The Emhart Innovation Center: Tomorrow’s Fastening Design Technology Today

In today’s competitive marketplace, manufacturers need suppliers who not only deliver the parts required to build a product, but those who deliver support and consultation on how best to use those parts. Emhart Teknologies is in the business of delivering that support. The company offers their customers access to a global network of what it calls “Innovation Centers.” These engineering facilities provide the latest in R&D for fastening design and automated fastening systems, delivering value analysis to a large cross-section of industrial manufacturers.

Centers located around the world, including a 50,000-square-foot facility in Shelton, CT. Emhart Teknologies also has innovation center locations in Detroit, Germany, Japan, and mobile Innovation Centers that bring technology solutions directly to customers in North America and Europe.

Emhart Innovation Centers offer an interactive environment where company engineers can brainstorm with application specialists to solve specific problems. The Centers use millions of dollars in advanced equipment to develop a complete solution to OEM challenges.

To develop a cost-effective solution to a specific challenge, engineering teams at the Innovation Centers begin with one- on- one consultations. A multi-discipline process called Value Engineering and Value Analysis is used to review a company’s entire manufacturing process, from cost to performance to productivity.

Before putting anything together, Emhart Teknologies process engineers tear things apart — namely, their customers’ products. They analyze every component, material, and procedure. Then, using the interactive resources of their global network of centers, better ones are designed.

Any recommended processes developed by the Centers’ engineers can be completely downloaded to any manufacturing facility anywhere in the world.

At Emhart Innovation Centers, customers can do more than hear about technology — they can touch it. A complete demonstration area gives them the opportunity to try out the tools and systems they are considering.

For more information on any of the Emhart Innovation Centers, interested parties should call Ed Dalterio at 203-781-7622.

Contest Sponsors

The Emhart Teknologies/NASA Tech Briefs “Create the Future” Design Contest is proud to have SolidWorks Corporation and COMSOL, Inc. as co-sponsors.

Emhart Teknologies, headquartered in New Haven, CT, is the global leader in the design and creation of unique assembly technologies, from concept through installation. From automotive to construction, computers to appliances, Emhart products are sold in more than 100 countries. A Black & Decker company, Emhart has more than 120 years of experience in service to industry. Emhart provides a total systems approach to fastening that allows simultaneous engineering to mirror customer research, design, engineering, and manufacturing processes. Its systems approach goes beyond fasteners to focus on the entire process — from the design to assembly systems that streamline production, lower costs, and improve quality. Visit www.emhart.com

SolidWorks Corporation, headquartered in Concord, MA, was founded in 1993 and introduced the first 3D CAD software available for a native Windows® environment. The company’s mission was, and remains, providing 3D mechanical design software for everyone in product development. The company was acquired by Dassault Systemes, a developer of product lifecycle management solutions, in 1997. SolidWorks remains focused on mechanical design, providing software and services that help manufacturers get new products to market faster. The SolidWorks 3D CAD system is the standard in 3D modeling software, with more than half a million designers and engineers using the product worldwide. Visit www.solidworks.com

COMSOL, Inc., headquartered in Burlington, MA, provides software solutions for multiphysics modeling. A fast-growing high-tech engineering software company, COMSOL was founded 1986 and has grown to more than 140 employees in offices in the U.S. and Europe. COMSOL’s mission is to create easy-to-use modeling software tools for solving complex multiphysics problems. The first modeling product, PDE Toolbox, was released in 1995, and in 1998, the first version of COMSOL’s flagship product, FEMLAB®, was released. With the latest release last September, the product name was changed to COMSOL Mutliphysics™. Customers include manufacturers of cars, aircraft, medical equipment, consumer products, and energy suppliers. Visit www.comsol.com

Emhart Teknologies Presents “Create the Future” 2006 Design Contest Winners