Reclaim Control of Material Recovery
Shop Talk
Capturing this week's zeitgeist
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Kaizen Blitz
- 🗣️ Town Hall
- Longshoremen from Maine to Texas likely to go on strike, seaport CEO says
- BASF CEO Markus Kamieth provides an overview of their new strategy and its four strategic levers: Focus, Accelerate, Transform and Win.
- Johnson Controls’ CTO is using data and AI to make buildings more efficient
- 📊 Survey Says
- The IFR’s World Robotics 2024 Report recorded 4,281,585 units operating in factories worldwide - an increase of 10%.
- Autonomous driving startups received $2.9 billion in funding, according to PitchBook’s latest Mobility Tech report.
- China’s market share in key EV battery components tops 80%
- 🏆 Golden Part
- GE Aerospace’s GEnx Engine Completes Aviation Milestone 2 Million Flight Hours with South Asian Airlines while Rolls-Royce is overcoming a setback.
- 🏭💰 Production Planning
- ICL Makes Significant Expansion in China, with the opening of New Food Specialty Plant focused on meat, poultry and seafood segments, such as texturants and marinades.
- Kia to mass-produce EVs at Hyundai Motor Group’s 1st dedicated plant in South Korea.
- 🏛️📜 Industrial Policy
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $3 Billion to Support America’s Battery Manufacturing Sector with some criticism.
- China is to establish a state-owned enterprise focused on recycling.
Assembly Line
This week's most influential Industry 4.0 media.
MSG process plant adds a dash of optimization
Ajinomoto’s process plant in Eddyville, Iowa, which produces monosodium glutamate (MSG), embodies a typical scenario. The facility has about 200 PID control loops, and the support team initially procured a PID loop-tuning software package followed by a plantwide control loop performance monitoring (CLPM) solution to look after these loops. Despite these investments, the team only had bandwidth for the most basic applications. The situation changed when an enhanced support offering introduced by the software vendor, Control Station, empowered the MSG producer to kick their process performance into high gear.
After six months of teaming with the CLPM supplier, approximately half of the facility’s loops were optimized. The site documented notable improvements in overall process stability, energy use and throughput. The size of crystals produced—a proxy for quality—has been maintained at the highest levels. Comprehensive use of the CLPM software’s capabilities and reporting provided better visibility into loops that are trending in problematic directions, so the team can proactively address underlying issues well before they lead to costly unplanned downtime.
Capturing PFAS chemicals for better battery technology
Technology developed at The University of Queensland can remove harmful ‘forever chemicals’ from water so they can be used in renewable batteries.
Researchers at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have made a filter which quickly and cleanly captures per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The filter contains a patented sorbent solution that uses an ion-exchange technique to isolate and remove the PFAS particles as the water passes through it.
Having successfully tested a prototype of the PFAS filter in a laboratory, Dr Zhang and Professor Jianhua Guo from UQ’s Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology will soon commence pilot testing in Brisbane and the US with $1 million backing from the Advance Queensland Industry Research Projects program.
Why Automakers' EV Factory Investments Aren't Paying Off In The U.S.
Mitsui Chemicals Launches Effort to Implement Chemical Recycling Technology for MR™ Ophthalmic Lens Materials
Ophthalmic lenses go through various processes on their way to becoming final products, including lens molding by the lens manufacturer, prescription processing, surfacing, edging, and fitting into frames at retail stores. Currently most of the lens swarf and waste lenses generated through out these processes are simply discarded.
With a revolutionary new effort, Mitsui Chemicals aims to recover the lens swarf and waste lenses to subject them to chemical recycling utilizing the company’s new technology. This new technology allows the materials to then be reused for MR™ ophthalmic lens materials while maintaining the highest quality standards. This requires high levels of transparency, strength and more. Mitsui Chemicals aims to achieve a circular economy by building a business model that spans the entire ophthalmic lens value chain.
Optimizing waste handling with interactive AI: Prompt-guided segmentation of construction and demolition waste using computer vision
Optimized and automated methods for handling construction and demolition waste (CDW) are crucial for improving the resource recovery process in waste management. Automated waste recognition is a critical step in this process, and it relies on robust image segmentation techniques. Prompt-guided segmentation methods provide promising results for specific user needs in image recognition. However, the current state-of-the-art segmentation methods trained for generic images perform unsatisfactorily on CDW recognition tasks, indicating a domain gap. To address this gap, a user-guided segmentation pipeline is developed in this study that leverages prompts such as bounding boxes, points, and text to segment CDW in cluttered environments. The adopted approach achieves a class-wise performance of around 70 % in several waste categories, surpassing the state-of-the-art algorithms by 9 % on average. This method allows users to create accurate segmentations by drawing a bounding box, clicking, or providing a text prompt, minimizing the time spent on detailed annotations. Integrating this human–machine system as a user-friendly interface into material recovery facilities enhances the monitoring and processing of waste, leading to better resource recovery outcomes in waste management.
