UNIT 2 Automated Assembly Systems

Design for automated assembly, types of automated

assembly systems, part feeding devices, quantitative
analysis of the delivery system operation, analysis of a
single-station assembly machine. (8)

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Automated Assembly Systems
•Automated assembly refers to the use of mechanized and
automated devices to perform various functions in an
assembly line or cell.

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 Design for automated assembly
•Traditional assembly methods involves the use of human
beings for performing the assembly operations.
•High cost of manual labor has resulted into re-examination of
assembly technology with a view towards automation.

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 In the manual assembly system
•Human beings are
Most dexterous and intelligent machines,
Able to move to different positions in the workstations,
Able to adjust unexpected problem,
Able to adjust new situations in the workstation,
Capable of manipulating and coordinating multiple objects
simultaneously, and
Able to use wide range of senses in performing work.

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In an automated assembly system
•fastening procedures should be devised and specified during
product design that does not require all of these human
capabilities.

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 Principles / Recommendations to be applied
in product design for facilitating automated
assembly
•Reduce amount of assembly required (by combining functions
within same part during design)
•Use modular design (max 12 or 13 parts are assembled on a
single assembly system)
•Reduce the number of fasteners required (use standard
fasteners)

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 Principles / Recommendations to be applied
in product design for facilitating automated
assembly
•Reduce the need for multiple components to be handled at
once (separate operations at different stations rather than
performing on single station)
•Limit the required directions of access (if all the components
can be added vertically, this is ideal situation)
•Require high quality in components
•Use of robots for reducing assembly time or handling heavy
objects

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Types of automated assembly systems
Based on type of work transfer system:
•Continuous transfer system
•Synchronous transfer system
•Asynchronous transfer system
•Stationary base part system
First three involves same methods as that of work transfer
system
Stationary base part system- Base part (to which other parts
are assembled) is placed to fixed location

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Types of automated assembly systems
Based on physical configuration:
•Dial-type assembly machine
•In-line assembly machine
•Carousel assembly system
•Single-station assembly machine

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 Dial-type assembly machine
•Base part is loaded into fixture.
•Fixtures are attached to the
circular dial.
•Components are added or
fastened at the various
workstations.
•Most common system
•It operates with synchronous or
intermittent motion.

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 In-line assembly machine
•It consists of series of automatic work-stations along with in-
line transfer system.
•It is an automated version of manual assembly line.
•Continuous, synchronous or asynchronous transfer system can
be used in-line configuration.

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Carousel assembly system
•Combination of dial-type and in-line assembly machine
•Continuous, synchronous or asynchronous transfer system can be used.

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Single-station assembly machine
•Assembly operations are performed at a single location.

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Possible Work Transfer System

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Part feeding devices
Elements of part delivery system
•Hopper: this is the container in which components are loaded
at the work-station.
•Parts feeder: this is the mechanism that removes component
from the hopper at the time of delivery to the work-station.
•Selector / orientor: These elements establish the proper
orientation of components.
•Feed track: it is used to transfer the components from the
hopper and parts feeder to the location of assembly workhead,
maintaining proper orientation of parts during the transfer.

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Hardware elements of the parts
delivery system

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 Categories of feed tracks
•Gravity
•Powered
Gravity feed track is common.
Powered type uses vibratory action, air pressure.

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 Escapement and placement device
Purpose of escapement device is to remove the components
from the feed track.
Purpose of placement devices is to place the component at the
proper location at the workplace.

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20
 Quantitative Analysis of
the Delivery System Operation

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Part Feeding Mechanism
•Part feeding mechanism is capable of removing parts from
hopper at a certain rate “f ”
•Assumptions are:
Parts are in random orientation initially
Must be presented to selector/orientor for the correct
orientation of part

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Selector and Orientor
•In the case of the selector, a certain proportion of parts will
be correctly oriented initially and these will be allowed to
pass through.
•The remaining proportion, which is incorrectly oriented will
be rejected back into the hopper.
•In the case of the orientor, parts that are incorrectly oriented
will be oriented.
•In some cases, the selector and orientor is in combined form.

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Rate of Delivery of Components
Now,
Ɵ = proportion of components that pass through the selector-
orientor process
Effective rate of delivery of components from the hopper into
feed track = fƟ
Remaining proportion 1-Ɵ will be recirculated back to the
hopper

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High Level Sensor
•Assuming that delivery rate of components fƟ is greater than
cycle rate (Rc) of the assembly machine.
•For this, there should be some limits for the size of queue in
feed track.
•This is done by placing a sensor at the top of feed track which
is used to turn off the feeding mechanism when feed track is
full.
•This sensor is refereed as high-level sensor.

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Capacity of the feed track
•The high-level sensor and its location defines the active
length of the feed track (Lf2).
•If the length of a component in the feed track is Lc, the
number of parts that can be held in the feed track is
nf2 = Lf2 / Lc
The value of nf2 is the capacity of the feed track.

