Design for Assembly as Key to Flexible Manufacturing

ISSN 0144-5154
Assembly
Automation
The international journal of assembly technology
and management
Volume 22 Number 3 2002
www.emeraldinsight.com
aa_cover_(i).qxd 14/08/2002 11:17 AM Page 1
Design for assembly
Guest Specialist: Dr Mauro Onori
Contents
199 Access to Assembly Automation online
200 Abstracts & keywords
202 Editorial
Viewpoint
203 Product design as an integral step
in assembly system development
Mauro Onori
Company news
206 A review of the latest developments in
the industry
Features
215 Delphi expands diesel injector
output using automated assembly
John Mortimer
223 A new wave of synchronous robots
Anna Kochan
226 US National Manufacturing Week
Dick Bloss
230 Trends in the robotic simulation
industry
Greg Ahrens and Gord Pageau
235 Robots great and small at
Hanover
Anna Kochan
Research articles
239 Assembly-initiated production
a strategy for mass-customisation
utilising modular, hybrid
automatic production systems
Anders Karlsson
248 Shortening the design for
assembly process time for torque
converter development
Y.J. Lin and Adam Uhler
260 Geometric variation prediction in
automotive assembling
C. Xiong, Y. Rong, R.P. Koganti,
M.J. Zaluzec and N. Wang
270 Dimensional variations during
Airbus wing assembly
M. Saadat and C. Cretin
Assembly Automation
Volume 22, Number 3, 2002 ISSN 0144-5154
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Contents (continued)
277 FAS scheduling based on
operation flexibility
Rong-Lei Sun, Youlun Xiong,
Runsheng Du and Han Ding
Mini features 283
.
Delphi uses Negari system to
support lean manufacturing and
provide production flexibility
.
PHASA assembly is key to
productivity
.
Moving parts can be built
pre-assembled by automated
prototyping system
.
ElectRelease electrically
dis-bonding epoxy
.
Pedal power through laser
transmission welding
.
Yellow goods laser
.
AGCO schedules tractor assembly
with Tecnomatix eM-Power
sequencer
New products
290 Updated information on the latest
entrants to the industrial robotics
market
Internet page 296
What is new and available through the
Internet
298 Book reviews
300 Patent abstracts
302 Diary
Flexible scheduling
Design for assembly is a recurrent theme for
this journal but up to now we have
concentrated on the physical design of the
product, what fixturing methods should be used
and other associated fabrication techniques.
These aspects are clearly of critical importance,
however, of equal importance is the assembly
system that has the job of assembling the final
designs.
Designing your assembly system so that it is
able to assemble your products is the main
theme for this issue. If you only have one
product then life is simple, however, if you
have a variety of different products or a
number of product variations then life
becomes more complex. The trick in such
situations is to design your assembly system
so that the various assembly stations (manual
or automated) are kept busy, while at the
same time reducing stock holding and
speeding up order fulfilment. This requires a
system that is highly flexible and can respond
instantly to changes in demand and also
accommodate machine breakdowns and stock
shortages as efficiently as possible.
A really flexible system will be very complex
and sophisticated in its operation. It will need
to have detailed knowledge of orders, stock,
assembly operations required by each
product, assembly station capabilities and
setup times, physical location of all
sub-assemblies and transportation facilities,
and delivery schedules.
Given that you have the component parts
and assembly systems that are capable of
assembling them, then anyone can get into
production. However, the difference in
productivity between an ad-hoc assembly
programme, and one that flexibly responds to
manufacturing requirements is considerable,
and well worth the additional effort required
to create it.
The time to come up with such a system is
not (if you can help it) after the factory layout
has been completed, but is, instead, best done
concurrently with the plant design. One key
part of a flexible system is the ability to
transport components and sub-assemblies
quickly to the next assembly station. If items
in build are continually being moved in and
out of storage then productivity and stock
holding and delivery schedules will all suffer.
All of the above is very obvious and yet
most companies would benefit from a
serious reappraisal of their manufacturing
systems. All too frequently many decisions
will be made by production managers who
make the best decisions they can based on
the current situations. My argument is that
in most cases the variables involved are
simply too complex for a person to handle in
the best possible way, however, the required
what if calculations are precisely what
computers are good at, so it makes sense to
use them for the task.
Creating such a system will not be easy, but
the potential gains are well worth the effort.
Clive Loughlin
Calls for papers
Assembly Automation, Vol. 23 No. 1
Bin picking and flexible gripping
Grasping randomly oriented parts. Flexible
grippers and gripping strategies.
Copy deadline: 13 October 2002.
Adhesives, welding and gluing
Latest developments in parts joining without
the use of fasteners.
Copy deadline: 14 December 2002.
Machine vision and inspection
Latest developments in machine vision and
automated inspection. Concentrating on
applications in automated assembly systems.
Copy deadline: 25 March 2003.
Rapid prototyping and rapid
manufacturing
New methods, materials and systems for
rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing.
Copy deadline: 8 June 2003.
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ISSN 0144-5154
Editorial
Product design as an
integral step in
assembly system
development
Mauro Onori
Design for assembly (DFA) techniques and
methodologies have been in use since the
early 1980s, and the term itself no longer
arouses particular ambiguities. Not only has it
become a known methodology, it has led to
the uncontrolled spawning of myriad other
approaches, including design for variance,
design for automatic assembly, design for
reliability and so forth. The development of
such a wide variety of design support tools is,
in itself, a proof of the validity and value of
such tools but, nonetheless, their use has not
truly been as widespread as intially expected.
Major companies have, to varying degrees,
applied the technology and obtained
quantifiable results. Other corporations have
even gone as far as to develop their own forms
of DFA, and academia has expanded the
realm to encompass the modularisation of
products as well. In view of such a positive
evolution of events, it becomes legitimate to
wonder why there still exists a rather
widespread difficulty, for most companies, to
adapt their production range and rates to new
market needs. The answer may lie in two
separate domains. The applicability of these
methods has often encountered resistance by
the designers or design team, primarily
because further learning is required and,
secondarily, because the methods are
sometimes viewed as a limiting factor for
creativity. The other answer is less obvious
and may lie in the fact that the coupling
between product design and production
system has not yet been fully exploited.
The applicability factor of DFA methods
has received considerable attention.
Flowchart methods which avoid extensive
mathematical analyses have been presented,
such as the design for automatic assembly
(DFA2), and concurrent engineering
methodologies have proposed supportive
measures. By and large, one may say that
greater efforts may not result in major
changes since the main hurdle still remains
the distinct separation which exists, in most
companies, between the design departments
and production system developers. In
essence, this is a management issue. The
cultural, organisational, and information flow
barriers must be brought down as a
well-established strategic measure. All
methods include consequences and
implications for the production, both
upstream and downstream. These
implications may imply that the use of any
The author
Mauro Onori is Associate Professor, Woxe nCentrum/
Assembly System Division, Department of Production
Engineering, The Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm, Sweden.
Electronic access
The research register for this journal is available at
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
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Viewpoint
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# MCB UP Limited
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ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436392
DFA method may not give the expected
results if the entire chain of events is not
considered. At the end of the day, concurrent
engineering is more than a methodology or
philosophy, it should actually be regarded as
an organisational working strategy. This lack
of simultaneous development work is
probably one of the main causes of the
drawbacks denoted by modern assembly
system solutions.
The major problems encountered by
companies dealing with assembly mainly
relate to uncertainty. First, it is very difficult
for companies to predict the type and range of
products that will have to be developed. The
second uncertainty regards the production
volumes and lifespans reached by these future
products. The overwhelming reaction to these
problems has been partially strategic, by
employing DFA and similar methods, but
primarily technical: that is, to attempt to
develop extremely flexible assembly machines
that attempt to adapt themselves to different
product families and production scenarios.
This has led to a series of multi-purpose
machines, often classed as flexible automatic
assembly (FAA) systems. Another approach
has been to focus on the standardisation and
modularisation of high-volume manual
assembly lines, requiring advanced control
solutions and special robotic cells for the
automatic tasks. The common denominator
to these approaches has been the dream of
flexibility, a focus which has inadvertently
avoided the actual assembly process and
product design considerations. This fact has
been further aggravated by the fact that a firm
grasp of which type of flexibility is being
targeted has, until recently, been neglected in
favour of a general, yet vague, description of
this term. Unfortunately, this existing
paradigm of highly flexible assembly systems
still prevails and results in expensive, highly
technological solutions which cannot easily fit
into existing production facilities, rarely
accomodate an analysis of the product design
implications, require technological
competence, and are seldom able to assemble
more than one product generation. Although
fairly adequate to many different product
types, they fail to be very performative in any
domain.
The somewhat hidden problem, however, is
that the major part of producing companies
have to deal with planned products and existing
production facilities. Ideally, they would like
to fit any new product, or product variant,
into an existing assembly system with as low
costs as possible. To date, this has only been a
dream. The common scenario is that the
existing production system principles still
dictate, to a varying degree, the basic design
requirements for future products, and vice
versa. Basically, there is a strong dependence
between product development and selected
system principle (parallel flow, serial line,
etc.). This entails that any new FAA, or other
assembly system solution, has to fit into an
existing facility. The same applies for a new
product design. For example, as soon as a
new product design is assumed to require a
new assembly system solution, a serious
analysis of the components is required to
ensure that the targeted volumes, costs, etc.
are attained. This often leads to a change in
some system component, or product part, to
enable the achievement of the goals. This is
exactly where the problems arise: the
maximum attainable capacity and flexibility
of an assembly system are ultimately dictated
by the product design and assembly
equipment. Therefore, if the equipment
cannot easily adapt to changing market
requirements and/or new products, the
overall flexibility is greatly reduced.
Furthermore, if the envisaged assembly
system solution cannot easily fit into the
existing production system scenario, it will
not be deemed as fully flexible by the user. A
focus on assembly system solutions as a
separate entity to the actual product designs
will therefore not succeed.
This vital link between product design and
production system is on the verge of
becoming even more crucial since new trends
and developments are emerging. Although
digital plant technology, or virtual factory
solutions, are aware of this link and are
struggling to achieve an information flow
between the two domains, the products and
technology around them are drastically
changing. Eco-reliability, or sustainability,
has become even more important and must be
embedded in both product and system
design. The products themselves are
becoming ever smaller, inducing the
development of mini and micro factory
solutions, miniature systems which demand a
re-consideration of known methodologies and
approaches. Furthermore, since
miniaturisation will, in most cases, only affect
part of an entire product range, these
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Product design as an integral step in assembly system development
Mauro Onori
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solutions will have to be embedded within an
existing production system. Other trends,
such as the growing push for design for
reliability, further underline the need to assess
both product design and production system
aspects concurrently. In terms of assembly
systems, what is required is not a solution
which tries to accomplish all of the envisaged
assembly needs but, rather, a solution which,
being based on several reconfigurable,
task-specific elements (system modules),
allows for a continuous evolution of the
assembly system. In order for this to succeed,
however, a dynamic link to the product design
processes and methods must be created. In
short, the challenge for design engineers and
production system developers is to create a
common working platform.
Basically, the most innovative product
design can only be achieved if no assembly
process constraints are posed. The ensuing,
fully independent, product design and process
selection procedure may then result in an
optimal assembly system principle. The
optimal layout is then linked, via a
methodology, to a broad range of small,
process-oriented system components. All
dependency on existing assembly system
principles is broken. Consequently, one has
an evolvable assembly system principle (EAS)
(Onori, 2002) in which the existing assembly
system may dynamically adapt to the new
products, technologies, and production
scenarios. Consequently, the designers know,
a priori, if there are technical solutions
available to their designs and which particular
constraints they pose on these designs. The
ensuing assembly factory is, due to the
small-scale modularity and standardisation,
dynamically reconfigurable. This represents a
shift in thinking since it implies that
theoretically very flexible, multi-purpose cells
will be replaced by a highly flexible concept
consisting of several well-targeted but not, in
themselves, highly flexible components.
Hence the new paradigm.
The industrial and academic community in
Europe is already at work with such issues,
and networks such as the assembly net (http://
www.assembly-net.org/) and CE-NET(http://
www.ce-net.org/) are clear examples. The
challenge is not only to bring the assembly
system engineers to truly collaborate with the
product design experts, but also to adapt
DFA, DFR and all other methodologies to
encompass new engineering domains and
social trends, such as eco-sustainability,
microtechnologies and the rapid decline in
manual workforces. It is therefore no longer
an equivocable forecast to say that automatic
assembly, and the product design methods it
will require, will represent a key factor for
survival in future markets.
Reference
Onori, M. (2002), Evolvable assembly systems a new
paradigm?, Proceedings of the ISR2002,
Stockholm, October.
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BMW pioneers robotic automation for
mounting gearboxes on engines
Keywords BMW, Automotive, Gearboxes,
Robotics
BMW has installed automation for
assembling gearboxes to engines. It is the
first time this has been accomplished
anywhere in the world, claims Bernd
Bruckert of IBG, the systems integrator
responsible for developing the technology.
IBG delivered the first cell to BMWs
Regensburg plant in February 2002 and will
follow it up later this year with another at
Dingolfing (see Plate 1).
Quality is one of the main reasons for
automating the assembly of the gearbox to the
engine, says Bernd Bruckert. It is a task that
is usually carried out by two operators using
an assist device to take the weight. However,
performed manually, it is difficult for the
operators to feel if they are positioning the
gearbox exactly right. The tolerances are
very tight and the operators frequently cause
damage, he indicates, warning that, when
the operators do not get the position quite
right, they are likely to scrape off metal, which
becomes debris in the oil. As a result, there
could be engine noise and early gearbox wear.
By incorporating vision systems, IBG has
enabled the robotic solution to function with
maximum precision. One camera is mounted
on the robot arm itself and another is
stationary. The robot first uses vision to check
the position of the gearbox on its carrier
before picking it up. Then, once it has the
gearbox in its gripper, the robot shows the
gearbox to the second camera to determine its
exact position in the gripper. It then
approaches the engine and uses its on-board
camera to check the location of the engine.
Having recalculated its program to account
for the precise positions of both gearbox and
engine, the robot performs the assembly task,
putting two bolts in place to secure the
assembly. It achieves a tolerance that is tighter
than 0.1mm and completes the entire task in a
cycle time of just 50sec.
The BMW installation is based around a
standard Kuka robot, the KR 200 that has a
payload of 200kg. The technical innovation
lies in the gripper that IBG has fitted to the
robot to handle the gearboxes. Because of the
variety of gearboxes, each of which has to be
picked up differently (more than 25 different
ones are in use at the Regensburg plant), the
gripper is highly flexible. In fact, due to the
use of servo-controlled location points, a
single gripper is able to handle all models.
The location points are programmed to move
automatically to their new positions,
according to the production sequence.
BMW has purchased the rights to the
technology IBG developed for the gearbox/
engine assembly application and has applied
for a patent on it. It relates mainly to the
design of the gripper.
Several other vehicle manufacturers are
discussing the same application with IBG.
Bernd Bruckert is confident of selling a
further eight to ten systems within the next
two years. He believes that robots are making
a comeback in automotive assembly
applications. The robot systems we have
today are faster and more accurate than even
a few years ago, and they are able to carry
heavier loads. It also makes a difference that
designers now take into account factors
relating to robotics and automation when they
do their designs, he comments. It is in the
final assembly line where Bernd Bruckert
expects to see the most significant increase in
Company news
Plate 1 Systems integrator IBG is supplying BMW with
the worlds first robot system for automatically
mounting gearboxes to engines
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robotics in the next few years, particularly for
mounting interior components such as
cockpits, seats and roof trim.
Renault completes 240,000 follow-on
orders for Tecnomatix eMPower
solutions
Keyword Production management
Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd, a leading
provider of manufacturing process
management software solutions, today
announced that the Renault Group has
purchased additional eMPower software
licenses valued in excess of 240,000 for use
in their Technocentre.
The Renault Technocentre brings together
in a single site all the teams responsible for the
design and development of new vehicles,
saving as much as 90 million in development
costs per vehicle, according to Renaults
estimates.
Renaults additional Tecnomatix
eM-Workplace and eM-OLP licenses will be
used in both the preplanning and detailed
studies phases of their automobile assembly
process. The eMPower products let Renault
improve the quality of its spot welding
process, reduce robot programming time,
define a workflow with line builders and allow
for reusability of existing resources.
Renault will continue using eM-Workplace
in the preplanning stage of production to
transfer 3D models and welding point
locations from the CAD system to the
production floor, conduct feasibility studies
for assembly process validation, provide cost
estimation support for production scenario
decisions, define the assembly sequences and
provide feedback to product design.
During the detailed studies stage, Renault
will be able to specify the required resources
and the available space for the lines or
workcells to be delivered. Renault will also be
able to give the line builder all technical
constraints and then request a complete
welding line/workcell study with paths,
fixtures, definition and off-line programming.
For further information, please contact:
Eric Gautier, Tecnomatix European
Headquarters. Tel: 00 (33) 134 58 24 24;
E-mail: egautier@tecnomatix.fr URL:
Internet: www.tecnomatix.com
Profibus becomes first Chinese fieldbus
standard
Keywords Profibus, Fieldbus, China
Profibus has become the first fieldbus to be
published as a Chinese professional standard.
Officially designated JB/T10308.3-2001,
Profibus is published by the China Machinery
Industry Federation, allowing it to be
specified by Chinese institutions for use as a
fieldbus technology in machinery and
automation.
This fact, together with the news that the
Chinese Test Laboratory in Beijing is now an
accredited Profibus test centre, means that
conditions are ripe for commercialisation and
sale of Profibus products and services in the
Chinese market.
With the successful accreditation of the
Chinese Profibus test laboratory in Beijing,
China, certification tests for Profibus devices
are now offered in eight international test
laboratories. The Chinese test laboratory is an
important institution to support
manufacturers of Profibus products in the
Asian market and to ensure the consistent
high quality standard of Profibus systems
throughout the world.
More information is available at: the
Profibus Group, 6 Oleander Close, Locks
Heath, Southampton, Hants SO31 6WG,
UK. Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 1489 589574; E-mail:
uk@profibus.com; Web site, www.profibus.
co.uk
Assembly-Net precision assembly
technologies for mini and micro
products
Keywords Assemblies, Precision, Assembly-Net
Assembly-Net thematic network is a unique
partnership in Europe, funded by the
European Commission (Project No. GIRT-
CT-2001-05039 ) to improve its global
competitiveness. The focus is on short
lifecycle products that require mini and micro
assembly solutions. Assembly-Net aims to to
bring together, share and exchange critical
technologies, research results, and the latest
information in precision assembly
automation.
By bringing together academic and
industrial partners (system vendors and
SMEs), the project partners have created a
network which can gather the relevant needs,
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available solutions, and research results in
order to organise assembly R&D efforts in
Europe. The network is expected to expand
and will focus on incorporating more SMEs.
The consortium currently consists of
members from ten countries. The consortium
intends to merge several national and
international research forums and already
includes a vast number of industrial members.
The prime aim is to share and exchange
information and the latest developments in
assembly system applications and design.
Assembly-Net aims also to facilitate the
formation of new, multinational projects in
precision assembly. The project is a forum for
special interest groups and a stimulus and
catalyst for the development.
The consortium consists of large and small
users of assembly systems, assembly system
providers, industrial consultancy groups, and
research institutes and universities. The
network partners cover a very wide range of
competence, including: assembly system
specification and design; assembly system
manufacture and supply; assembly system
use, both high and low-volume production;
development of flexible automatic assembly
systems; mini-assembly equipment
specification and design; disassembly system
specification and design; education in
assembly systems theory, application, and
design; and education in product design and
modularisation.
To join, visit the Assembly-Net Web site,
www.assembly-net.org, and fill in the
membership application form. Affiliated
membership of Assembly-Net is free. The
members may subscribe and unsubscribe at
any point during the life of the project.
Benefits include:
.
Access to special interest group
discussion forums (join in with the
debate).
.
Receipt of specially targeted broadcast
news items.
.
Automatic subscription to the newsletter
Assembly-Net coordinator is Dr Svetan M.
Ratchev, School of Mechanical, Materials,
Manufacturing Engineering and
Management, The University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, NG7 2RD; E-mail:
Svetan.Ratchev@nottinghain.ac.uk. Tel. +44
(0) 115 9514018, Fax. +44 (0) 115 9514000
More information about the project can be
found at www.assembly-net.org (see Plate 2).
See also: Mauro Onori, Assembly Automation,
Vol. 21 No. 2, 2001, pp. 123-8, MCB
University Press, ISSN 0144-5154.
Simple effective direct computer links
from boardroom through to factory
floor promised by 200,000 new
Industrial Ethernet Research Programme
Keywords Fieldbus, Product management
Researchers from the University of Warwicks
Warwick Manufacturing Group are putting
together a 200,000 industrial Ethernet
research programme that will allow
technology and manufacturing companies to
use the Internet to create simple direct
effective computer links allowing control and
integration of technology on a factory floor
with every level of a business including the
boardroom.
The research draws on the successful,
widespread, use of low level industrial
computer networks (also known as
fieldbusses) which bring together intelligent
sensors, actuators, etc. with microcontroller
technology that did away with labour-
intensive, inefficient, wire-based factory
controls. This technology has already cut
installation and commissioning times by
75 per cent and drastically reduced the time
Plate 2 Assembly-Net aims to facilitate the formation of
new, multinational projects in precision assembly
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such equipment spends out of action when
problems occur and need resolving.
The companies using this technology have
longed to be able to take this technology a
step further by using Ethernet (Internet-
style communications) to develop
interfaceless communication through all
levels of an enterprise from the shop floor
to the corporate network levels. Such a
system would provide an opportunity to
easily integrate the IT and factory floor
networking, providing substantial cost
savings. This allows users to link customer
and supplier data, reduce cycle time,
increase manufacturing reliability and
enhance customer satisfaction.
The new programme will draw on
techniques and languages such as extensible
markup language (XML) DirectX (a system
often used to drive computer games) and
electronic data sheet (EDS) to resolve the
technical issues of speed and reliability which
are key to developing practical applications of
this technology. They will also investigate the
real-time performance of Ethernet switches
and hubs on the shop floor.
Rockwell Automation UK, Tellima
Technology Ltd of Wakefield, and Warwick
Control Technologies Ltd are already funding
this 200,000 project and local companies
British Federal Ltd in Dudley, HM
Computing of Malvern, Dearborn Electronics
of Wolverhampton, and Contemporary
Controls in the University of Warwick
Science Park, are also in discussions with the
researchers.
For further details contact: Richard T.
McLaughlin, Senior Research Fellow,
Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of
Warwick. Tel: +44 (0) 24 76 524711 E-mail:
MCLAUG_R@wmgmail.wmg.warwick.ac.uk
www.warwick.ac.uk/devicenet
New manufacturing system a world
first for UK
Keyword Holonic manufacturing
A revolutionary new approach to
manufacturing, which will benefit both
producers and consumers is being developed
by a unique UK-based alliance of commerce
and academe.
The University of Cambridges Institute for
Manufacturing (IfM), one of the worlds
leading centres for manufacturing innovation,
has joined with smart software expert Agent
Oriented Software (AOS) to create a
dedicated team which will work with major
manufacturing and logistics companies to
develop and implement holonic
manufacturing systems.
Holonic manufacturing is based on the
principle of treating a production process as
a set of individual, autonomous elements or
holons that combine to coordinate
operations right through from customer
order to despatch of goods says Duncan
McFarlane, head of Automation and
Control at IFM. Once an order has been
placed, a set of instructions can be
electronically attached to the core part of the
product for instance, the case of a mobile
phone, to explain how it will be made. As
the product moves through the factory, it
can in effect ask at each stage for the part,
peripheral or even colour of the front cover
or aerial that it requires.
This means that every product can be
automatically built to individual demands,
but eliminating the expense and delay of
traditional customisation, making the
concept a real boon to the consumer,
explains Andrew Lucas, MD of AOS.
However, the advantages to manufacturers
are also significant, for example beating the
competition to offer new products, being
able to offer a greater product range at the
same price, aiming for zero stock on hand,
and reorganising quickly if there are
problems such as machine breakdowns. This
new approach is a smarter way to
manufacture it will help to make British
manufacturing more competitive, and better
able to make its vital contribution to the UK
economy.
The results of the work being undertaken
by the team are expected to become
commercially available within the next year,
and the new system is likely to be on many
factory floors by 2005. So the day that you
can order your new car or mobile, and it will
build itself to your specifications, is closer
than you might think!
For further information: Dr Andrew Lucas,
AOS Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)7867 806552; E-mail:
andrew.lucas@agent-software.co.uk or Dr
Duncan McFarlane, Institute for
Manufacturing. Tel: +44 (0) 1223 338069;
E-mail: dcm@ffi-eng.cam.ac.uk
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ABB accelerates industrial
IT
programme
Thousands of products are now certified
to new standard
Keywords ABB, Production management
ABB has accelerated the certification of its
offerings under the Industrial
IT
label.
Some 3,000 products have been certified as
part of ABBs programme to simplify the
integration and operation of its entire range
of products for its utility and industry
customers. At year-end 2001, ABB had
certified 1,000 products, surpassing its
target of 800 products.
ABBs technologies are rapidly evolving
under a single information framework that is
transforming our entire product line into an
integrated system of compatible building
blocks , said ABB president and CEO
Jo rgen Centerman. With Industrial
IT
, our
customers can build tailor-made solutions for
their businesses, helping them improve their
performance.
Industrial
IT
is ABBs information
framework based on open industry standards.
It links ABBs automation and power
technology products so they are easier to
configure, install, operate and maintain in real
time. The goal is to allow customers to
integrate industrial systems and information
technology by managing information about
plant, assets, operations and business
systems.
Industrial
IT
-enabled products from ABB
or its partners come equipped with software
containing detailed information about the
product such as instruction manuals,
drawings, remote control faceplates and
configuration tools.
As each certified Industrial
IT
product is
installed (for example, a sensor, robot, motor,
transformer, etc.), the software can be copied,
pasted and arranged into a customers
monitoring and control system. A simple
mouse click opens up the full array of
information needed to configure,
troubleshoot or optimize a given component.
ABB has also announced the first external,
non-ABB product to be Industrial
IT
certified, a suite of maintenance
management applications that form part
of IFS applications from Swedish software
producer IFS AB.
For more information contact: Bob
Kingman, ABB, Howard Road, St Neots,
Cambs PE19 3EU, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1480
488207; Fax: +44 (0) 1480 218361; www:
bob.kingman@gb.abb.com
Sprayforming goes with the flow
Keyword Rapid prototyping
Novarc, Europes leading exponent of
sprayforming for tooling, has announced a
joint programme with tooling and pressings
specialist Airflow Streamlines to develop its
technology for Airflow clients in the
automotive industry. Sprayforming, brought
to commercial reality by Novarc in
conjunction with Oxford University and
Ford, is set to both reduce the cost and
increase the speed of tooling production.
At present, Airflow is exploiting
sprayforming to produce tools for the
production of body in white panels. Tools
supplied have already shown a high degree of
wear resistance in press trial runs, due to the
robust physical properties of the steel shell
generated by the spray process.
Stewart Pearson, director and general
manager of Airflow Streamlines body
division, noted: We are delighted to be
involved in the commercial exploitation of
sprayforming in the automotive arena.
At Airflow, we can see the obvious
potential of the technology and will be
working alongside Novarc to bring its rapid
tooling advantages to the benefit of our
clients. We are extremely optimistic about
prospects for the automotive sector over the
next 12 months and see sprayforming as
another string to our bow.
For further information contact: Novarc,
8a, Begbroke Business and Science Park,
Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Oxford OX5 1PF, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 849326; Fax: +44 (0) 1865
849327; www.novarc.com.
JAVA technology heads for the factory
floor
Keywords JAVA, Automation
An international specification for real-time
data access (RTDA) is helping Java
TM
technology to elbow its way onto the factory
floor, J Consortium, Inc., has announced.
An open forum committed to advancing
Java technologies in real-time embedded
systems, the J Consortium published RTDA
to introduce Java into assembly-line
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manufacturing. The specification focuses on
how to access data from such assembly-line
equipment as actuators and sensors under
tough time constraints. RTDA closes the gap
between Java technology and real-time
performance, allowing the use of Java
technology at the lowest level of factory
automation while preserving Javas essential
nature of complete device independence.
For further information: http:/wwwj-
consortium.org
Billion-dollar Chinese shipbuilder to
implement 10,000 licenses of Autodesk
Inventor 3D mechanical design software
China State Shipbuilding Corporation
selects Autodesk software for a global
competitive advantage
Keywords CAD, Shipbuilding, China
Autodesk, a world leading design and digital
content creation company, today announced
that China State Shipbuilding Corporation
(CSSC), one of Chinas top 100 enterprises,
will purchase 10,000 licenses of the Autodesk
Inventor Series over the next three years,
primarily for the use of Autodesk Inventor 3D
mechanical design software included in the
Autodesk Inventor Series. CSSC worked with
China Daheng Information Technology
Corporation, Autodesks Manufacturing
channel partner in China to select the
Autodesk software as its standard for digital
design.
China is the third-largest shipbuilding
nation in the world and entry into the World
Trade Organization has created an urgent
need to upgrade its shipping industrys
technology infrastructure. Implementing
enterprise-wide IT and advanced digital
design solutions are necessary to improve
Chinas competitiveness in the global
shipbuilding industry.
The collaborative capabilities of Autodesks
software will help CSSC promote digital
information exchange among ship design
enterprises and ship owners. CSSC also
anticipates that improved collaboration will
increase competitiveness throughout its
shipbuilding supply chain, improving quality
and enhancing results.
The advantage of low labour costs in
China cannot be undermined by low
productivity, said Qiu Huihui, vice president
of Information Industry and Investment
Development at CSSC. Utilising advanced
and suitable information technology is one of
CSSCs strategies to address global
competition. Cooperating with Autodesk has
created an environment for CSSC to fully
utilise the 3D design applications and
resources available from Autodesk.
Autodesks work with CSSC plays a
strategic role in supporting Chinas policy of
adopting advanced technology, said Robert
Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing
Division at Autodesk. Autodesk is
committed to working with CSSC and China
Daheng Information Technology
Corporation to ensure they are able to take
full advantage of the powerful functionality
offered by Autodesk Inventor 3D design
software.
Further information from: Tina Naylor,
Autodesk Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1483 462653;
E-mail: tina.naylor@autodesk.com
Cognex inks agreement with Entivity for
integrating vision with PC-based
automation and control software
Keywords Machine vision, Assembly
Cognex, a world leader in machine vision
systems, has signed an agreement with
Entivity, a leading supplier of PC-based
automation and control software, to establish
a cooperative effort for the development and
promotion of integrated PC-based control
software and machine vision solutions.
The two companies will work together to
specify and develop interfaces that will
simplify the integration of Entivitys
award-winning Studio family of automation
and control software with Cognexs
award-winning In-Sight family of machine
vision sensors. Entivity and Cognex will also
cooperate on the promotion and support of
these integrated solutions in a variety of new
markets and applications.
Entivitys Studio product integrates
advanced control and information technology
with Microsoft Vision 2000 to give users a
complete automation software solution.
Built-in enterprise connectivity, productivity
analysis and transparent scalability across the
full range of Microsoft Windows platforms
dramatically accelerates automation
implementation. Studio is a fully extensible
open architecture automation and control
software development platform.
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Entivity products are very successful in
information-intensive applications and
complex control applications incorporating
sequential logic, motion and machine vision
systems, said Ken Spenser, president and
CEO of Entivity. Tightly integrated
advanced control and machine vision
improves control of the entire manufacturing
process for customers and system integrators
across a number of industries.
Our In-Sight machine vision sensors
provide manufacturers with feedback about
their product quality, process control, and
machine productivity, said Dr. Robert
Shillman, president of Cognex. Entivity is a
world leader in taking PC-based control into
high value, information-intensive applications
and is a natural partner for us.
In-Sight vision sensors are low-cost, high
performance online inspection devices that
are used to automatically measure parts,
verify the correct assembly of products,
identify parts, and guide production
equipment. Ethernet communications are
built into most models, enabling users to
gather data to and from the image sensors and
put it on the same network as Entivitys
PC-based control logic functions, helping
to speed the process of machine
troubleshooting. Operator and maintenance
personnel have the ability to check machine
flow and vision status from any of Entivitys
Visio powered HMIs on the line, and share
vision results with all levels of the
organisation.
For further information contact: Katrina
Dixon, Cognex UK, Units 7-9, First Quarter,
Blenheim Road, Epsom, KT19 9QN, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 800 0180018; Fax: +44 (0) 1372
726276; E-mail: kdixon@cognex.com
OptoForm LLC established to pursue
advanced digital manufacturing
opportunities
3D Systems Corp., a world leader in solid
imaging equipment, and DSM Somos, a
leading material manufacturer, announce the
official launch of OptoForm LLC, a new
company to pursue opportunities in the new
and expanding field of advanced digital
manufacturing (ADM), as conceived by 3D
Systems. ADM is expected to become a key
enabling technology for the customisation of
design and manufacturing, also called mass
customisation.
OptoForm LLC will deliver shop-floor
manufacturing solutions to the industrial
market based on composite plastic, ceramic
and metal materials using a proprietary direct
composites manufacturing process.
ADM will allow designers to reduce part
count in the design process thus reducing part
costs and assembly time. Designers and
engineers will be able to add custom features
and complexity to designs not currently feasible
with todays manufacturing techniques, says
Grant Flaharty, executive vice president, global
business operations for 3D Systems.
The ability to manufacture a product
using additive fabrication techniques will
radically alter designs and manufacturing
methods over the next decade and beyond,
says Mervyn Rudgley, general manager of
OptoForm LLC. Using ADM techniques
such as direct composite manufacturing and
other 3D systems technologies, existing
designs can be manufactured without the
costs and lead time associated with hard
tooling, and more complex designs will
become easier to manufacture.
We are pleased that we have the combined
resources of 3D Systems and DSM Somos, as
we begin our development program with
selected Fortune 100 industrial partners,
adds Rudgley.
Steve Hartig, vice president of marketing at
DSM Somos, says: Over the next year we
expect to develop and test new materials that
will set new standards for structural
performance and capability in digital
manufacturing.
More information about the company is
available at: www.dsmdesotech.com and
www.dsmsomos.com
New application areas to promote
robust growth in advanced motion
control market
Keyword Motion control
Signs of optimism increase in the European
market for advanced motion control products
as flickers of light become visible in the
economic gloom and the array of end-user
applications in the industry diversifies and
drives market potential.
A new study by Frost & Sullivan (http://
motors.frost.com/), the international
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marketing consulting company, underlines
the durability of the recovery in advanced
motion control product sales. Amassing
sales worth $1.43 billion in 2001, the market
is forecast to reach revenues worth $1.82
billion in 2008. This advance should be
supported by declining prices and the
potential for enhanced productivity, driving
penetration of advanced motion control
products into a broadening spectrum of
industrial sectors.
Falling prices have helped increase the
viability of advanced motion control products
in comparison to cheaper electromechanical
alternatives based on pneumatic and
hydraulic technologies. The decrease in prices
has positively influenced demand with the
resultant volume growth expected to outstrip
price reductions, thereby supporting revenue
growth, reports Mik Sabiers, research
manager at Frost & Sullivan.
A major factor in the expansion of advanced
motion control systems has been its potential
for enhanced productivity. A growing
emphasis on improved productivity and cost
reduction in manufacturing processes is
building a trend towards the automation of
production. With end-users increasingly
prepared to pay for electrically automated
motion control systems so as to eliminate
labour costs and maintain competitiveness,
the demand for advanced motion control
systems is expected to grow.
Market expansion is also likely to be
driven by end-users in industries such as
packaging, pharmaceuticals and food
processing that have traditionally utilised
electromechanical motion control systems.
These sectors are becoming increasingly
receptive to the use of advanced motion
control products. Another area gaining
importance is the military market, where
increased defence expenditure is likely to
spur growth. Rising demand from other high
growth potential industries is also
anticipated to further the market for
advanced motion control products.
The widening use of advanced motion
control in these new markets is expected to
offset the increasing saturation of demand in
the key industrial automation sector, in
particular the machine tools segment. As Mr
Sabiers notes, all companies can benefit
from an awareness of growth patterns in
other application areas, particularly faster
growing niche markets that are less likely to
attract the attention of major suppliers in the
near future.
More peripheral markets, and particularly
the printing sector and processing industries,
remain unsaturated and offer strong potential
for future growth, he adds.
Technological developments are further
expected to aid revenue growth. The
increasing use of PC-based controllers, and
more particularly, intelligent drives, is
expected to contribute to growth in the
advanced motion control market.
Technological changes are likely, however,
to have a negative impact on some product
segments. For example, the shift to intelligent
drives and the more widespread use of
PC-based controls are expected to gradually
reduce the need for controllers. This, in turn,
is likely to lead to a substantial moderation in
the future growth potential of the controllers
market.
While servo motors, servo drives and
feedback devices are expected to account for
a rising proportion of these revenues,
stepper motors, stepper drives and
controllers are expected to diminish in
relative significance.
With competition intensifying, the
competitive landscape is displaying less
fragmentation. The market is currently
going through a spate of consolidations,
mergers, and acquisitions. This trend is a
reflection of end-users demanding complete
motion control systems and favouring
multinational suppliers with wide product
ranges and international support networks.
Changing end-user requirements,
combined with price reductions and the need
to achieve scale in manufacturing, are
increasingly tipping the balance in favour of
larger suppliers, as can be seen from the
dominant presence of leading multinational
competitors, such as Siemens, GE Fanuc,
BoschRexroth (Indramat), Rockwell
Automation and Danaher, that together
account for over one third of revenues in the
market.
In total terms, the European market for
advanced motion control, which suffered a
reversal due to the uncertain economic
climate, is starting to show the signs of robust
recovery. Its increasingly visible presence in
newly emerging applications is certain to
presage a return to the boom days of the past,
the study concludes. http://frost.com
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NanoMuscle selects ASE for the
production of NanoMuscle actuators to
meet increasing demand
Keyword Actuators
NanoMuscle Inc., a developer and
manufacturer of advanced miniature motion
technologies, today announced that
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.,
one of the worlds largest semiconductor
packaging and testing companies, has been
selected to provide manufacturing services
for NanoMuscles linear actuator products.
The expanded production at ASEs Korea
facility will allow NanoMuscle to sufficiently
meet the increasing demand for their
products.
With growing demand from our
customer base across a wide range of
industries such as automotive, consumer
electronics, computer peripherals,
childrens toys and medical instruments, we
needed to quickly ramp-up on production
and sought a partner who could provide
services on a turnkey basis, said Rod
MacGregor, CEO of NanoMuscle. ASEs
Korea facility is capable of producing
millions of high quality actuators for us each
month and delivering them to our customers
around the world.
Due to the many applications of small
