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4 days ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
Ford will recall more than 1 million vehicles from recent model years over a problem with their rearview cameras. Regulators said that a software issue could lead to malfunctions in the cameras, including delays, frozen images, or failure to display entirely when the vehicle shifts into reverse, according to the Associated Press. Officials noted that those problems could raise the risk of an accident. The suburban Detroit automaker disclosed the problem to federal highway regulators in May.
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4 days ago | 
inddist.com | Andy Szal |Anna Wells
The 78th annual Survey of Distributor Operations continues with its second and final installment, featuring a look at best practices, employment patterns and what keeps customers coming back. Read part 1, covering economic issues, financial performance and technology trends, here.
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5 days ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
A German defense technology firm recently announced a new vessel and software platform that will work together to protect ships and infrastructure from growing undersea threats. Munich-based Helsing said that the software and advanced AI system are designed to “rethink” maritime surveillance. The software solution, known as Lura, can locate and identify sounds made by ships or submarines much more quickly and accurately than rival surveillance systems.
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5 days ago | 
inddist.com | Andy Szal |Anna Wells
The 2020s have been – in a word – relentless. First came COVID, then inflation. Now, distributors face further uncertainty as they struggle to predict just how tariffs will impact their businesses. This year’s Survey of Distributor Operations had several similarities to the results we saw last year, when soft business conditions and margin pressures told the story of an industrial market on its heels. You might call 2025 more of the same – and then some – but with some notable shifts.
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1 week ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
General Mills recently outlined a sweeping “transformation” effort that will likely result in job cuts at the Minnesota-based food products giant. The maker of Cheerios cereal, Green Giant vegetables, and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, among many other brands, disclosed a “multi-year global transformation initiative” in a filing with federal regulators, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
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1 week ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
Scientists at a German research facility say they have successfully produced a key helium ion in what they termed a “milestone” in the advancement of nuclear fusion. Fusion reactions, unlike the nuclear fission used in today’s nuclear power plants, could produce vast quantities of energy with no harmful byproducts. Fusion has long been considered the “holy grail” of energy production, but harnessing the reactions that fuel the sun and stars on Earth is understandably fraught with challenges.
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1 week ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
Kraft Heinz plans to invest billions in its U.S. manufacturing operations, according to a recent report. Pedro Navio, the food and beverage maker’s North American president, told Reuters earlier this month that the company aims to spend $3 billion on factory upgrades in its home market. The initiative, the report noted, represented the company’s largest manufacturing investment in 10 years.
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1 week ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
A California drone startup recently made its public debut with autonomous, all-electric devices capable of traveling much further and longer than conventional drones. SiFly was originally formed in 2021 but emerged from stealth only recently to introduce its Q12 and Q250 drones. The Q12, the company said, can hover continuously for two hours or fly for up to three hours across a range of 90 miles while carrying a payload of up to 10 pounds.
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1 week ago | 
thomasnet.com | Andy Szal |Audrey Altmann
Materials technology company Lyten has formed a new segment that aims to serve car racing circuits across the globe, company officials announced. The company said Lyten Motorsports hopes to apply its innovations in materials science to parts used in race cars. Silicon Valley-based Lyten is the developer of 3D Graphene, a carbon-based material whose properties can be “tuned” depending on its application, including its weight, strength, conductivity, and permeability.
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2 weeks ago | 
ien.com | Andy Szal |Jeff Reinke |David Mantey
Editor's note: Download and listen to the audio version below and click here to subscribe to the Today in Manufacturing podcast. The Today in Manufacturing Podcast is brought to you by the editors of Manufacturing.net and Industrial Equipment News (IEN). This week's episode is brought to you by SugarCRM. Tetley Harris is the largest private-label tea packing company in North America—the company makes 28 million tea bags every day in California, Georgia and New Jersey.
