More and more industrial manufacturers are moving towards automated solutions both to improve efficiency and solve staffing dilemmas. These jobs are often boring, repetitive, and/or prone to injury due to the work environment or the repetitive motion.

The pervasiveness of rubber and plastic products is hard to overstate. They are everywhere, and they have been around for a while. In the case of rubber, it’s been in use since the early 1800s. While rubber and elastomers (from “elastic polymers”) previously had slightly different meanings, today for all practical purposes they are synonymous. 

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments and Oklahoma State University (OSU) have joined forces to help establish The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s (CEAT) Mechanical and Physical Properties Testing Lab.

Manufacturers today are trapped in a perennial race to get products assembled and out the door in less time and at lower cost while maintaining high quality. They must also adjust to constant change in the materials they use.

I received an email from a reader with a question about different kinds of reports and certificates dealing with calibration—a subject that I comment on from time to time.