motors, we foresee that the market potential
for these products will burgeon in the next
few years, said Jim Stilson, president of ASE
Korea. ASEs Korea facility possesses
immense experience in IC packaging and has
the additional expertise in module assembly.
Hence, we were able to adopt our existing
manufacturing processes for NanoMuscle
actuators based on their innovative
technology.
NanoMuscle actuators enable a new
generation of devices by providing silent,
miniature motion. At one-tenth the size and
one-twentieth the cost, NanoMuscles
actuators displace traditional small motors and
solenoids in automotive, consumer electronics,
computer peripherals, childrens toys and
medical instruments, enabling a new
generation of micro devices by providing
affordable miniature motion. The NanoMuscle
actuator uses a breakthrough process to
harness the power of shape memory alloys
(SMA). While traditional small motors and
solenoids can be bulky, expensive, and noisy,
the NanoMuscle actuator is completely silent,
smaller, lighter and less expensive than
comparably priced solutions.
For more information, please go to
www.NanoMuscle.com
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Delphi expands diesel
injector output using
automated assembly
John Mortimer
Delphi Diesel Systems is investing $60
million over two years at its plant in
Stonehouse, Gloucester, UK, aiming to treble
output of fuel injection equipment for diesel
engines both electronic unit injectors
(EUIs) and electronic unit pumps (EUPs)
over the next five years.
Plans call for the company to raise installed
capacity from 400,000 truck diesel injection
systems to over one million units by 2003. In
addition, the company will maintain its
current installed annual capacity of 400,000
passenger car fuel injection systems.
David Friday, director and general manager
of Delphis heavy-duty business, based in
Stonehouse, explained: I expect the growth
of business over the next five years to more
than treble, he said. It might even
quadruple.
Significantly, Friday has no plans to
increase the present manufacturing floor area
at Stonehouse, even though land is available.
Indeed, Friday takes great pride in the role
played by the companys lean manufacturing
teams in their efforts to generate more output
from a given floor area.
We are producing three times as many
items as we were four years ago, but with
fewer people, declared Friday, who also
expects further increased output to be
achieved with only a few more people as the
company leans further its manufacturing
processes.
It was in 1992 that production of EUIs
began at Stonehouse, then a brand new,
tailor-made facility built by Lucas Diesel
Systems to produce this specialized
high-value component in high volumes. The
diesel fuel injection business then was owned
by Lucas Industries Ltd. In 1996 Lucas
Industries merged with Varity of the USA to
form Lucas Varity before, three years later, in
1999, being acquired by TRW. On
10 January 2000, Lucas Diesel Systems was
purchased by Delphi Automotive systems. By
merging its own diesel activities, Lucas Diesel
Systems overnight became the second largest
diesel fuel injection business in the world.
In year 2000 Delphi Automotive Systems
recorded annual sales of $29.1 billion for its
world-wide businesses that provide world-
class components for the automotive industry.
Delphi Automotive Systems itself began life in
1995, being spun out of the General Motors
subsidiary, ACG Worldwide (Automotive
The author
John Mortimer is a freelance manufacturing and
engineering journalist based in Milton Keynes, UK and an
Associate Editor of Assembly Automation.
Keywords
Engines, Fuel economy, Testing, Assembly, Robots
Abstract
A manufacturing plant for the manufacture of diesel fuel
injection equipment at Stonehouse, Gloucester, UK is
being expanded at a cost of $60 million to cater for a new
production using lean manufacture and without
expanding the manufacturing area.
Electronic access
available at
Feature
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.
pp. 215222
# MCB UP Limited
.
ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436400
Components Group Worldwide). It became a
totally independent company in 1999.
Delphi Automotive Systems employs a total
of 202,700. Its main competitors are Bosch
(annual sales of $20.6 billion), Visteon ($19.5
billion) and Denso ($16.4 billion). Delphi
Diesel Systems is part of Delphi Energy and
Chassis Systems itself an $11.6 billion
business with 51,000 employees world-wide.
In the diesel engine business, the
established practice for many years was first to
use inline pumps and then rotary pumps to
create the high pressures necessary for
injection of diesel fuel into engine combustion
chambers. Since these early designs, many of
which are still in use today, there has been a
watershed in diesel fuel pump and injector
design, spurred on by the need to achieve
emissions legislative regulations, improve fuel
economy and pave the way for lowest cost
after-treatment. This watershed was made
possible by the increased availability of
advanced electronics and new trends in
miniaturization.
Leading the field
Lucas Diesel Systems has led the way with
electronically-controlled EUIs driven by the
engine camshaft; but new concepts are
emerging including piezo and digital valve
systems.
Lucas Diesel Systems was the first to move
EUIs into production in 1988. The first
application in 1992 was in Caterpillars 3176
diesel engine the first Caterpillar diesel
engine to be designed specifically for
on-highway application. This advanced
engine used a weight-saving aluminium
spacer deck and articulated pistons. The
second application was as a heavy-duty unit
fitted to the new Volvo D12 engine in 1993.
In 1997 the first EUI for car and light
commercial vehicles was in the Land Rover
Storm engine. In 2001, the business also
launched its own light-duty common rail fuel
injections system.
But the EUI is not a new development. It
had been evolving within Lucas Diesel
Systems over a number of years, at least since
1980. The system first emerged as a
colenoid a very powerful solenoid.
Engineers learnt a great deal from this
technology; indeed their experience led to a
more compact and lower cost design.
Engineers became increasingly aware that if
they placed the valve near to the pumping
chamber they could reduce internal volumes.
This in turn reduced the size of the pump and
subsequently the size of the solenoid. Some
four or so years ago it was found the solenoid
could be packaged within the body itself the
basis of the current E1 and E3 designs of
EUIs. An earlier A3 design has the solenoid
mounted outside the main valve body (see
Figure 1).
There were plans also some years ago to
create a compact EUI design for use in
Volkswagens passenger car diesels, but the
decision was taken at a senior level within the
French headquarters of Lucas Diesel Systems
not to pursue that development but instead to
concentrate on common rail systems.
In addition to the A3, E1 and E3 designs,
Delphi engineers have developed EUPs based
on E1 and E3 technology. These are linked to
smart injectors through engine controllers
using sensors (see Figure 2). The EUPs will
follow the E3 units into production.
Production of E3 is due to begin in 2003.
In the first phase of our reorganization we
are closing up manufacturing space in several
areas as well as achieving gains in productivity
to make space available for E3 production,
said Friday. We will also use better tools and
techniques.
Space will also be made available for the
manufacture of EUPs, once production of
E3s has settled down.
The Stonehouse plant is now the only
source of EUIs world-wide within the Delphi
business. The heavy-duty business unit itself
employs 470 people (at Stonehouse 360) and
the design and development unit at Park
Royal, London. The present installed
capacity is 500,000 units a year 400,000
units for car and LCV application and
100,000 units for heavy trucks.
According to Friday, the heavy-duty group
with its resources offers:
.
Best product technology to meet
emissions with good fuel economy.
.
Best machines tools and lean approach to
give good quality, minimum investment,
good flexibility and good value for
money.
.
Ability to take out cost year-on-year.
.
Best team with up-to-date skills,
flexibility and adaptability that can be
enthusiastic, ever improving and proud of
its achievements.
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John Mortimer
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.
Good understanding of market structure,
customer requirements and competitive
activity.
.
Excellent teamwork, communication and
training.
.
Management with vision, determination,
confidence and prepared to take bold
actions and decisions.
The year 2001 saw the start of a new change
programme with lean manufacturing and
lean enterprise being the focus of attention at
Stonehouse, together with the adoption of
lean enterprise also at Park Royal.
Various types
The Stonehouse facility produces three types
of diesel fuel injector but plans call for a
fourth type the EUP.
Figure 1 Delphis electronic unit injectors (EUIs) have matured from a side-mounted spill valve (A3) through to in-
line single (E1) and two-valve (E3) configurations.
Figure 2 Fig. 2 Delphis electronic unit pumps (EUPs) are capable of meeting Euro 3 and Euro 4 emissions
requirements. They use smart injectors
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When the current phase of facility
reorganisation is complete the plant will be
making EUI units for Land Rovers
five-cylinder Storm engine (this EUI is now
regarded as a one-off design even though
there is a manufacturing line that is
specifically dedicated to it); the EUI 200 (or
the A3) for the John Deere 12 litre engine and
the Hyundai L-engine or Powertec 12 litre
power units, the single-valve E1 injector for
Volvo and the new two-valve E3 injector, also
for Volvo.
Volvo was keen to be the first to use the new
E3, giving it an element of exclusivity and a
lead over its competitors. Production of the
E3 is now being ramped up in readiness for
volume production to begin in 2003. E3 also
uses a smart injector, the control of which is
monitored by the engine controller. The E1
and E3 for Volvo will continue for a time in
parallel before E1 finally eases out.
Next to come on stream will be the EUP,
which also has a peak injection capability of
2,000 bar (like E1 and E3). This is suitable
for cam-in-block truck diesel engines of 1.5 to
2 litres per cylinder. It can also give higher
injection pressures than the single valve
system and common rail systems.
Production of EUPs, for an as yet unnamed
customer, could begin in 2003 or early 2004.
The A3, E1 and E3 designs are all of
cam-in-head configuration; that is, the
camshaft is mounted in the cylinder head.
At present, Volvo is the principal customer
for the companys E1 as well as for the next
generation E3, due to come on stream in
2003. However, Friday hints that there could
be four new customers in addition to the
present customer base of Volvo, John Deere,
Hyundai and Land Rover.
The $60 million investment is being spread
over the current year and next year and is
being used to reorganize existing equipment
and install new capital equipment to
manufacture the E3 injectors and the entirely
new EUP design.
The latest designs of Delphi EUIs are
compact and a far cry from the chunky
features of the original designs for Caterpillar
and Volvo.
Ten years ago we did not have the
technology available to miniaturize the
design, notes Friday. The design has
evolved from the external solenoid
configuration to the in-line single valve design
and then on to the two-valve configuration of
E3 and the EUP?
We have taken the technology of the EI
and the E3 and applied it to create the EUP,
said Friday. The technology has moved on in
other areas, most notably in terms of both
pressures and speeds.
The net effect is that, to achieve high
delivery pressures, very close tolerances are
demanded of components that fit together.
This implies a high degree of precision as well
as a strong element of automated
manufacture.
World-wide business
Delphi Diesel Systems is part of Delphi
Automotive Systems; it has world-wide sales
of $1 billion from 8,000 employees in 13
manufacturing operations and three principal
engineering centres. It supplies nine of the
worlds top ten diesel engine makers.
The heavy-duty element of the business is
responsible for all aspects of the EUI and
EUP business, including design, development
and manufacture. It employs 360 people at
Stonehouse in manufacturing and 115 at Park
Royal, London, in design and development.
Current annual sales of the heavy-duty
business are between $75 million and $150
million, according to Friday.
There are no plans to increase the present
manufacturing area. Indeed, Friday takes
great pride in the role played by the
companys lean manufacturing teams in
generating more output from the same floor
area.
We are producing three times as many
items as we were four years ago, but with
fewer people, declared Friday, who notes
that he expects further increased output to be
achieved with only a few more people as the
company leans further its manufacturing
processes.
When the next phase of facility
reorganization is complete the plant will be
making the EUI units for the Land Rover
Storm engine, the EUI 200 (A3) for the 12
litre John Deere and 12 litre Hyundai power
units, the single-valve E1 injector for Volvo
and the new two-valve E3 injector, also for
Volvo. The latest two-valve configuration
offers higher operating pressures (typically
2,000 bar at engine speeds of 1,800rpm,
compared with about 1,800 bar for a
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single-valve system. Typical operating
pressure for common rail is in the region of
1,500 bar.
Volvo was keen to be the first to use the new
E3, giving it a lead over its competitors. E3
also uses a smart injector, the control of
which is monitored by the engine controller.
The E3 has an application range of 1.5 to 2.6
litres per cylinder.
Next to come on stream will be the EUP,
which also has a peak injection capability of
2,000 bar (like E1 and E3). This is suitable
for cam-in-block truck diesel engines of 1.5 to
2 litres per cylinder. It can also give higher
injection pressures than single valve system
and common rail designs. It also makes use of
technology and components that form part of
E1 and E3.
In fact, Delphi has been quietly marketing
the EUP system within the diesel engine
industry around for years. It is effectively a
version of the E1 system. The latest EUP is a
second-generation device with a solenoid at
the injector as well as one by the pump.
The EUP is designed for diesel engines with
injection camshaft drive systems mounted on
the side of the cylinder block; as such they
known as cam-in-block designs. In general,
they are cheaper than the cam-in-head unit
injection systems. Daf Trucks (with its UPEC
design) in particular uses cam-in-block fuel
injection. It is understood that Delphi does
have a customer for its new EUP system.
Meanwhile, Delphis A3, E1 and E3
designs are all of the camshaft-in-head
configuration.
According to Friday, cam-driven systems,
like E1/E3 and EUP, will outperform
current common rail solutions.
I do not believe common rail is the best
heavy-duty solution for Euro 1V, said
Friday, nd while some third-generation
higher pressure common rail solutions will
become apparent for Euro V, most will not
emerge until much later.
Lean manufacture
Manufacture of EUIs and EUPs is a highly
precise, heavily capital intensive activity.
Most, if not all, the components are
cylindrical, lending themselves to CNC
machine tools. The manufacturing area itself
is broken down into about a dozen cells.
The entire manufacturing area is
self-contained with various cells including its
own prototyping unit; the automated Land
Rover spill valve manufacturing unit; a
supermarket type store with tug delivery to
line-side; a test area; fully automated build
and test area for Land Rover Storm injectors;
cleanliness checking-off cells; standards room
and high pressure measuring room with print-
off; an actuator and solenoid manufacturing
unit complete with coil winding, terminal
insertion, welding, full testing between
stations, and injection moulding of the unit
onto the stator; full testing between stations;
complete system test cells and cleanliness
checking-off cells.
Other cells within the facility handle: A3
body soft machining; E1 body soft machining;
A3 match grinding of plunger-to-body
stations; four-stage honing on a Kadia
machine; hard turning of E1 valve bodies, and
match and lift grinding of E1 valve using chip
on pallet to capture data.
As part of the process of continuous
improvement and lean manufacture, steps are
being taken to move the A3 and E3 cells
closer to the testing area. These will be new
lean A3 and E1 assembly cells.
Manufacturing engineers are also making
space for the new EUP assembly and test
processes.
One of the largest cells at Stonehouse is
devoted to the manufacture of spill valves for
Land Rovers Storm engine EUIs. As
mentioned, this is a fully automated assembly
and test line (with Ewab conveyors) making
full use of match grinding. The line is
replenished every two hours.
Match grinding allows Delphi to achieve
exceptionally tight tolerances between pin
and the guide bores. In-line quality systems
ensure that every pin is within the specified
1mm tolerance as well as allowing 100 per cent
statistical process control in real-time (see
Plate 1).
The cell runs on two shifts using six people
and has a capacity of 9,000 units a week.
Typical output at present is in the region of
6,000 a week. The engine is fitted to Land
Rover Defender and Discovery.
In this particular cell there is one R/F tag
per pallet and each pallet carries one
component.
The Stonehouse facility uses the Delphi
manufacturing system. This makes
considerable use of Japanese poka-yoke
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(Japanese for error-proofing not fool-
proofing, as is sometimes suggested industry
does not employ fools) techniques to ensure
that key processes have been completed
within the required tolerances. For example,
at one EUI spill valve manufacturing station,
a strain gauge in the insertion mechanism
automatically checks that the pin insertion
force is correct. The pin must fit into the
guide with a tolerance of 1.5mm (see Plate 2).
According to Friday, poka-yoke is used in
almost every aspect of EUI manufacture.
It will continue to be so, but especially in
respect of sensors and vision systems. For
example, sensors detect holes using light
beams, while vision systems can look for
burrs, he added.
Vision systems
Vision systems are used in the plant to check
that the correct product is being built. It is
estimated there could be at least 20 camera-
type systems in operation together with other
systems that can recognize colour.
For example, in the Land Rover facility
engineers use vision systems to check the tip
of the nozzle, to check for either four or five
nozzle holes, the length of a spacer and the
colour of a particular bush.
Vision systems will be used much more
on the manufacture of the E3 units for Volvo
to check again for variety, but this time much
earlier in the line, to check the existence of
key features. They will also be used in EUP
manufacture.
This will be particularly valuable when we
are doing more automated assembly, noted
Friday.
Engineers use a variety of pick-and-place
robots with almost all the hard stage
machines employing this type of robot to
pick-and-place components from pallets. In
some cases there is manual pallet movement
between stations.
In the future we will use more intelligent
pick-and-place devices, declared Friday.
For example, we will use robots to deburr
during unloading, or to insert a dowel
during load or unload. At the same time we
will be checking the unit with a vision
system.
The Stonehouse facility has long
experience of working with DT Industries
in the design and build of automatic
assembly and test stations. The business
was formerly Lucas Assembly and Test Ltd,
in Buckingham.
We shall continue to do so if their
products remain state-of-the art and
competitive, said Friday.
In the Land Rover Storm engine cell, parts
movement is handled by means of intelligent
chips mounted on pallets. Radio frequency
tagging (RF) is used. In this particular cell
there is one RF tag per pallet and each pallet
carries one component. This is in contrast to
the E1 valve line where the tag on a pallet of
36 parts stores the match grind and lift grind
dimensions of each part individually by
location to avoid the need to use shims. The
same system is used to store information
about each assembly and test operation on
E1, much of which is then laser etched onto
Plate 1 Match grinding allows Delphi to achieve tight tolerances
between the pin and the bore of EUIs that it supplies to land Rover
Plate 2 The Delphi manufacturing system uses poka-yoke techniques to
ensure key processes are completed within required tolerances
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the data matrix of each injector, thus making
each injector individually matched to the
engine (see Plate 3). It will be used on E3
and EUP lines also.
The Delphi manufacturing system was used
also to optimize the assembly of EUIs at
Stonehouse. Just two people are required to
operate the E1 assembly cell using a high level
of automation to ensure consistency and to
allow the integration of extensive in-line
quality checking (see Plate 4).
The E3 cell, when it comes on stream, is
likely to be manned by three operators.
Delphi engineers have developed the lines
concept, with its many stations, but detail
design and manufacture is in the hands of
three suppliers.
Meanwhile, the new EUP assembly cell is
likely to use more automation, especially in
the movement of components from one
automatic station to another. This is
because the pump body is at least twice the
weight of the E3 unit and it is also much
larger.
Meanwhile, prior to assembly, racks of A3,
and E1 (later E3 and EUP) bodies and
plungers undergo ultrasonic washing to
ensure reliability and accuracy when running
at the very high operating pressures
encountered during normal service. It is
essential that all debris is eliminated at this
stage (see Plate 5). When the time comes,
EUP components will be ultrasonically
washed also.
Once completed, all A3, E1 (and E3 when
ready) units undergo a thorough functional
test in a system designed and built by Delphi
engineers. Delphi engineers also wrote the
software. Eighteen parameters are measured
including fuel delivery, injection pressure,
valve lift and timing, as well as various
temperatures (see Plate 6). A similar
functional test will be used for the upcoming
EUPs.
Finally, after assembly, the RF tag is read
and manufacturing and performance data are
downloaded to the facilitys archiving system.
Plate 3 During assembly of EUIs a radio frequency tag carries size and
tolerance data for each of the 36 valves on the pallet
Plate 4 Two people are required to operate a cell for the assembly of
EUIs. The cell uses a high level of automation
Plate 5 Racks of bodies and plungers for Delphis E1 EUI injector receive
ultrasonic washing to ensure accuracy and reliability
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Selected data are then laser etched onto each
unit injector with the mark tested to ensure
that all of the data can be read accurately.
At the customers factory, the laser mark is
read again and data downloaded to the engine
control unit, allowing it to optimize control
signals to match the characteristics of each
individual injector. The system provides a
greater level of control than is possible with
traditional systems that batch injectors into
performance bands (see Plate 7).
Plate 6 Completed E1 EUIs undergo a thorough functional test in a
system designed by Delphi Diesel Systems
Plate 7 Following assembly of the EUI, the RF tag is read and
manufacturing and performance data are downloaded to the archiving
system
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A new wave of
synchronous robots
Anna Kochan
One robot is good but two are even better.
This was the main theme running through
Paris Euro-Assemblage Exhibition this year.
Use one robot for holding a workpiece and
another for working on it and the result is an
automated solution that excels in flexibility
potential. Many companies at the French
show feature their capability to perform such
an exploit.
Fanuc is the leader in this domain with its
dual-arc concept. At the exhibition, it
demonstrated the arc welding application for
exhaust systems that Renault is implementing
in its assembly plants. This involves two
robots, one for manipulating the assembly
and one for welding it, with a two-camera
vision system to ensure an accurate result.
Christian Guibert, manager director of Fanuc
Robotics France, claims to be handling
customer enquiries for some 100 new
synchronous robot projects.
At the Paris show, Commercy, the French
systems integrator that partners with Fanuc
for robot welding projects, also exhibited the
dual-arc concept for the welding of exhaust
systems, as well as new configurations of
welding cells. One configuration, specially
designed for the latest design of exhaust
systems for diesel engines, mounts the
welding robot on an inclined turntable (see
Plate 1). These exhaust systems are
complex. They incorporate catalytic
converters and particle filters. Using this
configuration combined with inclined
fixturing for the exhaust components, it is
possible to orientate the welding robot relative
to the workpiece in the optimum position for
a quality weld and to complete the entire
welding cycle at a single station. It would
otherwise require several stations, explained
Remi Marchal, sales engineer at Commercy.
Faurecia, the French automotive supplier,
installed four of these cells in 2001 for the
welding of diesel engine exhaust systems.
Also new on the Commercy stand was the
linking of an arc welding robot with a vision
system for seam finding and seam following.
The vision system employed is from
Canadian company Servo Robot, even
though Fanuc offers its own vision system.
The Servo Robot system is less expensive
than the Fanuc one, adds Remi Marchal.
Like Fanuc and Commercy, Motoman also
demonstrated exhaust system welding at the
Paris show. The Yaskawa subsidiary, based in
Sweden, proposes a solution based on three
The author
Anna Kochan is European Associate Editor for Assembly
Automation.
Keywords
Assembly, Robotics, Parts, Machine vision, Welding,
Automotive components industry
Abstract
Reports from the Euro Assemblage Exhibition, in Paris,
highlights the development of synchronous robots,
identifies new approaches to robot control and
programming, outlines the application of
six-axis robots to parts feeding.
Electronic access
available at
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robots all welding the same assembly
simultaneously. With 27 axes, the Motoman
controller is capable of managing the
movement of the robots and of the
manipulator that is holding the assembly. It is
a solution that is already running in industry,
says Jean Paul Clerc, managing director of
Motoman Robotics France.
Synchronous robots was also featured on the
stand of systems integrator Bema where Fanuc
robot and ABB robot worked together on a
welding application (see Plate 2). Here,
however, the innovation was not particularly in
the fact that robots from different
manufacturers were working synchronously.
The most original feature of the demonstration
was the complete elimination of pneumatic
systems and their replacement by electrically
driven devices. Compressed air is expensive,
dirty and complicated. In addition, its energy
efficiency is only 10 per cent. Another
limitation is that only on/off control is
possible, explains Yves Ravot, Bema CEO.
He says that the all-electric robot welding/
handling cell will not only be less costly to run,
but it will also give improved accuracy. The
range of all-electric devices now available from
Bema includes a wide variety of electric
grippers and clamps, connectors and fixturing
units.
Other exhibitors at Paris highlighted
developments in control systems and man-
machine interfaces. Adept, for example,
showed its new SC robot controller and its
new desktop man-machine interface.
The SC controller, which will replace the
current MV controller when it becomes
available later this year, incorporates
innovative Firewire technology. This high
speed communications system was originally
developed by Apple and Sony for video
camera applications and we are the first of the
robot companies to use the technology,
claims Aldo Arban, director of Adept
Technology France. It is technology that
enables a data transfer rate of 800Mb/sec. to
be achieved. As a result, the cabling of a
robotic cell is greatly simplified. Instead of
each element of the cell requiring a direct
cable connection into the controller, all the
cell components can now connect to the
controller via a single cable. The simplification
of design that is possible leads to a controller
that is less than half the size of the MV and
costs 40-50 per cent less.
The desktop product that Adept showed for
the first time at the Paris event is a software
package that is designed to provide a
graphical programming, controlling and
monitoring interface to Adept equipment
using V+ or MicroV+. It is much more user-
friendly than the previous interface, says Aldo
Arban.
At the show, Adept also demonstrated a
first-time linkup of one of its six-axis robots
with the FlexFeeder device. While Adepts
vision-assisted FlexFeeder is widely used in
conjunction with Adept Scara robots for
picking up randomly-arriving parts from a
conveyor, the six-axis robots from Adept are
only recently available on the market and
they add greater functionality to the
FlexFeeder concept. Using a Scara limits the
application to parts and applications where a
vertical pick and place action is acceptable,
the robot always working in a downwards
direction. With a six-axis robot, the parts can
Plate 1 Specially designed for the latest design of exhaust systems for
diesel engines, the welding robot is mounted on an inclined turntable
Plate 2 The most original feature of Bemas synchronised robot
demonstration was the complete elimination of pneumatic systems and
their replacement by electrically driven devices
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be picked from any angle and placed at any
angle, in an upwards or downwards
direction, Aldo Arban explains. This will
greatly extend the field of applications for the
FlexFeeder, he adds.
Like Adept, the French robot maker Staubli
is also developing new controls and man-
machine interfaces. At the Paris show, Staubli
previewed the new CS8 control system. Using
a new operation system and the new
generation programming language VAL3, the
CS8 is an entry-point product designed for
simple applications such as handling and
assembly. It is a 100 per cent Staubli product
and it is Staublis first PC-based controller,
claims Jean-Luc Bordas, technical sales
manager. Previously, the controls were
VME-based and used Adepts V+ as the
programming language. Jean-Luc Bordas
believes that having developed the control
electronics and the programming language so
that they work well together, Staubli has
achieved a system that enables robot
applications to be programmed and
implemented simply and quickly.
Staubli also exhibited the V_Cell man-
machine interface. Although it was
introduced two years ago, sales of V_Cell only
started in June 2001. Now, says Jen-Luc
Bordas, customers ask for it systematically.
Instead of having to develop their own
interfaces, customers can buy V_Cell,
customise it to their own needs and use it as a
common interface for all their applications. It
reduces programming time by 40-50 per
cent, he claims.
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US National
Manufacturing Week
Dick Bloss
The National Manufacturing Week show, in
Chicago, proved the perfect venue for
Assembly Automation to explore the current
situation in the market for automated
assembly and to preview the latest in new
products and services. Top executives at
major automated assembly industry suppliers
were interviewed regarding the state of the
market and their plans and strategies for
coming out ahead of the pack as the North
American market returns to its former glory.
Deloitte & Touche, a major accounting
firm, indicated that the manufacturing section
of the US economy, which had been on a
downward spiral, had experienced a
1.6 percent increase in new factory orders in
January. Doug Engel, national managing
director for the firm said: We have seen
organizations employing strategic flexibility
in response to current conditions.
Ted Zajac Jr, president of Zaytran, a
supplier of specialty grippers, indicated that
he felt he had seen less of a decline than most
competitors because of his focus on special
applications, larger capacity grippers and
some successful design wins in North
American and international auto production
plants. He also said his cooperation
agreement with the major Japanese full line
automation accessories giant, SMC, had
opened new doors at just the time many other
segments were in a down turn.
Montech marketing manager Corinne
Martin said that the European producer of
assembly actuators and transport units was
starting to see a rebound in business. She felt
the market was coming out of the flat at the
bottom.
Paul Schnizler, formerly president of
Industrial Profile Systems (IPS), supplier of
modular structure elements, who is now
business unit manager for IPS at Parker
Hannifin, said many of the segments IPS
serves and ongoing projects held up fairly well
and it was mainly newer projects which were
seriously depressed in the past year or so. He
sees the demand picking up. IPS, with about
US$20 million in turnover, was acquired
recently by Parker Hannifin.
A Festo representative, Mark Stankiewicz,
said Festo has enjoyed good demand from the
paper industry segment, which moderated
their turnover decline. Festo anticipates a
major pickup in the semiconductor industry
in the next 6-12 months. To address this
anticipated surge, Festo has established a
The author
Dick Bloss is an Associate Editor for Assembly
Automation.
Keywords
Assembly, Marketing
Abstract
A report from the 2002 National Manufacturing Week
Exhibition, combining executive interviews on the outlook
for the current market for assembly in North America plus
new product and services introductions from Schunk,
Festo, Thomson, PHD, GE Fanuc, NB, Rexroth Bosch,
Bimba, THK, Bayside and Techno.
Electronic access
available at
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facility on the West Coast to better serve the
semiconductor and clean room industry with
engineering support and product for custom
applications. Festo is a major German
producer of pneumatic and electronic
components, controllers and engineered
systems.
Schunk Inc., an international provider of
precision automation, workholding and
toolholding solutions, says its answer to
market conditions is best represented by its
recently expanded North American facility in
North Carolina. The 35,000sq. ft of office,
engineering, manufacturing and warehouse is
better able to meet the needs of customers.
Five CAD design seats provide for quick
customization of holding solutions. A multi-
million dollar inventory of products and
replacement parts insures speedy delivery.
Emil Melvin, national sales manager for
Del-Tron Precision, Inc., supplier of slides
and stages, reported that his firm is
experiencing a slight uptick in sales. NKS, a
supplier of motion control devices, indicated
that it is starting to see the semiconductor
market come alive a bit. ATI, a supplier of
robotic tool changers, crash protectors and
torque sensors reported business as flat, with
new project opportunities very soft.
President of another modular structural
elements supplier expressed the feeling that
he had seen the bottom and that a slight
uptick was underway. He felt the downturn
had come to his firm later than for some. The
marketing manager of a major supplier of
grippers and actuator slides was gloomy that
the light at the end of the tunnel had not been
turned on yet.
Overall, the industry is not discouraged and
announced a bevy of new product and service
offerings.
Festo introduced the new pre-engineered
HAT, two- and three-axis pneumatic systems
for cantilever, Cartesian and gantry-style pick
and place applications (Plate 1). The Festo
HAT system offers pre-engineered modules
which can be quickly configured, reducing
design and engineering time, providing
excellent performance and at lower prices
than custom motorized or other pneumatic
systems. Travel options range from 50mm to
500mm and with load capacity to 5kg.
To meet the needs of faster machine cycle
times, Festo introduced the MH2 miniature,
fast switching pneumatic valve, offering flow
rates to 100 litre per minute and extremely
fast switching rates to as low as 2-6
miliseconds. Special design features allow the
MH2 valve to be easily retrofitted into
existing applications to allow them to benefit
from the faster switching times.
MicroStage 46, a new high performance,
low cost linear motion slide from Thomson
Industries (Plate 2), features aluminum
design for optimum strength, rigidity, light
weight and lower cost than heavier steel based
products. A patented bearing segment design
provides backlash free assembly without
sacrificing load capacity or smoothness of
operation. The new slide stage is available in
stroke lengths to 1,840mm. Applications for
the MicroStage 46 include multi-axis pick
and place, component insertion for PC board
assembly, and wafer transport and handling.
A rotary actuator with a hollow pinion is a
featured new product from PHD, Inc. Their
new series RLxH rotary actuators in bore sizes
of 25mm, 32mm and 50mm and torque
ranges of 3.6Nm to 46.8Nm at 6 bar, features
a hollow pinion for protection and routing of
electrical cables and air lines. The actuators
provide up to 180 degrees of rotation and
Plate 2 Thomson Industries MicroStage 46 linear slide
Plate 1 Festo three-axis pneumatic pick and place robot
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optional shock absorbers for quiet operation
and end of rotation deceleration.
PHD, Inc also introduced a PS reach and
pick device (Plate 3) which combines a
pneumatic powered slide and a pick clamp
which are activated by a single external
control valve. The jaws stay open until the
slide reaches its fully extended position.
Clamps, which may be rotated and spherically
adjusted to suit application, remain closed
even is air pressure is lost.
GE Fanuc introduced their new Global
Solutions services. GE Fanuc can assist client
companies with implementation of the
Cimplicity# Collaborative Production
Management Suite of software. The suite can
aggregate, deliver and facilitate dynamic
business decision making within the entire
manufacturing environment. GE Fanuc also
announced the first major contract for this
Global Solutions Division with Ford Motor
Company. The new solution for Ford will
automate the production scheduling, routing
and tracking of the assembly of vehicles at
plants around the globe.
Also introduced by GE Fanuc was the new
18i MB5 CNC controller. A first in that the
controller can take a five-axis part program
post processed for one configuration of five-
axis machining center and without further
post processing run the same part on a
different configuration of the five-axis
machine.
This will prove a major benefit to machine
shops with several configurations of five axis
machines. They will not have to maintain
several part programs files to insure a part can
be run on the first available five-axis machine.
NB Corporation of America introduced a
new line of smaller all metal linear slides
designed especially for clean room
applications such as semiconductor or
medical device production. The units feature
repeatability to 2 micron. A retained ball
design makes for easy of maintenance. NB
features an uncommonly quick delivery lead
time of three weeks or less on most products.
Rexroth Bosch introduced the VarioFlow
2
(Plate 4) single strand chain conveyor. The
VarioFlow is available in two widths, 65mm
and 90mm and offers transport speed to
50m/min. The single strand enables assembly
functions such as part feeding and packaging
to occur on either side of the moving conveyor
system. The STAR linear motion slide, just
introduced, features a toothed belt drive
offering speeds to 5m per second. The motion
is guided by four linear bushings that run on
two hardened steel shafts for significant
load-carrying capacity and long service life.
To reduce installation cost and maintenance
problems on miniature ball rail systems,
Rexroth Bosch introduced the stainless steel
cover strip. The strip snaps in place after the
rail has been fully fastened in place. The strip
protects against dirt or other contaminants
and provides an unbroken surface to improve
runner sealing.
System integrators can now use a low
profile air table actuator just introduced by
Bimba Manufacturing Co. The small
cross-section, single bore cylinder actuated
linear table has roughly one half the height of
a standard twin bore air actuated table. The
table comes with ready to use tooling plates,
Plate 4 Rexroth Bosch VarioFlow conveyor
Plate 3 PHD Inc. PS reach and pick clamp
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anodized aluminum bodies and a wide variety
of stroke lengths. A narrow profile air table
actuator was also introduced which features a
very space-efficient slide and single bore
cylinder package. The NPA is approximately
half the width of a comparable twin bore of
similar bore diameter.
Another new development from Bimba is a
high-accuracy pneumatic controller which
offers designs the ability to have closed loop
feedback control using an open architecture
with either 0-10VDC or 4-20mA command
signals (Plate 5). The controller can achieve
rotary repeatability of + 0.5 degrees and
average rotational velocity of 150 degrees per
second and linear repeatability to + 0.004in.
and average velocities to 6.5in. per second
and loads to 90lb.
A revolutionary caged ball technology from
THK America is featured in their new linear
motion guides. The ball retainer separates
and aligns the re-circulating ball bearings for a
smoother more consistent gliding motion.
The caged ball technology eliminates heat
associated with ball-to-ball friction for greater
speed and longer operating life. THK
indicates the technology is especially well
suited for medical device and semiconductor
applications.
The THK Mechatronics Division offers
custom solutions to customer needs, using
off-the-shelf elements where possible. THK
engineers employ their expertise and
application knowledge to offer solutions to
the most demanding requirements. Products
are available in stainless steel, chrome plated
or other corrosion inhibiting technologies for
adverse environments. For strict space
requirements ultra-low profile guides can be
incorporated into solutions.
A unique integral motor style linear slide
was introduced by Bayside Motion Group.
The Luge LM features a brushless servo
motor built directly onto the ball screw for
direct drive. This decreases overall length
while improving dynamic performance over
conventional mounting techniques. The Luge
features improved positioning accuracy,
repeatability and reliability. Stages are
available to 1,000mm travel with repeatability
to 5 microns. The Luge stages are also fully
enclosed for protection from environmental
factors.
Techno Inc. introduced two new low cost
CNC router systems. The new all-steel
constructed CNC routers combine brushless
servo motors and THK ball screw actuators.
The LC Series complete with CNC, work
holding table, ball screw actuation Windows-
based software is as low as US$13,995 in the
4ft 68ft table model. Options for the routers
include toolchanger spindles, lathe
attachment, vacuum workpiece hold down
table and laser scanner. The low cost makes
router functions available to manufacturers
who previously might not have been able to
consider the advantages of in-house
production capabilities.
For more information contact:
.
PHD Inc. (www.phdinfo@phdinc.com).
.
Thomson Industries Inc. (www.
thomsonindustries.com).
.
Festo Corporation (www.festo-usa.com).
.
NB Corporation (www.nbcorporation.
com).
.
GE Fanuc (www.gefanuc.com).
.
Rexroth Bosch Group (www.
boschrexroth-us.com).
.
THK America (www.thk.com).
.
Bayside Motion Group (www.
baysidemotion.com)
.
Techno Inc. (www.techno-isel.com).
.
Bimba Manufacturing Co. (www.bimba.
com).
.
Schunk Inc. (www.schunk-usa.com).
Plate 5 Bimba high accuracy pneumatic controller
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Trends in the robotic
simulation industry
Greg Ahrens and
Gord Pageau
Introduction
In todays competitive business environment,
the need for increased efficiency and
productivity permeates every aspect of a
companys operation. In the field of robotics,
this has some companies turning toward
computer simulation and offline
programming to accelerate the design phase
of projects and to minimize the amount of
time that cells are taken out of production.
The robotic simulation industry has
responded to this need by producing products
that are more customizable, compatible,
accurate and automated. These underlying
trends can be seen in the new and innovative
functionality that has been incorporated
throughout the industry within the different
software packages.
When dealing with the field of flexible
automation it is important that your
simulation software be as flexible as the rest of
your equipment. The trend toward open
architecture can be seen in several of the
products on the market. This is accomplished
through an integrated visual basic
development environment comparable to
what is available with Microsofts Word or
Excel programs. The end result of this
customization is software that is configured so
that the most important and frequently used
functionality is readily available to the user.
This leads to a more efficient design that is
personally tailored to the needs of each user.
In the case of VBA customization, another
advantage is the ability to tie into the
functionality of other software packages that
also offer VBA customization. For example,
Workspace 5 allows the user to implement
functionality so that relevant data, such as a
robots joint values, are logged to an Excel
spreadsheet during every interval of a
simulation. These data can then be used in
dynamic calculations to analyze the
performance of the robot. This type of
compatibility is just one example of this
growing trend.
In this age of information, compatibility in
the exchange of data has become increasingly
important. This also holds true for the
simulation industry. At the heart of every
simulation package lies the 3D CAD data that
describe the objects in the cell. The ability to
use pre-existing CAD data, especially part
data, eliminates the need for remodeling and
helps to decrease the time spent on the design
The authors
Greg Ahrens is President of Automation Simulation Inc.,
Tampa, Florida, USA.
Gord Pageau is in Quality Assurance, Flow Software
Technologies, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Keywords
Simulation, Robotics, CAD, Computer software
Abstract
The need for increased efficiency and productivity has led
many companies towards computer simulation and offline
programming to accelerate the design phase of projects
and to minimize the amount of time that cells are taken
out of production. The robotic simulation industry has
responded to this need by producing products that are
more customizable, compatible, accurate and automated.
These underlying trends can be seen in the new and
innovative functionality that has been incorporated
throughout the industry within the different software
packages. Describes robotic simulation software being
used in design for assembly as well as some industry
trends.
Electronic access
available at
Feature
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# MCB UP Limited
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ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436437
of a cell. All of the major simulation packages
offer neutral CAD format file importing, such
as IGES or STEP, but the trend has moved
towards Native CAD file importing or
translating. The elimination of the neutral
format in the exchange between two CAD
systems increases the accuracy and usefulness
of the resulting part. But the accuracy in the
CAD information is just the first step in
creating an overall accurate cell that is needed
for off-line programming.
Since most of the information that is sent to
the robot during offline programming is
positional data, it is important that the model
is an accurate representation of the real world,
and this begins with the robot. In the
assembly of every robot there are allowable
tolerances that affect the kinematics of each
individual robot. Because of these tolerances,
most simulation packages allow for some type
of robot calibration where the true kinematics
of a particular robot are measured and stored
with its own unique model. This involves
connecting the robot to some type of
measuring device and then exercising each of
the joints through a range of motion. The
