Refrigerators are one of the only appliances found in nearly every type of home, whether it's an apartment in suburban Atlanta, a high-rise condominium in downtown Chicago, a beach house in Hawaii or a trailer in Texas. The humble refrigerator is also the hardest working household appliance. Day and night, it's constantly running to keep all types of food and beverages cool, fresh or frozen.

Not many CEOs become household names. Looking at the current Fortune 100, I came up with just three: Jeff Bezos of Am-azon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Michael Dell of Dell, the latter only because I stare at a Dell laptop all week.

Manufacturing high-quality aluminum parts for the aerospace industry presents one set of challenges. But, shipping them safely presents a much different set.

Disc springs are conically shaped, washer-like components designed to be axially loaded.

For basic welding jobs, companies often rely on blueprints, tools and tape measures to build and weld the parts. However, when using these conventional tools, there's a high risk of mistakes being made and, at the end, having to break the parts loose, which is expensive and time consuming.

Depaneling PCBs is a critical step in surface mount technology assembly, especially when the boards are small, circular or require tight tolerances. Some electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies have found a UV laser to be an effective tool for depaneling these types of boards.

Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is a visionary. In May 2002, he founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company.

Load cells and sensors used with presses measure several key variables, such as ram force, distance and time, and help ensure they stay within allowable tolerances.

When designing plastic parts to be assembled by ultrasonic welding, engineers have several options: a butt joint, a step joint, a tongue-and-groove joint, and a shear joint.

Additive manufacturing is transforming the way many types of products are designed and assembled. One industry that's benefitting the most is aerospace, which traditionally requires complex, low-volume components that must withstand rigorous operating conditions.