Manufacturing & Industrial Technology

CLEVELAND – October 29, 2026 -- Preformed Line Products (NASDAQ: PLPC) lifted third-quarter 2026 net sales 18% to $209.5 million, from $178.1 million a year earlier, while gross margin widened 370 basis points to 33.4%.

Net income reached $18.0 million, or $3.56 per diluted share, against $2.6 million, or $0.53 per share, in Q3 2025. Adjusted for charges tied to the U.S. Pension Plan termination in Q3 2025, diluted EPS rose 70%. Currency translation added $3.1 million to quarterly sales and $0.4 million to net income.

PLP-USA drives growth on transmission and distribution demand

PLP-USA delivered more than $100 million in net sales for the second consecutive quarter, driven mainly by transmission and distribution markets. For the first nine months, PLP-USA net sales grew 28%.

SHANGHAI – October 29, 2026 -- VeriSilicon (688521.SH) has launched GLTiny, a 3D GPU programming model that pairs a streamlined API with an ultra-lightweight driver for smartwatches, smart glasses and other wearables with tight power and memory budgets. GLTiny runs on the company's Nano OpenGL ES GPU IP series.

GLTiny cuts driver memory footprint and CPU overhead through configurable rendering

The model draws on VeriSilicon's experience in wearable graphics. Developers define their rendering requirements through configurable functions, and GLTiny maps them onto the underlying OpenGL ES GPU capabilities. VeriSilicon says this reduces driver memory footprint and CPU overhead, improving power efficiency and performance on constrained hardware.

SHANGHAI – October 29, 2026 -- DODGEN supplied devolatilization technology to three Chinese polyolefin elastomer (POE) projects in 2026. Two plants, at CNPC Daqing Petrochemical and Xingchuan New Materials, have started up on the first attempt, and a third customer, Shaanxi Yuneng, has signed a supply contract.

Daqing Petrochemical produced on-specification POE three days after completing its process flow

CNPC Daqing Petrochemical's 30,000-tonne-per-year industrial demonstration plant completed its full process flow on September 23. It produced on-specification product on September 26. DODGEN engineered and supplied proprietary core equipment for the plant's devolatilization section.

Mountain View – October 29, 2026 -- xTool has begun worldwide shipping of the X1, a desktop laser engraver and cutter priced from $3,399 to $6,679, built around swappable laser modules that let buyers add capabilities without buying a second machine.

Galvo and gantry systems run on a synchronized 4-axis linkage

The X1 combines a high-speed Flying-Galvo system with a large-format Dragon-Gantry workspace. xTool says this removes the usual trade-off between engraving speed and working area. The machine uses a 4,000-ton UniCast high-pressure die-cast aluminum frame, and software feathering algorithms are meant to remove micro-vibrations and visible seams across flat and 3D surfaces.

xTool is competing on motion architecture rather than wattage. "The future of desktop fabrication is not about replacing machines every time your business expands," said Jessie Liu, President of xTool.

PITTSBURGH – October 29, 2026 -- Wesco International reported record third-quarter net sales of $7.2 billion, up 17% year over year and 8% sequentially, and raised its full-year 2026 outlook as backlog grew about 80%.

Data center sales rise about 55% to $1.8 billion

Data center sales reached $1.8 billion, up roughly 55% from a year earlier. Non-data center sales rose 7%. Organic sales grew 16.6%, with volume gains in all three segments (CSS, EES and UBS) and a favorable price effect. Organic sales for the first nine months rose 13.9%.

Total company backlog hit a record, and each of the three business units set its own backlog record. CEO John Engel said the growth is fueled by multi-year customer commitments, and that the past five consecutive quarters of double-digit sales growth show a growth profile that extends beyond data centers.

Shanghai – October 29, 2026 -- AGIBOT introduced Worken, a proposed framework that measures robots by the productive work they perform rather than by units built or delivered, at its Innovation Day 2026 event. The company also unveiled its AHA3 hardware platform, the GO-3 Preview foundation model and the G2 Max industrial robot.

Worken multiplies active robots, autonomous hours and output efficiency

AGIBOT defines Worken as "Effective Intelligent Work Hours": Number of Active Robots × Autonomous Working Hours × Output Efficiency Ratio. The first factor counts only robots performing tasks in real environments, excluding units in inventory. The second counts autonomous working time rather than total powered-on time. The third benchmarks output against a reference task, such as acceptable work completed by a human worker under established operating standards.

Munich – October 29, 2026 -- Only 41 percent of German business decision-makers rate their company as well or very well prepared for cyberattacks, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by electronica, the electronics trade fair.

Cybersecurity ranks first when respondents name their most urgent technology need, cited by 16 percent. Skilled staff and competencies for AI and digitalization follow at 15 percent, and modernization of IT and data infrastructure at 13 percent. The survey links the pressure to rising network threats, geopolitical tensions and new regulation such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), alongside the growing connectivity of production plants, vehicles and logistics systems.

WENZHOU – October 29, 2026 -- Ruizhi Machinery unveiled three paper bag making machines at All in Print China 2026, led by the CS350T, which runs at up to 300 bags per minute and completes size changeovers in 15 minutes. The company presented the CS350T, CS450T and RZFD-250AS at Booth N3A213 during the five-day show at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

CS350T reaches 300 bags per minute with one-click changeovers

The CS350T targets high-volume production and supports one-click automatic size changeovers. Its multi-servo control system, German LENZE motion controller and servo system, and SICK photoelectric tracking technology are designed to keep forming precise at high speeds.

Global – October 29, 2026 -- Historians that stamp MQTT messages with broker arrival time can display an old pressure reading as a new process condition, distorting aggregates, alarms and event order during outage replays.

Plain MQTT defines no process-time field

MQTT specifies only the transport of an application message. It prescribes no timestamp field, industrial clock model or time semantics. The publisher's application contract decides whether a payload carries a time, in what format and with what quality.

OPC UA's SourceTimestamp and ServerTimestamp concepts do not carry over to ordinary MQTT payloads. Broker receipt time and connector receipt time are useful operational observations, but they do not prove when a machine produced a measurement.

Munich – October 29, 2026 -- Infinite Electronics will present connectivity products from seven operating companies at electronica 2026 in Munich, 10-13 November, pitching a single-supplier model for data centre, drone, industrial automation and energy customers. The company will exhibit in Hall A3, Stand 241, with Bulgin, L-com, Pasternack, Transtector, PolyPhaser, Capable and KC Industrie on the stand.

Infinite Electronics Pitches One Supplier for Drone Antennas, Connectors and Surge Protection

Nick Young, President and General Manager of the company's Industrial and ICC Business Units, said a drone programme needs antennas, sealed connectors and surge protection, and that most engineers source these from three suppliers. Infinite Electronics covers all three with Pasternack antennas, Bulgin connectors and Transtector surge protection, giving customers "one conversation with experts," he said.