With a growing number of boomers retiring, they're taking with them long-held beliefs, workstyles, and, in many instances, great quantities of tribal knowledge. Losing the latter — that exclusive, often technical, product or process information that is stored inside someone’s head — is what will be most felt by the companies they are departing. In the manufacturing world, this knowledge may be as basic as understanding why an eerie sound is provided when a huge piece of expensive equipment warrants maintenance. It may be how to do makeshift fixes of key assets using tools, wires, and who knows what. It may be a technician who many, many years ago came up with an obscure software workaround to enable old databases and servers to continue to interoperate. No one else may ever figure out how to keep this system running without an expensive new fix.

 

It’s in a company’s best interest to obtain as much of this intelligence as possible to help ease the conversion to a newer, younger workforce — even if those workers don’t buy in to the way things were earlier done. The outflow of baby boomers and influx of millennials and soon Generation Z is taking place additionally as massive technology changes impact industries, including the Industry 4.0 innovations. This confluence of events is meant to leave a knowledge gap and, possibly, a skills gap ahead. Retaining or repurposing tribal knowledge for consumption by younger workers is indeed a challenge. The competitive advantage goes to companies that find ways to pull it off.

 

Here are some strategies to help:

 

1. Transfer knowledge the YouTube way

Yes, encouraging the documentation of processes is smart, but doing it by using the written word … not really much. Older workers mainly do not like writing instructions (and do not always get them right). And many younger workers don’t care to pore over pages and pages of steps. Try using videos to share knowledge via YouTube, which has pioneered showing people how to do things. For example, documenting how to make sensors and software work together to provide asset conditioning monitoring data can be much more advantageous with a visual dimension. Your videos don’t have to be anything fancy (and don’t even have to go on YouTube). Make them simple and consumable and share with only those who need to know. Having a veteran maintenance tech wear enterprise-connected smartglasses and record their work is one easy way to do it.

 

2. Leverage smart technology to capture intelligence

By acquiring data and applying machine learning or natural language processing to analyze it for patterns and conditions, technology is basically pulling exclusive information out of someone’s head and making it visible to teams. If you have workers writing daily logs or providing voice recordings that recap activities, getting them to tag key information using their tribal knowledge can help machine learning synthesize the unstructured data and turn it into valuable insights. Your new generation of workers is expecting that technology be applied this way to pass down information.

 

3. Move away from break/fix to maintenance reliability

Today, the worker who got up at 3 a.m. to repair a machine is judged a hero. Maintenance teams that are always adequately troubleshooting problems are star performers. But what if machines rarely failed, and maintenance teams were free to attend to the needs of the whole operation, proactively? With computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platforms, processes can be automated and maintenance more predictive. This enables companies to more efficiently manage assets, free up maintenance resources, and offset the loss of their longtime fix-it gurus.

 

4. Provide workplace technology that is faster and simpler

Management can learn from current generations and their affinity for applications and tools that are easy to operate and accessible from anywhere. Products from companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have shaped their views on technology. Many, as for instance, prefer touchscreen functionality over knobs and dials. While it may be challenging to build the tools they will adopt, it’s time to start. This new, “consumerized” or “democratized” technology may be lacking decades of tribal knowledge, but it is here to stay. And it's best to make the change now while the both the experienced workers with tribal knowledge and the younger digital natives are all still in the plant to work together on making the transition the right way.

 

5. Encourage online problem solving

A long tradition is out there of testing a job candidate’s tech knowledge and skills by not allowing them to access the internet for help. It’s time to reconsider this. For young workers today, the internet is a go-to problem-solving tool. Whether they are job candidates, software developers, or whatever, avoid forcing them to express an ability to recall knowledge. Encourage them to generate any and all resources to get the job done.

 

6. Incentivize employees to learn from each other

At a variety of companies, resentment runs both ways. Older workers may be annoyed at seeing younger counterparts move in with new ideas and ways of working. Younger workers may envy the older generation for sticking around and delaying their chances for leadership roles and promotions. It’s not one generation immediately displacing another — the demographic shift is gradual, and seasoned employees will definitely be around for some time. There is much to be gained by offering incentives for them to spend time together sharing and learning. Get creative here. There are quite a few gamification companies out there ready and willing. It’s a win-win and the knowledge transfer does help the company.

 

7. Cultivate young leadership for driving change

For around the foreseeable future, companies will need people, as robots will only take over jobs that do not demand much thinking and analysis. Leaders will come from all the generations in the workforce, but the Gen Xers — those between the baby boomers and millennials — may be your best option for driving change. They get the need for smart technology, but they also respect and value experience and tribal knowledge. The fact is, they have much of their own.

