Assembly articles from April 2002

Assembly archives from April 2002

No time to cut. (Editorial).
April 1, 2002... Joe Smith started the day early, having set his alarm clock (made in Japan) for 6 a.m. While his coffee pot (made in China) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (made in Hong Kong). He put on a dress shirt (made in Sri Lanka),...

New approach combines lean, Six Sigma. (Forward Thinking).
April 1, 2002... When implementing either lean manufacturing or Six Sigma, companies often find that reaping the low-hanging fruit is easy, while plantwide improvements are difficult. Anand Sharma, president and CEO of TBM Consulting Group (Raleigh, NC),...

Analyzing amplifiers. (X-Y-Z).
April 1, 2002... Have you ever played the gossip game? You tell someone that you saw Arnold Schwarzenegger at a restaurant, with instructions to pass it on. Twenty versions later, you discover that you're co-starring with "Ahnold" in "Terminator III." The...

Survey provides pay rate information. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... CRETE, IL--Manufacturing executives earn more than twice as much as manufacturing engineers, according to a survey by Abbot, Langer & Associates Inc. The consulting firm surveyed 342 manufacturers about current salaries, cash bonuses,...

Machine tool industry to turn around. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... MCLEAN, VA--Nearly 200 participants of the Association for Manufacturing Technology's (AMT) 29th annual Forecasting and Global Marketing Conference heard one speaker after another predict that an economic turnaround would kick off during the...

Honle to use Aladin lamps. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... MARLBORO, MA--Honle UV America Inc. has partnered with Aladin GmbH--a subsidiary of Dr. Honle AG--to supply replacement lamps for its Uvaprint range of ultraviolet (UV) curing systems. Produced in Munich, Germany, the lamps will be able...

Sandia fabricates smallest microchain drive. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... ALBUQUERQUE, NM--Imagine a bicycle chain with individual links so small they could fit on a human hair. That's what a microchain drive resembles, and it's what Ed Vernon, a technician, developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia...

Greenerd donates press. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... NASHUA, NH--Greenerd Press and Machine Co. Inc. recently delivered a 15-ton hydraulic press to a mechanical engineering lab for powder metal research and development. The operator needed to write numerous press cycle recipes and easily...

Productivity is looking up. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... WASHINGTON--Manufacturers can possibly begin to breathe a heavy sigh of relief, as manufacturing productivity grew 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2001. The Bureau of Labor reports that this reflects a 7.2 percent drop in output and a 10.4...

Isuzu uses CAPE software to test designs. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... YOKOHAMA, JAPAN--Isuzu Motors Ltd. is using computer aided production engineering (CAPE) software to provide feedback to its car design teams. Using CAPE software from Delmia (Troy, MI), manufacturing engineers at Isuzu are able to detect...

Norgren hunts for a survivor. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... LITTLETON, CO--To celebrate the 75th anniversary of its incorporation in the United States, IMI Norgren Inc. has launched "The Quest for a Norgren Survivor." The goal is to find the oldest Norgren component still in continuous use since its...

Corrections.
April 1, 2002... The story "Manufacturer Gets a Hand With Handles," which appeared on page 10 of the March 2002 issue of ASSEMBLY, had an incorrect phone number and Web site url. To request more information on conveyor systems from Clear Automated Structures,...

Advanced Assembly Technology Center opens. (Assembly Lines).
April 1, 2002... NORGROSS, GA--Siemens Dematic Electronics Assembly Systems Inc. opened its new Advanced Assembly Technology Center at its U.S. headquarters in Norcross. The 11000-square-foot facility is one of the most comprehensive electronics...

Body builder gains strength. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Walter Alexander Ltd., the world's largest builder of double -decker bus bodies, is using Radan's (Bath, England) computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software to manufacture the ALX range of single- and...

Company saves money with crash protection device. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... "We use industrial robots to perform the adhesive trace operations on our assembly lines. We have more than 20 robots using a crash protection device, and we have virtually eliminated downtime and retraining on these systems," says Bert...

Conveyor handles engines and IPs. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Ford Motor Co.'s Wayne, MI, assembly plant is a facility where new, productivity-enhancing technologies are often put to work first. This plant is highly integrated, and it frequently serves as the testing house for concepts that eventually...

Adhesive bonds boat deck to hull. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Baja Marine Corp. (Bucyrus, OH) manufactures high-performance speedboats, and it rakes pride in its nontraditional boat designs. The company's very first model was assembled in an abandoned roller-skating rink. But over the years, the company...

