Dynamic equipment optimization for automatic assembly machine with multiple supply lines

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing assembled products by means of an automatic assembling machine having a plurality of supply lines. The method comprises: (a) manufacturing a first assembly product using a first front selection of assembly material, the first front selection of assembly material being supplied to the manufacturing through a first front selection of a supply line, and not using a first negative selection of assembly material, the first negative selection of assembly material being assigned to a first negative selection of the supply line; (b) for a first negative selection of the assembly material, changing the distribution between the assembly material and the supply line from a first distribution to a second distribution; and (c) manufacturing a second assembly product using a second front selection of the assembly material, the second front selection of the assembly material being supplied to the manufacturing by the second front selection of the supply line and not using a second negative selection of the assembly material. The invention further relates to an automatic assembly machine and to a computer program for carrying out the method.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention generally relates to the technical field of assembly technology. In particular, the present invention relates to the occupation of the supply line of an automatic assembly machine with assembly material, which is optimized with respect to the length of the required movement stroke of the assembly head of the automatic assembly machine. In particular, the present invention relates to the following patent subjects: (a) A method of manufacturing an assembled product by means of an automatic assembly machine; (b) an automatic assembly machine for producing assembled products by automatically assembling (electronic) components on component carriers; (c) A computer program for manufacturing an assembled product by means of an automatic assembly machine. Background Art

[0002] The assembly of component carriers with electronic components is typically performed with the aid of an automatic assembly machine. The automatic assembly machine has an assembly head which (i) picks up the electronic components at a pick-up position of a component supply device, (ii) conveys the electronic components in an assembly area of ​​the automatic assembly machine in which the component carrier to be assembled is located, and (iii) places the picked-up components on the component carrier at a predetermined assembly position.

[0003] Automatic assembly machines typically have a plurality of supply lines, on which component supply devices can be arranged respectively. Therefore, one type of component can be supplied to the assembly process through each supply line.

[0004] The components to be assembled are received in the so-called component conveyor belt in most cases, which is wound on a reel body. In the assembly operation, these components are then delivered to the pick-up position by the clockwise motion of the component conveyor belt by respective component supply devices one by one.

[0005] In some (modern) component supply devices, the reel body together with the component conveyor is also integrated in the interior space of the component supply device. As a result, new electronic components can be provided in a simple manner on the supply line, for example by means of robots, automatically when the electronic components are consumed, or when necessary, components of the first type can be replaced by components of the second type. In this document, electronic components, if necessary together with the associated component supply device, are also referred to as assembly materials.

[0006] In a typical automatic assembly machine, the supply lines are located on at least one side of a conveying device, by means of which component carriers to be assembled are conveyed into an assembly area of ​​the automatic assembly machine and at least partially assembled component carriers are conveyed out of the assembly area of ​​the automatic assembly machine. The supply lines are spatially arranged one after another along the conveying direction of the component carrier conveying device.

[0007] Obviously, the occupation of different supply lines with assembly materials has an impact on the length of the required movement stroke of the assembly head. That is, when, for example, all the electronic components required for a specific assembly product (component carrier together with the components assembled thereon) are supplied to the corresponding assembly process through supply lines arranged side by side, then at least in the component supply area, that is to say in the spatial area where the corresponding component supply device is located, the movement stroke of the assembly head required to receive the relevant components is minimized. This is particularly applicable to so-called multiple assembly heads, which receive a plurality of different components in sequence, then convey the received components together to the assembly area, and then the conveyed components can be placed in sequence on the predetermined assembly positions. The occupation of supply lines with assembly materials is also usually referred to as the equipment of the relevant automatic assembly machine.

[0008] That is, the equipment contains information about which assembly materials (component supply devices and components on reels in component conveyors) are placed on which supply lines. In the preparatory phase for manufacturing assembled products, the equipment should be optimized in terms of efficient assembly operation with high assembly efficiency so that all assembly materials required for the corresponding assembled products are located on the supply lines or at such positions that the corresponding components can be received as quickly as possible, and thus a fast and therefore efficient assembly operation can be guaranteed overall.

[0009] A plant that involves only one single assembly product to be manufactured and is preferably optimized for this assembly product is called a single plant. A plant that involves a plurality of different assembly products, which are usually manufactured separately and preferably have a certain similarity in their assembly content, is called a series plant. In a series plant, the attempt is made to distribute the assembly materials to different supply lines in such a way that the entirety of all assembly products of the relevant series can be assembled or manufactured as efficiently as possible.

[0010] In a series of equipment, it is possible to switch between different assembly products simply by using another selected assembly material located on another supply line of the automatic assembly machine for subsequent assembly (manufacturing of the next assembly product) after the manufacture of one assembly product is completed. To this end, the hardware components of the automatic assembly machine and the hardware components of the component supply device do not need to be changed. In particular, there is no need to change the supply line occupied by the assembly material. Assembly materials that are not used for subsequent assembly products remain on the relevant supply lines. Therefore, within the series of equipment, the switch from one assembly product to another assembly product can be achieved particularly quickly and without any operational intervention by the operators of the relevant automatic assembly machines.

[0011] However, the disadvantage of manufacturing assembly products using a series of equipment is that the equipment of the individual assembly products of the series involved may not be optimal due to the partial non-use of assembly materials on the individual supply lines. This means that at least one assembly product is at least partially made of assembly materials that are not located on a spatially optimal supply line or position with respect to the assembly product in terms of the short travel distance of the assembly head. As a result, the travel distance of the assembly head increases and the assembly efficiency decreases. Summary of the invention

[0012] The object of the present invention is to improve the assembly efficiency of the relevant automatic assembly machines by suitable equipment when producing different assembled products.

