2022 December

Capital Spending Survey 2022: Assemblers Continue to Invest

Buoyed by efforts to boost domestic production of EVs and electronics, manufacturers are investing in their assembly operations.

John Sprovieri

December 1, 2022

U.S. manufacturers have faced significant headwinds this year: supply chain problems, a skilled labor shortage, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. And yet despite these issues—or perhaps, because of them—manufacturers continued to invest in people, plants and equipment.

New Technology Boosts EV Batteries

Charging Lithium-Ion Cells at Different Rates Boosts Battery Packs

Austin Weber

January 4, 2023

Engineers at Stanford University have developed a new way to make lithium-ion battery packs last longer and suffer less deterioration from fast charging. It could enable electric vehicle batteries to handle more charge cycles and last longer.

Structural Batteries Could Make EVs Lighter

Austin Weber

January 3, 2023

Lightweight batteries will be one of the next big breakthroughs in EV technology. One possibility that intrigues engineers is structural batteries, which can be built into the structure of a vehicle’s body or chassis to fulfill load-bearing needs while producing power.

Robots Assemble Electric Vehicles

Automakers need to be flexible and adopt new automation.

Patrick Matthews

December 21, 2022

Vehicle production plants are undergoing a massive transformation as automakers evolve from internal-combustion engines (ICE) to battery power. While EVs use fewer parts overall, those components tend to be heavier than their ICE equivalents. That demands new ways to deploy robots on assembly lines.

Heavy-Duty Electric Trucks

Battery power offers numerous advantages to medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

Nathan Eddy

December 19, 2022

Heavy- and medium-duty trucks are one of the hottest segments of the electric vehicle industry today. Both legacy manufacturers and start-ups are scrambling to develop battery-powered machines. Vehicles are slowly starting to roll off assembly lines, but this new class of truck is expected to dominate the market within the next 15 years.

What’s New From The ASSEMBLY Show

Thousands of engineers turn out to see the latest assembly technology.

John Sprovieri

December 16, 2022

Nearly 3,900 manufacturing professionals saw the latest robots, fastening tools, software and automation at the 10th annual ASSEMBLY Show, which was held Oct. 25-27 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.

Digital Technology Transforms Auto Assembly Lines

Austin Weber

December 14, 2022

Automakers around the world are transforming their factories with digital technology. The goal is to improve productivity and increase the efficiency of both people and equipment.

Design for Additive Manufacturing, Part 3

Here are the most common pitfalls when designing parts for additive manufacturing.

Nick Allen

December 12, 2022

Different additive manufacturing (AM) processes have different constraints that can determine how easily and consistently they can produce parts. Some constraints are universal across the different processes; some are more specific to the type of process used. At 3DPRINTUK, we specialize in powder bed fusion (PBF) processes with polymer materials.

New Software Makes Robots Easier to Deploy

Improved technology has empowered end users and made robots less intimidating.

Austin Weber

December 13, 2022

Traditionally, many small- and medium-sized manufacturers avoided robots, because they were intimidating. Companies lacked the necessary programming knowledge and technical expertise. And, they simply weren’t willing to make investments in personnel that bigger manufacturers could afford.

Assembly That’s Out of This World!

Harry Moser

December 19, 2022

Assembly lines have been around for more than a century, but new technologies, processes, investments and strategies are accelerating production, increasing capacity and driving revenue growth.

Video Analytics Help Auto Parts Assembler Improve Cycle Time

John Sprovieri

December 18, 2022

Contrary to widespread public concern about robots taking away jobs, people still play a key role on assembly lines. In fact, people still perform 72 percent of manufacturing tasks.

Software Keeps STIHL’s Assembly Machines Up and Running

John Sprovieri

December 18, 2022

STIHL is a German manufacturer of chainsaws, trimmers, blowers and other handheld power equipment. Founded in 1926, the family-owned company is only chain saw manufacturer to make its own saw chains and guide bars. The company’s factory in Virginia Beach, VA, is ASSEMBLY magazine’s 2014 Assembly Plant of the Year.

Robot Automates Assembly of Cricket Balls

John Sprovieri

December 18, 2022

Under the laws of cricket, it is illegal for players to rub any substance other than saliva and sweat onto the ball, let alone scuffing it with their fingernails. Similarly, strict rules apply to the manufacturing of cricket balls.

Are Assembly Plants Competing With McDonald’s?

John Sprovieri

December 7, 2022

Good news! U.S. manufacturers employed 12,922,000 people in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s 4 percent more than in October 2021 and 13 percent more than in April 2020, the manufacturing employment low point of the COVID recession.

What capital equipment will assemblers buy next year and how much money will they spend on it? Will manufacturers continue to invest in people, plants and equipment? Or is the U.S. headed for a recession? John Sprovieri, Chief Editor of ASSEMBLY, will answer these questions and more as he reports on the findings of ASSEMBLY magazine’s 26th annual capital equipment spending survey.

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Assembly eMagazine

Cover Story

Capital Spending Survey 2022: Assemblers Continue to Invest

Features

New Technology Boosts EV Batteries

Structural Batteries Could Make EVs Lighter

Robots Assemble Electric Vehicles

Heavy-Duty Electric Trucks

What’s New From The ASSEMBLY Show

Digital Technology Transforms Auto Assembly Lines

Design for Additive Manufacturing, Part 3

New Software Makes Robots Easier to Deploy

Columns

Assembly That’s Out of This World!

Video Analytics Help Auto Parts Assembler Improve Cycle Time

Software Keeps STIHL’s Assembly Machines Up and Running

Robot Automates Assembly of Cricket Balls

Are Assembly Plants Competing With McDonald’s?

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