 Definition  Development of FMS

 History of FMS  Nuts and Bolts

 FMS equipment  How FMS works
 Types of FMS  A real world example
 Applications of FMS  Summary
 FSM different approaches
 Advantages
 Disadvantage
 A Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is
a production system consisting of a set of
identical and/or complementary numerically
controlled machine which are connected through
an automated transportation system.
Each process in FMS is controlled by a dedicated
computer (FMS cell computer).
 A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a
form of flexible automation in which several
machine tools are linked together by a
material-handling system, and all aspects of the
system are controlled by a central computer.
 At the turn of the century FMS did not exist. There was not a big
enough need for efficiency because the markets were national and there was no
foreign competition. Manufacturers could tell the consumers what to buy.
Henry Ford is quoted as saying that people can order any color of car as long as
it is black. This was the thinking of many big manufacturers of the time. After
the Second World War a new era in manufacturing was to come. The discovery
of new materials and production techniques increased quality and productivity.
The wars end open foreign markets and new competition. Now the market
focused on consumer and not the manufacturer. The first FMS was patent in
1965 by Theo Williamson who made numerically controlled equipment.
Examples of numerically controlled equipment are like a CNC lathes or mills
which is called varying types of FMS. In the 70s manufacturers could not stay to
date with the ever-growing technological knowledge manufacturers competitors
have, so FMS became mainstream in manufacturing.
In the 80s for the first time manufacturers had to take in consideration
efficiency, quality, and flexibility to stay in business.
 Primary equipment
work centers
• Universal machining centers (prismatic FMSs)
• Turning centers (rotational FMSs)
• Grinding machines
• Nibbling machines
Process centers
• Wash machines
• Coordinate measuring machines
• Robotic work stations
• Manual workstations
 Secondary equipment
Support stations
• Pallet/fixture load/unload stations
• Tool commissioning/setting area
Support equipment
• Robots
• Pallet/fixture/stillage stores
• Pallet buffer stations
• Tools stores
• Raw material stores
• Transport system(AGVs,RGVs,robots)
• Transport units(pallets/stillages)
 Sequential FMS
 Random FMS
 Dedicated FMS
 Engineered FMS
 Metal-cutting machining
 Metal forming
 Assembly
 Joining-welding (arc , spot), glueing
 Surface treatment
 Inspection
 Testing
 The capability of producing different parts
without major retooling

 A measure of how fast the company converts

its process/es from making an old line of
products to produce a new product

 The ability to change a production schedule, to

modify a part, or to handle multiple parts
 To reduce set up and queue times
 Improve efficiency
 Reduce time for product completion
 Utilize human workers better
 Improve product routing
 Produce a variety of Items under one roof
 Improve product quality
 Serve a variety of vendors simultaneously
 Produce more product more quickly
 Limited ability to adapt to changes in product
or product mix (ex:machines are of limited capacity and the tooling
necessary for products, even of the same family, is not always feasible in a given FMS)

 Substantial pre-planning activity

 Expensive, costing millions of dollars
 Technological problems of exact component
positioning and precise timing necessary to
process a component
 Sophisticated manufacturing systems
 Several actions must be decided on before you can
have a have a FMS. These actions include…..
1. Selecting operations needed to make the product.
2. Putting the operations in a logical order.
3. Selecting equipment to make the product.
4. Arranging the equipment for efficient use.
5. Designing special devices to help build the product.
6. Developing ways to control product quality.
7. Testing the manufacturing system.
 Technology will make 100% inspection feasible
 Computer diagnosis will improve estimation of
machine failure, and guide work crews repairing
failures
 The use of robots that have vision, and tactile sensing
 Minimum human labor in manufacturing systems
 More sophisticated tools with increased computing
power
 Better management software, hardware, and fixturing
techniques
 Developed standards that will let us install new
machines easily

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 Reduced marketing of products
 Custom orders for customers will be made
immediately with exact specifications
 Improved network systems between
manufacturers and suppliers

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 FMS Layouts

 Progressive Layout:
 Best for producing a variety of parts

 Closed Loop Layout:

 Parts can skip stations for flexibility
 Used for large part sizes
 Best for long process times
• Ladder Layout:
― Parts can be sent to any machine in any sequence
― Parts not limited to particular part families

• Open Field Layout:

― Most complex FMS layout
― Includes several support stations
 Ability to adapt to  Ability to accommodate
engineering changes in routing changes
parts
 Ability to rapidly
 Increase in number of change production set
similar parts produced up
on the system
 Determining if FMS the best production system for
your company (economically and socially)

