The Boeing 777 jetliner is the backbone of many international airlines. The reliable workhorse, which has been used on long-haul flights for three decades, is produced in several variants. The aircraft’s 20-foot-wide aluminum fuselages range anywhere from 209 to 242 feet long.
For decades, General Motors was king of the highway and queen of the rails. In addition to mass-producing buses, cars and trucks, the automaker was once the largest locomotive builder in the world. At a massive factory just west of Chicago, GM’s Electro-Motive Division (EMD) assembled powerful machines that helped transition American railroads from steam to diesel.
The current paradigm of car manufacturing, which provides a variety of models, colors and options, is called mass customization. However, mass customization is now transforming into mass individualization. In mass individualization, products are uniquely catered to consumers’ desires. For example, some car buyers may want to replace ordinary car seats with luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, to differentiate themselves.
Rotor blades, guide vanes and other components for jet engines are made from costly materials and machined to precise tolerances. Such components are typically made in batches, due to the time involved in setting up machine centers. The process also requires a fair number of people to tend the machines and assist in changeover.
The biggest challenge in automatic screwdriving isn’t speed or torque accuracy: It’s getting the fastener to the tool reliably and oriented correctly. Fortunately, assemblers have several options for feeding screws to fully or semiautomatic drivers, including screw presenters, bowl feeders and step feeders.
As engineers assess how additive manufacturing (AM) can replace or complement traditional manufacturing processes, there will need to be a quantum shift in how to approach the entire design-to-manufacturing process.
There’s nothing quite like a multistation automated assembly system. Watching robots, actuators and indexers go about their carefully choreographed routines with little or no human intervention can seem nothing short of miraculous.
One of my favorite dishes is the Cajun ribeye at Morton’s Steakhouse. It’s 16 ounces of juicy, spicy goodness. As much as I love the dish, however, it’s not something I could eat every day. I’d quickly develop coronary artery disease. I’d also go broke! A balanced diet is more sensible.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the airline industry particularly hard. Thousands of flights were canceled. In some cases, entire aircraft fleets were parked and mothballed.
When Ken Turzinski, president of TYRI Americas in Stevens Point, WI, returned from a local trade show a few years ago, he came back with a small, innocuous plastic product. Little did he know that the product would help his company become more lean and sustainable.
In 1923, Albrecht Schnizler designed a hand-cranked drill dubbed the Metallbohrdreher, or “metal drill driver.” That drill became the inspiration for the brand Metabo.
Fabtech, North America’s largest trade show for metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing technology, took place Nov. 8-10 in Atlanta. Here are five new products on display at the event.
Manufacturing in the age of Industry 4.0, digitally connected machines and smart factories require a new breed of engineers who are equipped with a fresh set of skills. That’s why Arizona State University recently launched the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks.