If Ohio ever needs a catch phrase to promote its manufacturing success, “five out of eight is great” would be appropriate. The reason is because Ohio is home to five of Whirlpool Corp.’s eight U.S. assembly plants. Those five factories are located in the Ohio cities of Clyde, Findlay, Greenville, Marion and Ottawa.
Just a few decades ago, the typical American or European driver would never have believed that China, a communist country, would one day be the world’s largest car producer (by volume).
In every manufacturing industry, tradition is becoming less important. Companies no longer assume that what worked in the past will be enough to keep and gain customers. Instead, they look to the latest technology to improve manufacturing processes, optimize product quality and expand their customer base.
PITTSBURGH—Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania have developed a vision-guided, dual-armed robot that can assemble a wooden birdhouse autonomously using a nail gun.
MONTREAL—Matrox Imaging has announced its Design Assistant machine vision software will now be able to communicate directly with DENSO robots using the RC8 controller.
ELY, UK—British systems integrator GB Innomech has built an automated assembly system that uses vision-guided robots to produce spools of film ribbons for security and identity cards.
