Automotive Assembly

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After a dismal 2009, our Top 50 manufacturers are back in the black.

Vision systems used to guide robots pose different challenges for manufacturers than vision systems used for part inspection. The biggest challenge is guiding robots in 2-1/2D applications, where guidance is used so the camera maintains a proper perspective of a part that is level but included in a stack.

All day long, wire harnesses are sealed against porosity at nine Magna-Tech Manufacturing facilities located throughout North America. These wire harnesses are of different lengths, contain wire of different thicknesses, and are made by Tier 1 suppliers such as Delphi, ATPI, Siemens, Group Dekko and Federal Mogul.

When preparing parts for assembly, automakers can always use an extra hand or two. One automaker has found those hands at the end of a dual-arm robot. For the past four years, the automaker has used the dual-arm robot to shorten the cycle time to treat the front and back surfaces of a suspension component.

Bombardier Aerospace has borrowed several ideas from the auto industry that it hopes will help streamline production of the new CSeries regional jetliner.

In addition to using the latest lean manufacturing principles, Boeing's new 787 assembly plant is one of the greenest factories in the aerospace industry.

Having a zero landfill plant is great for automakers, but it isn’t something they can achieve on their own. Tier 1 suppliers, waste-retrieval companies and vendors all play an important supporting role. One such vendor is Orbis Corp. which, for the past several decades, has helped various automakers become zero landfill by supplying their Tier 1 suppliers with reusable containers.

Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. became the first zero landfill auto plant in the United States in 2004, but it wasn’t long before many other automakers followed SIA’s example, including General Motors. Other automakers, like BMW MC in Greer, SC, are on the path to becoming zero landfill.