Engineers at Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors, needed a high-performance seal between the door and quarter window of the Holden VE Ute coupe. The seal could not have separate fixing components.

Rixan Associates Inc. needed to improve the flexibility of its vibratory bowl feeder system if it hoped to win the business of a fastener manufacturer, which was manually loading 415 aerospace fasteners into a press.

As insulation for very small wire is made more environmentally friendly, automotive manufacturers need more precise stripping form geometries in their stripping blades so they never make contact with the wire conductor.

In late 2008, Delphi began producing 26 AWG wire to help their automotive OEM customers save weight and space. Now the company is researching the development of 28 and 30 AWG wire.

Increasingly, assemblers-particularly those in the automotive, medical and electronics industries-are singing “It’s a Very Challenging World for us All” when processing wire for their products.

Philips Respironics isn’t resting on its laurels in the healthcare market, as evidenced by the opening in April 2009 of a $32 million plant in Murrysville, PA, devoted to high-volume, low-mix production of special devices used to treat obstructive sleep apnea.

For more than a decade, students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been learning about product teardown. However, it’s only been in the last five years that they’ve been doing actual teardowns.  

How deep can one dive when disassembling (i.e., tearing down) a product? It will vary depending on the product and amount of information desired by the manufacturer. 

Why product teardown can be a very powerful tool for manufacturers.