Difference between revisions of "Convergent assembly"

Revision as of 11:47, 22 February 2015

Note that it's not a necessity to have the topmost convergent assembly levels the same size as the product like shown here. - Devices can be made thin and flat.

Convergent assembly is the general process of taking small parts and putting them together to bigger parts and then taking those bigger parts and putting them together to even bigger parts and so on.

Convergent assembly must not be confused with exponential assembly (a concept for bootstrapping AP manufacturing).

Details

In a nanofactory the convergent assembly levels can be identified with the abstract assembly levels (including the more scale invariant ones lying further up). Stacking those levels to layers as a concrete configuration makes a system practical and easy to analyze.

• Convergent assembly is not a means to speed up production.
• Relation to recycling ...

motivations for convergent assembly

Specialisation

In today's non atomically precise production convergent assembly is the rule. In most cases it is just not fully automated. An example is the path from raw materials to electronic parts to printed circuit boards and finally to complete electronic devices. The reason for convergent assembly here is that for the separate parts there are many specialized the production places necessary. The parts just can't be produced directly in the final product.

• transport ...

Further motivations

• more simple construction of overhangs without the need for scaffolds
• the automated management of bigger logical assembly-groups
• the simpler decomposition is standard parts that can be put together again in completely different ways
• the possibility to keep everything in a vacuum till the final product release - this should not be necessary and may decrease the incentive for the creation of systems that are capable of recycling