Manufacturing expo to highlight tech trends

Spending may be down, but assemblers in the US will still invest more than $2.5 billion in new assembly equipment this year, according to Assembly magazine's 13th annual capital equipment spending survey, Assembly magazine reports.

Not only that, as the economy in general and manufacturing in particular pick up again, assemblers will have to work smarter and better than ever before if they are to survive. The new economy promises to be an increasingly global one, and that means increased competition.

Along these same lines, the technologies driving the new economy - things like solar cells, personal electronics, medical devices and fuel-efficient vehicles - are going to demand higher quality processes than ever.

Molecular Imprints, a provider of nanopatterning systems and solutions, has introduced the Perfecta TR1100 template replication system for patterned media applications, states Nanowerk.

Leveraging the company's Jet and Flash Imprint Lithography technology, the Perfecta TR1100 enables the mass-replication of master imprint templates with extremely high fidelity at a cost that is orders of magnitude lower than that of fabricating the original master template.

Combined with Molecular Imprints' family of nanopatterning systems, the Perfecta template replication platform will provide a critical component in the manufacturing infrastructure necessary to produce the next-generation of high-density hard disk drives.

3D Systems, a provider of 3D printing, rapid prototyping and manufacturing solutions, has acquired certain assets of Desktop Factory, an Idealab company that developed a sub-$5 000 3D

printer, according to Reuters.

The Desktop Factory 3D Printer, which is currently in an advanced development stage, produces robust plastic parts at a build speed comparable to existing 3D printing technologies.

3D Systems plans to continue to develop Desktop Factory's technology within its previously announced annual research and development expenditure range and integrate this technology into its expanding family of desktop and professional 3D printers.