Automated Assembly Systems

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CHANGWON, South Korea—Automation has enabled LG Electronics to boost productivity, decrease defects and increase safety at its appliance assembly plant here.

ISLANDIA, NY—Festo Didactic and SICK have created a new training program to teach students the latest thinking and technology related to robot safety.

WOLFSBURG, Germany—Volkswagen Group plans to automate 20 to 30 percent of production at its new Trinity assembly plant under construction here.

GROB-Werke GmbH & Co. KG creates high-volume production systems for the electric vehicle (EV) market. Based in Mindelheim, Germany, the machine tool manufacturer recently completed a sophisticated system for making hairpins, which form the stator winding rims of electric motors.

Selecting a conveyor for an automation project is certainly not a “one-size-fits-all” scenario. Automation applications are incredibly diverse, and the options and features available on conveyors reflect that. Some industries have specific health and safety requirements, while others are less restrictive. Some will need a certain feature for the automation application to work, while others are more flexible. 

ZURICH—A global survey conducted by ABB has revealed that a significant workforce education gap could derail efforts by U.S. and European manufacturers to reshore or near-shore operations to build resilience in the face of global challenges.

At the Moscow Chess Open in July, a tabletop six-axis robot equipped with a two-finger gripper was programmed to play chess with three opponents simultaneously. During one match, an overenthusiastic seven-year-old boy reached for a piece before allowing the robot to complete its move. 

In today’s smart factories, cyber physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual representation of the physical world, and even make decisions. The traditional structure of the automation pyramid and the distinction between information and operations technologies are blurring.

Assembly technology is wonderful, but it is not perfect. In some way, each technological process has a downside.

If the factory of the future will run on data, new types of hardware will be needed to collect, route, process and display it. That means more than just new PLCs, but gateways, edge computers, tablets and other hardware.