Author(s)

G. Tomkinson

Abstract

The concept of automated assembly is widely used to reduce production lead times and is implemented wherever possible. For example, the automotive industry has taken the concept to exceptionally high levels of efficiency in order to drive production costs down. This has been largely possible due to the introduction of more accurate and repeatable machining processes allowing mating parts to be assembled without any manual 'fitting'. There are areas of industry, such as aerospace, which handle large components and still rely upon jigs for drilling mating holes on assembly. Large machine tools used to machine features over long components struggle to repeatably maintain the required positional accuracy to allow automated assembly. This is for

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