[0013] This object is achieved by the subject matter of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

[0014] According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method for manufacturing an assembled product by means of an automatic assembly machine is described, wherein the automatic assembly machine has a plurality of supply lines, wherein an assembly material for manufacturing the assembled product can be supplied through each supply line. The method comprises (A) manufacturing a first assembled product, wherein (i) a first positive selection of assembly materials is used, the first positive selection of assembly materials being supplied for manufacturing (of the first assembled product) via a first positive selection of supply lines, and wherein (ii) a first negative selection of assembly materials (for manufacturing the first assembled product) is not used, the first negative selection of assembly materials being assigned to a first negative selection of supply lines; (B) for a first negative selection of an assembly material, changing an allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from a first allocation to a second allocation, wherein the changing is performed during manufacturing of a first assembled product; and (C) manufacturing a second assembled product, wherein (i) a second positive selection of assembly materials is used, the second positive selection of assembly materials being supplied for manufacturing (of the second assembled product) via a second positive selection of supply lines, and wherein (ii) a second negative selection of assembly materials (for manufacturing the second assembled product) is not used, the second negative selection of assembly materials being assigned to a second negative selection of supply lines. According to the present invention, the second positive selection of supply lines is different from the first positive selection of supply lines, and the second assignment is different from the first assignment.

[0015] In this document, an assembly product is understood to be an assembly product of a certain type, which in practice typically includes a plurality of individual assembly products of this type. The first assembly product described here is an assembly product of a different type than the second assembly product described. Typically, the two assemblies differ in their assembly content, that is, in the number and / or type of (electronic) components mounted on the corresponding component carrier.

[0016] The described method for manufacturing an assembly product is based on the recognition that during the manufacture of the first assembly product, the distribution between (i) unused assembly materials (i.e., the first negative selection of assembly materials) and (ii) unused supply lines (i.e., the first negative selection of supply lines) can also be actively changed as follows, that is, the movement stroke of the assembly head of the automatic assembly machine can be reduced when manufacturing the second assembly product, especially when picking up components of the assembly material to be used later (i.e., the second positive selection of assembly materials). Here, the extent of the reduction depends of course on the types of the two assembly products and in particular on the similarity of the two assembly products with respect to the types of components required for manufacturing. Reducing the movement stroke for manufacturing the second assembly product advantageously leads to an increase in the manufacturing speed (of the second assembly product) and therefore generally leads to an increase in the assembly efficiency of the relevant automatic assembly machine. In this context, the term "assembly efficiency" should be understood as the maximum number of components that can be assembled by the automatic assembly machine within a specific time unit.

[0017] Intuitively, in the method, during the assembly operation (of the first assembly product), a dynamic reallocation is achieved between (i) currently unused assembly materials and (ii) currently unused supply lines. This new allocation is preferably optimized in view of the short assembly head movement stroke when manufacturing the subsequent second assembly product. The described reallocation means in particular that the currently unused assembly materials are spatially converted or placed in a new position. This requires at least temporarily releasing or removing one type of (currently unused) assembly material from a specific (currently unused) supply line, and then installing or allocating a second type of (currently unused) assembly material to the specific (currently unused) supply line.

[0018] As described at the beginning, the assembled product includes a component carrier and a component mounted thereon. In this document, the term "component carrier" can be understood as any type of medium that can be assembled, especially a substrate or a circuit board. The equippable medium, especially the circuit board, can be rigid or flexible. It can also have at least one first rigid area and at least one flexible area. In this document, the term "electronic component" or "component" can be understood as all components that can be assembled, which can be installed or assembled on the component carrier. The term "component" can include packaged components, and especially includes unpackaged components or chips. This includes two-pole or multi-pole SMT components or other highly integrated planar, circular or other shaped components, such as ball grid arrays, bare chips, flip chips or single parts, such as semiconductor chips of semiconductor wafers, which are further processed into finished components, especially after the structuring and cutting of the wafer. In this document, the term "component" can also include non-electrically active components, such as, for example, electrical plugs or plug connectors that can be assembled, cooling bodies, shielding elements, housing parts, etc.

[0019] According to one embodiment of the invention, the assembly material comprises a component and in particular an electronic component.

[0020] The components can be included in the assembly material in different ways. Preferably, the components are located in a known manner in a receiving slot of a component conveyor belt, which is fed by a component supply device to a component pick-up position, from which the components can be picked up one by one by an assembly head of an automatic assembly machine. Alternatively, however, the components can also be included in the assembly material as bulk material. The supply of the components then takes place in a manner also known per se by means of a bulk material conveyor, in particular by vibration.

[0021] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the assembly material further includes a component supply device.

[0022] In this embodiment, the (not yet assembled) components of one type of assembly material are located in or on the associated component supply device. Preferably, these components are located in a component conveyor belt in a manner known per se, which is wound on a reel body. Further preferably, the reel body together with the component conveyor belt wound thereon is located in a predetermined spatial area inside the component supply device (housing).

[0023] In the embodiment described here, the change in the configuration between assembly materials and supply lines from a first allocation to a second allocation is achieved in that, for at least one supply line, the relevant component supply device together with its unused specific type of components is removed from the supply line and another or new component supply device together with its other type of components is placed on the supply line.

[0024] Preferably, for two supply lines, the relevant component feeders with the associated (not yet equipped) components are simply replaced. The described change in the distribution between assembly material and supply lines from a first distribution to a second distribution can also include a plurality of such replacement processes of two component feeders with the associated components. This makes it possible to "iteratively" realize any new distribution between a larger number of assembly materials and a correspondingly larger number of supply lines.

