One way for a manufacturer to enter a new market is through acquisition. However, one downside of the strategy is that the manufacturing assets you acquire do not always mesh perfectly with how you like to do things.

The DEPRAG manual work station combines manual operations with processing reliability that is on par with automated production.

In tough economic times it is even more important to find efficient, cost effective ways to improve assembly processes and to make sure they save you time and money.

State-of-the-art screwdriving technology is enabling automakers to maximize their use of friction-drilling screws.

When an automatic screwdriver is paired with a robot or linear slide, productivity can take off.

CONOVER, NC—Small screws—sizes smaller than #4 or 3 millimeter—are increasingly finding their way into assemblies. This Q&A with Design Tool Inc. talks about the challenges of dealing with these fasteners in automatic screwdriving applications.

Suppliers of automatic screwdriving equipment talk about their toughest challenges and how they overcame them.

During the past month, I interviewed several engineers for an article on automatic screwdriving. Along the way, I learned a bit of wisdom that is applicable no matter what process you might want to automate.

Screws aren’t the only fasteners that can be fed to fully or semiautomatic installation tools. Nuts, setscrews and other fasteners—both threaded and unthreaded—can be fed automatically, too.

Santa’s helpers depend on adhesives, screws and ultrasonic welding.