Increasing Productivity in Assembly Automation through the Utilization of Continuous Processes

Abstract

Assembly processes can be realized to be manual, hybrid or fully automated. In hybrid or fully automated assembly processes, the material flow is often disrupted through the utilization of sequential handling operations. As industry often aims to decrease manufacturing costs through an increased degree of automation, thus increasing the overall manufacturing productivity, handling processes need to be improved in terms of e.g. actuation times of grippers and reduced inertia of handling systems. This paper discusses the limitations in productivity of sequential handling tasks and the opportunities of significantly increasing manufacturing productivity through the utilization of continuous assembly procedure, instantiating it within the lithium-ion-battery production. 

Model‐Based Design and Experimental Evaluation of a High‐Throughput Electrode Feeding and Stacking Process

“…This leads to a high share of nonvalue-adding process steps and prevents further speed up of the process. [3] Laminated intermediate products reduce the number of handling operations and improve mechanical integrity of the handled components. [4,5] During the lamination process, one or multiple electrodes are joined with separator sheets by application of temperature and pressure.…”