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Tuesday, April 24, 2018

VOLUME - NUMBER

Wearable Exoskeletons Reduce Worker Fatigue

By Nicole Lang, Product Manager — iglide^®, igus^®, Inc.
A new wearable and lightweight exoskeleton can help employees at electronics manufacturing companies boost productivity, reduce fatigue and downtime, and improve quality and precision. The Airframe^® includes engineered plastic components from German manufacturer igus that contribute ...

	Nikon Verifies Power Semiconductor Devices for IXYS UK Westcode


	By Chris Wright, Director, The Right Image, Ltd. IXYS UK Westcode, part of the global semiconductor manufacturer IXYS Corporation, is investing in its Chippenham, U.K., factory to manufacture a new range of power semiconductor devices. These new devices will be marketed alongside the company's longstanding Press-Pack capsules. Nikon Metrology was ...

HARTING Connectors Boost Efficiency of Wind Power Plants

By Carsten Edler, Industry Segment Manager — Wind Energy, and Norbert Weiss, Team Leader Marketing Services — Han^®, HARTING Electric GmbH & Co. KG
Germany's roughly 30,000 wind turbines currently produce around 50,000 MW of electricity for households and companies. The expansion of wind energy both onshore and offshore is helping to determine the pace and success of the shift in energy policy introduced at the beginning of the ...

	How Universal Robots Doubled Production at Tegra Medical


	By Brian Dillman, Area Sales Manager, Universal Robots USA, Inc. As production costs rose and as customers demanded lower prices, medical device manufacturer Tegra Medical's profits were being eroded. By deploying three collaborative robot arms from Universal Robots (UR) to tend manufacturing machines, the company doubled its throughput, freed up 11 full-time positions ...

Hold Your Fire: How to Ship Lithium-Ion Batteries Safely

By Rob Finn, VP Marketing and Product Management, Labelmaster
Lithium-ion batteries are dangerous cargo. Trouble starts when the separator between the battery's elements is compromised, causing a short circuit. The battery then overheats, reaches its "thermal runaway" point at 302°F (150°C) and bursts into flames.

Saving Time: Collecting Data to Improve Manufacturing

By Jeff Taylor, Regional Sales Manager, Kolver USA

Tulip's manufacturing app platform combines sensors, computer vision, assistive user interfaces and machine learning.

One step every manufacturer can take to help the bottom line is to improve the manufacturing process. Starting with a solution-based mentality or "putting out fires as they appear" neglects examining the process itself. A manager might begin by implementing a program based on a school of thought — lean manufacturing, key performance indicators (KPIs), Kaizen, poka-yoke, etc. This is done in the hopes that an improved mindset will eventually address all of the problems.

	One-Stop Repair for Medical Device Manufacturing Equipment


	By Dick Puhl Medical device manufacturing incorporates a range of advanced mechanical, hydraulic and electronic technologies, starting with engineering, and continuing on to fabrication, finishing and assembly. With many enterprises utilizing digital design and prototyping systems, automated fabrication, CNC finishing ...

	NEO Tech Collaborates with Aviation OEM for In-Flight Automation


	By Steve Heinzen, VP of Marketing, NEO Tech Engineering Services An aviation industry OEM and its end customer — a major commercial airline manufacturer — envisioned a product that would boost the efficiency of commercial flight crews. The product would have wireless connectivity while operating automatically in the aircraft.

Filling the Retirement Gap Through Hands-On Training

By Mike Prestoy, Senior Manufacturing Engineer, ACI Technologies
There are more talented engineers retiring than there are personnel to replace them. Effective, targeted training is a solid solution to this problem, which helps to fill this growing knowledge gap. Production equipment comes with instructions, but not with the experience that skilled ...

A Center of Excellence: ACI Spurs Industry through Research and Training

By Mike Prestoy, Senior Manufacturing Engineer, ACI Technologies
Uniquely valuable to the electronics manufacturing community, ACI Technologies operates the U.S. Navy's center of excellence in electronics manufacturing. The EMPF (electronics manufacturing productivity facility) focuses on the development, application and transfer of new electronics ...

Man-Robot Collaboration is Reinventing Manufacturing

By Sebastien Schmitt, Robotics Division Manager, Stäubli North America
It's not man against machine, but man and machine working together that is promising to redefine performance in today's industrial factories. Increasingly, robots are being tasked with harsh, dangerous and repetitive jobs that are not fit for humans. As manufacturers look for new ways ...

	Holoptica and Loftware Prevent Counterfeiting with Holographic Barcodes


	By George Perkous, CEO, Holoptica, and Josh Roffman, VP Product Management, Loftware Barcode labeling has been largely a manual, time-consuming, expensive, one-off type of process. Box software applications, used on a site-by-site basis, have generally been point solutions that met a specific need or specific use case. However, the labeling process has moved from being application ...

	Schaeffler Partners with IBM to Create Cloud-Based Platform


	By Gerhard Baum, Chief Digital Officer, Schaeffler and Juergen Henn, Executive Partner, IBM Global Business Services The migration of data from isolated networks to the cloud is completely changing the way businesses operate and gather information about their products and customers. With recent advances made in the areas of big data and analytics, and in pure computing power, companies can now gather and leverage ...

	Siemens Upgrades Inert Technologies' Control Systems


	By Bill Ellsworth, Account Manager, Siemens Managing multiple PLCs from different manufacturers can introduce needless complexity into production. This is especially true when a company, like Inert Technologies, creates highly-customized solutions for each of its OEM customers. Managing multiple controllers complicates procurement, manufacturing ...

	Libra Partners with Vizion Solutions for IT Overhaul


	By Jenn Kiminas Managing four world-class EMS facilities is a complex task. From its various locations Libra Industries must provide its customers with services that range from simple PCB production to complete system builds. In order to more effectively monitor and control all four facilities, the company partnered ...

Canine Protective Vest Maker Chooses Sonobond Equipment

By Melissa Alleman, Vice President, Sonobond Ultrasonics
When a Canadian manufacturer of protective vests for working dogs sought to guarantee that its canine users had personal protection comparable to that of their human counterparts, it added Sonobond's SeamMaster^® high-profile ultrasonic sewing machine to its manufacturing process. ...

	BellHawk Systems Provides WIP Tracking


	By Peter Green, CTO, BellHawk Systems Corp. When three electronics manufacturers approached BellHawk Systems looking for a WIP (work-in-progress) tracking system for quick-turn manufacturing operations in the U.S., they considered two options: RFID or barcodes. Each of these options had a similar problem; they were unable to track, in real ...

	Glenbrook's Micro-Fluoroscopy Aids in Dysphagia Research


	By Jim McMahon The University of Missouri School of Medicine research laboratory is now using a new system employing, high-resolution micro-fluoroscopy technology, developed and patented by Glenbrook Technologies, which enables researchers to view the swallowing function of mice while eating and drinking. This ...

	Staying Competitive in Today's Challenging Production Environment


	By Juli Fortune, EDSYN, Inc. Competition is generally good, however, it can strangle innovation and lead to a loss of focus as manufacturers strive only to produce "the next best thing." For companies that are driven by competition alone, the words of author Edward Abbey may prove alarmingly prophetic. "Where all think alike ...

	Finding the Perfect Partner


	By Terry Morgan, CEO, Voxvia All sizes of SMT equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and consumable materials makers will rely on a network of "channel partners" at some point. These partnerships take many forms, ranging from a one-man-band to countrywide distributers; or even super-distributors working across continents.