positional data recorded by the measuring
device are then compared to the actual target
data to determine the variations in the
kinematics. Once the kinematics of the robot
have been modeled accurately, it becomes
possible to use the robot as a measuring
device in order to improve the accuracy of the
relative distance between the robot and the
other objects in the cell. Workspace 5 has a
system wherein objects in a model can be
repositioned by matching up two sets of robot
targets, each containing three points. One set
of points is located on well defined features on
the modeled part within the software, while
the other set is taught in the actual cell by
moving the robot to each of the
corresponding features on the part in the real
world. These points are then imported from
the robots controller into the software, and
the modeled part is adjusted so that the two
sets of points match up. The positional
information in a modeled robot cell, such as
the one described, is not the only area of
robotic simulation where accuracy has been
improved. Advances in the accuracy involved
in the motion of the robot have also been
made.
Every robot manufacturer has its own
proprietary motion control software,
therefore, each simulation package must have
its own motion control software as well. The
differences between the motion control
software used in simulation and the ones used
on the factory floor lead to discrepancies in
cycle time and the robots actual path. RCS
(based on the realistic robot simulation
specifications) modules now allow simulation
software packages to use the same motion
control software that is found on the robot
controller. RCS modules are available
through the robot manufacturer and can be
plugged into robotic simulation packages
such as Workspace 5. The use of the robot
manufactures motion control software
insures more accurate cycle times and
predictable paths (within + 3 percent for
cycle time and within + 0.00005 radians for
reference).
The latest trend in robotic simulation is to
automate as much of the process as possible.
The most prevalent examples of this are
automatic robot positioning, automatic tool
selection and automatic path generation. The
automatic robot placement is fairly
straightforward and is based on the location
and orientation of the robot targets that have
been created. The software searches and finds
the optimal position such that all of the
targets are within reach. The software
engineers realized that it is much easier for the
computer to run through a search algorithm
than for the user to test out different positions
one at a time (Figure 1).
Automatic tool selection is a little more
complex and is usually only offered in
conjunction with spot welding guns. It
Figure 1 An ABB robot used for a material handling application. This was
for an oil pan leak test station and workspace was used to determine
reachability. Workspace 5 was used to optimize the robot placement
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involves sectioning the part to determine the
physical demands on the tool as well as
looking at the weld requirements for the tool.
It uses these parameters to search a database
of tools and offers the user the tool it thinks is
most appropriate for the job. Both of these
automated processes can help speed up the
design phase of a project, but neither has the
impact on efficiency that automatic path
generation does. Automatic path generation
creates a path for the robot based on part
CAD data and the constraints set by the user.
In this way, an entire path can be created in
one step. When dealing with applications
such as waterjet cutting, where paths contain
large numbers of robot targets, the time saved
by not having to create the points individually
is enormous (it has been measured at
90 percent for certain examples). It allows the
user the ability to test out different paths in
order to optimize performance and reduce
cycle time as opposed to using the first
solution that is achieved, which is so often the
case when programming robots by hand
(Figure 2).
Though these trends in robot simulation
have led to more efficient products, the true
benefits of simulation are seen when
compared to not using robot simulation at all.
Mark Bevins, CEO of CIS Robotics and a
Workspace 5 user states: Before, we were
experiencing between 20 to 50 hours of online
programming time per hour of robot cycle
time. That has been reduced to about five to
ten hours online since we started using
simulation and offline programming software,
and with the new products on the market we
are looking to reduce that even further. In a
business environment where cost cutting has
taken such a high priority, the robotic
simulation industry has responded by
producing products that continue to improve
efficiency in the production cycle.
Using Workspace 5 to take design for
assembly to the next level
Let us assume for a minute that your
company has designed a sub-assembly for a
customer. Now strictly speaking, it meets all
the constraints set forth in their engineering
specifications, but is it the optimal solution?
Well one way to find this out is to test the
methods of manufacture for various revisions
of the individual parts as well as the assembly
as a whole. A manufacturing simulation
package such as Workspace 5 can do just that.
As an example let us look at a small
subassembly made up of four distinct parts
and let us assume that two of these parts will
need to be manufactured internally. A
comparison of alternatives can be set up using
a simulation package. The proper work cell
CAD can be defined, or just imported from
the automation vendor. Then things like
specific tooling, safety equipment, arrival
rates and service rates can be examined.
Using valid data for variants such as arrival
rates one can increase the accuracy of the
simulation to a point where the results would
be significant to their design process.
However, even if accurate or historical data
can not be found or does not exist, a direct
comparison of alternatives can save time and
money.
Far too often the cycle time of the part is the
only concern when simulation is being
considered. If this was our only concern then
a discrete event simulation package could be
used, but there are many other costly
problems associated with a work cell.
Everything from tooling design to cell input/
output could be examined using a desktop PC
rather than interrupting production.
Minor adjustments can be made in part,
tooling and fixture design. If we have
imported a part from a high end CAD
package we can now determine a tool path for
the manufacturing process (Figure 3). Once
this has been accomplished, collision
detection can be run for the entire cell so as to
Figure 2 Two Motoman robots being used for a waterjet cutting
application. The parts in this case were plastic automobile interior panels.
Workspace 5 was used as an offline programming tool
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prove the viability with either current or
future machinery. As an example, a path for
the manufacturing process may not be
possible if the fixtures are getting in the way
and it is less costly to find this out now.
It is fine to say that resulting cycle time for
part one is x seconds, but where simulation
software really shines is in running what if
scenarios. Before money is spent on either
outsourcing of production or automation to
an existing facility, someone will need to sit
down and determine the cost effectiveness of
any potential solutions. With packages such
as Workspace 5 the end user can do this for
itself rather than just depending on the
accuracy of its vendors. There just may be too
many unknown inputs for an outside vendor
to properly cost out a job, but there are many
cases now where even the vendors, both small
and large, will do this simulation work
themselves before agreeing to the viability of a
given design. On a larger scale, the end user
can determine potential bottlenecks in the
manufacturing of these assemblies by running
simulations of either entire lines or controlled
areas of the plant.
Beyond industrial robotics, Workspace 5
can handle all sorts of peripheral devices. Belt
and gravity fed conveyors can be used to
transfer parts in and out of the work areas as
well as for buffering purposes (Figure 4). For
the purposes of an accurate reflection of the
real world workcell part feeders can be
utilized. Turntables and positioners can be
controlled as external axes on the robots or as
distinct devices, depending on the situation.
Even if the cell is an existing one there may be
major changes necessary to adjust for an
engineering revision or prepare for the newest
model. Tooling design and positioning of
fixtures are two that come to mind
immediately (Figure 5). So that even if a final
assembly has been designed, engineering
analysis has been done to prove its strength
and the marketing department has signed off
on its colour scheme, the simple fact remains
that the part may not be possible to
manufacture without serious expense.
While the final assembly is very important
in terms of human hours and time to market,
we need simulation at some point unless the
Figure 3 Two Motoman robots used for a waterjet cutting application. The
parts being prepared in this case were vehicle headliners for an automotive
supplier. Workspace 5 was used to determine optimal part placement
Figure 4 Two ABB robots used for a material handling application. This
was for a palletizing area of the plant to test for reachability and cycle
time. Workspace 5 was used to determine potential throughput
Figure 5 A Panasonic robot was used for an arc welding application. The
part being tested was a subassembly to be used in a larger assembly.
Workspace 5 was used for proof of concept
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more costly trial and error method is to be
used. Think back to the day where parts were
designed independently of each other and
assemblies were not tested out on computers.
A computer-based solution can now take this
to the next level, as we can easily prove out an
assembly in CAD software the next obvious
step would be to make sure that it is possible
to manufacture.
Workspace 5 enables the user to quickly
change from one tooling design to the next
without so much as milling a single piece of
aluminum. Not only can we directly see the
cost savings associated with digital
manufacturing, but we can also work
concurrently so as not to effect the plant floor.
Internally, at Flow International, there have
been many recent cases of one division doing
all the design and build work while another
does the simulation in a different geographical
location (saving a total of two days robot
programming and part positioning time in the
most recent case).
The software itself has many tools built in
to save manual work as well. Workspace 5
uses an automatic path generation command
to enable the user to create tool paths from
simple CAD objects either imported or
created directly in its environment. If
comparative parts are being used then we can
also re-use one tool path and program with a
copy and paste, thus enabling the user to do
the work only once per work cell and not on a
per part basis. The open ended VBA side of
the software can also be used to facilitate
change at a more rapid pace. Using everything
from basic macros to complex user forms can
result in information being passed into and
out of the simulation without the end user
even noticing.
So assuming the process has been
optimized for reach problems, cycle time, as
well as other key areas, the next and equally as
important step is to do something with all
these data. We will assume that the proper
steps have been followed throughout the
simulation process and that every number, no
matter how significant, has been validated in
some method, we can then use CAD import/
export functionality to maintain the work we
have accomplished. Sending these data out to
another package for design revisions or even
manufacture is what separates manufacturing
simulation from simple process simulation.
Although the validity of the numbers should
be equal, why would the end user want to do
all that work only to repeat much of what they
have accomplished in a second package?
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Robots great and small
at Hanover
Anna Kochan
The robotics and automation sector is one
that never ceases to evolve and innovate.
Robots continue to feature higher speeds,
greater payloads and improved accuracy. It
was all to be seen at the Hanover Fair, the
event which has become a state-of-the-art
showcase of the industry.
Most innovative at this years Hanover Fair
was new vision technology from Isra. The
German company showed its new visual servo
product that is designed to enable robots to fit
parts onto a vehicle as it moves continuously
along an assembly line. Most vehicle
manufacturers today stop vehicles on the line
at each point where robotic assembly takes
place. That adds to the cycle time and costs
money. The market is definitely looking for a
non-stop concept, says Isra chairman,
Enis Ersu.
Isras solution, the visual servo, is based on
a Kuka robot and Isra vision system to track
the vehicle as it moves. The challenge,
according to Enis Ersu, is to achieve a control
loop between the robot and the vision system
that is very high speed. He claims that Isra has
achieved a control loop that cycles at
100-200Hz. Kuka is currently Isras preferred
robot to work with since it has has the most
advanced controller, he adds.
The first visual servo installation, expected
towards the end of 2002, will carry out those
moving assembly tasks that make lowest
demands on accuracy, such as the placing of
the spare wheel in the boot or the location of
the battery in the engine compartment. These
tasks, says Enis Ersu, only require + 1mm
accuracy. However, he expects Isra to have
mastered visual servo for the higher accuracy
applications by the end of 2003. The
positioning of cockpit modules and seats, for
example, requires tolerances of + 0.5mm.
Isra is continuing to develop its vision
solutions in other areas. A future application
for Isra technology is the inspection of gap
and flush on cars. A first attempt at a solution
has just been delivered to VW for test.
However, it is only able to check gap and
flush where a metal panel meets another
metal panel. A solution for metal-to-plastic or
glass, such as in the headlamp area, is still in
development.
Like Isra, manufacturing equipment
specialist Comau has a strong interest in the
automotive market. The Italian company has
decided to join the select club of robot
builders offering a model with a 500kg
The author
Anna Kochan is European Associate Editor for
Assembly Automation.
Keywords
Assembly, Pick-and-place, Robotics, Machine vision,
Automotive components industry, Food industry
Abstract
Reports from the Hanover Fair on new developments in
automated assembly technology, particularly robotic
assembly, outlines the latest robot hardware and software
innovations to be launched on the market, describes new
applications being taken up by industry.
Electronic access
available at
Feature
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# MCB UP Limited
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ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436446
payload. To date, only Kuka and ABB have
introduced robots of this size. Comaus
version, the Smart X1 (see Plate 1), is
however, just the first of a new family that
will, over time, offer payloads up to 700kg
and reaches of up to 3.5m. This is the plan, at
least according to Arturo Baroncelli,
marketing manager for robotic welding
systems, who claims that the Smart X1 is the
strongest robot in the world. Although the
product is new, the technology already exists
in other Comau robot families such as the
H4, he adds. Comau has shown the first X1
robot to selected customers and has already
received about ten orders. We have
developed the X1 for bodyshop applications.
It is strong enough to handle complete car
bodies, which are both large and heavy, and
to manipulate complex fixtures, explains
Arturo Baroncelli.
Also targetting automotive bodyshops is
German company SEF, which builds the
VW-designed robot. It highlighted laser
welding applications on its stand at the
Hanover Show. In one demonstration (see
Plate 2), two SEF robots equipped with laser
sources from Berlin company High Yag
carried out laser welding operations on a door
that was being held in place by a third robot.
The cell was set up for the exhibition to show
the potential of laser welding robotics, says
Frank Wrede, manager of technical sales at
SEF. He sees a great potential for laser
welding in the automotive industry. The
new generation of cars will feature up to
70 per cent laser welding, he comments.
Elsewhere on the stand, SEF showed a
remote laser welding cell with a 2.4m 61.5m
working envelope that it has developed with
laser supplier Rofin-Sinar. According to
Frank Wrede, more than five of these cells are
already installed in the automotive industry.
New laser welding solutions were also
demonstrated by Reis but for joining plastics
rather than metal. In one demonstration, a
Reis RV16 robot used a Prolas diode laser to
join automotive rear light coloured glasses.
The specific feature of the RV16 robot is the
integration of the laser beam guidance system
into the fourth axis of the robot arm. Due to
the central exit of the laser beam at the
flexible wrist, Reis was able to omit the sixth
axis of the robot and to use the space for beam
guidance. Developed in collaboration with
Prolas and Thyssen Lasertechnik, the
solution gives the advantages of compactness,
flexibility and speed.
Reis also exhibited CO
2
laser welding for
plastics parts, claiming that its five-axis
RV16L articulated robot is unique, due to the
integration of the beam guidance system
within the robot arm. The laser beam,
generated by the CO
2
laser source mounted
on axis three, is guided via mirrors and a
beam-shifting element to the head axis of the
robot, where it enters the cutting optics. Reis
claims that this very compact design allows
short beam ways, process-safe beam
guidance, unlimited movement of the robot
and excellent access to components.
On its stand at Hanover, Reis also
announced a brand new robot kinematics. By
mounting a five-axis articulated robot on a
linear axis to create the new KRVL16, Reis is
attempting to offer the ideal solution for
machine load/unload operations (see
Plate 3). A five-axis solution compared to the
more common three-axis one allows
Plate 1 Comau joins the league of heavyweights with its Smart X1 but
promises even greater things
Plate 2 Demonstrating the laser-welding of doors with three robots
working collaboratively
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Anna Kochan
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workpieces to be handled in more flexible
ways, says Volker Wunsch, sales manager
handling systems.
Also new from Reis is a software feature
known as Safe Production that enables an
operator to remain in a robot cell while it
continues to run in fully automatic mode but
at a reduced speed (see Plate 4).
The safety function is integrated with the
ROBOTstarV robot controller. Safetycontroller
software monitors the axis speeds of the robot
and reduces them so that operators can observe
the process in close-up and intervene in it
directly without having to interrupt the
automatic operation.
So far, Reis has developed three modes of
Safe Production operation:
(1) An installation running automatically at
full process speed slows down to a
personnel-safe speed as soon as an
operator enters the cell to observe the
process or perform other tasks. This is
particularly useful for maintenance
personnel who may have little experience
of operating the installation.
(2) The work envelop of the robot is divided
into two areas, one where the operator
has no access and the robot speed is not
subject to limitation, and one where
operator access is permitted and where
the reduced speeds apply during operator
presence.
(3) The robots are operated without separate
safety devices, and the man and machine
work hand-in-hand with a firmly
programmed speed. For example, the
robot takes over the handling of heavy
parts while the worker executes assembly
or machining tasks.
Volker Wunsch claims Reis is the first in the
world to offer a control function of this type.
New software developments were also
highlighted by Fanuc at the Hanover Fair.
Olaf Gehrels, executive vice president of
Fanuc Robotics Europe, described a new
software feature called Approach Deterrence
as a way of optimising robot programs so that
cycle times are kept to a minimum and space
utilisation is maximised. It is particularly of
benefit when programming a number of
robots that are working in the same space, he
said.
Conventionally, collision avoidance is
achieved by tracking the locations of tool
centre points. This, says Olaf Gehrels, does
not take account of the complete robot
structure. Using Fanucs Approach
Deterrence feature, however, virtual models
Plate 3 Reis mounts a five-axis robot on a linear axis to
create an automated solution for machine load/unload
Plate 4 With Reis Safe Production feature, the operator
can observe a robotic process from close by
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of the entire robot structures are used. Virtual
models of component feeding equipment can
also be introduced, should these have an
impact. As a result, robot cells can be
programmed in a more flexible manner to
achieve more compact layouts,.
Also new from Fanuc is a high-speed
packaging robot suitable for handling small
parts such as chocolate bars. Based on the
design of the existing M400 packaging robot,
the new M420iA has a 40kg payload and is
capable of 3,000 cycles an hour, whereas the
M400 can only perform 1,800 cycles an hour.
Fanuc claims the M-420iA is 25 per cent
faster and can carry 30 per cent more weight
than competitive robots. The three-robot cell
demonstrated at the Hanover Fair is, in fact,
due to be delivered to Ion, a Greek chocolate
manufacturer, later this year. Developed by
German systems integrator Paal, the cell will
package 900 chocolate bars per minute.
A relative newcomer to the robotics market
in Europe is the Japanese manufacturer
Denso although it is one of the market
leaders in Japan. A specialist in small robots
(payload up to 20kg) for assembly and
pick-and-place applications, Denso has
delivered a total of 20,000 robots of which
6,000 are operating in the companys own
automotive component production plants in
Japan. Denso is now making inroads into the
European market, with a market share in
Europe that doubled in 2001, according to
Jeroen van Asten, sales and marketing
manager Denso Europe, and he is ambitious
about maintaining or even increasing this
growth rate. Having already established six
system integrator partners in Europe, Jeroen
van Asten is now aiming to increase this to 20
in the next few months. He is particularly
looking at Germany, the UK, Italy and
Scandinavia. The applications Denso targets
are many and varied, ranging from food to
automotive.
Last year, at the Hanover Fair, Denso
introduced its family of six-axis robots. This
year, it was a family of four-axis robots that
made their debut (see Plate 5). According to
Jeroen van Asten, no other four-axis robot on
the market matches the new Denso range in
terms of speed and accuracy. He claims a
cycle time of 0.35sec. or 0.29sec. for the
larger and smaller members of the four-axis
robot family respectively, compared to the
0.5sec. of competitors products.
Repeatability ranges from + 0.015mm to +
0.025mm, depending on the model.
Plate 5 Denso adds four-axis range to existing six-axis family
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Assembly-initiated
production a strategy
for mass-customisation
utilising modular,
hybrid automatic
production systems
Anders Karlsson
1. Introduction
In this article, manufacturing is seen as
operations directly involved in creating a
product. To simplify matters, assembly is
seen as a part of manufacturing. When
addressing assembly specifically, the term
assembly is used. There are, however, many
other different definitions of manufacturing.
One very important factor, needed to
succeed in the field of production, is the
presence of an overall valid strategy that takes
into account future trends, market demands
and technological development. Otherwise
one will possibly repeat mistakes made by, for
example, Ford when missing the need to
adapt to changing market requirements. A
very good example is the Toyota production
system, which had clear goals and ways how
to reach them. Assembly-initiated production
(AIP) aims at being such a strategy.
The project foundations lie within the ideas
generated by current trends in industry,
existing just-in-time (JIT) philosophies, and
the modular function deployment
methodology (Erixon, 1998). With current
philosophies and methods as a starting point,
the program aims to describe a new
production strategy, and methodology, with
particular focus on assembly.
Trends that have been identified as
important issues when developing AIP are
(Karlsson and Onori, 2000):
.
Shifting production volumes, must ramp
up and down very quickly in response to
the order volumes (large capacity
fluctuations).
.
Shorter product life spans (frequent
system reconfigurations).
.
High, and continuously increasing
number of product variants.
.
JIT delivery.
The author
Anders Karlsson is at the Royal Institute of Technology
(KTH), Department of Production Engineering, Assembly
Systems Division, Brinellv, Sweden.
Keywords
Assembly, Hybrid systems, Customization
Abstract
The assembly-initiated production (AIP) project aims at
developing a strategy for mass-customisation with short lead
times through the production. The presented results are the
outcome of cooperative work between KTH and 19
companies of different sizes, active in Sweden. AIP is formed
around the idea to assemble products from product modules
on customer orders. The total delivery time would be time to
process order + assembly time + shipping-time. This gives a
total delivery time considerably shorter than when
manufacturing the entire product to order. There are many
factors to consider. Challenges like modularising the
products to fit the strategy, finding ways to automate
assembly and manufacturing operations, and at the same
time, accomplish a flexible production solution. There are
also many other factors to consider being successful in mass
customisation, like materials supply and material handling
issues, information system design and creating a suitable
organisation form. Of utmost importance is the way the
factors affect each other and the production as a whole
when changes are made.
Electronic access
available at
Research article
This work was financially supported by
Woxencentrum and The Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Great contributions to the results presented here
were made by people from these companies, here
in alphabetical order: ABB Corporate Research,
ABB Future Center, ABB Motors, ABB Power
Systems, ABB Robotics, ABB Switchgear, ABB
Ventilation Product Division Stratos, Alfa Laval
AB, Atlas Copco Tools AB, BT Products AB,
Ericsson Radio Systems AB, ESAB Welding
Equipment AB, ITT Flygt AB. Gustavsberg
Vargarda Armatur AB, Posten AB, Rexroth
Mecman Svenska AB, Segerstro m & Svensson AB,
TUBE Control AB and Volvo Truck Corporation
AB.
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pp. 239247
# MCB UP Limited
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ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436455
These trends put different requirements on
the companies and their production. The AIP
strategy is being developed to take these
factors into account and to do this
comprehensively, it has to include all areas
involved in the production:
.
Reconfigurable manufacturing systems.
For example, there is the need for
stepwise expandability and the possibility
to adapt to different products (Onori et
al., 1999).
.
Product designs that assist the production
processes, and at the same time, result in
products attractive to customers.
.
Information systems that are designed to
support the processes. This means that
the information systems themselves have
to be reconfigurable in the same manner
as the processes.
.
A supply chain that supports the
manufacturing processes and that
strengthens the production as a whole.
.
Competent and flexible personnel to
enhance the characteristics of the rest of
the production system. They must have
the ability to identify different situations
and to react in a suitable way.
.
Other personnel-related subjects like
human-machine interfaces, working
environmental issues, etc., have to be
taken into account when creating the
system.
As one can see, AIP is designed in line with
issues normally associated with mass
customization. Mass customization emerged as
manufacturers, enabled by their proficient lean
production systems, explored ways to better
meet the needs of customers (Alford
et al., 2000). Going from mass production to
mass customization requires a total
reengineering of the company. A reengineering
is basically enacting multidimensional change
to achieve dramatic improvements in
performance. To be fully capable of supplying
unique goods and services to customers as a
planned strategy without sacrificing cost
control, product quality or delivery speed,
companies must actively redesign business
processes for the era of mass customization
(Gilmore, 1993).
2. Assembly-initiated production
structure
Figure 1 describes the functions of the AIP
structure.
(1) The customer order enters the computer
system and is immediately available to the
entire manufacturing chain, although the
final assembly is where the order is
retrieved and the manufacturing is
initiated. Any sales department involved
should have its work immediately
registered to avoid increased lead times.
(2) The final assembly will be able to see
which orders are in the system at an
earlier stage. This will lead to a more
responsive production.
(3) One of the central concepts about AIP is
the modularization of products. The
modules and standard components will
be stored close to the assembly. When an
order is to be executed, components and
modules will be taken from the storage
and assembled into products.
Figure 1 The AIP structure
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(4) The finished products are, after the
assembly, packed and delivered to the
customer.
(5) The module storage is set just before the
module (assembly) workshops. To avoid
delays, the module workshops will have to
be able to deliver the modules required by
the assembly workshops at the correct
rate.
(6) The demands placed on parts
manufacturing and ordering of
components from sub-contractors are
basically the same as the ones placed on
modular workshops.
One should note that the sub-contractors
could deliver to any station in the chain. That
is, they could deliver raw material or
components at different levels of completion,
from simple components to product modules
as well as material not directly included in the
final product, like packaging material.
What AIP introduces is the possibility to
give a product its final identity as late as
possible within the production chain. This is
of great value in a world in which the product
variant is commonly created in parts
manufacturing, with ensuing buffers and
warehousing problems. It becomes obvious,
then, that the application of AIP strategies
requires a highly reactive, order-driven
control system and equally efficient assembly
workshops. Assemble to order is, as a
manufacturing principle, far from new. The
originality of the AIP project is to use
assembly to order to solve todays problems
with technology available now or in the near
future.
The predominant solution to be preferred,
as long as the product features allow it, is the
cell or assembly workshop. Basically, an
efficient final assembly requires an equally
efficient set of sub-assembly or module-
assembly units. That is to say that, if AIP is to
become a successful tool, equally reactive and
truly flexible assembly solutions must be
developed.
3. AIP related production requirements
In this chapter, an overview of what is
required from different manufacturing-
related areas is presented.
The amount of variants produced at each
stage greatly affects the constraints and
demands put on the system respectively. In
Figure 2 the module manufacturing (D, E
and F) and assembly (C) are divided into
cells. These cells should be easily
reconfigurable to be able to meet the current
customer demands (Figure 3).
The necessity to be able to reconfigure the
systems is enhanced in the final assembly
since there a much larger variant variety will
be produced. To make this possible, these
basic properties of the manufacturing system
are looked at in a wider sense.
3.1 Materials supply
Support for the AIP strategy has been found
within supply chain management (SCM).
Balsmeier and Voisin (1996) classify SCM as
formal linkage among all levels in a marketing
channel; it is a technique that looks at all the
links in the chain from raw material suppliers
through various levels of manufacturing and
distribution, to the final customer. SCM may
be seen as an overall strategy for all parts in a
supply chain, including manufacturing and
assembly. This becomes clearer when looking
Figure 2 A detailed AIP application example
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at Otto and Kotzabs (1999) condensation of
SCM principles:
.
Compress. Reducing the number of nodes,
members or actors in the chain or by
reducing the physical distance between
any two nodes.
.
Speed up. Reducing the amount of time
necessary to move between any two nodes
in a chain or a network or between two
stages in a process.
.
Collaborate, cooperate. Increasing the
intensity and scope of cooperative
behavior between two or more
independent decision-making units.
.
Integrate. Reducing the penalty in time,
effort, cost or performance to move
between any two activities in a process or
between processes.
.
Optimize. Maximizing the value of a
target function through the use of
quantitative models and methods.
.
Differentiate, customize. Increasing the
specificity and thus the effectiveness of a
subject towards a given purpose.
.
Modularise. Reducing the penalty in time,
effort, cost or performance to replace a
particular segment of the chain.
.
Level. Reducing the magnitude of
variation of a certain parameter of an
object over time.
.
Postpone. Moving the product
differentiation closer to the time and
locus of consumption.
SCM also shows some of the main ideas of
AIP. A comment has to be made about the
level principle. In AIP, there are no goals as to
leveling the daily amount of production over a
period of time. The variations due to shifting
volumes, new products introduced, different
product variants, etc. should be dealt with by
having a flexible production system and by
product design. Otherwise the lead times will
be longer than necessary. The manufacturing
of parts and modules (C, D, E and F in
Figure 2) will automatically be more leveled
since they will manufacture only a few
variants of modules which will be more even
in volume than the manufacturing of the same
end products within a department layout
factory would be.
One problem found in supply chains is the
bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect is the
amplification of order variability along the
supply chain. The closer to the first link in the
chain, the larger the variability (Lee and
Padmanabhan, 1997). The effective way to
eliminate bullwhip effect is by allowing viable
information to be available and to create short
delivery times. Both are built-in features in
the AIP strategy and therefore bullwhip effect
should be of little or no concern. The
reduction or elimination of the bullwhip effect
reduces the need for capacity flexibility within
the automated production equipment. This
without lessening the total capacity flexibility
of the production, indirectly demanded by the
customers.
Figure 3 A rough sketch of how the relative amount of different variants of components or products are being
produced through an AIP production flow
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3.2 Information handling and use
Product data management (PDM) systems
originate from engineering aspects of product
development, so the systems mainly deal with
product engineering related data. PDM
systems rarely use and treat data like, for
example, sales, costs, supply-issues or
manufacturing control (Peltonen, 2000).
PDM is very much about managing
configurations and changing of
configurations. Considering the goals with
AIP regarding the possibility of producing
many different product variants and different
volumes, the availability of accurate and
quickly accessible product data is of utmost
importance. A PDM system should therefore
be seen as an integrated part of the
information system in Figure 1.
The question as to how to design the
production planning and control (PPC) for
AIP production arose early in the pre-study
phase, considering all the problems related to
PPC noticed. Among the problems that have
been identified are (Karlsson and Stro mberg,
1998; Karlsson, 1999):
.
Little or no control over the actual
situation.
.
Lead times, given by the PPC system,
were often inaccurate.
.
PPC systems are not designed for the
given type of production or the way the
companies produce.
.
Unfriendly user interface of PPC
software.
.
The real material flow does not comply
with the model in the system.
.
Poor or nonexistent handling of rush
orders.
.
The system is often considered a burden
rather than a helpful tool.
These problems have to be solved and, as the
work proceeds, more problems will most
likely appear. To be able to decide what
system or principle to use, a review of the
benefits and limitations of each system was
necessary.
Materials requirement planning (MRP) is
flexible in terms of products and floor layout,
but contributes to long lead times and large
inventory levels. JIT-associated methods, on
the other hand, have a narrow range of
product and layout flexibility, but build up
minimal inventory levels and give a short lead
time (Plenert, 1999a). At the same time there
are many other principles to be considered,
e.g. bottleneck allocation methodology
(BAM) (Plenert, 1999b) and theory of
constraints (Goldratt and Cox, 1986;
Goldratt and Fox, 1986). Differences do exist
between the MRP based software systems
themselves, each exhibiting its own strengths
and weaknesses (among others, Shotten and
Kees, 1995). In order to gain the required
benefits, JIT methods will most likely be an
adequate alternative in many parts of the
production, and the limitations of little or no
concern. Parts of the production will have a
more stable order situation (C, D, E and F in
Figure 2) than the final assembly, which may
give the opportunity to use, for example,
kanban control.
The suggested solution is a more
decentralized control concept within the
company with a more modular approach
where each sub-control system covers only a
part of the production system. The expected
benefits from such a system approach is that
such an architecture provides departments
with better opportunities to incorporate their
specific planning requirements in the control
system. This would make the PPC system to
support the inherent characteristics of AIP.
3.3 Human resources in manufacturing
Although being a very important area, an
in-depth look at this research area has been
outside the scope of the AIP research so far.
This means that there are no solutions
suggested here, but important issues are
identified and discussed. It was clear in the
pre-studies that the areas concerning human
resources have a considerable impact on the
performance of the production. It is,
therefore, a research area to put efforts into.
In the pre-study phases, different
personnel-related issues were identified.
These are divided into the following areas:
.
Organizational issues. The division into
work groups, formal and informal
channels for information distribution,
authority, etc.
.
Competence issues. Education, knowledge
about operation and the products,
choosing an education and knowledge
level on the employees.
.
Work environmental issues. The creation of
a workplace that is stimulating to work in,
forming a workplace layout that promotes
effective manufacturing, working to
reduce and avoid work-related injuries,
etc.
The areas interact in different ways, which is
also to be considered.
Estimations on possible additional costs
related to changes in the workforce have not
been made, since such costs would be highly
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related to a specific case. The AIP project has
so far been general to its nature.
3.4 Manufacturing processes
One has to get flexibility out of the production
equipment. Some may be able to do that by
using their ordinary machinery, depending on
machinery available and the product
manufactured. In the companies within the
pre-studies, it was observed that using manual
operations was bringing about a great deal of
the necessary flexibility in assembly
operations. This is rather common in the
industry and especially when it comes to
assembly. AIP, however, does not specify the
use of manual or automatic processes.
To find a suitable solution to flexibility
problems in automatic assembly, the AIP
project has been performed in cooperation
with the Hyper Flexible Automatic Assembly
project (HFAA) (Onori and Alsterman,
2000). HFAA describes a concept consisting
of a set of equipment modules, with
standardized interfaces. The benefits to be
gained from a standardized solution are
many, among others:
.
Shorter installation times.
.
Lower investment costs and related risk
factors.
.
Simpler re-configurations of original
layout.
.
Second-hand market equipment.
This entails that mechanical, electrical,
pneumatic, electronic and software interfaces
must be standardized, be of a common
format, description, etc., and allow the
transport of the particular medium (software,
air, etc.) without adjustments. This also
entails that the physical dimensions of the
particular equipment are such that the unit
may be inserted into any assembly system
without requiring particular modifications
(Sandin and Onori, 2002). For this purpose,
standardization guidelines have been
developed, consisting of six elements that
together define the standardization levels
required. The elements are (Sandin and
Onori, 2002):
.
documentation;
.
availability;
.
recognition;
.
update;
.
validity;
.
sector management.
This makes it easier and more affordable to
rearrange automated equipment to create
flows that fit the current order situation. AIP
does not put any additional demands on the
assembly equipment that are not addressed in
the HFAA project. They are, on the contrary,
quite similar.
There are many other projects, finished and
ongoing, that are addressing these problems
as well. One should note that the AIP strategy
is not limited to a certain set of solutions. It is
important to fulfill the requirements of the
AIP strategy, not to use a certain solution.
The design of the process is closely related
to the product design and is putting
constraints on each other. The degree of
dependence differs from case to case.
Production equipment that is able to adapt to
the production of products matching the
current order situation would lessen this
dependence, or at least the effects from it.
3.5 Product design
A modular product design is a part of the AIP
strategy. Modularization is the decomposition
of a product into building blocks (modules)
with specified interfaces, driven by company
specific reasons, called module drivers
(Erixon, 1998).
Analysing module drivers, the primary
drivers for AIP are to be able to combine
modules into products with different
specification, different styling and that are
sharing common units among variants.
Basically, they are central building blocks of
the AIP strategy. They make it possible to
create product variants within the final
assembly.
Second, to improve overall flexibility of the
production, the drivers carry-over of modules
to new products, planned design changes,
technical advancement during the product
lifetime and the possibility to outsource are
important. The choice made by a company of
which module drivers to be considered
important affects the choice of modules and
hence, the product design. Standardization of
parts that are not to be modules is included in
the design process.
An observation made on participating is
that the technical properties of a product or
product group as well as customer
requirements influence the possibility to
modularize products. Common for the
participating companies are the need to
compete by being able to deliver customer
specific products and, at the same time,
having short delivery times. The products are
high quality and high price products, sold to
other companies. The high price still means
that one has to compete with other
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companies, which are manufacturing similar
products, sometimes by reducing prices, be it
pneumatic hand tools or trucks.
There are also many different ways to ease
production by designing the products to the
specifications of the manufacturing
equipment. Use of design for X, including
design for manufacturing and design for
assembly methods, will contribute to the
overall flexibility and performance of the AIP
system.
3.6 Concluding words on requirements
The goals with AIP put needs on the
manufacturing system to be very flexible in
terms of capacity and to handle new products
and different product variants. The maximum
capacity and flexibility should be seen as the
sum of the capacity and the flexibilities from
the product design and the manufacturing
system. Human resources directly involved in
the manufacturing are also included. The
other areas presented here (information
handling, material supply and human
resources) should support this and not
hamper the overall performance of the
production, which is very common today.
The suggested AIP structure supports the
use of stepwise expandable manufacturing
systems. The structure makes it easier to
choose between manual and automated
processes and also combinations (hybrid
systems) thereof. It would also be possible to
incorporate disassembly cells within the
manufacturing due to the built in flexibility of
the production.
To give details on numbers concerning, for
example, buffer sizes, product module
structures, costs and such, are subjects for
more detailed projects, researching the
possibilities to implement AIP in specific
cases. Therefore it is left out at this stage,
which is devoted to strategy development. It is
an essential step within the AIP project,
however, to present means for system design
and it will be subject to more research. First
steps have been taken to design such a
method in the form of developing a
theoretical model.
4. Transferring AIP theory to a
manufacturing system model
The first goal has been to provide a theoretical
model that could be used when mapping
important characteristics of a planned
manufacturing system.
The first stage is a design of a generic set
structure that is to describe input, output and
the influence the set has on its environment.
The set structure is to describe a chosen part
of a manufacturing system. The set structure
is called functional process area (FPA).
The central point in this method is the
process. The process is here measured and
specified by the:
.
input, like material and resources;
.
output, which is the product or partly
manufactured product;
.
influence the process has on its
environment.
These factors are set by the performance of
the process itself. To be able to select these
three factors, one has to decide what to
measure within the process and how to
measure it. The total of the input, the output,
the influence and the process itself is here
called FPA. An FPA is depicted in Figure 4.
To be able to characterize the set content of
the FPA, the following division of
manufacturing areas has been made. These
manufacturing areas correspond to those
presented in chapter 3:
.
Supply, which is the area of supplying
material and components to the process.
It also involves the transportation of
manufactured goods from the process. A
large part of the area of logistics is
covered here.
.
Information covers all information
distribution from, within and out from
the FPA. It includes PPC as well as
PDM.
.
Human resources covers organizational
issues as well as competence and other
personnel-related questions.
.
Process includes machine-related issues
like reliability, processing times,
resettings, etc.
.
Product is an area which includes product
related issues like product design, choice
of materials and aspects that affect the
output of an FPA.
Figure 4 Functional process area definition
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Commonly, more than one area affects the
performance of a manufacturing system. A
complex product design could cause the need
for more resettings than another design would
etc. The possible interactions are numerous.
The influence the FPA has on its
environment is here roughly divided into:
(1) Flexibility. The possibility to produce
