Standardized Vocabularies for Assembly Systems Modelling and Automation Alternatives Description

The rationalization efforts made in the field of assembly have been intensified in recent years. The different assembly operations arising due to short production period and diversity of variants can mostly be automated “flexibly” only. The public discussion so far has been dominated by the technical shortcomings of the automation means (e.g. lack flexibility of peripheral equipment) and the loss of working places to be expected. But the issues of the work organizational integration of flexibel automation means in the assembly system are of equal importance. This is reflected in a study (1) made on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to design a new method to realize automatic assembly of aircraft components with large shafts such as canard and vertical tail. The assembly structure of component with large shaft and fuselage is a mating assembly structure, and it is a challenge to satisfy the precision and assembly requirement.Design/methodology/approachAccording to the assembly structure features and process requirements of an aircraft component with large shaft, the operating principle of precise assembly system for shaft-hole mating is analyzed in this paper. The model of compliant assembly for shaft-hole mating is constructed, and force condition analysis of the compliant assembly is performed. An automatic precise shaft-hole assembly method for aircraft assembly using 5 degrees of freedom spatial mechanism, compliance technology and servo feeding system is put forward based on the analysis. A 5 degrees of freedom passive compliant experimental equipment has been developed.FindingsApplication test results of the 5 degrees of freedom passive compliant experimental equipment show that the simulated canard can be mated automatically and accurately through this method with high efficiency and high quality as long as the tip of shaft enters into the range of hole’s chamfer.Practical implicationsThis method has been used in an aircraft assembly project. The practical results show that the aircraft components with large shafts can be mated automatically and accurately through this method with high efficiency and high quality.Originality/valueThis paper presents a new method and designs a new assembly system to realize the assembly of the aircraft components with large shafts. The research will promote the automation of fuselage assembly.

The automatic assembly of photo products has been developed by Nikon Corp. over more than ten years. Automatic assembly methods are historically classified into three categories: dedicated machines, semi-flexible automatic assembly systems, and universal automatic assembly systems. This paper surveys these types of automatic assembly systems. First, automatic assembly systems for mechanical components of photo products are considered, and their background and design policies discussed. Next, the performances of these assembly systems and the results achieved in practise are described. Finally, the future trends of photo product automation are outlined.

Due to increasing pressures from fuel and capital costs, electric utilities are exploring several avenues that may offer relief from worsening ratios of peak to base load consumption patterns. At the same time, new devices based on technically sophisticated microelectronics seem to promise easy solutions to communications and control problems. Manufacturers of this type of equipment are eager to meet the large potential market with technological solutions but as yet the cost effectiveness of such solutions has not been demonstrated. The Department of Energy/Electric Power Research Institute (DOE/EPRI) sponsored Field Demonstration of Communication Systems for Distribution Automation, along with several (smaller) utility field trials are revealing much about the effectiveness of various types of communicatons systems, for load management and distribution automation and also about the problems of installation and customer acceptance. The five DOE/EPRI field demonstrations1 are in various stages of analysis and operation. One of the demonstrations, based on telephone communication2, completed the one year data acquistion period, July 31, 1979, and analysis for the final report is now in progress. Three different power-line carrier systems started the one year data acquisition period on July 1, 1979. The radio system is scheduled to start the one year data acquisition in September 1979.

The author analyzes the problems existing in the traditional assembly system and puts forward a new method based on the motor control. This paper introduces the design and development of the automatic assembly system of ultrasonic cleaning transducer. In the system we use photoelectric isolation technology to solve the problems that driving circuit interference control chip while using a chip control many motors and this simplify the assembly system structure, reduce the cost of the assembly system and improve the assembly system automation and precision.

Integrating product and process design with optimal control: A case study of solvent recycling

The engine is one of the key core components in aircraft, in order to enhance automation and efficiency in the process of installation and disassembly for current small engine, using automatic control technology, a set of automatic disassembly and assembly system for aircraft engines is developed to replace the traditional mechanical installation vehicle. Corresponding for small engine to study the automatic disassembly system, the system uses laser sensors to locate the engine disassembly and assembly. Servo motors are used to drive the walking mechanism, lifting mechanism, and fine-tuning mechanism to realize multi-degree-of-freedom adjustment during engine disassembly and assembly. And the digital video is used to monitor the gap collision. Finally, the paper realizes the automatic high-precision disassembly and assembly of small engines. Through verification, the efficiency of the disassembly and assembly system has increased by more than 70%, the work efficiency has been greatly improved.

