Contract manufacturing typically is associated with using an offshore manufacturer to produce products at a lower cost than would be possible domestically. But contract manufacturing also provides opportunities for companies looking to utilize the knowledge and experience of existing manufacturers, both domestic and foreign.
Collaborative Robots are the future of automation. As a Preferred Integrator of Universal Robots, it’s refreshing to see the use of a UR in the attached article by Mathieu Belanger-Barrette of RobotShop.com
A new generation of smart actuator offers increased intellect, simplicity, and economy. This next generation of the original actuators – a longtime staple in automation – are being used for several applications, including factory automation, robotics, and material handling.
By integrating electronics within the actuator housing, smart actuators enable switching, synchronization, and networking to be managed automatically, based on signals from a common external source such as a programmable logic controller (PLC) or other control unit.
Epson Robots, the renowned leader in SCARA Robots, has expanded their SCARA lineup to include 3 new robots. The latest SCARA robots are built to carry heavier objects at high rates of speed. The LS20 offers a maximum payload of 44lb with arm lengths of 800, and 1000mm. Both arm lengths feature a 420mm Z-Axis length.
Machine vision is the incorporation of computer vision into assembly and testing automation systems. However, machine vision does differ drastically from computer vision. Computer vision revolves around image processing while machine vision uses digital input and output to manipulate mechanical components. Devices that rely on machine vision are often found at work in product inspection, where they often use digital cameras or other forms of automated vision to perform tasks traditionally performed by human operators. Yet, the way machine vision systems ‘see’ is much different from human vision.
[fusion_text]Meadville, PA – NuTec Tooling, Inc, has released a collaboration video focusing on one of the many capabilities the company possesses as preferred industrial automation system Integrators for Universal Robots. The video highlights NuTec’s automation capabilities with vision and motion control systems with a Universal Robot (model UR-05).
Automation in the plastics industry is not an either/or zero-sum game that forces factory owners to decide between an all-human workforce or an all-automated one. Despite articles that would have us think robots will eliminate the global industrial workforce, nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, automating certain operations within the plastics industry can actually help increase the human workforce and allow manufacturers to expand without actually increasing their overall footprint or adding additional shifts and increasing payrolls.
When robots started being used in American factories, people were understandably upset and afraid. We were told robots were going to change the face of American manufacturing. Factories would be overrun by automation that never needed a human worker. While things were never that dire in the early days of robotics, we’re still seeing many changes in industrial automation as Industry 4.0 emerges as a new manufacturing-data-automation hybrid philosophy. Of course, there are plenty of myths surrounding industrial automation and its effect on American manufacturing. The industry has continued to change, but the myths have never entirely gone away. So we want to dispel these myths of industrial automation and discuss what the future holds for the manufacturing industry.
Thanks to Industry 4.0, industrial manufacturing is changing and evolving to the point that we’re not only measuring the output of the machines and predicting repair and replacement times, we’re using artificial intelligence and machine learning to aggregate output, calculate the inventory used, and even helping with ordering. Industry 4.0 is intelligent equipment, automated processes and machines, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It’s about reducing downtime and improving productivity, whether it’s helping identify machine components that are about to break, or notifying that an associate’s output has been flagged over the last couple of hours.
In a medical device manufacturing setting, striving for zero defects is always an important goal, and one that many manufacturers do their best to reach. They have regular human inspectors who receive special training, and use the latest machines and monitoring systems to check for defects. But automated visual inspections can help companies get so much closer in reaching that zero-defects threshold that this process is worth a look. Automated visual inspection is one of the latest error-reducing solutions and it promises to be a real game-changer. For one, automated inspections can help reduce costs, especially by preventing defects, and they can help ensure that all parts and processes are made consistently. Variability and minute differences can have a serious effect on the acceptance and performance of medical devices, and human inspections can be a major factor in these different variations. A human inspection doesn’t always catch all the very minor defects that can cause problems. Even if the defective parts are caught at the final inspection before they ever leave the plant, the fact that the products were finished means money has been needlessly wasted in producing something that has to be scrapped.