Automated Assembly Systems

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Whether the product being manufactured is a mobile phone or an aircraft seat, the assembly processes will likely require some combination of manual and automated transfer operations.

For Flex, there isn't a question of what can't they do, but what they will do next. The 50-year-old company began manufacturing electronic products, something it still does today, but has expanded to offer end-to-end production across the globe.

Factories of the future will feature advanced technology, such as additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, data analytics and digital twins. While many manufacturers are still ramping up their Industry 4.0 initiatives, several assembly plants are already at the forefront. They are embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and reaping the benefits.

More than 20,000 manufacturing professionals saw the newest robots, vision systems and motion control technologies during the 2019 Automate show and conference, which was held April 8-11 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Lights-out automation has been a dream of engineers for more than 200 years. The goal is to push a button and let machines work unattended.

For many years, pet food manufacturers have used machine vision software to verify the presence of unique characters, codes, colors and graphic shapes on packaging for dog and cat food. Today, however, these companies can complement this process by also verifying the presence of a dog or cat image on the packaging using deep learning vision software.

Robots and other automation technologies have greatly increased productivity in today's factories. However, they still have one major limitation: They require people to tell them what to do.

By now, we've all heard the hype: The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will fundamentally change manufacturing and offer a cornucopia of benefits, including increased efficiency, higher quality and more responsive supply chains.

BLOOMINGTON, IN—To be successful in today's hyper-competitive global marketplace, manufacturers are constantly finding innovative ways to use technology to increase productivity.