MICROFACTORY

ABSTRACT
Machined parts are becoming
progressively smaller, so production machinery that remains a conventional
size is often inappropriate for such products. A microfactory refers to a small
dimension factory able to produce small dimension products. The term was
proposed by the Mechanical Engineer Laboratory (MEL) of Japan in 1990. The
main advantages of microfactory are to save great amount of resources like
space, energy, materials and time. While machined parts are getting smaller
and smaller, machine tools in use are still in conventional size, lacking
reasonableness. Downsizing of manufacturing systems can leads to smart
solutions, improving space utilization factor, reducing the price and energy
consumption.
So it is a good idea to use small machinery
for the production of small parts, to better meet current industrial demands.
Furthermore, miniaturized production systems will be able to serve an
expanding range of applications in the near future.
Thus in this report, the concept and
significance of microfactory, the recent worldwide history of related R&D,
and the future prospects are summarized