Business

In the first quarter 2024, the index of machine tool orders, elaborated by the Economic Studies Department & Business Culture Centre of UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE, highlighted an 18.9% downturn over the period January-March 2023.

ModuleWorks, a leading innovator in toolpath generation and simulation technology for digital manufacturing, has announced the successful closure of its Strategic Partner Program (SPP) investment round. This marks a significant milestone in the company’s history, with industry leaders in the areas of CAD/CAM, CNC controls, machine tools and cutting tools joining the program as minority shareholders in ModuleWorks. Investing partners include Autodesk Inc., DMG MORI AG, DN Solutions, Kennametal, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and PTC Inc. among others.

Orders of manufacturing technology, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by The Association For Manufacturing Technology(AMT) , reached $435.7 million in March 2024.

Elementary, an innovator in AI-powered machine vision, has announces a significant milestone in its mission to redefine manufacturing automation with its AI-powered vision inspection. Rockwell Automation, a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, makes a strategic investment, signifying strong support for Elementary’s visionary approach to elevating manufacturing quality standards.

Renishaw has reported third-quarter revenues of £172.4 million, marking a four percent increase over the average of the preceding two quarters. For the nine-month period, revenue totaled £502.9 million, compared to £522 million during the same period last year, reflecting a four percent decline at prevailing exchange rates.

Comau has joined an important pan-European energy transformation initiative, in the field of e-Mobility, in support of the BATTwin project, in the field of e-Mobility. Under the scope of its participation, Comau will work with the project’s partners to identify and define crucial data parameters, hardware, software and digitalization technologies that can be used to meet the goal of zero-defect cell production.

Faro technologies total sales of $84.2 million for the first quarter 2024 were down 1% year over year. Gross margin of 51.4% compared to 46.7% in the prior year period.

Orders of manufacturing technology, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders totaled $343.3 million in February 2024. This was a 2.1% increase from January 2024 but a 26.5% decline from February 2023. Year-to-date orders reached $679.6 million, a decline of 16.9% from the first two months of 2023.

The machine vision industry in Europe has been reporting record sales for years. Between 2012 and 2022, sales increased by an average of 9 percent per year. In 2020, sales fell by 4 percent due to the coronavirus pandemic, but recovered significantly in 2021 (plus 17 percent) and 2022 (plus 11 percent).

ZEISS and Argolight have announced their strategic partnership. The collaboration aims to seamlessly integrate cutting-edge quality control solutions of the French company into the extensive line of ZEISS microscopes. This will enable users to accurately measure and assess the performance of their microscopy systems.