Consumers spend some $1 billion to buy 2 billion lightbulbs each year in the U.S. That’s more than 6 million every day. High-speed automated assembly is the only way to meet that kind of volume.

As automated assembly increases, so does the need for flexible vibratory bowl feeders—and practical ways to optimize their performance.

There’s an old joke that the factory of the future will be so automated that it will have just two employees: a guard dog and someone to feed it. Fortunately or not, such a scenario remains the purview of science fiction. Indeed, despite advances in robotics and automation, people remain the most flexible assembly technology.