Software helps speed car to road. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Use of Delmia's (Troy, MI) manufacturing software solutions enabled TWR Group Ltd. (Leafield, U.K.) to take the Renaultsport V6, 24-valve Clio concept car to full production in 18 months. Paul Burton, projects manager, is certain that this...

Park lock needs no fasteners. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Designers of an innovative electronic park lock solenoid relied on DuPont's (Wilmington, DE) Delrin brand acetal resin to reduce assembly costs by eliminating fasteners. The manufacturer, Pontiac Coil Inc. (Clarkston, MI), supplies the device...

Clamps put lid on maintenance concern. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Torit, a global division of Donaldson Co. Inc. (Minneapolis) and manufacturer of air filtration systems, had customer concerns in mind when it was designing its newest cartridge dust collection system--the Downflo Oval 1. These customer...

Robots cast light on gold bar manufacturing process. (Assembly in Action).
April 1, 2002... Recent technology has accelerated the once time-consuming process of gold bar production--without sacrificing precision. Improved robotics now promises near-perfect accuracy for an industry where the final product represents an exact monetary...

Robots for flexible torquing: Usually, when automakers need to tighten several bolts in an engine assembly, they use multiple fastening spindles mounted in a "hard-tooled" automatic system. Engineers at Ford found a better way. (Robotics).
April 1, 2002... At Ford engine plants, multifastener joints such as cam covers, front covers and intake manifolds have traditionally been assembled using hard-tooled, multispindle power heads at dedicated run-down stations. The heads are mounted on pneumatic,...

Dispensing dots: Assemblers have many options for dispensing surface-mount adhesive. (Electronic Assembly).
April 1, 2002... In the universe of automatic dispensing applications, the process of applying adhesives for attaching surface-mount components to circuit boards is a radically different animal. Production speeds are faster, accuracy requirements are stricter,...

Flexible factory reveals future of GM: the new Lansing Grand River plant blends state-of-the-art technology with 100-year-old tradition. (Assembly Field Reports).
April 1, 2002... History has a strange way of repeating itself. One hundred years ago, the most modern automobile assembly plant in the world was located along the banks of the Grand River in Lansing, MI. Today, the capital of Michigan is once again home to a...

DFMA cuts costs up front: Anyone can make the product. But getting costs under control early is the key to making it profitably. (Taming Assembly Costs).
April 1, 2002... The best time to start controlling the factors that drive assembly costs is early in the design process. Every manufacturer has its own approach to controlling costs, and some have been successful in using the computer-based Design for...

Assembly East promises to be bigger and better: Assembly East will offer cutting-edge technology and an expanded conference program. (Assembly East Preview).
April 1, 2002... According to ASSEMBLY magazine's Capital Equipment Spending Survey, manufacturers in the Northeast plan to spend more than $400 million on automated assembly machines, power tools, workstations, parts feeders and other assembly equipment during...

Potting for protection. (Assembly Handbook).
April 1, 2002... Capacitors, switches, transducers, temperature sensors--and even complete circuits--often need potting. Here's an overview of potting materials, and the manual and automated potting methods commonly used in assembly. Potting covers an...

Machine strips tough insulation. (Assembly Products).
April 1, 2002... The AirStrip 2700 cuts and strips single- and multiconductor wire and nearly all types of insulation materials. It can produce 10,800 2-inch pieces of wire per hour. It handles wire sizes 8 to 32 AWG, and it produces wires ranging from 1 inch...

Brazing and soldering machine. (Assembly Products).
April 1, 2002... The Rotary Index 100 can braze or solder 100 to 200 parts per hour, depending on the size and configuration of the assembly. An operator loads the parts into a stainless steel fixture. At the next station, an automatic dispenser applies a...

Toggle press. (Assembly Products).
April 1, 2002... The Model 530BEM is a fully pneumatic, half-ton, toggle-action press for semiautomatic and fully automatic operations. Muffled exhausts ensure quiet operation, and a setup valve locks the ram in the down position to facilitate setting the tool...

Ultrasonic welder. (Assembly Products).
April 1, 2002... The MPG digital ultrasonic welder is available in both 35-and 20-kilohertz models. All weld parameters, including trigger pressure, weld pressure and amplitude, are controlled simultaneously. Welds can be governed by depth, distance, time,...

