Assembly line assembly
From apm
This page is only about the advantages / disadvantages of assembly line assembly compared to ...
- fixed station assembly and perhaps also
- parts streaming assembly
This page is not about specific types of assembly line assembly
like covered here: Assembly lines in gem-gum factories
Speed
The needed-motion-length per part-placed is more
- near to the scale of the input parts rather than
- near to the output parts.
This is because
- there is no need to travel far inside (and back out of) the build chamber for every single addition of an input part
This gives a gain in less-distance-needed-to-be-traveled on the order of the the branching factor B. - More compact buildability due to spezialisation leading to further shortened travelshorter
Specialization
Special purpose built assembly robotics can be faster and/or smaller than general purpose assembly robotics.
- less extra moves: no need for operations like tool-head changes
- more compact robotics: functionality can be semi hardcoded by cams&followers shims and wedged.
Relation to part streaming assembly
Unlike assembly line assembly part streaming assembly ...
- needs a lot of space for streaming parts along the moving manipulators
- can be more general purpose programmable but not as much as fixed station assembly without losing its benefits (some planning ahead needed)
Like assembly line assembly part streaming assembly ...
- can give increased assembly speed (but not as much it seems – TODO to quantify)
- has the travel-distances-per-part-placed more near the input scale than the output scale
(TODO: Think about wether there are any cases where combining assembly line assembly and part streaming assembly makes dense??)