Its four factories (two in Italy, one in Spain and one in America), which produced about 40, 000 machines last year, are essentially assembly lines, as few parts are made in-house anymore.

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It could also help with the design and assembly of exotic new materials and of molecular-scale machines.

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The People's Consultative Assembly electoral college had not even finished electing Suharto, before fax machines and computers across the city were spitting out clandestinely circulated lists of the president's new cabinet.

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Investing in robots can be worthwhile for mass manufacturers like carmakers, who remain the biggest users of such machines, but even in highly automated car factories people still do most of the final assembly.

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