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Automation

The use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or other production process.

Automation on a Budget

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More companies discover pneumatics

Manufacturers are finding that automation need not necessarily involve a lot of complicated I/O or computers. "Adding an air cylinder to a simple $25 arbor press can make pressing, clamping, and holding into hands-free operations," says Jim Ruthemeyer, a manufacturing engineering manager at OPW Div., Dover Corp., in Cincinnati.