ANN ARBOR, MI—Foxconn vice president Chia Day has won 2016 Engelberger Robotics Award for automating electronics assembly at the contract manufacturer’s electronics factories in China.
MUNICH—Some 248,000 industrial robots were purchased worldwide in 2015, a record high and a 12 percent increase from 2014. Global sales of robots have increased four-fold since 2009.
Whether fully automatic, semiautomatic or manual, almost every assembly system has some type of sensor for inspection, error-proofing or production monitoring. Thanks to new technologies, sensors are becoming smaller, more robust, more accurate and easier to integrate.
Today, GM's Lordstown assembly plant is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Although the facility appears to have a bright future, it also has a checkered past.
Wearable electronics initially trickled into the market with Dick Tracy-inspired watches and healthcare bracelets. They quickly gained momentum, however, and it wasn’t long before the wearables market exploded.
While designing the A350 XWB (extra wide body) airplane in early 2010, Airbus’ engineers proposed a revolutionary way to build the plane’s wings at the company’s plant in Broughton, UK. Specifically, they wanted the wings built horizontally rather than the traditional vertical method.
EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation has received a contract to design and build an automated assembly and packaging system for a three-piece IV connector. The high-speed system will produce the connectors at a rate of 0.43-second per part.