entirely new products, to manufacture
different product variants and to be able
to change capacity to meet changes in
demand. This should be considered both
on a long-term basis as well as a
short-term basis.
(2) Speed and swiftness. Included here are lead
times, the possibility of adapting the
production in a short time, operation
times, resetting times and such.
Everything that affects the speed and
swiftness of the system should be
included.
(3) Robustness. The reliability of the system
when it comes to breakdowns,
downtimes, the amount of quality
approved products manufactured etc.
These are non-expected events that affect
the production (including flexibility)
negatively.
(4) Resources needed. The amount of
resources needed to manufacture the
products through the FPA. It could be
measured in money, hours or anything
appropriate.
These four areas are to be divided into
measurable factors for the general use within
a factory.
The strength of the FPA definition is that it
could be applied at different levels of the
manufacturing.
For example, a manufacturing section does,
in turn, consist of different parts. One could
start at factory level and structure in FPAs
down to individual machines if desirable.
Therefore an FPA could consist of lower level
FPAs (Figure 5), which makes it possible to
form a tree structure of the manufacturing
system.
In Figure 6, A and B represent linked FPAs
that form the lowest level within the factory.
Each FPA in the lowest level consists of a row
of individual operations. The B part
resembles the structure of Figure 6.
Each FPA in the lowest level consists of a
row of individual operations. The structure of
the manufacturing system becomes evident.
The material presented in this chapter
forms a base for the intended method, which
aims at finding key properties of a
manufacturing system. The base is far from
complete and is subject to further research.
For example, it should be possible to evaluate
how changes in one area affect the entire
system design. Questions suitable for the
method could be how certain changes in an
assembly process change the robustness of a
department of which the assembly process is a
part, or how changes in materials supply to
an assembly station affects the throughput of
a line.
5. Further development of AIP
Completing research includes finding
solutions to AIP specific production-related
constraints. These constraints are identified
to be necessary to develop according to AIP
demands. Summarising the results presented
in section 3, there is a need for research on:
.
AIP-specific product module interface
design to be able to create different
product variants by combining different
modules.
Figure 5 FPAs could consist of lower level FPAs. This figure could
describe a cell that consists of three machines
Figure 6 A tree structure formed by FPAs. The lowest and middle levels
of the B part would be equivalent to Figure 5
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.
Finding suitable organization forms for a
system designed after the guidelines
provided in the AIP strategy.
.
Developing flexible and reconfigurable
manufacturing processes. This means
that machinery should be easily
changeable and combinable with each
other to be able to adjust the capacity to
the present order situation.
.
Developing information systems that are
as changeable as the manufacturing
systems. With information systems are
meant here especially PPC, but also the
availability of product data and other
crucial forms of information.
This does not mean that all other factors
are not needed to be developed further.
What is meant is that the other areas are
useable in their present form or the research
in those areas is taking a direction, also
useful in AIP.
As a parallel development, the theoretical
model will be developed further (Figure 7).
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5-7 June, Stockholm.
Karlsson, A. and Stro mberg, P. (1998), Assembly initiated
production, a prestudy, Masters thesis No. 82,
Royal Institute of Technology, Assembly Systems
Unit, Stockholm (in Swedish).
Lee, H. and Padmanabhan, V. (1997), The bullwhip effect
in supply chains, Sloan Management Review,
Spring, Vol. 38 No. 3, p. 93.
Onori, M. and Alsterman, H. (2000), Hyper flexible
automatic assembly needs and possibilities with
standard assembly solutions, the Third World
Congress on Intelligent Manufacturing Processes
and Systems, 28-30 June, Cambridge, MA.
Onori, M., Alsterman, H. and Bergdahl, A. (1999),
Mark IV, a hyper flexible automatic assembly
system solution, 30th International Symposium on
Robotics, 27-29 October, Tokyo.
Otto, A. and Kotzab, H. (1999), How supply chain
management contributes to the management of
supply chains preliminary thoughts on an
unpopular question, Proceedings of NOFOMA.
Peltonen, H. (2000), Concepts and an implementation for
product data management, doctorate thesis,
Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki.
Plenert, G. (1999a), Focusing material requirements
planning (MRP) towards performance, European
Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 199 No. 1,
16 November, pp. 91-9.
Plenert, G. (1999b), Bottleneck allocation methodology
(BAM): an algorithm, Logistics Information
Management, Vol. 12. No. 5, pp. 378-85.
Sandin, E. and Onori, M. (2002), A conceptual framework
for efficient new product introductions, BASYS
2002, 25-27 September, Cancun.
Schotten, M. and Kees, A. (1995), Comparative analysis
of US-American and German standard production
planning and control systems, IEEE Symposium on
Emerging Technologies & Factory Automation,
Proceedings of the 1995 INRIA/IEEE Symposium on
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation,
10-13 October, Paris.
Slack, N. et al. (1998), Operations Management, 2nd ed.,
Pitman Publishing, London.
Figure 7 Future research within the AIP project
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Shortening the design
for assembly process
time for torque
converter development
Y.J. Lin and
Adam Uhler
1. Introduction
In todays demanding workplace, customers
are requiring improved designs with shorter
lead times. As technology continues to
provide new tools, the methods that
mechanical engineers use to design products
will continue to change and improve. The
challenge for design engineers is to leverage
the new technology by developing new design
techniques utilizing these new tools
extensively. Tools such as PTCs Pro/
Engineer offer an engineer the ability to create
solid models that can be used to calculate
mass, inertia, FEA, tool paths, interference,
and kinematics analysis. These calculations
result in a much more robust design and
ultimately shorten the development cycle
through fewer prototypes; however, the
complexity of the new tools requires more
skill and work from the design engineer.
Much of the work needs to be conducted
before the design begins. If a well-developed
plan is not created, design timelines will
actually increase due to the complexity of the
new tools. Design engineers working in
manufacturing industries must look for
methods to decrease the amount of time to
design a product while using the new
technology. One method that offers promise
is modular design of assemblies and the ability
to reuse components.
Three-dimensional CAD systems such as
PTCs Pro/Engineer represent one of the new
tools available to design engineers. In recent
years, solid modeling has not only changed
the way that engineers design their products,
but also, how companies do business. Due to
the ability of Pro/Engineer to create and
utilize relationships between parts, features,
layouts, etc., different departments within a
design group (tooling, manufacturing,
product development) are becoming more
integrated. With the use of tools like Pro/
Engineer, these new designs can be shared
and prototypes created in very short periods
of time. But, with these new tools comes
increased complexity. Engineers must fully
understand the relationships that are created
in their designs. If care is not taken in laying
out relationships, modifications to a design
will yield extremely different results than
anticipated. It may even be impossible to
The authors
Y.J. Lin is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA.
Adam Uhler is a Design Engineer at Luk Inc., Wooster,
Ohio, USA.
Keywords
Design optimization, Mapping, Modeling, Torque
Abstract
By leveraging various designs for assembly and designs for
manufacturing methods, manufacturing industry can apply
solid modeling, or 3D design, to increase profit margins and
decrease the time to market of its product. Specific to torque
converter development, an engineer can utilize a CAD
package and gain all of the advantages of designing in 3D
without the drawback of increased design time. In this paper
we propose a behavioral modeling technique to capture
design intent and utilize the intent maps for obtaining 3D
solid models in a similar amount of time as on a 2D CAD
system, but with the advantage of a life-like final design.
This results in fewer modifications and less inaccuracies
associated with 2D design. A 3D model so generated also
assists in drawing interpretation. In general, using the
proposed techniques will streamline the torque converter
design cycle and move readily towards desired assembly
automation. Torque converter design for assembly is
implemented as an illustrated example.
Electronic access
available at
Research article
The support to this work from Luk Inc. is
gratefully acknowledged.
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# MCB UP Limited
.
ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436464
modify a design if improper relationships are
created.
When properly implemented and leveraged,
a 3D modeling package offers several
advantages in the overall development cycle
of a product, such as: 3D visualization,
improved sales presentations, rapid
prototypes, rapid castings, rapid tooling, tool
path creation, FEA, kinematics studies, and
assembly interference checks. However, a
corporate-wide effort must be put forth to
realize these gains. In addition, a sound
modeling method must be developed and
incorporated for a smooth running design
cycle.
Even with these advantages, the complexity
of relationships in the 3D system and the
amount of computer processing time
necessary to make modification can cause the
design cycle to increase. In addition, a
standard project will have many variations of
a design before the final design is chosen. In
order for a solid modeling package to be
successful, modifications have to be made
quickly and design modifications have to be
stored.
Design intent within a component is
critical. Each component is dimensioned from
a default coordinate system. As the
component grows, new features can be
dimensioned back to the default coordinate
system or to features that were previously
created. The manner in which the component
is dimensioned will have dramatic effects
when modifications are made to the part. The
designer has to pay special attention to the
dimensioning scheme that is used during the
creation of the part.
Using a solid modeling package is relatively
simple if it is only used to model single parts.
In a real design environment, rarely is a single
component useful because it must interact
without components in an assembly. Before
the design can begin, an abstract idea of the
assembly structure must be considered. This
method of design has been labeled as
top-down design (PTC, 1998; Koh and
Park, 1996; Koichi et al., 1993; Liesbon,
1999; Mantripragada et al., 1999; Bankq and
Lin, 2001). In other words, top-down design
is a method of designing a product by
specifying top-level design criteria and
passing down these criteria from the top level
of the products structure to all the affected
subsystems (PTC, 1998; Koh and Park,
1996; Koichi et al., 1993; Liesbon, 1999;
Mantripragada et al., 1999). In addition,
feature-based design for assembly (DFA)
concepts have become essential issues in
recent research in the design community
(De Fazio et al., 1993, 1999; Eng et al., 1999;
Chuang and OGrady, 1999; Whitney et al.,
1999). This system embeds the parts
associativity between the parts in a complex
design machine, which it can automatically,
propagates the dimensional change to the all
related parts globally, in the case of dimension
change in a local part. As product
requirements become more volatile and
exhaustive, and products more highly focused
and tailored, industry requires a different type
of mechanical design automation technology.
The new generation of CAD systems,
behavioral modeling addresses these needs
and promotes the creation of well-designed
products through the synthesis of
requirements, desire functional behavior,
design context and geometry through an
open, extensible environment (PTC, 2000).
Behavioral modeling design system develops
the CAD system one step closer toward the
intelligent modeling design system. It is using
the design intent and design constraints for
generating the all-possible geometric shapes
for a design. An intelligent CAD system is a
target for automating a manufacturing design
system. It contains all the specification and
process information they need to adapt to
their environment. In addition, it applies all
kinds of analyzing and optimizing methods to
model automatically to generate all possible
design alternatives that fulfil the design
intents. In other words, for designing a torque
converter there will be no need to design,
analyze, and optimize the components
individually without considering the
interrelationship effect of the components in a
whole mechanism. However, in order to
create such an intelligent CAD system we
must quantify all interrelationship effects of
the components of the torque converter
during the product development cycle. In
order to embed trade specific functions
efficiently in a CAD system, it is necessary to
understand and formalize the semantics of the
technological objectives concerned, to
determine the mapping relation between
technology and geometry and to clarify the
logical process of the specification of these
technological objectives (Deneux, 1999).
Therefore, this paper is focused on
quantifying the interrelationship effect of the
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torque converter components during the
assembly process.
Understanding how the CAD software will
update models as they are modified and how
relationships are created between models is
essential for building a robust solid model. In
addition, the components in an assembly will
inevitably need to be replaced, deleted,
copied, and moved as the product develops in
its design cycle. Relationships between parts
can tend to make these actions impossible.
Therefore, the assembly structure should be
completely understood and documented
before the design begins. The solid model
must be flexible so that it can grow and
change with the design.
2. Design intent mapping
2.1 Product structure layout with
behavioral modeling concept
Before any 3D modeling can begin on the
torque converter, the project structure must
be carefully considered and laid out. In
considering the project structure, capturing
the design intent of the 3D model can be the
most critical and difficult task of the project
(Paulson, 2000). In a behavioral modeling
sense, the design intent is the manner in
which the model reacts to modifications. It
determines how dimensions and relations are
referenced to features in the design. For
example, if the diameter of the torque
converter doubles, the width may need to
remain half of that value. By laying out the
product structure, solid design intent can be
developed, which will make modifications
easier and faster. Ultimately, the design cycle
is shortened because changes are fast and
easy.
The design input can come from a number
of different sources. This input must be
captured in the design intent through the
solid model. First, the engineer must collect
all of the design input. A beginning point is
aimed at the very basic function of the torque
converter. In a given application, the torque
converter will have a performance
specification that it must meet. Figure 1
shows typical sample performance curves of a
torque converter for design references. This
determines an overall diameter for the torque
converter, at least from a performance
standpoint, and may be considered as one of
the behavioral modeling elements.
Another key factor for the behavioral
modeling elements is the customer envelope.
Due to increasing demands on fuel economy
and weight reduction, the envelope that the
torque converter must fit into decreases. The
envelope is becoming an increasingly
important design criterion and must be
considered in the design intent of the solid
model. Figure 2 illustrates a sample customer
envelope or bell housing schematics.
In accordance with the size of the torque
converter, weight and inertia play an
important role in the design of the torque
converter. Using a 3D model enables the
engineer to calculate and optimize the weight
and inertia of the torque converter. Finally,
structural integrity and manufacturability
round out the behavioral modeling task and
yield the general design criteria for the torque
converter.
2.2 Product development phase for
behavioral modeled components
Throughout the development phase of the
project, the customer is liable to change the
design input. Therefore, it is critical that the
engineer understands the product structure
so that it can be captured properly in the
solid model. Once the solid model is
created, it must be tested to ensure that the
necessary modifications produce the desired
outcome. When captured properly, the
design intent used in a three-dimensional
solid model can be one of the greatest assets
of a parameter driven, three-dimensional,
software package (Braxton, 2000).
However, when the design intent is not
captured properly, it can cause the entire
project to fail. For example, it is possible to
machine prototypes to a given model that
was inadvertently modified due to poor
design intent. The outcome can be months
of lost work and investment.
The first and most basic step of
constructing the product structure is to
identify and list the subsystems in the torque
converter assembly. The sub-assemblies
contained in a torque converter are listed as
follows and shown in Figure 3:
.
impeller assembly;
.
reactor assembly;
.
turbine assembly;
.
torque converter clutch assembly;
.
cover assembly
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These components also represent the division
of the product for a modular design approach.
If these sub-assemblies are designed in such a
way that they can be interchanged with other
sub-assemblies of the same type, the possible
torque converter designs multiply. This is an
important concept as the engineer considers
how the sub-assemblies should be constrained
and relate to one another. If fewer constraints
are applied between sub-assemblies, the
sub-assemblies can be replaced much easier.
As such, this saves substantial time for any
necessary modifications.
3. Visual prototyping phase
In this phase of the development cycle, the
CAD-based prototypes of each component
constituting the entire sub-assembly of
functional elements for a torque converter are
to be built. First, the components of each sub-
assembly must be identified. By employing
top-down design concept, at the highest level,
the torque converter has a group of geometric
constraints that are not necessarily
components, but they drive the geometry of
the design. Most of this information will be
stored in the top-level assembly skeleton.
Here the skeleton modeling approach is
introduced (Deueux, 1999). Based on the
proposed behavioral modeling technique, the
following informative elements are considered
and included, namely:
.
customer envelope;
.
transmission bell housing;
.
flex plate;
.
lug/stud configuration;
.
transmission pump drive.
3.1 Impeller assembly prototyping
The first component is the impeller assembly.
The impeller assembly is the component that
converts mechanical energy into fluid energy
when the torque converter clutch is
Figure 1 Sample performance curves of a torque converter
Figure 2 Sample customer envelope (bell housing)
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disengaged. When the clutch is engaged, the
impeller directly drives the transmission input
shaft. In addition, the transmission pump is
typically driven by a mechanical connection
to the impeller hub. The impeller consists of
the following components (see Figure 4):
(1) Brazed impeller shell sub-assembly:
.
finished impeller shell with blade tab
indents;
stamped impeller shell;
.
impeller blades with tabs rolled;
impeller blade with tabs
unassembled;
.
impeller core ring with blade tab
slots;
stamped core ring (optional).
(2) Impeller hub.
The stamped impeller core ring is marked
optional because the manufacturing process
can be combined into the stamping of the
Figure 3 An exploded view of sub-assemblies contained in a torque converter
Figure 4 Virtual prototype of impeller component
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blank based on the curvature of the core
geometry profile. If the core has a shallow
profile, the slot can be stamped into the
blank. This requires added flexibility in the
structure of the core. Each of the semi-
finished parts adds a complication to a
product structure because it needs to be
directly connected to the finished part. When
one of the two parts changes, the other should
change. The two parts must be tied together
for design efficiency and reduction of errors.
3.2 Reactor assembly prototyping
Next, the reactor assembly is axially constrained
to the impeller shell. The reactor redirects fluid
back from the turbine back into the impeller
when the vehicle is launching. This multiplies
the torque of the fluid coupling by recovering
some of the energy still in the fluid after it drives
the turbine. The reactor is constrained radially
by a shaft connected to the bell housing. The
inner race of the reactor must mesh with a
spline on the shaft. The reactor assembly
consists of the following components (see
Figure 5):
.
machined reactor with outer race
pressed in;
semi-machined reactor;
outer race;
.
rollers;
.
springs;
.
inner race;
.
side plate;
.
thrust bearing between impeller and
reactor
.
thrust bearing between reactor and
turbine (optional)
Another optional feature exists in the reactor
assembly. Based on application, the thrust
bearing between the reactor and turbine can
be combined with the side plate as an
integrated thrust washer. This method saves
space and money, but thrust loads may be
extreme for high torque applications. Once
again, the model must accommodate the need
for flexibility.
3.3 Turbine assembly prototyping
The turbine assembly is very similar to the
impeller assembly. The turbine assembly
receives the fluid from the impeller and
converts the fluid energy back to mechanical
energy through a spline tooth connection to
the transmission input shaft. Figure 6 depicts
the virtual prototype of the turbine assembly.
The turbine will also be connected to the
torque converter clutch in a variety of
different methods.
(1) Brazed turbine shell sub-assembly
(optional):
.
finished turbine shell with blade tab
indents;
stamped turbine shell;
.
turbine blades with tabs rolled;
turbine blade with tabs
unassembled;
.
turbine core ring with blade tab slots;
stamped core ring (optional);
(2) Turbine hub, rivets.
(3) Main damper assembly:
.
springs;
end caps;
.
spring retainer.
Figure 5 The reactor assembly prototype
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3.4 Turbine shell assembly prototype
The turbine shell assembly may or may not be
brazed based on the specific application. Also,
depending on the damper configuration, the
main damper assembly may not be contained
in the turbine assembly. In Pro/Engineer, this
can be a difficult task to make flexible because
of the assembly structure. By using modular
design techniques, the turbine assemblies
could be interchanged. In this case, a second
assembly structure could be used as follows
(see Figure 7):
.
finished turbine shell with blade tab
indents;
stamped turbine shell;
.
turbine blades with tabs rolled;
turbine blade with tabs unassembled;
.
turbine core ring with blade tab slots;
stamped core ring (optional);
.
turbine hub, rivets.
3.5 Torque converter clutch assembly
prototype
The torque converter clutch creates a hard
coupling of the engine and the transmission
using pressure to push a plate against the
cover. The plate has a piece of friction
material bonded to it. There is also a spring,
torsion damper to isolate engine vibrations.
The exploded view of the torque converter
clutch assembly prototype is demonstrated in
Figure 8. The damper can have a variety of
Figure 6 Turbine assembly prototype
Figure 7 Turbine shell assembly prototype
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configurations, which makes it an excellent
candidate for modular design.
Possible configuration:
.
cover plate;
.
spring retainer plate;
.
springs;
.
end caps;
.
flange;
.
piston plate bonded;
piston plate stamped;
.
multiple clutch plates, rivets, facing.
The assembly shown in Figure 8 is a triple plate
clutch with an unbonded piston plate. The
spring retainer is part of the clutch in this
particular assembly. This can change as was
shown in the turbine assembly in Figure 6.
The number of varieties of the torque
converter clutch is the most difficult Pro/
Engineer issue with which to deal and to
consider in the behavioral models. The
different configurations can cause the turbine
assembly to change. For example, a spring
retainer could be riveted to the turbine
assembly. The Pro/Engineer assemblies
should match the actual product assembly.
Therefore, modular designs suit the problem
well. If the Pro/Engineer structure of the
torque converter will promote a modular
design in the behavioral model, the two
assemblies can simply be interchanged.
3.6 Torque converter cover assembly
prototype
Finally, the torque converter cover is the last
component in the assembly. The cover
connects the torque converter to the engine. It
also provides a flat friction surface for the
torque converter clutch. The cover also pilots
the converter in the crankshaft of the engine,
and the cover transmits torque through a weld
joint to the impeller. The prototyped
structure is shown in Figure 9 and
components listed as follows:
.
cover stamping
.
drive plate assembly (depending on
envelope);
drive plate;
studs;
possibly pilot;
.
lugs or studs if no drive plate assembly is
used;
.
pilot (if not in drive plate assembly or not
extruded from the cover).
Again, the components of the assembly can be
found in different assembly structures. This
behavioral modeling concept leads to a modular
design where one cover structure can be
replaced with another as the design changes.
The reason that the product structure is so
important to understand upfront is that
Pro/Engineer does not allow for direct
modifications to the structure. In order to
change the assembly structure, components
must be deleted and reassembled in the proper
sub-assembly. The assembly constraints can be
changed, but a component cannot easily be
moved from one assembly to the next. In
addition, the assembly structure should look the
same as the actual production structure. This
enables the designers as well as the
manufacturers to visualize the live assembly
process of all torque converter components,
sub-assemblies, and final assembly. For
example, the impeller shell, core, and blades
should be assembled in the brazed shell
assembly rather than assembling the
components individually in the top-level
assembly. As a result, physical prototypes of all
components and their assemblages costs,
typically required in a trial-and-error basis, can
be eliminated. It saves design and modification
times tremendously too. By following the
production method, all of the models developed
in the previously mentioned cycle can be
directly made available later on for generating
the two-dimensional working drawings for real
prototyping needs.
4. Behavioral modeling design inputs of
each assembly
Pro/Engineer allows the designer to relate
features to one another so that the features
Figure 8 An exploded view of a torque converter clutch assembly
prototype
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update as the design input changes (Pieschke,
2000; Uhler, 2000). This represents a huge
timesaving through automation of the design.
However, when the relation is not set up
properly, more time is wasted trying to find
and fix the relation than would have been
spent to make all changes manually. This is
the reason that proper planning is so
important in the initial stages of the design.
In order to properly create relations
between parts, the design inputs need to be
captured for each component. Each assembly
has a different set of design inputs.
One of the most influential inputs driving
the impeller geometry is the fluid dynamic
performance required from the torque
converter. Part of the area that makes up the
fluid coupling is the blade geometry. An
external program called Bladegen derives
the blade shape. This program creates a curve
file that is read into Pro/Engineer. This is a
non-associative process, which means that if
the blade changes in Bladegen, it will not
update in Pro/Engineer. Because of the seam
in the design process, the blade surface must
be trimmed to fit the shell and core in
Pro/Engineer. This will ensure that the
physical parts will fit together in real life. In
addition, the blade has tabs that must fit into
slots in the shell and core. Because of the 3D
geometry of the blade, it is very difficult to
obtain a logical reference point on the blade
to define the geometry. In addition, the
reference point must drive the tab location
and the slot location, but the tab and the slot
must be able to move independent of one
another for manufacturing modifications. It
could be argued that the customer envelope is
the most critical driving constraint because
the converter is useless if it does not fit in the
customers space requirement. In actuality,
both must be carefully considered. In
addition, the impeller must provide a thrust-
bearing surface based on the thrust loads in
the converter. Also, the impeller shell must
mate with the torque converter cover, and
provide adequate clearance for the turbine
assembly. Finally, the customer will typically
specify a feature in the impeller hub to drive
the transmission pump.
The reactor is also driven by the
hydrodynamic performance requirements.
The blade geometry is most directly
influenced, but also the hub and rim
diameters. The engine torque will determine
the size of one-way clutch that is required.
The stress level in the one-way clutch can be
calculated from the engine torque. The size of
the one-way clutch has to be modified to limit
the stress levels. In addition, the
circumferential length will determine how
many rollers will fit in the one-way clutch.
The number of rollers will also affect the
stress-level. Also, the customer will
sometimes have a shaft already defined to
which the stator must mate. Finally, thrust
loads will determine the size of thrust bearings
that are used or if a thrust washer can be used
to save cost.
The turbine assembly design input is very
similar to the impeller. The fluid dynamic
performance required from the torque
converter will determine most of the turbine
geometry. The blade for the turbine assembly
is created in the same manner as the impeller,
and therefore, must be trimmed to fit the shell
and core. The turbine assembly will typically
require a hub with a spline connection to the
Figure 9 Torque converter cover sub-assembly prototype
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transmission input shaft. The spline will
typically come from the customer. The spline
size and location is a design requirement. The
turbine assembly must also provide a surface
for thrust bearing or washer in the reactor
assembly. The most common variable in the
turbine assembly will be the torque converter
clutch. In some designs, components of the
torque converter clutch are directly connected
to the turbine assembly through rivets or
weld. The clutch will always be connected to
the turbine assembly in some manner so that
it can transmit torque to the turbine input
shaft, but if a component is an actual part of
the physical assembly, it must be contained in
the assembly structure of the torque
converter.
The driving parameter for the torque
converter clutch is the engine torque. By the
principal of friction and moment, the radius
of the friction material must be large enough
to transmit the engine torque to the
transmission with a specified allowable slip.
The friction coefficient of the paper and the
minimum operating pressure of the
transmission are necessary for this
calculation. The damper in the torque
converter clutch must isolate engine
vibration when the clutch is locked to the
torque converter cover. In addition, the
space requirement is a critical consideration.
These two parameters combine to
determine the type of clutch and the
configuration of the spring package in the
damper. There are many variations for the
clutch, which make a modular design both
difficult and useful.
The cover assembly is the simplest part of
the torque converter, but has many design
inputs. The most basic is that it must mate
to the impeller shell assembly to close the
pressure vessel. The second input is the
connection to the flex-plate given from the
customer. This involves selection of a lug or
stud, a diameter at which the connecter
must be located, and the number of
connectors necessary. In addition, the cover
must provide a friction surface for the torque
converter clutch, and clearance for the
clutch. The cover must have adequate
structural support so that when pressure is
applied to the torque converter, a minimal
amount of elastic and plastic deformation
occurs. Finally, the cover must fit in the
customers envelope.
5 Modular design
The term modular is a form of the root word
module. A module is defined as a
standardized unit or changeable part/
component. Therefore, modular design is the
concept of making each component
interchangeable, and thus, multiplying the
possible design combinations exponentially.
The entire design structure that is laid out
in the intent mapping section is intended to
be used with a modular design concept. Each
sub-assembly (module) can be replaced and
used in other modules because there is no
associativity. However, using the simplified
representation of the assembly, the feasibility
of the design can be quickly checked. In this
manner, parts can easily and quickly be
changed, and thus, creating a new torque
converter design in a short period of time.
The chart shown in Figure 10 quickly
reveals that complexity in design is increasing.
As manufacturing capabilities expand,
customers demand a more customized or
tailored product. However, as customization
increases, complexity of the product line also
increases. This tends to make companies
more inefficient. With the modular product
platforms, product assortment complexity
decreased while continuing to meet customer
demands.
This is possible because fewer parts are
needed to make a larger variety of assemblies.
The example depicted in Figure 11 shows
how a truck manufacturer was able to offer a
larger variety of cab assemblies with fewer
parts. Fewer parts results in less design time,
fewer pressing tools, and shorter assembly
time too. All of these factors result in more
products with less cost involved, leading to
higher productivities.
As another example, the following torque
converter (see Figure 12) shows two similar
covers used in a project. Each cover will fit on
the same torque converter, but they have
slightly different features. By using modular
design techniques, all six components of each
cover are completely interchangeable. This
provides multiple cover options, which can be
evaluated, based on a given application.
Finally, Figure 13 illustrates the power of
designing from an assembly (top-down)
perspective. If design practices support a
product range development, the product
range will grow exponentially. If the
product is developed at a component level
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(bottom-up), there is only the growth of one
new product.
6 Conclusions
By leveraging various design for assembly and
design for manufacturing methods,
manufacturing industry can apply solid
modeling, or 3D design, to increase profit
margins and decrease the time to market of its
product. New CAD solid modelers can offer
many advantages over traditional 2D CAD
software, and possibly the greatest advantage
is the engineer can see the component before
it is ever prototyped. This can save both time
and money because the design using these
advanced tools is more accurate and effective.
However, the modeling or design time
Figure 10 Design complexity chart showing the rapid increases in recent decades
Figure 12 Similar torque converter covers, each will fit on the same torque converter, but with slightly different
features
Figure 11 An example of how a truck manufacturer was able to offer a
larger variety of cab assemblies with fewer parts
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required to layout a product increases because
of the complexity of the software. By using
skeletons combined with simplified
representations, the engineer can work in 2D
with the option of 3D instantly. This gives
him the time advantage of 2D with the
realness of the 3D model in addition to the
benefits of FEA capability, kinematics
analysis, tool design, sales presentations, and
rapid prototypes to name just a few.
Each of the design requirements must be
considered as the engineer determines the
proper design intent that is to be captured by
the 3D model. By identifying each input and
function of the sub-components in the
assembly, a plan can be made to drive the
information from a logical source in the context
of a CAD environment. Applying the proposed
technique ensured that each component in the
model was current with the latest design
specification. The method described in this
paper has proved to be extremely effective for
torque converter development. For future
research and development, these techniques
will continue to expand and improve as
software and computers update.
References
Banka, N. and Lin, Y.J. (2001), Mechanical design for
assembly of a 4-dof robotic arm utilizing a
top-down concept, Robotica, in review.
Braxton, T. (2000), Mapping your good intentions, PRO
Files, Vol. 4 No. 12.
Chuang, W. and OGrady, P. (1999), Assembly process
visualization in feature based design for assembly,
International Journal of Agile Management Systems,
Vol.1 No.3, pp. 177-89.
De Fazio et al. (1993), Prototype of feature-based design
for assembly, J. Mechanical Design, Transactions of
the ASME, Vol. 115 No. 4, pp. 723-34.
De Fazio, T.L., Rhee, S.J., Whitney and Daniel E. (1999),
Design specific approach to design for assembly
(DFA) for complex mechanical assemblies, IEEE
Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 15
No. 5, pp. 869-81.
Deneux, D. (1999), Introduction to assembly features: an
illustrated synthesis methodology, Journal of
Intelligent Manufacturing, Vol. 10, pp. 29-39.
Eng, T., Ling, Z., Olson, W. and McLean, C. (1999),
Feature-based assembly modeling and sequence
generation, Computers and Industrial Engineering,
Vol. 36 No.1, pp. 17-33.
Koh, B.K and Park, G.J. (1996), Design of automobile
exhaust system using top-down approach design
methodology, Int. J. of Vehicle Design, Vol. 17
No. 3, pp. 276-94.
Koichi, K., Hiromasa, S., Hidetoshi, A. and Fumihiko, K.
(1993), A product modeling system for top-down
design of machine assembly with kinematic
motion, Robotics & Computer Integrated
Manufacturing, Vol. 10 No. 1/2, pp. 49-55.
Liesbon, S.H. (1999), Developing CAE tools for top-down
design of complex systems, EDN, Vol. 33, March,
pp. 130-6.
Mantripragada, R., Adams, J.D., Rhee, S.H. and Whitney,
D.E. (1999), Integrated tools for top-down
assembly design and analysis, Proceedings of the
1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics &
Automation, Detroit, MI, May.
Paulson, D.W. (2000), Capturing design intent with
layouts, PRO files, Vol. 4 No. 3.
Pieschke, K, Pro/Engineers secret weapon feature
relations, PRO Files, Vol. 5 No. 2.
PTC (1998), Top-Down Design Task Guide
2
, Parametric
Technology Corp., Waltham, MA, DOC-U0169P-EN-
200.
PTC (2000), Consistent Innovation with Behavioral
Modeling, Parametric Technology Corp., Waltham,
MA, pp. 1-16.
Uhler, A. (2000), Utilizing various methods to shorten
Pro/Engineer design time for torque converter
development, Masters research, The University of
Akron, Akron, OH, Spring.
Whitney, D.E., Mantripragada, R., Adams, J.D. and Rhee,
S.J. (1999), Designing assemblies, Research in
Engineering Design Theory, Applications, and
Concurrent Engineering, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 229-53.
Figure 13 The schematics showing the power of designing from an assembly (top-down) perspective
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Geometric variation
prediction in
automotive assembling
C. Xiong, Y. Rong
R.P. Koganti, M.J. Zaluzec and
N. Wang
1. Introduction
Geometric variations are inherent in any
manufacturing and assembly process and
cause small deviations in parts from the
nominal geometry. The deviations affect
position, orientation, and other behaviors of
parts in an assembly. Moreover, these
deviations propagate and accumulate as parts
are assembled and can quickly drive assembly
geometry out of specifications, which
consequently causes various functional
failures and uncertainties of mechanical
products. Generally, product quality is
guaranteed by specifying ranges of allowable
deviations of a set of key assembly features as
assembly tolerances. The geometry variations
can seldom be eliminated in assembly
processes. To remain competitive, reduce
manufacturing time and costs of products, it
is necessary to predict and control the
variations in assembling. Once the geometry
variations exceed the tolerance specifications,
the factors affecting the geometry variations
must be investigated and effective measures of
controlling assembly processes need to be
provided.
In the past years, a lot of research work has
been done in the area of assembly tolerance
stack-up, including the constraint based
assembly analysis (Lee and Gossard, 1985;
Lee and Andrews, 1985) tolerance chain
analysis (Chase and Greenwood, 1988), sheet
metal deformation (Jack et al., 2000; Charles
and Jack, 1997; Ceglarek, 1998) fixturing
effect within a single assembly setup (Cai et
al., 1996; Jin and Shi, 2000), assembly
accuracy (Lee and Yu, 2000), optimum
tolerance allocation in assembly (Ngoi and
Min, 1999; Wei, 1997), assemblability
evaluation based on tolerance propagation
(Lee and Yi, 1995; Inui et al., 1996;
Sanderson, 1999; Li and Roy, 2001)), and
tolerance representations (Whitney et al.,
1994, 1999; Teissandier et al., 1999).
Variation stack-up analysis is a common
method for evaluating the conformity of
actual geometrical elements, surfaces, or lines
to their nominal size or shape. A graphical
approach was presented as the Catena
method to perform assembly tolerance stack
analysis for form control (Ngoi et al., 1999a),
and applied the coordinate tolerance system
to tolerance stack analysis involving position
tolerance for individual parts (Ngoi et al.,
The authors
C. Xiong is at the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massaschusetts,
USA and the School of Mechanical Science, Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, PR China.
Y. Rong is at the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massaschusetts,
USA.
R.P. Koganti, M J. Zaluzec and N. Wang are at the
Manufacturing Systems Department, Ford Research
Laboratory, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan, USA.
Keywords
Assembly, Statistical process control, Quality control,
Predictive techniques, Error estimation,
Automotive industry
Abstract
This paper develops the statistical error analysis model for
assembling, to derive measures of controlling the geometric
variations in assembly with multiple assembly stations, and
to provide a statistical tolerance prediction/distribution
toolkit integrated with CAD system for responding quickly to
market opportunities with reduced manufacturing costs and
improved quality. First the homogeneous transformation is
used to describe the location and orientation of assembly
features, parts and other related surfaces. The desired
location and orientation, and the related fixturing
configuration (including locator position and orientation) are
automatically extracted from CAD models. The location and
orientation errors are represented with differential
transformations. The statistical error prediction model is
formulated and the related algorithms integrated with the
CAD system so that the complex geometric information can
be directly accessed. In the prediction model, the
manufacturing process (joining) error, induced by heat
deformation in welding, is taken into account.
Electronic access
available at
Research article
260
Assembly Automation
Volume 22
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.
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.
pp. 260269
# MCB UP Limited
.
ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436473
1999b). Most of the work mainly focuses on
single assembly station for rigid parts.
In recent years, some researchers have
studied the statistical error analysis during
assembling (Lee and Yi, 1995; Whitney et al.,
1994), including compliant part deformation
prediction (Hu, 1997; Soman, 1996). The
Monte Carlo simulation (Shan et al., 1999)
and the tuning parameter design method
(McAdams and Wood, 2000) are often used
in statistical tolerance analysis. To predict
and control variation propagation, the
assembly sequence of mechanical assemblies
was modeled as a multistage linear dynamic
system (Mantripragada and Whitney, 1999).
Almost all the prediction models are linear.
However, there exists nonlinear coupling and
stack-up among all kinds of errors during
assembling because multiple fixtures are used
in each subassembly station. In fact, the
design and planning of locator schemes
(Zhang et al., 2001; Xiong et al., 1999) are the
challenges that are very critical for assembly.
Thus the linear prediction models cannot be
used to describe the assembly error
propagation from one to another subassembly
station. In addition, up to now, there has been
no statistical error analysis tool reported,
which is integrated with CAD system and
applicable for multiple assembly stations with
multiple fixtures.
In order to describe the characteristics of
coupling, stack-up, and propagation of
assembly errors during assembling for
multiple subassembly stations with multiple
fixtures, this paper proposes a systematic
approach to the assembly geometry variation
prediction. This paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 formulates the prediction problem
of assembly errors. Section 3 develops the
assembly errors representation and the
dimensional variation prediction algorithms.
Section 4 integrates the prediction
algorithms with the I-DEAS system. Section
5 gives a case study to verify the proposed
algorithms. Finally, conclusions are presented
in Section 6.
2. Formulation of problem
A product assembly system is a multileveled
hierarchical system, in which several parts are
joined together to form a subassembly and in
turn becomes a part to the next level of
assembly. Geometry variation in the final
assembly is accumulated as several parts are
assembled at each level of the system.
Moreover, the geometry variations will
propagate from one level subassembly station
to the next station. Prediction and control of
the geometry variations are essential to
retaining competitiveness in manufacturing
because excessive variations directly affect
product quality, time-to-market, and product
development cost. In every subassembly
station, the product geometry variations
depend on geometry errors, fixture location
errors, process error (heat induced
deformation in welding), and assembly
sequences. When multiple fixtures are used in
assembly stations, the geometry errors may be
coupled together in the error propagation,
which causes the non-linearity in the
tolerance stack-up model. Also, how to
optimize assembly sequences is one of the
problems to be solved in the assembly error
synthesis. To predict the geometry variations,
it is necessary to develop an analytical model
of the error coupling and stack-up in each
sub-assembly station as well as in the
propagation from one sub-assembly station to
another. Especially, the process errors such as
heat deformation need to be considered in the
analysis model.
The error stack-up and propagation during
assembly are shown in Figure 1, where
mi
<
61
;
li
<
61
and
wi
<
61
, are the
manufacturing error (geometric error),
locator error of fixtures and process error of
the ith part respectively. The problem of the
geometry variation prediction can be
described as: given the assembly setup
specifications, i.e. the manufacturing errors
mi
;, locator position and orientation,
fixtures locator errors li;, and process errors
wi
;, to calculate the variation of feature Q
k
in
final assembly of product, in a statistical way,
where Q
k
can be described as:
Q
k
f
k

