MARNE, MI—Metal fabrication shop DeWys Manufacturing Inc. has developed a robotic cell that automatically installs up to eight self-clinching fasteners in sheet metal.

When K.A. Swanstrom founded Penn Engineering & Manufacturing Corp. in 1942, he did so with a revolutionary new product: a self-clinching fastener that provides load-carrying threads in metal sheets too thin to be tapped.

Based in Abbotsford, BC, Overlanders Manufacturing is a large supplier of precision sheet metal and tubular products, including parts for the electronics industry. Many of these parts must be plated prior to fastener insertion.