The Plant Of The Future: Seven Key Elements
Mon, 07/20/2015 – 4:55pm
Todd Edmunds, Sr., Bob Voss, Cliff Whitehead
For decades, manufacturing operations technology (OT) and enterprise information technology (IT) systems developed and evolved into separate physical architectures that remained largely walled off from each other in the industrial and business spaces.
But in the Internet of Things era, in which an endless number of connected “things” communicate on the same network, the segregation of IT and OT networks can be a handicap.
As a result, manufacturers are converging their OT and IT systems into a unified network architecture, giving them nearly unlimited access to valuable production data that can help them make improvements and more swiftly react to market changes.
For the rest of the story visit Manufacturing.net.
Lockheed Martin to Acquire Sikorsky for $9 Billion
Agence France-Presse
Jul 20, 2015
NEW YORK – Defense giant Lockheed Martin said Monday it will buy Sikorsky Aircraft, the storied U.S. maker of the Black Hawk helicopter, in an all-cash $9 billion deal with United Technologies.
“Sikorsky is a natural fit for Lockheed Martin and complements our broad portfolio of world class aerospace and defense products and technologies,” said Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin chairman, president and chief executive, in a statement.
The purchase of the UTC unit marks Lockheed’s biggest deal since the company merged with Martin Marietta Corporation in 1995, a transaction valued at $10 billion at the time.
For the rest of the story visit Industry Week.
Huntsville celebrates having America’s top rocket engineer for 2015
By Lee Roop
on July 22, 2015 at 3:31 PM, updated July 22, 2015 at 3:32 PM
Huntsville celebrated having America’s best rocket engineer Wednesday by proclaiming July 27 Dr. William Emrich Day. That is the day Emrich, an engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, will receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2015 Engineer of the Year award at a national meeting in Orlando.
Emrich was honored for his work in nuclear thermal rocket propulsion. He has built and runs a simulator at Marshall where engineers can perform non-nuclear tests on elements of potential nuclear rocket fuel. Experts including Emrich believe some type of high-thrust nuclear engine will be required to explore the vast distances of solar system.
For the rest of the story visit AL.com.