170 Automated Assembly Systems 5 chapter The term automated assembly refers tothe use of mechanized and automated devices to perform the various functions in an assembly line or cell. Much progress has been made in the technology of assembly automation in recent years. Some of this progress has been motivated by advances in the field of robotics. Industrial robots are some- times used as components in automated assembly systems. The applications of ro- bots, including those in assembly operations, are described in Chapter 13. In the cur- rent chapter, we study automated assembly as a separate field of automation. Although the manual assembly methods described in Chapter 6 will no doubt be used for many years into the future, significant opportunities for productivity gains exist in the use of automated methods. For the reader interested in pursuing this topic of automated assembly in more detail, there have been several books written in the last few years that we recommend [1,3,9]. It turns out that the product's design has a significant impact on the ease with which its assembly can be automated. We begin our chapter with this topic.Design tor Automated Assembly m 7.1 DESIGN FOR AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY One of the impediments to automated assembly is that many of the traditional assembly methods described in Chapter 6 evolved when human beings were the only available meats of assembling a product. Many of the mechanical fasteners commonly used in industry today almost require the special anatomical and sensory capabilities of human beings. Consider, for example, the use of a screw, a lock washer, and a nut to fasten two sheet metal parts on a partially assembled cabinet. This type of operation is typically accomplished manually at either a single assembly station or on an assembly line. The cabinet is located at the workstation with the two sheet metal parts to be fastened at an awkward position for the operator to reach. The operator picks up the screw, lockwasher, and nut, somehow manipulating them into position on opposite sides of the two parts, and places the lockwasher and then the nut onto the screw. As luck, would have it, the threads of the nut initially bind on the screw threads, so the operator must unscrew slightly and restart the process, using a well-developed sense of touch to ensure that the threads are matching. Once the screw and nut have been tightened with fingers, the operator reaches for the appropriate screwdriver (there are various. sizes of screws with different- shaped heads) to tighten the fastener. This type of manual operation has been used commonly and successfully in industry for many years to assemble products. The hardware required is inexpensive, the sheet metal is readily perforated to provide the matching clearance holes, and the method lends itself to field service. What is becoming very expensive is the manual labor at the assembly workstation required to accomplish the initial fastening. The high cost of manual labor has resulted in a reexamination of assembly technology with a view toward automation. However, automating the assembly operation described above would be very difficult. First, the positions of the holes through which the screw must be inserted are different for each screw, and the position may be difficult for the operator to reach. Second, the screw holes between the two sheet metal parts may not match up perfectly, necessitating the operator to reposition the two parts for a better match. Third, the operator must juggle three separate hardware items (screw, lockwasher, and nut) to perform the fastening operation. Fourth, 4 sense of touch is required to make sure that the nut is started properly onto the screw thread. Each of these four problems makes automation of the operation difficult. All four problems together make it nearly impossible. Asa consequence, attempts at assembly automation have led to an examination of the methods specified by the designer to fasten together the various components of a product. The first and most general lesson, obvious from the example above, is that the methods traditionally used for manual assembly are not necessarily the best methods for automated assembly. Human beings are the most dexterous and intelligent machines: able to move to different positions in the workstation, able to adapt to unexpected problems and new situations during the work cycle, capable of manipulating and coordinating multiple objects simultaneously, and able to make use of a wide range of senses in performing work. For assembly automation to be achieved, fastening procedures must be devised and specified during product design that do not require all of these human capabilities. *172 Automated Assembly Systems The following are some of the recommendations and pnnciples that can be applied in product design to facilitate automated assembly: * Reduce the amount of assembly required. This principle can be realized during design by combining functions within the same part that were previously accomplished by separate components in the product. The use of plastic molded parts to substicute for sheet metal parts is an example of this principle. A more complex geometry molded into a plastic part might replace several metal parts. Although the