There are no “rules” that tell you how to design products for automated assembly, but there are some guidelines that will help to cut production costs and boost production rates when products are being assembled by automation. It is important to keep product designs as simple as possible. When a product has parts that are of simple design there is little chance that the parts will cause problems when the product is being assembled by automation. Having a product that is simple also means that there as few parts to the products as possible. Having a great number of parts to assemble to produce a product means there will be a great likelihood that there might be a jam in the automation process. The increased number of parts for assembly also means there are more parts to inventory and keep track of. A reduced number of parts will decrease the problems that purchasing might have in keeping parts in stock for production. When you design parts for automated assembly the parts have an optimum shape and size. without sharp corners and deep holes and crevices. Parts should fall naturally into the feeding machines for automation so that they do not require excess amounts of manipulation to be included in the assembly process. Design products for automated assembly so that demands from customers can be met very easily. If there are constant shutdowns in production because of product designs then it will be difficult to meet the demands of customers. Parts designs should made with suppliers in mind also. Make the creation of parts easy for suppliers, so that they will readily bid to produce parts that are needed by production. Part designs should be such that they will be compatible with the type of automation that used for product assembly. Parts should have characteristics that lend themselves to assembly by high-speed automation assembly or robotic assembly whichever is used in production.
Design Products for Automated Assembly
By John Mitchell on December 13, 2010 in automated assembly, automated work cells
