Production

Many plastic items consist of both blow-molded and injection-molded components that have been welded together. Not only does this require multiple machines and production steps, but the parts may also fail at the weld points. Spanish research center ASCAMM’s new EBIT technology, however, combines the two plastic injection techniques in one process, to efficiently create weld-free parts.  Read More

In an extraordinary move, Jaguar has announced it will produce an all-new sports car to go on sale in mid-2013, named the F-Type. Announced but not exhibited at the New York International Auto Show, Jaguar has released images of the vehicle with camouflage paint. Given the iconic status of its previously letter-designated sports cars (the C-type, D-type and E-type), the Jaguar F-type can be reasonably expected to be spectacularly good. Here's what we know so far:  Read More

More than six years ago, Subaru and Toyota entered into a cooperative agreement. In 2009, that relationship bore its first concept - the Toyota FT-86. Both automakers showed the production versions of their respective sports coupes last year, and Subaru has officially kicked off production on the models. In about two more months, car buyers will be able to get their hands on them.  Read More

On March 5, 1937, a new automotive marque was born in the form of the Atalanta Sports Tourer. The high-tech Atalanta was well received but when Britain went to war just two years later, all production capacity was turned toward the war effort and the marque ceased to be. Last week, exactly 75 years later, the Atalanta marque was relaunched as a traditional sportscar built to modern standards with modern electrics, brakes, suspension, chassis and a grunty 185 bhp 2.5 litre VVT engine.  Read More

Factories are a bit like living things. They are made up of a number of individual systems, and a change made to any one of those systems can have an affect on other systems down the line. In the case of living things, however, all of the systems are united by the organism’s DNA – if a change is made to one system, the others adjust automatically. Such is not the case in factories, however, where humans must go in and make all the changes manually. Not only is this costly and labor-intensive, but it can also result in errors. Researchers from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation are addressing this problem by trying to make factories more like living things – as they put it, they’re trying to decode “factory DNA.”  Read More

If you fell in love with the De Lorean in the Back to the Future movie series, the good news is that in 2013, you'll be able to buy a real one again. It won't have a flux capacitor, won't time-travel and it'll still be a thirty year-old design (albeit styled by Giugiaro and structurally redesigned by Colin Chapman of Lotus fame after De Lorean himself screwed up the first design), but it will have a 200+ bhp electric motor (the original had an asthmatic V6 producing 130 bhp) and those awesome gull-wing doors and it'll be … errr ... really cool. No, really! It won't be called the DMC-12 any more either, because the 12 stood for its new price at launch - US$12,000. The new one will cost you between US$90,000 and US$100,000.  Read More

I've been a registered owner of Sonic Charge's µTonic (pronounced MicroTonic) drum/percussion synthesizer for years - but a new online tool from Sonic Charge called Patternarium is likely to make it one of my most used plugins when I'm looking for some inspiration in the studio. They're calling it a "giant collaborative patch randomizer," and my explanation of that won't fit in this summary.  Read More

He may look like he stepped straight out of Second Life, but he isn’t here to kid around. Santos is a computer-generated auto worker who will perform various tasks on a virtual Ford assembly line, showing real-world researchers how those tasks affect his body. The avatar was originally developed for the US Department of Defense at the University of Iowa as part of the Virtual Soldier Research program where he was used to determine the physical strain that soldiers would experience in a variety of situations. Hmm... auto worker, soldier, university education, muscular, exotic name... perhaps he did just step out of Second Life.  Read More

Korg has been a big player in the democratization of music production in recent years, with the mini Kaoss Pad effects device, the Kaossilator phrase synthesizer and the incredibly affordable nanoSeries USB MIDI controllers finding their way into the kit bags of countless budding rockstars (and many actual rockstars). Its latest noise maker is the monotron, a dead simple analog synthesizer featuring a ribbon controller (essentially a touch panel instead of keys, which is incredibly "playable" even for amateurs) and the same filter used in the classic MS-10 and MS-20 analog synthesizers which are still some of the most sought-after vintage synths on the planet.  Read More