Modular Assembly Machine with Lightweight T-Channel Modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automated assembly machines are often designed for specific products and become obsolete when those products are removed from production, requiring significant repairs or reconfiguration, leading to inefficiencies and waste.
Innovation Solution
A modular, lightweight assembly machine with rectangular frame modules featuring T-shaped channels and a supporting spine with integral T-slots, allowing for easy reconfiguration and attachment without screws, enabling flexible layouts and easy manipulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automated assembly machines are designed for specific products, then they can perform dedicated operations efficiently, but they become obsolete when those products are removed from production
Solution Approach 1:
The assembly machine is divided into separate modular workstations that can be independently configured and reconfigured. Each workstation is a discrete unit that can be attached or detached from the carrier belt system, allowing the machine to be reconfigured for different products without replacing the entire system.
Solution Approach 2:
The machine employs universal interfaces and standardized mounting mechanisms (such as T-keys and key-nut fasteners) that allow the same carrier belt and workstation modules to serve multiple product types. The modular design enables workstations to be reused across different assembly lines for different products.
2Reliability
If assembly machines require repair or replacement of components, then operational continuity is maintained, but the entire machine often becomes scrap
Solution Approach 1:
The machine is constructed from discrete, replaceable modules including workstations, carrier belt sections, and support structures. When a component fails, only that specific module needs to be replaced rather than the entire machine, significantly reducing material waste.
Solution Approach 2:
The modular design enables recovery and reuse of functional modules. When a workstation or carrier belt section needs replacement, the working modules can be detached and reused in the reconfigured machine, while only the damaged modules are discarded or sent for repair.
3Productivity
If workstations need to be added to assembly machines, then production capacity is increased, but the machine structure becomes complex and difficult to modify
Solution Approach 1:
Workstations are designed as independent modular units that can be added to or removed from the carrier belt system without affecting other parts of the machine. Each workstation connects through standardized interfaces, allowing easy expansion or contraction of the assembly line.
Solution Approach 2:
The machine structure is designed to be dynamically reconfigurable. Workstations can be easily added, removed, or repositioned along the carrier belt using standardized mounting mechanisms, allowing the system to adapt to changing production requirements without permanent structural modifications.
4Ease of manufacture
If modular machines use precision machining and T-keys for assembly, then module attachment is simplified, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The complex precision machining and T-key fastening system is extracted from the final assembly process and incorporated into the module manufacturing process. Each module is pre-machined with T-keys and mounting features during production, so that field assembly requires only simple attachment operations without complex machining or specialized fastening procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of modules of sufficiently light weight (<80 lbs) are assembled end-to-end to construct an assembly machine for performing desired operations on a series of workpieces. A supporting spine underlies the interconnected modules and supports them and associated equipment in the desired array. The modular construction permits the assembly machine to be reconfigured as needed should operational alterations require it, including, but not limited to, the cannibalization of the machine with the modules being usable in constructing a machine having entirely different characteristics.