Robots in Assembly

"Of all robot applications, the effective use of assembly robots for small to medium batch production will undoubtedly be a major growth area for the next decade." Robots in Assembly explains the actual and potential use of robots for assembly tasks, and assesses the developments which are taking place. The authors provide an invaluable introduction to the field of flexible assembly, with their clear analysis of the advantages and limitations of existing systems, and by their straightforward discussion of what is technically desirable and practical as well as economically feasible. The relevance of the various properties of robots to assembly are reviewed and compared with existing assembly equipment capabilities. This leads on to the use and design of feeding mechanisms and recent advances in flexible feeders. The design requirements for general purpose assembly robots are presented, and finally the all important issues affecting product design are discussed. Throughout, the arguments for and against the use of robots are weighed against the conventional manual and special purpose assembly methods.
For anyone who requires a sound appreciation of the impact of industrial robots on assembly operations, this book is essential. This book should be of interest to second and third year engineering students and manufacturing engineers.