Learning of systematic approach to the design and production of mechanical assemblies. Understanding assembly process and basic assembly operations. Impact of assembly process on product development – product structure and Design For Assembly techniques. Basic concepts of assembly systems – manual, automatic and robotic systems. Assembly system design. Assembly workstation design issues. Product lifecycle and product disassembly. Performance and Economics of Assembly Systems.
Understanding what is assembly, its role in production systems, and why it is important. Fundamental knowledge and engineering skills about: assembly sequence analysis and design of assembly process, design of automatic part feeding and orienting, design for assembly (DFA) techniques, dimensioning and tolerancing of parts and assemblies, design of manual and automatic assembly workstations and systems, product disassembly and its impact on product lifecycle design.
Theoretical background of industrial assembly systems is given through 10 lectures: 1) What is industrial assembly and its role in production systems, 2) Assembly system structure and assembly process, 3) Part mating theory of compliantly supported rigid parts, 4) Joining techniques and processes, 5) Feeding and material flow in assembly system, 6) Assembly structure, sequencing and Design For Assembly, 7) Manual assembly systems, 8) Automatic assembly systems – rigid transfer lines, 8) Automatic assembly systems – flexible assembly lines and robotic assembly cells, 9) Performance and Economics of Assembly Systems, and 10) Product lifecycle and disassembly technology.
Practical training is organized through laboratory exercises and project (team work) of assembly system design for selected product. LAB 1: Quasi-static part mating – demonstration of passive compliant device RCC, demonstration of 6 DOF force/torque sensor, force sensor calibration, robot motion programming, measurement of part mating forces and identification of contact situations, comparison of experimentally evaluated results with theory. LAB 2: Passive systems for feeding and orienting – vibratory bowl feeder and linear feeding tracks demonstration, part geometry analysis and identification of basic natural resting states, design and obstacles optimization of passive orienting system for selected class of headed cylindrical parts, tuning the system, measurement and efficiency estimation of configured orienting system, estimating of mean feeding capacity. LAB 3: Vision systems for part feeding - demonstration of vision system configuration and its use in part feeding, image analysis and identification of paths contours and its locations, identification of system performances and optimization.
[1] Petrović, P.B. 1998. Intelligent assembly systems - A contribution to the theory of assembly process, Book series of Intelligent technological systems, FME, Belgrade /In Serbian/; [2] Handouts /In Serbian/; [3] Instructions for laboratory report writing /In Serbian/; [4] Instructions and project example /In Serbian/ [5] Instructions for handling the laboratory equipment /In Serbian/.