There's nothing better than starting an ultrasonic plastic welding application and finding the process "window" right away - the sweet spot in which people, parts, equipment and processes run smoothly, with great yields and timely, efficient production.

Refrigerators are one of the only appliances found in nearly every type of home, whether it's an apartment in suburban Atlanta, a high-rise condominium in downtown Chicago, a beach house in Hawaii or a trailer in Texas. The humble refrigerator is also the hardest working household appliance. Day and night, it's constantly running to keep all types of food and beverages cool, fresh or frozen.

Disc springs are conically shaped, washer-like components designed to be axially loaded.

For basic welding jobs, companies often rely on blueprints, tools and tape measures to build and weld the parts. However, when using these conventional tools, there's a high risk of mistakes being made and, at the end, having to break the parts loose, which is expensive and time consuming.

When choosing an encoder for a motion control system, you'll be faced with numerous technical terms. The amount of data can be overwhelming.

Automated assembly is becoming increasingly common, even for small manufacturing companies. Robotic assemblers improve productivity and boost output while ensuring that results are more consistent.

Load cells and sensors used with presses measure several key variables, such as ram force, distance and time, and help ensure they stay within allowable tolerances.

When designing plastic parts to be assembled by ultrasonic welding, engineers have several options: a butt joint, a step joint, a tongue-and-groove joint, and a shear joint.

Robotics and wrestling have a lot in common. Flexibility and reach are important to both. Robots and wrestlers also have numerous categories that are based on different weight and payload capacities.

In my first postcollege job, I was a manufacturing engineer for Cummins Engine Co. in Columbus, IN. Two weeks into the job, my boss came to me with a project to purchase an industrial wash system, and I leaped at the opportunity. It was a disaster.