[0025] The use of assembly materials which include not only the components to be assembled (optionally packaged in a component conveyor) but also the component feeders in each case has the advantage that the change from the first distribution to the second distribution can be realized in a particularly simple and reliable manner. This is possible in particular because the corresponding assembly materials can be handled particularly easily by an operator, for example, as a compact unit consisting of the component feeder with the associated (not yet assembled) components.

[0026] According to another embodiment of the invention, the change of the allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from the first allocation to the second allocation is performed in an automatic manner without manual intervention of an operator.

[0027] The described automatic change of allocation can be realized, for example, with the aid of a suitably configured robot. In order to be able to use the robot at different locations, for example on different automatic assembly machines in an assembly line or on different assembly lines each having at least one automatic assembly machine, the robot can be moved on the floor of the workshop with the aid of an unmanned transport vehicle (FTF, called automatic guided vehicle in English, AGV for short), on which the relevant automatic assembly machines are mounted. With this FTF, assembly materials can also be picked up from a central silo or temporary storage silo for assembly materials and transported to the selected automatic assembly machine on a predetermined supply line. In addition, assembly materials that are no longer needed can be transferred to such a silo with the aid of an FTF (return).

[0028] The application of FTF at least to assembly product manufacturing systems (assembly lines, automatic assembly machines, etc.) that already have or use such FTF has the following advantage, namely, the technology described in this document with conventional assembly product manufacturing systems can be implemented by simply implementing software adaptation. Hardware changes are not mandatory in any case.

[0029] It should be noted that for the described automatic change of the allocation between assembly material and supply lines, not only a robot but preferably a robot arranged on the FTF can be used. In principle, the allocation can be changed automatically using any handling system that can remove assembly material and, in particular, component supply devices with components contained therein, from one supply line and place them on another supply line. Non-critical examples of such handling systems are autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and handling devices that are mounted on so-called overhead conveyor systems (OTS in English) and / or on so-called rail-guided vehicles (RGV in English), or can be moved along the automatic assembly machine using OTS and / or RGV.

[0030] According to another embodiment of the invention, at least one subset of the first negatively selected assembly materials is at least one subset of the second positively selected. This has the advantage that, for the production of the second assembly product, at least one assembly material or one type of assembly material is used, which was already present in the supply area of ​​the automatic assembly machine in the previous time window for the production of the first assembly product, in which the aforementioned multiple supply lines are located. The product change from the first assembly product to the second assembly product can therefore be carried out very quickly and without interruption, as long as no further assembly materials have to be directed from the outside to at least one supply line.

[0031] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first sum of (i) the number of first positively selected supply lines and (ii) the number of first negatively selected supply lines is equal to the total number of the plurality of supply lines. Alternatively or in combination, the second sum of (i) the number of second positively selected supply lines and (ii) the number of second negatively selected supply lines is equal to the total number of the plurality of supply lines. This has the advantage that, when executing the method, all supply lines present on the automatic assembly machine are involved, and therefore the flexibility or possibility in executing the change of allocation from the first allocation to the second allocation is maximized. Intuitively expressed, all supply lines that were not used during the manufacture of the first assembly product can be used in this change. Therefore, by targeted rearrangement or reclassification of the assembly materials, an optimized spatial arrangement of the corresponding assembly materials for the second assembly product can be achieved while reducing the movement stroke of the assembly head when picking up the components required for the second assembly product.

[0032] According to another embodiment of the present invention, during the manufacture of the first assembly product, for the first front selection of assembly materials, the allocation between the assembly materials of the relevant front selection and the supply lines of the corresponding front selection remains unchanged. Alternatively or in combination, during the manufacture of the second assembly product, for the second front selection of assembly materials, the allocation between the assembly materials of the relevant front selection and the supply lines of the corresponding front selection remains unchanged.

[0033] The "remaining unchanged" described by this embodiment intuitively indicates that during the manufacturing of the assembly product (here, the first assembly product or the second assembly product), the assembly materials used to assemble the relevant assembly product are not rearranged or reclassified with respect to the supply lines (spatially fixed) existing on the automatic assembly machine. Therefore, the assembly operation of the relevant assembly product can be performed completely undisturbed with high efficiency and high assembly efficiency. The high efficiency or high assembly efficiency will not be adversely affected by the possible spatial rearrangement or reclassification of the currently unnecessary assembly materials.

[0034] According to another embodiment of the present invention, during the manufacture of the first assembly product, for the first positive selection of assembly materials, the allocation between the assembly materials of the relevant positive selection and the supply lines of the corresponding positive selection is changed. Alternatively or in combination, during the manufacture of the second assembly product, for the second positive selection of assembly materials, the allocation between the assembly materials of the relevant positive selection and the supply lines of the corresponding positive selection is changed.

[0035] The "change" described by this embodiment intuitively indicates that during the manufacture of an assembly product (here, the first assembly product or the second assembly product), the location or supply line (on which the assembly materials required for the relevant assembly product are provided to the assembly process) is changed. In other words, the relevant (positively selected) assembly materials are reclassified, rearranged and / or rearranged. Here, the rearrangement process temporarily slightly reduces the assembly efficiency. However, if a larger number of assembly products of the relevant type are to be manufactured after completing this rearrangement and, in particular, when picking up the relevant components, the rearrangement provides a time advantage for such manufacturing, this generally improves the assembly efficiency overall.

[0036] Preferably, a defined time window can be used for the rearrangement process, in which at least one specific (positively selected) assembly material is not used for the production of the current assembly product. This can be the case, for example, when the assembly head just receives components from another component supply device in the next head cycle, or when the component carrier has just been assembled and the assembly head must wait for the next component carrier to be moved into the assembly area of ​​the automatic assembly machine. As long as such a time window is used to rearrange the assembly materials required for the current assembly product itself, this rearrangement can also be carried out in an efficiency-neutral manner with regard to the resulting assembly efficiency.

