Machine Design
Assembly Line
🦾 How to Make a Cost-effective Flexible Robotic Solution for Low-volume Production
Despite its process flexibility, the unified cell is still a production system that requires a level of investment that might not be the best suited for scenarios where one wants to produce short production runs of products that don’t share common applications (e.g. joining equipment) therefore require reconfiguration of its applications for every production run. To address this problem, we need a production system that can be reconfigured with multiple process capabilities while reusing as much equipment as possible to allow good utilisation of investment-heavy resources while meeting the machine safety directives and technical requirements.
By lessening the complexity of the hardware architecture, we can significantly increase the capabilities and ways of using the equipment that makes it financially efficient even for low-volume tasks. Moreover, the further development of the solution can be mostly in the software part, which is easier, faster and cheaper than hardware R&D. Having “chipset” architecture allows us to start using AI algorithms - a huge prospective.
Getting up to Speed: Understanding ball screw potential and limitations
The ability to operate consistently at higher speeds is why motion system designers often specify ball screws over lead screws. However, ball screws have speed limitations of their own. Understanding those will help you optimize ball screw assembly performance in applications ranging from small laboratory fluid pumps to large overhead gantries and high-performance machinery.
A digital twin solved the risks associated with the 50m smart patching line made by Raute
The project consists of a digital twin and virtual commissioning of the production line to secure the project delivery for the new designed machine sections (material infeed and baseplate removal) of a patching line. Different scenarios could be created with the digital twin to optimize the design (i.e. avoidance of mechanical collisions etc.) and validate the concept before manufacturing the real machine sections.