WASHINGTON—Trade pressure and faltering U.S. competitiveness, not automation, were the main reasons the U.S. lost 5.7 million manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
AUBURN HILLS, MI—ABB Robotics is planning to invest $9.1 million in new equipment and expansion of its North American headquarters facility here. The investment is expected to create 40 jobs.
Integrators love a good challenge, and automotive OEMs and suppliers never disappoint. Not only do these two groups expect integrators to meet increasingly high production goals and come in or under budget. They also rely on integrators for creative solutions to all types of automation problems.
CLEMSON, SC—Researchers at Clemson University and Carnegie Mellon University are collaborating to develop next-generation robots for advanced manufacturing across the automotive, aerospace, electronics and textile industries. Clemson will also help train the workers who will operate the robots, as part of a $253 million plan to fill roughly 510,000 jobs in manufacturing by 2025.
The ASSEMBLY Show played host to more than 30 suppliers of robots and robotic accessories. The following are some of the robotic technology that were seen on the show floor.
LAS VEGAS—The Bosch Group demonstrated a new industrial robot with a smart “skin” that could allow people to work more closely with machines. Exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show here earlier this week, Bosch’s Automatic Production Assistant can sense when a person enters a “danger zone” and stop moving before an accident occurs.
A Fortune 500 manufacturer of electromechanical products previously operated six separate indexing assembly machines, each producing one of a family of products at about 40 parts per minute.
Most manufacturers are keen on automating production, so long as it can be done cost-effectively. This goal applies as well to KEEN Inc., a Portland, OR-based company that makes outdoor and lifestyle footwear.
What does a manufacturer do if it needs to increase production, but its robot’s range limit has been reached and space limitations prevent the addition of a second robot?