DESIGN OF AUTOMATED

ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS USING

IMS

BHARGAV S NIRANJAN 114113018

BHARGAV S NIRANJAN 114113018

INTRODUCTION TO AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY

o Assembly involves the joining together of two or more separate parts to form new entity
which may be assembly or subassembly.
o Automated assembly refers to the use of mechanized and automated devices to perform
the various functions in an assembly line or cell.
o Automated assembly system performs a sequence of automated operations to combine
multiple components in to a single entity which can be a final product or sub assembly.
o Automated Assembly systems are appropriate when we have:

High Product Demand

Stable Product Design
Assembly consists of a limited number of components
Product is designed for automated assembly

DESIGN OF AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY

There are certain basic principles used when designing an automated assembly and they
are:
o Reducing the amount of assembly required.
o Using modular design.
o Reducing the number of fasteners required.
o Reducing the need for multiple components to be handled at once.
o Limited the required directions of access.
o Use of high quality equipment and raw materials.
o Implementing hopperability

INTELLIGENT DECISION SUPPORT FOR AUTOMATED

ASSEMBLY DESIGN
A team designing an automated assembly must:
o Select an assembly sequence,
o Generate a process plan,
o Identify the resources and group them
o Incorporate basic principles of cognitive modeling
The goal is to provide assembly system design teams with an integrated environment that
is capable of intelligent decision support for work on complex assemblies.

COGNITIVE INTELLIGENT SYSTEM

A cognitive intelligent system used for designing should possess the following properties:
o The system should use the designers customary vocabulary.
o The system should provide incentives for the user, for example, permitting the creation of
designs that will stand scrutiny on design for manufacturing and assembly and cost
criteria.
o The system should maintain a record of the users intent in making design decisions.
o The system should allow the user a choice of techniques and methodologies to follow.
o The system should support modules that are themselves stand-alone systems, providing
users with flexibility on how to use the system.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The different principles
proposed for cognitive
modelling are:

o Feature-based
modeler

o Constraint-

Identification module

o Assembly sequence
generator

o Assembly Process
Plan

o Assembly system
design module

FEATURE BASED MODELING

It is a technique that permits designers to express design intent while they create the
product geometry. It brings modeling closer to the users conceptual level, The featurebased modeller is divided into two main modes:

o Part Modelling

Create product components as generic pieces of geometry

Augmentation and modification of designs by subsequent feature modeling.

o Assembly modeler

It is used to define the assembly as a set of mated part instances.

Assembly topology is described by simply specifying the mates between component part
instances.

ASSEMBLY INFORMATION

Based on the knowledge base

information:

o A graph of all mates that connect

parts in the assembly.

o Mating features are linked by mating

relations,

o Features have links to assembly

parts,

System can traverse these links to

identify all mates between
components.

ASSEMBLY SEQUENCE SELECTION

The choice of assembly sequence is critical to the proper design of an assembly system.
The system provides the user with a choice of modes to use for sequence selection:

The assistant mode gives the user full flexibility in exploring alternate sequences.

The expert mode uses heuristics to automatically select a sequence for the user.

ASSEMBLY CONSTRAINTS:
There are three major assembly design
constraints:
o Geometric-feasibility constraints require
collision-free paths joining subassemblies.
o Mechanical-feasibility constraints
require the establishment of attachments
o Stability constraints require that
subassemblies
maintain their relative position.

ASSEMBLY PROCESS PLANNER

o

It builds a complete assembly plan for the

preferred sequences.

o Additional steps added by the process

planner include

Orientation
Attachment of fixtures
Application of adhesives
oven curing of adhesives, and
torqueing of bolts.

Heuristics determine task difficulty based

on:

Type of mate,
Sizes and weights of parts,
Number of features that mate
simultaneously.

ASSEMBLY SYSTEM DESIGNER

o It converts the assembly process plan into a list of equipment and tools together
o Plans the steps that each piece of equipment will accomplish
o Resulting plan has lowest unit cost of assembly.
o The system selects candidate equipment capable of completing the steps in the process
plan.

o The selection process is carried out heuristically, using multiple sources of information as
constraints on equipment costs and speeds.

o A workstation is defined as a resource that can perform consecutive tasks.

o Feasible workstations can perform all their tasks within the maximum time allowable by
system demand.

ASSEMBLY SYSTEM DESIGNER

o The system finds all feasible workstations by taking into account :

Yearly production demand,

Cycle time for task,
Tool changing time,
Time taken to move unit between workstations,
Maintenance and repair time

o Assembly system synthesis is the final step in which:

Optimal solution is calculated

Least cost combination of feasible workstations is found out
Capability of least cost combination to meet demand is checked.
Resources required for each process is listed
Utilization of assembly is calculated