Today's Manufacturing Pulse
Stellantis to pour $1.08B into next‑gen EV line at Mulhouse plant
President Emmanuel Macron announced Stellantis will invest more than €1 billion (about $1.08 billion) in a next‑generation electric‑vehicle production line at its Mulhouse facility, slated to start in 2029 as part of France’s push to electrify two‑thirds of new cars by 2030.
Also developing:
By the numbers: TIEA Connectors raises $8M Series A
Harvard Engineers Create Shape‑Shifting 3D‑Printed Filaments for Soft Robotics
Researchers at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering have introduced a rotational multimaterial 3D‑printing process that produces soft filaments capable of bending, twisting and contracting when heated. The breakthrough blends an active liquid‑crystal elastomer with a passive elastomer, enabling programmable motion for soft‑robotic components and adaptive wearables.
Coal-Based Steelmaking Outpaces the Industry’s Low-Emissions Transition
Global steelmakers are adding 319 million tonnes per year of new coal‑based blast‑furnace capacity, a 5 % rise that outpaces the modest growth of low‑emission electric‑arc furnace (EAF) and direct‑reduced iron (DRI) projects. Blast furnaces still account for roughly two‑thirds of worldwide...
Bunge Opens Soy Protein Plant with Capabilities for Meat Products
Bunge Ltd. inaugurated a $550 million soy protein concentrate and textured soy protein facility in Morristown, Indiana, capable of processing 4.5 million bushels of soybeans each year. The plant adds 70 jobs and joins an existing crushing operation that handles up to...
Modular Photonics Alignment System for Fiber-Optics Applications with Higher Loads
Physik Instrumente (PI) unveiled the F‑572 High‑Performance 3‑ to 6‑Axis Photonics Alignment System, a modular platform that integrates nanopositioning stages, magnetic direct‑drive goniometers and an ACS‑based controller. The system delivers up to 2 kg payload capacity, 60 mm travel in three linear...
Robot Orders Hold Steady in Q1 2026 as Demand Broadens Across Non-Automotive Industries
North American firms ordered 9,055 robots worth $543 million in Q1 2026, essentially flat in unit volume but down 6.4% in revenue. The dip reflects a sharp 35% drop in automotive OEM orders, which cut revenue nearly in half. By contrast, life‑sciences,...
Advancing Process Safety in an Automated Press Brake Work Cell
Bright IA partnered with Valin to retrofit a legacy press brake with a robotic loading and unloading system, eliminating direct operator interaction. Custom aluminum extrusion frames and timing‑belt conveyors were engineered to overcome uneven floors and limited space, ensuring precise...
VNTANA Joins AWS Spatial Data Management on AWS (SDMA) as Official Partner, Helping Manufacturers Unlock CAD Data Across Sales, Training,...
VNTANA has become an official partner in AWS Spatial Data Management on AWS (SDMA), delivering a pre‑configured CAD‑to‑GLTF and CAD‑to‑USD pipeline for manufacturers. The integration uses VNTANA’s patented optimization engine to automatically convert complex engineering files into lightweight, web‑ready 3‑D...
Innovation Day Highlights Advanced Automation and Future Pathways for Irish Growers
The Teagasc Horticulture Development Department hosted a Mushroom Innovation Day on May 6 in Dublin, gathering growers, researchers, and tech providers to examine automation and sustainability in Irish mushroom production. Dr. Michael Gaffney highlighted a 78% rise in input costs since...
BigRep & Endless Industries Introduce Large-Format Continuous Fibre Reinforcement 3D Printing Capability
BigRep and Endless Industries have merged Endless’s continuous‑fibre technology with the BigRep IPSO 105 platform, creating a large‑format 3D printer that can produce reinforced parts at industrial scale. The system delivers up to 20 times the strength of unreinforced thermoplastics while cutting...
Factory Automation: Bridging Promise and Real-World Production
Factory automation is entering a $235 billion market by 2035, driven by AI, IIoT and advanced robotics, yet integration remains the chief obstacle. New data shows 45% of manufacturers now have some IIoT connectivity and 42% run predictive‑maintenance programs, but legacy...
Iran Conflict Drains the Colour From Snack Packs
Japanese snack maker Calbee announced a temporary shift of 14 products, including its flagship potato chips, to black‑and‑white packaging. The move responds to shortages of naphtha‑derived inks and flexible films caused by disruptions in Middle Eastern supply chains linked to...
