Gunther Reinhart

Assembly of microsystems

In the microworld, as well as in the macroworld, assembly is a crucial operation in the genesis of a product. This keynote paper focusses on the assembly problems occurring in the manufacturing cycle of microsystems. Scaling effects make that the assembly problems are different in the microworld. The different assembly operations and techniques, like manipulation by physical contact, non-contact manipulation, smart assembly techniques, and joining methods are thoroughly discussed. Finally, some relevant examples of micro-assembly systems and of assembled microproducts are given.

Zukunft der Produktion: Herausforderungen, Forschungsfelder, Chancen

Der Produktionsstandort Deutschland kann sich im globalen Wettbewerb nur behaupten, wenn die Unternehmen auf die zukunftigen Anforderungen eingestellt sind. Das vorliegende Buch zeigt ausgehend von den Megatrends, welche Aktionsfelder die Produktionsforschung in den nachsten zehn Jahren bearbeiten muss, um vorne dabei zu sein. Sei es der demografische Wandel, neue Technologien, Klimawandel, Ressourcenknappheit oder Mobilitat; jeder dieser Einflussfaktoren verlangt gezielte Anpassungen in der Produktion und im Unternehmen. Das Buch beschreibt, wie diese aussehen sollten: Neue Produkte und Markte, Paradigmenwechsel in Organisation und Management, neue Fertigungstechnologien, nachhaltige Prozesse. Auf jede Herausforderung gibt es Antworten und Handlungsempfehlungen. Ein unverzichtbares Buch fur Fuhrungskrafte, die Zukunft mitgestalten.

Integrating Augmented Reality in the Assembly Domain - Fundamentals, Benefits and Applications

Abstract Augmented Reality (AR) Is a new form of human-machine interaction which overlays computer-generated information on the real world environment, e.g. through a semi-transparent, head-mounted display. With AR presented information is derived from the real environment and is thus context-sensitive. Augmented Reality can there fore enhance a users view with virtual information that is Sensitive to the current state of the surrounding real world. While Virtual Reality Technology (VRT) is commonly used in the automotive and aircraft industry, there exists few research approaches in the field of Augmented Reality. This contribution gives a detailed introduction to AR systems, and describes the capabilities and benefits of AR in the field of assembly. As an application, a modular AR system for guiding manual assembly and for use in assembly planning is described. Furthermore, a method for integrating AR into the planning process of manual assembly stations is presented.

Appropriate human involvement in assembly and disassembly

Product assembly as well as disassembly is often carried out by workers who have been trained and are flexible with respect to the different variants, delivery dates and changing lot sizes. Though there has been a strong tendency to mechanize and automate production during the last years many operations in assembly and disassembly are still very often performed manually. Furthermore there might be an increase in manually operated assembly or disassembly as a result of product equipment investments with shorter usage time. This keynote paper deals with the state of practice as well as the tendencies in product and production technology and the influence of markets. Another question is going to be the use of information technology on the shop floor level and between the shop floor and other levels within a company as well as the customers. Therefore industrial engineering is increasingly dealing with the influence of organization and structuring of production processes.

Economic application of virtual commissioning to mechatronic production systems

The interaction of heterogenous control hard and software plays a key role in enabling mechatronic production systems to become flexible and agile systems. Nevertheless, control software engineering still tends to be the last step within the development process. To a large extent it is carried out during the commissioning phase of the production ramp-up. On the first hand this leads to a loss of time and quality as well as to a loss of reputation and future orders on the second hand. A method that is referred to as Virtual Commissioning tries to overcome this situation. The aim is to enable control software engineering to, both take over the initiative in system design and to perform important activities earlier in the design process of production equipment. In this paper, the technological and economical scalability of Virtual Commissioning is analyzed. Based on the analysis, a technical concept for a scalable simulation environment is presented. The paper concludes with a new method for the economic application of Virtual Commissioning.

