Assembly articles from March 2007

Assembly archives from March 2007

End run.(Editorial)
March 1, 2007... The number of people belonging to a union fell by 326,000 in 2006, to 15.4 million, according to a report released in January 2007 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, union membership has declined steadily from 20.1 percent of...

Honda Aircraft Co. building new plant in North Carolina.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... GREENSBORO, NC -- Honda Aircraft Co., a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co. (Tokyo), will soon be building a 215,000-square-foot headquarters and hangar complex at North Carolina's Piedmont Triad International airport. The company says it plans to...

Dechow receives 2007 achievement award from AIA.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... ANN ARBOR, MI -- David Dechow, president of Aptura Machine Vision Solutions (Lansing, MI), has been awarded the 2007 Automated Imaging Achievement Award. The award, presented to Dechow by the Automated Imaging Association (AIA) at the...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2007... In the January issue of ASSEMBLY, the name of the electrical engineer who invented the integrated circuit was misspelled. The correct spelling of the Nobel Prize winning scientist is Jack Kilby. ASSEMBLY regrets the error.

Baldor completes Rockwell acquisition.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... FORT SMITH, AR -- Electric motors manufacturer Baldor Electric Co. has completed the acquisition of the power systems division of Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee), which is based in Greenville, SC, and includes the Dodge mechanical power...

Report: suppliers the auto industry's 'backbone'.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... ANN ARBOR, MI -- Motor vehicle parts suppliers, not the major manufacturing companies themselves, are now in many ways the true drivers of the automotive and truck manufacturing industry, according to a report from the Center for Automotive...

De-Sta-Co acquiring new facility.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... AUBURN HILLS, MI -- Clamp, gripper and tooling manufacturer De-Sta-Co is moving both its corporate offices and production facilities to a new location in Auburn Hills to streamline company operations. As part of the move, De-Sta-Co says it...

Adept expanding into solar market.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... LIVERMORE, CA -- Industrial robot manufacturer Adept Technology Inc. recently secured contracts with four solar panel manufacturing companies as part of an ongoing push into the rapidly expanding international solar power market. In recent...

AMSC teams up with Doosan on wind energy.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... WESTBOROUGH, MA -- American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) has signed a large-scale wind generator development contract worth more than $2 million with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. (Changwon, South Korea), an engineering and...

Boeing delivers major 787 assemblies.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... CHICAGO -- Boeing Co. recently delivered its first set of major fuselage sections for the all-new 787 Dreamliner to Global Aeronautica LLC (Charleston, SC) via a specially modified Dreamlifter 747 cargo airplane. Global Aeronautica is one...

Cooper Industries acquires WPI.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... HOUSTON -- Cooper Industries Ltd. is acquiring WPI Interconnect Products (Salem, NJ), a privately owned manufacturer of custom connectors and cable assemblies, for $74.5 million. WPI manufactures customized connector and cable assemblies...

Hendrickson building new suspension plant.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... ITASCA, IL -- Truck trailer manufacturer Hendrickson USA LLC has begun construction of a new $24.3 million plant in Frankfort, KY, to build heavy-duty trailer axles and air suspension systems. The 160,000-square-foot facility, which is...

Siemens acquiring process management Co.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... MUNICH, Germany -- Transportation and manufacturing automation company Siemens AG is acquiring product lifecycle management (PLM) software company UGS Corp. (Plano, TX) for $3.5 billion. UGS employs approximately 7,300 worldwide, with some...

Ford UK engine output nearing 2 million units.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... DAGENHAM, England -- Both of Ford Motor Co.'s UK engine plants recorded substantial production increases in 2006, putting them on track to manufacture 1 million engines a year each by 2009. Ford's diesel engine plant in Dagenham recorded a...

ATS pares down Systems Group.(Assembly Lines)
March 1, 2007... CAMBRIDGE, Ontario -- ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. is cutting back on its Automation Systems Group (ASG) in North America as part of an ongoing program to strengthen performance and improve global market positioning. The move will...

It all starts with joint design.(Fastening THREADS)
March 1, 2007... Most consumers don't buy products for their joint designs. In fact, if your customer is aware of what fastening method you use to assemble your product, it's very likely that he isn't happy with that product. Customers usually only notice...

DaimlerChrysler cuts costs with vacuum generators.(Assembly in Action)
March 1, 2007... In response to increasing energy costs, DaimlerChrysler wrings as much value as possible out of its energy dollars. DaimlerChrysler also uses robots and other types of flexible automation to further increase cost-efficiency. For example, at its...

Casting provides precise 'assembly'.(Assembly in Action)
March 1, 2007... ZF Lemforder Corp. (Brewer, ME) manufactures suspension components for the automotive industry, including stabilizer links used in passenger cars and minivans. Historically, these assemblies have consisted of two stamped steel rings resistance...

