DIGITAL ISSUES • DESIGN WORLD

What are the top workplaces for engineers? We’re going to find out! Over the past year, we’ve been busy working with our new sister publication Engineering.com, striving to create more meaningful content to help you in your engineering career. We’ve always brought you exceptional technical engineering content and pertinent industry news, but we’ve had feedback…

  The devil is in the details Design World’s annual Casebook is one of our favorites. After all, there are few things more satisfying than a well-detailed application story about how a certain set of components and systems solved a specific set of requirements. Such case studies are notoriously hard to procure, in large part…

In this special edition: Kawasaki works with partners on CL Series cobot applications Kawasaki Robotics (USA) Inc. demonstrated the latest additions to its portfolio, including the CL Series collaborative robots, at IMTS. Plus One introduces dual armed InductOne; Pitney Bowes automates parcel induction As they pass through warehouses and other facilities, many items are handled…

Congratulations to this year’s LEAP Award winners It’s that season when we recognize and celebrate engineering innovations through our annual LEAP (Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program) Awards. Each year, we receive a sample of the outstanding contributions engineers make to industries worldwide. Our esteemed judging panel, which includes experts from various fields in academia and…

The importance of the ally When I was young, a certain celebrity was afflicted with a medical condition. After their diagnosis, the celebrity suddenly became an outspoken advocate for pouring money into research to treat that condition. People kept calling this person brave, which struck me as odd and inaccurate. At the time, all of…

Adding to your career knowledge One of the most exciting things we’ve experienced over the past year has been Design World’s steady growth, especially around our acquisition of Engineering.com, with its excellent coverage in areas such as design and design software, 3D printing, simulation, digital transformation, and manufacturing. Our work together with their staff provides…

 Make it easy to do the right thing Startups have it made. With a single match, they can ignite engineers’ creativity and fuel collaboration and quality naturally within their emerging cultures. Light the same match in a long-standing company, and many people flee and protest, clinging to the way things have always been. In…

Past motion marvels can inspire future creations Summer is vacation season, filled with road trips and relaxation, but also a bit of discovery and surprise. On a recent trip, I came across an outdoor historical exhibition at a park in Ashtabula, Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie. The gigantic steel structure (pictured above) was…

Inflation, the economy, China, and Canada One of my favorite speakers at industry conferences is Alan Beaulieu of ITR Outlook; he regularly presents to groups like the National Fluid Power Association and Power Transmission Distributors Association. ITR’s angle is strictly on policy, economics, and demographic trends, not politics. That’s not to say that he doesn’t…

Hog today, hero tomorrow? Before each dinner, I ask my son to consider everything that went into preparing his meal. We start with Mom or Dad cooking, which leads to working hard to provide healthy food, and so we give thanks for everyone and everything that makes working and living well possible. Then we acknowledge…

Expanding our network Last month, we announced that we’re joining forces with some very well-respected engineering publications produced by CFE Media. Our new titles include some you’ve likely heard of: Control Engineering, Plant Engineering, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, and Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse. Produced by an award-winning editorial team, these brands help round out our engineering coverage and…

Power Transmission In A Digital World Each spring, the editors at Design World prepare a special issue devoted to power transmission, which we call our Power Transmission Guide. It covers the basics of power transmission by spotlighting key components such as gears, actuators, motors and other mechanical components. In a world that is growing more…

Growing pains I remember feeling chronic discomfort in my shins as my teenage tibias attempted to get me up to average height. It was a nice try, but five-foot-two was all they could muster. Fortunately, most engineering and writing careers don’t have a minimum height requirement. Today’s fast-paced world pressures us to grow quickly and…

Looking at digital transformation If you follow the publication online, you’ve surely seen some of the insightful stories from our new Executive Editor, Stephanie Neil, who’s a well-known and respected journalist in the world of packaging technology. Her recent article on how packaging machinery incorporates safety in different areas is a necessary read for anyone…

Digital dominates this year’s discussion The response to our 2024 Design World Trends call was the biggest yet. This print issue contains five features summarizing just a small portion of this year’s observations and insights from experts in motion and automation; tune into designworldonline.com/trends over the next two months to read all the Trends features…

When 99% is simply not good enough 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…

I love learning about engineering colleagues who are innovating in new ways. Take the current issues with renewable energy. While strides have been made in solar and wind, the variability of these technologies often doesn’t match up with when power is most needed. That’s created much research over the years into ways to store power…

Keeping a focus on engineering leadership Within each January issue of the magazine, we focus on the topic of leadership in engineering. And while that’s usually focused on the leadership qualities of manufacturers as well as individual engineers, I’m proud to announce here that our parent company, WTWH Media, continues to take a leadership role…

Reshoring manufacturing — and the Texas-Mexico connection JCB recently announced that it will build a new factory in North America, creating 1,500 new jobs over the next five years. The British company is a global manufacturer of construction equipment and also builds machinery for the agricultural and waste-handling industries. JCB said this new facility will…

In this issue… What Are Low-Profile Screws? Low-profile screws are made with a lower head height than typical screws. These fasteners are designed with a minimal or flush head that sits close to the surface of the material being fastened — providing low visibility but a secure attachment. These components are also referred to as…

In this special edition: Welding cobot delivers 10X production boost for marine exhaust manufacturer DeAngelo Marine Exhaust has increased weld speed, lowered lead times, and improved quality using its new cobot colleague. Inside the development of Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid The company’s R&D work on exoskeletons and bipedal locomotion for the U.S. government and Department of…

UP WITH DEMOCRATIZATION IN ENGINEERING Recently our office received an article by electrical engineer Bernard Ang of Keysight Technologies (previously Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies) about new ways software tools are helping to advance engineering education for design engineers. If you want to get specifics on Keysight’s tools, visit 3dcadworld.com and search Bernard Ang. It’s one…

Engineering … illustrated I write a lot in this space about the need to get more young people from all backgrounds to consider engineering as a career. We rarely end up as a sexy occupation on television. That’s relegated to doctors, lawyers, and heck, even crime scene investigators and morticians. (I don’t think we can…

  Let’s address the culture-war issue Welcome to Design World’s Engineering Diversity and Inclusion issue, a staff -driven evolution of our popular Women in Engineering issues started in 2018. The editors of Design World are honored to bring you statistics and distilled information on this topic as well as inspiring stories about engineers of various…

A soft-ish landing for manufacturers? The National Fluid Power Association’s annual International Economic Outlook Conference, held recently in Chicago, provided an overview of the current economic landscape, exploring both U.S. and global macro trends and the ramifications for fluid power and motion control manufacturers. Here’s a breakdown of some of the main ideas: U.S. dominance:…