Integrated Computer Aided Design for Assembly Systems

Assembly being the last step of the production cycle of a product, it is normally submitted to the constraints of the precedent step. Techniques like Design for Assembly have been developed to try to take into consideration the peculiarities of the assembly process and reduce costs. The paper present the research and development of an integrated computer aided design for assembly system. The project main aim is to obtain methodologies and tools to design and manage a complete flexible assembly system but in this paper we will describe a CAAP (Computer Aided Assembly Planning) for the determination of gripping features, gripper and finger configuration, assembly sequence, simulation of the assembly system for the design of management rules, three dimensional simulation of robots (serial and parallel) for the design of each single assembly and control cell. The results of the project is tested in a specifically designed and implemented system for the assembly of electro-mechanical components.