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Low Level Sensor
•Another sensor (low level sensor) is placed along the feed
track at some distance away from the first sensor and is used
to restart the feeding mechanism again.
•Defining the location of this low-level sensor if Lf1
•The number of components in the feed track at this point is
nf1 = Lf1 / Lc

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 Delivery Rate of parts
•The rate at which the quantity of parts in the buffer will be
reduced when high level sensor is actuated = Rc
Where Rc is theoretical cycle rate of the assembly machine
On average, the rate at which the quantity of parts will increase
upon actuation of the low level sensor is fƟ-Rc

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Summary of legends
Rc ®Cycle rate of Assembly System
Lc ®Length of component
Lf1 ® Length of low level sensors
Lf2 ® Length of feed track (High level
sensors)
f ® The rate at which parts are removed
from hopper
q ® Proportionate of components that
passes through selector-orientor

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Summary of Formulas
fq ® Effective rate of delivery of components
nf1 ® Number of components at low level
sensors

nf2 ® Number of components in feed track

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 Example
The cycle time for a given assembly workhead = 0.2 min. The parts
feeder has a feed rate = 20 components/min. The probability that a
given component fed by the feeder will pass through the selector is
Ɵ = 0.3. The number of parts in the feed track corresponding to the
low-level sensor is nf1 = 6. The capacity of the feed track is nf2 = 18
parts.
(a) Determine how long it will take for the supply of parts in the
feed track to go from nf2 to nf1.
(b) Determine how long it will take on average for the supply for
parts to go from nf1 to nf2.

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 Solution
(a) The rate of depletion of parts in the feed track starting
from nf2 will be Rc = 1/0.2 = 5 parts/min
The time to deplete is (18-6) / 5 = 2.4 min
(b) The rates of parts increase in feed track, once the low
level sensor has been reached, is fƟ-Rc = 20 x 0.3 -5 = 6-5 =
1 part/min
The time to go from nf1 to nf2 is
(18-6) / 1 = 12 min.

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Analysis of a Single-station Assembly
Machine

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 Analysis of a Single-station Assembly
Machine
•In the single work-head, several components are fed into the
station and are assembled.
•Let n is the number of distinct assembly elements that are
performed on the machine.
•Each element is having an element time Tei
where i = 1, 2, …., n

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Ideal Cycle Time
The ideal cycle time (Tc) for the single station
assembly machine is the sum of individual element
times of the assembly operations to be performed
on the machine and handling time (Th) to load the
base part into position and unload the complete
assembly.
𝑛
𝑇 𝑐 =𝑇 h + ∑ 𝑇 𝑒𝑖
𝑖=1

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•Now assume, each component have certain fraction
defect rate (qi) and there is a certain probability that
a defective component will jam the workstation (mi).
•When a jam occurs, the assembly machine stops and
it takes an average time (Td) to clear the jam and
restart the system.

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Average Production Time
• The inclusion of downtime resulting from
the jams in machining cycle time gives
average production time (Tp)

𝑛
𝑇 𝑝 =𝑇 𝑐 + ∑ 𝑞𝑖 𝑚𝑖 𝑇 𝑑
𝑖 =1

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Line Efficiency
• Uptime or line efficiency (E) is calculated as
the ration of ideal cycle time to the average
production time.
𝑇 𝑐
𝐸=
𝑇𝑝
•Production rate is given by
1
𝑅 𝑝=
𝑇𝑝

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Yield
•Yield is to measure the machine
performance and is given by

𝑛
𝑃 𝑎𝑝 =∏ ( 1− 𝑞𝑖 + 𝑚𝑖 𝑞𝑖 )
𝑖=1

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 Example
A single station assembly machine performs five work
elements to assemble four components to a base part.
The elements are listed below, together with the fraction
defect rate and probability of a jam for each of the
component added.
Element Description Time (s) q m
1 Add gear 4 0.02 1
2 Add spacer 3 0.01 0.6
3 Add gear 4 0.015 0.8
4 Add gear and mesh 7 0.02 1
5 Fasten 5 0 -
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The time to load the base part is 3 sec and the time to
unload the complete assembly is 4 sec, giving a total
load/unload time of Th = 7 sec. When a jam occurs, it
takes an average of 1.5 min to clear the jam and restart
the machine. Determine the production rate, the yield
and the uptime efficiency of the assembly machine.

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Solution
Ideal cycle time of the assembly machine (Tc) =
(4+3) + (4+3+4+7+5) = 30 sec = 0.5 min
Average production cycle time (Tp) =
0.5 + (0.02x1+0.01x0.6+0.015x0.8+0.02x1)(1.5)
= 0.5+0.087 = 0.587 min
Production rate = Rp = 1/ Tp = 1x60/0.587 = 102.2
assemblies/hr

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Yield of good product = Pap =
1-0.02+(1x0.02) = 1-0.02+0.02 = 1
1-0.01+(0.6x0.01) = 1-0.01+0.006 = 0.996
1-0.015+(0.8x0.015) = 1-0.015+0.012 = 0.997
1-0.02+(1x0.02) = 1-0.02+0.02 = 1
(1)(0.996)(0.997)(1) = 0.993

Uptime efficiency (E) = 0.5/0.587 = 0.8518 = 85.18%

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