Modified thermostats solve design, manufacturing problems.(Assembly in Action)
March 1, 2007... When designers at appliance manufacturer Tacony Corp. (Fenton, MO) created a new low-profile, upright vacuum cleaner, it was up to Tacony's manufacturing division, based in St. James, MO, to find a thermostat that would not only meet the...

Fastening station increases throughput.(Assembly in Action)
March 1, 2007... At its assembly plant in Athens, PA, Ingersoll Rand Co. (Annandale, NJ) produces more than a dozen different product families, including pneumatic impact wrenches, ratchets, grinders, precision fastening tools, nitrogen generators and oil...

Upstream assembly: more manufacturers are taking links out of the supply chain.(ASSEMBLY Planbook)
March 1, 2007... Back in the good old days, college football games were played on Saturday afternoon and nearly every town in America had a small, family-owned hardware store. Machine shops made metal parts and injection molders mass-produced plastic parts. The...

Improve productivity with poka-yoke: poka-yoke techniques prevent defects, promote job safety and prevent damage to machinery.(ASSEMBLY Planbook)
March 1, 2007... Legendary manufacturing guru W. Edwards Deming said, "Quality comes not from inspection, but from improvement of the process." Put another way, it's much more cost-effective to prevent manufacturing defects than to look for them after the...

Successful design for assembly: firsthand experience with a successful design-for-assembly program yields six lessons that help chart the way to success.(ASSEMBLY Planbook)
March 1, 2007... Each company works with design for assembly (DFA) methods for different reasons. Some companies want to take cost out of their products, some want to make more products in their factories, and some want to simplify the product to increase...

Curing your parts headaches: pay attention to parts quality throughout the assembly process to ensure profitability.(ASSEMBLY Planbook)
March 1, 2007... A good product, one that people will want to buy, needs to be greater than the sum of its parts. But, what happens if one or more of those parts are out of spec? You may find yourself with excessive rework costs, excessive scrap or, worst of...

Low-tech fixes can solve pesky problems: kaizen teian encourages operators to continuously seek improvement.(ASSEMBLY Planbook)
March 1, 2007... Sometimes, it's better to keep things simple. That's true whether you're baking a cake, throwing a football or walking on a tightrope. In the world of manufacturing, the best remedy to pesky production problems is often the simplest, rather...

Balancing act: an unbalanced assembly line can actually perform better than a balanced one.(ASSEMBLY Planbook)
March 1, 2007... Many engineers who oversee assembly lines feel that unbalance is a bad thing. Indeed, most operations management textbooks devote entire chapters to line balancing. Many companies invest considerable time and effort to balance their lines. But,...

From cams to computers: in the evolution of automatic assembly machines, much has changed and much has stayed the same.(Assembly Past, Present & Future)
March 1, 2007... In 1960, a remarkable machine debuted on the shop floor of the Parker Pen Co. in Janesville, WI. It was a carousel-style multistation system to automatically assemble caps for pens. Built by Gilman Engineering & Manufacturing Co., a Parker...

Take a load off.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Four-cup vacuum handler can be used for transferring and positioning non- and low-porosity items with basic shapes and flat surfaces such as glass, cardboard boxes, sheet metal, aluminum, plastic, doors, lids and covers, boards and plywood....

Wheels handle heavy weights.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Eagle wheels can handle load capacities of 600 to 1,200 pounds, depending on the specific model. An interlocking polyurethane tread on a polypropylene core offers superior adhesion for medium- to heavy-duty weight capacities. The system's...

Dispensing robot is compact, versatile.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The 7900-LF is a compact, fully RoHS compliant three-axis dispensing robot with a work area of 8 by 8 inches and a Z-axis of 2 inches. Operators can program the system using proprietary dispensing software incorporating point-and-click...

Guide range offers options.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Miniature linear guides are available in short block and wide block configurations, as well as tapped-hole or dowel-pin designs. Block height is selectable and rail length can be configured in 1-millimeter increments from 41 to 469 millimeters...

Software simplifies robot, peripheral coordination.(Products)
March 1, 2007... ORiN (Open Robot Interface for the Network) software, a standardized interface developed by the Japan Robot Association, simplifies integration of peripheral devices such as PLCs, scanners and vision systems into a robot cell, and allows the...

Angle sensors provide repeatability.(Products)
March 1, 2007... L-shaped self-contained BWL thru-beam sensors can detect virtually any target regardless of color, shape or reflectivity, with high repeatability for part position, edge detection, gripper positioning, parts ejection, bend-angle measurement,...

Cordset resists vibration in tough settings.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The ecolink M12 cordset line features a lock-in-place coupling nut that secures the cordset to a quick disconnect sensor and prevents the cordset from detaching, even in high shock and vibration environments. An insert acts as a mechanical...