Mazda Posts 69% Profit Drop as Production Slows, Rethinks Compact Lineup
Mazda Motor Corp announced a 69% plunge in full‑year net profit to ¥35.1 billion ($226 million), driven by a 2% dip in revenue and weaker production volumes. The decline has spurred the automaker to reassess its compact‑car strategy, especially in markets like...
Apple-Intel Foundry Deal Could Reshape U.S. Chip Manufacturing
Apple and Intel have entered a preliminary agreement for Intel to manufacture Apple‑designed chips, a deal encouraged by the U.S. government. The partnership could give Intel Foundry a marquee customer, helping justify its multibillion‑dollar investment in advanced nodes such as...
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Exito Announces the South Africa Manufacturing Show 2026
Exito Media Concepts announced the South Africa Manufacturing Show 2026, scheduled for June 11 in Johannesburg. The 33rd edition will convene over 150 C‑level executives and technology leaders to examine AI, IoT, robotics, cybersecurity and sustainable production within the country’s evolving...
Standard Lithium Secures Trafigura Offtake and Hits Milestones Ahead of Arkansas Plant Build‑out
Standard Lithium announced a binding 10‑year offtake deal with Trafigura for 8,000 t/yr of lithium carbonate and reported that its Arkansas demonstration plant processed its first million barrels of Smackover brine, clearing the way for a final investment decision and construction...
Samsung Leads $27M Seed Round in Config, the ‘TSMC of Robot Data’
Config, a Seoul‑San Jose AI startup that supplies data for robotic foundation models, closed a $27 million seed round led by Samsung Venture Investment. The round, which brings total funding to $35 million and values the company at more than $200 million, includes...
Meat Industry Consolidation: A National Security Issue?
Four meatpackers—JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill, and National Beef—control roughly 80% of U.S. beef processing, driving historically high steak and hamburger prices. The Trump administration, via USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, frames this concentration as a national‑security threat because half of the...
EV Market Growth Seems to Be Happening, Despite EU Policies
Europe’s electric‑vehicle sector has locked in more than €200 billion (≈ $218 billion) for factories, batteries and charging infrastructure, even as EU leaders debate softening the 2035 zero‑emission car ban. The New Automotive report breaks the spend down to €60 billion ($65 billion) for new...
Homerun Resources Inc. Announces Positive Bankable Feasibility Study on Solar Glass Manufacturing Plant in Brazil, Confirming Strong Economics and Strategic...
Homerun Resources announced a bankable feasibility study for a solar glass manufacturing plant in Belmonte, Bahia, Brazil. The base‑case net present value is about $670 million (rising to $829 million at 105% capacity) with a 20.2% internal rate of return and a...
Quality Standards Key to Manufacturing Push; Toy Sector Turned Net Exporter After QCOs: Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi
India is prioritising quality compliance over cost in its manufacturing drive, expanding Quality Control Orders (QCO) to cover 723 products. The toy sector, once a net importer, has become a net exporter after a 2021 quality order, illustrating the policy’s...
Industry 5.0: Why Human-First AI and Smarter Automation Are Reshaping the Future of Industrial IoT
Industry 5.0 reframes industrial IoT by placing human judgment at the core of AI‑driven automation. The model introduces design principles such as human‑first copilots, bounded AI autonomy, clean data pipelines, and stepwise scaling. A three‑layer reference architecture—cognitive, digital, physical—integrates governance, security,...
Chinese Cars Surge Abroad as Foreign Share in China Halves
"The market share of foreign auto firms in China has almost halved in five years, to around 30% in 2025. Moreover, in 2023 China passed Japan to become the world’s largest exporter of cars. In 2025 over 8 million of...
Reforms Will Continue; Industry Needs to Spend More on R&D, Shed Protectionist Instinct: NITI Member
NITI Aayog member Rajiv Gauba said the Indian government will press on with its reform agenda, focusing on trust‑based governance and the removal of outdated compliance burdens. He warned that industry must dramatically increase private R&D spending, which is currently only...
