Automated assembly comes in various shapes and sizes depending on the types of products that require assembly. Assembly is a core work effort in the automated manufacturing process. Automated assembly contributes benefits to the automated manufacturing process and should be optimized to fit in with the other processes that have to be done in the manufacturing operation. Setting Up Industries There are four basic types of automated assembly that can be included in the automated manufacturing process. These are single work cell, flexible, synchronous, and non-synchronous automation. The optimum application of any one of these assembly types will have to be dictated by the configuration of manufacturing that will be used in concert with the assembly.
Single work cell automated assembly, as a part of the automated manufacturing process, performs the entire assembly of a product in a single work cell. This operation is best applied in high-volume manufacturing that requires for products with a small number of parts to be assembled to complete a given unit. This unit, once assembled, can be a finished product or it can be a sub-assembly that will be included in further assembly to build a finished product. In a lot of cases the single work cell automated assembly process can be just one part of several such work cells that build sub-assemblies for the production of other finished parts.
Synchronous automated assembly can be set up in the automated manufacturing process in either rotary, sometimes called circular, in-line, or carousel configurations. Any of these configurations requires that all the movement from work cell to work cell in the assembly process keep moving continuously. If any part of the assembly process breaks down or stops then all the processes in assembly will stop. There is no in-process inventory with this process. This type of set up is very effective for high-speed automated assembly because of its non-stop nature. The process runs as fast as the character of the machines and the parts will allow. Synchronous automation usually is used to assemble small, lightweight parts.
Non-synchronous automated assembly is a manufacturing operation that allows for the movement of products from one work cell to another at different rates. If there is a lot of time required for the completion of one step in the assembly process, and other steps in the process are performed at different rates, then this is the type of assembly automation that can be used very effectively. There may be some accumulation of in-process products at different points in the assembly process. The production rates for the non-synchronous assembly processes are inherently slower than the rates provided by synchronous processes. These slower processes have more flexibility in the types and sizes of products that can be assembled, so they are used in many more instances than synchronous assembly automation. The fact that in-process products can be accumulated between work cells allows these assembly processes to keep working in some areas if other parts of the process have stopped. The configuration of the non-synchronous assembly process can be either in-line or carousel like the synchronous assembly process, but it can also be a free-form layout. This allows the assembly process to incorporate functions that cannot be included in synchronous assembly, like in-process inventory areas.
Flexible assembly automation opens the functional capability of automation to a totally free-form configuration. This type of operation can have full autonomy for each section of the automation process. The latest in automation devices will allow for the configuration of devices so that they can be used in more than one manufacturing operation. The variation of the use of the devices is just dependent on the requirements of the process that is to be done. Automation controllers can have programs installed in a short period of time to change an automation device from its current assembly task to a material handling task. There are few limits in how devices can be used in the flexible configuration.
The layout of any of these configurations is dependent on the assembly process that has to be done. It is important to realize that assembly is only a single unit of the manufacturing process. Parts need to be fabricated, inspection needs to be done, and products need to be packaged in addition to the assembly of the product. The implementation of a layout for assembly will not Electrician School California only be dictated by characteristics of the product assembled, but it will also come from how that assembly process will work with the other tasks being done in the manufacturing operation. There may be some cases where the assembly process will be a single work cell configuration, but that work cell will be just one station in the production line to get products manufactured.
