TUT-microfactory – a small-size, modular and sustainable production system

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 78-83.Micro and desktop factories are small size production systems suitable for fabricating and assembling small parts and products. The development originates in the early 1990’s Japan, where small machines were designed in order to save resources when producing small products. This paper introduces the modular TUTMicrofactory concept, developed at Tampere University of Technology during the past 15 years, and its applications. The sustainability of miniaturized production systems is discussed from three perspectives – environmental, economic and social. The main conclusion is that micro and desktop factories can remarkably enhance the sustainability of manufacturing from all these three perspectives

Micro and Desktop Factory Roadmap

Terms desktop and microfactory both refer to production equipment that is miniaturized down to the level where it can placed on desktop and manually moved without any lifting aids. In this context, micro does not necessarily refer to the size of parts produced or their features, or the actual size or resolution of the equipment. Instead, micro refers to a general objective of downscaling production equipment to the same scale with the products they are manufacturing. Academic research literature speculates with several advantages and benefits of using miniaturized production equipment. These range from reduced use of energy and other resources (such as raw material) to better operator ergonomics and from greater equipment flexibility and reconfigurability to ubiquitous manufacturing (manufacturing on-the-spot, i.e. manufacturing the end product where it is used). Academic research has also generated several pieces of equipment and application demonstrations, and many of those are described in this document. Despite of nearly two decades of academic research, wider industrial breakthrough has not yet taken place and, in fact, many of the speculated advantages have not been proven or are not (yet) practical. However, there are successful industrial examples including miniaturized machining units; robotic, assembly and process cells; as well as other pieces of desktop scale equipment. These are also presented in this document. Looking at and analysing the current state of micro and desktop production related academic and commercial research and development, there are notable gaps that should be addressed. Many of these are general to several fields, such as understanding the actual needs of industry, whereas some are specific to miniaturised production field. One such example is the size of the equipment: research equipment is often “too small” to be commercially viable alternative. However, it is important to seek the limits of miniaturisation and even though research results might not be directly adaptable to industrial use, companies get ideas and solution models from research. The field of desktop production is new and the future development directions are not clear. In general, there seems to be two main development directions for micro and desktop factory equipment: 1) Small size equipment assisting human operators at the corner of desk 2) Small size equipment forming fully automatic production lines (including line components, modules, and cells) These, and other aspects including visions of potential application areas and business models for system providers, are discussed in detail in this roadmap. To meet the visions presented, some actions are needed. Therefore, this document gives guidelines for various industrial user groups (end users of miniaturized production equipment, system providers/integrators and component providers) as well as academia for forming their strategies in order to exploit the benefits of miniaturized production. To summarise, the basic guidelines for different actors are: • Everyone: Push the desktop ideology and awareness of the technology and its possibilities. Market and be present at events where potential new fields get together. Tell what is available and what is needed. • Equipment end users: Specify and determine what is needed. Be brave to try out new ways of doing things. Think what is really needed – do not over specify. • System providers / integrators: Organize own operations and product portfolios so that supplying equipment fulfilling the end user specifications can be done profitably. • Component providers: Design and supply components which are cost-efficient and easy to integrate to and to take into use in desktop scale equipment. • Academia: Look further into future, support industrial sector in their shorter term development work and act as a facilitator for cooperation between different actors

