Automated Assembly Systems

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BERLIN—Festo Corp. has invented a pneumatic conveyor belt that uses wave action to transport objects in a targeted manner and sort them at the same time.

NORDLINGEN, Germany—Six-axis robots and a rotary indexing table are the heart of a high-speed automated assembly system that produces 200,000 automotive sensors daily.

It has become fashionable lately for some U.S. companies to tout how they’ve reshored production from overseas. Baldor Electric Co. isn’t one of them—it never left. The company has been manufacturing electric motors, drives, bearings and other motion control products in the United States for decades.

Component interoperability for PC-based vision systems has come a long way in a short time. The main reason for this quick evolution is interface standards, which the AIA, a machine vision trade group, began introducing in 2000.

Premixed, ready-to-drink, functional beverages are certainly convenient, but that convenience comes with some trade-offs.

Robotic screwdriving offers numerous advantages to manufacturers, such as flexibility and repeatability. However, it’s easy to underestimate the requirements of automation. Sometimes, engineers specify the wrong type of robot or overlook parts feeding issues.

Several issues need to be addressed before there will be more widespread use of robotic screwdriving. Cost, robot design, training, culture and other factors must be considered by manufacturing engineers.

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation Specialists has delivered two lean workstations to assemble, grease, mark and test input pinion assemblies for a Tier 1 automotive supplier of commercial steering components.

CLEMSON, SC—Engineering students at Clemson University have designed a flexible machine that automatically installs O-rings.

Over the past decade, Polystar has grown in both size and chemistry complexity. Simultaneously, so has the need for the company to more closely control product consistency and safety.