John Sprovieri

Manufacturing Is Cool at GE Appliances' Refrigerator Factory

November 6, 2018

In June, GE Appliances, a Haier company, announced plans to invest $115 million to expand its refrigerator assembly plant in Decatur, AL. The investment will add 255 new jobs to the plant, bringing the total number of full-time employees there to nearly 1,300.

Rethink Robotics Gets Rethought

John Sprovieri

November 5, 2018

Rethink Robotics, the pioneering manufacturer of the Baxter and Sawyer collaborative robots, closed for business Oct. 3, just 10 years after it started.

60 Years of ASSEMBLY

For six decades, ASSEMBLY has been the leading source of knowledge about tools and techniques for joining parts into finished products

John Sprovieri

October 5, 2018

ASSEMBLY was born in October 1958 with the name Assembly & Fastener Engineering. Although its name was later shortened to Assembly Engineering, and subsequently to ASSEMBLY, it was then, and is today, a magazine of ideas and methods.

Lasers for Lightweighting

Lasers are creating new possibilities for automakers to shape and join lightweight materials

John Sprovieri

October 4, 2018

Automotive OEMs worldwide are desperate to reduce vehicle weight these days. BMW is no exception.

Lean lights the way to success at Grote Industries

John Sprovieri

October 3, 2018

Before the availability of electric lights, early automobiles were equipped with gas lamps for headlights and oil lamps for taillights. Electric lights did not become commonplace until the 1920s.

NAFTA revisited

John Sprovieri

October 2, 2018

After five straight weeks of talks to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. and Mexico finally reached a new trade deal in August.

Designing and Building Automated Assembly Systems

When designing automated assembly lines, integrators consider production volume, cost, delivery schedule and other factors

John Sprovieri

September 10, 2018

The first thing a visitor notices on arriving at the headquarters of Genesis Automation in St. Charles, IL, is the company's business hours. Rather than 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., there's this: "However long it takes."

A heretical thought on lightweighting

John Sprovieri

September 4, 2018

My wife and I are mad birders. Our passion has taken us to remote corners of the globe in search of rare and beautiful birds. But, birding trips often come with strict limits on the size and weight of luggage, so we've learned to pack judiciously. Do we really need X? Can we do without Y?

Robots Rule at Automatica

The latest technologies for robotics and automated assembly were on display at the Automatica show in Munich, Germany, in June.

John Sprovieri

August 7, 2018

More than 46,000 manufacturing engineers and managers from 47 countries attended Automatica 2018, which took place June 19-22 at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre in Germany.

Advances in Self-Piercing Riveting

Self-piercing rivets are helping automakers assemble aluminum and high-strength steel

John Sprovieri

August 2, 2018

According to a new study by P&S Market Research, global sales of self-piercing rivet technology (SPR) will grow at a cumulative annual rate of 26 percent between 2016 and 2022. P&S predicts manufacturers worldwide will consume 45 billion of the fasteners in 2022.