 

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Australia banned Huawei a year ago from supplying equipment to the country's fifth-generation mobile networks, pointing out national security concerns after Washington lobbied allies against using the company's gear. While the world's largest telecom equipment maker saw its first-half revenue grow 23% from the same period a year earlier, Lord said Huawei's Australian sales improved but at a level below overall group sales. 

 

In the year since the ban was declared, Australia has quietly begun developing 5G networks without Huawei. Top wireless carrier Telstra established the country's first 5G mobile service in May and has tens of thousands of subscribers in 10 major cities. Huawei's consumer business was also affected by Washington's constraints. Lord said sales of the company's flagship P30 smartphones dropped dramatically after the U.S. announced it would limit Huawei's access to parts from American companies.

 

Lord said Huawei's consumer business 'will do very well this year' as the drop-off hit bottom a few weeks ago. Still, he said, the business did not do 'as well as it could have.'

 

Presently, 70% of Huawei's business in Australia arises from supplying the country's mobile carriers. The company controls half of Australia's 4G wireless network service market, but this business will face a sharp decline when 5G networks take hold. Despite the headwinds, Lord said Huawei will never leave Australia. '5G is not going to be rolled out quickly,' he said. 'So there's a chance to use other competitors in the future, so Huawei is staying.'

 

In the meantime, the company will restructure its business and attention more on certain sectors that are 'nonsensitive from a security aspect,' Lord said. These sectors include transport, mining, agriculture and education. Last year, the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia contracted Huawei to build digital radio systems.

 

Huawei is still looking for a chance to provide stand-alone 5G networks to certain businesses. The company has built stand-alone 4G LTE networks for gas operations. Lord said these networks have 'no connection and no threat ... I hope that's open to us, but we have got to have those discussions with government.' Lord mentioned that the ban has taken a toll not just on Huawei, but also on its partners like Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia. 'It's really hit them quite hard -- one, in the pocket, and two, in their ability to develop future systems.'

 

Australia was the first country to suspend a company that was already involved in its wireless infrastructure market, said an irritated Vodafone Hutchison Australia executive, who complained that the decision was made too soon for carriers to adjust. Midtier player TPG Telecom cited the Huawei ban in its January decision to scrap its 5G plans. Without Huawei, Australia will have two 5G equipment providers: Ericsson and Nokia. Because of the decreased competition, 'it's a bit more of a homogeneous market' among wireless carriers, said Liam Harrison, senior industry analyst at market research company IBISWorld.

 

'You can't, for example, go for the cheaper option, which was Huawei,' Harrison said. 'That was a potential market differentiator for some operators, so now without that option, it's a bit more difficult.'

 

Lord said the meager competition will precede to a surge in subscription costs of between 15% and 30%. 'We hope the Australian government changes its mind as it sees that it is falling behind in 5G,' he said. Huawei's Australian arm was among the subsidiaries that the U.S. added to its blacklist this week to keep the company from accessing American-made parts through other group entities.

 

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“[We] have a system that can learn what’s been done before and use that to instruct the robot to actually execute the synthesis,” says Klavs Jensen, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at MIT. Jensen says that using a robotic arm and a standardized system of reactor vessels, and hoses to connect them, makes ease of the process. A human operator running a comparable system with an identical broad range of possible chemicals and reactions would need to handle some 77 valves — each of which would need to be monitored for clogging or leaking.

 

This robotic chemistry synthesis system, Jensen and his co-authors say, guarantees to get rid of some of the drudge work from the chemical R&D process. Their system 'reliev[es] expert chemists of manual tasks to ensure that they may focus on new ideas,' the researchers report in a recent issue of the journal Science. Tim Jamison, co-author and MIT professor of chemistry, says this open-source robotic synthesis system also sets a precedent.

 

“Every new molecule that I can think of in the history of mankind was initially made by someone in the laboratory using glassware — or something very close to that,” Jamison says. Making molecules with a robotic system, he says, is something else. Jamison noted that their research did not synthesize any new molecules. That was, in fact, partly the point.

 

“The aim of the project was not necessarily to make something better, faster, cheaper,” he says. “It was to develop a system that would have a higher degree of automation. The system did not invent any molecules. Every single [one of the] target molecules we made were all known compounds.” The group’s paper reports on the robotic platform’s success in synthesizing 15 pharmaceutical compounds, with the inclusion of aspirin and the blood pressure medication quinapril, along with the anesthetic lidocaine and the benzodiazepine diazepam.