 Possible expansion costs associated with implementing

FMS

 Day to day maintenance of FMS operations

How Does It Work ?
 By implementing the components of robotics,
manufacturing technology and computer integrated
manufacturing in a correct order one can achieve a
successful Flexible Manufacturing System
An outline for Mechanical Engineering
CAD/CAM laboratory Integrated System
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26
 Location: CAD/CAM Laboratory in Mechanical Engineering Department
Concept : A flexible manufacturing system including different cells
Components:

Name of Device Quantity and description

5 Axis Robot 2
Personal Compute 3
Universal belt Conveyor 1
Flexible Conveyor 1
PLC device 2
Sensors 9(4 Contact Sensors,3 Optical sensors,1 Metal detector and 1 Non-Metal Detector)
Motors 3(1 Emergency stop and run push button)
Other
ROBOTS
First 5 axis robot is in charge of picking and placing parts which are scanned by the barcode
reader, and transfer them to the left side for machining or throw it to the conveyor for the
other operations.
This robot utilizes a vacuum gripper to pick the parts.
Pneumatic Robot which contained a few reed sensors, used to set the limits for the pneumatic
cylinder motion. This robot is using a general griper which can be close or open in each
time.
This robot just picks the parts which are detected by the Metal Detector sensor, placed
before it.
Hence, the duty of this robot is to pick the Metal-Coated parts, chosen by the sensor
placed near it.
Second Five axis robot which has the same specifications as the former one, used to pick the
Non-Metal parts (which are detected by non-metal detector sensor on the big conveyor)
from the flexible conveyor and place them into a rail way for the next defined operations.
This robot placed on a special Nut and Screw system which is connected to a Motor using
to turning the screw in case of moving the robot across the Big conveyor .
First robot second robot

pneumatic robot
COMPUTERS AND SOFTWARES

First Robot is controlled by a General PC, using a visual basic

program to read the barcodes and also control the robot’s motion.
For each part the program decide Where to be placed according to
the parts’ barcode
The second 5-axis robot is controlled by a PC using special software
which is named “Robotica”.
Generally, this software has a GIU (Graphical User Interface)
which can be used for programming the robot remotely. After
writing the program, by pressing the Run Button on the program
screen, each line transferred to the robot using a general RS-232
cable.
Also we have another PC which is used to monitor the Main PlC ,
placed in an anti dust cabin for safety.
Screen shot from Robotica Software
CONVEYORS
We have 2 Conveyors, one general belt conveyor and one big flexible
conveyor which are driven by two different Motors . The specifications of
these two conveyors are as below:

63Cm
63Cm
176Cm
176Cm

11Cm
11Cm
97Cm
97Cm
PLCs
We have two different PLC devices :
A Siemens S7-200 PLC with 5 inputs and 5 outputs , which is used as
secondary plc device , just to transfer the fire signal to the second
five axis robot.
A Telemeqanic PLC with inputs and output , used as main
PLC device for controlling the motors, conveyors, sensors and all
other feedback signals.

Telemeqanic Micro TSX PLC SIEMENS S7-200 PLC

To run the system three parts are designed for three different operations. At the
first cell the scenario is collaboration of the barcode reader and the first
robot. After inserting the part in the input place , the small conveyor start
switch pushed down and the small conveyor runs.
After this the parts moves across the barcode reader for reading the parts’
barcode, after that the conveyor stopped when the part reached the optical
sensor on the belt conveyor.

The Barcode reader Device 3 parts(1 Metal and 2 Non-metal with different barcodes)
Regarding to the parts’ barcode, two different operations may have
done. Parts with barcode going to the box 1, other parts must
thrown to the second flexible conveyors , these parts including
metal and non-metal parts. Throwing parts into the flexible
conveyor, they switch the optical sensor on which caused the big
conveyor to turn on.
After a while the parts reach the metal detector sensor, in this case if the
part was non-metal, it passes the sensor and continue it rout,
otherwise the metal detector sensor send a signal to the main PLC
and main PLC send signal to the pneumatic robot to catch the metal
part.
The non-metal parts continue their route until they reach the non-metal
sensor, at this time, the sensor send a signal to the main PLC and the
main PLC send the required signal to the robot and also to the screw
motion control, so the screw starts turning and the robot get close to
the part which is in the conveyor waiting to be caught by the robot.
During this operation, the PC which is used to control the second
robot must be run and ready to send the program to the robot.
The robot catches the part and after that the signal from the non-
metal sensor goes off, so the screw starts in reverse direction by
receiving a signal from the main PLC , and the robot throws the
parts into a special rail at the end of the rout.