Trump-Xi Summit Puts Rare‑Earth Mineral Tensions Front‑and‑Center
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing to discuss trade, security and rare‑earth minerals, with Washington pressing Beijing to ease supply‑chain pressure on critical mining inputs. The talks come amid broader Middle‑East turmoil and a...
EU Scaling Back EV Targets Threatens 34 Battery Factories, $54 Billion in Oil Costs
A Transport & Environment (T&E) report warns that if the EU dilutes its 2030‑2035 car CO2 targets, electric‑vehicle production could fall by half in 2030, endangering up to 34 Northvolt‑sized battery factories and 47,000 jobs. The study also estimates an...
SAP and Cyberwave Deploy Fully Autonomous AI Robots in Live German Warehouse
SAP SE and Cyberwave announced the successful rollout of fully autonomous, AI‑powered robots in SAP's St. Leon‑Rot logistics center in Germany. The deployment demonstrates that Physical AI can operate at scale in a live fulfillment environment, promising faster training and...
VIS Says AI Demand Drives Growth as Singapore Fab Fully Booked
Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) says AI demand is fueling semiconductor growth, with its Singapore 12‑inch wafer fab's first phase already fully booked. The fab will begin sample shipments in July 2025 and target mass production in the first quarter of...
DYPIU and Dassault to Open Engineering Experience Center
D Y Patil International University (DYPIU) has signed an MoU with Dassault Systèmes to launch a Digital Engineering and Digital Manufacturing Experience Centre on its Pune campus. The centre will house a NextGen Product Innovation Lab, an Intelligent Production System Lab, and a...
Steel Tariffs Are Raising the Price of Canned Foods
President Trump’s 50% steel tariff, imposed under Section 232, has driven up the cost of tin‑plate steel used for cans. Despite the tariff, imports of the material surged in 2025, leaving U.S. can makers dependent on foreign supply. A tin can...
China Unveils Hyper‑realistic Robotic Face with True Vision
Ex Machina is no longer sci-fi. China has finally built it. The company is AheadForm, founded in Shanghai. The product is the world's most hyper-realistic robotic face. Silicone skin you can't tell from human, 25 micro motors hidden underneath pulling the face...
Inflation and Hormuz Tensions Force Supply Chain Rethink
US inflation. Strait of Hormuz. What will retailers and manufacturers do? And their supply chains? And logistics?
The Convergence of AI, IoT, and Robotics in Modern Manufacturing
Manufacturers are rapidly integrating AI, IoT connectivity, and advanced robotics to shift from static, manual processes to predictive, data‑driven operations. Real‑time sensor data links production equipment, warehouses, and monitoring platforms, giving plant managers visibility into bottlenecks and energy use. AI...
Illinois Diesel Prices Hit Record, Threatening Trucking Costs
Illinois sets record price for diesel fuel. Will that be broken? Trucking and supply chains beware.
Cautious Buyers Offset Global Oil Supply Shock
Astounding🤷♂️ 👉”US-led exports and China-led cautious buying patterns among importers have, in effect, been 💥shielding the world from the supply shock💥 👉“The actions of cautious buyers have therefore exceeded, by 4.1mn barrels a day, the 6.8mn net contraction of seaborne export supply...
CEA-Leti and NcodiN Partner to Industrialise 300 Mm Silicon Photonics
CEA‑Leti announced a series of strategic collaborations aimed at scaling next‑generation silicon photonics and memory technologies. In partnership with French startup NcodiN, the institute will transfer the company’s nanolaser‑enabled optical interposer to a 300 mm silicon‑photonic process, targeting sub‑0.1 pJ/bit links for...
Manufacturing Overvalues Degrees, Overlooks Skilled Trades Talent
Is the manufacturing sector stuck on four-year degrees? We explore the overemphasis and its impact on finding skilled talent. The real problems in production. Stream now: 🔗https://t.co/fTtkIZAIFw 📽️https://t.co/uPpmryydIk 🔗https://t.co/DmYp21N5Kv #Manufacturing #SkilledTrades https://t.co/YVbbAbGqtU
TARS Unveils Dual Humanoid Robots for Manufacturing and Versatile Tasks
Beijing Startup TARS Debuts Two Humanoid #Robots for Precision Manufacturing and General-Purpose Tasks by @CyberRobooo #Robotics #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/MfxxXPZ2Nu
Unlocking Yield Improvements in Advanced Packaging Through Materials-Driven Failure Analysis
Advanced packaging—3D ICs, FOWLP, chiplets—now underpins AI, 5G, and edge computing, but its complex material interfaces are creating severe yield pressure. Traditional defect inspection alone cannot capture the subtle, multiscale failures that arise from thermal stress, CTE mismatch, and contamination....