 

Pharmaceuticals are not the only compounds this robotic system can synthesize, though. “It could also have been used to make dyes for LEDs,” Jensen says. “It could have been used to make quantum dot materials, though we would have worked to get to higher temperatures. But I think we could have done that. I think perovskites, you could synthesize. There’s also a lot of interest in polymers for electronic and mechanical devices. Those often require unique molecules. So they’re thinking about making new monomers for those applications — and you could make those monomers with this system.”

 

Jamison says he’s already fielded requests from labs and companies for this as-yet-unnamed new robotic chemical synthesis platform. “I’ve received emails with questions along the lines of ‘Looks great, I want one,’” he says. “Unfortunately we’re not able to provide systems to those who are interested. But it certainly has captured the imagination of a number of people.”

 

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The new blacklist was revealed Monday as the U.S. Commerce Department lengthened a 90-day grace period for the world's largest telecom equipment maker to continue buying particular products and services from American companies. The decision to target research facilities intensifies the pressure on China's flagship technology company as it copes with the first blacklist imposed by Washington in May. More than 100 Huawei affiliates now are banned from trading with U.S. companies. Formerly only one research center in Belgium had been blacklisted.

 

'It shows that the U.S. government is expanding the scale of its clampdown on the company,' said Chiu Shih-fang, a veteran tech analyst at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. The blacklisting could gradual Huawei's research and development capability if these facilities lose access to U.S. technologies, the analyst said. Being on the blacklist 'limits [Huawei's] ability to acquire U.S. technology,' said Dan Wang, technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. 'The deadline extension is not an indication that the U.S. government intends to relax its controls.'

 

The 11 recently listed research sites include Huawei's Milan institute and the Centre of Integrated Photonics in the U.K. The Milan center was Huawei's first global research facility, according to its website, and employs one of the company's most noted scientists, Renato Lombardi, to study microwave technology used in mobile and satellite communication. The U.K. facility specializes in developing photonics devices.

 

The other blacklisted research centers are in China, including a Beijing institute that Huawei claims is the world's largest router testing facility, and the Chengdu Research Center, where it develops storage technology. Huawei on Tuesday slammed the Commerce Department's action as politically motivated. Washington's attempt 'to suppress Huawei's business won't help the United States achieve technological leadership,' the company said.

 

Even so, the move represents a blow to the tech group, which had earmarked Italy and Britain for billions of dollars in new investment to expand its research facilities. Huawei's relentless focus on research and development has set it apart from many rivals, helping to drive the group's rapid expansion of its telecom and smartphone businesses. R&D is also crucial in the company's effort to be self-sufficient, reducing its reliance on U.S. technology.

 

About 90,000 employees are involved in research and development, around 45% of Huawei's total workforce. Its R&D spending of 101.5 billion yuan ($14.37 billion) equaled 14.1% of total revenue last year. The company has invested more than 480 billion yuan in R&D in the past 10 years, Huawei data shows. The group has 15 research centers and 28 centers of expertise worldwide, according to 'Explorers: Huawei Stories,' a book published by the company in late 2017.

 

The U.S. said the new blacklist had been necessary to be certain that previous constraints it had imposed were effective. 'The Department of Commerce added the [additional] affiliates to stop Huawei from trying to circumvent the sanctions,' said Timothy Heath, senior international defense researcher at RAND Corp. 'This action will further restrict Huawei's ability to access banned U.S. technologies and services.'

 

The U.S. also does seem increasing the scope of its campaign against the Chinese company's technology, for the first time urging 'consumers to transition away from Huawei equipment' in the statement from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday. Up to now, Washington had flagged Huawei's telecom equipment as a threat to national security but refrained from appearing to target its smartphones or other consumer electronics.

 

President Donald Trump on Sunday called Huawei a national security threat and said the U.S. might not do any business with the company, a U-turn from his statement during the Group of 20 summit in June that he would allow American companies to ship products to Huawei. Ross Darrell Feingold, a lawyer and political risk consultant, said it was inescapable that the American government would discourage consumers from buying Huawei handsets. The U.S. would not easily give up its restrictions on the massive Chinese tech company, one that symbolizes the Asian country's rapid technological development, he said.

 

'Even if the U.S. and China reach a trade deal in the near or medium term, Huawei's status in the view of the U.S. government is now a long-term matter,' Feingold said. 'The Trump administration's 'whole of government' approach toward China means there are numerous, several pressure points across trade, academia, military deployments ... Huawei is one among the [many] pressure points the U.S. applies on China.'

