It wasn’t all that long ago that people with intellectual disabilities were institutionalized-isolated from their families and communities. These days, thankfully, attitudes are much different. A number of organizations are providing win-win situations: enabling people with intellectual disabilities to obtain training and fulfilling employment, while helping manufacturers assemble their products for pennies on the dollar.

While the United States leads the world in advanced medical technology and services, escalating spending on health care is taking a toll on employers. The burden of footing this bill is making U.S. manufacturers less competitive and provides a considerable incentive for moving manufacturing jobs to low-cost labor markets. Since this is an election year, it would be wise for everyone to see where the three remaining presidential candidates stand on healthcare.

Although nonsynchronous systems are slower than synchronous systems in terms of assemblies per minute, they are more efficient than cam-driven systems. Photo courtesy Merritech Contrary to the claims of promotional

The sealing surfaces on a transmission manifold must be free of defects that would allow pressurized hydraulic fluid to leak. A machine vision system readily finds such defects at production

When medical device manufacturer Medrad Inc. needed to unlock hidden potential in its assembly lines, it got lean.