Record CASCI Index Driven by Strong Chip Performance
The only way to track the manufacture and shipping of AI Compute is through the CASCI Composite index, by @Culpium April's CASCI Composite hit a record. BUT: Chip strength made up for faltering momentum elsewhere in the supply chain. Head to...
Optimising SiCr Deposition for High-Yield Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS Manufacturing with Picosecond Ultrasonics
Picosecond ultrasonic (PULSE™) technology provides non‑contact, sub‑angstrom thickness metrology for silicon‑chromium (SiCr) films used in bipolar‑CMOS‑DMOS (BCD) devices. The technique, validated against TEM, achieved repeatability better than 0.5 Å (1σ) and captured wafer‑wide uniformity across 49 points. Simultaneously, reflectivity measurements revealed...
Shifting Supply Chains in the Era of Photonics
The article titled “Shifting supply chains in the era of photonics” appears to be unavailable, offering only a 404 error page. Nonetheless, the headline signals a growing focus on how photonics manufacturers are re‑engineering their supply chains amid component shortages,...
Beyond High-NA EUV: Particle Accelerator Technology Promises Exciting Future for Lithography
TAU Systems CEO Jerome Paye proposes compact laser‑wakefield acceleration (LWFA) free‑electron laser sources to replace traditional EUV lithography. High‑NA EUV is hitting both physical and economic limits, prompting a search for brighter, tunable light. LWFA can deliver orders‑of‑magnitude higher photon...
What a “Perfect” Process Map Missed: A Lesson From Third Shift
A food producer boasted a flawless HACCP flowchart, yet a cross‑contamination incident erupted when third‑shift janitors improvised around missing tools. Deborah Coviello highlighted that the documented process captured only the ideal steps, not the reality of night‑shift workarounds. The episode...
Tesla's Gigacasting Feels Like Civilization's Metallurgy Breakthrough
I bet when Tesla made its first gigacastings @elonmusk felt like achieving the discovery of metallurgy in civ 1 https://t.co/gDnSZwIkDO
JSW Steel April Output Dips 1% as Blast Furnace Shutdown Weighs on Production
JSW Steel posted April crude‑steel output of 2.118 million tonnes, a 1% decline from a year earlier, as Blast Furnace 3 at its Vijayanagar plant was taken offline for a capacity‑upgradation. Excluding the shutdown, production would have risen roughly 10% thanks to...
Ford’s New Battery Container Is Here To Take On The Tesla Megapack
Ford has launched a new subsidiary, Ford Energy, to produce the DC block, a modular stationary battery container built in Kentucky with prismatic LFP cells. The 20‑foot container holds 5.45 MWh, offers two‑hour or four‑hour discharge options, and is designed for...
Argentina Sees 13% Drop in Cement Consumption
Argentina's cement market shrank sharply in early 2026, with April production down 13.2% YoY to 733,505 tonnes. Total cement consumption fell 12.7% to 730,856 tonnes, while imports rose 31.7% and exports plunged 60% to 2,861 tonnes. Over the January‑April period,...
Panasonic’s 4680 Mass Production Pushed Back yet Again
Panasonic Energy has postponed mass production of its 4680 cylindrical battery cell for a second time, still awaiting a purchase order from its primary customer, likely Tesla. The original 2024 launch date slipped to March 2026, which was also missed,...
What’s Really Needed For Advanced Test?
Advanced test in semiconductor manufacturing promises adaptive binning, feed‑forward models and real‑time analytics, but the industry’s biggest obstacle is data quality. PDF Solutions highlights that misaligned metadata and incomplete tool‑level data routinely break automated test flows, forcing engineers to intervene...
South Australian Manufacturing Firm Enters US Naval Nuclear Supply Chain
South Australia's Century Engineering became the first Australian firm to win export contracts in the U.S. naval nuclear supply chain, supplying precision‑engineered cranks for aircraft carriers through HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding. The agreement follows the company’s qualification under the Australian...