Paul Heney

By Mark Jones Mistakes happen. But small mistakes create big impacts when perpetrated by enormous companies. The largest IT meltdown ever occurred because a small mistake took down 8.5 million computers. Scale made it a big problem, just like a recent ice cream issue. The pictures of airport concourses with bright blue screens on kiosks…

Winning entries in the 2024 LEAP (Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program) Awards were announced by WTWH Media today in 10 categories: • Advanced Materials • Connectivity • Embedded Computing • Fluid Power • Industrial Automation • Mechanical • Motion Control • Power Electronics • Switches & Sensors, and • Test & Measurement. These brands cross…

AI will revolutionize industrial processes. Most companies agree on this, yet a large number are still reluctant to actually adopt AI technologies. This is where the AI conference presented by Hannover Messe on January 22nd in Frankfurt comes in. The event shows how companies can put AI technologies successfully to use and significantly boost their…

Deutsche Messe is once again inviting entries for the Hermes Award, the next edition of which will be featured at Hannover Messe 2025. This is one of the world’s most important industrial prizes, and will be presented by Germany’s Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, on March 30, 2025. The deadline for companies and…

Brazil has been announced as the Partner Country at Hannover Messe 2026. The news was announced by Jorge Viana, President of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (APEX) and Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board of Deutsche Messe AG, at a recent ceremonial signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Wolfsburg. The…

By Mark Jones My wife, Erin, is now the proud owner of a plug-in hybrid vehicle. It is a purchase intended to make us more sustainable. Like previous purchases intended to reduce our environmental impact, it does not make economic sense. It is not our first hybrid. It is our first lithium-ion battery vehicle, fitting…

Engineers around the world are invited to apply for the 12th manus award in 2025. For more than two decades, the German manufacturer igus has been honoring applications that feature bold and sustainable use of plastic plain bearings. The winners will receive prize money of up to €5,000.  The pressure on engineers in their day-to-day…

Celera Motion has announced Aura P, an extension to the Aura series of precision rotary and linear optical encoders with MicroE technology. Eccentricity, caused by off-center scale mounting and bearing runout, is a common source of angular error. Two encoders are often employed to compensate for the error increasing cost and power consumption. Aura encoders…

By Mark Jones The norm is technology just gets better. Cars are better. The feeler gauges I used to adjust the valves in my first car still reside in the upper right drawer of my toolbox. I haven’t adjusted valves in decades. Same for my grease gun. There isn’t a grease zerk on my current…

Designatronics Inc. has announced that it has appointed Simon Brazier as its Director of Sales and Marketing, following a wide-ranging search process. In this newly created role, Brazier will assume responsibility for leadership and growth for both domestic and international business development.  “We’re extremely excited to add Simon to our sales and marketing team. His…

By Mark Jones “Save water. Shower tomorrow” is the message on a billboard I just passed. It stood out from the others along I-75 near Flint, Mich., a mix of personal injury lawyers, fast food, and cannabis shops. As it happened, I was listening to a podcast on water. Seemed fitting. Flint is synonymous with…

Bivar, a manufacturer of LED and light pipe solutions has announced its new surface area light guides. These guides combine advanced light pipe technology, lensing, and control techniques to uniformly illuminate surface areas in a space-saving design. Bivar’s high reliability PLCC surface mount LEDs onboard ensure vibrant color output, attractive appearance, and long-lasting performance. The…

By Mark Jones The cause of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse seems clear. The Dali, the cause of the bridge’s demise, sits grounded with parts of the bridge strewn across its bow. Drifting after losing power, the ship hit one of the bridge’s supports, bringing it down in an instant. Removal of the support…

By Mark Jones I was relieved at Acadia National Park when I didn’t see the plastic trash I was expecting. It was the same in Anguilla. I expected fouled beaches I never found. It was the same in Florida. Sadly, I found the plastic trash where I wasn’t expecting it: Kentucky. Cave Run Lake, in…

Germany’s Hannover Messe can be a show of excesses, with too many halls to visit, too many new products to see, and never enough time — or walking stamina — to take it all in. But the show is full of little nuggets of information that help engineers and designers find solutions to do their…

It can’t be easy being a plastics manufacturer these days, with a barrage of news reports about plastic particles being found on remote beaches or the seabed itself. But count on Rumford, R.I.-based igus Inc. to turn that story on its head, with some innovative ways that they’re using plastics to help the environment —…

The LEAP Awards (Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program) celebrates the most innovative and forward-thinking products serving the design engineering space. This dynamic competition honors the most innovative engineered products/components across several of our flagship brands: Design World, Fluid Power World, EE World, and Engineering.com. Submissions for the 2024 LEAP Awards program are being accepted starting today,…

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ newest production facility in Parets del Vallès, Spain (near Barcelona) is a fully carbon-neutral plant. The facility manufactures automotive components and replaces an existing plant at the same location. The company said it is boosting its production capacity by 15%. In all, more than  11 million euros have been invested in the…

By Mark Jones “Scientists find about a quarter million invisible nanoplastic particles in a liter of bottled water” was a recent AP headline. It was one of hundreds of stories prompted by a recent scientific publication. In a first in this column, I’ll give you some fun experiments you can do with the water. You’ll…

With special emphasis on clean energy and industry 4.0, a selection of companies will demonstrate Norway’s ambitions for a low carbon society and its key role in developing solutions necessary to transform the industry and reach net-zero. Norway is honored to be Partner Country at Hannover Messe. Norway’s highly skilled work force, advanced industry and…

At last year’s Hannover Messe, igus CEO Frank Blasé showed off the company’s brand-new igusGO app, a brilliant use of AI to help customers identify where igus products could be implemented on a particular machine. He demonstrated taking a photo of a nearby bicycle, which the app correctly identified, and then showed the various bearing…

At the upcoming Hannover Messe in April, Altair will focus on a theme of “The Science of Possibility,” highlighting the company’s technologies for simulation, high performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). Areas of interest will include: Simulation-driven design AI-powered engineering Digital twins, and AI on the factory floor We spoke to Mirko…

By Mark Jones My initials were visible on the structure protruding from the roof of the white Jaguar as it approached. The car pulled up and the app signaled I could unlock the door. With a tap, the door handles extended. I entered for my first ride in a fully autonomous vehicle. I found myself…

I’m going to veer off the normal engineering focus of this column for a month to dabble in a scientific field that’s close to my heart: astronomy. We’re a month out from this year’s big heavenly spectacle in the U.S., the total solar eclipse on April 8th. This eclipse will sweep across the country from…

Emerson is changing some things up for this year’s Hannover Messe trade fair, scheduled for April 22-26 in northern Germany. The engineering and automation company is moving to Hall 11, known as the Automation, Motion & Drives area, to better represent its vast product and solution range. Last year, Emerson invited attendees to see how…