Assembly articles from March 2003

Assembly archives from March 2003

What's a service job? (Editorial).
March 1, 2003... There's more to this question than meets the eye. As we all know, many production jobs, especially low-skill jobs, have been shipped out of the United States to lower-cost countries. Writing in The Wall Street Journal recently, Clare Ansberry...

Hands across the water. (Down the Line).
March 1, 2003... The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable, completed in 1858, was one of the defining moments of the 19th century. A team of American and British scientists recently accomplished an equally significant milestone in long-distance...

Smart furniture eases assembly frustration. (Down the Line).
March 1, 2003... The often-frustrating task of assembling build-it-yourself furniture, such as bookshelves, may soon become much easier. A team of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich, Switzerland) have been working with Ikea...

No more wrinkles! (Down the Line).
March 1, 2003... George Jetson would be ecstatic. First there was a robotic lawn mower. Then a robotic vacuum. Now comes the latest gizmo for dreary domestic duties: robotic iron. A team of mechanical engineers at King's College London is developing the...

ASIMO gets smarter. (Down the Line).
March 1, 2003... Coming soon to a place near you a robot to meet and greet you. A new model of ASIMO, the intelligent humanoid robot that can interact with humans, has been released by Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (Tokyo). Recognition technology is the basis for...

Smart adhesive has an on-off switch. (Down the Line).
March 1, 2003... Two scientists at Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA) have developed a polymer-aluminum interface whose adhesion strength can be controlled by temperature. Gregory Ferguson, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry, and Sureurg Khongtong, Ph.D.,...

Printers swing into mass production. (Down the Line).
March 1, 2003... Ink-jet printers will mature into automated manufacturing machines to mass-produce fully functional toys, radios and other devices if a research program at the University of California (Berkeley, CA) is successful. Duncan Graham-Rowe, writing...

New standards in high-performance vision.
March 1, 2003... Legend 520 The most affordable machine vision sensor in the industry utilizes CMOS imaging technology for complete machine vision inspections, barcode reading and OCR. Ethernet-ready and value priced. Legend 540 Real-time machine...

Workcell helps interface designer find the right touch. (Assembly in Action).
March 1, 2003... TouchSensor Technologies LLC (Wheaton, IL) manufactures nonmechanical control interfaces for appliances, fitness equipment, vending machines and beverage-dispensing machines. The company keeps a watchful eye on quality. "Our outgoing product...

Working profitably with integrators: communication is key to successful automation projects. (Assembly Planbook).
March 1, 2003... During this year's Super Bowl, many advertisers wasted their time and money. According to media critics, their TV com mercials failed to convey a clear message about their products or services. And, several of the ads were centered on dreams...

Fulfilling the promise of simultaneous engineering: when designing a new product, there can be a big difference between asking different departments to cooperate and actually getting them to do it. (Assembly Planbook).
March 1, 2003... These days, most manufacturers realize the importance of collaboration in the process of designing new products and the methods for assembling them. When all corporate functions work together to design, assemble, package, distribute, sell and...

The true cost of offshore assembly: shifting production to China or Mexico can be more expensive in the long run. (Assembly Planbook).
March 1, 2003... A popular cult movie from the I 960s called Endless Summer depicts the antics of two suffers who travel the globe searching for the biggest and best waves to ride. Perhaps it's time for Hollywood to film a sequel called Endless Profits, which...

New vs. used--which is for you? Many OEMs offer used equipment at prices lower than new. This may be a viable way for companies to test automation in their facilities, or to increase capacity at a lower financial expenditure. (Assembly Planbook).
March 1, 2003... If you're a manufacturer looking for lower prices and equipment that is similar to what you already own, or if you are eager to automate your assembly process, you might want to consider used equipment. For many years, original equipment...

It is easy being green: being green isn't easy for kermit the frog. But for manufacturing and design engineers, it's a lot easier than they might think. (Assembly Planbook).
March 1, 2003... Think of your house. How many people live there? Four? Six? What if there were three or five times that number? It would be pretty uncomfortable, wouldn't it? According to Jonathan G. Overly, a research associate at the Center for Clean...

Preparing engineers for manufacturing: engineering students who desire jobs in the manufacturing field may not be as well prepared as they thought. (Assembly Planbook).
March 1, 2003... Are you an employer who thinks engineers can come out of a box, ready to go? If so, you might be disappointed. Much discussion surrounds the apparent "skills gap" that exists between what newly graduated engineering students know and their...

Inventory: friend or foe? (Uncommon Sense).
March 1, 2003... Inventory presents one of those pesky business paradoxes. My role as a lean guru calls for ruthlessly eliminating inventory. Conversely, inventory has saved my tail as an operations manager more times than I'd like to admit. The choice...

Plastics cuts cost of motorcycle engines. (Assembly in Action).
March 1, 2003... In 1946, Piaggio SpA (Pontedera, Italy) created the world's first mass-produced scooter, the Vespa. Almost 60 years later, the Vespa--and Piagglo--are still going strong and adapting with the times. For example, to meet stringent European...

Press helps supplier latch onto success. (Assembly in Action).
March 1, 2003... Orbital riveting is used to assemble the latches that control the motion of the back of a car seat. This may seem like an easy process, but appearances can be deceiving. The latches must be strong and durable, yet easy to operate. Apply...

Mercedes Benz uses small code to big advantage. (Assembly in Action).
March 1, 2003... At any one time, Mercedes Benz engineers are putting some 1,800 test vehicles through a rigorous set of trials. Among the many things that Mercedes engineers evaluate on these cars are different combinations of tires and wheels. In fact, some...