m

l

w

j
j 1 n j
_ _
;
k 1 K 1
In equation (1), j denotes the number of sub-
assembly station, and Q
k
is the kth element of
a set of key assembly requirements Q.
Equation 1 implies that assembly errors are
the nonlinear coupling and stack-up of all
kinds of errors such as
m
,
l
, and
w
in each
subassembly station.
In addition, different fixture configurations
result in different fixturing errors. Fixturing
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Geometric variation prediction in automotive assembling
C. Xiong, Y. Rong, R.P. Koganti, M.J. Zaluzec and N. Wang
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l
p
lx
p
ly
p
lz

lx

ly

lz
T
errors
depend on the locators positions r
wi
, 2 <
3x1
and (i = 1, ; m) and the normal position
errors r
l
= (r
l1
r
lm
)
T
2 <
m1
; the
fixture locating errors can be written as
(Xiong et al., 1999; Xiong et al.
(forthcoming),
l
W
L r
l
2
where W
+
= (W
T
W)
1
W
T
2 <
63m
is the
general inverse of the fixturing matrix
W2 <
3m6
, and
W
I
33
G
W
Rr
w
1
_ _
.
.
.
I
33
G
W
Rr
w
m
_ _
_
_
_
3m6
;
L diag n
1
n
m
2 <
3mm
;
I
363
is an identity matrix,
G
W
R is the
orientation transformation matrix of the part
frame with respect to the global coordinate
frame, N
i
2 <
31
(i = 1, , m) is the unit
normal vectors at each locator. How to plan
fixture configurations so that the fixturing
errors can be minimized is another problem to
be solved in the assembly error synthesis.
3. Statistical tolerance analysis and
dimensional variation prediction
3.1 Assembly tolerance representation
Assume that the position and orientation of a
coordinate frame are represented as
p p
x
p
y
p
z

x

y

z
T
, then the
corresponding homogeneous transformation
matrix can be written as:
Tp
p
x
R
x
;
y
;
z
p
y
p
z
0
13
1
_
_
_
_
3
where R
x
;
y
;
z
2 <
3x3
is the orientation
matrix of the coordinate frame.
Assume that the position and orientation
errors of the coordinate frame are represented
as p p
x
p
y
p
z

x

y

z
T
, the
corresponding differential transformation
matrix can be expressed as:
T p
1
z

y
p
x
z
1
x
p
y
y

x
1 p
z
0 0 0 1
_
_
_
_
4
To analyze assembly tolerances, we use
homogeneous transformation to describe the
location and orientation of assembly features,
parts and other related surfaces. The location
and orientation errors are represented with
differential transformation, as shown in
Figure 2, the desired and actual location and
orientation of assembly feature j (target) with
respect to i (datum) can be described by the
location and orientation of related
coordinated frames.
In Figure 2, {Datum_desire} is the desire
coordinate frame of the feature i without
errors. {Datum_actual} is the actual
coordinate frame of the feature i, which
deviated from the desired coordinate frame
due to the part manufacturing error, fixture
locating error and welding error.
{Target_desire} is the desire coordinate
frame of the feature j without errors.
{Target_actual} is the actual coordinate
frame of the feature j, which deviated from the
desired coordinate frame due to the part
manufacturing error, fixture locating error
and welding error. If {Datum_actual} were
regarded as the desire coordinate frame of the
feature i, then {Target_desire_virtual} would
be regarded as the desire coordinate frame of
the feature j. In all coordinate frames, the
z-axes coincide with the outer normal vectors
of the feature surfaces or axes.
Let
D
d
T
d
T and
D
a
T
a
T be the homogeneous
transformation matrices of the desire and
Figure 1 Error stack-up and propagation during assembly
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actual target features with respect to the
desire and actual datum features respectively,
then:
T
dv
T
a
T
T
dv
D
a
T
D
a
T
a
T 5
Since
T
dv
D
a
T
T
d
D
d
T 6
Equation (5) can be rewritten as:
T
dv
T
a
T
T
d
D
d
T
D
a
T
a
T 7
where
T
d
T
a
T
T
d
D
a
T) are the homogeneous
transformation matrices of the frame
{Target_actual} ({Datum_actual} ) with
respect to the frame {Target_desire_virtual} .
The matrix
D
d
T
d
T can be calculated using the
related points position information obtained
from CAD model. Using the matrix
D
d
T
d
T, we
can obtain the desired position and
orientation q = (p
x
p
y
p
z

x

y

z
T
of the
target feature with respect to the datum
feature. The matrix
D
a
T
a
T is related to the
geometric errors
m
of parts and the process
errors such as fixture locating errors
l
and
process errors
w
during assembling, it can be
written as:
D
a
T
a
T
D
a
D
d
T
m

l

D
d
T
d
T
T
d
T
a
T
m
l

w

D
d
D
a
T
m

l

D
d
T
d
T
T
d
T
a
T
m

l

w
8
Thus, substituting equation (8) into
equation (7) yields:
T
dv
T
a
T
T
d
D
d
T
D
d
D
a
T
m

l

D
d
T
d
T
T
d
T
a
T
m

l

w
9
From equation (9), it can be seen that there
are error variables coupled in the
transformation matrices, which results in the
non-linearity of the model.
3.2 Dimensional variation prediction
modeling
3.2.1 Position and orientation tolerance
prediction
Using equation (8), we can calculate the
errors q p
x
p
y
p
z

y

2
T
of the
position and orientation of the target feature
with respect to the datum feature, which is the
accumulated errors due to manufacturing
Figure 2 Position and orientation of target feature with respect to datum feature
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errors, fixture locating errors and process
errors in current sub-assembly station. After
being assembled in current sub-assembly
station, the errors q become manufacturing
errors
m
if the assembled part in current
station needs to be assembled with other parts
in the next station. This implies that
manufacturing errors, fixture locating errors,
and process errors propagate from one sub-
assembly station to another station during
assembling.
The tolerance of the target feature with
respect to the datum is the deviations of
z-coordinates of all characteristic points of the
actual target surface in the coordinate frame
{Target_desire_virtual} .
Assuming that there exists a point p
a
i
(homogeneous point) in the frame
{Target_actual} , then, by using equation
(7), the point homogeneous coordinates can
be obtained in the frame {Target_desire_
virtual} is as follows:
p
d
i

D
a
T
d
Tq
_ _
1
:
D
a
T
a
Tq q:p
a
i
10
From equation (10), z-coordinate z
i
of the
ith point p
i
is obtained and z
i
is a function of
the errors q. The error variables q may
be random in tolerance design and analysis.
If it is normally distributed, thus the
deviation z
i
of the z-coordinate can be
described as:
z
i

@z
i
@p
x
p
x
_ _
2

@z
i
@
z

z
_ _
2
;
i 1; ; n 11
where
#z
i
#p
x
, , and
#z
i
#z
, are the partial
differential of the function z
i
with respect to
the variables p
x
; , and
z
respectively.
The actual position and orientation
tolerance can be written as:
Tol max z
i
f g min z
i
f g 12
It should be noted that this method is directly
applicable for orientation tolerance
specifications and also applicable for other
types of tolerances (Kang, 2001).
Furthermore, if the error distribution is other
than normal distribution, the Monte Carlo
simulation method can be used.
Thus, we obtain an algorithm to predict the
position and orientation tolerance in the view
of statistics as follows:
Algorithm 1
.
Step 1. Select assembly target feature and
datum feature.
.
Step 2. Calculate
T
d
D
d
T:
.
Step 3. Input locator errors of fixtures.
.
Step 4. Calculate fixture locating errors
using equation (2).
.
Step 5. Input geometric errors of parts to
be assembled, and process errors.
.
Step 6. Calculate
D
a
T
a
T using equation (8).
.
Step 7. Calculate position and orientation
errors of target feature with respect to
datum feature.
.
Step 8. If continue to assemble, repeat
steps 1-7 for next assembly station.
.
Step 9. Calculate actual position and
orientation tolerance to be predicted
using equation (12).
3.2.2 Position error prediction of points
in space
After the matrix
D
a
T
a
T is obtained, i.e. the
homogeneous transformation matrix of the
frame {Target_actual} with respect to the
frame {Target_desire_virtual} is obtained as
a function of the position and orientation
errors q, we can calculate the homogeneous
coordinates p
j
= x
j
y
j
z
j
1
T
of any point
p
a
j
x
aj
y
aj
z
aj
1
T
in the target feature, i.e.
x
j
y
j
z
j
1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_