[0037] According to another embodiment of the invention, the change of the distribution between assembly materials and supply lines from a first distribution to a second distribution includes: replacing the first negatively selected first assembly material by the first negatively selected second assembly material. In this case, after the replacement, (i) the first assembly material is allocated to the supply line to which the second assembly material was previously allocated, and (ii) the second assembly material is allocated to the supply line to which the first assembly material was previously allocated. By simply replacing two currently unused assembly materials as described, the distribution between assembly materials and supply lines can be changed from the first distribution to the second distribution in a particularly simple manner.

[0038] It should be noted that the replacement of the assembly material described here can also be performed multiple times in sequence with any assembly material of the first negative selection. Thus, the best spatial arrangement of the second positive selection of assembly materials for manufacturing the second assembly product can be realized for the first negative selection in a timely manner before manufacturing the second assembly product.

[0039] According to another embodiment of the invention, changing the allocation between assembly material and supply lines from a first allocation to a second allocation includes at least one further assembly material being taken from a silo for assembly material and allocated to a predetermined supply line on the automatic assembly machine.

[0040] By taking into account the described further assembly material from the silo, the flexibility in providing assembly material for the second assembly product can be increased. This is particularly applicable to a plurality of potentially available different types of assembly materials or different types of (electronic) components. The further assembly material can come from a central silo for assembly materials or from a temporary storage silo. Such a silo can be arranged, for example, in a manufacturing workshop, in which a plurality of automatic assembly machines and preferably even a plurality of manufacturing lines are placed, wherein each manufacturing line has at least one automatic assembly machine and typically has a plurality of automatic assembly machines connected one after the other. The transport of such a silo can preferably be carried out automatically by means of a robot on an unmanned transport vehicle (FTF).

[0041] According to a further embodiment of the invention, the change of the allocation between assembly materials and supply lines from a first allocation to a second allocation comprises transporting away at least one assembly material of the first negative selection of assembly materials.

[0042] The removal of the at least one assembly material results in at least one corresponding (previous) supply line becoming free. This makes it possible to simplify the changeover of the remaining assembly materials of the first negative selection in terms of handling technology. That is to say, for the described change of the allocation from the first allocation to the second allocation, the operator or the robot must always handle only the assembly materials of the first negative selection of the remaining assembly materials at a specific point in time.

[0043] The transport can preferably be carried out relative to the above-mentioned central silo or temporary storage silo. This can also be performed manually by an operator or preferably automatically by a robot on an unmanned transport vehicle (FTF).

[0044] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises (A) changing another allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from another first allocation to another second allocation for a second negative selection of the assembly material, wherein the changing is performed during manufacturing of a second assembled product; and (B) manufacturing a third assembled product, wherein (i) a third positive selection of assembly materials is used, the third positive selection of assembly materials being supplied to the manufacturing (of the third assembled product) via a third positive selection of supply lines, and wherein (ii) a second negative selection of assembly materials (for manufacturing the third assembled product) is not used, the second negative selection of assembly materials being assigned to a second negative selection of supply lines. Here, the third positive selection of supply lines is different from the second positive selection of supply lines (and preferably also different from the first positive selection of supply lines). Furthermore, the further second assignment is different from the further first assignment.

[0045] In the embodiment described here, it is intuitively expressed that not only two assembly products are manufactured, but three assembly products are manufactured in sequence. In a manner corresponding to the above-mentioned method with only two assembly products, the distribution between (i) unused assembly materials (i.e., the second negative selection of assembly materials) and (ii) unused supply lines (i.e., the second negative selection of supply lines) can be actively changed during the manufacture of the second assembly product, so that when manufacturing the third assembly product, the movement stroke of the assembly head of the automatic assembly machine can be reduced, especially when picking up components of the assembly materials used later (i.e., the third positive selection of assembly materials). Reducing the movement stroke for manufacturing the third assembly product advantageously leads to an increase in the manufacturing speed (of the third assembly product) and therefore generally leads to an increase in the assembly efficiency of the relevant automatic assembly machine.

[0046] It is pointed out that the method described here with three assembled products can also be expanded to a method for producing more than three assembled products.

[0047] According to another aspect of the invention, an automatic assembly machine for producing assembled products by automatically assembling (electronic) components on component carriers is described. The automatic assembly machine has (A) a plurality of supply lines, wherein each supply line can supply a type of assembly material, each of which includes a type of component for manufacturing an assembly product; (B) an assembly head configured to: (i) pick up supplied components, (ii) transport the picked up components to an assembly area of ​​an automatic assembly machine, in which a component carrier to be assembled is located, and (iii) place the picked up components at a predetermined assembly position on the component carrier, respectively; and (C) Data processing apparatus configured to carry out a method of the type described above.

[0048] The described data processing device can be part of a (central) control device of an automatic assembly machine or part of an assembly line arranged on an automatic assembly machine. The data processing device can be implemented by means of software, by means of hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0049] According to another aspect of the invention, a computer program for manufacturing an assembled product by means of an automatic assembly machine is described, the automatic assembly machine having a plurality of supply lines, wherein an assembly material for manufacturing the assembled product can be supplied via each supply line. When the computer program is executed by a data processing device, the computer program is configured to execute the aforementioned method.

[0050] In the sense of this document, the nomenclature of such a computer program is synonymous with the terms program element, computer program product and / or computer-readable medium, which contains instructions for controlling a computer system in order to coordinate the working mode of the automatic assembly machine in a suitable manner in order to achieve the effects associated with the method according to the invention.