 

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 They Let Brands Alter the Ingredients Used

 

A great idea that bio-based products are already helping the manufacturing industry is by giving brands more options when they choose ingredients to use for their products. Like for example, BASF announced that it now uses sustainable feedstocks for its chelating agents. In the chemical industry, a feedstock is a chemical containing other substances to extract and synthesize.

 

Chelating agents are common ingredients used to improve the cleansing power of cleaning products like detergents and dishwasher tabs. BASF also displays a certification that customers can see. It certifies that the products use renewable feedstocks from the start. If manufacturers gradually enhance the number of bio-based chemicals they make or use, they'll show efforts to make positive distinctions. Also, developing bio-based possibilities improves the assortment of ingredients available to use. That perk could lead to improved product formulations that help more than the environment.

 

They Could Help Manufacturers Get Lucrative Contracts With Bio-Focused Brands

 

The manufacturers that show a persistent commitment to producing bio-based products could find they're well-positioned to enter brand partnerships, as well. More exclusively, some enterprises are doubling down on their plant-based offerings. As an example, Tide offers a laundry detergent with 75% plant-based ingredients. Plenty of companies find it difficult to release exclusively bio-based products immediately. But, as manufacturers come up with new ideas, it may become more likely that they'll connect with brands like Tide and enter into contractual agreements for being sole producers of certain bio-based ingredients.

 

Moreover, the United Kingdom's first all-vegan hotel recently opened. It takes a plant-focused and animal-friendly approach to everything from the food menus to the textiles to the cleaning products. Not all bio-based products are vegan-friendly, but this highlights how things are changing. Bio-based manufacturers could find that the trends propel their businesses.

 

They Could Enable Manufacturers to Help Solve Known Environmental Issues

 

As manufacturers continue to make progress in the realm of bio-based products, they'll assist in the fight to remedy the problems that plague our planet. For illustration, 275 million tons of plastic waste get produced each year around the world, and 8 million of those tons end up in the ocean. People love the convenience of plastic bottles, but they often don't consider the environmental impact. There are also other issues associated with polyethylene terephthalate, or PET — the material used to make most plastic water bottles. Recycling it is cost-intensive and technologically complex. It's also problematic that some of the raw materials for PET come from crude oil.

 

On a positive note, scientists are investigating bio-based plastics to replace PET. One seemingly promising option is polyethylene furanoate (PEF). Researchers say that PEF looks the same as PET on the outside. But, this bioplastic is lighter, more stable and requires less material than its counterpart. Downsides exist, though. For example, PEF is not biodegradable. It's also time and energy-intensive to produce, and those factors hindered its marketability. Last year, scientists came up with a better method that shortens the production time to a few hours.

 

This is simply one example of an environmental conundrum that could get resolved due to bio-based materials. The manufacturers that successfully find solutions can then assert themselves as incredibly committed to sustainability. Press releases and blog posts could help get the word out to stakeholders.

 

Challenges on the Horizons

 

Regardless these positive effects for manufacturers, brands must remember that they could still run into obstacles — some of them insurmountable. A recent case involved a manufacturer of bio-based n-butanol and acetone, which are petroleum replacements. Green Biologics, based in the United Kingdom, had to shut down its U.S. facility after failing to secure the funding necessary to keep things running.

 

Plus, even when companies have the financial resources required, they'll surely encounter unforeseen circumstances that could derail their plans to create or use bio-based chemicals.

 

Success Could Give Manufacturers More Options

 

The possibilities of problems should never deter manufacturers working to make bio-based chemicals. Some of the advantages offered by those solutions are mentioned above, and they're only a sample. Although it's true that bio-based products are not automatically more sustainable than non-bio-based ones, they're usually superior concerning reductions in emissions and fossil fuel dependence. Those things make them well worth pursuing.

 

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BOE's entry into one of the world's greatest demanding smartphone supply chains would mark a leap forward for the Chinese display panel industry, which has been the recipient of billions of dollars of state and public support within the last decade. The sector has been nurtured by Beijing with grants and subsidies in a bid to move its industry up the consumer electronics value chain. The OLED market is also likely to expand dramatically in the near future, rising from last year's $25.5 billion to more than $30 billion this year, according to IDTechEx Research.

