So You Want to Start a Business Blog...
How do you connect with customers - and potential customers - online? Here, some blogging experts offer key ways to get your business noticed in the blogosphere. A majority of small business owners (85 percent) are aware of blogs, but only 8 percent indicate that they use them, according to Network Solutions and the University of Maryland's 2011 Survey of Small Business Success. Such...
Read More »10,000 Steps: The Path to a Healthier Workforce
Work-based programs that encourage walking vastly improve employee health and well-being, giving us more reason to get out of our chairs and go for a stroll. While it may not seem labor-intensive, working behind a desk can take a serious toll on employee health, both physically and mentally. Everyone knows that exercise is an important way to boost health, but given the busy schedules, high...
Read More »Is This the Era of DIY Manufacturing?
The traditional principles of mass production today are being challenged by concepts of radical customization and highly personalized goods. As a growing number of do-it-yourself inventors and small-scale industrialists find creative ways to modify, reconfigure and fabricate products from the ground up, the manufacturing industry must adapt to this new future. Traditional models for manufacturing...
Read More »How to Think Your Way Out of a Dead End
That big document is due at 5 p.m. sharp and the end of the day is fast approaching, but you're drawing a complete blank. Here are some tips for knocking down mental blocks. On some days you might speed through your workload and achieve inbox zero, while on others you struggle to get through the most basic task before closing time. Although external factors, like workplace interruptions or lack...
Read More »Odd But Cool Uses For Solar Energy
With small solar collectors becoming easier and less expensive to manufacture, they've cropped up on all sorts of devices as of late from the truly silly to the rather interesting. So when I say odd, perhaps I should clarify that I don't mean tree-barking weird. After all, you COULD, if you wanted, purchase a solar-powered garden insect theater for those long summer nights when you've nothing...
Read More »5 Wild Ways to Use 3-D Printing
3-D printing is not only changing how things are made, but also broadening the range of materials manufacturers can make things with - from chocolate to human tissue. Here we look at some of the inventive and unusual ways to employ 3-D printing techniques. 3-D printers work much like inkjet printers. Instead of ink, though, the machines deposit successive layers of different materials, including...
Read More »Welcome to the New and Improved IMT
As you may have noticed, IMT has a new look. Yet our makeover is more than simply aesthetic. We've also made improvements that make it easier to find more than a decade's worth of content. We are excited to unveil ThomasNet's new and improved Industry Market Trends. What's new? Among our key redesign goals, we aimed to provide a site that improves entry points to valuable content and...
Read More »Machinery's Handbook Made Easy
Machinery's Handbook Made Easy is a time-saving navigational tool for Machinery's Handbook for experienced professionals and beginners alike. Erik Oberg's Machinery's Handbook enables users to maximize the enormous practical value available from the updated and revised guide, which illustrates how to solve the types of problems typically encountered in drafting rooms, machine shops and on the...
Read More »New Office Building Earns Highest LEED
To achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification -- which verifies that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health -- sustainable building practices are credited with points and a project must earn a minimum number of points to be certified. The points are awarded on a...
Read More »Weekly Industry Crib Sheet: Congress Approves Punitive Tariffs to Combat China Subsidies
Plus: Trade Deficit Expands, Manufacturing Execs Show Surging Optimism and Labor Market Strengthens. U.S. Trade Gap Widens in January The United States trade deficit rose to $52.6 billion in January, a 4.3 percent increase over the revised $50.42 billion total in December, as imports surged due to high demand for foreign-made cars, computers and food products, according to the U.S. Department of...
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