Factory Signal Briefing — April 22, 2026
Advanced Manufacturing · 3D Printing · CNC · Robotics · AI Vision
News
Cruz’ing through the terminal: A&K Robotics lands $8M for autonomous mobility
Investment is led by Business Development Bank of Canada’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and Vantage Futures to expand production and R&D capacity. The post Cruz’ing through…
Swiss researchers develop 3D printed and polymer-coated implant prototypes for infant mitral valve repair
Researchers at HEPIA, part of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO) in Geneva, have developed and characterized a series of leaflet and valve implant…
The EP-M3050 has a Massive Build Volume and up to 256 Lasers
I’m looking at a very unusual new metal 3D printer, the EP-M3050 from Eplus3D. Eplus3D specializes in manufacturing rather large-format metal 3D printers, as they have multiple devices of…
Glydways brings in $170M to scale its AV technology
Glydways plans to build networks of autonomous vehicle expressways that move people at 10 times the throughput of today's technology. The post Glydways brings in $170M to scale its AV…
Proposed Chinese Robot Ban Is Latest U.S. Tech Sovereignty Move
The American Security Robotics Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in March by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Representative Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), proposes to…
OpenAI launches workspace agents that turn ChatGPT from a chatbot into a team automation platform
OpenAI is rolling out workspace agents in ChatGPT, an evolution of custom GPTs. Powered by Codex, the agents automate complex team workflows and keep running even when no one is watching…
Sony AI table tennis robot outplays elite human players
Ace rotates its paddle as it prepares to return the ball back to its human opponent, Yamato Kawamata, during a match in December 2025. Credit: Sony AI. In an article published today in…
OpenAI now lets teams make custom bots that can do work on their own
OpenAI is giving users of its Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers plans access to cloud-based "workspace" agents available in ChatGPT that can perform business tasks. In its blog post…
AI Agent Designs a RISC-V CPU Core From Scratch
In 2020, researchers fine-tuned a GPT-2 model to design fragments of logic circuits ; in 2023, researchers used GPT-4 to help design an 8-bit processor with a novel instruction set; by 2024…
Roundtables: Unveiling The 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now
Listen to the session or watch below Subscribers saw a special edition of Roundtables simulcast live from EmTech AI, MIT Technology Review’s signature conference for AI leadership…
NVIDIA and Google Cloud Collaborate to Advance Agentic and Physical AI
NVIDIA and Google Cloud have collaborated for more than a decade, co‑engineering a full‑stack AI platform that spans every technology layer — from performance‑optimized libraries and…
13 Edge AI Industrial Applications Where Visual Perception Makes the Difference
This blog post was originally published at Au-Zone’s website. It is reprinted here with the permission of Au-Zone. Edge AI is the fastest-growing segment of the AI market, projected to grow…
What’s a fair hourly rate in Ohio? (10 yrs experience, mix of wood + metal machining)
Score 3 · 11 comments
What's a fair hourly rate in Ohio? (10 yrs experience, mix of wood + metal machini... Hey everyone, I've got a review coming up and I'm trying to get a realistic idea of what I should be…
Webcast Auction of Complete Deep-Hole - Precision Drilling Shop - 5/6 @ 10AM ET
Score 1 · 0 comments
|XACT SPEC Industries, LLC - Chagrin Falls, OH - Complete Precision Gun Drilling Shop| |:-| |NO ON-SITE BIDDING| |Extremely Rare Offering Of Complete Precision Gun Drilling Shop--2018…
Desktop CNC machine for learning CNC/CAM?
Score 2 · 14 comments
I've been toying with the idea of getting into CNC for a while now. I've built several (voron) 3d printers and I use them daily and they are fantastic tools and the release of their Cascade…
How cheap can you get
Score 3 · 12 comments
Note: this is not meant to be a serious post just a discussion and pure hypothetical on the most you can get out of your money and how far you can mangle something to produce results. Hi…
Simple NC file viewer in the browser (DSTV / G-code)
Score 1 · 0 comments
I’ve been working on a project involving NC files (mostly DSTV / steel), and I needed a faster way to inspect them without opening CAD tools — and also something easier to share with…
Generating fabrication-ready parts for LED signs from SVG (CNC + 3D print workflow)
Score 1 · 0 comments
https://preview.redd.it/8yk2ryml5vwg1.png?width=1593&format=png&auto=webp&s=805543e83ec735142cd2cb3b71b2de595085f3cc I've been working on a way to generate fabrication-ready…
Life hack for “painting” metallic finishes on black filament….EYE SHADOW
Score 830 · 121 comments
I couldn’t find the perfect paint color for my Sleep Token Espera mask but I had the perfect eyeshadow color. I figured if u could use them for chroming nail polish colors then why wouldn’t…
Need some help with firing up a Haas VF1
Score 6 · 6 comments
Hello there, I am a lab technician at a university's design school. Another department has a VF1 that has been dormant for many years at this point, and we are looking to get it back into…
Best budget cnc for metal
Score 0 · 4 comments
So I would like a budget cnc milling machine for metal work, mainly aluminium but also preferably steel. My budget is £3000. I’ve been looking at the makera but also the **NestWorks C500…
Looking for a job for new machine.
Score 4 · 9 comments
I recently came up on a Shopbot PRS5 Alpha 4'x8' machine at an auction for a steal (no atc). Still in the crate. Kind of an impulse buy. I have zero cnc experience, and come from a plant…