T
dv
T
a
T q
x
aj
y
aj
z
aj
1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
13
equation (13) can be rewritten as:
x
j
f
j1
p
x

z

y
j
f
j2
p
x

z

z
j
f
j3
p
x

z

14
Thus, the position errors of the point
p
a
j
(j = 1) can be written as:
x
j

@f
j1
@p
x
p
x
_ _
2

@f
j1
@
z

z
_ _
2
y
j

@f
j2
@p
x
p
x
_ _
2

@f
j2
@
z

z
_ _
2
z
j

@f
j3
@p
x
p
x
_ _
2

@f
j3
@
z

z
_ _
2
15
where
@f
j
@p
x
; , and
@f
j
@
z
are the partial
differentiations of the function f
j6
with
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respect to the variables p
x
, . . ., and
2
respectively.
Thus, we obtain another algorithm to
predict the position errors of points in the
view of statistics as follows:
Algorithm 2
.
Step 1. Select assembly target feature and
datum feature.
.
Step 2. Calculate
T
d
D
d
T.
.
Step 3. Input locator errors of fixtures.
.
Step 4. Calculate fixture locating errors
using equation (2).
.
Step 5. Input geometric errors of parts to
be assembled, and process errors in
assembly.
.
Step 6. Calculate
T
a
D
a
T using equation (8).
.
Step 7. Calculate position and orientation
errors of target feature with respect to
datum feature.
.
Step 8. If continue to assemble, repeat
steps 1-7 for next assembly station.
.
Step 9. Calculate actual position errors to
be predicted using equation (15).
4. Integrated prediction algorithms with
CAD system
An assembly analysis system should include
three parts, assembly information resource,
key geometry variation prediction algorithms,
and assembly tolerance distribution strategy.
The assembly information resource provides
the geometric and tolerance information about
the parts, setup and fixture configuration,
assembly sequence, and process information.
The algorithms of predicting geometry
variations should be able to deal with the
characteristics of multiple fixture locating
errors, coupling effects of different errors, and
stack-up and propagation of all kinds of errors
in multiple subassembly stations. At the same
time, the tolerance distribution strategies
should be developed aiming at such
characteristics. Then the effective strategies
can be used to improve the assembly sequence
planning, the configuration of fixture locators,
and the assembly processes. Geometry
variation prediction algorithms and tolerance
distribution strategies are inter-dependent.
Developing the integrated geometry variation
prediction and control approach is the kernel
to improve further assembly quality control.
The framework of the system is shown in
Figure 3.
First the desired location and orientation of
parts in a product and their geometric errors
are automatically extracted from the product
CAD model with tolerance information.
Once the initial assembly sequence and
process are identified, an initial assembly
process graph and the datum flow chain
graphs of subassemblies can be constructed.
Based on the geometric error information, the
results of fixture locating error analysis,
process and connection error analyses, the
assembly error coupling and stack-up can be
described. The assembly error propagation in
multiple subassembly stations is followed to
provide information for the geometry
variation prediction. Then with the
probability distributions of all kinds of errors,
the dimensional variation prediction
algorithms can be applied to judge the key
assembly tolerance requirements. Once the
unsatisfied is identified, the assembly
tolerance distribution strategies must be
presented to improve the assembly sequence
and tolerance distribution as well as the
fixture design so that the assembly quality
control is implemented.
5. Case study
To verify the proposed algorithms of
predicting geometry variations in assembly,
two case studies are conducted for analyzing
assembly tolerances.
Case 1
In this case, two parts are welded together
into a T-node with two fixtures. Each
fixture constrains one part completely. The
tolerances of the assembly fixture pin
positions are + 0.125mm. The extrusion
surface tolerances of parts are + 0.250 mm,
and the extrusion end cut tolerances are +
0.500mm. We need to predict position errors
of ten points on the part T-node as shown
in Figure 4. To predict position errors,
algorithm 2 is applied. First, the information
of geometric features for each setup, such as
the assembly target features and datum
features, the locator errors of each fixture, and
the geometric errors of parts to be assembled,
is input into the system by using the CAD
interface. Once all inputs are set, the system
will use the embedded algorithm to calculate
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the corresponding position errors. Before
welding, the part errors are caused by part
manufacturing errors and fixturing datum
variation. Similarly, to predict position errors
after welding, the heat induced errors during
welding are input into the system. Using the
same algorithm embedded in the system, we
can obtain the corresponding position errors.
Because of the influence of three types of
factors, namely, the locator errors of fixtures,
the geometric errors of parts, and the heat
induced errors during welding, the final
position errors after welding are larger than
the ones before welding. In this case, the
number of measurement samples is 40. The
prediction results are consistent with the
measured results. Table I gives the predicted
position tolerances.
Figure 3 Integrated dimensional variation prediction and control framework
Figure 4 T-node module
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Case 2
In the second case, a front end module in the
development work in body structure is
studied, as shown in Figure 5. There are 20
parts to be welded within five subassembly
stations. In the first three stations, each
station contains two fixtures to constrain the
corresponding part to be assembled through
welding. In the later two stations, there are
more than two fixtures in each station. The
tolerances of the assembly fixture pin
positions are + 0.125mm. The extrusion
surface tolerances of parts are + 0.250mm,
and the extrusion end cut tolerances are
+ 0.500mm. The design tolerances of the
distance along x- and y-axis directions are
+ 0.4mm and + 0.3mm respectively. We
need to predict distance errors between the
left and right shock tower holes during
welding.
By using algorithm 1, the prediction errors
were obtained along x- and y-axis directions
as, before welding, + 0.363mm and
+ 0.4665mm respectively. The prediction
errors after welding are + 0.373mm and
+ 0.5135mm respectively.
From the prediction results, it can be seen
that the distance errors after welding are
larger than before welding because of heat
induced deformation during welding. The
prediction errors are out of the design
tolerance specifications. Assembly errors
depend not only on the geometric errors,
fixture locating errors and welding errors, but
also on the assembly sequences. Thus, the
planning of the assembly sequences is an
alternative and effective measure for product
quality control.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, the characteristics of error
coupling, stackup and propagation within
multiple subassembly stations are modeled
and analyzed. To develop an assembly error
prediction model, homogeneous
transformation matrices are used to represent
the location and orientation of assembly
features, parts and other related surfaces, and
use the differential transformation to describe
the location and orientation errors. Two
statistical prediction algorithms are presented.
One is for predicting the position and
orientation tolerance of any parts in the
assembly and the other is for predicting the
Table I T-node tolerance
Nominal coordinates Coordinate errors (prediction tolerances)
Point no. x y z dx dy dz
Before welding (without heat error)
1 27.54 37.52 25.40 0.06 0.25 0.26 Z
2 233.79 37.52 25.40 0.06 0.25 0.26 Z
3 235.60 75.05 0.41 0.25 0.26 0.06 Y
4 32.78 75.05 0.33 0.25 0.26 0.06 Y
5 96.81 75.05 59.08 0.15 0.33 0.11 Y
6 100.47 75.05 309.29 0.15 0.33 0.11 Y
7 74.60 42.27 203.63 0.27 0.10 0.07 X
8 125.40 35.37 186.90 0.29 0.09 0.07 X
9 99.91 48.83 25.40 0.25 0.06 0.26 Z
10 105.10 75.05 5.32 0.25 0.26 0.06 Y
After welding (with heat error)
1 27.54 37.52 25.40 0.058 0.252 0.290 Z
2 233.79 37.52 25.40 0.058 0.252 0.290 Z
3 235.60 75.05 0.41 0.252 0.291 0.058 Y
4 32.78 75.05 0.33 0.252 0.291 0.058 Y
5 96.81 75.05 59.08 0.150 0.580 0.107 Y
6 100.47 75.05 309.29 0.154 0.588 0.108 Y
7 74.60 42.27 203.63 0.556 0.100 0.065 X
8 125.40 35.37 186.90 0.567 0.092 0.067 X
9 99.91 48.83 25.40 0.253 0.058 0.290 Z
10 105.10 75.05 5.32 0.252 0.291 0.058 Y
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position errors of any points in related parts.
The case studies were conducted to verify the
two prediction algorithms. The obtained
results showed that the algorithms are
effective and reliable.
The proposed geometry variation
prediction methods have taken into account
not only the geometric errors, but also process
errors such as multiple fixture locating errors
and welding errors. Moreover, the proposed
methods are integrated with a CAD system,
which means the methods are more practical
and easy to apply.
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Dimensional variations
during Airbus wing
assembly
M. Saadat and
C. Cretin
Introduction
Very large components are more prone than
others to variations of shape and dimension.
This causes many problems in the civil
aircraft manufacturing industry, where,
despite the size of the components, the
tolerances for manufacturing and assembly
are kept very tight. The problems associated
with large components geometric variation at
the time of assembly can be inherited during
any of the preceding processes including
initial machining of rough materials to various
sub-assemblies. Further, at the assembly
stage, it is highly desirable to introduce
automation through the implementation of a
flexible jig structure. This would involve
carrying out activities such as component
handling, accurate positioning and part
fastening such as riveting, through the use of
sensors, robots and other automated
actuators. It is therefore a prerequisite of any
automation attempt to determine the sources
and amount of dimensional variations of
components that are currently being
experienced during the manual assembly
stage. However, defining which variation was
caused by which process, and on which part,
can be very tedious in a complex assembly
system that involves a large number of parts
(Ligget, 1993). Some of the most obvious
causes of variation are related to the
manufacturing processes, such as forming,
machining, fastening, but also to the
environment, such as temperature and time,
or the design due to the tolerance band.
The study of the dimensional variations
occurring in assembly starts with their
quantification. As metrology progresses, new
systems are available to measure across long
distances with very small losses in accuracy.
The older systems, such as theodolites, which
are accurate enough for use in the
construction industry, are gradually being
replaced by a new generation of optical
measurement devices using laser technology,
such as laser trackers and 3D co-ordinates
mapping systems (Metric Vision, 1995).
The authors
M. Saadat is a Lecturer and C. Cretin is a Researcher,
both at the School of Engineering, Manufacturing and
Mechanical Engineering, The University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, UK.
Keywords
Components manufacture, Measurement, Aircraft,
Assembly, Lasers
Abstract
The introduction of automation for the assembly of aircraft
wing box structures will require individual components to
conform closely to the CAD design specification with regard
to shape geometry and dimensional tolerances. Often, due
to a variety of previous manufacturing processes, the 3D
shape of these large components lose the accuracy of their
designed dimensional specifications. Under these
circumstances part-to-part assembly becomes tedious and it
would be impossible to rely on robots to achieve precise
assembly in an automated system. For this reason, variations
need to be accurately quantified in order to provide a
reliable prediction model in aid of any future automated
assembly. This paper describes the measurement method
used to record the possible variations occurring during the
assembly process. The measurements were made using a
laser tracker where the results are expected to offer some
explanations as to the causes of the variation. The suitability
of a laser tracker in a large assembly jig environment is then
assessed. This study is based on the work that was carried
out at BAE Systems UK, where the Airbus commercial
aircraft wings are manufactured.
Electronic access
available at
Research article
The authors wish to thank Airbus UK Ltd for its
sponsorship of this project, and its permission and
co-operation to allow measurement work to take
place during the production shifts at Airbus
Broughton plant, UK. The individual support
offered by Messrs Brian Turner, Raj Mistry, and
Paul Brandrick of Airbus UK is particularly
appreciated and acknowledged.
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# MCB UP Limited
.
ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436482
Measurement systems
A wing box consists of four major
components: the front spar, the rear spar, the
ribs, and the skins. The spars form the main
front and rear structures of the wing, called
the leading and trailing edge respectively. The
two spars are linked together by the ribs and
the ensemble forms the wing structure. The
skins, one on the top, the other at the bottom,
close the wing and cover the main surface of
the wing box. In assembly, the wing is held
vertically with the leading edge at the top in a
large jig structure. The jigs are designed for
easy access to all areas of the wing assembly,
and provide a strong, inflexible support for
the assembly process. The wing box
measurements described in this paper are
specific to the single aisle family of aircraft.
The jig has two levels in the first inboard half
of the wing in order to better cover its width,
and only one level in the outboard end as the
wing narrows down. The bottom floor of the
jig is inclined in order to follow the shape of
the wing since the leading edge is held
horizontally. Parts of the upper floor, closest
to the wing, can be folded back so that access
to the entire wing is possible. The structure is
schematically shown in Figure 1 (see also
Plates 1 and 2).
The measurement system must meet
certain criteria related to the size of the
component to be measured, and the required
accuracy. The accuracy of the measurement
process should be smaller than 30 per cent of
the tolerance band, as per Airbus quality
control guidelines (BAE Systems, 1998). This
represents approximately 1/30,000 of the size
of the wing. The goal of the measurement is
to compare positional data at different times,
and thus a reference system is necessary. The
system must also be able to be installed in the
same conditions at each step of the process.
The measurement process must take as little
time as possible, in order to cause as little
disruption as possible to a critical
manufacturing process. Finally, although the
jig is considered inflexible, there is a certain
amount of vibration occurring on the floor of
the jig. It is therefore necessary for the
measurement system to be separated from the
jig structure or the floor, so that any potential
movements would not affect the results of the
measurements (Fraser et al., 1999). Three
measurement systems have been considered
for this task:
(1) electronic coordinate determination
system (ECDS);
(2) photogrammetry; and
(3) laser trackers.
ECDS possesses the required range and
meets the accuracy requirements to complete
the measurements of the wing assembly.
However, the assembly jigs do not offer an
easy way to set up the ECDS stations outside
Figure 1 Wing assembly jig configuration
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of the jig environment, which makes it less
reliable if vibrations occur onto the jig floor. It
is also a slow system to set up and collect data,
which could disturb the assembly process for
a longer time than necessary.
Photogrammetry offers a very good
solution, as far as speed and accuracy are
concerned (Beyer, 1995; Clarke and Wang,
1999). It can achieve the 1/30,000 accuracy
requirement and a large amount of data can
be collected in very little time. This system
only takes a few seconds to take a picture.
Photogrammetry also offers the advantage of
being unlinked to the environment.
Therefore, any vibrations or movements
occurring on the jig floor do not affect the
results of the pictures. The size of the wing is
outside the range of the available camera, but
it is possible to cut the wing in several parts
small enough to fit inside the range of the
camera. However, the camera requires the
targets to be present on every point measured
for each shot, which proved a costly solution.
Laser trackers are the most accurate
method to measure large components. The
wing box fits easily within the range of the
trackers. The assembly jigs have been built
and set up using trackers, and hence offer the
possibility to position a laser tracker inside the
jig, but independent of its floor or structure,
so that any potential vibrations are not
transmitted to the tracker. The laser tracker
can record points one by one, making only
one target holder necessary, which makes the
set-up much cheaper than photogrammetry.
The time required to collect the data online is
greater than offline systems such as
photogrammetry, though the required time is
less than using ECDS. For these reasons a
laser tracking system was selected as the
method of measurement for this study.
Measurement methodology
In order to carry out a comparative analysis of
the results it is necessary to follow a
methodology that includes:
.
a common set of features, which can be
measured throughout the process;
.
a stable reference system that can be used
to integrate the various sets of data.
The wing box is built in five stages as follows:
(1) Complete structure assembly (ribs,
leading edge and trailing edge).
(2) Drilling of the top skin.
(3) Drilling of the bottom skin.
(4) Bolting of the bottom skin.
(5) Bolting of the top skin.
The parts are bolted in the same position as
when they were drilled since the holes
determine the location of the parts.
Therefore, only the first three stages are of
interest to this study. A common feature to
these three stages of assembly is the location
of the holes in the rib through which a bolt
will attach the panel. This point is always
available and visible from the outside of the
wing box, making it a perfect reference point
for a half-inch corner cube. However, the jig
does not permit the installation of the laser
tracker on the bottom side of the wing: there
are no independent supports for the laser
tracker on that side, and the jig structure does
not allow for a continuous line of sight
throughout the length of the wing. The latter
actually restricts any type of continuous
measurement along the wingspan
independently of the method selected. The
Plate 2 Wing section in the assembly jig (by permission
of Airbus UK Ltd)
Plate 1 Wing section removed from the jig
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measurement of the variation from the upper
side of the wing was accepted to be sufficient
for the purpose of this exercise.
Since the measurements take place from the
outside of the wing, and a skin panel is to be
mounted onto the structure, the most external
measurement position would change when a
top skin is installed. It is therefore necessary
to measure the point defined by the
intersection of the centre line of the hole and
the inside face of the rib, shown in Figure 2.
Since this point is not visible from the laser
tracker, the method of hidden points is
used, together with a dual vector target
holder, to record the position of this point.
The target consists of two corner cubes as
shown in Figure 2. The laser tracker software
is set up to record the position of both targets.
From the dimensions of the dual vector
target, the system automatically calculates the
position of the hidden point. A total of 27
points were selected on the wing as positions
to be measured, to give a general picture of
the deformation that may occur during the
installation of either skin panel.
In order to compare the results of each
measurement, it is necessary to measure in
identical co-ordinate system. The laser
tracker software offers great flexibility in this
area, and the co-ordinate system can be
recalculated each time as long as at least three
points are provided. A set of fixed known
points is necessary. The position of these
points is recorded at the beginning of each
measurement session using the default co-
ordinate system, usually based on the laser
tracker itself. The co-ordinates of these
points, in a particular reference system, are
imported from a database. By using least
square best fit transformation or axis
alignment when using a minimum 3-2-1
control configuration (Leica Geosystems,
1999), the points are transposed into the
co-ordinate of the database so that the laser
tracker can use this co-ordinate system. Since
these points are fiducial, the points measured
on the wing are not suitable. A set of five
targets was bolted onto the jig itself in order to
provide a fixed set of features. The position of
these targets was also measured in the jig
reference system, using least square best-fit
transformation method. This could eventually
be used to bring the measurements into the
wing co-ordinate system, so that the results
could be compared to the CAD design of the
wing.
Measurement procedure
The laser tracker was positioned on a
platform independent of the assembly jig. The
tracker was then left to warm up for one hour,
to ensure that the laser reached an optimal
temperature. The five reference points were
recorded using a 1in. corner cube. An
associated software then re-calculated the
co-ordinate system so that the measurements
could take place in the jig reference co-
ordinate system. This would simplify the
comparison of the results.
The customised double vector target was
then installed into the first hole, and the
tracker recorded the position of the two in.
targets. The values were stored for later use.
The target was then moved onto the next
hole, and the procedure was repeated until all
the selected points were measured. The whole
process took over four hours, although the
disruption to the assembly cycle was less than
two hours.
The actual required position of the points
had to be calculated separately, but this task
was carried out offline. The two points
recorded on the assembly were used to
generate the third point, which is placed at the
centre of the hole, on the inside face of the rib
foot, as shown in Figure 2. This uses the two
recorded points to generate the equation of a
line passing through the centre of the hole.
The associated software uses the distance
from the first measured points to the
reference, to calculate the co-ordinate of the
reference point. These co-ordinates would
then be used to calculate the deviation
between each step of the assembly process.
When the assembly of the top skin had been
completed and all holes were drilled, the laser
tracker was brought back into the jig to
measure the new position of the rib feet as
Figure 2 Customised target holder
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diagrammatically shown in steps given
Figure 3. The five reference points referred to
earlier were measured again, so that the
software could recalculate the co-ordinate
system used in the first set of measurements.
The previous set of data was loaded to the
software program so that the points to be
measured were known to the system. This
method is known as build and inspect
mode and ensures that the correct point is
measured. The tracker can find the point to
measure within a certain range, even though a
slight discrepancy may have occurred due to
the installation of the top skin. This helps
speed up the measurement process.
The custom target was then set into the first
position, and the laser tracker was able to
automatically find and record the positions of
the corner cubes. The operation was repeated
on each of the holes measured on the first set.
Figure 3 Relative positions and variations of measurement points during different stages of wing assembly
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The tracker was then taken offline, to
calculate the position of the third point,
i.e. the reference position at the centre of the
hole on the inside face of the rib foot.
Although the measurement of these points
was much quicker than during the first set,
the positioning of the double vector target was
more difficult since the skin was in the way
when attaching it at the back of the rib foot.
The whole process took the same amount of
time as in the first set.
In the assembly jig, the top skin was
removed for deburring in order to offer an
easier access to the structure. The bottom
skin was then installed onto the structure.
After the holes were drilled and the panels
were slaved to the structure, the laser tracker
was brought back into the jig and was set up
to measure in the same co-ordinate system as
before. This is described in the steps shown
on the right hand side of Figure 3. The same
search feature was used as for the top skin,
which greatly improved the required time to
record the position of the two targets for each
hole. Since the top skin had been temporarily
removed, the measurement process was much
faster this time, and the disruption time was
reduced to one-and-a-half hours. The
software then calculates the third hidden
point offline.
Results and analysis
The results represent a set of co-ordinates
for a limited number of points of the wing
box assembly at different stages of the final
assembly. Each set of measurements uses
the same co-ordinate system, which was
created from the five fiducial points
described previously. For comparison
purposes, the first set of points, describing
the position of the ribs in the structure
without panels, were used as the reference.
The data from the two other sets were
imported separately from the first set of
data. The co-ordinate system is adjusted
using uniform weighting for each of the five
fixed points used as reference (Meid, 1999).
This method proves to be the most accurate.
It is, however, necessary to consider the
amount of error which is introduced by the
various changes of reference system by least
square best fit transformation (Calkins and
Salerno, 2000).
The software calculates the distance
between the points from the first set to the
points of the second set. These distances
represent the variation occurring between two
sets of measurements, i.e. the variation after
the top or the bottom panels are installed onto
the structure. Figure 3 shows graphs of the
average variation in terms of distance during
assembly corresponding to the measured
points given in the diagrams on their right
hand side. In this figure, variations of distance
are given for rear, centre, and front of the
wing. Variations occur at different directions
in space.
The installation of the top skin onto the
structure leads to some variations in the root
end area (i.e. area close to the fuselage)
especially toward the leading edge in the axis
parallel to the direction of flight. However,
the results suggest that the wings central area
is more prone to deformation than its edges in
the direction perpendicular to the line of
flight. There is also a noticeable variation in
the direction perpendicular to the skin, which
suggests that the rib is either pulled or pushed
by the panel, depending on the position along
the wing.
The installation of the bottom skin has a
certain effect on the opposite side of the ribs.
In both perpendicular and parallel directions
to the direction of flight, the variation is small,
though noticeably more significant near the
inboard end than toward the outboard end of
the wing. The data suggest that the bottom
skin tends to bend the ribs slightly toward the
inboard end. The bottom skin, similar to the
top skin, has a greater effect on the direction
perpendicular to the panels than any other
direction, which suggest that the installation
of the panels alters the profile described by
the outer edge of the ribs.
Although the laser trackers are extremely
accurate in laboratory environments, their use
on a shop floor can be subjected to larger
errors than expected (Calkins and Salerno,
2000). The discrepancies between the various
measurements, which have caused large
standard errors in some of the results, are due
to errors generated by the measurement
process. Although the laser tracker is a very
accurate measurement system, considering
the range of the equipment, its own
calibration is critical to the accuracy of the
results. The target holders could also be held
partly responsible. The holes that were used
to hold the customised target holder are
mostly pilot holes, and therefore their
accuracy in terms of diameter and direction is
questionable. It was necessary to use these
points for the measurement process since it
was the only feature available to measure the
overall profile of the wing during the various
stages of assembly. The dual target vector and
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hidden point method was necessary due to
the installation of the top skin, which hides
the hole from the trackers view. Although it
could have been possible to offset the skin
thickness, the variable thickness of the panel
along the wingspan would have made this a
very tedious operation and would not have led
to more accurate results than the hidden
point method.
The measurements were carried out on
three different assembly jigs. Although the
tolerance band for the assembly of the jigs is
relatively small, it is possible that the
differences between each of the three jigs
caused a slight difference in the way the rib
deforms under the installation of the skin
panels. Another factor influencing variation
is the environmental condition in which the
measurements were carried out. The
temperature differences during
measurement periods for each set is less
than 48C. This should not greatly affect the
variation considering that the wing
components are made of an aluminium-
based alloy with a coefficient of expansion of
24mm/m/K. Over the entire 20m length of
the wing these values would lead to an
expansion of less than 2mm, which is
insufficient to explain the lack of
repeatability in the position of the rib foot,
and its variation between each built.
It was possible to measure various other
components such as the rib profile during the
measurements of the structure. Several rib
surfaces were scanned in order to assess the
initial alignment of the rib between the front
and rear spar in the assembly jig. The results
of these measurements show that the rib does
not stand perfectly aligned between the two
spars caused by the misalignment of the two
flanges onto which the rib is attached.
Similarly, from the data provided by the
supplier responsible for the forming of the
skin panel, it appears that the curvature of the
panel is subject to large variations. These are
explained by the difficulties encountered in
the shot peening of large components as well
as the relatively large tolerance band allocated
to this process.
Conclusions
Use of a laser tracker is the preferred solution
for the in-production measurement of large
components due to its advantages, including
accuracy, target design costs, and the
provision of a customised holder. The
accuracy requirements for this study allowed
the use of the absolute distance meter (ADM)
when recording the second and third sets of
points for each wing in order to save time.
The ADM method may not always be
suitable, since the accuracy of the results is
affected. There are several methods available
to calculate the uncertainty introduced by the
various methods of measurement available
when using a laser tracker. However, if such a
measurement was to take place on a regular
basis, the laser tracker may not be so
appealing a solution. Laser trackers are far
more expensive than photogrammetry,
although the number of required targets by
photogrammetry is much greater. This would
increase the costs involved in the manufacture
of the targets.
References
BAE Systems (1998), Airbus UK metrology guidelines,
Measurement Handbook, Airbus UK internal
document, BAe Samlesbury, Refs MA&A-QA-MH-
0001 and DIN 2257.
Beyer, H. A. (1995), Digital photogrammetry in industrial
applications, IAPRS, Vol. 30, Part 5W1, ISPRS
Intercommission Workshop: From Pixels to
Sequences, 22-24 March, Zurich.
Calkins, J.M. and Salerno, R.J. (2000), A practical method
for evaluating measurement system uncertainty,
Boeing Large Scale Metrology Conference, CA.
Clarke, T. and Wang, X. (1999), An embedded metrology
system for aerospace applications, CMSC 99,
26-30 July, Seattle.
Fraser, C.S., Morrison, R. and Kinzel, R. (1999),
Deformation measurement of the worlds largest
electric ring motor, CMSC 99, Seattle, 26-30 July.
Leica Geosystems (1999), Axyz Training Manual for
Tracker, Ref. 712390, Version 1.3.0, AG,
Switzerland. .
Ligget, J.V. (1993), Dimensional Variation Management
Handbook A Guide for Quality, Design and
Manufacturing Engineers, Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ.
Meid, A. (1999), Individual vs uniform weighting of
measurements and constraints in industrial
measurement networks, Leica Geosystems, CMSC
98, Saint Louis, 6-10 July.
Metric Vision (1995), Non-contact Large-envelope
Precision Measurement: CLR 100 3D Co-ordinate
Mapping System, Metric Vision document, Gateway
95, Newington, VA.
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FAS scheduling based
on operation flexibility
Rong-Lei Sun
Youlun Xiong
Runsheng Du and
Han Ding
1. Introduction
Digitization is considered as one of the most
important features of future manufacturing.
Interconnected networks have made it
possible for a product to be manufactured at
one place, which may be far away from where
the product is designed. Moreover, the
equipment used to produce a product in one
factory may be different from what is used to
produce the same product in another factory.
This implies that the process plan of a
product may differ from one factory to
another. In order to adapt to the changes of
the manufacturing environment it is not
sufficient any more for process planners to
provide only the optimal process plan that is
suitable to a particular manufacturing system.
Actually, they should provide for
manufacturers all possible process plans and
leave the selection of an executable process
plan to the manufacturing procedure. By so
doing, maximum processing flexibility
provided by a product is maintained. During
the manufacturing procedure, a scheduler can
select from the candidate plans the one that is
most suitable to a particular manufacturing
system. In some cases the selection is even
performed dynamically, according to the state
of the manufacturing system.
Even for a particular manufacturing system,
there are benefits from multiple process plans
in terms of reducing completion time,
decreasing load unbalance of the working
equipment, and quickly responding to
unpredictable events. Some investigations
demonstrate that the performance of flexible
manufacturing systems is improved
significantly if multiple process plans are
provided (Gindy and Ratchev, 1998; Gindy
et al., 1999; Kim et al., 1997; Kim and
Egbelu, 1999; Sun et al., 2001).
Under the framework of the new generation
of manufacturing systems, such as agile
manufacturing, holonic manufacturing and
multi-agent manufacturing, etc., the
machining equipment is more or less
intelligent, autonomous and co-operative
(Kim et al., 1997; Kim and Egbelu, 1999;
The authors
Rong-Lei Sun is a PhD student and Youlun Xiong,
Runsheng Du and Han Ding are Professors in the
School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Peoples
Republic of China.
Keywords
Flexible assembly, Scheduling, Operations planning,
Evaluation
Abstract
Multiple assembly sequences can increase the flexibility of
assembly systems and consequently lead to better
performance. The relationship between multiple assembly
sequences and their impact on the performance of
assembly systems are studied. Based on the concept of
operation flexibility, this paper presents a flexibility
measure to evaluate each operation sequence. A
flexibility-based criterion is proposed to prioritize each
operation, which is then used to guide the assembly
scheduling. A simulation study demonstrates that when
using the criterion, higher system flexibility is achieved
and consequently better performance of the assembly
systems is obtained.
Electronic access
available at
Research article
The research work was supported by the National
Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 59990470, 59985004) and by the National
863 Hi-Tech Plan of China (Grant No.
2001AA412140). It was also supported by the Key
Lab of Intelligent Manufacturing Technology of
National Education Ministry.
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# MCB UP Limited
.
ISSN 0144-5154
DOI 10.1108/01445150210436491
Sun et al., 2001). Such a manufacturing
paradigm not only provides a mechanism to
make full use of alternative process plans, but
also requires multiple process plans to
support its negotiation or bid mechanism. It is
clear that the multiple process plans are also
requested by the new generation of
manufacturing systems.
Some researchers recognize that process
alternatives are crucial to improve the
performance of manufacturing systems, and
take into account multiple process plans in
their studies (Gindy and Ratchev, 1998;
Gindy et al., 1999; Kim et al., 1997; Kim and
Egbelu, 1999; Sun et al., 2001). A typical
method is to select from all feasible plans the
optimal one suitable to a particular
manufacturing system. When the system is
changed (such as changes of orders, machine
breakdown, etc.), it needs to re-select another
optimal process plan. One major drawback of
the scheme is lack of adaptability to
unpredicted events. Also the optimal solution
must be recalculated for every different
manufacturing system.
Another method commonly adopted to deal
with multiple plans is to take all possible
process plans into consideration throughout
the manufacturing process (Kim et al., 1997;
Kim and Egbelu, 1999). That is, the shop
managers do not select an optimal plan in
advance. The process plan which is selected is
dynamically determined according to the
real-time state of the manufacturing system.
During the decision-making procedure, all
candidate plans are treated equally. They are
assigned equal priority to be selected.
However, from the viewpoint of operation
flexibility (Tsourveloudis and Phillis, 1998),
when a manufacturing procedure is used with
a different process plan it will lead to a
different operation flexibility. Some lead to
higher flexibility while others lead to lower.
Thus the manufacturing process should use
the plan with the highest flexibility. Sun et al.
(2001) go one step further with this research
direction. They prioritized multiple operation
sequences using a decision space method. But
in a multi-phase decision-making procedure,
what we need to determine is which operation
will be performed at the next step, rather than
select a whole operation sequence.
This paper focuses on prioritizing assembly
operations when multiple assembly sequences
are available in flexible assembly systems
(FASs). We study the relationship between
multiple operation sequences and provide a
flexibility measure for operation sequences. A
criterion is proposed to prioritize operations
(rather than sequences), which can be used to
guide the decision-making procedure during
production scheduling such that there is
adequate flexibility at each decision point.
Experimental results demonstrate the
efficiency of the criterion when it is used as a
scheduling heuristic for FASs. It may improve
flexibility of assembly systems, and
furthermore, improve the performance of
systems. The rest of the paper is organized as
follows. First, in the next section, we outline a
framework integrating scheduling and process
planning. In section 3, we represent multiple
operation sequences as a tree and study
flexibility of operation sequences. A criterion
used to prioritize operations is proposed in
section 4. Simulation experiments and
experimental results are introduced in
section 5. Finally, in the last section, we
conclude the whole paper.
2. Framework integrating scheduling
and process planning
Use of alternative process plans under the
FAS environment needs integration of
relevant techniques. Figure 1 depicts such a
proposed framework. Functions of major
components are briefly introduced in the
following sub-sections.
The assembly planner receives product data
from the CAD model and outputs:
.
Assembly sequence plans, which are then
sent to the scheduler.
.
Assembly operation plans, which are then
sent to machine controllers (MCs), where
the operation plans are analyzed and
transformed to instructions controlling
the assembly stations to perform the
assembly operations.
The scheduler receives the assembly sequence
plans and real-time states of the assembly line
from the assembly planner and the FAS
respectively. Then it outputs instructions
scheduling the FAS.
A prototyping system of the assembly
planner is being developed and some initial
results have been obtained (Niu et al., 2001;
Xiong et al., 1998, 1999). This paper,
however, focuses on FAS scheduling.
278
FAS scheduling based on operation flexibility
Rong-Lei Sun, Youlun Xiong, Runsheng Du and Han Ding
Assembly Automation
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3. Representation and flexibility
evaluation of multiple assembly
sequences
Multiple assembly sequences are usually
formulated as a tree (Figure 2), which is
called a plan tree of assembly sequences (or
plan tree for short). A node in the tree
represents an assembly operation. An edge
represents the precedence relationship
between the two assembly operations
connected by the edge. A path starting with
the root and ending at a leaf represents an
assembly sequence plan. A sub-path starting
with a node other than the root and ending at
a leaf represents an assembly sequence sub-
plan. For dynamic scheduling in FASs the
assembly procedure for a product is
transformed to a multi-phase decision-making
procedure when assembly sequences are
formulated as a tree. Each time a node is
processed the scheduling system needs to
determine which sub-node of the node will be
processed next. In most research articles each
sub-node is assigned with the same priority
and has the same opportunity to be selected at
decision points. This method is not
recommended since the flexibility of the
manufacturing systems is affected
significantly by the operation sequence
selected. For example, in Figure 2, after node
3 has been processed, if both nodes 7 and 8
can be processed next, we would rather select
node 8 than node 7 by intuition.
Definition 1
Operation flexibility of a product refers to the
ease of changing the sequence of operations
Figure 1 Framework integrating scheduling and process planning
Figure 2 A plan tree of assembly sequences
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that are required to manufacture the product
(Tsourveloudis and Phillis, 1998).
It is worth noticing that the operation
flexibility depicts possible assembly sequences
derived from the product CAD model. It is
the outcome of assembly sequence planning
and is sent to the scheduler in the proposed
framework in Figure 1. Operation flexibility is
quantified using the number of different
assembly sequences by which the product
may be assembled. When the assembly
sequences are formulated as a tree, the
operational flexibility of a product is equal to
the number of paths (or leaves) existing in the
tree.
Definition 2
In a plan tree of assembly sequences, the
number of leaves covered by a sub-tree
starting with node i is called the flexibility of
the node i.
According to the definition we have that
the operation flexibility of a product
decreases monotonously when the product
is being assembled. For example, in Figure
2, consider assembly sequence S1. The
product has maximal operation flexibility at
the beginning. It has in total nine possible
assembly sequences. When node 1 has been
processed, its operational flexibility drops to
four, which means there are four possible
assembly sequences remaining after nodes 0
and 1 have been processed. Further, after
the leaf 1 is processed, the assembly
procedure of the product has been finished
and there is no possible assembly sequence
to be selected.
Node flexibility represents the remaining
operation flexibility of a product when some
operations are finished. In a plan tree of
assembly sequences, node flexibility is labeled
in the circle representing the node.
Since multiple assembly sequences can
efficiently improve the performance of FASs,
the operation flexibility should be maintained
as much as possible. For a rule-based
dynamic scheduler, however, scheduling is
fulfilled through a multi-phase decision-
making procedure. That is, when a node has
been processed, the scheduling system must
determine which sub-node will be processed
next. Thus, what we are really interested in is
whether or not there are an adequate amount
of sub-nodes at each decision point.
Therefore, the assembly procedure for a
product should follow an assembly sequence
that satisfies the following:
.
It has totally reasonable flexibility.
.
The flexibility is distributed uniformly
among the nodes locating in the
sequence.
For such an assembly sequence, each node
has an adequate amount of candidate
operations from which a node can be selected
as the next operation. When the assembly
procedure is performed along with the
sequence, it will increase the flexibility of
FASs.
4. Evaluation of node priority
Definition 3
Let OP
0
, OP
1
, . . . , OP
n
be a path of a plan
tree of assembly sequences. Let F
0
, F
1
, . . . , F
n
be the node flexibility of node OP
0
, OP
1
, . . . ,
OP
n
respectively.
r
1
n
X
n
i1
F
i
F
i1
is called flexibility reduction rate of the path (or
flexibility reduction rate of the assembly
sequence).
Node priority
In a plan tree of assembly sequences, the
priority of node i is denoted by w
i
, which is
the average flexibility reduction rate of the
paths including node i. During the decision-
making procedure a node is with higher
priority if it has lower w.
For example, in Figure 2, the flexibility
reduction rate of path S1, S5, S7 and S8 can
be calculated as follows:
r
1