 

These advanced displays use an electric current passing through thin films of organic materials to generate light, and so consume less power. They not merely allow for better contrast and color, thinner smartphones and foldable screens, but additionally could be used in wearable and other electronic devices. Neither U.S. nor Japanese display makers have been able to provide sufficiently high-quality OLED technology to Apple. The iPhone maker presently buys OLEDs from Samsung, which dominates the premium screen market globally with a more than 90% share, and LG Display.

 

The entry of BOE as an OLED supplier could threaten Samsung Display's position and give Apple more bargaining power to win price cuts from the South Korean suppliers. BOE, which began producing flexible OLED screens at the end of 2017, also supplies the advanced displays to Huawei Technologies' revolutionary Mate X foldable smartphone, a rival to Samsung's Galaxy Fold. Nevertheless, BOE is still vulnerable to a potential crackdown from the U.S., where companies such as Corning, 3M and Applied Materials provide the most essential materials and equipment to make those screens. Any endeavor by the U.S. to clamp down on supplies to BOE - as Washington did to Huawei - could hit the Chinese display champion significantly.

 

Apple is at this time testing BOE's flexible OLED displays from the company's facility in the Sichuan Province city of Chengdu, China's first site to produce such advanced displays, two sources informed Nikkei. BOE is also constructing another facility in Sichuan Province, which would be allocated to Apple if it places orders, the people said. Apple is anticipated to produce at least two iPhones with OLED displays in 2020, sources said. The California tech titan is also contemplating OLED screens for all the new models due to be revealed in September of next year, three sources said.

 

Two sources with knowledge of the situation said BOE was most likely to supply the new iPhones next year if it wins certification. But it might first be asked to offer displays for repair objectives, as well as panels for older models of iPhones, one source suggested. That would still mark a milestone for BOE, the source said, as it would be Apple's first-ever purchase of Chinese-made OLED displays. OLED display is the most high priced component in the iPhone. It accounted for $110, or basically 30%, of the total $370.25 cost of the iPhone X, the first OLED iPhone, in 2017, according to IHS Markit's teardown. The cost of the OLED display rose to $120 the following year on the iPhone XS Max due to the larger screen. BOE-made OLED displays could be 20% cheaper than Samsung's products, one of the sources familiar with the discussions said.

 

The high cost of OLED panels is due to the heavy capital investment required. Compared with a standardized liquid crystal display production line for smartphones, an OLED panel facility could be twice as expensive at about $6.5 billion. Samsung has ruled the segment since it began to use OLED in its own smartphones in 2009. LG Display, a key Apple supplier of OLED, has suffered widening losses in its panel business, and there are questions about whether it would be prepared to invest further, which would leave Samsung as Apple's only option. Most Taiwanese and Japanese suppliers have halted investing in OLED displays.

 

'Apple has the incentive to qualify a new supplier for OLED display as [others] are a bit reluctant to invest too much to expand capacity,' said Eric Chiou, a veteran display analyst at Taipei-based research company WitsView. 'That gives BOE a good opportunity to break into the new market while the Chinese display company has already proven it has capability to supply to MacBooks, iPads, HP and Dell screens. It should not be too unexpected if Apple eventually buys OLEDs from BOE too.'

 

BOE was founded in 1993 in Beijing as a previous military and defense supplier. In its early years it suffered to match the quality of LCD leaders in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Still, generous government subsidies have helped it and the rest of the display industry. Based upon research by the Nikkei Asian Review, BOE received over 2 billion yuan ($283 million at current rates) in subsidies last year. As a result of this strong support, the little-known BOE has slowly emerged as an aggressive rival to other Asian suppliers in the past 10 years.

 

The Beijing-based company in 2018 started the world's first production line for 10.5-generation liquid crystal display - the largest available during that time. It also became the world's largest LCD display supplier by shipments the same year. Its revenue surged about tenfold to 97.1 billion yuan between 2008 and 2018, and today it is a supplier to lots of leading tech companies including Chinese TV brand Hisense, Lenovo Group, HP and Dell. BOE since 2017 has supplied LCD panels to Apple for its MacBook and iPad, increasing pressure on established players such as Samsung Display, LG Display, Japan Display, Sharp and Taiwan's AU Optronics. Apple and BOE did not respond to the Nikkei Asian Review's request for comment.

 

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The going up customer demand for innovations, cleaner, lighter, and safer designs, as well as lower prices across customized products, is also encouraging the automotive 3D printing market. Along with offering benefits such as reduced weight, energy-efficient cars, and reduced CO2 emissions of vehicles, Zimlon assesses the impact 3D printing has on the car insurance market. 3D printing is a game-changer in the spare parts industry with as much as 85% of spare parts suppliers looking at embracing 3D printing. From reduced inventory and logistics costs, with the help of 3D printing, manufacturers can store these spare-parts digitally and produce them on-demand.