Pressure-sensitive adhesives. (Adhesives).
April 1, 2002... These pressure-sensitive adhesives offer defect-free bonding that requires no curing. They are suitable for assembling such wireless communication devices as lens gaskets, electromagnetic interference gaskets, microphone attachments, speaker...

Film protects surfaces. (Adhesives).
April 1, 2002... This polyethylene film protects glass, metal and plastic parts during assembly and shipping. The film's acrylic adhesive will not leave a residue on most surfaces. Available in various high-visibility colors, the film is supplied in widths of 1...

Silicone encapsulant. (Adhesives).
April 1, 2002... Humigel is a solvent-free, air-curing silicone encapsulant for printed circuit boards. Packaged in pressurized containers, this clear, thixotropic material can be dispensed in lines or films as thin as 500 mils. Humiseal ...

PSA for display screens. (Adhesives).
April 1, 2002... ARclear is an optically clear pressure-sensitive adhesive for assembling flat panel displays, liquid crystal displays, flat-screen cathode ray tubes and touch screens. The adhesive comes in permanent, strippable and silicone versions. An...

Surface mount adhesive. (Adhesives).
April 1, 2002... Chipbonder 3621 is a surface mount adhesive for high-speed dispensing. It can be left unrefrigerated and can be dispensed at 47,000 dots per hour. It cures in 90 seconds at 150 C or in 3 minutes at 125 C. Loctite Corp. www.loctite.com...

High-strength tape. (Adhesives).
April 1, 2002... The GS series of high-strength adhesive tapes bond to metal, wood, polyethylene, polypropylene, glass, composites and extruded polymers. The tapes come in standard thicknesses of 5 to 60 mils. They bond uneven surfaces and can fill gaps. ...

Data collection unit. (Controls & Software).
April 1, 2002... The DigiForm data collector, which eliminates paper forms and multiple steps in data collecting, comes equipped with Syware Visual CE software. The device and software allow users to customize forms for specific applications. Eight-hour battery...

Multiconductor bar system software. (Controls & Software).
April 1, 2002... AeroBar Click-Spec software allows users to build a multiconductor bar system. Users can choose the system length, number of conductors, housing options, trolley options and installation tools. A split-screen format allows the user to view the...

Pen Writes Circuits. (Dispensing & Curing).
April 1, 2002... The CircuitWriter applies conductive ink on epoxy, glass, plastic and metal. It draws traces on circuit boards, repairs defective traces, makes jumpers and shields electronics. It also makes prototype circuits and repairs rear-window heater...

Machine dispenses hot-melts. (Dispensing & Curing).
April 1, 2002... Therm-O-Flow Plus hot-melt dispenser has a heated, ram-mounted supply pump that transfers adhesive at a temperature of 204C. Power ratios of up to 65-to-1 are available to handle high-viscosity materials. The Teflon inductor plate, outlet hose...

Vacuum potting system. (Dispensing & Curing).
April 1, 2002... This dispensing machine is for applications that require an air-free atmosphere during the potting process. Equipped with a manual or automatic indexing table, the dispenser handles multiple components in one vacuum cycle. Pressure in the...

Tape dispenser. (Dispensing & Curing).
April 1, 2002... The EZ-6000K tape dispenser cuts and presents Kapton tape without curling it. It cuts tape in lengths of 80 to 999 millimeters, and it accepts tape widths of to 1.5 inches. The machine dispenses tape on demand or automatically. ASG, Div....

Servomotor with encoder. (Motion Control).
April 1, 2002... The SmartMotor is a brushless DC servomotor with a built-in controller, amplifier, encoder, PLC, power supply and network manager. With an optional high-resolution encoder, the motor can be programmed to a resolution of 256,000 counts per...

Ball slides. (Motion Control).
April 1, 2002... These ball slides have a straight line accuracy of 0.0005 inch per inch of travel and a positional repeatability of 0.000 1 inch. A standard center hole is provided on slides with a travel of 1 inch or more. Mounting with a center hole...

Heavy-duty rotary actuator. (Motion Control).
April 1, 2002... The RR-76 rotary actuator has a bearing-supported flange that can support a payload of 200 pounds. This compact actuator is equipped with slip-fit dowel pins and zero backlash, preloaded ball bearings. It can be used in either pneumatic or...

Anti-backlash nuts. (Motion Control).
April 1, 2002... The Short Body Series of anti-backlash nuts maximize the usable stroke of a leadscrew due to their reduced length. The nuts come in threaded or flange-mount versions, in diameters of 1 3/8 or 1/2 inch. Ball Screws & Actuators Inc. ...