QUARA, The Intelligent Glove for Assembly
A federated learning approach to automated and secure supplier selection in cyber manufacturing as-a-service
The emergence of cyber or platform-based manufacturing as-a-service is rapidly disrupting the way discrete parts are sourced and manufactured. However, the centralized business model of cyber manufacturing as-a-service platforms raises concerns about data ownership and access control of independent manufacturing suppliers. Contrary to centralized platforms, cyber manufacturing as-a-service aims to connect designers with geographically distributed manufacturers by serving as a broker who matches the query part design requirements with the manufacturing capabilities of candidate suppliers in its network. One of the key challenges in realizing the vision of cyber manufacturing as-a-service is the lack of a computationally efficient method for manufacturing capability search while maintaining data security of the proprietary datasets of the suppliers in the network. In this paper, we propose a federated learning approach that utilizes a deep unsupervised part retrieval model (FL-DUPR) to learn a federated embedding of suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities without directly accessing their proprietary datasets. We demonstrate through two case studies that this approach yields a supplier selection accuracy of 89 % when the manufacturing capabilities of the suppliers do not overlap, and a multi-label supplier selection accuracy of 87 % when there are significant overlaps in the suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities. We also show that our unsupervised learning approach outperforms the baseline supervised learning classification model trained under the same federated learning framework. The results demonstrate the promise of the proposed federated embedding approach for automated identification of the required manufacturing capabilities offered by various suppliers without directly accessing their proprietary data, thus paving the way for a more secure cyber manufacturing as-a-service business model.
New Product Introduction
Highlighting new and innovative facilities, processes, products, and services
Apprentice.io Announces New AI-Powered Capabilities at European Pharma Event and Offers a Free Trial of Its Tempo Manufacturing Cloud
Apprentice.io, which provides a unified cloud platform designed to optimize manufacturing, expedite batch releases, and ensure GMP compliance, impressed audiences in Berlin, Germany, at Pharma MES as the company announced its new AI capabilities for the first time publicly, as well as a new free trial package.
Users can author within Tempo with the support of AI by generating a new procedure directly from a prompt or allow the AI to convert a PDF to digital automatically including all of the steps and details within. Procedures can be further enhanced by simulating the run with AI to understand how long the procedure will take and explore areas of potential improvements. In-suite operators are further supported by an AI chat feature throughout execution, which provides critical insight into the procedure run.
GXO partners with Reflex Robotics to deploy new warehouse automation
GXO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: GXO), the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider, announced a new agreement with Reflex Robotics, a cutting-edge general-purpose humanoid startup, to pilot Reflex’s robotics solution for deployment into live operations. This is GXO’s second Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) agreement.
The Reflex Robot is an out-of-the-box solution that reaches operational capability within 60 minutes of deployment and ramps to become fully autonomous by learning from human demonstrations over time. The multi-purpose humanoid from Reflex can transition seamlessly between repetitive tasks, from tote transfers between other kinds of automation to product picking.
Cognite Launches Multi-Site Manufacturing Data Connectivity Initiative with NOVA Chemicals to Reshape Global Operations Across 11 Assets
Cognite, a globally recognized leader in industrial software, and NOVA Chemicals Corporation (“NOVA Chemicals”), a leading North American producer of polyethylene, announced the launch of a multi-site manufacturing data connectivity initiative to accelerate and scale digital transformation solutions across NOVA Chemicals’ organization.
NOVA Chemicals will leverage Cognite’s Industrial DataOps platform, Cognite Data Fusion®, to consolidate data from multiple source systems, such as SAP, Hexagon, and Aspen IP21, into a real-time industrial knowledge graph. This open, flexible, and scalable digital representation of NOVA Chemicals’ operations would enable seamless data flow from source systems to enterprise technology solutions, improving access and trust in their data and reducing time spent on data discovery.
Business Transactions
This week's top funding events, acquisitions, and partnerships across industrial value chains.
Utility Global Raises $53 Million of Ongoing Series C Financing
Utility Global, the off-gas-to-value company pioneering its proprietary eXERO™ gas production technology optimized for hard-to-abate industries, announced that it has raised $53 million of an ongoing Series C financing led by the OPG Pension Plan and joined by multinational steel company, ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE: MT), via its XCarb® Innovation Fund, alongside current investors Ara Partners and Aramco Ventures. This investment is part of Utility Global’s current growth equity funding round. ArcelorMittal and Utility Global also entered into a Collaboration Agreement to develop a commercial facility at one or more of ArcelorMittal’s integrated steel plants. These key strategic investments and commercialization steps further demonstrate the unique technological approach Utility Global is pursuing to decarbonize industries such as steel, biogas to hydrogen mobility, energy production, chemicals and refining, and other hard-to-abate sectors.
