There’s an old joke that the factory of the future will be so automated that it will have just two employees: a guard dog and someone to feed it. Fortunately or not, such a scenario remains the purview of science fiction. Indeed, despite advances in robotics and automation, people remain the most flexible assembly technology.
Consider the automated assembly system we profiled in the June 2013 issue of ASSEMBLY (“Rotary Indexer Assembles Hinges for Car Doors”). A linear conveyor brings three components for the hinge housing to an operator, who places the parts into a fixture on a rotary indexing dial. The rest of the assembly process—installing screws, pressing plates, inserting pins, inspecting the parts, and unloading the finished product—is done automatically.