Assembly technologies grow stronger, leaner, smarter, and cleaner as the relay team of materials, sensing, software, controls, and related providers reaches for ever more demanding Just-in-Time, quality, cost, and flexibility goals.
"A company today can now have a single, complete set of operational capabilities including rapid plant design and deployment, real-time ERP connectivity, comprehensive asset management of people, products, and processes, and a seamless coupling to the entire supply chain via the Web," according to Steve Smidler, vice president, of global manufacturing solutions at Rockwell Automation.(For complete interview, click here.)
George Blackwell, manager of product marketing at Cognex, tells IEN that the machine vision industry has developed more cost effective systems, pushing technology "back into the assembly process, with individual checks at each assembly operation, to make sure the correct part is installed, or that the right part is in the right position so it doesn''t jam the machine. For example, in telephone assembly you check with the display and keys are in the right place, avoiding scratches later in the process. There are more and more vision sensors installed throughout the line, allowing corrections at each step rather than at the end of the line." (For complete interview, click here.)
Blackwell notes that "there''s still a lot of manual assembly -- and many of these operations are adding vision as a check. At one automotive seat assembly company, employees work off pallets and hand-install brackets. The company has installed vision sensors for 100% error proofing,"
Banner Engineering Corp and Turck agree that vision technology is being simplified and used more extensively.
And according to Dave Grimmett, sensors product marketing specialist at Omron Electronics, "Manufacturers are taking existing sensors and tying them into communication networks that report to plant manufacturing management. Remote I/O, wireless technology, advanced optics and IC design of today''s sensors offer labor savings, miniaturization and increased uptime."
Accurate tracking is also essential. InfoSight Corp president John Robertson points out that "keeping track of individual pieces rather than batches means that valuable data about the parentage, process history, and ultimate disposition of each piece can replace the crude averages typical of batch data." Indeed, programmable ID technology, including marking and high-temperature tags, allow "practical piece-by-piece identification in situations where conventional barcode labels don''t work," Robertson states.
Users are testing the boundaries of assembly materials. "As a manufacturer of UV curing adhesives, sealants, and coatings we see customers and prospects come up with new applications every day for our products," Dymax Corp''s Clai Bachmann observes. "Not only are our light curing resins being used as high performance adhesives, sealants and coatings, but also for masking, laminating, flocking and sound dampening applications and as formed-in-place-gaskets." (For complete interview, click here.)
Bachmann cites two recent examples where Dymax light curing products have replaced "heat staking for the assembly of plastic film holders in one application and heat sealing of plastic medical waste disposal containers in another. This was quite a surprise to see a relatively high cost resin replace what might be thought of as a simple and inexpensive process. However, in both cases assembly time was dramatically reduced. The heat staking took several seconds where the UV process could run at more than 100 feet per minute. But more important, the UV resin improved the quality and appearance of the end product and provided the users with a major competitive advantage."
Meanwhile, integration drives control technology. "In the past, when users requested a controller to fit their application, that control choice typically required an implementation that was unique from previous choices the OEM or user had made," notes John Nesi, Logix/NetLinx strategic marketing manager at Rockwell Automation. "But that''s all changed. Advancements in controller technology now make discrete, drives, motion, and process control possible with a single, integrated control platform. (For complete interview, click here.)
Nesi notes that the "most recent advancement in control technology hardware is to have a common control engine, common programming environment and common network communications in a range of hardware and software based controllers. He continues: "This enables users to select their preferred platform -- whether it be a PLC or a PC-based controller and know that they can use the same features, in the same way, on both. These include the ability for integrated motion control, the reuse of programs without additional rework, and tighter integration of data with management information systems. Rockwell Automation has brought this concept to the market in the Logix family of controllers -- featuring traditional ''PLCs'' such as ControlLogix, FlexLogix and CompactLogix as well as a PC-based controller -- SoftLogix."
Focus on the Quick Change
What challenges face the assembly sector? "The motivating factor is flexibility," Blackwell asserts. "Manufacturers are producing smaller and smaller batches, and that means more frequent changeovers. There are higher changeovers in parts, and the assembly sector needs to move away from the use of hard fixturing and adapt to new part designs more quickly, while also insuring that the correct part is going into the right assembly." (Cognex''s In-Sight vision sensor is pictured here, inspecting automotive bushings at Dana Glacier.)
For example, "in the automotive industry, every single car is different," says Blackwell. "And in the world of just-in-time manufacturing, automakers have to make sure each model subassembly gets the right options -- seats for example -- for each car. Machine vision allows for fast changeovers, allows parts to come in with less hard fixturing." Product liability and safety concerns, meanwhile, "drive the need for quality checks and inspection. Machine vision provides a log, a record of everything, in an automated and electronic form."
The cost of technology is the biggest focus for users, according to Turck and Banner.
"Productivity, offering a ''better mouse trap''-- competitive products with a higher perceived value, and regulatory compliance with environmentally acceptable and worker friendly processes," top Bachmann''s list of industry concerns.
