Screwdriving and Riveting Assembly

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PHILADELPHIA—Naval Sea Systems Command has completed a fleetwide fastener study, identifying and recommending the removal of thousands of fasteners from the Navy supply system. The review identified 108,000 dormant fasteners—fasteners with no contract, requisition or maintenance history in the past five years—and 3,200 duplicate fasteners where two or more identical fasteners had different stock numbers.

Independence, OH—The Industrial Fasteners Institute has published two new reference books on fastening: Mechanical Fastening and Joining, by Bengt Blendulf, and Torque Book for Fasteners, by Joe Greenslade.

A growing number of manufacturers are moving from air tools to electric tools and from corded electric tools to cordless tools.

On May 22, 2012, after eight years of preparation, Space Exploration Technologies (better known as SpaceX) launched the Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft traveled more than 200 miles to reach its destination: the International Space Station (ISS).

I have included the issue in which each column appeared so you can delve into the topic in more detail if desired. As always, please feel free to contact me with your questions, comments or observations.

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.

Assemblers must work quickly while meeting strict quality requirements.

SINDELFINGEN, Germany—Daimler is equipping its assembly plant here with the Ubisense real-time location system. Daimler is using the RFID system to track the progress of each vehicle as it is assembled. The system is also being used to track and configure DC electric fastening tools at the plant.

Manufacturers in many industries are reshoring their assembly lines. Several factors are behind this phenomenon, including the ability to automate assembly tasks that traditionally used manual or semiautomated fastening equipment.