Developing new aircraft is always a challenge, but one that engineers at Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. (GAC) have successfully dealt with for more than 60 years. GAC produces state-of-the-art corporate jets for companies and governments all around the world, with hundreds of them currently in operation.
Automakers are scrambling to build a new generation of vehicles that are intelligent, connected and electrified. That’s forcing engineers to rethink how traditional assembly lines and production processes function.
Consumers spend some $1 billion to buy 2 billion lightbulbs each year in the U.S. That’s more than 6 million every day. High-speed automated assembly is the only way to meet that kind of volume.
With so many ways to formulate plastic to get just the right combination of color, texture, strength and durability, it’s easy to forget how the parts will be assembled. However, if the parts will be assembled with screws, overlooking such parameters as thread style, driver speed and boss design could spell disaster on the assembly line.
There are many ways to linearly move an object from point A to point B on an assembly line. But, not all of them are designed to optimize speed, accuracy and repeatability while performing the task.
For any plastic-injection-molding tooling company, nothing is more important than making sure its molds allow for consistent, quick and clean demolding of just-made parts. So anything that helps the company achieve this crucial goal is worth pursuing.
Thermoelectric coolers are great for day trips, tailgating, boating or even overnight camping trips. Instead of ice, these coolers rely on a thin, flat electronic assembly called a Peltier device.
Flexible feeders are great at helping manufacturers accommodate product variants on the assembly line. After the feeder presents parts to a vision-guided robot, one or more cameras take images of the parts, and vision software tells the robot which parts are pickable and which are not. The robot then retrieves the parts for kitting or assembly.