Laura Forbes

Currently an editor-in-chief of a B2B publication across print and digital mediums.

Editor & Writer

New Equipment Digest •

CES 2025: When AI Meets Daily Life

At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) hosted in Las Vegas, Nevada, AI was clearly the talk of the town. Just about every news item that I've seen has had some form of AI integrated into the product or solution being launched or promoted.
For today's fun innovation story, I'm rounding up a few of the most interesting debuts that caught my eye. I'll be making a larger round-up next week on the fun, the beneficial, and the dystopian.Old World Labs Announces the Next-Generation of Robots
Ol...
New Equipment Digest •

Editor's Eye: Favorite Products of 2024 — Part 2

We're back with Part 2 of our 2024 product showcase! Every year, countless new manufacturing products vie for your attention, and we do our best to cover what truly matters. Of the hundreds of products we reviewed this year, I've carefully selected my standouts—and believe me, narrowing down this list wasn't easy.
The products featured in this installment, like all my picks, caught my attention not just for their technical achievements, but for how cleverly they solve real problems. Each earned...
New Equipment Digest •

Toyota-Raymond Integration Creates Material Handling Giant — Promises Growth, Not Downsizing

Toyota has owned The Raymond Corporation since 2001 and sees the unification of the two companies as a way to leverage each organization's strengths to enhance efficiency for Toyota and Raymond customers.
Even though both brands will now be known as TMHNA, the company has stated that it wants to maintain unique brand identities to preserve its customer relationships.
THMN has stated that the integration will not result in layoffs, instead promising to invest more in its people to accelerate grow...
New Equipment Digest •

Engineering Off-the-Clock: Best Videos of 2024

As we wrap up another year, it's time to look back at what resonated most with our community. Our weekly feature of curated engineering videos has been a standout hit. Below are the year's 10 most-watched videos, ranked from tenth to first place. Whether you're catching up on ones you missed or revisiting favorites, sit back, relax, and enjoy some fun engineering tinkering in the videos below.

















 
 

 










First up, an honorable mention. This video hasn't had m...
New Equipment Digest •

Editor's Eye: Favorite Products of 2024 — Part 1

Every year, countless new manufacturing products are released and are begging for your attention. We do our best to cover what we think matters. Unfortunately, we can't even begin to cover all of them. Of the hundreds of products we did cover this year, I wanted to showcase my favorites—and trust me, narrowing it down wasn't easy. I could have easily doubled this list.
The products here caught my attention not just for their technical achievements, but for how cleverly they solve real problems....
New Equipment Digest •

Top Manufacturing Stories of 2024

Manufacturing equipment and technology made significant strides in 2024, with new advances spanning multiple sectors of industrial production. Our top stories from each month highlight advancements that improved efficiency and transformed operations.
These developments reflect manufacturing's increasing focus on automation and precision. Connected reliability systems are changing how global manufacturers approach maintenance and operations. Wireless innovations are accelerating robotics integrat...
New Equipment Digest •

Top Fun Manufacturing Innovations of 2024

From wooden satellites orbiting Earth to spider silk spinning its way into future fashion, this year in manufacturing has been anything but ordinary. In our annual round-up of the most captivating innovations, we've curated a collection that highlights the lighter, more imaginative side of industrial advancement. These stories break free from our conventional manufacturing coverage to celebrate the moments where engineering meets whimsy—whether it's a flame-throwing robot dog turning heads or AI...
New Equipment Digest •

Best Manufacturing Guides of 2024

Manufacturers need clear, reliable information to modernize operations, strengthen supply chains, and improve efficiency. Whether you need to implement new systems or simply understand the basics, getting straight answers matters.
In this gallery, we've collected our most useful guides from the past year. Each article cuts through the complexity to deliver practical knowledge—from detailed explanations of manufacturing technologies to step-by-step selection guides for equipment. We've included b...
New Equipment Digest •

