This paper presents our work on the application of virtualreality simulation to the design of a production line for a mechanically-assembled product. The development of this simulation was undertaken as a part of the Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. The major research problem is the partitioning and ana...

A study of one-dimensional (1-D) self-assembly of a type of mechanical conformational switches, minus devices is presented where assembly occurs via the sequential mating of a random pair of parts selected from a part bin, referred to as sequential random bin-picking. Parametric design optimization of the minus devices via a genetic algorithm maximizing the yield of a desired assembly, and rate...

Assembly sequence design for a mechanical system can have significant impact on manufacturing cost and product quality. Traditionally, such a design process is largely based on experience and best practices, often ineffective and non-optimal as the system becomes complex. This paper proposes a new, systematic method for automatic assembly sequence design and optimization. Key elements include a...

self-assembly of densely packed zno nanorods were grown on porous silicon (ps) substrate by low-temperature chemical bath deposition. the structural and optical properties of the obtained zno nanostructures on ps substrate were systematically studied. the strong and sharp (002) peak compared with other peaks in the x-ray diffraction (xrd) indicated thatzno nanorods formed with superior orientat...

The Virtual Assembly Design Environment (VADE) is a Virtual Reality (VR) based engineering application which allows engineers to evaluate, analyze, and plan the assembly of mechanical systems. This system focuses on utilizing an immersive virtual environment tightly coupled with commercial Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems. Salient features of VADE include: 1) data integration (two-way) with ...

This study presents a reduction of production disturbances of a shoemaking industry through discrete event simulation approach. The study is conducted at Peacock Shoe factory found in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  This factory faces line balancing problem that becomes production disturbance for its assembly lines. Detail time study is carried out for the selected shoe model using stopwatch. Assembly ...

Clathrin is a three-legged protein complex that assembles into lattice structures on the cell membrane and transforms into fullerene-like cages during endocytosis. This dynamic structural flexibility makes clathrin an attractive building block for guided assembly. The assembly dynamics and the mechanical properties of clathrin protein lattices are studied using rheological measurements and theo...

This paper presents a framework for Design For Assembly of hybrid microsystems. Hybrid microsystems are microsystems, mainly semi-conductor based, which offer diverse functionality, and which are realised by integrating elements (die, parts) from different material and technology domains. From macro-domain mechanical products, it is known that the design of these products is of major importance...

Fluidic self-assembly using capillary forces has shown great potential for the manufacture of heterogeneous and three-dimensional microsystems because of its self-aligning and parallel assembly nature. Alignment of the parts to their binding sites needs a high degree of accuracy especially in applications with high interconnect density. However, disturbance forces and part tilting threaten a co...

This paper introduces a design for agile manufacturing workcells intended for light mechanical assembly of products made from similar components (i.e. parts families). We define agile manufacturing as the ability to accomplish rapid changeover from the assembly of one product to the assembly of another product. Rapid hardware changeover is made possible through the use of robots, flexible part ...