Automation engineers have developed ingenious ways to mechanically singulate and orient parts in a feeder bowl.

Manufacturers of automated machinery often receive requests to feed and orient ordinary plastics caps, but even an ordinary cap can have features that can cause part "behaviors" that present challenges during the feeding process.

A construction equipment manufacturer needed a way to feed a family of large, heavy castings. The castings range in weight from a few ounces up to a few pounds and come in many geometric shapes.

Vibratory bowl feeders are not the only way to feed parts. One alternative is the centrifugal feeder. This type of feeder is comprised of a rotating center disc mounted on an angle and a horizontally mounted rotating bowl.

The spark plug is an essential component of an internal combustion engine. A well-designed plug can maximize fuel economy, reduce emissions, increase engine performance and minimize maintenance.

How do you singulate and orient a conical washer made of soft metal only 0.005 inch thick and almost 1 inch in diameter?

Many engineers mistakenly believe that vibratory bowl feeders can only be designed to feed one specific part, but that's not quite right.

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.

A&H Meyer, a manufacturer of cable management systems for furniture, approached RNA Automation Ltd. to design a flexible automation system to sort, separate and feed busbars. The company wanted a system that could handle 12 different lengths of flat and crimped busbars with minimal changeover time.