What is Industry 4.0? This buzzword seems to have been thrown around for quite some time now. How is it affecting today’s NDT manufacturing processes compared to the past? What new technologies have risen from Industry 4.0 in the past few years to benefit NDT? To answer all these questions, it is important to look back and understand how it came to be.

In the early 17th century, Galileo Galilei discovered that he could focus his telescope to examine small objects up close. Around 1620, it is believed that Cornelius Drebbel invented the compound microscope. In the 1670s, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek began experimenting with very high-magnification, single-lensed microscopes that he designed himself. 

For quality professionals, the modern 3D smart sensor has moved to the center of conversations around quality in the automated age. Though 2D imaging remains popular, the rising affordability and strategic advantages of 3D vision for the smart factory are difficult to overstate. 

Easy ain’t easy. Sounds like something said by cultural catchphrase artist and legendary baseball player Yogi Berra, but it sums up a conversation I had at a recent tradeshow in Atlanta.

If you talk to anyone in manufacturing today about the future of the industry, you’re likely to hear a quizzical, “Do you mean Industry 4.0?”

Ordertrak and Acumatica Cloud ERP to empower manufacturing & distribution companies in the Industry 4.0 era.

Indiana's employers are investing heavily in automation and manufacturing efficiency.

“Work smarter, not harder.” It’s a term often heard by just about anyone who has ever set out to perform a task. It can be found on inspirational posters and do-it-yourself home repair manuals as well as articles on life management and corporate handbooks.

Computers have been used to automate manufacturing processes and tasks for many years. Until the 2010s, product assembly was centralized. Over the course of this decade, however, companies have been nudging organization-wide systems toward decentralization. 

Advanced manufacturers today are trending towards Industry 4.0—changing the way business runs. More emphasis is placed on access to real-time data from production and quality sources.