The proceeds from this round will serve to further accelerate commercialization and go-to-market strategies for Utility Global’s proven, patented and tested eXERO technology. With the successful completion of its demonstration program at a commercial steel facility resulting in the first hydrogen ever produced from blast furnace off-gases in a single reactor, the company has shifted to commercial deployments. Specifically, the investments will focus on final design and productization aimed at deploying first commercial units in 2026, under the company’s H2GenTM product line. Utility Global’s innovative technology will transform steel, biogas to mobility, and other industries by introducing a new, cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while producing low-carbon intensity fuels and chemicals that benefit all involved.
Cyclic Materials Secures USD $53M Series B Funding to Accelerate Global Expansion of Rare Earth Recycling Infrastructure
Cyclic Materials, the advanced recycling company creating a circular supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials, announced it has successfully closed an oversubscribed USD $53 million Series B equity round. The funding round was led by ArcTern Ventures and supported by new investors BDC Capital’s Climate Tech Fund, Hitachi Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners, Climate Investment, and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. Existing investors Fifth Wall, BMW i Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Planetary Technologies also participated in the round.
This funding brings the company’s total equity raised to over USD $83 million and will enable Cyclic Materials to fast-track its international growth. Cyclic Materials will deploy this capital to build rare earth recycling infrastructure in the US and Europe, and grow its team to support its world-class operations. Importantly, Cyclic Materials’ process of recycling these rare earth materials from magnets achieves significant environmental benefits in comparison to traditional mining processes, including a reduced carbon footprint and unparalleled water efficiency.
MetOx International Secures Additional $25M Series B Extension
MetOx International, Inc. (MetOx), a leading U.S.-based developer and manufacturer of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire, announced the successful close of a $25 million Series B Extension. As part of this funding, we welcome several marquee investors including energy-focused family office, Centaurus Capital and premier climate and energy transition-focused venture firm New System Ventures (NSV). This investment signals strong investor confidence in the company’s rapid scale up of its Xeus™ HTS wire technology for key energy transition applications.
MetOx’s proprietary manufacturing technology enables production of HTS wire at commercial scale, positioning the company at the forefront of the energy transition. This investment will support the expansion of the company’s U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities, enabling MetOx to meet rapidly growing domestic and global demand for HTS solutions.
FluoRok raises £7.7m ($9.8m) to transform the safety and sustainability of fluorochemical production
FluoRok, an Oxford-based start-up, has raised £7.7m to scale-up, manufacture and commercialise novel fluorochemical reagents and battery electrolyte salts. The oversubscribed round was led by BGF alongside Green Generation Fund and included battery specialist Volta Energy Technologies, current investors (Oxford Science Enterprises and University of Oxford), Excellis Holding and angels.
With a growing market valued at $24bn, fluorochemical manufacturing relies on a centuries-old, carbon-intensive process centred around hydrogen fluoride (HF), a highly-toxic, hazardous and difficult-to-handle chemical. FluoRok has developed a safe and sustainable approach completely bypassing HF and providing environmentally friendly access to fluorochemicals while reducing process costs. FluoRok’s groundbreaking innovation has gained substantial traction, attracting numerous potential customers across core markets of Li-ion battery electrolyte salts and agrochemicals.
The funding will support team growth and expanded production facilities for the initial supply of fluorinating reagents and lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), a key component of lithium-ion batteries.
Campfire Interactive Completes $37 Million Majority Investment from Invictus Growth Partners to Drive Manufacturing Software Innovation
Campfire Interactive Inc., a leading provider of enterprise software solutions for manufacturing companies and automotive suppliers, has secured a $37 million majority investment from Invictus Growth Partners. This investment marks a key milestone for Campfire and will support its continued growth, accelerate product innovation, and expand its market reach. The Company is trusted by many of the world’s largest global manufacturers to manage forecasting and profitability analytics, with over $200 billion in revenue managed through the platform. Invictus Co-founder and Managing Partner William Nettles and Partner Jeremy Lai have joined the Board of Directors.
Campfire’s solution provides enterprise customers with a single pane of glass to forecast their business, understand dynamic cost inputs, automate pricing and quoting, and maintain profitability across multiple products and programs. Campfire’s comprehensive suite of modular software provides reliable, real-time information across sales and finance functions and supports data-driven decision-making. The integration across modules facilitates end-to-end automation and shifts customer time from collecting data to analysis.
Nano Dimension to Acquire Markforged, Creating a Leading Player in Additive Manufacturing With the Technologies Expected to Drive Future Growth
Nano Dimension Ltd. (Nasdaq: NNDM) and Markforged Holding Corporation (NYSE: MKFG) jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Nano Dimension will acquire all outstanding shares of Markforged in an all-cash transaction for $5.00 per share.
Expansion of Nano Dimension’s product portfolio to include fused filament fabrication (“FFF”) for high performance applications - which Nano Dimension believes will create the most comprehensive set of solutions expected to drive future growth. Fosters leadership in Metal-AM – widely considered the greatest growth driver in the industry. Builds around strategic focus on sophisticated materials that are core to high performance applications.