If it rolls, floats or flies, lightweighting is one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers today. The push for new materials is forcing engineers in a variety of industries to explore cost-effective alternatives and develop new assembly processes.

Fastening and pressing equipment have been used to assemble medical devices for decades, and that's not likely to change anytime soon.

There are many ways to perform destructive testing. The most helpful, and preferred by manufacturers, is to intentionally destroy an assembly in a controlled environment to determine the performance capability of one or more of its components. Another way, done unintentionally and all too often by consumers, is to simply misuse a product.

Electric vehicles may be all the rage now among automotive manufacturers, but golf car makers have been using the technology since the early 1950s.

Fixtures are essential to most assembly and machining processes. Their design is vital, as they have a direct effect on productivity, cost and quality. It is estimated that 40 percent of rejected parts stem from inappropriate fixturing.