Editorial

 In the period from November 2013 until February 2014, Department of Polymer Processing, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, together with colleagues from the industry has conducted a series of technical workshops to educate interested attentands on additive technologies, their pros and cons and their potential applications. The workshops were part of the project Additive technology for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs AdTec). Seven workshops were attended by over 350 participants, who rated speakers, topics and applicability of knowledge gained in the workshops with high marks.
After the initial phase of the establishment of the Centre for additive technologies and procurement of the first set of equipment at the end of the 2013, the project Additive technologies for small and medium-sized enterprises entered the educational phase, during which seven technical workshops in all major regional centers of Republic of Croatia were planned and realized. Dr.sc. Damir Godec 

 P.I.T. Alarm is a company from Ivanja Reka, situated at the eastern entrance to Zagreb, in the crafts for almost 40 years. The company has now reached maturity to enter the German and Austrian markets, but also to offer services of making moulds for injection moulding.
It is a rare opportunity to meet company that is completely run by family, headed by a father and with both sons running their own departments. Everyone knows what is the company's business, and it seems that they all think the same because they all speak the same sentences. These sentences are about the same, consolidated and very elaborated strategy for further growth, which has already begun to show results. P.I.T. Alarm (.pdf 690KB) 

 Mercedes Benz comes to Serbia as a future strategic partner of Ikarbus from Zemun, with the production of buses for the city, intercity and line traffic, as well as vans, which will be competing at the price and quality and will be sold around the world. After Fiat, this is the second big car factory, which arrives in Serbia.
According to the Director General of Ikarbus, Alexander Vićentić, six-month negotiations between Mercedes and Ikarbus are coming to an end. "Mercedes said that we are able to work with them, and we began to produce the first prototype vehicles, city buses with diesel engine," said Vićentić. "We plan to introduce this vehicle at the International motor show of commercial vehicles in Belgrade in late March," explained Vićentić. 

 Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH supplies heavy plates to customers throughout the world. With the request of traceability of ech steel plate, the company came to Borries Markier-Systeme GmbH, one of the leading producers of marking systems. The marking system has been in service at Ilsenburger Grobblech and operating successfully since the spring of 2011.
The steel plate from Ilsenburg Grobblech GmbH has the optimal material properties for widely differing applications: pipelines for oil or gas, constructing bridges or wind power plants.
The subsidiary of Salzgitter AG, one of the leading steel technology concerns in Europe, has a workforce of some 820 at production facilities in Ilsenburg and Salzgitter in Germany. The company supplies about 800,000 tons of heavy plate in 350 possible steel grades every year to customers throughout the world. 

 Processes and assembly systems, robots and other automation factors are strongly marked by the continuous improvement of energy efficiency. The fair AUTOMATICA, which will be held from June 3 to 6, 2014 in Munich, special attention will be dedicated to pioneering technologies including the recent achievements in the development of economy and sustainable production, in addition to machine vision and robotics services.
Robot manufacturers target at a number of different interventions to optimize energy consumption. The mere energy consumption of the robot, associated with electronics, for some time has been at a very low level. Robot suppliers have to remove all stoppings and idlings to achieve maximum efficiency. 

 Daimler is installing the world's first plastic engine support for the six-cylinder diesel engine used in the new GL Class. Compared to the previous aluminum support, the plastic part offers improved acoustical properties, better thermal insulating characteristics and a definite weight advantage, while being able to withstand the same load. The part, which supports the engine with the aid of the engine mounts, is molded from Ultramid®A3WG10 CR, a highly reinforced specialty polyamide from BASF that has been optimized for high mechanical loads. Joma-Polytec in Bodelshausen assumed responsibility for designing the injection mold and producing the plastic engine support. 

 Demand for ICT in the world last year for the first time practically did not grow, while this year, according to various forecasts, it is expected to increase 3 to 5 percent. Some other indicators announce that 2014 will be a year of moderate recovery and a more or less peaceful "evolution" technology.
Last year, according to preliminary estimates of analytical companies, the demand for ICT in the world stagnated, or - as they say - break even was achieved, namely, an increase of only 0.4 percent. Technology researcher Gartner expects global IT spending to reach $3.8 trillion this year. In 2013, the global IT market grew at 0.4% year on year, it said.
Spending on personal computers, ultra-mobile PCs, mobile phones and tablets, which contracted 1.2% in 2013, will grow 4.3% in 2014, Gartner said.   

 In the digital age, marketers perceive the strong emergence of new media of various shapes and functionalities, which are intended to get closer to the user or consumer, so that communication can be as many two-way - interactive.
We observe the progress in displays in their size, energetic parsimony, display quality, compactness, etc. Powerful projectors have appeared as well as first tests of three-dimensional image display. As an upgrade of remote controls, mice or touchscreens, at the end of 2010 on the market arrived Microsoft Kinect 3D-camera, which enables us to capture real-time motion of the human body and apply it to interact with the display.   

 Machining specialist Höcherl & Reisinger by using Hermle machining centers became a much-in-demand technology service provider for precision parts.
Company Höcherl & Reisinger Zerspanungstechnik GmbH was founded in 1991 by Josef Reisinger and Herbert Höcherl in Walderbach, Bavaria. From a traditional small business the company developed into into showcase modern-sday corporation currently employing more than 80 people. In order to meet the needs of its customers, the company covers all relevant technologies, including turning, milling, grinding and eroding. Precision workpieces were manufacured on CNC-machinery. Herbert Höcherl comments on the long-standing pertnership with Hermle: »In earlier times the region around Cham was poor, today its industrial base is very higly developed. 

 Successful family GOM ScanBox spreads: ATOS ScanBox 4105 is the most compact among the four models, particulary suitable for automated measurement and inspection of small to medium parts and components. Standardized measuring cell is extremely compact and occupies only two square meters.The ATOS ScanBox can be moved in order to support production launch – for short distances even on its integrated wheels. All that is needed is a power supply. The measuring cell contains process-safe software solutions and hardware components. These include a robot, rotation table and image processing computer and in-built industrial safety. The key component of ATOS ScanBox 4105 is the compact, robot driven ATOS Core 3D scanner for for fast, non-contact and full-field measurements.