Assembly Automation: Volume 7 Issue 1

From robotics to assembly — KUKA looks to the future

Brian Rooks

Starting life in 1898 as an acetylene torch manufacturer the West German company Keller und Knappich, Augsburg (KUKA) has grown to one of Europe's largest manufacturers of factory…

How fast is automated electronics assembly?

Stephen McClelland

Automated electronics assembly has a fair degree of irony about it: on the one hand, it is commonly supposed to be more efficient than manual assembly but on the other, no one…

Reflex puts its software capabilities to the test

Jack Hollingum

One of the most interesting demonstrations at the CIMAP networking event sponsored by the UK Department of Trade and Industry at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, last…

Surface mount technology: prospects and pitfalls

Charles‐Henri Mangin, Stephen McClelland

Surface‐mounted components (SMC) for placement on hybrid substrates and small boards for miniaturised products have been in use for almost 20 years. Still, it is a fairly new…

Philips gets SMT just‐in‐time

Stephen McClelland

High volume telecommunications equipment is expected to be one of the biggest users of surface mount technology over the next decade in Europe, so it was no surprise to find…

Shimano designs robots for delicate assemblies

John Hartley

Low volume means different things to different companies; at Shimano Industrial, the world's largest maker of gears for bicycles, low volume involves production runs of up to…