Factory Signal Briefing — April 25, 2026
Advanced Manufacturing · 3D Printing · CNC · Robotics · AI Vision
News
YKK wins Red Dot Design Award for 3D printed zipper developed with Variloom
YKK Corporation has received a prestigious Red Dot Design Award in the Product Design category for its 3D Composite Puller, a zipper hardware component developed with Variloom, a specialist…
JetZero and Airplane Manufacturing Disruption
Charles R. Goulding and Nimra Shakoor examine how JetZero is combining advanced materials, 3D printing, and AI to reshape aircraft production and fuel efficiency. The post JetZero and…
ABB Robotics launches PoWa cobot family targeting industrial tasks
ABB Robotics said its new PoWa family of cobots addresses a long‑standing gap in the market between traditional cobots. The post ABB Robotics launches PoWa cobot family targeting industrial…
OpenAI unveils GPT-5.5, claims a "new class of intelligence" at double the API price
OpenAI has announced GPT-5.5, an agentic model designed to work through complex tasks autonomously by switching between multiple tools. The article OpenAI unveils GPT-5.5, claims a "new…
A Humanoid Robot Beat the Human World Record for a Half Marathon
A year after most robots failed to finish the Beijing race, nearly half the field autonomously ran a course of slopes, narrow passages, and 20 turns. The post A Humanoid Robot Beat the Human…
FAA’s Drone Safety Day 2026 #drone #DroneSafetyDay
Image banner from Federal Aviation Administration   FlySafe, FlySmart, FlyReady. Saturday, April 25, 2026 is Drone Safety Day. This annual campaign from the FAA encourages safe…
Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
Every day for the past 3 days around 1pm EST the 'Headspace' app has been silently appearing on my iPhone (13 Pro). Automatic downloads are turned off and I've updated to the latest iOS…
Quantum Computers Are Not a Threat to 128-bit Symmetric Keys
A lot has been made about a post-quantum computer future in which traditional encryption methods have suddenly been rendered obsolete. With this terrifying idea in mind, it’s…
ARC and ORNL form Exascale Foundry to accelerate defense manufacturing
ARC (Autonomous Resource Corporation) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a public–private partnership to accelerate AI-enabled manufacturing…
US programmer job growth nearly halved since ChatGPT launched, Fed study finds
Programmers are among the professional groups whose everyday lives have changed the most as a result of generative AI. A new study by the Federal Reserve Board now provides evidence that…
penPal, a Robotic Drawing Assistant
Emergent properties include examples like murmurations of starlings which can’t be predicted from looking at a single bird, weather which can’t be predicted by looking at a few…
A Six-Servo Robot Dog
James Bruton built this cool robot dog using an Arduino Uno and R/C servos. Check out the repository on GitHub! This is the first in a series of designs that you can build. All of my…
How to Train AI Models for Robotic Arms (SO-101 Tutorial & ACT Training)
Score 5 · 0 comments
For beginners wanting to get started with the SO-101 arm, I found that there are a *lot* of hurdles to jump through. From the current documentation, while a great resource for those with…
Hi all how u all find the customer?
Score 0 · 6 comments
I am not show off my machine just let u all know how many machine I have I am based in Malaysia JB, the factory are my uncles. Machine: 7 cnc milling machine 2 cnc lathe machine 7 manual…
How u find your long term customer
Score 0 · 15 comments
Hi everyone, I’d like to ask sincerely — how do you guys find and secure new customers steadily? I’m not here to show off our equipment. I just want to share our actual factory capacity and…
What are the most common challenges in CNC turning for beginners?
Score 10 · 10 comments
I’ve been learning more about CNC turning recently and wanted to understand the practical side of it from experienced people. From what I’ve seen, beginners often struggle with things like…
I built a small CAM app for use directly on the shop floor (looking for feedback)
Score 0 · 14 comments
Hi, I’ve been working on a simple CAM app for Android that I wanted to use myself in the shop something fast, offline, and without needing a laptop. It can generate G-code (pockets…
Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3)
Score 1540 · 95 comments
vibration cementitious printing (vcp). Desktop scale 3d printing of cement-based/non-Newtonian materials (e.g., cement paste, mortar, concrete) using a **pulse vibration** unit to induce…
So I thought my 3D printer was gaslighting me when the slicer said this was going to work. I guess not.
Score 260 · 28 comments
So I printed an ABS model I threw together to put a fan on a 1u supermicro heatsink. I was not expecting anything but spaghetti as it didn't even try to put in supports.
Seeking CNC Milling Partner for Ongoing Fabrication Projects
Score 0 · 4 comments
I'm looking to connect with skilled local machinists to partner on some upcoming fabrication work. We are currently looking for a reliable CNC milling partner to fabricate a series of parts…
How to deal with rebuttal character limit for long reviews? [D]
Score 0 · 6 comments
First time submitting to an AI conference here. How do you deal with the situation where a reviewer gives you a long list of review comments, but you only have a 2.5k character limit in your…
YouTube
Machinist NEVER Cuts Chamfers
211347 · N/A
📝 **Transcript Preview:** A long time ago, I was managing an aerospace machine shop. We had this one machinist, a great guy, super consistent, but every single batch of parts he turned in…
NVIDIA's New AI Broke My Brain
28101 · N/A
📝 **Transcript Preview:** Let’s see what is going on here. This is me around 9am. A bit wobbly, steps are unsure, yup, that checks out. Now then, give me my fake badge. Thank you sir…