Limp Component Design for Automatic Assembly – Classification Rating System and Design Rules

Abstract

The success of assembly process automation is strongly influenced by the part design. To support process automation, already in the 1960s and 70s part design rules were developed. These rules exist almost exclusively for rigid parts, however, in reality many products like for example automotive wire harnesses consist of a considerable amount of limp components. In this paper, we derive design rules to support assembly automation for parts containing limp components. The derived design rules are based on our approach for limp component classification. Therefore, we extend this approach with an attribute ranking system and a characteristic classification.