Grippers build on proven designs.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The two-finger EGN 100 parallel-type gripper and three-finger EZN 64 centric-type gripper are both servo-powered and include proven features from their pneumatic counterparts. Equipped with encoders for position feedback, the grippers can be...

Remove adhesives safely, quickly.(Products)
March 1, 2007... QTEK Adhesive Remover can be used to clean metals, plastics and glass. It evaporates quickly leaving no residue. The solution's low surface tension facilitates excellent wetting and penetration into constricted areas. Odor-free, it is worker...

Grippers feature modularity.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Compact FXC and FMC large-area vacuum grippers are made of robust extruded aluminum sections and can be adjusted to any desired length. Built from on a few standardized modules, they can also be combined to form large-area "layer grippers."...

Protect your end-effectors.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The SR-61 collision sensor has a lower operating range for increased sensitivity in applications using 3- to 5-kilogram-capacity robots, thereby preventing costly damage to robotic end-effectors resulting from robot crashes. Following a crash,...

Stud welder is light, portable.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The CD66 capacitor discharge stud welder measures approximately 10 by 10 by 7 inches and weighs just 10.5 pounds. It is flexible and capable of standing up to a wide range of harsh industrial environments. Well suited for use in...

Keep parts on the move.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Compartmented dunnage racks safeguard fragile components and can be used for transferring subassemblies or kitted parts throughout a single facility for point-of-use processing, or for transporting goods over the road from suppliers to...

Slides offer performance, long life.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The SFP Slide Design 6 offers optional travel adjustment, adjustable cushions and stop pins, which eliminate damage to the unit in the event the system's shock absorbers or travel adjustments are incorrectly set in the field. An advanced...

Verify tool torque settings.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Series ST torque tool testers allow users to test torque screwdrivers, wrenches and other tools. The system features a solid aluminum housing and is available in several capacities. A universal receptacle with square drive and grooves accepts...

Optical table provides control.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Enclosures for optical tables are ideal for applications where the workspace or the work being performed requires an environmentally controlled atmosphere. Each tabletop enclosure is constructed with an aluminum framework, durable acrylic sides...

Collars serve multiple purposes.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Smoothbore, clamp-type shaft collars are available for use as stops, spacers and for mounting components on stainless steel and acrylic shafts or thin-wall tubing. They can be used as a replacement for setscrew collars. Available in steel,...

Front-mount inserts are fast, convenient.(Products)
March 1, 2007... MonoSert and DuoSert DM front-mounted inserts provide a fast, convenient and cost-efficient alternative to traditional rack-mounting fasteners, when attaching components, sub-racks and thin-sheet panels in rack and enclosure assemblies. In...

Blind rivets spread the load.(Products)
March 1, 2007... HuckLok blind rivet fasteners feature a 0.25-inch grip range. They can be used to join a wide range of assemblies, including truck bodies and HVAC equipment. Each fastener's large footprint spreads the load over a broader area, which results in...

Screwdriver error-proofs assemblies.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The SD25 right-angle electric screwdriver can be used to error-proof light torque assembly applications. Colored LEDs near the tool collar indicate process acceptance or failure to operators, and also signal when the tool is in reverse mode....

Take your PC onto the shop floor.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The rugged PC DNeT MPC 5/110 vehicle mount computer features robust construction, making it an ideal touch-screen PC for forklifts, construction equipment and other indoor-outdoor vehicles. Optional features provide high visibility in bright...

Square washers provide security.(Products)
March 1, 2007... AB241 and AB241L series square washers feature locators that extend down into the strut to secure the washer in place while tightening bolts, threaded rods and other fasteners. They fit both 1 1/2-inch Kindorf and 1 5/8-inch Superstrut...

Coating system accommodates multiple heads.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The PVA350 tabletop selective conformal coating application system is ideal for small- to medium-sized operations that require precise coating without masking. An adjustable board fixture within the system permits assemblies up to 15-inches...

Shelf racks offer convenience.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Slide shelf racks allow operators to unload an entire parts rack from one side, eliminating the need to rotate a rack. The racks are constructed with nonrusting roller mechanisms that improve the life and durability of the equipment. To allow...

Organize your small parts.(Products)
March 1, 2007... Compartment boxes and pigeonhole bins can be used to organize small parts. A wide range of metal and plastic versions is available, with a variety of fixed and adjustable configurations. They are fitted with a hinged cover, locking hardware and...

Compressors save energy, money.(Products)
March 1, 2007... The 3700 series of 40-, 50-, and 60-hp compressors feature a variable speed drive that can easily adjust to fluctuating compressed air demand, such as seasonal changes and shift-to-shift fluctuations. They provide energy savings and improved...

Question everything!(Leading Lean)
March 1, 2007... We can always rely on certain truths: the sky is blue, 2 + 2 = 4, and there are nine planets in the solar system. All right, there are only eight planets since the experts demoted Pluto. I was still able to get out of bed and function, but...