plastic part may seem to be more costly, the savings.in assembly time probably justify the substitution in many cases. + Use modular design. In automated assembly, increasing the number of seperate assembly steps that are done by a single automated system will result in an increase in the downtime of the system. This is demonstrated in a later section of this chapter when wwe analyze the operatign and performance of automated assembly systems. To reduce this effect, Riley (9] suggests that the design of the product be modular, with perhaps each module requiring a maximum of 12 or 13 parts to be assembled on a single assembly system. Also, the subassembly should be designed around a base part to which other components are added [10]. + Reduce the'number of fasteners required lustead of using separate screws and nuts, and similar fasteners, design the fastening mechanism ito the compor using snap fits and similar features. Also, design the product modules so that several oA _comporns are fastened simultaneoisly rather than euch coiponent fastened separately a wie 8S + Reduce the need for multiple components to be kundled at once. Yhe preferred se practice in automated assembly machine design is to separate the operation stations rather than to handle and fasten multiple components sin-eltaneously ai workstation. (It should be noted that robotics technology is causing a rethinking of practice since robots can be programmed to perform more ccnipiex asser a single station in a mechanized assembly system.) ‘Limit the required directions of access. This principle simply means that the numoer of directions in which new components are added to the existing subassembly should be minimized. If all of the components can be added vertically from above. this is the ideal situation. Obviously, the design of the subassembly module determines this. + Require high quality in components High performance of the avtomated as- sembly system requites consistently good quality of the components that are added at each workstation. Poor-quality components catise jams 1 the feeding and assembly mechanisms which cause downtime in the automated system. + Implement hopperability. This is aterm that Riley |9) uses to identity the ease with-which a given component can be fed and oriented reliatly for delivery from the parts hopper to the assembly workhead. One of the majer cos's in the development of fan automated assembly system is the engineering time 10 devise the means of feeding the components in the correct orientation for the assembly operation. The product designer is responsible for providing the orientation features und uther geomeiric aspects of the comgonens that determine the ease of feeding and orienting the parts. Fr Eow ba Tele ey (an) € Can Guhl paw AM gaat “ er he diy ¥ Um A Rebhy fer ved - dh?Types of Automated Asseinb'y Sysiens wy 7.2 TYFES OF AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS Assuming that the product design is compatible with automated asseinbly, there sre several different ways to characterize the operation and configuration of the automated assembly system. One way to classify the system is by the type of work transfer system that 1s used in the system. The types arc: * Continuous «ransfer system Synchronous transfer system Asynchroaous transfer system + Stationary base part system The first three types involve the same methods of workpart transport described in Section 4.2. in the stationary base part system, the base part (to which the other com- ponents are added) is placed in a fixed location, where it remains during tlhe assembiy work. Another way of classifying sutomcted assembly systems is by their physics} con- figuation. The possible configurations include: _” + Dial-type assembly machine + in-line assembly machine + Carousel 2» e smbly syste ee + Singie-stution assembly machiz The dial-sype machine is Shown in Figure 7:1. f ypical application, oase pats ave Joaced onto fiatures or nests that are attached to the cixcular cial, Consponents are added .ad/or fastened”et the various weskstations lucated around the periphery of the dfial, ‘The dial indexing machine is the most coran:on system in this category, It opere with a synchronous or intermittent motion, where the cycle ct plus indexing time Several of the mechanisms deseribe in S: provide this motion. Although less commen, dial-type assembly a designed to use a continuous moiion rather than.an intermittent motion, The in-line assembly machine consists of a Series of autornatic workstations located sfong an in line transfer system. It is the autumated version of che manual assembly fine. Continvous, synchronous. or asynchronous transfer systems can be used with the in-line configuration # The operation of dial-type and in-line assembly systenis is similar to the operation of their counterparts described in Chapter 4 for machining (and other processing) oper- atiuns. Subassemblies at various stages of compietion are processed simultaneously at arate workstations. For synchronous transfer cf work hetwecn stations, the ideal cycle time equals the operation time at the slowest station plus the transfer time between stations. The production rate, at 100% uptime, is the reciprocul of the i¢eal cycle time Owing to n 4.3 con be used to chines are. sometimes:174 ‘Automated