NED 2024 Holiday Gift Guide

As the year draws to a close, we at New Equipment Digest take a moment to step away from our usual deep dives into manufacturing innovations and emerging technologies to celebrate the art of gift-giving. While we spend most of our pages exploring the latest industrial equipment and cutting-edge manufacturing solutions, our annual gift guide is a cherished tradition that lets us cast a wider net.
This year's guide speaks to the multifaceted personalities of our readers. We've organized our select...
New Equipment Digest •

The Eyewear-Free 3D Tablet That Could Revive 3D Entertainment

Enhanced by an AI processing engine, the nubia Pad's 3D display technology allows users to enjoy an eyewear-free 3D experience anytime, anywhere. With liquid crystal lenses and powered by integrated image processing algorithms, it renders 3D images with enhanced realism and vibrancy.
It also uses an AI eye-tracking engine that uses high-speed visual sensors and eye-detection algorithms to enhance response speed and enable accurate positioning of users' eyes in real time so that the 3D image is m...
New Equipment Digest •

Quiz: Laser Marking Mastery: Test Your Knowledge on Industrial Precision Technology

Laser marking is used in everything from medical devices to aerospace components. However, laser marking also has a lot of different types, components, and uses. Do you know the science behind lasers that can mark materials in seconds? See if you're a laser marking master or just getting started in understanding this cutting-edge manufacturing technique.
Test yourself with the latest pulled from one of our recent articles.

Laser marking is used in everything from medical devices to aerospace co...
New Equipment Digest •

Robots Are Coming to Take Over Your Household Chores

Robots taking on household chores isn't a new idea, even though it seems like a pipe dream. In 2018, a robot that folded your laundry debuted at CES. There have been prototypes of robots that act as assistants for grocery shopping. The type seen most commonly is robots cleaning floors in retail stores and in facilities. These are more so AMRs that people like to stick googly eyes on to add that little anthropomorphic quality.
Even though it is not a new idea, the pipe dream aspect of this idea r...
New Equipment Digest •

Seegrid Announces Strategic Shift Away From Raymond Partnership After Record Sales

Seegrid, a manufacturer of autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solutions for palletized material handling, has decided to terminate its product and distribution agreements with Raymond Corporation (a division of Toyota). 
According to Seegrid's CEO Joe Pajer, the decision was made to allow Seegrid to "sell and service the full Seegrid-branded product line across all market segments rather than serving a large portion of the market through Raymond."He went on to explain that the company is receiving in...
New Equipment Digest •

Japan Creates and Sends First Wood Satellite Into Space

Most of the time, the material used for building satellites and robot explorers is usually metal given its temperature range and durability. Whoever thought wood could be an alternative for the darkest depths of space? Japan did. 
On Tuesday, while everyone here in America was either casting votes or impatiently waiting for the results of our Presidential election, Japanese researchers sent the world's first wooden satellite to space. Named LignoSat after the Latin word for wood, the satellite w...
New Equipment Digest •

What Are They Using? Equipment Choices From Genesis Packaging, AutomationDirect, JD Manufacturing, and More

Have you ever been curious what your main competitor or even just other companies similar to you are using in their facilities? Maybe you saw a machine or piece of equipment and want to know where it was from and if they like it?
In this recurring news round-up, we'll be compiling all the news about who bought what, who delivered what to who, and so on so you can see how other companies are operating and the tools they're using.© Mitsubishi Electric OEM Improves Production Output by 300% With Mi...
New Equipment Digest •

Fun Innovations Friday: Creepy Crawly Detachable Robot Hand With Finger Legs

Robot grippers and/or end effectors are changing as we know them. Researchers from EFPL and MIT released a video titled Beyond Manual Dexterity: Designing a Multi-fingered Robotic Hand for Grasping and Crawling, in which they demonstrated their latest invention of a robot hand. A detachable robot hand.
It doesn't sound that interesting until I tell you that it autonomously detaches itself from the robot, crawls over to objects, and picks them up.
The video was released in conjunction with a rese...
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