1
4
4
9
2
4
1
2
0
1

; 0:361
r
5

1
4
2
9
2
2
1
2
0
1

0:431
r
1

1
4
3
9
1
3
1
1
0
1

0:417;
r
8

1
4
3
9
2
3
1
2
0
1

0:375
The priority of node 1, 2 and 3 is:
w
1
= (r
1
+ r
2
+ r
3
+ r
4
)/4 = 0.361;
w
2
= (r
5
+ r
6
)/2 = 0.431;
w
3
= (r
7
+ r
8
+ r
9
)/3 = 0.403.
Thus, the node 1 has the highest priority
while the node 2 has the lowest priority.
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By defining the node priority, the
scheduling system can select a node with the
highest priority at each decision point so as to
increase the flexibility of assembly systems,
and furthermore, improve the performance of
assembly systems.
5. Simulation study
Consider an FAS consisting of three assembly
stations and three kinds of products. Product
1 includes four assembly operations: OP
1
,
OP
2
, OP
3
, OP
4
; product 2 includes four
assembly operations: OP
2
, OP
4
, OP
5
, OP
6
;
product 3 includes four assembly operations:
OP
3
, OP
4
, OP
5
, OP
6
. Each product has
multiple operation sequences that are
depicted in Figure 3. Each assembly station
can perform at least one operation. Assembly
time needed by an assembly station to
perform an operation is shown in Table I.
The assembly procedure is scheduled using
rule-based dynamically scheduling system.
Combination priority rule is as follows.
(1) Select an operation with highest priority
(i.e. lowest w).
(2) Select an operation with lowest
competition degree[1].
(3) The assembly station with the most
processing efficiency wins the
competition when several stations
compete for the same operation.
For comparison, we conduct experiments
under two conditions: considering operation
flexibility (experiment 1) and not considering
operation flexibility (experiment 2). The
experimental results are depicted in Figures 4
and 5 respectively. Performances obtained
from the experiments are summarized in
Table II. From the experimental results we
can conclude that the performances of the
assembly system are improved significantly
when considering operation flexibility.
6. Conclusions
Multiple assembly sequences can increase
the flexibility of assembly systems and
Figure 3 Plan trees of assembly sequences for products 1, 2 and 3
Table I Assembly time of operations performed on
stations
Station 1 Station 2 Station 3
OP1 50 60
OP2 120 100
OP3 110 130 120
OP4 60 70
OP5 100 70
OP6 100 110
Figure 4 Gantt chart of experiment 1
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consequently lead to better performance.
We studied the relationship between
multiple assembly sequences and their
impact on the performance of assembly
systems. Based on the concept of operation
flexibility, we present a flexibility measure to
evaluate each assembly sequence. A
flexibility-based criterion is proposed to
prioritize each operation, which is then used
to guide the decision-making procedure
during assembly scheduling. Simulation
study demonstrates that when using the
criterion we may increase system flexibility
and consequently improve the performance
of assembly systems. Scheduling based on
operational flexibility is a sophisticated
problem. In this paper, only the precedence
constraint is considered in the plan tree. To
make this method more practical, it should
take into account the complexity of each
operation and the time needed to perform an
operation.
Note
1 Competition degree of operation: the number of idle
stations that can process the operation at current
instant.
References
Gindy, N.N.Z. and Ratchev, S.M. (1998), Integrated
framework for selection of machining equipment in
CIM, Int. J. Computer Integrated Manufacturing,
Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 311-25.
Gindy, N.N., Saad, S.M. and Yue, Y. (1999), Manufacturing
responsiveness through integrated process planning
and scheduling, Int. J. Production Research, Vol. 37
No. 11, pp. 2399-418.
Kim, K.H. and Egbelu, P.J. (1999), Scheduling in a
production environment with multiple process plans
per job, Int. J. Production Research, Vol. 37 No. 12,
pp. 2725-53.
Kim, K.H., Song, J.Y. and Wang, K.H. (1997), A
negotiation based scheduling for items with flexible
process plans, Computers Ind. Engng, Vol. 33,
No. 3/4, pp. 785-8.
Niu, X., Ding, H. and Xiong, Y. (2001), A virtual
prototyping approach to assembly sequence
planning, Proceedings of 2001 International
Conference on eCommerce Engineering: New
Challenges for Global Manufacturing in the 21st
Century, 16-18 September, Xian.
Sun, R.L., Ding, H. and Xiong, Y.L. (2001), Decision space
approach to operation selection considering
alternative assembly sequences, Proceedings of 2001
International Conference on eCommerce Engineering:
New Challenges for Global Manufacturing in the 21st
Century, 16-18 September, Xian.
Tsourveloudis, N.C. and Phillis, Y.A. (1998),
Manufacturing flexibility measurement: a fuzzy
logic framework, IEEE Trans. on Robotics and
Xiong, C.H. and Xiong, Y. (1998), Stability index and
contact configuration planning for multifingered
grasp, J. of Robotic Systems, Vol. 15 No. 4,
pp.183-90.
Xiong, C.H., Li, Y.F. and Xiong, Y. et al. (1999), Grasp
capability analysis of multifingered robot hands,
Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 27 No. 4,
pp. 211-22.
Table II Performance comparison considering and not considering operation
flexibility
Average Average Load
Completion time assembly utilization unbalance
Average Maximal time (%) (%)
Experiment 1 346.7 360 346.7 96.3 2.56
Experiment 2 360.0 390 343.3 88.0 14.24
Figure 5 Gantt chart of experiment 2
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Mini features
Delphi uses Negari system to support
lean manufacturing and provide
production flexibility
Keywords Automation, Assembly, Automotive
Modular Automation, from Birmingham, has
designed and built a new semi-automatic
assembly system for Delphi Diesel, of
Sudbury, that complies with the companys
lean manufacturing principles (see Plate 1).
The system is the fourth line supplied by
Modular Automation for the same
application. The three previous lines were
supplied while the company was Lucas Diesel
Systems.
The system assembles diesel injector units
to the correct tolerance by using precision
shims to compensate for machining
limitations and the inevitable variations in the
tension of the springs used in the injector
body. By choosing a shim of exactly the
correct thickness, Delphi can vary the
opening pressure of the valve to achieve a
complete injector assembly that operates
correctly first time. The injectors are
subsequently wet tested to verify that
accuracy.
The additional line is a direct response to an
increasing demand for Delphis products. At
each stage, Modular Automation has
respected Delphis principle of balancing the
relative benefits of automation against manual
assembly. There is no doubt that it is
technically possible for all operations to be
performed automatically, however, Delphis
lean manufacturing principles require that
automation is only introduced where there is
a clear quality and economic case to do so.
The new system operates on a Negari
principle, which allows production volumes to
be varied depending on the number of
operators allocated to the line. A single
operator can operate all machines in
sequence; however, up to four operators can
work on the same line to create a
proportionate increase in production rates.
This system is intended to provide the
production flexibility needed to support the
three machines already in service and react
quickly to fluctuations in demand for the
product. When the product eventually is
withdrawn from service, the Negari line will
be able to provide service components
precisely to reflect demand with the minimum
of downtime.
Modular Automation has vast experience at
developing innovative assembly systems using
a modular approach and trusted technology.
By approaching its business in this practical
way it ensures that its systems are realistically
priced, effective and utterly reliable.
Enquiries to: William Bourn, Modular
Automation, Talbot Way, Small Heath
Business Park, Birmingham, B10 0HS, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)121 766 7979; Fax: +44 (0)121
766 6385; E-mail: bourn@modular.co.uk
PHASA assembly is key to productivity
Keywords Plastics, Rivets
A PHASA 20/40 series machine producing 90
off riveted fixings every cycle is the key to high
productivity on critical assemblies at the heart
of central locking control units for
Scandinavian vehicle manufacturer Saab (see
Plate 2).
The equipment, from Harlow-based
PHASA Developments, is used to secure
moulded key fob housings to PCB
motherboards, which are nested together to
allow 30 individual units to be processed in a
single cycle. In operation, the motherboards
are first mounted in a special-purpose
turnover fixture. Individual key fob housings
are then positioned onto the PCB from above,
using three moulded pegs for location. The
fixture subsequently clamps the components
in position, before inverting them ready for
the hot air staking process.
Plate 1 The new manufacturing system for Delphi Diesel of Sudbury,
designed and built by Modular Automation, complies with the companys
lean manufacturing principles
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Mini features Assembly Automation
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During the PHASA machines automatic
cycle, a custom-designed manifold
arrangement directs air at 3008C precisely
over the 1.5mm diameter pegs to bring them
to their plastic state. Cold forming tools then
reshape them into riveted heads, which cool
and solidify to produce a permanent,
vibration proof fastening.
According to PHASAs John Neugebauer,
the development of the latest equipment for
Saab follows the success of a similar contract
for Rover. We have proven the suitability of
plastic hot air staking for this type of work
over a number of years. Our track record
includes refining the process to produce more
than 200 fixings in a single operation. As a
result, customers throughout the
telecommunications, IT and domestic
appliance sectors can undertake PCB
assembly applications extremely
cost-effectively.
The systems ability to assemble 30 off
units within a single 16 second cycle is a key
factor in achieving our customers required
production rates. What is more, this
capability is backed by inherent repeatability
and consistency, which enables C
pk
figures in
excess of 2.0 to be achieved by most users
the equivalent of less than one reject per
million operations.
Hot air staking not only offers a simple and
effective method of producing permanent,
low-cost fastenings, but is also suitable for the
pre-loading of seals, or the retention of
bearings and threaded inserts, he continues:
It has therefore become a first choice
assembly method for thermoplastic materials
across a wide range of automotive industry
applications from lamp assemblies to
interior trim retention.
For more information contact:
International House, Horsecroft Road,
Harlow, Essex CM19 55U, UK. Tel: +44 (0)
1279 630200; Fax: +44 (0) 1279 630222. E-
mail: sales@phasa.co.uk; www: phasa.co.uk
Moving parts can be built pre-assembled
by automated prototyping system
Stratasys has introduced the Prodigy Plus
2
,
an office-based prototyping system that
incorporates the automated support-removal
system called WaterWorks
2
. This system
uses a water-based solution to simply dissolve
the models temporary support structures,
which eliminates the need for manual
removal. Besides automating the process, it
lets users build models with complex
geometry, smaller features, and finer detail.
With WaterWorks, users can make models
with moving parts that are built
pre-assembled. It allows the creation of
intricate parts that are impossible to build
otherwise. The system is based on the
platform of the companys successful Prodigy
system, introduced in 2000.
Besides the soluble support removal system,
Prodigy Plus is outfitted with Insight
2
preprocessing software developed for
Stratasys higher-end systems. The
proprietary software offers users a high degree
of control over workflow and model building.
For efficiency, the software lets users build
multiple parts simultaneously. At the users
workstation, Insight reports system status,
job-build status, and a build log, which
includes material used, material required, and
material remaining. When a model is
complete, Insight notifies the user by e-mail
or pager.
For too long, the features of higher-end
RP systems have been out-of-reach for many
Plate 2 Plastic hot air staking technology from PHASA
Developments has been selected for the production of
critical PCB assemblies at the heart of central locking
control units for Scandinavian vehicle manufacturer Saab
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organizations, says product manager Mary
Stanley. It is part of our mission here at
Stratasys to lower the cost of modeling and
prototyping to make it cost-effective for a
broader market. Offering hands-free support
removal in a lower price system is proof we
are on track.
Prodigy Plus is quiet, safe, and compact.
Like all Stratasys equipment, it requires no
special facilities or venting and involves no
hazardous materials or byproducts. It has a
build envelope of 8 6 8 612 in. (203 6 203
6 305mm) and measures 27 6 34 6 41in.
(686 6 864 6 1,041mm). The system has
three options for surface-finish resolution:
fine, standard, or draft. Its software operates
on the Windows NT or 2000 platforms.
Stratasys systems typically represent the
lowest total cost of ownership among the
major rapid prototyping suppliers.
For further information contact:Stratasys
Inc. Corporate, 14950 Martin Drive, Eden
Prairie, Minnesota, USA 55344-2020. Tel.
+1 9529373000; Fax: +1 9529370070; www:
stratasys.com
ElectRelease electrically dis-bonding
epoxy
Keywords Adhesives, Disassembly
A high strength adhesive that, despite its
tenacious bond, can be separated or
dis-bonded by the application of a low dc
voltage is now available commercially under
the name ElectRelease.
ElectRelease is a two-part, room
temperature curing, epoxy with a lap shear
strength of 2,500psi that bonds to most
metals used in industrial or scientific
application including aluminium alloys,
stainless steel and copper (see Plate 3).
When subjected to a low dc voltage the
bond at the positive surface releases cleanly
and quickly.
The development of ElectRelease was
originally stimulated by the need to attach,
and subsequently remove without damage or
blemish, test equipment to the exterior of
supersonic aircraft.
Now in full-scale production, ElectRelease
is already in evaluation for a wide variety of
commercial and industrial applications
including automotive, aerospace, ship
building and environmental monitoring
systems.
Technical data, applications advice, and
further information are available from:
Electromotif Ltd.
Contact: Don Haydon, Electromotif Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8296 0650; Fax: +44 (0)20
8296 0649; E-mail: info@electromotif.co.uk
Pedal power through laser transmission
welding
Keywords Laser welding, Automotive
A high power, direct diode laser transmission
welding system, from Herfurth Laser
Technology, of Coventry, is being used by
Birkbys Plastics Ltd in the manufacture of a
new, electronic throttle control (ETC) pedal
assembly for motor vehicles. The pedal,
which is manufactured as a glass-filled nylon
moulding, is being fitted initially to certain
Ford models but it has wide-ranging
application in the automotive industry (see
Plate 4).
Birkbys Plastics, of Liversedge, has an
international reputation as a designer,
manufacturer and assembler of plastic
components for the automotive and business
electronics markets, using state-of-the-art
technology. Its new ETC pedal features an
integrated, rather than a bolt-on, sensor,
making it compact, economical and
tamperproof compared with competitive
systems. When it is operated by the vehicle
Plate 3 ElectRelease
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driver, a demand signal is transmitted to the
engine management system, which compares
it with the ignition map, allowing the engine
to be precisely fuelled to optimise efficiency,
in terms of economy, performance and
emissions.
The integration of the sensor within the
pedal housing relies on welding the
electronics pot precisely in position.
Because the pot needs to be exactly located
and zeroed, it was impractical to achieve the
weld between the two plastic components by
vibration welding. Furthermore, because
two different grades of glass-filled nylon,
with two different melting points, are used
for the pot and the pedal, it was also
impossible to weld the components together
using heating techniques and ultrasonic
welding.
The solution to the problem was found in
direct diode, laser transmission welding. This
technology relies on the fact that a joint can
be produced between two plastic components
if one component transmits high power laser
energy and the other absorbs it. In many
cases, the strength of such a joint can exceed
that of the parent materials. In addition,
unlike conventional laser welding techniques
for plastics, which employ fibre optics, high
power direct diode laser welding can generate
a beam width of up to 20mm. Furthermore,
the diode array ensures that sufficient, evenly
distributed, controlled energy can be
delivered across this beam width to achieve
the weld required.
After successful trials at Herfurth Laser
Technologys development centre at the
University of Warwick, a direct diode laser
transmission welding system has been
supplied to AB Precision Ltd (ABP), one of
the UKs leading automation specialists, for
incorporation into an automated assembly,
weld and test line, which they have purpose-
designed and built for Birkbys. The welding
system carries out the welding of the two
glass-filled nylon components of the
electronic control throttle pedal assembly. It
produces a 3mm wide weld and also
hermetically seals the pot within the pedal. It
is robot-mounted to ensure replicability of the
welding operation and requires no bespoke
tooling.
Enquiries: Richard Icke, Herfurth Laser
Technology Ltd, Barclays Venture Centre,
University of Warwick Science Park, Sir
Williams Lyons Rd, Coventry CV4 7EZ, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 2476 323088; Fax: +44 (0) 2476
323001.
Yellow goods laser
Keywords Lasers, Cutting
In 1951 the late Basil Thwaites unveiled his
first dumper-truck. Fifty years on the
company which continues to bear his name is
still the worlds leading producer of such
vehicles exporting them to more than 70
countries.
In the late 1990s, some time after most
manufacturers of off-road vehicles had
already embraced laser technology, two
factors emerged to alter this situation one
general, and one specific. In general, more
powerful lasers were now available these
enabled both the cutting of thicker materials,
and the cutting of medium gauges of material
much faster than before. Also in Thwaites
particular case a new Unigraphics CAD
system had been installed, in preparation for
the design of a new product range. These new
products could be designed from the outset
with laser profiling in mind. The production
freedom offered by laser-processing would
allow Thwaites designers to realise more of
Plate 4 The electronic control pedal, which is
assembled with the aid of direct diode laser
transmission welding from Herfurth Laser Technology
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the potential of their new CAD system than
any other cutting process would.
Further benefits factored into their
justification included an improved material
utilisation needed to offset rising material
costs. The flying-optic approach to cutting
did not necessitate sheet clamping. It also
enabled the cut-widths and skeleton web-
thicknesses on sheet nests to be reduced
compared with their old Plasmapress and
oxy-propane cutting nests. Additionally, the
tool-free nature of the process enabled them
to place lower batch size orders onto the shop
leading to inventory and other production-
control benefits. A further production
advantage over their existing facilities was
provided by an automatic pallet-exchange
system, combined with the ability to run a
laser machine unmanned into the night at the
end of a late shift (Plate 5).
The idea of using tongues and slots in
respective components to enable jig-free
assembly is far from new. But at Thwaites
they have taken this idea to new heights or
should one say depths by cashing-in on a
Trumpf lasers ability to produce narrow
slots in their thick plate components. In many
instances welding jigs have been eliminated,
but even the remaining jigs are now much
simplified, by using this tongue and slot
technique particularly in the area of vehicle
sub-frame assembly. Jig elimination,
although most noticeable among the major
sub-assemblies, is by no means confined to
this area. According to John Tebaldi, it is also
significant in the detail production area. On
older machine models, any components
thicker than about 10mm were profiled on
their gas-cutting machine. This meant that
any holes needed in them had to be
subsequently drilled. Also, even on thinner
parts, if any small holes were required i.e.
holes smaller in diameter than plate thickness,
then they also had to be drilled rather than
punched. However, on their new model, holes
and slots as small as 40 per cent of plate
thickness are now produced by laser, at the
same time as the larger profiles. Not only has
this eliminated second-ops with all their
extra handlings, setups, and machining times
but it has also eliminated literally dozens of
drilling jigs on this one new model alone.
Another envisaged benefit, which Thwaites
can now confirm, is a reduced manning
requirement when compared with their other
machines. One feature of the L3030 which
they do exploit is its ability to run unmanned
into the night, without any operator
involvement, and without any of the other
control and management resources usually
associated with running an FMS or
lights-out facility. At the end of the late
shift the operator makes sure that the machine
is loaded with two fresh sheets of raw
material. One goes into the cubicle for
cutting, and one onto the second pallet ready
for use. On completion of the first sheet, the
pallets exchange and the second job is cut. On
completion of the second job, the machine
shuts itself down in a controlled and safe
manner ready for unload next morning.
Obviously, when working in this lights-out
mode they only load proven work, but by
choosing long-cycle jobs usually in their
slower-profiling, thicker materials of up to
20mm they can often obtain two or three
hours per night of free production: in fact
up to six hours has been achieved.
For more information contact: Trumpf
Limited, President Way, Airport Executive
Park, Luton, Beds, LU2 9NL, UK. Tel: +44
(0) 1582 725335; Fax: +44 (0) 1582 399250.
AGCO schedules tractor assembly with
Tecnomatix eM-Power sequencer
Keywords JIT, Production management
As the complexity of tractors has increased in
recent years, so has the problem of scheduling
production. To avoid bottlenecks on the final
assembly line it is necessary to schedule the
release of production orders in a way that
allows for the impact on workload as each
machine moves through the production line.
This is achieved by sequencing the orders, a
Plate 5 Thwaites choose Trumpfs L3030
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computer process designed to match the
workload against available capacity and
logistics to achieve an optimum throughput
from the factory.
AGCOs Massey Ferguson tractor factory,
in Coventry, produces about 60 tractors a
day, all of which are more or less unique
products. Every machine is built to order and
customers can choose from a wide range of
features and options covering engine size,
drive transmission, cab equipment and
functional accessories. There are two main
product platforms, the 200 Series is the utility
workhorse, renowned for easy maintenance,
and the more sophisticated 4300 Series,
which offers world class refinements in
comfort and performance (see Plate 6).
Currently a new order for a tractor takes
between six to eight weeks to deliver. The
SGMS updates the production schedule every
week to sequence the release of a weeks
worth of orders. Every machine entering the
final assembly line is given a sequence identity
number.
An important by-product of the sequencing
process is the production of delivery
schedules for key components supplied just-
in-time (JIT). Previously these schedules were
accessed by the suppliers using Pc Anywhere
software. This information is now being
updated several times a day and posted as
Web JIT schedules, allowing key component
suppliers the maximum time to respond to
changes in the requirements.
The previous sequencer tool had been
installed five years earlier with the
introduction of the 4200 Series, the precursor
to the 4300 Series of models. This was
superseding the 300 Series and AGCO were
faced with a situation where it was going to be
running three different model platforms for a
time.
While this system fulfilled our initial
requirement it was very monolithic and it
became difficult to support. It also lacked
capability and we were unable to make any
improvements ourselves, explains Henry
Filipiuk, AGCOs manufacturing and
engineering systems manager. We regard
sequencing as crucial to our production
process and we wanted to have more control
over our own destiny.
The solution came with the development
by Tecnomatix Technologies of a
replacement sequencing processor module as
part of its eM-Power range of manufacturing
process management tools. The SGMS
application runs on a high specification PC
that communicates with the companys
mainframe business management database
via the local area network.
We now have the best of both worlds. The
functionality we created around the
Tecnomatix Sequencer was developed in
Microsoft Access 2002 and used Access tables
on the PC. As a result, we have a future proof
system which we are able to support and
update to meet new requirements.
Additional functionality provided by the
SGMS includes an interface for the
production of assembly documentation.
Other features include calendar displays
related to shift times; tractor commitment
recording as the machine enters the assembly
line; and gap analysis to detail the reasons for
drop outs, the exceptions usually caused by a
major supply shortage. This information can
then be used to provide feedback for remedial
action.
The Tecnomatix eM-Plant software
generates the sequence by following specific
criteria and parameters governing the
engineering content, features and line
capacity as standard hours. Processing starts
with a list of orders of all the tractors
scheduled for delivery within a given week.
From this the software calculates a sensible
starting position and then it runs through
different scenarios trying out different
sequences until it comes up with an optimum
throughput for the factory.
Effectively, each tractor order is weighted
according to its complexity and then
Plate 6 AGCOs Massey Ferguson tractor factory, in
Coventry
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sequenced to ensure the line is supplied with a
manageable workload. This is determined by
a list of features, defining the build
specification. Every feature, or possible
variation in equipment fit, is assigned a
priority ranking number, enabling a total
value for complexity to be calculated.
Processing has been improved with the
introduction of a genetic algorithm. This
continues to search for an optimum solution
for as long as it is allowed to run, whereas
previously the system would stop after it had
reached a result that agreed with pre-defined
rules. For additional flexibility, rules can be
applied to bias the throughput of particular
orders, for instance a batch of export orders
being made available by a specific date for
transportation and sea freight arrangements.
On a day-to-day basis the SGMS supports a
busy communications activity dealing with
numerous enquiries relating to programme
management and component deliveries.
Orders are imported into the SGMS
database and a new sequence generated after
a weekly production-planning meeting.
Updates from the shop floor confirm the
launch of each new build in the sequence.
If for some reason the tractor order cannot
proceed to final assembly, the order line can
be removed from the sequence and parked on
the bottom of the screen where it can be seen.
Once the problem has been resolved, the
order is simply re-inserted back into
sequence.
I have more information available for
handling enquiries and updating the
production status, says senior product
scheduler Bill Solloway. I can call up the
complete bill of materials for a tractor order at
each level and then drill down through each of
the engineering group units that make up the
specification.
The database includes a summary of all the
features for a given range of tractors. From
this the user can select a group and obtain a
count of features and the timing and standard
hours allowed. This feature is useful for
assessing the impact of changes to the
programme.
System utilities enable the user to create
and maintain features. Data such as a list of
features can be attached to specific orders and
this will be flagged up when the order is
imported into the system. Maintenance of
features is used to keep track of design
changes and add specific information, such as
tools or particular assembly requirements for
each feature.
The production process
New build starts with the assembly of rear
axle and gearbox combinations, which are
then held in a buffer store. These are
dispatched to the main assembly hall, by
sequence against a tractor order, as all the
necessary component parts are confirmed as
available. Engines and front axles are added
to form a chassis, which then progresses on to
the chassis paint process. After painting the
line splits into two final assembly tracks, the
primary line handles the larger more
sophisticated models, and the second line
provides an alternative track for the smaller
less complicated machines.
Scheduling procurement JIT
While the new system has improved the
efficiency on the shop floor the full impact is
still being felt with component suppliers.
AGCO operates a lean manufacturing
strategy with high value items delivered JIT to
meet the production schedule.
Our aim is to minimise stock holding by
buying today what we intend to use
tomorrow. As a result of this strategy, stock
holding of high value components, such as
engines, has been reduced to about a fifth of
what was considered normal just four years
ago.
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New products
New Electrox marking lasers
Keyword Lasers
Electrox Scriba machines have long been
regarded as the industry standard for laser
marking. Now, the 600 Group companys
newly launched Scriba plus versions of
these popular Nd:YAG laser markers offer
greater flexibility and productivity than ever
before. Industries served include computers,
telecommunications, electronics, tooling,
medical equipment, giftware, as well as
throughout general engineering (see Plate 1).
The recognised ability of the Scriba family
of laser markers to fit easily into widely
differing production environments for fully-
integrated marking, along with its ease of use,
has now been markedly extended with the
introduction of the new plus versions.
Software enhancements derived from the
companys own internal development
capability enhance the systems in several
ways, including: higher levels of user
friendliness, better compatibility with other
devices and more capacity plus greater
flexibility coupled with ease of use.
Entry level system
Scriba Eplus is an entry level system for the
low to medium volume user that does not
compromise on quality or reliability. Rated at
75W, Scriba Eplus offers marking speeds up
to 3,000mm per second and can put down
1mm high characters at up to 300 per second.
With its newly extended pulse frequency
range Scriba Eplus is capable of marking a
broader spectrum of materials, including
stainless steel.
High performance lamp pumped systems
For high performance applications the 90W
and 120W Scriba II plus, lamp pumped laser
marking systems provide marking at up to
5,000mm per second and are capable of
putting down 1mm high characters at up to
500 per second.
Diode pumped systems
Scriba D40 plus is the 40W diode pumped
implementation of the Scriba concept that
takes advantage of the many benefits of diode
technology. First, diode pumping provides
higher quality marking through better beam
stability and reduced spot size. Integrated
chillers reduce the hardware footprint while
direct connection to single phase (domestic-
type) electricity supply simplifies installation
and with diodes guaranteed at 10,000 hours,
Scriba D40 plus offers improved reliability
and lower maintenance.
Flexibility and productivity
Both Scriba II plus and Scriba D40 plus are
available as twin head models Scriba II Duo
plus and Scriba D40 Duo plus which have
two marking heads to give the ultimate in
speed and throughput.
For further information: Ray Gawn, Sales
and Marketing Director, Electrox, The
Business Park, Letchworth, Herts SG6 2HB,
UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1462 472400; Fax: +44 (0)
1462 472444; E-mail: ray.gawn@electrox.
com
Lambda Photometrics catalogue
Keyword Positioning
Lambda Photometrics announces the
availability of the new PI Nanopositioning,
Micropositioning and NanoAutomation
1
catalogue (see Plate 2).
The publication is a comprehensive guide
to the piezo, motorised and manual
positioning products manufactured by PI.
Details provided include information on a
Plate 1 The new Scriba Eplus entry level laser marking
system from Electrox
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new automated six axis positioning system
with sub micron resolution for MEMS and
fibre device manufacturing, multi axis piezo
stages with nanometer resolution for
semiconductor and microscopy work and
motorised and piezo driven actuators for a
range of industrial applications. The
catalogue is also a reference book, providing
extensive applications information, as well as
technical data on the theory of piezo
positioning and the fundamentals of
mechanical micropositioning.
To obtain your copy please contact
Lambda Photometrics by phone on: +44 (0)
1582 764334 or by E-mail: info@lambda
photo.co.uk.
CD explains machine safety control
Keyword Safety
A CD providing comprehensive and up to
date information about machine safety
control is now available from Omron
Electronics (see Plate 3).
Designed to provide important information
quickly and efficiently the presentation is
broken down into a number of sections and
subsections so that navigation is
straightforward.
The first section looks at the ever-changing
legislation surrounding machine safety
control. Subsections are dedicated to machine
safety, risk assessment and safety control
systems, with each being reviewed in concise
and clear terms so that engineers can be
certain that they are taking the most suitable
approach to every safety issue.
Other sections are each dedicated to a
particular technology in Omrons
comprehensive range of safety products,
including light curtains, switches and relays.
Basic information, application functions and
selection procedures are detailed for each
technology.
The CD includes complete data on all
Omron safety products, contact information
and an overview of the company.
For further information, please contact:
Mandy Smith at Omron Electronics Ltd,
1 Apsley Way, Staples Corner, London
NW2 7HF, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8450 4646.
New, pre-engineered, multi-axis,
handling and assembly technology
systems save design and assembly time
Keywords Pneumatic, Robots, Assembly
Now, the configuration of 2- and 3-axis
pneumatic systems for cantilever, Cartesian
and gantry-style handling and assembly
machines is easier than ever, with the
introduction of Festo Corporations new
Handling and Assembly Technology (HAT)
(see Plate 4).
HAT offers machine builders an alternative
to traditional methods of developing handling
and assembly equipment, which, in the past,
required the integration of custom structural
components, selected motorized actuators,
expensive electronics, and long hours of
engineering and integration. HAT is a
modular solution, offering three pre-
engineered and totally pneumatic options that
reduce not only the design and engineering
time, but also provide excellent performance
at lower prices than custom motorized or
other pneumatic systems.
Plate 2 New PI catalogue
Plate 3 A CD providing comprehensive and up to date information about
machine safety control is now available from Omron Electronics
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The pick and place system (y-z configuration)
is standardized around two pneumatic
actuator designs, which are used to meet
small, medium and large load applications.
Festos SLT actuator, featuring caged roller
bearing guide and integral pneumatic piston,
is designed for direct mounting to another
SLT to for a precision y-z combination with
strokes of 100 6 50mm and thereby
constituting the companys small pick and
place option.
The mid-sized and large pick and place
options consist of combination axes,
including the SLT and a uniquely designed
pneumatic linear actuator, HMP. The HMP
features precision linear motion and the
ability to perform intermediate positioning
along the 100mm stroke. The piston rod
extends and retracts very accurately due to
constant support geometry established by two
