DPA Magazine | Features - The Engineer's Trusted Source of inductry articles

Smart, precise and productive: Supporting the factory of the future

02/02/2026

Here, James Watson, Renishaw’s Industrial Metrology Applications Manager, explores how smart developments are helping manufacturers achieve higher performance, greater flexibility and more efficient production at scale, while responding to broader industry trends and challenges in skills, supply chains and environmental performance.

Getting real data from old machines: How IO-Link is finally making legacy digitisation work

07/01/2026

Factories across the country will be familiar with the smart manufacturing paradox. Management wants real-time overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), to know why line three keeps stopping, and predictive maintenance alerts before something breaks – but much of the equipment doing the work predates smartphones.

From vision to touch: How physical intelligence is transforming logistics automation

07/01/2026

The logistics industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. As e-commerce continues its relentless expansion, warehouses are under pressure to process an ever-growing variety of products – each with its own shape, size, and fragility. Traditional automation, built around vision systems and suction grippers, is reaching its limits.

Cobot safety: What manufacturers need to know

01/12/2025

ISO 10218:2025 is an international standard which covers the safety requirements for industrial robots, ensuring that humans are not exposed to unacceptable risks when working collaboratively. Here, Stewart Robinson, Advisory Consultant and Functional Safety Expert at TÜV SÜD, breaks down what manufacturers need to know.

Behind the robot: Sensing, safety and control in Industry 4.0