For more than 5,000 years, investment casting has produced a wide variety of metal products. The process is currently used to manufacture everything from surgical implants to jet engine turbine blades.
Designing a modern diesel engine presents many challenges for engineers. One of the biggest is making sure that each engine component is properly sealed during operation.
When it comes to jewelry, copper is definitely less valuable than gold or silver. In the world of assembly, however, copper is much more in demand. Its uses range from electrical conductors in wire, to solar-cell foundations, to sheet metal products for commercial and residential applications.
Product versatility is just as important to suppliers as it is to manufacturers. A product that can be used in multiple applications and industries is one with wide market appeal.
The manufacturer needed to present thin steel blades down an assembly line in a specific orientation. However, the parts were essentially symmetrical, with the exception of a small notch that had to be presented on the right side. With no real differences in the part other than this notch, feeding them to an assembly mechanism with 100 percent accuracy was a challenge.
Disposable or reusable? Consumers face that choice many times each day. Should we buy a bottle of water for the gym or fill a thermos at home? Should we eat dinner on paper plates or use the dishes? Which to choose depends on many factors, including convenience, cost and the environment.
To handle simple material handling tasks in automated workcells, engineers typically opt for linear axes. However, assembling multiple linear axes into a Cartesian motion system can be a time-consuming process. You must connect each module to the next one, assembling subcomponents as you go, then wire each module, connect each axis to an external controller, and finally program the system.
In his August 2017 editorial, “Tariff Debate Pits Producers Against Consumers,” chief editor John Sprovieri clearly posed the dilemma of low-priced Chinese steel imports, which have severely impacted the U.S. steel industry.
In July, Foxconn Technology Group pledged to invest $10 billion to build an assembly plant in southeastern Wisconsin to make liquid crystal displays for computer screens, televisions and dashboards.
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