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In case you didn't already know, Manufacturing Quality is part of Rapid News Group, which owns multiple brands for magazines and trade shows. Not all of these brands seem to be directly linked to each other, though there are some pretty significant crossovers.
Part of our family are:
- TCT Magazine : TCT, meaning Time Compression Technologies, has evolved to be a magazine and website discussing all sorts of news in the 3D printing and additive manufacturing world, with insights, interviews and podcasts.
- Interplas Insights : a website and magazine with everything you would ever want to know about all injection moulding plastics related news.
- MedTech Innovation : a website and magazine concerning news in the field of medical technologies. From the large to the small, whether it's a new component or a new machine.
- MPN - Medical Plastics News : closely linked to MedTech, this website and magazine focuses more specifically on the plastics used in all medical and supporting fields.
- Packaging Europe : a website and e-magazine concerning all things packaging.
So, there's a lot of plastic going around. And a lot of new technological advancements. Paired with the accompanying trade shows (which I used to work on before I landed this position), a lot of the topics that are covered concern machines. A lot of machines that fill similar niches, in slightly different ways that are more appropriate for specific companies, sectors or individual applications.
But why am I writing about this? Of course it would be good for business if everyone who reads this goes to follow our other brands, but this is not a marketing bit. It's more about exploring where Manufacturing Quality fits into the picture. In some past articles, I've already referred to TCT and Packaging Europe, or covered topics related to the scope of our other brands. It's only natural, of course, because every subject listed above relies heavily on quality assurance, quality control and accurate measurements.
For instance, here's an article from TCT magazine about the importance of checking your measurements in additive manufacturing. But perhaps the importance is better highlighted by the US president Joe Biden's AM Forward programme, which specifically pinpoints measurement science and standardisation as one of the major barriers to overcome for additive manufacturing. You can read more about it in this TCT article.
In the world of medical technologies, there are plenty of examples too. Take this article from June, where my Med-Tech colleague Ian Bolland visited Vision Engineering to get a preview of a new 3D imaging microscope, a tool that is very familiar in the world of metrology. It's another important step in the direction of Industry 4.0, which I wrote about for the first time in this article.
As a final example, I'll point back to one of my own articles. I wrote about supermarket scales in the Netherlands and how these are calibrated for new package-less product ranges. My article was largely based on my colleague's article from Packaging Europe, which you can read here.
In a way, Manufacturing Quality connects all of them. Packaging and 3D printing may not seem to be directly related other than the packaging that the 3D printer was put in by the producer, but both topics rely heavily on measurement for their success. The same can be said for all the other topics and indeed, many of the articles that I have written have been brought to me by my colleagues from other brands.
So if MQ is to be in the middle of it all, there's a strong parallel here with the modern world of manufacturing. It's rather like the concept of 'the internet of things,' where everything is automated and interconnected. Just yesterday, I wrote this article about how Lotus is moving into Industry 4.0 with a significant upgrade in their metrology department. As the world becomes more digitised, and more industries become automated and connected, we enter the world of Industry 4.0.
Next week, we're moving offices. It's not a big move (only across the road), but it's exciting nonetheless. The new office space is far more modernised, which makes it feel like Rapid News Group itself is part of this move to Industry 4.0 as well. Furthermore, although Packaging Europe is still based elsewhere in the country, all the other content teams will be seated together in the same room, promoting not only crossovers and cooperation, but our own little internet of things.