevate their awareness levels."

End-user education should focus on the acquisition and cost of new equipment as well as the capabilities of various technologies such as stereolithography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS), fused deposition modeling (FDM), jetted polymer techniques and their applications.

With rapid manufacturing gaining interest among end users, it is imperative for equipment manufacturers to educate the users to ensure sustenance for the market and accelerate the growth of the rapid prototyping equipment market in the future.

Furthermore, market participants may overcome this challenge by increasing their marketing efforts, participating in major industry events, and utilizing the Internet as a tool to keep end users as well as the industry abreast of the latest technological advancements within the rapid prototyping equipment market.

"There is also an increasing interest and growing trend toward services within the rapid prototyping market," notes Vidyasankar. "Even though many participants work closely with service bureaus, customers have forced rapid prototyping equipment manufacturers to provide services, thereby creating key opportunities for rapid prototyping vendors to develop their own service departments that meet customer requests for short-run rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping needs and thereby grow in business."

Source: thebusinessedition.com