Building a piano is partly assembly and mostly art. Ever so meticulously, the hundreds or thousands of parts that go into each piano are either made by hand or produced on state-of-the-art CNC machines to a tight tolerance.

Software is both an essential and accessible tool for manufacturers, with many types to choose from.

Validation causes more headaches for medical device manufacturers than almost any other stage of the production process. For companies certified to ISO 13485, validation is always a costly and time-consuming undertaking, regardless of whether a new process is being set up or an existing process is being transferred.

First-pass yield is an important manufacturing metric. It measures the effectiveness of a process and provides an indication of how well we are eliminating waste.

Wave washers, also known as wave springs or coiled wave springs, are used to absorb stress due to axial compressive loads, acting as a cushion. The waves of the wave washer provide three-, four- or six-point contact that results in greater load bearing capacity and a medium range of deflection.

If there's a silver lining to the COVID pandemic, it might be that it encourages U.S. manufacturers to consider reshoring. Last year's shortages of personal protective equipment, ventilators, pharmaceutical ingredients and other medical products opened a lot of eyes in board rooms and in Washington.

To join two aluminum parts, you could, in theory, place one atop the other and wait 100 years. The two will eventually form a solid-state bond. Metals naturally want to join with each other.

Chain drives are essential to automotive manufacturing. These drives are typically used to transport automotive frames down kilometer-long production lines.

Engineers at Clemson University are developing next-generation batteries that charge faster, last longer and can be scaled to fit a variety of vehicle classes. The Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI) is working on the project with Atlis Motor Vehicles Inc.

Today's medical devices often feature a number of complex, high-value-added parts. Device manufacturers carefully design these parts before having them molded, machined or assembled.