www.protoolreviews.com: My staff gets our hands on literally hundreds of new tools each year—many times before the public gets a chance to see them. With each new iteration comes a new feature, an improved spec, or perhaps a drop in price due to a manufacturing breakthrough. The real excitement, however, comes from the rare tools that break new ground completely and set the standard for what future tools will bring to the market.
4 comments:
This is a quietly exciting article. I'm glad that even though our tools do the job now, we as a civilization continue to evolve to make them just a bit better. If it weren't for the innovation of tools we would continue to be using the tools from 100 years ago and our world as we know it would have taken much longer to build or it would have never existed. I think the most exciting topic in the article is the idea of smart tools. We know what smart phones have done to the world and how much more efficient, and sometimes inefficient, we are. For the most part everything is a touch away. I think smart tools would be able to adjust to the speed of what type of wood or how long the screw is so that people no longer split the wood? or maybe there will be safely innovations so that there are less injuries on the job. I think in the long run smart tools might be the step just before a robot doing a job completely for you. The possibilities for the innovation of these tools will i believe help make people work faster, cheaper, and safer in the long run.I hope I will be able to see some of the innovations here at school so that we can innovate them here at CMU like our shop often does.
I am very impressed with the spread this article covers, and the detail in which it does so. I think the most relatable topic the author talks about is the digitalization of tools and how “smart tools” could soon be a thing of the present. I never really thought tool companies would be interested in linking devices to tools to monitor them, but seeing this author’s argument has shed some light on the subject, and now I see valid reasons as to why companies may be interested in these kinds of advancements. From a management stand point, it is a very easy way to keep track of your tools and make sure none of them get stolen or abused. It could also go so far as keeping up with tool maintenance if hours of use could be logged as well. I think bringing tools into the digital age could be a very interesting game changer to the industry and I’m interested to see what innovation happens next.
The digital customization of the tools to exactly what you need them to do is super cool. And that you just connect the tool to an app and configure it and go seems like the easiest thing, especially since you an make four preset configurations so when you connect it’s mostly just clicking one thing, saving, and getting off. At first I thought you had to change the speed, torque, run time, etc individually each time which means you have to know off the top of your head what those numbers should be, in which case it is so much more hassle than it is worth. The only thing I worry about now is the computer/tablet/phone falling off a table or getting crushed under something because it’s out and about while you work so you can customize. Lastly, the cordless pneumatic framing nailer gun and brad nailer is like a wish come true. More often than not you're either reaching up or over a table to nail something in and you have to fight against the pull of the cord which can be unsafe if you're on a ladder or just plain annoying.
This article is fascinating because power tools really are one of the very few niche’s smart technology has not quite invaded. While I am certainly excited to see power tools become more dynamically programmable for different uses the most exciting thing about smart tools is tools that will be able to think a little more on their own. For example, if you knew you simply needed to bury screw heads slightly and so you made one example screw, told your screw gun to remember that profile and all of the next screws you put in the screw gun would stop itself fully right at that point of insertion. We could also start to see more automated equipment. Such as a radial arm saw with a motorized stop block system which could be set accurately to 1/64th of an inch by simply typing in the value on a small pad on the front. Regardless of when smart technology gets to power tools in earnest, I fully expect it will change the way we do things forever.
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