Advertisement Bill L. Barrett, Sales/Marketing Manager, Gemco Manufacturing This article originally appeared in the November/December print edition of Product Design & Development. In the  Product Design & Development  Brainstorm we talk with industry leaders to get their perspective on issues critical to the design engineering marketplace. In this  issue , we ask: How will the continuous and future integration of robots in manufacturing change the way we design and create? Robots used in manufacturing have been with us for quite a few years already – certainly the automotive manufacturers have made use of robots for welding, and many manufacturers of auto body parts have been using robots for handling raw materials and finished stampings. The electronic and printed board assembly industries have been using robots for decades, as well. It is clear that these two examples indicate the vast range of sizes of components that can be manipulated and placed, as well as the multitude of processes that robots can be, and have been used for. What is common to utilization of robots is that they are generally designed to perform one specific function; however, future integration of robots will need to work with myriad components and how they are introduced to the robots will be of utmost consideration. Speaking within the arena of small metal components — fourslide and progressive die stampings, specifically — the design of these components will need to embrace issues, such as part orientation and separability of parts, to name two. All components will need to be oriented so that the robot can pick them up the same way each and every time, and asymmetrical parts could pose a challenge. Components designed with features that will cause them to either tangle or nest up with each other during batch processing will need to be […]