Assembly Systems FIGURE 7.1 Dial-type assembly machine. (Courtesy of Bodine Corp.) jams of the components at the workstations and other malfunctions, the system will probably not operate at 100% uptime. We will analyze the operation of these automated assembiy systems in a subsequent section of this chapter. Ina sense, the carousel assembly system represents a hybrid between the circular flow of work provided by the dial assembly machine and the straight work flow of the inline system. The carousel configuration is illustrated in Figure 7.2. This type of assembly system can be operated with continuous, synchronous, or asynchronous transfer mechanisms to move the work around the carousel. The carousel configuration with asynchronous transfer of work is often used in partially automated assembly systems. In ASBY ASBY ASBY| AUT AUT AUT LOAD E UNLO 3) ASBY ASBY ASBY AUT AUT AUT FIGURE 7.2 Configuration of a carousel assembly system.Parts Feeding Devices 175 Chapter 15 we will describe how work-in-process storage is incorporated into the design of the carousel assembly system. In the single-station assembly machine, the assembly operations are performed at a single location (stationary base part system). The typical operation involves the place- ment of the base part at the workstation where various components are added to the base. The components are delivered to the station by feeding mechanisms, and one or more ; workheads perform the various assembly and fastening operations. The single-station cell is sometimes selected as the configuration for robotic assembly applications. Parts are fed to the single station and the robot adds them to the base part and performs the fastening operations. F Table 7.1 presents a listing of the possible combinations of work transfer systems and assembly system configurations, 7.3. PARTS FEEDING DEVICES In each of the configurations described above, a means of delivering the components to the assembly workhead must be designed. In this section we discuss these devices and their operation. Elements of the parts delivery system SMES CLE! Pes Se Uvelyisyslelniae The hardware system that delivers components to the workhead in an automated assembly system typically consists of the following elements: é * Hopper. This is the container into which the components are loaded at the : workstation. A separate hopper is used for each component type. The components are usually loaded into the hopper in bulk. This means that the parts are randomly oriented initially in the hopper. f * Parts feeder. This is a mechanism that removes the components from the hopper one at a time for delivery to the assembly workhead. The hopper and parts feeder are often combined into one operating mechanism. The vibratory bowl feeder, pictured in Figure 7.3, is a very common example of the hopper-feeder combination. TABLE 7.1 Possible Work Transfer Systems for the Four Assembly Systems Configurations Work transfer system System Stationary a configuration base part Continuous ‘Synchronous Asynchronous Dial-type No Yes Yes No In-line No Yes Yes Yes Carousel No Yes Yes Yes Single- Yes No No No station -176 ‘Automated Assembly Systems dling Equipment Division.) + Selector andlor orientor.. ‘These elements of the delivery system establish the proper orientation of the components for the assembly workhead. A selector is a device that acts as a filter, permitting only parts that are in the correct orientation to pass through. Components that are not properly oriented are rejected back into the hopper. An orientor isa device that allows properly oriented parts to pass through but provides a reorientation of components that are not properly oriented initially. Several selector and orientor schemes are illustrated in Figure 7.4. Selector and orientor devices are often combined and incorporated into one hopper-feeder system. + Feed track. The preceding elements of the delivery system are usually located some distance from the assembly workhead. A feed track is used to transfer the components from the hopper and parts feeder to the location of the assembly workhead, maintaining proper orientation of the parts during the transfer. There are two general categories of feed tracks: gravity and powered. The gravity feed track is most common. In this type the hopper and parts feeder are located at an elevation that is above the elevation of the workhead. The force of gravity is used to deliver the components to the workhead. The powered feed track uses vibratory action, air pressure, or other means to force the parts to travel along the feed track toward the assembly workhead.Parts Feeding Devices 7 Wiper blade (to wipe upright or stacked parts back into hopper) eae Tofeed — Cutout (to drop ms copsheoed Pa, Parts enter facing down back ft he into hopper) ROT OPeee: (a) oa Pars enter To feed Rail (to reorient from hopper ‘track parts from flat orientation) (o) FIGURE 7.4 (a) Selector and (b) orientor devices used with component feeders in automated assembly systems. + Escapement and placement device. The purpose of the escapement device is to remove components from the feed track at time intervals that are consistent with the cycle time of the assembly workhead, The placement device physically places the com- ponent in the correct location at the