What is Manufacturing Technology?
Manufacturing technology is the equipment, processes and software required to enable the production of manufactured products. It impacts across all sectors, including aerospace, automotive, food and beverage, construction, oil and gas, defence, marine and electronics to name but a few. Manufacturing Technology is therefore what makes the modern standard of living possible.
Below is a list of some of the common manufacturing technologies:
- Additive Machine Processes – Powder Bed Fusion, Directed Energy Deposition, Material Jetting, Binder Jetting, Material Extrusion, VAT Photopolymerisation and Sheet Lamination.
- Subtractive Machine Processes – Boring, Broaching, Deburring, Drilling, Grinding, Electrical Discharge, Electro-chemical, Milling, Honing, Lapping, Marking, Engraving, Cutting, Sawing, Cryogenic, Ultrasonic, Water Jet, Laser and Turning.
- Forming Machine Processes – Hot Stamping, Cold Stamping, Hydroforming, Rolling, Extrusion, Forging, Bending, Shearing.
- Joining – Welding, Fusing, Friction Stir Welding, Impact Welding.
- Software – Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM), Computer Numerical Control (CNC), Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), Machine Interface Software, Production Control Software, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Factory Management Systems, Programmable Logic Control (PLC), and Security/Authenticity Software.
- Tooling – Boring Bars, Broaches, Countersinks, Counterbores, Taps and Dies, Drills, Milling Cutters, Reamers and Engravers.
- Metrology – Coordinate Measurement Machine (CMM), Callipers, Probes and Lasers.
- Workholding – Chucks, Clamps, Mandrels, Fixtures and Machine Vice.
- Automation and Material Handling – Robotics, Conveyors, Guided Automated Vehicles, Bar Feeders, Quality Control/Inspection Equipment, Sensors, and Asset Tracking (RFID, QR Code Readers etc).