Artificial Cognition in Production Systems

Todays manufacturing and assembly systems have to be flexible to adapt quickly to an increasing number and variety of products, and changing market volumes. To manage these dynamics, several production concepts (e.g., flexible, reconfigurable, changeable or autonomous manufacturing and assembly systems) were proposed and partly realized in the past years. This paper presents the general principles of autonomy and the proposed concepts, methods and technologies to realize cognitive planning, cognitive control and cognitive operation of production systems. Starting with an introduction on the historical context of different paradigms of production (e.g., evolution of production and planning systems), different approaches for the design, planning, and operation of production systems are lined out and future trends towards fully autonomous components of an production system as well as autonomous parts and products are discussed. In flexible production systems with manual and automatic assembly tasks, human-robot cooperation is an opportunity for an ergonomic and economic manufacturing system especially for low lot sizes. The state-of-the-art and a cognitive approach in this area are outlined. Furthermore, introducing self-optimizing and self-learning control systems is a crucial factor for cognitive systems. This principles are demonstrated by a quality assurance and process control in laser welding that is used to perform improved quality monitoring. Finally, as the integration of human workers into the workflow of a production system is of the highest priority for an efficient production, worker guidance systems for manual assembly with environmentally and situationally dependent triggered paths on state-based graphs are described in this paper.

A holistic approach for the cognitive control of production systems

Increasing dynamics and a turbulent environment force industrial enterprises to ensure a highly efficient production. The field of production planning and control (PPC) and the sustainable optimization of its methods are hereby of utmost importance. This paper introduces a concept for a cognitive production planning and control system, in which so-called smart products store knowledge about the production process and its current state. The RFID (radio frequency identification) technology presents a promising approach to realize those smart products, to enhance the information management on the shop floor and to offer a precise image of individual product states in the production process. The knowledge on production sequences is represented in a graph-based model. The developed concept represents the executable production of every single resource in capability profiles that are used for the allocation of production steps to resources. Material transports are realized by an anticipatory transport control, which updates its model parameters autonomously. During runtime, the product-specific operation times are measured and stored on the smart product, which is subsequently used to update the overall planning data. Thus, the introduced production planning and control system is able to react to unforeseen events (e.g. missing material, insufficient product quality) and autonomously adapts the planning data to the actual elapsed values of the real production. First experiments showed promising results for the approach to provide and process information directly on the shop floor: the idleness of resources due to errors was reduced by 41% from 19.4% to 8.0% during a 3h test run. The waiting time of resources caused by missing material can be reduced in specific cases by 17.7%.

Non-Contact Handling Using High-Intensity Ultrasonics

Abstract Increasing requirements placed on the handling of parts in microsystem technology and semiconductor fabrication necessitate the development of new innovative approaches for handling and transporting miniaturized, fragile and surface-sensitive components. This is where the technology of high-intensity ultrasonics offers itself as a suitable approach for non-contact handling of parts and substrates. While microparts can be positioned and manipulated within a standing wave pattern, the application of the principle of near field levitation makes it possible to design non-tactile grippers and transfer systems as methods particularly suitable to ensure the material flow in microsystem and semiconductor manufacturing and wafer processing. The piezoelectric sound transducers used in this process, apart from the non-contact application of forces, are designed to monitor these forces by measuring the power input of the vibrators.

Automatic configuration (Plug & Produce) of Industrial Ethernet networks

Current developments in globalized markets lead to an increasing need for flexible and reconfigurable production systems. By means of automatic reconfiguration of real-time capable communication networks, the effort to perform changes in production systems can be tremendously reduced. This paper proposes new approaches for automatic reconfiguration for robot cells and their equipment on the one hand, controls and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) on the other hand. Therefore a five-step-model for reconfiguration is introduced. Based on Industrial Ethernet networks, different realistic setups were built. On the basis of these setups the approaches were tested and evaluated.

Integrated Development of Assembly and Disassembly

Abstract Manufacturers are becoming responsible for the complete life cycle of products. As a consequence they have to industrialize the after sales operations and the deproduction of products at the end of their lives. Industrial disassembly is a successful business of many companies but the main focus is the recycling of materials. Higher added value can be reached by industrialization of disassembly for remanufacturing. To activate the value of used components, new technologies for remanufacturing and analysis are necessary. This include disassembly for repair and reuse of parts and components. One main aspect of this paper is the integration of assembly and disassembly. Objectives, requirements and technical solutions for flexible or hybrid systems and aspects of planing and quality are discussed. The paper gives some perspectives to future research in the field of remanufacturing.