Square Foot Manufacturing: A New Approach for Desktop-Sized Reconfigurable Machine Tools

Abstract

The Square Foot Manufacturing (SFM) concept, an extension to Desktop Manufacturing concepts, describes a novel approach to the design of production facilities for the manufacture of micro parts. Although machine tools based on Desktop Manufacturing concepts are appropriate to produce small parts, they are not widely used, mostly due to their specialization for determined fields of application. To create a higher acceptance and user benefit SFM offers, with its changeability, the possibility to rapidly adapt a machine tool system to a certain task. SFM is composed of function-integrating modules which are connected with mechanical interfaces that enable a quick configuration of the required setting. This modular manner allows for the realisation of not only workpiece-specific manufacturing systems, but also a production which is designed according to the batch size. The paper describes the procedure for designing component-specific Square Foot Factories starting from a demonstration workpiece, via structuring of the machining areas and production layout, configuration and positioning of the machine tools through to processing. The basic concept of SFM, the prototypes of its main modules, a flexure based feed unit and a mechanical interface, as well as the findings of the first processing analyses are presented.