[0051] The computer program can be implemented as a computer-readable instruction code of any suitable programming language (e.g., JAVA, C++, C#, etc.). The computer program can be stored on a computer-readable storage medium (CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray disc, removable drive, volatile or non-volatile memory, built-in memory / processor, etc.). The instruction code can program a data processing device or other programmable device so as to implement the desired function. In addition, the computer program can be provided in a network, such as the Internet, and can be downloaded from the network by a user when necessary.

[0052] The described method can be realized not only by means of a computer program, ie software, but also by means of one or more dedicated electronic circuits, ie hardware, or in any desired mixed form, ie by means of software components and hardware components.

[0053] It is noted that embodiments of the invention are described with reference to different inventive subject matters. In particular, some embodiments of the invention are described in method claims, while other embodiments of the invention are described in apparatus claims. However, a person skilled in the art will immediately understand when reading this document that, in addition to combinations of features belonging to one type of inventive subject matter, any combination of features belonging to different types of inventive subject matter is possible, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

[0054] In order to better understand the present invention, the specific implementation of the invention disclosed in this document is described below. Here, the standard solution (I) for implementing the present invention is first described. Thereafter, two advantageous expansion solutions (II) and (III) of the standard solution are described.

[0055] (I) Standard solution In the standard approach described here, it is assumed that the assembly product to be manufactured is part of an assembly product series. For this purpose, the software planning tool calculates which assembly products can be manufactured meaningfully using the above-mentioned series equipment based on the commonality of the assembly materials required for the different assembly products.

[0056] In this standard scenario, the assembly product series consists of at least two assembly products, namely, one assembly product BP A and one assembly product BP B. This requires two groups of assembly materials for its production, namely, one assembly material group BM A and one assembly material group BM B. In addition, in the standard scenario described here, it is assumed that the amount of assembly materials that determines the assembly efficiency from the assembly material group BM B is not contained in the assembly material group BM A. First, the assembly product BP A should be produced.

[0057] Preferably, the standard protocol described herein can be recommended, comprising the following steps.

[0058] 1. A software-supported production planning tool that analyzes which assembly product is to be manufactured next. Here, the assembly product should be BP B. For this purpose, the assembly material group BM B is required.

[0059] 2. A software-supported optimization tool determines which supply lines for the assembly material group BMB are ideally positioned spatially when picking up the relevant components, taking into account the short travel distance of the assembly head. The current arrangement of the assembly material group BMA is taken into account within the series arrangement. The optimization tool determines a corresponding rearrangement plan.

[0060] 3. Optional step: The optimization tool calculates in which order the assembly materials BM B should be reclassified or rearranged based on the cycle time for manufacturing the assembly product BP A. The reclassification or rearrangement that has the greatest impact on the assembly efficiency of the relevant automatic assembly machine is performed with higher priority.

[0061] 4. The rearrangement plan is sent to a control computer which controls a robot for manipulating and automatically rearranging the assembly materials.

[0062] 5. The robot rearranges the relevant assembly materials according to the rearrangement plan. This is ideally achieved without affecting other tasks of the robot, which are assigned to the robot in conjunction with the operation of the automatic assembly machine or the upper-level assembly line.

[0063] The rearrangement of the assembly material group BM B must be performed and completed before starting to manufacture the assembly product BP B, that is, during the manufacturing time of the assembly product BP A. Because the assembly material group BM B has not been used yet, the rearrangement of the assembly materials of the assembly material group BM B will not affect the assembly efficiency of the relevant automatic assembly machine.

[0064] (II) Extension 1 Rearrangement of currently required assembly materials The above steps can also be used to rearrange or re-arrange the assembly materials currently used to manufacture the assembled products within the series of equipment. In this case, the rearrangement of the currently required assembly materials may affect the efficiency of the related automatic assembly machines. However, this rearrangement is only meaningfully performed in the following cases, that is, the re-positioning of the currently required assembly materials or the reallocation between the currently required assembly materials and supply lines of the automatic assembly machines is more beneficial to the resulting assembly efficiency than the loss of assembly efficiency caused by the rearrangement.

[0065] For the rearrangement of the assembly materials required for the current assembly product itself described here, time windows can be used if necessary, in which at least one specific assembly material is not used. This can be the case, for example, when the assembly head just receives components from another component supply device in the next head cycle, or when the component carrier has just been assembled and the assembly head must wait for the next component carrier to be moved into the assembly area of ​​the automatic assembly machine. As long as such a time window is used to rearrange the assembly materials required for the current assembly product itself, this rearrangement can also be carried out in an efficiency-neutral manner with respect to the resulting assembly efficiency.

[0066] (III) Extension 2 Rearrange assembly materials in silos The aforementioned steps can also be used to optimize series equipment that is not currently used by the automatic assembly machine and is located in a silo, for example. This silo can especially be a temporary storage silo that is located near the relevant automatic assembly machine or near the relevant assembly line.

[0067] Thus, for example, assembly material group C1 of series equipment C can be used for the current production of an assembly product. In addition, multiple assembly materials with series equipment D can be present (side by side) in the silo. On the basis of the production plan, assembly material group D1 must be used to produce the next assembly product after assembly material group C1. In this case, the above method can be used to optimize material group D1.

[0068] After the transition from series equipment C to series equipment D, the automatic assembly machine can use assembly material group D1 to manufacture the next assembly product with maximum assembly efficiency.

[0069] Further advantages and features of the invention emerge from the following exemplary description of currently preferred embodiments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0070] Figure 1 An automatic assembly machine according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0071] Figure 2 The manufacture of two assembled products using known fixed series equipment is shown.

