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Describes the benefits and application of hot air staking for assisting the assembly of plastic parts and including the fixturing of pcbs, springs, bearings and a wide variety of other components. Describes the various forms and patterns of stakes that can be used and the methods of hot air heating and forming.

The purpose of this paper is to explore pneumatic components and the applications they address.

The extensive range of pneumatic grippers and actuators from various manufacturers is presented. An example of an end‐user pneumatic handling solution is given. Applications are then examined in plastics, mortise lock manufacture and food and pharmaceutical industries.

Pneumatic components are long lasting and reliable, giving tens of millions of operational cycles. Gimatic makes modular components that are particularly attractive for direct use by end‐users. Festo is already introducing a range of pneumatic products complying with the European Union safety directive to be introduced in December 2009.

This paper illustrates the versatility and reliability of pneumatic elements in automatic assembly operations.

A key factor in the economics of automated assembly is the cost of presenting parts in the correct orientation to the assembly machine

The paper examines the role played by foreign direct investment in developing local linkages in Singapore’s electronics industry. Backward material linkages have developed as a result of two processes: the development of indigenous local suppliers, mostly within the fabricated parts sector, and foreign investment by overseas suppliers, especially in the hard disk drive sector. The economic development potential of these suppliers varies, and local suppliers in contract manufacturing offer the best hope for future indigenous growth within the supply base. Public policies targeted towards supplier development and upgrading the quality of multinationals play a significant role in facilitating local linkage development in Singapore.

Sankyo Seiki relies on many automated lines to produce music boxes at the rate of one million a week. John Hartley reports.