TPT May 2019

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E

Microsoft has said that it is committed to working with the military, including the army, under the HoloLens contract, and referred to an October blog post by Brad Smith asserting that those who defend the US should have “access to the nation’s best technology.” The company added it will continue to address “important ethical and public policy issues relating to [artificial intelligence] and the military.” The internal unrest over the army contract follows a year of activism by technology workers, who have become increasingly emboldened to voice concerns about how their products are applied. A similar employee protest at Google, in 2018, contributed to the company dropping out of the military’s Project Maven, which uses artificial intelligence to analyse aerial images from combat zones. Microsoft workers have also previously raised public concerns in an open letter to protest against the company’s work with US immigration authorities. Study suggests manufacturers are moving towards the Internet of Things Canadian Metalworking reported the results of Michigan- based Plex Systems’ annual “State of Manufacturing Technology” survey, measuring global manufacturers’ current technology use and their future implementation and adoption plans. This year’s survey shows that automation, integration and connectivity are among the chief goals for the next five years, with 60 per cent of manufacturers planning to use

technology to enhance plant floor integration and automation; 48 per cent intending to increase business process automation; and another third working to increase both plant/ enterprise integration and supply chain connectivity. A third of respondents said they plan to leverage the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) within the next five years, and, outside of adoption plans, IIoT is enjoying a general increase in confidence. That view has been reflected elsewhere, and the McKinsey Global Institute expects manufacturing to be the leading industry to capitalise on IoT. Welding the unweldable Engineers have developed a method to weld AA 7075, an aluminium alloy that is nearly as strong as steel and a third of its weight, but almost impossible to join with heat. When AA 7075 is heated during welding, its molecular structure creates an uneven flow of its constituent elements – aluminium, zinc, magnesium and copper – resulting in cracks along the weld. Engineers at the University of California, Los Angeles, Samueli School of Engineering infused titanium carbide nanoparticles into AA 7075 wires, then used the wire as filler material between the pieces being joined. A paper describing the advance was published in Nature Communications . The researchers are said to have produced welded joints with a tensile strength up to 392 megapascals. Post-welding heat treatments could further increase the strength of AA 7075

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MAY 2019