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.

Magnetic materials may not be well-known by the general public, but many of the world’s leading manufacturers would be in trouble without them.

Besides speed and accuracy, today’s SCARA robots offer better control, simpler programming and greater durability.

ANN ARBOR, MI—Robot orders and shipments in North America set new records in 2015, according to Robotic Industries Association. A total of 31,464 robots valued at $1.8 billion were ordered from North American companies during 2015, an increase of 14 percent in units and 11 percent in dollars over 2014.

FRANKFURT, Germany—The International Robotics Federation estimates that approximately 1.3 million new industrial robots will be installed around the world between 2015 and 2018.

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Engineers at MIT have found a way to give robots more dexterity by using the environment as a helping hand. The researchers developed a model that predicts the force with which a robotic gripper needs to push against various fixtures in the environment in order to adjust its grasp on an object.

Assembly applications are creating more demand for parallel-link machines.

ANN ARBOR, MI—The robotics market in North America posted its second-highest quarter ever in terms of robots ordered in first quarter 2014, according to new statistics from the Robotic Industries Association. A total of 5,938 robots valued at $338 million were ordered by companies in North America in the first quarter 2014, coming in just shy of the all-time record of 6,235 robots valued at $385 million in fourth quarter 2012.

Assemblers continue to invest in robots. Does your assembly plant employ robots? Is it planning to? Share your thoughts!

Introduced in 1983, SCHUNK’s pneumatic “Industrial Hand” became the starting point for gripper development that continues today.