The showerhead's neck is a ball-and-socket arrangement, similar to those used on flashlights and industrial cooling hoses, but with more challenging performance demands. For one, the flexible neck must maintain its few thousandths of an inch tolerances, and not creep, despite being under a constant load from the 10-ounce showerhead, carrying water heated to 105°F, or even hotter in hotels, and pressurized to an average 80 pounds per square inch.

Hollow beads made of Celcon copolymer enable this showerhead to be bent into shape in order to accommodate different bathers' preferences.

Teledyne also selected the Celcon copolymer for its creep resistance. The company molded 15 hollow beads of the material to connect the neck's ball and socket joints. These beads are designed to slide into place when someone bends the neck into shape.

In addition to maintaining tight tolerances, the beads also provide the degree of dimensional interference needed to make the neck easy to manipulate and let it hold each new shape firmly. The beads are wrapped in a polyethylene jacket for appearance, and to keep impurities out of the ball and socket junctions.

To accommodate a Ford Motor Co. stamping plant in Chicago that turns out both steel and aluminum body panels, DCT Automated Systems of Sterling Heights, Mich., designed a hybrid destacker that can handle steel and aluminum blanks before they are delivered to a high-speed Schuler crossbar transfer press.

When steel or aluminum blanks are being worked, forklift operators load the stacks onto pallet carts for transport to a destacking station. Conventional magnets fan steel blanks. For aluminum blanks, the destacker aims a series of jets to force air between the stacked sheets to separate them. Urethane combs fan the aluminum blanks without damaging their edges.

This DCT automated destacking machine in Chicago uses jets of air to separate the aluminum sheets it feeds to a stamping machine, which converts them into body panels for Ford vehicles.

Next, a series of vacuum cups mounted on pneumatic cylinders lifts each sheet and feeds it onto an overhead shuttle, where more vacuum cups hold it. The shuttle crosses the line flow, feeding from two pallet stations that straddle a centralized lower transfer conveyor.

A sheet thickness detector mounted in the vacuum cup array ensures that only one blank at a time is fed into the press. If two sheets are stuck together, the vacuum cups will shake them until they separate.

When steel blanks are being worked, the second sheet simply drops back on the stack for the next cycle. However, the lubricant on the aluminum blanks can cause them to slide off the stack. DCT designed a set of guide-pins on the aluminum pallets to capture and realign the double-picked aluminum blanks onto the stack.

Once on the conveyor, the blanks are washed clean of debris and metal fillings, while automated controls leave some lubricant on the blank surface to aid forming. The machineÕs control system stores the part profiles of the different blanks that the destacker handles.

Rimnetics of Mountain View, Calif., created the tooling for the filtration systemÕs parts. Reaction injection molding, or RIM, involves mixing two liquid compounds that will react to create a single polyurethane plastic, just prior to injecting them into a closed mold. This chemical reaction means RIM uses less pressure, and thus often costs less, than higher-pressure, standard injection molding.

The Baydur 726 IBS (for Òinteractive blowing systemÓ) high-density polyurethane structural foam used to make the ErgoAire possesses the strength, surface finish, and large part manufacturability needed by electronic components, medical appliances, and other products.

Kurt Benthin, the industrial designer who worked for Airex on the filtration system, used software by SolidWorks of Concord, Mass., to cut tooling that Rimnetics used to make the ErgoAire components. Benthin relied on Baydur 726Õs malleability to mold inserts and special features. For example, he directed Rimnetics to mold approximately 40 brass inserts into the nine foam components. Benthin also designed molded-in guide tracks to carry wiring, and openings for four halogen lights.

Lasko used to glue the sides of a reservoir jug to the base, but that was time-consumingÑbecause the glue had to set before testingÑand required excessive handling. The company streamlined its jug assembly by means of a dual-head welding module custom-designed by Sonobond Ultrasonics in West Chester, Pa., where Lasko also is based.

Like all Sonobond machine builderÕs modules, the system installed at Lasko is integrated with the automated assembly equipment at the plant. The jug and base are placed manually in the module and are held rigidly in place by a support column to prevent deflection during welding.

These modules use ultrasonic vibration to weld plastic jug parts together more quickly and cleanly than the gluing method previously used.

The operator presses two buttons to activate the welding moduleÕs microprocessor, programmed with the parameters of the job. The microprocessor directs each welding head to emit a finely tuned set of ultrasonic vibrations at the interface of the two parts. This causes the plastic to soften and flow in a fraction of a second. A tool presses the two parts together to bond when the plastic solidifies.

By using the automated ultrasonic welding system, Lasko has eliminated the setup time once needed by jug assembly, cut part handling, and can now test the jugs immediately after welding.

The High-Lift extender arms and links enable John Deere agricultural equipment to unload animal feed and grain more safely into high-sided mix-augurs.

John Deere Construction Equipment Co. in Moline, Ill., aims to eliminate this problem with its High-Lift loader option, which extends the reach and dump height of its 444H, 544H, 624H, 644H, and 744H loaders. Deere originally custom fitted the High-Lift option, now made available direct from the factory. The High-Lift consists of twin extender arms equipped with special links to extend bucket clearance. The greater reach and visibility this provides to operators means they can distribute grain or silage more evenly for better mixing and reduce cycle times to load the truck or wagon.

John Deere also offers engine cooling package options for its High-Lift loaders. Specially designed screens trap silage debris so it will not plug the engine cooling system. Operators can open the screen and air-blow it clean.

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