John Sprovieri

Engineers Rise to the Challenge of COVID

January 4, 2021

The best aspect of my job as a journalist covering science and technology is the opportunity to talk with smart, passionate people on a daily basis.

Lean Gives Crown Equipment a Lift

Continuous improvement and a vertical manufacturing strategy enable Crown to compete in a crowded market.

John Sprovieri

January 4, 2021

If a pallet-load of stuff must be moved around a warehouse, factory or retailer somewhere in the world, chances are pretty good that the machine doing the heavy lifting was made by Crown Equipment Corp.

Five Things: Furniture Manufacturing

John Sprovieri

December 15, 2020

Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. has installed 28,776 solar panels on the roof of its assembly plant in Leesport, PA. The panels will produce more than 9,630,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

2020 Capital Spending Survey: Cautious Optimism

With a new presidential administration and an end to COVID in sight, manufacturers are ready to invest in their assembly lines.

John Sprovieri

December 4, 2020

Slowly but surely, U.S. manufacturing is recovering from the pandemic-related slowdown.

Vision system aids feeding of pins

John Sprovieri

December 3, 2020

Automation engineers have developed ingenious ways to mechanically singulate and orient parts in a feeder bowl.

Good luck, Joe Biden

John Sprovieri

December 2, 2020

By the time you read this, President Donald Trump might finally have accepted reality and conceded the election. Or, there might be a coup or a zombie apocalypse; it's been that kind of year.

Piston Pushes Bridging Parts Into Motion

John Sprovieri

November 10, 2020

Manufacturers of automated machinery often receive requests to feed and orient ordinary plastics caps, but even an ordinary cap can have features that can cause part "behaviors" that present challenges during the feeding process.

Five Things: Truck Manufacturing

John Sprovieri

November 9, 2020

Daimler Truck has created a new subsidiary, Daimler Truck Fuel Cell, to mass-produce fuel cells for heavy trucks, energy storage and other applications.

RIP: Seiuemon Inaba, Founder of FANUC

John Sprovieri

November 6, 2020

Seiuemon Inaba, Ph.D., the founder of FANUC Corp., who turned a fledgling startup into a global manufacturer of robots and machine controls, died Oct. 2. He was 95.