Automated Assembly Systems

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Keeping workers safe is a daily challenge for every manufacturer, particularly those that operate one or more automated assembly lines. To achieve this goal, many companies make sure their machines are equipped with sensor-based safety components that meet ANSI, ISO, ISA and OSHA standards.

Designing a medical device or consumer product can take a long time. Designing an automated assembly system for those products shouldn’t add any more. Starting with a standardized assembly platform can reduce engineering time and get the product to market faster.

Specifying an air cylinder might seem to be an overwhelming task when you consider all the shapes, sizes and types of cylinder products available today. A new white paper delineates the spectrum of available standard options that can quite often be your key to avoiding the need for a totally custom cylinder.

Building a car generates massive amounts of data throughout the value chain. The BMW Group uses its Smart Data Analytics digitalization cluster to analyze this data selectively and enhance its production system. Results from intelligent data analysis make an effective contribution towards improving quality in all areas of production and logistics.

SINGAPORE--Engineers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) here have developed a robotic system that can autonomously assemble an IKEA chair. The machines feature off-the-shelf components, such as 3D cameras and robotic arms equipped with parallel grippers.

Medical devices pose a special challenge to designers of parts feeding equipment. Parts for such devices can be tiny, sharp, clingy, floppy, tangly; or some combination of those properties.

Disposable devices are essential components of every medical, dental and veterinary practice. Using disposables lowers costs, increases efficiency, and reduces the spread of infection. According to market research firm The Freedonia Group, sales of medical disposables in just the U.S. are expected to top $49.3 billion this year.

Cables, cord sets and wire harnesses are invariably assembled with at least some amount of manual labor, even when high volumes are needed. Sure, the process of cutting, stripping and terminating individual wires can be fully automatic.

Industry 4.0 is the hottest trend to hit the manufacturing world since the Toyota Production System started to transform assembly lines two decades ago. Although most of the talk about digital production systems and smart factories involves things such as augmented reality, collaborative robots or data analytics, conveyors play an equally important role.