 

Cost Savings:

3D printing can cut costs for prototyping and production. Tucci Hot Rods estimate they save about $500 per part using 3D printing methods as an alternative to using machine-made, aftermarket solutions while car manufacturer Opel reported a tooling cost decrease of 90% for the assembly process. 

 

Faster Prototyping:

Productivity and speed have boosted three-fold because 3D printing eradicates the time and effort needed to create prototypes and test materials. According to BMW, 3D printed customized tools helped save 58% in general costs and minimize project time by 92%.

 

Reduced Wastage:

3D printing uses material only where it’s needed, getting rid of wastage by 95%. Avoiding extra costs for wasted material can revamp production processes.

 

Customized Cars:

With 3D printing, creating many variants of a model can be done without much trouble. In a new service offered by MINI, customers can use 3D printing to create and order accessories to modify their MINI. 

 

Improved Materials:

A variety of 3D printing processes offer materials that can withstand temperatures well above the average 105 °C sustained engine compartment temperatures such as SLS nylon and photo-cured polymers. 

 

Restoring Vintage Cars:

3D printing can also help restore vintage cars. Porsche is currently using SLM 3D printing for metal parts and SLS 3D printing for plastic parts and tooling, making a more extensive range of rare components available for collectors.

 

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Now researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed an optical waveguide that consists of just three layers of atoms. This means that the new waveguide is just six angstroms thick. With one nanometer equal to 10 angstroms, and today’s optical waveguides generally around 200-300 nm, that means these new waveguides are 500 times thinner than what is in use today.

 

“This might potentially lead to a higher density of waveguides or optical elements on an optoelectronic chip,” said Ertugrul Cubukcu, associate professor at UC San Diego. “Think about how a smaller transistor leads to a higher density of those on an electronic chip.” To reach what is the theoretical limit in the thinness of an optical waveguide the researchers transformed to transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), chiefly tungsten disulfide.

 

TMDs are materials that combine one of 15 transition metals with one of three members of the chalcogen family: sulfur, selenium, or tellurium. Five years ago, simulations indicated that these materials could enable the thinning of the channel gates in transistors to below 1 nanometer. The thinness of tungsten disulfide crystal is just one of the special properties of the material. The monolayer crystal also supports the formation of electron-hole pairs—also known as excitons—at room temperature.

 

Aside from operating at room temperature, tungsten disulfide can channel light in the visible spectrum. Graphene has been shown to serve as a waveguide. Nevertheless, it can only operate at infrared wavelengths. This device serves as the first time that a material this thin can operate in the visible wavelengths. Of course, actually trying to fashion a device out of a material only three-atoms thick may have been the largest hurdle of all for the researchers. “While these materials are very robust, macroscopic forces could have still damaged them,” explained Cubukcu.

 

In the research described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers devised a way to handle this fragility by making use of a sacrificial template that was removed at the very last stage of the processing. The sacrificial template is a thin silicon nitride membrane supported by a silicon frame. This structure more or less serves as the substrate on which the waveguide is constructed. An array of nanosized holes is then patterned into this membrane so that it can serve as a kind of template. At this point the tungsten disulfide crystal is pushed into the membrane. By sending ions through the membrane, the nanoholes create a pattern in the crystal. Finally, the silicon nitride membrane is etched away, leaving the tungsten disulfide crystal suspended in the silicon frame.

 

This periodic array of holes in the crystal also addresses another fundamental problem: measuring the performance of the waveguide mode. By their very nature, a waveguide directs light in the plane of the material. However, at this ultimate limit the researchers found that it was very difficult to distinguish the guided light from the light propagating freely in space. The array of holes scatters a small amount of light out of the plane of the material so it can be more easily detected. While this device is the thinnest optical waveguide, reliably producing tungsten disulfide for large areas at high quality remains a challenge, potentially hindering these devices quickly finding their way into commercial optoelectronic devices.

 

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Announced in 2015 by China's cabinet with President Xi Jinping's blessing, Made In China 2025 is the country's road map for upgrading its industries from the world's factory for low cost goods to a global power on par with the U.S. and Germany. But, since trade tensions flared up with the U.S. last year, China has eliminated references to the initiative. These targets were 'predictive,' 'nonbinding' and 'not a government action,' stated Miao Yu, a minister in China's Industry and Information Technology department in 2017. But the West has interpreted Made In China 2025 as factual evidence of China's ambition and - even more important - capacity to dominate the global tech sector with brute government force.

