#industrypost

OSHA Top 10 Violations in Manufacturing (2025)

Construction’s influence on OSHA’s list of safety violations can be misleading for manufacturers. Here’s what really matters to our industry.

OSHA’s top 10 list of safety violations—which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration releases each year—is highly anticipated and shines a light on the main areas of concern for workplace safety across all industries. For manufacturing businesses, however, this can be misleading, as the list is heavily influenced by construction, which has fundamentally different safety risks. “If I’m a manufacturing safety manager who’s brand-new, OSHA’s top 10 is the short list of the things I need to be prepared for. The problem is, this is not preparing me for the environment in which I live,” says Gil Truesdale, leader of safety services at MSC. By mainly focusing on that list, he says, “you’re trying to deliver solutions to things that you don’t necessarily have problems for, and unfortunately it takes your eye off the ball, and something hits you in the head because you’re looking the other way.”

Fatigue Performance in Additive Manufacturing: Challenges for Design, Testing, and Qualification

Defects, residual stress, and anisotropy may reduce fatigue strength in 3D‑printed parts, making robust qualification testing essential for adoption

As additive manufacturing (AM) transitions from prototyping into the production of structural and safety-critical components subjected to repeated loading, fatigue performance becomes a central concern. While the fundamental principles of fatigue remain unchanged, the nature of additive manufacturing introduces additional complexities that must be considered during testing. Why Fatigue Matters in Additive Manufacturing Fatigue testing has been routinely conducted for conventionally manufactured components to characterize long-term behavior, demonstrate compliance with international standards, or provide material input data for finite element analysis (FEA) and life prediction models. These same motivations now apply to additively manufactured parts.

Hair Fiber Tensile Testing Equipment

How Shampoo and Conditioner Manufacturers Validate Product Performance

The global hair care market is fiercely competitive. Shampoo and conditioner manufacturers invest heavily in R&D to differentiate their formulations — but consumer claims like "strengthens hair 2× vs. the leading brand" must be backed by rigorous, reproducible lab data. This article explains two of the primary mechanical tests used by hair product formulators: single hair fiber tensile testing and hair combability testing. Both methods use universal testing machines — such as Instron 6800 or 3400 Series systems — to generate the quantitative data needed to substantiate marketing claims and pass regulatory scrutiny.

Industrial 3D Printing: Choosing the Right Process, Material and Service

Such scenarios are where 3D printing service bureaus earn their keep. At 3D Parts Unlimited, the additive manufacturing (AM) branch of MSC, a team of experienced support personnel works with product designers, manufacturing engineers, and research and development (R&D) professionals who grapple with these and similar bottlenecks every day. “It’s never as simple as ‘just 3D print it,’” says Jordan Nowak, program manager for 3D Parts Unlimited. He goes on to explain that, even though AM is the fastest, most flexible path from CAD file to completed part, anyone wishing to take advantage of its many benefits should first have a basic understanding of 3D printing technology, its limitations and when to use it over—or more likely, in conjunction with—traditional manufacturing processes.

Advanced Carbon Materials: A Field Guide for Engineers Who’ve Outgrown Their Current Options

If you've spent any time specifying materials for demanding applications—aerospace wiring, high-speed data interconnects, automotive electrification—you've probably hit the same wall. You need a conductor that's light. And strong. And flexible. And thermally stable. And you've been told, implicitly or explicitly, that you can't have all of those things in one material. That constraint isn't a law of physics. It's a legacy of the materials we've been working with. The advanced carbon materials category is changing that, but slowly, and not uniformly. Understanding where it actually stands today, and where it's going, is increasingly a competitive advantage for engineers doing serious material selection.