Airplanes old and new share many of the same types of components. One is a nacelle, or engine housing, with an inlet lip skin that ensures smooth air flow. However, not all planes have similarly shaped lip skins.

Robot sales in North America hit record highs in 2017 in terms of both units sold and total sales. Manufacturers purchased 34,904 total units, representing $1.9 billion in total sales, according to the Robotic Industries Association (RIA).

Numerous electrical-product manufacturers focus on making either AC inductors or DC power supplies. Micron Industries Corp. is one of a select group of manufacturers worldwide that produce both type of products, as well as transformers, reactors and fuse panels.

Delta robots are becoming increasingly popular for many types of applications, because they're fast, have small footprints and feature large work envelopes.

Manufacturers KSM Log Homes Ltd. and AgJunction are located on opposite coasts of the United States and serve different industries. Nonetheless, they often face similar linear motion challenges with their equipment.

Every automobile requires a starter, and for decades, Bosch Auto Parts has been the world's leading supplier of this key engine component. The company manufactures starters around the clock on seven assembly lines at its plant in Hildesheim, Germany.

Fixtures are essential to most assembly and machining processes. Their design is vital, as they have a direct effect on productivity, cost and quality. It is estimated that 40 percent of rejected parts stem from inappropriate fixturing.

Vision systems are used to make critical measurements of parts and assemblies as part of a quality control system. Such measurements might be taken to determine the fitness of a component to progress to the next step in the manufacturing process, or they might be done at the end of the line prior to shipping the final product.

Electric motors have been used in industry for more than 150 years. Siemens AG has been making them at its plant in Bad Neustadt, Germany, for 80 of those years.

From the outside, a robot appears to be an independent entity that can do many great things all on its own. But, in truth, it's the internal technology and end-of-arm tooling that enable the robot to effectively perform many types of assembly.