Notes Smidler: "All areas from planning to logistics fall under scrutiny for cost savings, with many companies, for the first time, trying to grasp the true capacity of the plant floor, as well as how to make it more efficient. Manufacturers are also driven by ever-increasing customer expectations. Customers today expect to be able to order custom products and services over the Web, visualize capacity and compress time to delivery. Manufacturers will thus be concerned in the coming years with speed, efficiency, productivity, conservation, and time-to-market."
Fast Cures
An array of innovations is being developed on the materials side, according to Dymax, including "faster curing adhesives and coatings to meet J.I.T. demands, resin technologies that are easy to automate to reduce labor content and off line processes such as heating ovens and drying racks that tend to eat up plant space and resins that reduce scrap and improve end product quality.''
Bachmann sees "great improvements in dispensers so that resins of almost any viscosity can be placed precisely where they are needed in the correct amount. UV curing lamps, which are needed to cure the very fast light curing adhesives, are improving continuously. The range of intensity has broadened and knowledge of wavelengths for curing all kinds of light curing resins is increasing."
Also on the horizon are "adhesives, sealants and coatings technologies with an expanded range of properties including viscosity, thermal range, moisture resistance, bond strength, and colorsresins with indicators built in to respond to vision systems [and] regulatory compliant resins that are environmentally and worker friendly with no solvents or toxic ingredients," Bachmann predicts.
Software integration dominates the control automation arena. "What''s driving that is the new ASIC designs coming to market that are allowing controllers to handle more complex algorithms, providing more processing power for speed and increased memory for managing larger data volumes," explains Nesi. "Whether you''re talking about traditional PLCs or PC-based control, new functionality is being driven by software and firmware, not hardware. In the future, customers will continue seeking a single architecture across a range of products, from multiple controllers to controllers embedded in robot welders to embedding controllers in products we haven''t imagined yet. There is a substantial amount of programming work required to implement these open technologies worldwide, but that''s the direction we''re heading."
Nesi continues: "Customers are looking at software as the area where they can gain the greatest value from their control system. With this emphasis on software integration, users can have a single software architecture that can cross multiple hardware platforms and products. For example, customers can program their robot controller, PC-based controller and traditional PLC all with one programming package." Rockwell Automation''s Integrated Architecture brings together platforms for control, networking, and visualization.
Banner and Turck concur that software is getting simpler, and note a trend toward embedded firmware. (Illustrated here is Banner''s PresencePLUS pixel-counting sensor, inspecting bottles for label presence.)
Machine vision technology grows more robust, while the sector offers more low-end tools, says Blackwell. "In-line vision systems can do more in accuracy and speed today, with a lot more power and performance." Additionally, Cognex started adding Ethernet to its vision sensors late last year, giving users the "ability to send ID and inspection data into the factory network and the enterprise network." This product line "now accounts for the majority of our sensor sales."
The aim is to "distribute machine vision throughout the process -- 5 to10 different sensors throughout the production line," Blackwell tells IEN. "Now you can maintain them through a central location. Some engineers are performing maintenance and diagnostics from another building."
Omron is developing intelligent, reliable sensors that are easy to install and properly apply, says Grimmett, and "software driven sensors are coming."
E-Assemblers
"The era of e-manufacturing is here, Smidler contends. "The e-manufacturing term, in fact, is much like the phrase "e-business" in that technology and information are the latest enablers to help manufacturers do what they always do, only faster, more accurately, and more efficiently. Eventually, the "e" will be so common it''s no longer needed. It will be manufacturing as usual."
Nesi also reports "growing interest in web connectivity." Although actual connectivity so far "is small, we see it growing slowly over the next five years. Key drivers in that growth will be the ability to look at text, at information within the system, from a zero cost piece of software, a web browser, and to be able to do so from geographically disparate locations."
Blackwell confirms that e-assembly is gradually taking hold. "Right now about 20% of [Cognex] customers are fully utilizing Ethernet networking for machine vision. Most are asking for Ethernet-enabled capability, and within 1-3 years the majority will probably utilize Ethernet networking. They are buying for the future. Cognex offers worldwide online support. We also give online training classes, and videos, and users can ask question of a technical support database," he notes.
"Computer technology behind the precise placement and amount of adhesive dispensed is a step in this direction," Bachmann adds, as well as "UV curing lamps that provide computerized feedback of the intensity that the lamp is emitting and warnings of when it drops below a predetermined level."
The trend toward mass customization puts increased on the assembly sector. "E-machine vision allows you to take a picture of the assembly line, and monitor the process remotely," Blackwell states. "That enables flexible manufacturing -- you can control production over the network."
Grimmett agrees that "users are looking for the ability to change over to different products without retooling. Their competition is the global marketplace and they need to keep up with their competitors in places like Singapore and Thailand. Flexibility in design is key."
This is true for the materials side as well, which is developing "resins with curing technologies that can start small and are easy to scale up and which will allow fast response to changing demands," according to Bachmann.
"For today''s manufacturers, what matters most is not only growing sales," Smidler concludes. "It''s how efficiently a company can operate. Whether it''s Lean, Six Sigma, or any variety of homegrown initiative, successful companies today leave no stone unturned to squeeze the excess. By cutting the ''fat,'' streamlining internal processes, and leveraging technologies like the Internet, a company can overall be better, faster, and cheaper than the competition."