Assembly - December 2008 - (Page 45) Catch This Year’s ATExpo Online Electronics Manufacturing Solutions Inc. (Indianapolis). Marking its 13th appearance at ATExpo, this year’s EASi line featured a wide assortment of equipment, including conveyors, rework systems, pick-and-place machines, soldering stations, reflow soldering systems, screwdrivers, optical inspection, robotic point-to-point soldering machines, laser marking and even depanelling and packing workcells. The end result was a working, electronic blackjack game that attendees could take home as a souvenir. One of the great things about ATExpo is that attendees can see the latest technology firsthand, as opposed to just listening to a sales pitch—and there’s nothing like seeing actual product coming of a real assembly line to know if a set of equipment has the “right stuff.” A Variable Ratio Dispensing ASSEMBLY magazine editor John Sprovieri interviews Fanuc Robotics’ Mark Handelsman at this year’s Assembly Technology Expo. If you missed this year’s Assembly Technology Expo, don’t worry. For the first time, ASSEMBLY magazine is providing video coverage of North America’s largest assembly-only event on its ASSEMBLYtv web page. To access this coverage free of charge, go to www.assemblymag.com/ ATExpo. Featured companies include those involved in robotics, automation, test systems, lean manufacturing, dispensing, sensors and screwdriving. While you’re there, feel free to check out the rest of ASSEMBLYtv, which features videos covering a wide range of assembly technologies, many of them shot on-site in actual assembly plants. ideal for the implementation of flexible automation—a point not lost on robot makers. With this in mind, Fanuc Robotics (Rochester Hills, MI) had a functioning workcell on display loading and unloading randomly oriented solar wafers off a conveyor with the help of a machine vision system. Another show attendee that has been making inroads this area is Stäubli Corp. (Duncan, SC). The company’s new TX200 PV six-axis robot, for example, is designed specifically for use in photovoltaic applications, with a payload of 130 kilograms. Finally, as in year’s past, ATExpo featured a fully functioning electronics manufacturing line, sponsored by the Electronics Assembly Suppliers Initiative (EASi) and coordinated by Graco PR70v + - www.graco.com/PR70 Call 877-844-7226 for your local distributor ©2008 Graco Inc. 340053 Rev. B www.assemblymag.com December 2008 / ASSE M B LY 45 http://www.assemblymag.com/ATExpo http://www.assemblymag.com/ATExpo http://www.graco.com/PR70 http://www.graco.com/PR70 http://www.assemblymag.com
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