What Are the Different Types of Automated Assembly Systems?

Automated assembly refers to an assembly technology that replaces manual labor with automated machinery. Automated assembly technology uses robots as assembly machines and requires flexible peripherals.

Automated assembly was based on the standardization and interchangeability of components in the 19th century machinery manufacturing industry. It began to be used in the production of small arms and watches, and later in the automotive industry. In the 20th century, the United States

Generally, the assembly operation of the machine is more complicated than other processing operations. To ensure the smooth implementation of automated assembly, the following conditions are required.

(1) The structure and assembly process of mechanical products that realize automatic assembly shall maintain certain stability and advancedness.

(2) The automatic assembly equipment or assembly line used shall ensure the assembly quality of the machine.

(3) The assembly process used should ensure easy automated assembly.

(4) The mechanical products to be assembled and their parts and components shall have good processability of automatic assembly structure. ^[2]

1. Automatic assembly machine

Cooperate with some mechanized assembly lines and auxiliary equipment to realize local automatic assembly and fully automated assembly. The automatic assembly machine must be equipped with corresponding clamping devices with tools and clamps to ensure the necessary accuracy of the positions of the assembled parts and achieve unit assembly. And fitter operations, such as attaching, removing, screwing out, screwing in, pressing and loosening, pressing in, riveting, polishing and other necessary actions. The automatic assembly machine can be divided into two types of rotary type and straight type due to the different conveying methods of the workpiece. Depending on the complexity of the process, it can also be divided into single-station and multi-station structures. The automatic assembly machine for back transformation is often used in assembly occasions where the number of assembly parts is small, the external dimensions are small, the assembly cycle is short, or the assembly operation requirements are high. As for the size of the reference part is large, and there are many assembly stations, especially the multi-process assembly with many inspection procedures or manual assembly and automatic assembly in the assembly process, it is advisable to choose a straight-type automatic assembly machine.

2. Assembly robot

In the assembly of products such as instruments and meters, automobiles, watches, electric welding machines, and electronic components with large production quantities and high assembly accuracy requirements, not only the assembly machine should be more accurate and precise, but also it should have vision and some tactile sensing mechanisms, and the response should be more Sensitive, with a certain ability to recognize the position and shape of objects. These functions are generally difficult to achieve with automatic assembly machines, and assembly robots developed in the 1990s are fully equipped with these functions.

Assembly robot (Assembly Robot) refers to industrial robots designed to complete assembly operations. Commonly used assembly robots are mainly two types: programmable universal assembly manipulators (that is, PUMA robots) and flat two-joint robots (that is, SCARA robots). Compared with general industrial robots, assembly robots have the characteristics of high accuracy, good flexibility, small working range, and can be used with other systems. ^[3]

With the development of flexible manufacturing technology, computer integrated manufacturing technology and information technology, the world's machinery manufacturing industry is about to enter the era of full automation. However, because the processing technology is ahead of the assembly technology for many years, the two have formed a clear contrast, and the assembly process has become a weak link in modern production.

Assembly automation consists in improving production efficiency, reducing costs, and ensuring product quality, especially reducing or replacing manual assembly labor under special conditions. The realization of assembly automation is an important symbol of production process automation or factory automation, and it is also a system worker. The realization of assembly automation is an important symbol of production process automation or factory automation, and it is also an important content for the implementation of systems engineering in the field of mechanical manufacturing. ^[2]