Saturday 27 May 2006

Automatic Assembly (11/16)

Ensure that each part is fully and correctly specified for dimension, function, quality, material, and shape.  Don't accept supplier parts outside specification.  These parts may be incorrectly accepted on the grounds that they perform the same function, and yet they may not be acceptable to the automatic feeder tooling, workhead or fixturing.

Minimize the variation in component and product designs.  Minimizing the variation in part designs reduces the numbers of feeders used and enables standardisation of gripper and fixture design.  Minimizing variations reduces changeover times and enables standard magazines and packs to be used.

An existing product will be designed for production by manual assembly.  It is unlikely that an automatic assembly system will accept the part designs for a product currently assembled manually. The product needs to be re-designed to suit the machine principles, e.g. positional accuracy of a pick and place unit.

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