Time to read: 3 min
Welcome to another edition of Hardware Roundup! Read on for news on hardware manufacturing, critical teardowns, factory tours, and more.
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Industry News
Former Autodesk SVP Amar Hanspal and CEO Carl Bass raised $133 million for their autonomous manufacturing startup, AutoLab AI, which was originally spun out of Flex. [Via Engineering.com]
Bloomberg took a look inside Tesla’s Fremont facility and saw pretty cool stamping operations. + Instrumental on factory automation and human versatility.
In China news, battery giant CATL raised over $1 Billion in an IPO and is set to produce 70% of the world’s EV batteries by 2021. Sunny Optical, a producer of lenses, has turned its employees into millionaires with its employee stock reward program. + The New York Times on Made in China 2025.
A Silicon Valley startup raised a $40 million Series A (Airbus, GV, Kleiner Perkins) to catapult objects into space: “SpinLaunch plans to get a rocket spinning in a circle at up to 5,000 miles per hour and then let it go.” + There are 1,738 man-made satellites in orbit around our planet, which has led to the formation of the first Institute for the Sustainable Development of Space.
Hardware Knowledge
Ben Einstein of Bolt took apart the Sonos One and Amazon Echo Plus; based on their BOM, he predicts the future winner in the smart speaker war. + iFixit takes a dim look at the MacBook Pro Keyboard.
Archaeologists found over 700,000 artifacts dating from 2005 to 3000 BC while draining a riverbed in Amsterdam. View 12,000 of them on Below the Surface. + The engineering history of the bicycle.
The popularity of 35mm films have revived Kodak’s production of Ektachrome. Popular Science toured their New York film processing facility. + A look inside a old quartz digital watch.
Sponsored article, but an interesting view on the promise of generative design and its impact on product development. [Via Solidsmack]
After steel, cement is the largest industrial emitter of carbon. The Outline takes a closer look. + Red Dot’s 2018 awards for innovative sustainable materials in product design.
Events + Community
Webinar: Join Fictiv CEO Dave Evans and Onshape CEO Jon Hirschtick on July 19 for a discussion on optimizing for speed and control in design and manufacturing.
Jobs: Tonal is hiring manufacturing and mechanical engineers. Angaza is hiring for a Director of IoT solutions. + YC’s “Work at a Startup” event is on July 28 in Mountain View, CA.
Events: PRG is seeking hardware startups to demo at their annual Silicon Valley Hardware Symposium in September. If interested, get in touch with Theresa Shafer. + Hardware Developers Didactic Galactic’s next event is on July 12 in SF. If you haven’t been to a event, I highly recommend them.
Community: Optical measurement systems and a guide to designing a dev board on Fictiv Builders.
For the Love of Engineering
Two Vortex Rings Colliding. The video took 4 years to make, and the creators had to overcome many, many obstacles. Watch how they did it. [Credit to The Prepared for sharing]
Until next month!
Fin, Hardware Evangelist at Fictiv
