Putting Safety First in Robotic Automation August 31, 2016 New ISO safety specification helps automation developers design safer robots for close encounters on the factory floor
Composites for Aerospace: Faster, More Automated June 23, 2016 The aerospace industry continues to increase its use of composites, a phenomenon that’s pushing academics, trade groups and manufacturers to research and develop methods to enhance the techniques and tools for using the materials.
Quality Inspection and the CAD Connection January 6, 2016 Modern manufacturing is rapidly adopting model-based definition (MBD). When employing an MBD strategy, the CAD model becomes more than the nominal to which all parts are measured and inspected against. MBD keeps the all-important digital thread intact—from design to manufacturing to inspection and quality reporting.
Metrology Gets Connected September 1, 2015 “Metrology and its relationship to manufacturing is rapidly evolving,” Ken Woodbine, president, Wilcox Associates, a brand of Hexagon Metrology (North Kingstown, RI), recently observed. “We are seeing larger quantities and faster speeds of measurement data collection. The next challenge is what to do with all that data.”
Taking the Factory’s Pulse with Shop-Floor Monitoring October 1, 2014 To run factories at optimal efficiency, plant managers need to mine real-time shop-floor operational data as fast as possible, to quickly determine where and when any manufacturing process bottlenecks occur. With today’s shop-floor data management software and related hardware solutions, manufacturers can leverage more key production performance data than ever in order to fine-tune their manufacturing processes.
Change-up Pitch: From Metal to Plastic October 2, 2014 Even though it’s been around since the 1950s, when engineering-grade resins were first introduced, many manufacturers still are not familiar with the many benefits that metal-to-plastic conversion provides.
Real-Time SPC Software Drives Bottom-Line Benefits July 1, 2014 The latest statistical process control software offers manufacturers easy-to-use and effective real-time process quality control
Connecting the Digital World with the Factory Floor April 1, 2014 The classic manufacturing conundrum is how to make products quicker, cheaper, and better.
Grinding Roots August 22, 2013 Until the middle of 2010, first-tier subcontract machinist, JJ Churchill, could produce turbine blades only if they had their fir-tree root-forms preground elsewhere, or if they were subsequently added by another subcontractor. No longer is this the case.
Aerospace Automation Picks Up the Pace March 1, 2013 With thousands of fastener locations that need to be drilled and filled to complete a plane, drilling and fastening remain the largest areas of opportunity for automated robotics applications in aerospace. New developments are also making robots more attractive than ever in the aerospace and defense space—especially improved rigidity and accuracy in the robots themselves.