Drive includes controller and PLC. (Motion Control).
April 1, 2002... The Axiom Plus is a brushless servo drive with an integrated motion controller and PLC. Integrated motion and logic control enable the drive to control brushless motors and other machine components simultaneously. Tol-O-Matic ...

Positioning table. (Motion Control).
April 1, 2002... This positioning table is equipped with crossed roller bearings and a ballscrew drive. The table travels from 2 to 12 inches and supports a load of 840 pounds and a moment of 860 in.-lb. It can be fitted with a motor mount and zero backlash...

Counting scale. (Parts Feeders).
April 1, 2002... The Alliance/CAS Model SC-25P counting scale has a 50- by 0.01-pound weighing capacity with 1/100,000 internal resolution. It provides five-digit unit weight calculation, and features a 1,000-item memory and stainless steel platter. Options...

Vibratory feeder controls. (Parts Feeders).
April 1, 2002... MFS 168 vibratory feeder controllers drive feeders by using an output frequency that is independent of the main frequency. The adjusted output frequency corresponds to the mechanical vibrating frequency of the feed system. The dual-voltage...

Parts handling system. (Parts Feeders).
April 1, 2002... Feedscape is a pneumatic parts feeder. Only two four-way valves are required for operation. It handles parts from the inside, allowing tooling to be male. All external part surfaces are exposed, allowing for such additional operations as...

Horizontal stacked tube feeder. (Parts Feeders).
April 1, 2002... This horizontal stacked tube feeder is suitable for quickly dispensing odd form electronic components to robotic cells and flexible placement machines. Tubes of components are stacked in the feeder's tube handling hopper. A pusher tape...

Test clip. (Test and Measurement).
April 1, 2002... The JP-2 test clip attaches to wires and terminals so they can be tested. Its row-of-points penetrator, together with a large single penetrator, neatly pierces insulation on wire sizes 10 to 26 AWG. Because no more than two points reach the...

Low-voltage wiring analyzer. (Test and Measurement).
April 1, 2002... The PC-based Horizon 1500 Lite can find the exact location of faults in cable. Product and connector names can be user-defined or auto-generated. A build-aid feature ensures the correct insertion of each wire before allowing the next connection...

Voltage tester. (Test and Measurement).
April 1, 2002... The Vol-Con Elite digital voltage and continuity tester does not heat up with extended use and will not create a spike in the line. The noncontact voltage sensor safely identifies voltages from 24 to 600 VAC or 6 to 220 VDC. Ideal...

Tester for electric motors. (Test and Measurement).
April 1, 2002... MotorMD is a turnkey production test system for electric motors. It checks winding resistance, AC hi-pot, impedance, open bar, excitation and vibration, and sound level. All tests can be customized, and bar code and balancing capabilities are...

Dielectric analyzer. (Test and Measurement).
April 1, 2002... The Model 7540DT HypotUltra II is a dielectric analyzer with a built-in, four-port, high-voltage scanning matrix. It conducts AC hipot, DC hipot and insulation resistance tests on transformer windings, motor coils, printed circuit boards, cable...

Camera inspects fiber optics. (Vision Systems & Sensors).
April 1, 2002... The Alpha NIR camera is used to inspect optical components. Its indium-galliumarsenide array has a resolution of 320 by 256 pixels. It is highly sensitive to the near- and shortwave-infrared wave bands used in fiber optics telecommunications...

Vision software. (Vision Systems & Sensors).
April 1, 2002... The Matrox Imaging Library 7.0 is a software development toolkit for machine vision. A geometric model finder locates models at any position or scale--even when contours are occluded and contrast is not uniform. Its calibration method...

Photoelectric sensor. (Vision Systems & Sensors).
April 1, 2002... The PZ-V/M photoelectric sensor is unaffected by target color, surface reflectivity, angle, dirt, airborne dust and harsh environments. Four types are available: reflective with automatic calibration, reflective with manual calibration,...

Proximity sensor. (Vision Systems & Sensors).
April 1, 2002... This inductive proximity sensor is 12 millimeters in diameter and has a range of 8 millimeters. Packaged in a sealed, stainless steel threaded housing, the sensor tolerates temperatures of -25 to 70 C. Fargo Controls Inc. ...

Bus? What B. (Uncommon Sense).
April 1, 2002... Every business has people who have become truly indispensable because of their skills, leadership or special knowledge. This fundamental truth was unmistakably verified during a recently completed series of benchmarking audits, as we met the...