Tubing, cylindrical housings, and similar shapes often pose joining challenges. Crimping and pressing operations have been frequently used to form an edge on such shapes as a means of joining them to another part or to enclose an assembly of parts, but those methods have their drawbacks.
Joining dissimilar materials has long posed a challenge for design engineers. However, by combining different technologies such as adhesive bonding and mechanical fasteners, manufacturers can create strong, rigid assemblies.
Whether applying a bead of adhesive to automotive glass or gasketing material to an appliance door, six-axis robots can dramatically improve the quality of the operation.
Carbon dioxide found popularity as a refrigerant for comfort cooling in the 1920s, before being replaced by more convenient CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in the 1930s and then HFCs (hydroflurocarbons) in the 1990s. But with the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty requiring industrialized nations to lower their collective greenhouse gases 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, carbon dioxide has come back into the limelight as a hope for a safe and effective refrigerant replacement.
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