Aerospace engineering shops throughout North America focus daily on producing complex parts that meet tight tolerance and high precision requirements. Some, like Harbor City, CA-based Hansen Engineering Co. (HEC), specialize in MDI surface geometry, statistical process control and electronic probing of part surfaces.

Inserting glass windows into car bodies has been, and remains, a challenge for automotive OEMs. Manual insertion is labor intensive and imprecise, and carries with it the risk of bodily injury to assemblers due to broken glass.

Regardless of its size or past performance, every technological device can always benefit from a little help, including the very famous and large (43.3 by 13.8 feet) Hubble Space Telescope.

Little things not only mean a lot, they can also explain a lot. Consider a spent blind-rivet mandrel, which is only 1 to 2 inches in length, but has tiny markings that provide a wealth of information to veteran rivet-tool-supplier salespeople like Michelle Donath at Yamazen Inc.

As its name suggests, an inspection slitter rewinder (ISR) machine does many things - although not necessarily in the expected order. ISR machines made by Oakville, Ontario-based KOR Engineering Inc. are specifically designed to slit, laser perforate and inspect a wide range of pressure-sensitive labels, flexible packaging and shrink sleeves.

Being the welding equipment supplier for several of the world’s leading automotive OEMs is a big responsibility, but not an impossible one. Hirotec America (HA) is proof of that. Since 1988, the company has provided this equipment to GM, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Toyota and BMW.

In Brillion, WI, every season is a good season to care about lawn mowers. The reason is because Brillion is home to Ariens Co., a leading manufacturer of walk-behind, stand-on and riding mowers.

For manufacturers, the product-miniaturization trend is kind of a Catch-22. They know that serving a large and ever-expanding marketplace ensures company growth—so long as their robots can precisely place ever-smaller parts into subassemblies, final assemblies or packaging. Specially designed small grippers and vacuum cups have enabled many manufacturers to achieve both goals.

Historic events make a Major League Baseball (MLB) season memorable. In October 2017, for instance, the Houston Astros won its first World Series championship ever. Several months before that, however, a less-well-known event took place: MLB approved the use of any Whoop Inc. wearable fitness tracker by all players and coaches in games.

When it comes to the oil and gas industry, bigger is always better. This statement applies not only to the equipment used for site preparation and production, and the amount of usable natural resources removed from the ground—but also to the metal containers that are required to store the radioactive waste material that naturally occurs during exploration and drilling.