The helicopter fuselage has the characteristics of compact structure space, complex coordination relationship and weak rigidity, etc. It is difficult to control the accuracy of the desired shape. According to the high precision and quality requirement of final assembly for helicopter fuselage, the application status of automatic assembly technology in aviation manufacturing was analyzed. Then the difficulties of automatic assembly technology for fuselage final assembly were also discussed. In this paper, an automatic assembly system for the final assembly of helicopter fuselage was designed, and relevant key technologies of the assembly system mentioned above were proposed. The designed system have the functions of automatic positioning, clamping, measuring, drilling, feeding and blind fastener riveting for fuselage components, which can improve the assembly quality and efficiency of helicopter fuselage during the final assembly process.

Complexity metrics have been developed for multiple applications such as consumer products, software, trajectory selection and assembly systems. Although existing complexity metrics were developed to reduce product design and development costs, their lack of simplicity in formulation and robustness has limited their applicability. This paper proposes a standard methodology for comparing and evaluating these metrics and introduces dimensions of complexity that should be considered towards the goal of developing a generalizable product complexity measure. To this end, this paper introduces variables that integrate multiple facets of complexity into a single metric. A medical device case study is used to compare the efficiency and robustness of existing complexity measures. The medical device case study also serves as the motivation for the proposed complexity metric due to the complexity of the domain itself and the increasing importance of mitigating healthcare costs. Overall, product complexity metrics can aid medical device development by increasing the understanding about the design and its implications regarding development time and FDA approvals.

Over the years solutions to ‘design for manufacture’ have varied from parts design to vague ideas on teamwork. Peter Foyer suggests using a range of techniques to achieve specific business objectives.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a multi‐expert system that can provide designers with suggestions for improvement. The multi‐expert system can analyse a design and provide designers with ideas for changes to designs at an early stage in order to improve assembly later in the manufacturing process.Design/methodology/approachThe whole system consists of four expert systems: computer‐aided design (CAD) expert, automated assembly expert, manual assembly expert and design analysis expert. The design analysis expert includes a sub‐system to collate the information from the assembly experts and to provide costs and advice.FindingsThe paper finds that the approach and the systems can reduce manufacturing costs and lead times.Research limitations/implicationsA knowledge‐based reckoning approach to design‐for‐assembly automation is used. The approach and systems can reduce manufacturing costs and lead times. The system can estimate assembly time and cost for manual or automatic assembly and select suitable assembly techniques.Practical implicationsThe system can estimate assembly time and cost for manual or automatic assembly and select a suitable assembly technique.Originality/valueThe new system models assembly, product and process design using a natural approach for capturing intelligence. The new approach categorised automated assembly and manual assembly into separate individual experts. Intelligence and knowledge from each is captured and embedded within the individual expert that represented the process. This approach enabled greater flexibility and made the sub‐systems easier to modify, upgrade, extend and reuse.

The transition to the production phase of electronic products requires the product design to follow a large set of constraints that ensure that the electronic product will materialize into a viable product. The printed circuit board (PCB) design is a central part of electronic products and therefore is the part where most constraints are enforced. Although PCB designers already address design constraints with the help of Electrical Computer Aided Design (ECAD) tools that can verify product design rules in an automated manner, there are still many product design rules that are left out of the ECAD tools verification engines, in particular the design rules related to PCB manufacturing and assembly. These rules are many times verified by human visual inspection. This fact increases the risk of running into design errors, leading to increased costs during production phase. This paper proposes a rule ontology representing the large range of constraints imposed by the production phase of electronics products. The rule-based ontology is implemented using a Visual Programming Language (VPL) that facilitates the encoding of the knowledge provided by electronics products manufacturing experts. A practical example is also presented, describing a PCB manufacturing rule and its graphical representation.

In many applications complex structured data have been used. Visualization of these data structures allows a user to get better insight both in the data structure and in the application itself. We present a visualization technique of structured data-oriented XML formats. Customizable visualization is done by means of tree rewriting. This allows for an efficient filtration and transformation of the document tree to fit particular user needs as well as a transformation to a structure with a predefined graphical interpretation. A graphical representation of the tree rewriting rules for an interactive manipulation is presented, so the system itself can be considered a graphical language. The graphical representation is based on tree maps.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present methods for assessing and mapping the complexity of products and their assembly. In cases of complexity of assembly it is important to consider and model at the product design stages when only data about individual parts/products and their assembly attributes are known. Assessing the complexity of assembly systems, based on the attributes of their components, is an essential step towards designing them for the least complexity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a mapping method between the complexity of products and their variants and complexity of the system needed to assemble them. A method has also been developed to assess and compare the complexity of assembly systems based on the characteristics of their physical components for comparison and re‐design to reduce complexity.FindingsThe complexity dependency matrix estimates the average assembly equipment complexity for a certain product based on the interactions between parts handling, insertion and assembly attributes and assembly system functions. An automobile engine piston, domestic appliance drive, car fan motor and a three‐pin electric power plug products were used to demonstrate the application of the developed methodology.Originality/valueThe developed methods can be used by products and assembly systems designers to identify and alleviate major sources of complexity.

Product modularity and assembly systems: An automotive case study