Manufacturing & Industrial Technology

GRAND RAPIDS – November 03, 2026 -- More than 40 senior print and packaging executives identified workforce transition, AI adoption, packaging regulation and supply-chain partnerships as four interlinked pressures at X-Rite Pantone's first Color Council, held September 17-18, 2026, in Rosemont, Illinois.

Attendees came from print service providers, packaging converters, brands, and ink and equipment suppliers. Each session paired a short keynote with a peer panel and open group discussion, so most of the time went to comparing experiences rather than presentations. Keynote speakers were independent experts Ron Ellis, Amy Servi-Bonner of PRINTING AI, Robb Frimming and David Zwang.

Stuttgart – November 03, 2026 -- Mid-sized contract manufacturers can enter defense supply chains with their existing machinery by producing dual-use components, but only if they pursue customers actively, according to sales consultancy matchandmake GmbH.

The firm says rising defense investment is creating additional demand, yet many smaller industrial suppliers wrongly assume such orders are reserved for large defense groups or highly specialized producers. Managing Director Luka Glavas argues that contract manufacturers with suitable equipment risk leaving these opportunities to competitors.

Sheridan, Wyoming – November 02, 2026 -- The global industrial automation market is valued at USD 266.7 billion in 2026 and will reach USD 410.3 billion by 2031, a CAGR of 9%, according to a new study by Wissen Research. The market is moving from isolated, hardware-oriented machine control toward connected, software-based production that combines control hardware, robotics, industrial software and real-time analytics.

Factories installed a record 603,000 industrial robots in 2025

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reports that installations rose 11% year on year, lifting the global operational stock to 5.079 million units. IFR forecasts a further 9% increase in 2026, to about 655,000 units.

Demand now extends beyond the car plant. In 2025, installations in metal and machinery grew 22%, while automotive and electronics each rose 10%. Collaborative robots accounted for 66,000 new installations, about 11% of the total.

Wilmington – November 02, 2026 -- Chemours (NYSE: CC) reported third-quarter 2026 Adjusted EBITDA of $200 million, up from $189 million a year earlier, as TiO2 price increases and growth in high-value materials for data center and semiconductor customers offset a sharp decline in refrigerants.

Net Sales rose approximately 3% to $1.5 billion. Pricing added 5%, volumes subtracted 2%, and currency was a slight headwind. Net Income attributable to Chemours reached $196 million, or $1.29 per diluted share, versus $46 million, or $0.31 per share, a year earlier. The figure includes $150 million in PFAS insurance proceeds tied to the New Jersey judicial consent order, booked as a reduction to SG&A. Adjusted Net Income rose 19% to $31 million, or $0.21 per share.

MISSISSAUGA – November 02, 2026 -- Cymat Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: CYM) will brief investors on November 4 at 2:00 p.m. EST on a proposed joint venture with KAP Minerals Inc. to produce scandium-aluminum (Sc-Al) master alloy at its Mississauga facility. The webcast, held on Zoom, follows a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with KAP last week.

JV would draw scandium from Kapuskasing mine tailings

The scandium would be recovered through secondary refining of surface tailings at a phosphate mine in Kapuskasing, Ontario, which KAP plans to rehabilitate. Transportation, energy and building infrastructure for the refining facility are already in place, which Cymat expects to deliver a low-cost process for scandium oxide.

Beijing – November 02, 2026 -- Journalists from South Korean, Turkish, U.S. and Cuban media outlets toured hi-tech companies and a modern agricultural demonstration park in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, on October 26-28, testing 3D scanning, exoskeleton and humanoid-robotics products.

Scantech opens the three-day tour with 3D digitization demonstrations

On October 26, the group visited Scantech, a comprehensive 3D solutions provider, and tried 3D visual digitization technologies. Isaura Diez of Cuba's Prensa Latina, using a 3D scanner for the first time, cited its applications in the medical and industrial fields.

HSINCHU – November 03, 2026 -- Wincomm, a Portwell company, will exhibit alongside Portwell Taiwan and Portwell Europe at MEDICA 2026 (November 16-19, Düsseldorf, Germany), with a joint stand at Hall 12, Stand C76 covering embedded computing, medical All-in-One (AIO) PCs and portable devices.

Joint stand targets medical equipment makers and system integrators

The three entities will combine product engineering expertise with regional support. Their stated aim is to help medical equipment manufacturers and system integrators identify suitable computing architectures for their applications.

The companies cite growing demand for more diverse computing platforms tailored to different workloads, power requirements, installation constraints and system integration needs. By showing their complementary portfolios together, they aim to give visitors a broader view of platforms for connected medical equipment and AI deployment at the clinical edge.

Oslo – November 03, 2026 -- Nordic Semiconductor has introduced the nRF71 Series of ultra-low-power systems-on-chip, which cuts standby power by up to 20 times compared with the current nRF70 Series Wi-Fi products. The chips combine Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Thread and edge AI on a single device and are now sampling with selected customers.

Axon NPU runs machine learning models 10x to 17x faster than the Cortex-M33 alone

The integrated Axon Neural Processing Unit runs inference 10x to 17x faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor alone. Nordic says keyword spotting, anomaly detection and image classification become practical on battery-powered devices, with no external AI processor required. Developers can also run ultra-small models built from their own data with Nordic's Neuton software on the processor alone. Over-the-air model updates run through nRF Cloud.

Wilmington – November 03, 2026 -- DuPont raised its full-year 2026 outlook for the second time after third-quarter net sales rose 4% to $1.9 billion, with adjusted EPS of $2.09 and transaction-adjusted free cash flow of $341 million, a 121% conversion rate.

DuPont lifts full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $7.47-$7.52

The company now expects organic growth of about 4.5%, operating EBITDA of about $1.785 billion and adjusted EPS of $7.47 to $7.52. CFO Antonella Franzen said all three metrics sit at or above the high end of previously communicated guidance.

Third-quarter organic sales grew 5%, partly offset by a 1% currency headwind. GAAP income from continuing operations was $171 million, or $1.24 per share, and operating EBITDA was $469 million. GAAP earnings improved on higher segment earnings and lower interest expense and transaction costs. Adjusted EPS rose on higher segment earnings and lower net interest expense, tax rate and share count.

Westminster, Colorado – November 03, 2026 -- Ball Corporation (NYSE: BALL) reported third-quarter 2026 comparable diluted earnings per share of $1.10, up 6.8% from $1.03 a year earlier, while U.S. GAAP results swung to a net loss of $94 million, or 36 cents per diluted share, versus earnings of $1.18 per share in 2025.

Sales reached $4.19 billion, compared with $3.38 billion in the prior-year quarter. Comparable net earnings were $293 million versus $280 million. Comparable operating earnings rose 2.5% to $451 million from $440 million. Global aluminum packaging shipments increased 4.7%.