EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation recently shipped a custom-built depaneling cell to a leading Tier 1 automotive supplier. The fully automatic cell loads circuit board panels from standard magazines and depanels them using servo-driven router heads. The individual boards are then loaded into trays, which are automatically stacked.
BERLIN—Festo Corp. has invented a pneumatic conveyor belt that uses wave action to transport objects in a targeted manner and sort them at the same time.
NORDLINGEN, Germany—Six-axis robots and a rotary indexing table are the heart of a high-speed automated assembly system that produces 200,000 automotive sensors daily.
It has become fashionable lately for some U.S. companies to tout how they’ve reshored production from overseas. Baldor Electric Co. isn’t one of them—it never left. The company has been manufacturing electric motors, drives, bearings and other motion control products in the United States for decades.
Recently introduced USB3 Vision joins several other established standards, all of which increase component selection, simplify setup and expand the market for vision systems.
Component interoperability for PC-based vision systems has come a long way in a short time. The main reason for this quick evolution is interface standards, which the AIA, a machine vision trade group, began introducing in 2000.
Robotic screwdriving offers numerous advantages to manufacturers, such as flexibility and repeatability. However, it’s easy to underestimate the requirements of automation. Sometimes, engineers specify the wrong type of robot or overlook parts feeding issues.
Several issues need to be addressed before there will be more widespread use of robotic screwdriving. Cost, robot design, training, culture and other factors must be considered by manufacturing engineers.