John Sprovieri

Shaker Table Sorts Parts for Thermoelectric Cooling Devices

March 6, 2020

Thermoelectric coolers are great for day trips, tailgating, boating or even overnight camping trips. Instead of ice, these coolers rely on a thin, flat electronic assembly called a Peltier device.

Electric Vehicle Startups Ramp Up Production

Not since the early 20th century has the U.S. automotive industry seen so many startups

John Sprovieri

March 3, 2020

The Budweiser Clydesdales have been an advertising icon since April 7, 1933, when the first hitch of eight horses trotted away from the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis with a wagon-load of beer to celebrate the end of Prohibition.

Five Things: Additive Manufacturing

John Sprovieri

March 3, 2020

Daimler Buses is using additive manufacturing to make spare parts for vehicles on demand. The company's Centre of Competence for 3D Printing is examining more than 300,000 bus parts to determine their suitability for additive manufacturing.

A Good Start on US-China Trade Deal

John Sprovieri

March 3, 2020

In January, the U.S. and China agreed to a trade deal that cut some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Chinese pledges to purchase more American farm, energy and manufactured goods and address U.S. complaints about intellectual property practices.

Automated System Installs Electric Vehicle Power Trains

Five Things: Electric Vehicle Assembly

John Sprovieri

February 5, 2020

Nissan has invested $305 million in its factory in Tochigi, Japan, to develop new technologies for assembling electric vehicles.

New Technology for Automatic Screwdriving

Collaborative robots are among the latest products for automatic screwdriving

John Sprovieri

February 5, 2020

Threaded fasteners are, by far, the most common method of assembling parts. According to ASSEMBLY magazine's annual Capital Equipment Spending Survey, screwdriving is performed at 58 percent of U.S. assembly plants, making it more popular than welding, pressing, adhesive bonding or riveting.

System Automatically Sorts, Separates Busbars

John Sprovieri

February 4, 2020

A&H Meyer, a manufacturer of cable management systems for furniture, approached RNA Automation Ltd. to design a flexible automation system to sort, separate and feed busbars. The company wanted a system that could handle 12 different lengths of flat and crimped busbars with minimal changeover time.

Hot-Gas Welding of Plastic Parts

A new noncontact joining method uses hot nitrogen flowing through custom-built nozzles to soften the weld area

John Sprovieri

February 4, 2020

The shop floor was hopping in mid-January at Dukane Corp.'s headquarters in St. Charles, IL, 35 miles west of Chicago. Technicians were busy assembling, tooling and testing a variety of machines, including the latest product in the company's arsenal of plastics assembly technologies: a hot-gas welding system.

Assembly Jobs and Public Health

John Sprovieri

February 3, 2020

Idle hands are the devil's workshop, or so my folks would like to remind me when I was growing up. Now, there's scientific evidence of just that.

System Feeds Synthetic Corks

John Sprovieri

January 9, 2020

An assembler wanted to automatically feed and orient synthetic corks at a feed rate of 200 parts per minute. These corks are difficult to feed due to the sticky film that remains on their surface after the manufacturing process.