 

As trade tensions escalate, not only will China miss the targets, but the country may take decades longer - or may indeed never - fulfill these lofty objectives. The U.S., on the contrary, will need to reevaluate if it has been fearing a tech 'paper tiger' all along. Similarly as the perceived threat from the Soviet Union was pumped during the Cold War era, the U.S. is likely to realize that China's threat to its technology dominance has been grossly exaggerated.

 

Missed targets will come from so many sectors. Beijing aspired that domestically made industrial robots would meet 50% of Chinese market demand by 2020. In 2018, the market share of Chinese domestic industrial robot makers stood at 32.2%. This included a 5.5 percentage point jump from last year after one segment of the market, automobile industrial robots, dominated by foreign companies, shrank, according to China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA).

 

'We are facing a high degree of difficulty in reaching the objective set for 2020,' Qu Daokui, chairman of CRIA, declared at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last year. In aerospace, China aspired to complete the research, production and delivery of self-developed 150-seat single-aisle mainline passenger aircraft by 2020. More over, it hoped domestically-made mainline passenger aircraft would meet 5% of Chinese demand by next year.

 

But the Comac C919, China's flagship effort to develop such an aircraft, is suffering delays and is still carrying out test flights. It will take three to five years to get crucial approvals in China before the C919 can begin production and delivery, according to a Chinese news report pointing out government officials. That means meeting this goal will be tremendously delayed. By 2020, China also hoped to notably expand its rail equipment sector overseas, with 30% of business generated outside its borders. Industrywide figures are unavailable, but China's leading rolling stock manufacturer, CRRC Corporation, made 9.5% of its revenue from outside of China in 2018, roughly unchanged for the past three years, according to its annual report.

 

Looking at Beijing placed its hopes on CRRC as the main vehicle for internationalization, the country is unlikely to meet the 30% target next year. The less tangible goals in Made In China 2025 are becoming almost impossible to meet given the intensifying trade frictions with the U.S. 'Becoming one of the leaders in 5G international standards, technology and industry,' for example, is definitely questionable since Huawei Technology's 5G systems have been or are being banned by major countries around the world.

 

Other aspirations will take much longer for China to attain after international cooperation tends destined to decline. These include 'reaching internationally leading levels in critical core systems in new energy cars' and 'in integrated circuits' and 'realizing breakthroughs in core technology in new generation robots.' What does this mean?

 

First, widespread misinformation must be cleared up. Chinese government and media created these lofty policy documents and self-aggrandizing reports to rally the population and generate national pride. The West unknowingly took it all at face value. Much is lost in translation in this process and has led to unsound policymaking in the West to 'contain' China now.

 

Second, we must caution against elevating current grievances relating to trade and economic issues to an ideological divide that amounts to a new cold war. Today, 60% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of China, up from 47% in 2018 and the highest level since the Pew Research Center began asking the question. A new cold war will lead the world to unprecedented turmoil and hurt all of us.

 

Finally, the world should find incremental improvements, not one-shot solutions. The worldwide economy and financial markets are in uncharted waters, and so are China's reforms. Structural issues such as reforming state-owned enterprises and corporate deleveraging are incredibly hard to solve after years, sometimes decades, of kicking the can down the road. As we look at 2020 and beyond, China may not be the only country that faces disappointing outcomes in national policy. The U.S. and others need to reassess their own policies if we want to return our future to international cooperation and collective advances.

 

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1. Cable assembly with quality assurance

 

At 12 state-of-the-art facilities throughout the world, including the U.S., highly-skilled technicians customize around 20,000 ready-to-connect chainflex® cables every week. Each cable is put together similar to 24 manufacturers’ standards, including Siemens, Allen-Bradley and FANUC, and come equipped with industrial connectors from the biggest names in the industry, such as Intercontec, Harting and Yamaichi. Plus, igus® has created a 90-degree cable adapter called ibow® for connections in tight spaces.

 

Our technicians electrically try every cable, visually check out every connection, and measure crimp heights and all essential dimensions precisely to make certain our assembled cables will function perfectly upon delivery and every day during the life of your machine. More than 1,200 cable types are available for customization.

