Original equipment manufacturers in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry have an opportunity to help both their customers and themselves as they prepare to comply with new energy conservation standards for residential furnace fans.

Vision systems are used to make critical measurements of parts and assemblies as part of a quality control system. Such measurements might be taken to determine the fitness of a component to progress to the next step in the manufacturing process, or they might be done at the end of the line prior to shipping the final product.

From the outside, a robot appears to be an independent entity that can do many great things all on its own. But, in truth, it's the internal technology and end-of-arm tooling that enable the robot to effectively perform many types of assembly.

Sooner or later, most manufacturers need to consider investing in automatic screwdriving equipment. If an assembly calls for multiple screws of the same size, an autofeed screwdriver is an easy way to boost accuracy, productivity and quality.

In January 2017, students from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands unveiled the world’s first car made almost entirely from bio-based materials.

There’s been a great deal of press about the benefits of metal 3D printing, and rightly so. We are only beginning to experience the impact that this technology will have on all aspects of manufacturing.

In 1886, Josephine Garis Cochrane patented her design for the first automatic dishwasher. In 1908, the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago introduced the first electric-powered washing machine. In 1913, Fred W. Wolf’s invention of the first commercially viable electric refrigerator in the United States hit the market.

For the past decade, carbon-fiber composites have been the darling of the aerospace sector, receiving countless praise and widespread attention. Reinforced polymers have dramatically changed the way that many types of airframes are designed and built.

Based in Gutersloh, Germany, the Miele Group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of commercial and residential appliances. However, it didn't start out that way. Founded in 1899 by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann, the company initially made cream separators for the dairy industry. Over the years, the company has manufactured butter churns, hand carts, bicycles and even automobiles.

In October 2016, nearly 200 countries, with the strong support of the HVACR industry and other stakeholders, came to a landmark agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, to bring about a global phase down of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants (HFCs).