Manufacturing & Industrial Technology

Chicago – September 22, 2026 -- Charter Next Generation (CNG), a North American material science solutions provider, has named Todd Herndon as Chief Financial Officer, bringing more than 35 years of financial, commercial, and operational leadership experience to the role.

Herndon joins from Consilio, a global legal technology and enterprise legal services firm, where he served as CFO

His prior leadership roles include positions at Diversey, now part of Solenis; Gardner Denver, now part of Ingersoll Rand; and Capital Safety. Herndon began his career at S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. and has worked extensively with private equity firms including KKR, Bain Capital, CD&R, and Stone Point Capital.

Debrecen -- CATL began trial production on September 22, 2026 at its newly built battery cell factory in Debrecen, Hungary, after clearing all preconditions tied to its IPPC environmental permit.

Trial run targets first two production lines at Debrecen facility

The trial phase covers the first two production lines of the cell manufacturing plant, following the occupancy permit obtained in August 2026. CATL will use the period to set up, optimize and validate production equipment and manufacturing processes ahead of full series production.

County government confirms earlier compliance deficiencies resolved

The Hajdú-Bihar County Government Office conducted repeated on-site inspections before issuing the occupancy permit, responding to concerns previously raised by local residents. Authority representatives confirmed that CATL had resolved all deficiencies identified earlier in the permitting process.

Toronto – September 22, 2026 -- OSCPS Motion Sensing Inc., operating as OSCP, released an open-source ROS 2 driver for its MK2 family of inertial measurement units, targeting robots that navigate GNSS-denied indoor environments such as warehouses, inspection tunnels and greenhouses.

Driver ships under MIT licence with full ROS 2 Humble and Jazzy support

The driver, published at github.com/OSCPS/oscp_ros2_driver, connects MK2-family units to ROS 2 systems over RS-422 or CAN-FD and publishes on standard sensor_msgs topics. It comprises three packages -- the driver node, a COBS-decoding library with frame definitions, and OSCP message types stamped with the unit's internal clock -- and supports Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04.

Santa Clara, Calif. – September 22, 2026 -- Aeonsemi, Inc. has introduced the Praxium PHY family, a line of multi-gigabit Ethernet transceivers delivering data rates up to 10 Gbps in a 6 x 6 mm QFN package for robots, autonomous vehicles and industrial machines.

Praxium cuts power to as low as 350 mW for 10 Gbps sensor links

The chips support IEEE 802.3ch standards for 10GBASE-T1, 5GBASE-T1 and 2.5GBASE-T1 operation, and use Energy-Efficient Ethernet on lower-speed uplinks to reach the 350 mW figure for asymmetric 10 Gbps connections. The family targets cameras, LiDAR, zone controllers and network backbones inside Physical AI systems where component size and power budgets are constrained.

Natick, Mass. – September 22, 2026 -- Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX) has agreed to acquire RealSense, the market leader in depth-sensing cameras for robotic perception and Physical AI, for approximately $500 million in cash, the company announced. The deal, financed entirely from Cognex's existing cash and investments, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 subject to customary conditions.

RealSense revenue is set to grow more than 50% to $80-90 million in 2026

RealSense, originally founded by Intel in 2014 and spun out as an independent company in 2025, is projected to generate $80 million to $90 million in revenue this year, representing growth of more than 50% over the prior year. The company's 3D perception technology serves fixed-arm robotics, autonomous mobile robots, quadrupeds and humanoids.

Delray Beach – September 22, 2026 -- The global heat transfer fluids market is projected to expand from $5.33 billion in 2026 to $6.60 billion by 2031, a 4.4% compound annual growth rate, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets.

Asia Pacific leads growth as chemical and electronics output expands

Asia Pacific is both the largest and fastest-growing regional market, expanding at a 5.1% CAGR through 2031. China, India, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian manufacturing hubs are driving demand for process heating and temperature-control solutions across chemicals, automotive, electronics and pharmaceutical production, alongside rising investment in data centers and HVAC infrastructure.

Guangzhou – September 22, 2026 -- The 140th China Import and Export Fair, known as the Canton Fair, will run from October 15 to November 4, 2026, with more than 220,000 overseas buyers from 197 countries and regions already pre-registered, nearly 80% of them professional buyers.

Over 32,000 exhibitors mark the fair's 70th anniversary with a push toward innovation

More than 11,000 exhibitors qualify as "Specialized, Refined, Differential, and Innovative" (SRDI) firms or industry champions. Some 64% of exhibitors now apply industrial internet or artificial intelligence technologies in their operations, while new and green products account for 23.2% and 26% of all exhibits respectively, both historical highs.

Drayton Valley – September 22, 2026 -- Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) has committed $1 million in multi-year investment to Drayton Valley, Alberta, marking the first Canadian community selected for its Thrive rural-development program.

Weyerhaeuser designates Drayton Valley as first Canadian Thrive community

The investment will be deployed over several years with input from local officials, business leaders, nonprofits and employees. Weyerhaeuser has operated a sawmill in the town of roughly 8,000 people, located 90 minutes southwest of Edmonton, for nearly 40 years, following a $23 million production-upgrade investment announced in 2013.

Romeo, Mich. – September 22, 2026 -- L&L Products has released Toughened T-Link®, a fully amorphous thermoplastic adhesive that delivered a 66% increase in compressive strength after impact under ASTM D7137 testing versus panels made with epoxy prepreg alone.

New adhesive targets ductility gaps in layered carbon-fiber composites

The technology extends L&L Products' existing T-Link® platform, adding enhanced impact resistance while retaining the dry-to-the-touch handling, room-temperature storage, and fast consolidation properties that define thermoplastic adhesive processing. Internal testing also showed a considerable increase in short beam shear performance under ASTM D2344 for panels incorporating Toughened T-Link® film between epoxy prepreg layers.

West Chicago, Illinois – September 22, 2026 -- Titan International (NYSE: TWI) has agreed to sell its Italtractor ITM undercarriage business to Italy's USCO S.p.A. in a deal set to deliver up to $285 million in total cash value to the wheel and tire manufacturer.

Deal structure delivers up to $285 million across multiple payment streams

Titan will receive an initial purchase price of $207 million, plus up to $6 million in earnout proceeds tied to ITM's 2026 performance targets. Customary net-asset adjustments at closing are expected to add roughly $23 million in additional value. Titan has also received or expects to receive $49 million in dividends from ITM, including $38 million collected in recent years and $11 million anticipated before closing.