Addressing design for automated and manual assembly processes, Assembly Automation and Product Design, Second Edition examines assembly automation in parallel with product design. The author enumerates the components, processes, performance, and comparative economics of several types of automatic assembly systems. He provides information on equipment such as transfer devices, parts feeders, feed tracks, placing mechanisms, and robots. Presenting detailed discussions of product design for assembly, the book contains over 500 drawings, tables, and equations, and numerous problems and laboratory experiments that help clarify and reinforce essential concepts. Highlighting the importance of well-designed products, the book covers design for manual assembly, high-speed automatic and robot assembly, and electronics assembly. The new edition includes the popular Handbook of Feeding and Orienting Techniques for Small Parts, published at the University of Massachusetts, as an appendix. This provides more than 100 pages packed with useful data and information that will help you avoid the costly errors that often plague high-volume manufacturing companies. In today's extremely competitive, highly unpredictable world, your organization needs to constantly find new ways to deliver value. Performing the same old processes in the same old ways is no longer a viable option. Taking an analytical yet practical approach to assembly automation, this completely revised second edition gives you the skill set you need not only to deliver that value, but to deliver it economically and on time.

Effective utilization of equipment is critical to any manufacturing operation, especially with today's sophisticated, high-cost equipment and increased global competition. To meet these challenges in the manufacturing industry, you must understand and implement the myriad conventional and intelligent techniques for different types of manufacturing problems. Manufacturing Optimization Through Intelligent Techniques covers design of machine elements, integrated product development, machining tolerance allocation, selection of operating parameters for CNC machine tools, scheduling, part family formation, selection of robot coordinates, robot trajectory planning and both conventional and intelligent techniques, providing the tools to design and implement a suitable optimization technique. The author explores how to model optimization problems, select suitable techniques, develop the optimization algorithm and software, and implement the program. The book delineates five new techniques using examples taken from the literature for optimization problems in design, tolerance allocation; selection of machining parameters, integrated product development, scheduling, concurrent formation of machine groups and part families, selection of robot co-ordinates, robot trajectory planning and intelligent machining. All the manufacturing functions described have been successfully solved by Genetic Algorithm. Other intelligent techniques have been implemented only for solving certain types of problems: simulated annealing; design and scheduling, particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization; tolerance allocation and tabu search; as well as machining parameters optimization. After reading this book, you will understand the different types of manufacturing optimization problems as well as the conventional and intelligent techniques suitable for solving them. You will also be able to develop and implement effective optimization procedures and algorithms for a wide variety of problems in design manufacturing.

In the more than 15 years since the second edition of Fundamentals of Machining and Machine Tools was published, the industry has seen many changes. Students must keep up with developments in analytical modeling of machining processes, modern cutting tool materials, and how these changes affect the economics of machining. With coverage reflecting state-of-the-art industry practice, Fundamentals of Machining and Machine Tools, Third Edition emphasizes underlying concepts, analytical methods, and economic considerations, requiring only basic mathematics and physics. This book thoroughly illustrates the causes of various phenomena and their effects on machining practice. The authors include several descriptions of modern analytical methods, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the various modeling approaches. What's New in the Third Edition? -Recent advances in super-hard cutting tool materials, tool geometries, and surface coatings -Advances in high-speed machining and hard machining -New trends in cutting fluid applications, including dry and minimum-quantity lubrication machining -New developments in tool geometries for chip breaking and chip control -Improvements in cost modeling of machining processes, including application to grinding processes Supplying abundant examples, illustrations, and homework problems, Fundamentals of Machining and Machine Tools, Third Edition is an ideal textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate students studying metal cutting, machining, machine tool technology, machining applications, and manufacturing processes.

Hailed as a groundbreaking and important textbook upon its initial publication, the latest iteration of Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly does not rest on those laurels. In addition to the expected updating of data in all chapters, this third edition has been revised to provide a top-notch textbook for university-level courses in product design and manufacturing design. The authors have added a comprehensive set of problems and student assignments to each chapter, making the new edition substantially more useful.

See what s in the Third Edition:

• Updated case studies on the application of DFMA techniques
• Extended versions of the classification schemes of the features of products that influence the difficulty of handling and insertion for manual, high-speed automatic, and robot assembly
• Discussions of changes in the industry such as increased emphasis on the use of surface mount devices
• New data on basic manufacturing processes
• Coverage of powder injection molding

Recognized as international experts on the re-engineering of electro-mechanical products, the methods and guidelines developed by Boothroyd, Dewhurst, and Knight have been documented to provide significant savings in the product development process. Often attributed with creating a revolution in product design, the authors have been working in product design manufacture and assembly for more than 25 years. Based on theory yet highly practical, their text defines the factors that influence the ease of assembly and manufacture of products for a wide range of the basic processes used in industry. It demonstrates how to develop competitive products that are simpler in configuration and easier to manufacture with reduced overall costs."