Tamper-proof fasteners are intended to keep the average Joe from, well, tampering with an assembly. For most applications, that’s good enough, but not all.
Let’s say you have circuit board assembly that contains red and green LEDs. Automated optical inspection can tell you if the LEDs are present and oriented correctly. But how tell if a green LED has been accidentally swapped with the red one?
Most fasteners that provide permanent load-bearing threads in thin materials require both sides of the workpiece to be accessible during installation and final assembly. When the workpiece can only be accessed from one side, threaded rivet nuts and studs provide a solution.
Although cordless tools are becoming increasingly popular on assembly lines today, many manufacturing engineers continue to view them with suspicion. And that’s too bad.
The city of Hamburg, Germany, has 17 libraries that recently implemented a fully automated check-in and checkout system that includes a network of “smart” conveyors reminiscent of those used in cutting-edge warehouses and factories.
Hi-Heat Industries Inc. (Lewistown, MT) manufactures flexible heating elements that are used in a wide variety of applications, including everything from the restaurant industry to composites manufacture and the military sector.
In 2004, Group Dekko began deploying a networked information system connected directly to its processing machines, so that the company could gather production information from its various manufacturing operations.
At its pump assembly plant in Sunderland, England, Grundfos recently installed a flexible, semiautomated workstation to attach pump covers to two different pump housings.
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