pairs of opposing bearing that are preloaded
against precision ways ground into the rod,
guaranteeing accurate linear displacement,
and excellent resistance to torsion loads.
Festos gantry (2-axis) and cantilever (3-
axis) systems meet the needs of x-z and x-y-z
handling and assembly applications with the
implementation of the SLT or HMP (z axis),
HMP (servicing cantilevered y axis loads) and
the low profile SLG or DGPL serving as the
cross (x) axis. The SLG and DGPL are both
designed to span the vertical supports
(DGPL, a rodless pneumatic actuator,
requiring no structural support element in
500mm stroke, due to its extruded aluminum
housing and rigid guide design). The SLG
offers excellent resistance to rotational
deflection, since its low profile base and offset
recirculating guide bearing system place the
centerline of thrust very near the z axis
attachment point.
Gantry configurations requiring long z-axis
stroke (up to 100mm) employ the HMP and
tandem DGPL cross axes actuators that
greatly reduce the effect of rotational load
moments caused by of heavy loads and longer
strokes.
The supporting structure for all of the pick
and place units is constructed with pre-
engineered structural extruded aluminum
beam components, and assembly hardware
that provide the necessary strength and
orthogonality for pre-engineered easy
assembly. This pre-engineered concept saves
considerable design and assembly time.
While custom systems utilizing these
components are available to service
applications with specification outside the
standardized configurations, easy-to-install
HAT pre-engineered solutions are ideal for
applications such as assembling, transferring,
palletizing, and insertion of parts/tooling of
up to 5kg, with a positional accuracy from
0.01 to 0.02mm.
Festo Corporation offers a broad range of
products and services to provide cost-effective
solutions to fulfil automation requirements.
Festo offers worldwide sales and engineering
support, with subsidiaries in 52 countries, and
distributors in over 180 countries.
For more information, contact: Scott
Schuler, Festo Corporation, 395 Moreland
Road, Hauppauge, NY 11788, USA. Tel: +1
(631) 435-0800, ext. 383; E-mail: info@
festo-usa.com http://www.festo-usa.com
Increase production and improve
machining accuracy with new multi-hold
speed-release clamps from WDS
WDS has introduced a new range of powerful
double edge clamps that feature a simplified
and extremely fast method of fixing and
releasing multiple components on machine
beds (see Plate 5). The range includes several
different types of clamp aimed at providing a
fast and flexible solution for clamping any
item from complex machined shapes with
high finished surfaces to rough cut billet and
castings. Models are available with soft jaws
for easier customisation, threaded jaws for
applying specialist gripper and a useful
positive pull down clamping action.
There are five models in the range, each one
can be adjusted and secured using just one
central fixing bolt to extend or retract a pair of
sprung jaws. The jaws move in tandem to
allow quicker fixing and easier releasing of
multiple components. Measuring between
Plate 4 Festos Handling and Assembly Technology
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31mm and 67mm across at full expansion, all
the clamps are extremely compact, providing
maximum space on the machining bed for
multiple components.
The range can provide up to 9,000kg of
holding force, providing complete stability for
the work piece and ensuring high machining
accuracy. The high clamping force also adds
to the safety of machining operations,
especially under pressurised working
environments where machine tools are
working at high speeds and feed rates.
Hardened to 52 HRC (Hardness in Rockwell
C), the heat-treated jaws come with a serrated
contact surface, providing excellent clamping
for rough-cut stock and castings.
As part of the range, WDS has introduced a
twin wedge clamp that firmly grips the
components to be machined and
simultaneously pulls the work pieces down
against the guide frames. Standard low
profile, single wedge clamps are also available
with smooth jaws that allow for three-
directional machining. The units can come in
sizes as small as 27mm across, which can still
provide up to 1,500kg of holding force. Their
small size and robust design allows for quick
set-up times and increased production due to
greater numbers of components on
automated machining beds.
For awkward component shapes and
softer materials such as brass, aluminium
and plastic, there is the soft jaw clamp.
Available with smooth jaws that are
hardened to HRC 30-34, the soft jaw model
has been designed for custom machining of
surfaces to suit the geometry of the work
piece and allows a variety of different
components to be held on the same machine
bed.
In order to fix a broad range of materials on
the same bed, a double-edged clamp with
tapped jaws can be supplied that
accommodates any custom holding pad
without needing to permanently alter the
main fitting. Combinations of odd shapes or
materials can also be quickly secured and
released by using the double-edged clamp
with ball bearing gripper. Working on the
same principle, the ball bearing gripper allows
for precision holding and features the same
cross-wedge construction as other models,
allowing for firm locking in every direction.
Enquiries: Peter Heselton, Marketing
Manager, WDS, Richardshaw Road,
Grangefield Industrial Estate, Pudsey, Leeds
LS28 6LE, UK. Tel. +44 (0) 113 2909852;
Fax: +44 (0) 845 6011173; E-mail:
pheselton@wdsltd.co.uk
Customised process machinery demands
customised belt drives
Keywords Steel, Automation
Harro Ho fliger, a leader in the field of process
automation and packaging technology,
incorporates steel belts supplied by Belt
Technologies Europe into its battery
laminating machines (see Plate 6). These are
used throughout Europe by some of the
leading laminators. The company also relies
on Belt Technologies for belts which are used
Plate 5 A new multi-hold speed-release clamp from
WDS
Plate 6 Steel belts from Belt Technologies Europe are
incorporated into customised packaging machinery
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by world leading pharmaceutical products
manufacturers within their packaging
machines.
Battery laminating machines are custom
built by Harro Ho fliger to order. They have
sourced steel belts from Belt Technologies for
over three years with purchases increasing
year on year. The success of the partnership
has been based upon Belts ability to supply
customised steel belts at short notice,
enabling Harro Ho fliger to meet its tight
delivery schedules.
All the belts supplied are coated and
non-stick, manufactured from a grade of
Teflon. This specification is essential as the
laminating process produces a sticky residue
which could have a detrimental effect on the
performance of any other type of drive
system.
Steel belts, 300mm wide, are usually
supplied, although there have been
requirements for different dimensions. Other
benefits of steel belts important to Harro
Ho fliger include the precision positioning that
can be attained so that the batteries are in
exactly the right place on the line to be
laminated.
For pharmaceutical products packaging,
Harro Ho fliger can again provide customised
machinery as well as replacement parts.
Typically, precisely perforated belts are
purchased from Belt Technologies. The
shape, the angles of the perforations and the
repeated pattern along the length of the belt
provide the precision positioning required
when pharmaceutical products are packaged
at very high rates without operator
interruption. Options such as different belt
coatings and vacuum belts are also often
specified.
Contact: Brian Harbison, Belt
Technologies Europe, Suite 3L, Durham
Mountjoy Research Centre, Stockton Road,
Durham City DH1 3UR. Tel: +44 (0) 191
3831830; Fax: +44 (0) 191 383 1820.
National Instruments new Motion
Assistant
2
accelerates motion control
development
Keyword Motion control
Engineers and scientists now can use National
Instruments Motion Assistant, a new
development tool that automatically generates
LabVIEW code and improves development
productivity. This tool helps build
applications that use motors and positioning
devices and is for use in a variety of
applications ranging from biotech laboratory
research to optoelectronics manufacturing
(see Plate 7).
With NI Motion Assistant, users can also
quickly develop code recipes for Microsoft
Visual Basic and Visual C++ with
Measurement Studio, National Instruments
set of fully integrated measurement
components. Combined with either
LabVIEW or Measurement Studio, Motion
Assistant helps engineers create motion
applications ranging from simple single-axis
motions to demanding multi-axis motions.
With the NI Motion Assistant point-and-
click interface, engineers and scientists can
quickly program and prototype motion
systems to reduce development time. This
new development tool deploys prototypes into
applications and easily adds special
placeholders for integrated components such
as vision or data acquisition. NI Motion
Assistant also works with NI motion
controllers for open or closed-loop motion
control and interactive creation of each co-
ordinated point-to-point, circular, or
contoured move in the sequence.
For more information contact NI. Tel:
(01635) 523545; Fax: (01635) 523154;
E-mail: info.uk@mi.com; www.mi.com/uk
Plate 7 National instruments new Motion Assistant
2
is a flexible and
easy-to-use development tool for building and prototyping motion
applications. Combined with LabVIEW
2
, LabWindows
2
/CVI, or
Measurement Studio
2
, engineers and system integrators can use this
software tool to create a development environment for motion
applications ranging from simple single-axis motions to demanding
multi-axis motions
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New T-LAM
2
stator design adds
35 per cent extra torque to convenience
and flexibility benefits of integrated
linear actuators
Keyword Activators
The off-the-shelf convenience and flexibility
of INMOCOs SR series of integrated linear
actuators is being complemented by increased
torque performance, following the
introduction to the range of new T-LAM
2
(see Plate 8) segmented stator technology.
The T-LAM design enables 35 per cent more
continuous motor torque to be provided from
the same frame sizes as existing SR series
units, with no cost premium.
The improved torque performance (up to
9.31Nm) and efficiency of the SR Series units
are the result of a design harnessing the
combination of high-density Neodymium
iron boron magnets and the limited heat
generation qualities inherent in the new
T-LAM segmented stator design. In
particular, the elimination of end turns in the
stator, and the use of thermally conductive
potting removes the parts most susceptible to
failure in a traditional stator. The design also
benefits from interface insulation against the
high voltage and currents of todays servo
drives, and from class H insulation that
complies with UL requirements.
The SR Series is similar in design to
INMOCOs more highly specified GS series
of linear actuators, but with a reduced subset
of features at a lower cost. As such, the range
offers the ideal solution in applications where
competitiveness is a key concern, and where
the options and/or dynamic load
performance/ life of a GS actuator are not
really required.
Optimising the SR design in this way means
that the units are competitive with low cost
ball screw actuators, but, importantly,
provide two to three times the life of the latter
units, when compared size-for-size.
Despite their overall lower cost, the SR
series actuators still benefit from Exlars
patented and well proven inverted roller screw
mechanism, as the means of converting rotary
motion, from a brushless servo motor, into
high speed, high thrust linear motion.
The mechanism has a lead accuracy of
25mm/300mm for high precision operation,
and offers nominal backlash of 0.10mm. It is
designed into compact 84mm or 99mm frame
sizes, to produce packages that offer users a
range of strokes from 40mm to 305mm, force
ratings up to 9619N and linear velocities to
635mm/sec.
Selection of the suitable feedback medium
(encoder with MS-style connectors) offers the
advantage of enabling the SR Series actuators
to be powered by nearly every brand of
brushless motor amplifier on the market. This
flexibility allows SR Series actuators to be
incorporated into the highest performance
single and multi-axis motion control systems
in use today. In applications varying from test
rigs and semi-conductor manufacturing, to
aircraft assembly, the SR Series of actuators
show incredible performance and durability.
The task of mounting the SR Series
actuators is simplified by the tough, square,
anodised aluminium housing, which is sealed
to IP54. The design lends itself both to front-
flange or rear clevis mounting. In addition to
security in mounting, the integrity of the
assembly, both in terms of environmental and
noise terms, can be optimised with the
option of moulded, shielded cables.
For further information contact: Gerard
Bush, Sales Application Engineer, INMOCO
Limited, 4 Brunel Close, Drayton Fields,
Daventry, NN11 5RB, UK. Tel: +44 (0)
1327 300320. Fax: +44 (0) 1327 300319.
E-mail: GerardB@inmoco.co.uk
Plate 8 New T-Lam
2
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Internet page
Keywords Computer software, Assembly,
Design, Internet
http://www.immdesign.com/
Immersive Design, Inc.
Immersive Design develops and markets 3D
interactive software and applications for
improving the product development and
service process. It aims to provide
manufacturing organisations with the ability
to increase understanding of product design,
assembly, repair and maintenance through
the use of Web-based interactive animation.
http://www.silma.com/
SILMA
Founded in 1983 and merged with Adept
Technology in 1995, SILMA is a leading
supplier of software for computer simulated
manufacturing technology. SILMA brings
automated equipment programming out of
the factory and puts it on the programmers
desktop, providing tools to create, optimise
and test equipment programs without
affecting manufacturing schedules or
production. Its products help manufacturers
maintain their competitive edge by shortening
design to manufacturing cycles, increasing
productivity and reducing costs. The SILMA
product line includes off-line programming
solutions for robots and coordinate measuring
machines (CMMs); assembly process design,
simulation, and analysis tools; and a powerful
3D virtual robot and cell simulator, focusing
on small parts assembly and material handling
applications.
http://www.delmia.com/
Dassault Systemes DELMIA
Dassault Systemes offers extensive process
planning and simulation tools that enable
companies to develop an optimal process for
their manufacturing needs. DELMIA is a
unified brand and a consolidated company
devoted to eManufacturing.
Overall, this is a rather poor Web site but
one that contains plenty of corporate and
product information.
http://www.mscsoftware.com/
MSC.Software Corporation
MSC was founded in 1963 and introduced
structural analysis by digital simulation of
analogue methods (SADSAM), the
forerunner of MSCs flagship program,
MSC.Nastran. MSC.visualNastran 4D is a
Windows
1
based engineering tool ideal for
the mechanical engineer who designs
products with moving components. This
application merges motion and stress analysis
into a single functional modelling system,
allowing engineers to test the dynamics of
their assemblies before manufacturing and
without building physical prototypes. It
provides simulation technology and services
to a broad spectrum of industries including:
aerospace, automotive consumer products,
computer and electronics manufacturers and
universities. It is focused on Web-enabling its
products through Engineering-e.com (http://
www.engineering-e.com) and uses the core
strengths, competencies and infrastructure of
MSC.Software to create the engineering
marketplace on the Internet.
This is a very good site that is well worth
visiting.
http://www.3dcs.com/index.html
Dimensional Control Systems, Inc.
Dimensional Control Systems Inc. is a world
leader in dimensional management. It is
committed to developing leading-edge
technology in dimensional engineering.
http://www.designtechnologies.com/
Mechanical Dynamics
Founded in 1977, Mechanical Dynamics is an
international supplier of virtual prototyping
solutions. Its ADAMS
1
software is used to
build and test functional virtual prototypes of
complex mechanical system designs in the
automotive, aerospace, rail, and machinery
industries.
This is another good Web site but one that
is difficult to navigate.
http://www.alibre.com/public/
Alibre, Inc.
Alibre Design is a low-cost, lightweight,
Internet based mechanical CAD and
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data-sharing application that helps
manufacturers improve design and
manufacturing processes by extending them
to all possible enterprise and supply chain
participants. The peer-to-peer (P2P)
architecture allows users to simultaneously
share, create, modify and discuss 3D models
and 2D drawings in real time. Therefore,
OEM and supplier design teams can work
together in real-time, securely accessing,
sharing, and generating precise 3D design
data.
Overall, this is a simple Web site for an
impressive product.
HOT SITES
http://www.dfma.com/
Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc.
Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. was established in
1982 and is a market leader in product design
review software. Its major product is the
design for manufacture and assembly
(DFMA) software, which can help customers
reduce manufacture and assembly costs,
improve quality and speed time to market.
The DFMA software integrates the design for
assembly software (DFA) a systematic
approach to design review used to simplify the
structure of a product and reduce
manufacturing costs, and the design for
manufacture (DFM) early cost estimating
software used to estimate material costs,
process times, tooling costs and secondary
operation costs for components. Design for
service and design for environment are also
available and enable complete design review
through the product development cycle.
http://www.tecnomatix.com/
Tecnomatix Technologies, Ltd
Tecnomatix Technologies, Ltd is a provider
of manufacturing process management
software to the electronics, automotive,
aerospace and heavy equipment industries. In
1983 Tecnomatix launched its proprietary
computer-aided production engineering
(CAPE) tools to help manufacturers fully
computerise the industrial process and
achieve a seamless transition from design to
production. In March 2000 eMPower was
launched and is an open platform of software
applications providing a collaborative
environment for authoring, simulating and
optimising manufacturing processes across
the extended enterprise. eMPower supports
the entire manufacturing process life cycle
from process planning and detailed
engineering to mass production. Web-based
tools enable communication and exchange of
manufacturing process information
throughout the enterprise, its plants and
suppliers.
Its customer base includes companies such
as Motorola, BMW, General Motors, Airbus,
and Boeing.
This is a superb Web site that is also
available in French, German, Swedish and
Japanese. Brochures detailing solutions for
the automotive, electronics and aerospace
industries can be downloaded from the site.
Jon Rigelsford
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Book reviews
Engineering Document Control
Handbook 2nd ed.
F.B. Watts
American Technical Publishers Ltd
2000
376 pp.
ISBN 0-8155-1446-8
53.00 (hardback)
Keywords Engineering, TQM
This book stresses the importance of
configuration management (CM) and
engineering documentation control
(EDC) on the road to successful world class
total quality management (TQM). It aims
to bridge the gap between design
engineering and the rest of the corporate
world.
Chapter 1 introduces CM and its history.
The managers job, documentation control
functions, CM functions, and organisation
with CM, are also discussed. Chapter 2,
Product documentation, addresses topics
including: documentation and standards, the
body of a part drawing, document signatures,
and specification control and source control
drawings.
Identification numbers, and
interchangeability are discussed in chapters 3
and 4 respectively. Topics addressed include:
product and model number, traceability,
revision number and levels, spare parts and
assemblies, and PCB interchangeability. Bills
of materials (BOMs) are presented in
chapter 5 and address data responsibility,
parts list and BOMs, 100 per cent BOM
accuracy, MRP/phantom solutions, and
modular designs.
Cross-functional teams, responsibility,
nonconforming material, and ISO/QS/
AS 9000 are amongst the topics discussed in
chapter 6, while chapter 7 addresses Product
and document release. The following three
chapters discuss Change requests, Change
costs, and Change control respectively.
Topics addressed include: reliability and
other test data, production problems, costing
a change, design and development costs,
types of change, advanced document change
notice (ADCN), effectively, and tracking the
change.
Chapter 11, Fast change, addresses why
process speed is important, while Process
standards and audits are presented in chapter
12. Benchmarking is discussed in chapter 13
and includes surveys and examples and
techniques for benchmarking. The final
chapter of the book addresses CM in the
Future and provides a summary of the key
ideas discussed in the text. References and a
recommended reading list are also provided.
Overall, the Engineering Documentation
Control Handbook provides clear and simple
coverage of how configuration management
can enhance small and large companies alike.
It will be of interest to engineering managers
and executives, manufacturing engineers,
production control and QA managers,
planner-buyers, and field service personnel.
Automation, Production Systems, and
Computer-integrated Manufacturing
2nd ed.
M.P. Groover
Pearson Education Prentice-Hall
2001
856 pp.
ISBN 0-13-088978-4
38.99 (hardback)
Keywords Automation,
Computer integrated manufacturing
This book is primarily aimed at advanced
undergraduate and first year graduate
engineering students. It is also suitable for
practising engineers and managers who wish
to learn more about automation and
production systems in modern
manufacturing.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction and
overview of the book, while Manufacturing
Operations are discussed in chapter 2. The
remaining 25 chapters are divided into five
parts.
Part I addresses automation and control
techniques. Six chapters are included and
present an introduction to automation;
industrial control systems; sensors, actuators
and other control system components;
numerical control; industrial robotics; and
discrete control using programmable logic
controllers (PLCs) and personal computers.
Part II, Material Handling and
Identification Technologies, discusses an
introduction to materials handling; material
transport systems; storage systems; and
automatic data capture respectively.
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Chapters 13 to 19 combine to form Part III,
Manufacturing Systems. Subjects presented
in this part include: single station
manufacturing cells; group technology and
cellular manufacturing; flexible
manufacturing systems; and automated
assembly systems.
Part IV, Quality Control Systems, includes
four chapters which introduce quality
assurance and discuss statistical process
control (SPC); inspection principles and
practices; and inspection technologies. The
final part of the book addresses
manufacturing support systems. Topics
covered in this section includes product
design and CAD/CAM in the production
system; process planning and concurrent
engineering; and lean production and agile
manufacturing.
Automation, Production Systems, and
Computer-Integrated Manufacturing is a
textbook which should be read by at least one
member of a manufacturing organisation. Its
many equations, example problems,
diagrams, end-of-chapter exercises and
historical notes, help make it suitable for both
engineers and managers.
The Entrepreneurial Engineer:
Starting Your Own High-Tech Company
R.W. Fields
Artech House
1999
332 pp.
ISBN 1-58053-029-X
46.00 (hardback)
Keywords Entrepreneurs, Engineering
The Entrepreneurial Engineer: Starting Your
Own High-Tech Company helps practising
engineers and other technical people turn
their product idea into a successful high-
growth, product oriented company. The book
highlights the many pitfalls that cause a
business development to fail. It emphasises
the fact that every facet of a company is of
prime concern and must be dutifully mastered
and carefully thought out.
The book comprises 14 chapters divided
into four parts. Part I provides an overview of
business development and teaches a mental
set best suited to designing, building, and
carrying out the targeted business
development effort. Chapter 1 describes a
view of the overall process, while success
factors and the stages of business
development are discussed in chapters 2
and 3.
Part II addresses Professional Planning and
Funding. The four chapters in this section
discuss the (product) concept, strategic and
tactical planning, the business plan, and
funding. Part III, Product Design and
Launch, analyses the research and
development stage, the design stage, the
launch preparation stage, and the product
introduction stage.
Part IV, Building Long Term Value, is the
final part of the book and focuses on
designing and developing the company to
optimise long-term value. It assumes that the
company has completed the introduction
stage of business development and is ready to
enter the stabilisation and growth stage.
Stabilisation and growth are the focus of
chapter 12, while chapter 13 addresses
Control: making it happen. The
Entrepreneurial Engineer concludes with a final
overview in chapter 14. Appendix A extends
the formal business plan and Appendix B
features a real-world example of proper
business development. The book also
includes a comprehensive suggested reading
section.
The Entrepreneurial Engineer: Starting Your
Own High-Tech Company is an inspiring
handbook which is essential reading for any
technically minded person who wishes to
convert a product idea into a marketable
commodity.
Jon Rigelsford
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Patent abstracts
Computer pre-tensioning simulation
Keywords Simulation, Patents
Applicant: Hibbitt, Karlsson and Sorenson, Inc., USA
Patent number: US5,920,491
Publication date: 6 July 1999
Title: Computer Process for Prescribing an Assembly Load
to Provide Pre-tensioning Simulation in the Design
Analysis of Load-Bearing Structures
This relates to the analysis and design of
structural integrity of structures via computer
implemented simulation. The invention
simulates the tightening of fasteners that are
used to assemble a structure using a
pre-tensioning capability.
In accordance with one embodiment of the
invention, a computer implemented process
simulates the application of a tension force in
an element of an assembly. The process
defines a finite element model for the
element, and creates a pre-tension surface in
the finite element model of the element for
applying the tension force. Conditions are
prescribed relative to the pre-tension surface
for applying the tension force in the
simulation. The conditions include
prescribing an assembly load which includes
either a tension force or a tightening
adjustment. The assembly load is then
applied to the pre-tension surface of the
element to simulate the tension in the element
of the assembly. The results of the simulation
are then evaluated for structural integrity, and
subsequent structural redesign is performed
when necessary.
Feature-based assembly
Keywords Assembly, Patents, BAE Systems
Applicant: BAE Systems Plc, University of Warwick, et al.,
Great Britain
Patent number: WO0116658
Publication date: 8 March 2001
Title: Feature Based Assembly
This patent presents a method for the design
and manufacture of an assembly of
components. This practical approach to
feature-based assembly captures important
component relationships within the design
and subsequent assembly and can provide
extremely beneficial tolerance management in
aircraft OEMs and the supply chain.
The method includes the steps of
identifying potential key characteristics and
carrying out a risk assessment for variation of
the potential key characteristics based on four
values. These values are the probability of
failure or variation; the severity of the
variation; the detectability of the variation;
and the repairability of the variation. Scores
attributed to each value may then be
multiplied together to produce the risk
assessment.
Once the key characteristics have been
selected, process of feature identification and
classification may be carried out, followed by
establishment of assembly precedence of
features for that key characteristic.
Design of microelectronic process flows
Keywords Microelectronics industry,
Texas Instruments Inc., Patents
Applicant: Texas Instruments Inc., USA
Publication date: 30 October 2001
Title: Design of Microelectronic Process Flows for
Manufacturability and Performance
This patent describes a method for improving
device design and process flow design in the
fabrication of semiconductor devices. It
provides a method for simultaneously
optimising and trading off manufacturability,
performance and reliability criteria during
device and process flow design and
performing these functions online or offline.
The method can minimise the impact of
manufacturing variations on semiconductor
manufacturing by statistical design which
seeks to reduce the impact of variability on
device behaviour. It is based on a Markov
representation of a process flow which
captures the sequential and stochastic nature
of microelectronics manufacturing and
enables the separation of device and process
models, statistical modelling of process
modules from observable wafer states and
approximations for statistical optimisation
over large design spaces. The statistical
estimation component of this method results
in extremely accurate predictions of the
variability of transistor performance for all of
the fabricated flows. The statistical design can
reduce parametric yield loss which occurs
when functioning devices do not meet
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performance or reliability specifications.
Parametric yield loss is caused by processing
variations during manufacturing. Statistical
optimisation results in devices that achieve all
transistor performance and reliability goals
and reduces the variability of key transistor
performances.
Fraction defective estimating method
Keywords Estimating, Patents
Applicants: A. Masaaki, M. Seii, K. Takashi, S. Tatsuya and
O. Toshijiro, Japan
Patent number: US2001047218
Publication date: 29 November 2001
Title: Fraction Defective Estimating Method and System
for Estimating An Assembly Fraction Defective of An
Article
A method and system for evaluating qualities
of articles which are manufactured by
assembling constituent parts is presented.
The method and system estimate an
assembling-related fraction defective
coefficient of an article at a stage of design.
Assembling operation, properties/conditions
of parts to be assembled and conditions of an
assembling shop having significant influence
to the likelihood of occurrence of failure in
assembling work are inputted as data. The
articles may be domestic electric/electronic
equipment, products for office automation, or
something similar.
The present invention is concerned with a
fraction defective estimating method for
estimating likelihood of occurrence of failure
in the works involved in assembling an article,
and a system for carrying out the fraction
defective estimating method. The system
comprises a storage medium for storing the
data, information and program for executing
the method. The estimated value of
assembling-related fraction defective is
arithmetically determined with high accuracy
by executing an assembling-related fraction
defective value estimating program on the
basis of the data as inputted
Automatic manufacturability evaluation
system
Keywords Manufacturing, Hitachi Ltd, Patents
Applicant: Hitachi Ltd, Japan
Publication date: 10 February 1998
Title: Automatic Manufacturability Evaluation Method and
System
A system for evaluating quantitatively at the
design stage of an article whether or not the
article can be realised easily at the
manufacturing stage. The system selectively
determines the best structure from a plurality
of design plans through comparative
evaluation.
The system includes a client machine and a
server machine. The client machine includes
a unit for generating information for guiding
operations of a user, an input device for
allowing the user to input commands and
data, and a display unit. The server machine
includes a registering unit storing user defined
evaluation elements, an index calculating
module for indicating degrees of difficulty/
ease of work, an evaluation element
estimating module, a part workability
evaluation module, an article workability
evaluation module, and a best design plan
selection/determination module.
Jon Rigelsford
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Diary
Conferences and exhibitions
Key: C = Conference, E = Exhibition,
S = Seminar, W = Workshop
2002
GD2002
14th Int. Conf. Gas Discharges and their
Applications (C)
1-6 September
Liverpool, UK
E-mail: GD2002@liv.ac.uk
Web site: cims-liverpool.com/gd2002
Opto Ireland (C + E)
5-6 September
Galway, Ireland
Optoelectronics, photonics, imaging, optical
metrology, machine vision, SPIE
Web site: www.spie.org/info/ireland/
EuroSensors XVI (C)
15-18 September
Prague, Czech Republic
Solid state transducers
Tel: +420 2 243 539 45
Fax: +420 2 311 9929
E-mail: eurosensors@eurosensors.cz
Web site: www.eurosensors.cz
ISHM 2002 (C)
Int. Sym. Humidity and Moisture
16-19 September
Taipei, Taiwan
Humidity and Moisture
Tel: +886 3 573 2211
Fax: +886 3 572 4635
E-mail: hcma@itri.org.tw
Int. Sym. Force, Mass, Torque, Hardness
and Civil Engineering Metrology in the
Age of Globalization
24-26 September
Celle, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 211 62 14-0
Fax: +49 (0) 211 14 575
E-mail: vdi@vdi.de
www: www.vdi.de
Engineering of Intelligent Systems (C)
24-27 September
Malaga, Spain
Tel: +31 184 496 999
Fax: +31 184 421 065
E-mail: eis2002@ITStransnational.com
Web site: www.icsc-naiso.org/conferences/
eis2002/index.html
5th CLAWAR (C)
25-27 September
Paris, France
Climbing and Walking Robots
CLAWAR
Tel: +33 1 46 54 86 53
Fax: +33 1 46 54 75 80
E-mail: clawar2002@cea.fr
Web site www-drt.cea.fr/clawar2002
SIMS 2002 (C)
Simulation and Modelling
26-27 September
Oulu, Finland
Finnish Society of Automation
Tel: +358 201 9812
Fax: +358 201 9812 27
E-mail: office@atu.fi
Web site: www.automaatioseura.fi
IROS 2002 (C)
Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and
Systems
30 September-4 October
Lausanne, Switzerland
Web site: http://IROS02.epfl.ch
Frontline Solutions 2002 (C + E)
8-10 October
NEC, Birmingham, UK
End-to-end supply chain solutions
Web site: advanstar.com
ISR 2002 (C + E)
Int. Sym. on Robotics
8-11 October
Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 8 782 08 00
Fax: +46 8 660 33 78
302
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E-mail: swira@vi.se
Web site: www.vibab.se/swira
Water Jetting (C)
16-18 October
Aix en Provence, France
Tel: +44 (0) 1234 750422
Fax: +44 (0) 1234 750074
E-mail: eabson@bhrgroup.com
Web site: www.bhrgroup.com
Photomec02 (W)
24-26 October
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Photonics and mechanics with special session
on sensor systems in mobile robotics
Belgian Society of Mechanical and
Environment Engineering
Fax: +32 2 742 9698
E-mail: Bsmee@skynet.be
Web site: http://mecarar.fpms.ac.be/bsmee
IFAC Mechatronic Systems (C)
9-11 December
Berkley, California, USA
ISA 2002 (C)
15-18 December
Shanghai, China
Intelligent Systems and Applications
Web site: www.icsc.ab.ca/isa2002.htm
2003
Materials Testing 2003 (C)
8-10 April
London, UK
British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing
Tel: +44 (0) 1604 630 124
Fax: +44 (0) 1604 231 489
E-mail: mt2003@bindt.org
LAMDAMAP 03 (C)
1-4 July
Huddersfield, UK
Laser Metrology and Machine Performance
Mrs Helene Pickles
Tel: +44 (0) 1484 473266
Fax: +44 (0) 1484 472340
E-mail: h.d.pickles@hud.ac.uk
ECC 03 (C)
1-4 September
Cambridge, UK
European Control Conference
Fax: +44 (0)20 7240 8830
E-mail: ecc03@iee.org.uk
Web site: http://conferences.iee.orh/ECC03/
2004
INTERKAMA (E)
16-20 February
Dusseldorf, Germany
www www.INTERKAMA.com
Solutions for automation in production and
Business Processes
If you would like further information about
any of the conferences or exhibitions featured
in the Diary Section, please contact the
organizers for that particular event.
Editorial note: if you are aware of any local,
national or international seminars, exhibitions
or conferences, the Editor would be pleased
to receive this information as early as possible
in order to include it in this section of the
journal.
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Diary Assembly Automation
Volume 22
.
Number 3
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2002
.
302303

Design for Assembly as Key to Flexible Manufacturing

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