Modeling Variation Propagation of Multi-Station Assembly Systems With Compliant Parts

Abstract

Products made of compliant sheet metals are widely used in automotive, aerospace, appliance and electronics industries. One of the most important challenges for the assembly process with compliant parts is dimensional quality, which affects product functionality and performance. This paper develops a methodology to evaluate the dimensional variation propagation in a multi-station compliant assembly system based on linear mechanics and a state space representation. Three sources of variation: part variation, fixture variation and welding gun variation are analyzed. The proposed method is illustrated through a case study on an automotive body assembly process.

Advanced User-Interaction with GUIs in MatLAB®

“…Following the classical PCFR cycle (Chang, 1996), with respect to the specific assembly station, parts are firstly positioned onto the fixture frame, then clamped and fastened and, finally, released, reaching the final sub-assembly configuration (Camelio et al, 2004a). When analyzing variations of flexible assembly many factors should be accounted.…”

Interpretable Interval Constraint Solvers in Semantic Tolerance Analysis

“…Long and Hu [26] extended the method to include the variation of fixtures during assembly operations. The single-station methods were also extended to multi-station approaches (Shiu et al [27], Camelio et al [28]) where variations are propagated in stages with tooling variations incorporated. Recently, Huang et al [29] developed a stream-of-variation method to estimate dimensional variations in rigid-body assemblies for single-station and multi-station systems considering fixtures based on kinematic constraints.…”

A Change Point Approach for Phase I Analysis in Multistage Processes

“…The process noise (say the common-cause variation and the unmodeled errors) is designated w k , and the measurement error of the product quality is designated v k . Camelio, Hu, and Ceglarek (2003) used the foregoing statespace model to represent variation propagation of a multistage assembly system with compliant parts. Here x k represents the part deviation at stage k, and y k is the deviation vector containing all measurements at key product characteristic points.…”