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The development of a generic flexible assembly system involves the design, selection and integration of a number of different mechanical systems in order to develop an assembly system, which is capable of assembling a wide variety of products having an unknown specification. A specific system configuration being dependent on a variety of factors such as, product size, weight, component insertion direction, and manipulator geometry. This paper examines each of the factors that should be considered when designing a generic flexible assembly system and presents a novel generic flexible assembly system design.

One of the first steps in designing a flexible assembly system is the selection of an appropriate manipulator. There are a number of different manipulator configurations which can be chosen depending on a variety of factors such as the assembly workspace layout, product size, weight, and component insertion direction.A number of methodologies have been written to help the selection of a manipulator for process cells. However, little work exists to aid the machine designer in the selection of an appropriate manipulator for flexible assembly. This paper examines the factors which affect this process.

Flexible automated assembly is an emerging need in several industries. The purpose of this paper is to address the introduction of an innovative concept in flexible assembly: the fully flexible assembly system (F‐FAS).

After an analysis of the state of the art, the authors describe the proposed F‐FAS, from a layout, constitutional elements, functioning principles and working cycle point of view. Second, the authors compare the traditional FAS and the manual assembly system versus the proposed F‐FAS according to their throughput and unit production costs, deriving a convenience map as a function of the number of components used in assembly and of the efficiency of the F‐FAS. Finally, using a prototype work cell developed at the Robotics Laboratory of University of Padua, the authors validate the F‐FAS concept.

Results of the research indicate that the concept of full‐flexibility can be exploited to bring automation to a domain where traditional FAS are not competitive versus manual assembly. In fact, the F‐FAS outperforms both traditional FAS and manual assembly, in terms of unit direct production costs, when the size of the batch is small, the number of components used in assembly is large and the efficiency of the F‐FAS is reasonably high. The F‐FAS prototype demonstrated the possibility of working, for certain conditions (models/components/production mix), in the F‐FAS convenience area, highlighting the achievable cost reduction versus traditional assembly systems.

The novelty of the study lies in the F‐FAS concept, its performances in terms of flexibility, compactness, throughput and unit direct production costs. A prototype work cell validated the concept and demonstrated its viability versus traditional assembly systems, thanks to convenience analysis.

A compliance device combining passive and active compliance has been tested and developed for an anthropomorphic robot for use during assembly operations. The device has the ability to correct for angular and lateral misalignments between mating parts, resulting in no equipment or part damage. The method of control, the design features of the device and the modifications made to enable the device to be used by an anthropomorphic robot are described and future modifications which will enable the device to operate more effectively are discussed.

The paper describes analyses which have been developed to determine the cost of assembly using a multi‐arm assembly robot fed by a wide variety of different feeding systems and for a wide range of product styles, mixes, and batch sizes.

Rework is an integral part of printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) manufacturing. However, the state‐of‐the‐art for PCBA rework still relies on operator activity and is therefore semi‐automatic. As a result, the quality of rework depends very much on the skill of the operator. When developing an automatic PCBA rework cell, the cell controller is an essential part which organises and controls the overall rework operation. This paper describes the software modelling of the cell controller for the PCBA rework cell which has been implemented for reworking through‐hole and surface mounted components. The software model is based on hybrid representations and rule‐based control.

For the last two years work has been in progress at the Universities of Massachusetts and Salford on ‘Design for general purpose assembly’. The first edition of a handbook will become available shortly, and it will be complemented later in the year by a software package.

GENERAL‐PURPOSE assembly can be defined as automated assembly where more than one assembly task is carried out using the same piecepart transfer equipment. In its simplest form, this would involve the assembly of a unique product but clearly, with the capability for handling different parts, there is potential for assembling product variants and possibly even significantly different products.

In the light engineering industries there is an increasing requirement for automatic feeding of parts to automatic machines. These machines are, typically, counting and batching machines, automatic machine tools and automatic assembly machines.

For many types of automated manufacturing equipment there is a requirement to supply the equipment with parts which invariably need to be presented in a single orientation. For metal cutting and forming work there is limited applicability and invariably the parts to be presented are simple shapes. For assembly, many different and sometimes complex shapes need to be presented and it is in this activity that small parts feeding has its biggest application.