 

2. Cable design features for an extended service life

 

Compared with traditional cables that tend to fail prematurely, chainflex® continuous-flex cables are engineered for optimal effectiveness and can considerably increase the service life and productivity of dynamic applications. chainflex® cables are designed with the following features:

 

- A high-quality, high-tensile strength center element for strain relief

- A medium-to-fine conductor strand diameter to prevent the strand from kinking while being subjected to a high number of cycles

- The highest quality high-pressure extruded PVC or TPE materials that support the individual strands of the conductor and prevent the cable’s insulation from adhering to one another

- Individual conductors bundled into groups, which are cabled together in a single layer surrounding the cable core, enable pulling and compressive forces in the bending motion to balance and cancel out torsional forces

- A pressure-extruded inner jacket that ensures the insulated conductors are guided efficiently

- A high-quality braided shield that provides electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection for the cable

- A cost-effective outer jacket material that is resistant to UV radiation, abrasion, oils and chemicals

- CFRIP technology that allows users to open the cable’s jacket like a zipper, saving you time and eliminating the need for additional tools

 

3. Extensively tested under real-world conditions

 

In essence, continuous-flex cables should be tested in configurations and environments that replicate real-world applications. The 41,200-square-foot igus® testing area is the most extensive of its kind in the industry. Our engineers run 2 billion different bend tests to ensure cables created for specific types of movement have the strength and longevity to maintain their structure over millions of linear, tick-tock, torsional or multi-axis cycles. Engineers also use a climate chamber to test the long-term effects of extreme temperatures, chemicals and more.

 

Results show that in most situations, chainflex® cables can endure temperatures between minus 40 C and 100 C. They are also flame retardant, UV resilient and really oil resistant. All chainflex® cables have a predictable service life and come with a 36-month guarantee.

 

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Facebook, it said, already has started using the product. Intel said its first AI product comes subsequently it had invested in Israeli AI startups, like Habana Labs and NeuroBlade.

 

“In order to reach a future situation of ‘AI everywhere’, we have to deal with huge amounts of data generated and make sure organizations are equipped with what they need to make effective use of the data and process them where they are collected,” said Naveen Rao, general manager of Intel’s artificial intelligence products group.

 

“These computers need acceleration for complex AI applications.” It said the new hardware chip will assist Intel Xeon processors in large companies as the need for advanced computations in the AI field increases.

 

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Researchers from IBM Zurich and the University of Oxford have produced a stable version of a carbon allotrope that has long been reviewed and theorized, but which remained elusive until now. It’s known as a cyclocarbon. The carbon atoms in cyclocarbons have just two neighbors, and, when linked together, take the shape of a ring. This is unique than other types of carbon allotropes, like fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, which have three neighboring carbon atoms. The team’s work is described today in the journal Science. 

 

No one knew for certain if a cyclocarbon could be made or exactly what kind of structure it would take. There was some published evidence of their existence in gas form, but because of their extreme reactivity, cyclocarbons did not remain stable enough to be isolated and characterized. Now that a cyclocarbon has been isolated and imaged, scientists can begin to characterize its properties and determine its usefulness. “We will see what applications the molecule can be used for in the future,” said Leo Gross, a researcher at IBM Zurich and one of the coauthors of the paper. At the moment, what the researchers know about the cyclocarbon is that it has a relatively high electric conductivity, according to Gross.

 

“What makes the molecule appealing to us is that we can use it to create larger carbon-rich structures by atom manipulation on insulating films,” said Gross. “In the future, we aim to build molecular devices that function based on single electron transfer. Such devices could be used for computations with extremely low power dissipation, possibly as devices for neuromorphic computing.” Before discussions of potential applications in neuromorphic computing could begin in earnest, the researchers had to work for three years to get to the point where they could isolate a stabilized version of the molecule.

 

“The cyclocarbon oxide molecules are unstable compounds as they are light- and temperature-sensitive and can explode on heating, which we observed on sublimation,” said Lorel Scriven, a doctoral student at Oxford. “We had to coordinate closely with the IBM team to synthesize and ship the cyclocarbon oxides to Zurich immediately before they were to be measured so that they could be sublimed before they decomposed.”

 

The researchers were able to stabilize the molecule at low temperatures (5 kelvins) on an especially inert substrate (sodium chloride). This eliminated the ingredients necessary for the molecule to react and rendered it relatively stable. Still, the key to making it all work was to find a precursor molecule that was stable enough to be prepared and that can be converted by atom manipulation into the desired cyclocarbon, according to Katharina Kaiser,  a researcher at IBM Zurich. The Oxford and IBM researchers intend to continue looking for new carbon allotropes related to cyclocarbons. Eventually, they aim to use these structures to create new materials.

 

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