[0072] Figure 3 The production of two assembled products using dynamic tooling optimization according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0073] Description of reference numerals: 100 Automatic assembly machine 102 Frame structure / chassis 110 Assembly area 112 Conveying device 114 Component Supply System 115 Component supply device 116 Component Pickup Position 118 Data processing device / control device 120 Fixed Camera / Element Camera 122 Movable Camera / Circuit Board Camera 125 Assembly head 130 Positioning System 132 Fixed components / stationary carrier tracks 133 Another fixed component / Another fixed carrier track 134 Assembling parts 140 movable part / movable carrier arm 140a Longitudinal axis 150 Robot 190 Component carrier / circuit board 192 Electronic components BM Assembly Materials T Conveying direction 290a First component carrier / first circuit board 290b Second component carrier / second circuit board BM 1-BM 7 Assembly materials (component supply device + components) BMactive Assembly materials used to manufacture current assembly products BMpassive Assembly materials that are not used to manufacture the current assembly product BMnext is used to manufacture the assembly materials for the next assembly product BP A First Assembly Products BP B Second assembly product TP conveyor Δ Transition from the first assembled product to the second assembled product with the use of different assembly materials (equipment does not change) Δ1 Rearrangement of passive assembly materials during manufacture of first assembly product Δ2 Transition from the first assembled product to the second assembled product with the use of different assembly materials (equipment does not change) Δ3 Rearrange active assembly materials during manufacture of a second assembled product. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0074] It should be noted that in the following detailed description, features or components from different embodiments that are identical or at least functionally identical to corresponding features or components of another embodiment are provided with the same reference numerals or with reference numerals that are identical in the last two digits to the reference numerals of the corresponding identical or at least functionally identical features or components. In order to avoid unnecessary repetitions, features or components that have already been explained with the aid of the previously described embodiments will not be elaborated in detail below.

[0075] Figure 1The schematic diagram shows an automatic assembly machine 100 for assembling electrical components 192 to a component carrier or circuit board 190. The automatic assembly machine 100 has a frame structure or chassis 102. Two fixed carrier rails 132 and 133 are mounted on the frame structure 102, and the carrier rails extend in the y direction respectively. The two carrier rails 132, 133 are components of a positioning system 130 and are referred to as a fixed component 132 or another fixed component 133 in this document.

[0076] A movable carrier track 140 is mounted on the two fixed components 132 and 133, and the carrier track extends along a longitudinal axis 140a, which extends parallel to the x direction in the coordinate system used here. In the context of the technology described herein, the movable carrier track is called a movable component 140. The movable component 140 is movable along the y direction when driven by a drive motor that is not shown and is configured as a linear motor. The corresponding movement direction is indicated by a double arrow "Y".

[0077] The assembly part 134 is mounted on the movable part 140 and can be, for example, a slide which is held on a linear guide (not shown) and can be moved along the x-direction by another linear motor (also not shown). The corresponding movement direction is indicated by the double arrow "X". The assembly head 125 is mounted on the assembly part 134 in a known manner.

[0078] The two fixed parts 132, 133, the movable part 140 and the assembly part 134 are connected to each other. Figure 1 A linear motor (not shown) and a linear guide (also not shown) together represent a positioning system 130 , by means of which the mounting head 125 can be moved or positioned in the xy plane.

[0079] The component carrier 190 is assembled in the assembly area 110. Before assembly, the component carrier 190 to be assembled is transported into the assembly area 110 by means of a conveying device 112, such as a conveyor belt. After at least partial assembly of the component 192, the component carrier 190 is transported away by means of the conveying device 112. The corresponding conveying direction is Figure 1 In the figure, they are represented by arrows T respectively.

[0080] As already mentioned above, the assembly head 125 is fixed to the assembly part 134. By appropriately controlling the linear motor (not shown), the assembly head 125 can be moved between the component pick-up position 116 of the component supply system 114 and the assembly area 110. According to the embodiment shown here, the component supply system 114 has a total of ten component supply devices 115, which respectively sequentially transport one type of components 192 packaged in the component conveyor belt to the corresponding component pick-up position 116.

[0081] According to the embodiment shown here, the component supply device 115 has an inner space. The associated components 192 are packaged in a component conveyor belt, not shown, which is wound on a likewise inner space. Figure 1 Each component supply device 115 thus forms a compact and manipulable unit together with the components 192 received therein. As mentioned above, in this document, the entirety composed of the component supply device and the components 192 received therein is referred to as assembly material BM.

[0082] The data processing device 118 for controlling the assembly process is communicatively coupled to the various linear motors and the assembly head 125 via data lines (not shown). During the assembly process, the assembly head 125 moves to the component pick-up position 116, where the component 192 is received. The assembly head 125 then moves with the received component 192 into the assembly area 110, where the component 192 is placed on the provided component carrier 190. The assembly head 125 then moves "idly" back to the component supply system 114, where it receives the component 192 again.

[0083] If Figure 1 As can be seen, the automatic assembly machine 100 also has two cameras. The first fixed camera 120 is used to measure the component 192 received by the assembly head 125. For this purpose, the assembly head 125 is positioned above the camera 120 so that the received component 192 reaches the detection area of ​​the camera 120. In this component measurement, for example, the exact angular position of the received or held component 192 can be measured. When placing the relevant component 192, the deviation of the angular position can be compensated in a suitable manner by appropriately rotating the component holding device in a known manner, so that the relevant component 192 is placed on the component carrier 190 in the correct angular position.

[0084] The second camera 122 is used to precisely measure the markings applied to the upper side of the component carrier 190 to be assembled. The exact spatial position of the component carrier 190 within the assembly area 110 can thereby be identified and taken into account when positioning the assembly head 125, so that the components 192 are actually also precisely placed at a specific target position on the component carrier 190. According to the exemplary embodiment shown here, the second camera 122 is mounted on the assembly head 125 and is moved together with the assembly head 125 on the component carrier 190 to measure the markings.

