Assembly Automation: Volume 30 Issue 1

Outlook report on the future of European assembly automation

This roadmap is primarily concerned with the adaptive assembly technology situation in Europe, a topic of particular interest as assembly is often the final process within…

Palletizing candy orders and never squeezing the chocolates

The purpose of this paper is to report on the innovative system developed to automatically palletize orders of cartons of candy for shipment to distribution centers.

Integrated laser cell for combined laser cladding and milling

Laser materials processing system technology has become indispensible to the tool and die manufacturing industries and for repairing engines and turbines. The laser build‐up…

Technology review for mass customisation using rapid manufacturing

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunities and challenges of mass customisation (MC), together with the possibilities for enablement using the technologies of rapid…

An automated apparatus for dynamic inspection of mass‐produced custom parts

Quality control and part inspection add no monetary value to a product, yet are essential processes for manufacturers who want to maintain product quality. Mass‐produced custom…

Measurement assisted robotic assembly of fabricated aero‐engine components

The purpose of this paper is to describe the measurement‐assisted assembly of aero‐engine fabricated components and evaluate its capability.

Pipe assembly planning algorithm by imitating human imaginal thinking

The purpose of this paper is to develop a computationally efficient and generally applicable measure for a pipe routing problem which decides the pipe paths and affects the pipe…

The auto‐cooking system for Chinese traditional dishes

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new auto‐cooking industrial system for the Chinese food industry.

Measuring the impact of research

Novel new tool head design for cutting machinery slashes the cost of migrating to 3D movement

New FASTRACK linear encoder system bridges high accuracy and tape scale convenience for sectional machines and dissimilar-material structures

Patents abstracts

Festo and V-viz enter partnership to promote use of intelligent vision systems in automation

Bridging the gap

Web sites

Festo unveils entirely new class of products – high performance linear motor-based actuators

The human factor and warehouse safety

Robust Design for Quality Engineering and Six Sigma

Rockwell Automation helps manufacturers build fast, flexible Ethernet networks using device level ring technology

IRphotonics' thermal spot curing system reduces epoxy-curing time by up to 10x

Diary

NanoKTN opens up membership to nanotechnology community

Savi wins $6.6 million order from US Defense Department for RFID supply chain tracking technologies

Difficult problems