Espoo – September 23, 2026 -- Valmet has secured an order to supply a complete coated board making line, automation, and lifecycle services to a customer in Asia, with the new machine scheduled to start up in 2028.

Valmet delivers full production scope from stock preparation to winders

The order covers stock preparation and a complete board machine spanning headboxes to reel and winders. Lifecycle performance will be secured through automation, digital services, and paper machine clothing and spare parts packages.

Oak Brook – September 23, 2026 -- UPG Enterprises LLC has filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, securing up to $6.1 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Firehorse Capital LLC to fund continued operations during a court-supervised sale process.

Towson – September 22, 2026 -- A DEWALT survey of 534 WorldSkills competitors across more than 60 countries found that 76% believe technical and vocational skills are increasingly critical to the global economy, yet 51% say too few young people are entering the trades.

Milan – September 22, 2026 -- Pirelli's Board of Directors has majority approved a roughly €1 billion ($1.2 billion) multi-year investment to expand its Rome, Georgia plant, with three board members -- Zhang Haitao, Xi Xiaohong and Wang Kun -- voting against the plan.

Pittsburgh – September 22, 2026 -- Viam will debut BoxBot, a robot arm that opens taped cardboard boxes, at IROS 2026 in Pittsburgh, running September 27 through October 3. The system was trained on just 125 teleoperated demonstrations collected in roughly five hours over four days, using a fine-tuned open-source vision-language-action model with no custom architecture required.

Austin, Texas – September 22, 2026 -- Sparx Engineering has opened its third Texas office, a 3,117-square-foot location at 1023 Springdale, Bldg 12B, in the Springdale General community in East Austin.

Sparx expands its Texas footprint with new East Austin lease

The Greater Houston-based engineering consultancy secured the space with representation from Aquila Commercial's Noah Yetley. The new office follows Sparx's first satellite branch, opened in Dallas in 2023, giving the firm operations in Houston, Dallas, and now Austin.

Redwood City, Calif. – September 22, 2026 -- Ivalua has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Direct Spend 2026 Vendor Assessment (#US54900426, September 2026), based on evaluations of its capabilities, strategy, market presence, and core architecture.

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.

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.

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.