Metal Detector Non-Metal Detector

Sensor Sensor
It must be considered that by detection of any part (metal or non-
metal) by the special sensors the big conveyor stopped and
waiting for part-received signal from the first sensor of big
conveyor.
Beside this an alarm system designed to warn the operator if the
part is going to reach the sensor in improper position (if it stands
vertically) . When the alarm optical sensor detected the part which
stood vertically the alarm beep starts and warn the operator to
correct the part situation(it must lays on the width of the part) and
after that push start button for resuming the conveyor cycle.
 How are the Robots Programmed
In this integrated system robots are programmed with visual basics. But first
coordinates are defined with the help of ROBOTICA. ROBOTICA is a program to define the
coordinates for a robot. Each robot has several axes which are controlled with this program.
 For example here 3 programmers are written for the robot next to
conveyor 2 to take the part to machine 1 or machine 2 or conveyor 1

This
command
jumps to
line one
In the previous slide J stands for jump, M 1,2,.. Are for
different axes of the robot and the coordinated for each axis is
defined. In order to have a loop in this system J 100 is used to
jump the last line to the first line. T stand for time. The robot
will wait in a position for a small time interval defined by T
100,200,.. . S and P are used to get a part and release it at
specified position.
 With the help of these coordinates the visual basic program is written. It is defined in
this program for example for a part with a specific bar code, take the part and place it
in machine one. Here an outline of the program is given.

By selecting
any bottom
one can
change the
program
Now three positions are defined for the
robot to move to that position, take the
part and place it in a machine or
conveyor one. Here the codes to place the
part in machine one are shown. These
codes can be accessed easily by double
clicking on box 1 in the program and
change the coordinates according to the
coordinates that were set in ROBOTICA.
Here are the coordinates for box 2 or machine 2 are shown. One
can simply define his/her coordinates according to those he/she
defined in ROBOTICA.
Now the coordinates for the conveyor are defined in the
program.
I mentioned that a part is placed in machine 1 or machine 2 or conveyor 1 according to its bar
code. In this part of the program it is defined how each part is placed according to its bar code.
The bar code for each object defines its color and for each color a series of codes similar to the
tree potions mentioned are written. Here for example the position for an object with yellow or

green color is defined .

Coordinates for a
white part:
Coordinates for a
red part:
There are also a set of codes written for
parts which are not in any categories.
 Computer integrated manufacturing and PLC
In today’s manufacturing units several PLCs are used to switch on
or off robots ,conveyer belts and other part of manufacturing
systems. The advantages of PLC in automated systems made PLC
one of the main component of any Manufacturing unit.
 Swarf
disposal
Universal Machining Center
Raw
Materials
AGV transport system 2 Area

AGV transport system 1

Host
computer
Universal Machining Center
Head Coordinate
Indexing
Machines
Measuring
Machine
Piecepart
1 2
Wash Buffer
Machine Area
Assembly Finish
Cells Machine
1&2 Cell
 One Design + One Assembly Process = Multiple Models

When different models are designed to be assembled in the same sequence they can be built
in the same plant.
This maximizes efficiency and allows the company to respond quickly to changing customer
Through the use of reprogrammable tooling in the body shop, standardized equipment in the
paint shop and common build sequence in final assembly, Ford can build multiple models on
one or more platforms in one plant.

Body Shop Paint Shop Final Assembly

In the body shop, where In the paint shop, flexibility In the final assembly
the sheet metal comes means robotic applicators area, flexibility means
together to form the are programmed to cover the build sequence is the
vehicle’s body, flexibility various body styles – as same among multiple
means more than 80 they move through the models on one or more
percent of the tooling is paint booth – with equal platforms allowing for
not specific to one model. precision. This results in efficient utilization of
It can be reprogrammed to minimizing waste and people and equipment.
weld a car or a truck or a environmental impact
crossover of similar size. while maximizing quality.
 Virtual Verification
Virtual manufacturing technology allows Ford to quickly add various models into an
existing facility – or to reconfigure an existing facility to produce a new model. In the
virtual world, manufacturing engineers and plant operators evaluate tooling and product
interfaces before costly installations are made on the plant floor. This method of
collaboration improves launch quality and enables speed of execution.