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Article Excerpt
All too often when designing an automated assembly system, the test requirements for the product are an afterthought. This suboptimal approach compromises gauge reliability and reproducibility. Worse yet, if defects are found, engineers may be unable to diagnose whether their test processes are creating false positives, or if real part defects are the issue.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
A better approach is to consider the product's test requirements up-front--a process I call test-centric assembly. By thinking about the test fixtures, hardware and software at the system level, engineers will increase efficiency, improve production speed and boost yields.
There are considerable advantages to in-process testing vs. end-of-line testing. With each part added to an assembly, it's value increases in terms of labor and material costs. By integrating testing throughout the assembly process, engineers can avoid adding value to a defective product.
Here are some examples of in-process testing:
* Functional testing to verify electrical, pneumatic and mechanical characteristics.
* Resistance measurements of coils, heaters or resistors.
* Leak testing after ultrasonic welding of two plastic parts.
* Machine vision inspection to ensure that parts are positioned correctly.
* Dimensional gauging after crimping.
* Electrical testing for continuity, voltage, current and contact bounce.
Test-centric assembly requires a specific type of assembly chassis. Engineers must be able to relocate or remove workstations and accommodate test processes with different times. Power-and-free conveyor systems offer flexibility and asynchronous operation. However, they also require fairly complex control systems, and they inherently produce a large amount of...
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