An OEM manufacturer of molded plastic electrical conduit components used a single horn ultrasonic welder to install brass inserts into several of its products. The operator loaded the part into a nest, placed an insert into the hole, and activated the unit. This process was flawed because the insert was installed with great difficulty due…

A good part of Mike Looney’s responsibilities as Operations Manager of Perkins Engine Company’s Global Engine Development Center (GDC) is determining how the company’s Tier 4 engines react to real world use. Besides using validation cells to test and validate products, Perkins also added a tilt cell that allows Looney and his team to check…

Bottling manufacturer Tervis recently had a good problem: business was booming and the company was expanding and hiring additional personnel. For years, its automated facilities relied on Dorner 2200 and 3200 Series conveyors with precision belt technology for the accurate indexing of the tumblers to ensure smooth, uninterrupted flow of production. However, to accommodate its…

J.W. Winco, Inc. now offers GN 704 Quick Release Set Collars. Parts that need to be secured on stationary or rotating shafts can be easily adjusted with these set collars. Unlike thrust bolts or clamping screws, they generate locking force on the shaft via a cam lever. This quick release design allows the collars to…

Inertial sensors can provide a wealth of orientation, position, and timing information for independently operating machines. The need to extract reliable inertial data in unmanned and remote applications continues to demand more precise and autonomous sensors. In a project with the Quad Cities Collaboration (QC Co-Lab) and Hackerspace Laboratory, MicroStrain’s miniature inertial sensor was used…

When Pennsylvania-based Turkey Hill Dairy began experiencing leaky milk and juice containers on its production lines, it contacted Balluff for help. One line was analyzed and the primary problem was caps not being sealed correctly at the capping machine. By either under- or over-tightening due to variations in the bottle material, some of the bottles…

Configuring a stadium or other large venue to accommodate huge crowds can be a challenge. That was the case with Chicago Scenic Studios, Inc. (CSSI), a provider of scenic theatrical systems, when it faced transforming the Boston Fleet Center into a convention hall for the Democratic National Convention. One of the engineering hurdles was developing…

A leading manufacturer of agricultural spraying equipment was having trouble with field failures when the rubber tubes with pinch valves that feed the spray nozzles began failing during the peak spraying season. The flanged tubes open to allow spraying and the pinch valve is closed to stop the spray. Between the high pressure, aggressive chemicals,…