workstation for the assembly operation by the workhead. These elements are sometimes combined into a single operating mechanism. In other cases, they are two separate devices. Several types of escapement and placement devices are pictured in Figure 7.5. The elements of the parts delivery system are illustrated schematically in Figure 7.6. A parts selector is illustrated in the diagram. Improperly oriented parts are fed back into hopper. In the case of a parts orientor, improperly oriented parts are reoriented and proceed to the feed track. A more detailed description of the various elements of the delivery system is provided in reference [3] One of the recént developments in the technology of parts feeding and delivery systems is the programmable parts feeder [5,7] The programmable parts feeder is capable of feeding components of varying geometries with only a few minutes required to make the adjustments (change the program) for the differences. This type of feeder would possess the flexibility to be used in batch production assembly systems. Most parts feeders are designed as fixed automated systems for high-production assembly.178 Automated Assembly Systems Rotary index table’ Spring blade 0 — Pick-andsplace unit te) and placement devices used in automatic as- (b) vertical device for placement of parts onto 3 rivet-shaped parts actuated by work cariers: echanism. (Reprinted from Gay (4), FIGURE 7.5 Various escapement sembly systems: (a) horizontal and dial indexing table; (c) escapement o (@) and (e) two types of pick-and-place m Quantitative analysis of the delivery system operation 1m is capable of removing parts from the hopper at a certain .d to be in random orientation initially, and must be presented sh the correct orientation. In the case of the selector, “The parts feeding mechanis tate, f. These parts are assume: to the selector or orientor to establiwen ae Parts Feeding Devices 179 placerhent FIGURE 7.6 Elements of the parts delivery system at an assembly workstation. a certain proportion of the parts will be correctly oriented injtially and these will be allowed to pass through. The remaining proportion, which are incorrectly oriented, will be rejected back into the hopper. In the case of the orientor, the parts that are incorrectly oriented will be reoriented, resulting ideally in a 100% rate of parts passing through the orientor device. In many delivery system designs, the functions of the selector and the orientor will be combined. Let us define 6 to be the proportion of components that pass through the selector-orientor process and are correctly oriented for delivery into the feed track. Hence the effective rate of delivery of components from the hopper into the’feed track will be f@. The remaining proportion, (1 — 6), will be recirculated back into the hopper. Obviously, the delivery rate f@ of components to the workhead must be sufficient to keep up with the cycle rate of the assembly machine. ‘Assuming that the delivery rate of components @ is greater than the cycle rate R. of the assembly machine, a means of limiting the size of the queue in the feed track must be established. This is generally accomplished by placing a sensor (e.g., limit switch, optical sensor, etc.) near the top of the feed track, which is used to tum off the feeding mechanism when the feed track is fall. This sensor is referred to as the high-level sensor, and its location defines the active length Ly. of the feed track. If the length of a component in the feed track is L, the number of parts that can be held in the.feed track is nyo = LyalL.. The length of the components must be measured from a point on a given component to the corresponding point on the next component in the queue to allow for possible overlap of parts. The value of ny2 is the capacity of the feed track. Another sensor is placed along the feed track at some distance from the first sensor and is used tofestart the feeding mechanism-again. Defining the location of this low- level sensor as Ly, the number of components in the feed track at this point isn = LyL.. The rate at which the quantity of parts in the buffer will be reduced when the high- level sensor is actuated = R., where R, is the theoretical cycle rate of the assembly180 Automated Assembly Systems machine. On average, the rate at which the quantity of parts will increase upon actuation of the low-level sensor is f9 — R-. However, the rate of increase will not be uniform due to the random nature of the feeder-selector operation. Accordingly, the value of np must be made large enough to virtually eliminate the probability of a stockout after the low-level sensor has turned on the feeder. EXAMPLE 7.1 The cycle time for a given assembly workhead = 0.2 min. The parts feeder has a feed rate = 20 components/min. The probability that a given component fed by the feeder will pass through the selector is © = 0.3, The number of parts in the feed track corresponding to the low-level sensor is mp = 6. The capacity of the feed track is ny2 = 18 parts. (a) Determine how long it will take for the supply of parts in the feed track to go from Mya to mp. (b) Determine how long it will take on average for the supply for parts to go from ny to nya. Solution: (a) The rate of depletion of parts in the feed track, starting from nj2, will be Re = 1/0.2 = 5 parts/min. The time to deplete is 1 Oe 2.4 min 5 (b) The rate of parts increase in the feed track, once the low-level sensor has been reached, is 0 — R. = (20)(0.3) — 5 = 6 — 5 = 1 part/min. The time to go from np: to ny2 is 18 - Bas. 12 min7.5 ANALYSIS OF A SINGLE-STATION ASSEMBLY MACHINE The single-station assembly machine can be pictured as shown in Figure 7.8. We assume a single workhead, with several components feeding into the station to be assembled. Let us use n to represent the number of distinct assembly elements that are performed on the machine. Each element has an element time, 7,;, where i = 1,2,..., m. The ideal cycle time for the single-station assembly machine is the sum of the individualAnalysis of a Single-Station Assembly Machine 189 ‘Component hopper-feeders 1 2 3 a Base ‘Completed part —>—] assembly oad ae, unload. AUT FIGURE 7.8 Single-station assembly machine. cleinent times of the assembly operations to be performed on the machine, plus the handling time to load the base part into position and unload the completed assembly. We can express this ideal cycle time as T= + DTa (7.17) im where 7) is the handling time. Many of the assembly elements involve the addition of a component to the existing subassembly. As in our analysis of the multiple-station assembly system, each component type has a certain fraction defect rate, qi, and there is a certain probability that a defective component will jam the workstation, m,. When a jam occurs, the assembly machine stops, and it takes an average Ty to clear the jam and restart the system, The inclusion of downtime resulting from jams in the machine cycle time gives T, =T.+ D qmTa (7.18) For elements that do not include the addition of a component, the value of q; = 0. This might occur, for example, when a fastening operation is performed on a component added during a previous element. For the special case of equal q and equal m values for all components added, Eq. (7.18) becomes Tp = T. + nmqT Determination of yield (the proportion of assemblies that contain no defective components) for the single-station assembly machine makes use of the same equations as for the190 Automated Assembly Systems multiple-station systems. Upti i : . Uptime efficiency is computed as E = T/Fy-using the values of T. and T, from Eqs. (7.17) and (18). & ‘ EXAMPLE 7.5 A ‘ingle station assembly machine pefoms five work elemens to assemble four components 19 ase part. The elements are listed below, together with the fraction defect rate and probability of a jam for each of the components added. Element Description Time (3) z kL 1 ‘Add gear 7 0.02 10 2 |Add spacer 3 0.01 0.6 3 Add gear 4 0.015 08 i nes 0.02 1.0 ‘and mesh 5 Fasten 5 2 ae the completed assembly is 4s, The time to load the base part is 3 s and the time to unload giving a total load/unload time of 7, = 7s. When a jam occurs, to clear the jam and restart the machine. Determine the production efficiency of the assembly machine. it takes an average of 1.5 min rate, the yield, and the uptime Solution: The ideal cycle time of the assembly machine is 74443444745) = 30s = 0.5 min ‘Adding the average downtime due to jams yields T, = 0.5 + (0.02 X. 1.0 + 0.01 X 0.6 + 0.015 x 0.8 + 0.02 x 1.0)(1.5) = 0.5 + 0.087 = 0.587 min ‘The production rate is Ry = 2x = 102.2 assemblieshh 0.587 The yield of good product is Py = (1.0)(0.996)(0.997)(1.0) = 0.993 and the uptime efficiency is E: 25 _ 0.9518 = 85.18 0387 7 oneProblems 191 As our analysis suggests, increasing the mimber of elements in the assembly machine cycle results in a higher cycle time, therefore decreasing the production rate of the machine. Accordingly, applications of the single-station assembly machine are usually limited to lower-volume, lower-production rate situations. For higher production rates, one of the multistation assembly systems is generally preferred. REFERENCES (1) ANpREaseN, M. M., S. KAHLER and T. Lunp, Design for Assembly, IFS (Publications) Ltd., Bedford, England, and Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1983. [2] Booruroyp G., and A. H. Repror, Mechanized Assembly, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Ltd., London, 1968. B81 Booturoyp G., C. Pout, and L. E. MuRCH, Automatic Assembly, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1982. [4] Gay, D. S., “Ways to Place and Transport Parts,” Automation, June 1973. [5] Goopaics, J. L., and G. P. Maut, “Programmable Parts Feeders,” Industrial Engineering, May 1983, pp. 28-33 16] Groover, M. P., M. Weiss, R. N..NAGEL, and N. G. Oprey, Industrial Robotics: Tech- nology, Programming, and Applications, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. 1986, Chapter 15. 17] Maczxa, W. J., “Feeding the Assembly System,” Assembly Engineering, April 1985, pp. 32-34. (8) Muncu,L. E., and G. Booruroyp, “On-Off Control of Parts Feeding,” Automation, August 1970, pp. 32-34. [9] Ritey, F. J., Assembly Automation, Industrial Press, Inc., New York, 1983. [10] Scuwarrz, W. H. “Robots Called io Assembly,” Assembly Engineering, August 1985, op. 20-23. (11) Syntron (FMC Corporation), Vibratory Parts Feeders (Bulletin 400672), Homer City, Pa. 1966. [12] | Syntron (FMC Corporation Materials Handling Equipment Division), |, Syntron Parts Handling Equipment, Catalog No. PHE-10, Home City, Pa., 1984,