[0085] According to the technology described in this document, assembly materials BM constructed as well-manipulatable units, i.e., component supply devices 115 together with the associated components 192, are reclassified or rearranged by a robot 150 during the manufacture of a current assembly product, i.e., a component carrier 190 at least partially assembled with components 192. This reclassification or rearrangement is carried out with a view to the most efficient possible manufacture of the next assembly product, which should be manufactured after the current assembly product is completed. An assembly product may be understood here as a specific type of assembly product, which in practice typically includes a plurality of individual assembly products of this type. According to the embodiment shown here, in the case of the mentioned reclassification or rearrangement, only such assembly materials BM that are not used to manufacture the current assembly product are reclassified or rearranged.

[0086] Figure 2 The production of two assembled products using known fixed series equipment is shown. The illustration is implemented using an automatic assembly machine (not shown) with, for example, seven supply lines, to each of which a component supply device is coupled. Of course, the technology described in this document can also be implemented using an automatic assembly machine with any other number of supply lines.

[0087] The component feeders are constructed such that they have an interior space in which the components to be assembled are contained, as described above. The corresponding assembly materials (component feeder+components) are denoted by the reference numerals BM 1, BM 2, BM 3, BM 4, BM 5, BM 6 and BM 7.

[0088] Figure 2 The production of a first assembled product BP A is shown on the left. In this case, a first component carrier or first circuit board 290a is assembled with components from assembly materials BM 1, BM 2 and BM 3. For a better overview, Figure 1 The assembly materials BM 1, BM 2 and BM 3 are shown in grey in FIG. Figure 1 The assembly materials BM 2, BM 4, BM 5 and BM 6 that are not used to manufacture the first assembly product BP A are referred to as "BMactive" in the legend. Figure 1 is shown in white in Figure 1 is called "BMpassive" in the legend.

[0089] For assembly, the first component carrier 290a is moved into an elongated assembly area of ​​the automatic assembly machine by means of the transport device TP. The elongated assembly area extends along the entire extension of the seven assembly materials BM1 to BM7 along the conveying direction of the transport device TP indicated by the arrow.

[0090] Compared to the production (not shown) using the individual equipment described at the beginning of this document, these active assembly materials BM 1, BM 2 and BM 3 for assembling the first assembly product BP A are not arranged directly adjacent to each other. As a result, the movement stroke of the assembly head of the automatic assembly machine when picking up the relevant components is slightly longer than that of the individual equipment. During the production of the first assembly product BP A, the first component carrier 290a to be assembled is moved in the elongated assembly area by means of the conveying device TP to a position where the sum of the movement strokes between (i) the three assembly materials BM 1, BM 2 and BM 3 on one side and (ii) the movement strokes between the corresponding placement positions of the components on the first component carrier 290a on the other side is as short as possible.

[0091] After the production of the first assembly product A is completed, or more precisely, after the production of a certain number of the first assembly product BPA is completed, a production technology transition is made from the first assembly product BPA to the second assembly product BP B. Figure 2 The transition from the first assembled product BP A to the second assembled product BP B is shown on the right side of Figure 2 The component supply system 114 or the equipment of the automatic assembly machine and thus the allocation between the various assembly materials BM 1 to BM 7 and the supply lines of the automatic assembly machine do not change according to the series equipment concept.

[0092] According to the embodiment shown here, the assembly materials BM1, BM4 and BM6 are used to produce the second assembled product BP B. The assembly materials BM2, BM3, BM5 and BM7 are not used to produce the second assembled product BP B.

[0093] In order to manufacture the second assembled product BP B, the movement path of the assembly head is kept as short as possible. The second component carrier 290b for the second assembled product BP B is moved into the vicinity of the two assembly materials BM4 and BM6 in the assembly area for assembly.

[0094] Figure 3 The production of two assembly products using dynamic equipment optimization according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown. The production begins with the production of a first assembly product BP A, in which a first component carrier 290a is assembled. According to the exemplary embodiment shown here, three assembly materials BM 1, BM 3 and BM 7 are used for this purpose. These assembly materials are Figure 3 It is also shown in gray and is referred to as "BMactive" in the legend. Figure 1In the figure, the assembly materials BM 2, BM 4, BM 5 and BM 6 which are not used to produce the first assembly product BP A are shown in white or hatched. For a short assembly head movement stroke, the first component carrier 290a is placed as close as possible to the three active assembly materials BM 1, BM 3 and BM 7 for its assembly by the conveying device TP.

[0095] According to the embodiment shown here, the two white-illustrated assembly materials BM 2 and BM 5 are also not used for the future production of the second assembly product BP B. The two hatched assembly materials BM 4 and BM 6 are necessary for the future production of the second assembly product BP B. Figure 3 In the legend, they are called “BMnext”.

[0096] Also during the manufacture of the first assembly product BP A, currently unused assembly materials BM 2, BM 4, BM 5 and BM 6 in the component supply system 114 are actively reclassified or rearranged in relation to the upcoming manufacture of the assembly product BP B. As a result, the allocation between assembly materials BM 2, BM 4, BM 5 and BM 6 and the associated supply lines of the automatic assembly machine is changed. This rearrangement of only the unused assembly materials BM 2, BM 4, BM 5 and BM 6 is Figure 3 It is represented by “Δ1” in the table.

[0097] After the production of the first assembled product A is completed, or more precisely, after the production of a predetermined number of the first assembled products BPA is completed, a transition is made from the first assembled product BPA to the second assembled product BP B. The production of the second assembled product BPB is completed in Figure 2 is shown on the right side of Figure 3 In the figure, "Δ2" is used to indicate the transition in manufacturing technology from the first assembled product BP A to the second assembled product BP B. The assembly of the component supply system 114 or the automatic assembly machine and the distribution between the various assembly materials BM1 to BM7 (in Figure 3 In this transition “Δ2”, there is no change (in order from BM 1, BM 3, BM 7, BM 4, BM 6, BM 2 and BM 5).

