During the past month, I interviewed several engineers for an article on automatic screwdriving. Along the way, I learned a bit of wisdom that is applicable no matter what process you might want to automate.

In the latter part of the 18th century, the advent of water and steam power enabled manufacturers to transition from manual production to mechanized production. Historians know it as the Industrial Revolution, but let’s think of it as “Industry 1.0.”

There was no shortage of robotics suppliers at The ASSEMBLY Show last October.

With the automotive and aerospace industries humming, our annual Capital Equipment Spending Survey predicts robust growth in investment.

Nearly 3,800 manufacturing professionals converged on Rosemont, IL, in October to see the latest assembly technology.

If a federal agency helped reduce the trade deficit, increase U.S. manufacturing jobs, and returned a profit to the Treasury, you might think that was a good thing. Unfortunately, it’s not the case in topsy-turvy Washington.

By a lot of measures, U.S. manufacturing is doing pretty well. Manufacturing employment is at its highest level since April 2010.

The new, compact C4 six-axis robot from EPSON Robots can perform a standard cycle—move a part 1 inch up, 12 inches across, 1 inch down, and back again—in just 0.37 second. 

Wire harnesses for appliances must be designed to resist heat, vibration, water, chemicals and other factors.

When designing a complex machine, engineers have two options. They can get all parts of the system—controller, drives, motors, I/O and human-machine interface (HMI)—from a single vendor. Or, they can pick and choose devices from mul-tiple suppliers.