Factory Signal Briefing — April 28, 2026
Advanced Manufacturing · 3D Printing · CNC · Robotics · AI Vision
News
How Relativity Space’s Horizon and DEEP Manufacturing turned large-scale WAAM expertise into industrial services
There is a particular credibility that comes from having already done something no one else has. Relativity Space built the largest 3D printed object ever to fly—its Terran 1 rocket—by…
Elegoo Releases Affordable CANVAS Kit for Multicolor Upgrade on Centauri 3D Printers
Elegoo has released their long-awaited CANVAS upgrade for the original Centauri Carbon 3D printer. The post Elegoo Releases Affordable CANVAS Kit for Multicolor Upgrade on Centauri 3D…
Appetronix acquires Cibotica to automate restaurant kitchens
Until now, Appetronix has focused on creating standalone fully autonomous restaurants. With Cibotica, it can also retrofit existing kitchens. The post Appetronix acquires Cibotica to…
Flex and Teradyne expand partnership to scale physical AI
Flex and Teradyne Robotics expanded their partnership to accelerate physical AI across global manufacturing facilities. The post Flex and Teradyne expand partnership to scale physical AI…
Show HN: Drive any macOS app in the background without stealing the cursor
Hi HN, Francesco from Cua here. I hacked this project together last weekend, inspired by the Codex Computer-Use release and lessons learned from deploying GUI-operating agents for our…
How to Reverse-Engineer Almost Any Keyboard Matrix With Raspberry Pi Pico
Super handy tutorial from Indian student/maker thanishurs31 that combines the powers of the pi pico with CicuitPython: This guide does it differently. We use a Raspberry Pi Pico running…
Addressing Technical Challenges in Next-Gen Smart Lock Design
this blog… From Connectivity Standards Alliance’s Matter™ and Aliro™ to Biometric Authentication The growing demand for secure, easy-to-use, and seamlessly integrated access…
Microarchitecture Tailored to 3D-Stacked Near-Memory Processing LLM Decoding (U. of Edinburgh, Peking U., Cambridge et al.)
A new technical paper, “Rethinking Compute Substrates for 3D-Stacked Near-Memory LLM Decoding: Microarchitecture-Scheduling Co-Design,” was published by researchers at University…
Better Hardware Could Turn Zeros into AI Heroes
When it comes to AI models, size matters. Even though some artificial-intelligence experts warn that scaling up large language models (LLMs) is hitting diminishing performance returns…
Amazon is already offering new OpenAI products on AWS
A day after OpenAI got Microsoft to agree to end exclusive rights, AWS announced a slate of OpenAI model offerings, including a new agent service.
Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI
Sam Altman and Elon Musk are facing off in a high-stakes trial that could alter the future of OpenAI and its most well-known product, ChatGPT. In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI…
Here is what an LLM that knows nothing after 1930 thinks our world looks like in 2026
"Talkie" is a 13B-parameter language model trained only on texts written before 1931. It doubts a second world war will happen and pictures 2026 as a world of steamships, railroads, and…
What is the scientific value of administering the standard Rorschach test to LLMs when the training data is almost certainly contaminated? (R) + [D]
Score 17 · 6 comments
A recent paper published in *JMIR Mental Health* (Csigó & Cserey, 2026) caught my attention. The researchers administered the 10 standard Rorschach inkblot cards to three multimodal LLMs…
Our vendor pipeline was basically 2 trade shows a year. spent months fixing that
Score 8 · 9 comments
Had a client tell me paid ads dont work for industrial B2B. this was maybe 4 months ago. equipment supplier, been around 22 years, every new account came from trade shows or a sales rep with…
Wood prototype with internal T-slot; 5 axis needed or redesign?
Score 5 · 38 comments
Hi everyone, I'm working on a wood product prototype and have hit a manufacturing limitation that I'm hoping to get input on. I already have a full CAD model (STEP files), and it's gone…
HP Prime calculator, an assistant for calculating machining modes on a CNC machine.
Score 1 · 2 comments
Hi! Since I have a CNC machine, it's impossible to work on it without a reference book or a calculator for calculating machining modes for different materials. I've had a good HP calculator…
The level of detail you can get with a standard 3D printer still blows my mind. My latest city model prints.
Score 362 · 24 comments
I've been working on these 3D topographic city maps for a while. These are Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław, and Rawicz. It’s all printed in white PLA to get that "architectural model" look. The…
Best approach for extracting lot ID and expiration date from pharmaceutical packaging images?
Score 1 · 1 comments
Hi everyone! I’m working on a computer vision coursework project where I need to detect and reliably extract the lot/batch ID and expiration date embossed or lightly printed on…
Full 2027 Opel Astra production process filmed inside the Rüsselsheim factory
Score 5 · 1 comments
I had exclusive access to the Opel Rüsselsheim plant and filmed the full production process of the new Opel Astra — press shop, body shop, paint shop, final assembly, body-to-chassis…
Most SMT lines I have seen don’t really rely on full inspection is that actually normal?
Score 0 · 13 comments
Not sure if this is just the environments I’ve been around, but full inspection (especially X-ray on every board) doesn’t seem that common. Most places I’ve seen lean more toward: process…
3-axis CNC router: Z-axis slowly creeps “up” about 0.8mm every ~218,000 lines of G-code
Score 2 · 9 comments
I’m troubleshooting a CNC router where the Z-axis slowly ends up higher than commanded during long 2.5D relief carving jobs. **Setup:** Mach3, HC Servo X3DA-400V drive, AC servo Z motor…
Need help checking/revising my design
Score 2 · 18 comments
I have been working on a design for a cnc for the past year. Now im nearing the final stages of putting all research into a design. Since Im working on a budget I tried to keep things…