[0098] In order to minimize the movement stroke of the assembly head for manufacturing the second assembly product BP B, according to the embodiment shown here, during the manufacturing of the second assembly product BP B, the active assembly materials BM 1, BM 4 and BM 6 in the component supply system 114 or on the supply line of the automatic assembly machine are rearranged or reclassified. Specifically, according to the embodiment shown here, the two assembly materials BM 1 and BM 7 are exchanged with each other. As a result, the active assembly material BM 1 is closer to the other two active assembly materials BM 4 and BM 6. This rearrangement is Figure 3 It is indicated by “Δ3”.

[0099] Furthermore, according to the embodiment shown here, starting from this rearrangement "Δ3", the second component carrier 290b to be assembled is placed slightly further back in the assembly area along the conveying direction of the conveyor device TP. As a result, the assembly head movement stroke between the component supply system 114 and the assembly position on the second component carrier 290B for manufacturing the second assembled product BP B can be reduced.

[0100] It should be noted that the term "having" does not exclude other elements, and "a" does not exclude a plurality. Furthermore, elements described in connection with different embodiments may be combined. It should also be noted that the reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing an assembled product by means of an automatic assembly machine, the automatic assembly machine having a plurality of supply lines, wherein an assembly material for manufacturing the assembled product can be supplied through each supply line, the method comprising: Manufacturing a first assembly product, wherein (i) using a first positive selection of assembly material, the first positive selection of assembly material being supplied to manufacturing via a first positive selection of supply lines, and wherein (ii) not using the first negative selection of assembly material, the first negative selection of assembly material being assigned to the first negative selection of supply line; for a first negative selection of an assembly material, changing an allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from a first allocation to a second allocation, wherein the changing is performed during manufacturing of the first assembled product; and Manufacturing a second assembled product, wherein (i) using a second positive selection of assembly material, the second positive selection of assembly material being supplied to manufacturing via a second positive selection of supply line, and wherein (ii) not using the second negative selection of assembly material, the second negative selection of assembly material being assigned to the second negative selection of supply line; wherein the second positive selection of the supply line is different from the first positive selection of the supply line, and Among them, the second allocation is different from the first allocation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The assembly material comprises components and in particular electronic components.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein The assembly material also includes a component supply device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein Changing the allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from the first allocation to the second allocation This is done automatically without manual intervention by an operator.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein At least a subset of the assembly materials of the first negative selection is at least a subset of the second positive selection.

6. The method according to claim 1, in, a first sum of (i) the number of first positively selected supply lines and (ii) the number of first negatively selected supply lines is equal to the total number of the plurality of supply lines, and / or wherein a second sum of (i) the number of the second positively selected supply lines and (ii) the number of the second negatively selected supply lines is equal to the total number of the plurality of supply lines.

7. The method according to claim 1, in, For the first positive selection of assembly materials, the assignment between the relevant positively selected assembly materials and the corresponding positively selected supply lines remains unchanged during the manufacture of the first assembled product, and / or Therein, for the second front selection of the assembly material, the assignment between the relevant front selected assembly material and the corresponding front selected supply line remains unchanged during the manufacture of the second assembled product.

8. The method according to claim 1, in, for a first positive selection of said assembly material, changing the allocation between the relevant positively selected assembly material and the corresponding positively selected supply line during the manufacture of said first assembled product, and / or Therein, for the second positive selection of the assembly material, during the manufacture of the second assembled product, the allocation between the relevant positively selected assembly material and the corresponding positively selected supply line is changed.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein Changing the allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from the first allocation to the second allocation includes replacing the first negatively selected first assembly material with the first negatively selected second assembly material, wherein after the replacement (i) the first assembly material is allocated to the supply line to which the second assembly material was previously allocated, and (ii) The second assembly material is allocated to the supply line to which the first assembly material was previously allocated.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein Changing the allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from the first allocation to the second allocation At least one further assembly material is included, which is taken from a magazine for assembly material and distributed to a predetermined supply line on the automatic assembly machine.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein Changing the allocation between the assembly material and the supply line from the first allocation to the second allocation The method includes transporting away at least one assembly material of a first negative selection of assembly materials.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising For a second negative selection of the assembly material, a further assignment between the assembly material and the supply line is changed from a further first assignment to a further second assignment, wherein performing the changing during manufacturing of the second assembled product; and Manufacturing of third assembly products, where (i) using a third positive selection of assembly materials, the third positive selection of assembly materials being supplied to manufacturing via a third positive selection of supply lines, and wherein (ii) not using the second negative selection of assembly material, the second negative selection of assembly material being assigned to the second negative selection of supply line; in, The third positive selection of the supply line is different from the second positive selection of the supply line, and The other second allocation is different from the other first allocation.

13. An automatic assembly machine for manufacturing an assembled product by automatically assembling components for a component carrier, the automatic assembly machine having a plurality of supply lines, wherein one type of assembly material can be supplied through each supply line, and each of the assembly materials includes one type of component for manufacturing an assembly product; The assembly head is configured (i) for picking up the supplied components, (ii) for conveying the picked-up components to an assembly area of ​​an automatic assembly machine, in which the component carrier to be assembled is located, and (iii) for placing the picked-up components respectively at a predetermined assembly position on the component carrier; and A data processing device configured to carry out the method according to claim 1.

14. A computer program for manufacturing an assembled product by means of an automatic assembly machine having a plurality of supply lines, wherein: A respective assembly material for producing an assembled product can be supplied via the supply lines, wherein the computer program is designed to carry out the method according to claim 1 when the computer program is executed by a data processing device.

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