Abstract
The developments in today’s industries put the companies under increasing pressure concerning time and costs. This forces them to, among other measures, rationalize and automates the manufacturing systems, including the assembly systems. To reduce the risks of investments and enhance the investment planning, accurate calculation methodologies for assembly planning systems are necessary. There are a number of ways to lay out an assembly system. An assembly system may be designed for a manual operation, an automatic operation, or a flexible operation. Industrial robots are extensively used in such flexible assembly systems. Production volume and cost per assembled part depend heavily on how such a flexible cell is designed and on the robot being used. Boothroyd and Dewhurst have proposed an approach to arrive at evaluating robot integrated assembly cells. This approach is based on the manipulation of the part before presenting it for an assembly and the number of robot arms in the assembly cell. It does not account for the flexibility (number of robot axes, specific types of robots) the various industrial robots offer. Consequently, any evaluation made on this basis is expected to provide inaccurate answers.
Testing the Stability of Subassemblies Using Geometric Model for Mechanical Assembly Planning.