Material and equipment storage can be a major concern for fabricators. Therefore, it is important to establish the purpose of a storage system and understand clearly what it needs to accomplish.

As the "jobless" recovery continues, the job cleansing of the U.S. manufacturing base tops 2.7 million. These millions now without jobs remain faceless, statistical footnotes to mainstream media reports about how the recession ended in 2001, production is on the rise, and how job losses are singularly attributable to productivity gains. The outsourcing of the American dream for small manufacturers proceeds unabated.

Aficionados of laser welding technology at times must feel a little like telephone vendors beamed back to 1603. They know almost everyone is going to use them in the future, but getting buy-in today can be like hawking loans at 25 percent-lots of interest and few takers.

In many applications—such as large-component welding, press-tending lines, and multiprocess cells—running multiple robots from a single point of control assists in preventing collisions, simplifying the programming structure, and reducing integration cost. This approach also meets the American National Standards Institute/Robotic Institute of America (ANSI/RIA) R15.06-1999 safety standard.

Ah, the memories of summer camp. Swimming, sunscreen, hiking, bug spray, camping, arts and crafts. And the promise of an exciting experience with friends. Like youths all over the U.S., 10 students from the Rockford, Ill., region have their own summer camp recollections. Theirs are from a one-week experience the last week of July, but it wasn't necessarily like the camp you may remember.

Press brake forming always has been a labor-intensive process. Shrinking lead-times and smaller lot sizes demand more frequent setups, which cut into productive output hours and put more pressure on manufacturing efficiencies. Fabricators need to find ways to reduce machine downtime for setup and operator adjustments.