Käsin ladotun aikakausilehtitekstin muuttaminen digitaaliseen muotoon

Opinnäytetyönä tehtiin selvitys, kuinka ja millä testintunnistusohjelmalla saada toisen maailmansodan aikaiset, käsin ladotut Sotilaspapin aikakauslehdet digitaaliseen muotoon tutkimuskäyttöön. Selvityksessä käytettiin tekstintunnistusta niin, että siihen voi tehdä sanahakuja. Opinnäytetyön asiakkaana toimi Maasotakoulun sotilaspastori Jukka Seppänen. Aineisto ja tutkimusvälineet kerättiin Internetistä. Selvitys tehtiin saatavilla olevia ohjelmia käyttäen. Ohjelmia oli paljon ja niiden toimivuus tätä työtä ajatellen vaihteli suuresti. Ohjelmien ilmaisuus oli näennäistä, sillä kun ilmaisia ohjelmia löytyi, niin iso osa oli niin sanottuja maksullisten ohjelmien kokeiluversioita, joissa oli omat rajoituksensa liittyen useimmiten joko ohjelman käyttöikään, tallennettavien sivujen määrään tai molempiin. Käyttökelpoisimmaksi vaihtoehdoksi tarjolla olevista ohjelmista osoittautui Nuance PDF Converter professional 7 -ohjelmalla tehty vuosikerta yhteen PDF-tiedostoon, johon voi tehdä sanahakuja. Haussa sillä on puutteita, pääasiassa harvaan kirjoitettujen nimien paikantamisessa. Ensimmäisessä tarkastelussa ohjelmasta virheitä ei löytynyt monta, mutta toisen tarkastelun jälkeen virheitä löytyi useampia. Tarjolla olevien ohjelmien huonon laadun vuoksi alkuperäissuunnitelmaan kuulunut tietokantavaihtoehto muuttui tutkimuksen edetessä yhä epätodennäköisemmäksi. Suuri syy tähän oli tekstintunnistuksen heikon laadun tuomat pulmat.This Bachelor’s thesis was conducted as an investigation of how to make a digitized version of a hand stacked Army priest magazine using text recognition to research use, so it would be possible to search certain words from it. The client of this thesis was army minister Jukka Seppänen. Materials and research equipment were gathered from the internet. This thesis was executed with available software, which was plentiful, however the results varied a lot. As free as the programs were, there were a lot of so called trial versions of chargeable software which had their own limitations usually including low period of usage, maximum of saveable documents or both. The most usable outcome was with Nuance PDF Converter professional 7, which allowed to create a volume to one PDF–file in which to make word searches. It still had flaws, mainly in searching infrequently written words. Because of the flimsy quality of the results from the character recognition, mainly in transforming the file in to text, the database option which was included in the original plan, had eventually to be discarded

Applications and business models for micro and desktop production systems

This Workshop provides a forum for researchers and practitioners in industry working on the diverse issues of micro and desktop factories, as well as technologies and processes applicable for micro and desktop factories. Micro and desktop factories decrease the need of factory floor space, and reduce energy consumption and improve material and resource utilization thus strongly supporting the new sustainable manufacturing paradigm. They can be seen also as a proper solution to point-of-need manufacturing of customized and personalized products near the point of need.Peer reviewe

Architectures and interfaces for a micro factory concept

submittedVersionPeer reviewe

A H-scara mini robot - a dual parallel kinematics mini manipulator

acceptedVersionNon peer reviewe

Robots for micro and desktop factories: examples and experiences

submittedVersionNon peer reviewe

Flexible Gripper System for Small Optical Assemblies – Final Tests and Findings

Part 2: Handling and Manipulation in AssemblyInternational audienceThis paper presents our work on developing a flexible, adaptive and multifunctional gripper system for the assembly of camera phone lens modules. Key features of the system include tool change system for different end tools and visual position measurement of the component after grasping. This paper presents the development work and discusses the findings of system tests carried out in order to validate the developed gripper system

Micro and Desktop Factory Roadmap

Terms desktop and microfactory both refer to production equipment that is miniaturized down to the level where it can placed on desktop and manually moved without any lifting aids. In this context, micro does not necessarily refer to the size of parts produced or their features, or the actual size or resolution of the equipment. Instead, micro refers to a general objective of downscaling production equipment to the same scale with the products they are manufacturing. Academic research literature speculates with several advantages and benefits of using miniaturized production equipment. These range from reduced use of energy and other resources (such as raw material) to better operator ergonomics and from greater equipment flexibility and reconfigurability to ubiquitous manufacturing (manufacturing on-the-spot, i.e. manufacturing the end product where it is used). Academic research has also generated several pieces of equipment and application demonstrations, and many of those are described in this document. Despite of nearly two decades of academic research, wider industrial breakthrough has not yet taken place and, in fact, many of the speculated advantages have not been proven or are not (yet) practical. However, there are successful industrial examples including miniaturized machining units; robotic, assembly and process cells; as well as other pieces of desktop scale equipment. These are also presented in this document. Looking at and analysing the current state of micro and desktop production related academic and commercial research and development, there are notable gaps that should be addressed. Many of these are general to several fields, such as understanding the actual needs of industry, whereas some are specific to miniaturised production field. One such example is the size of the equipment: research equipment is often “too small” to be commercially viable alternative. However, it is important to seek the limits of miniaturisation and even though research results might not be directly adaptable to industrial use, companies get ideas and solution models from research. The field of desktop production is new and the future development directions are not clear. In general, there seems to be two main development directions for micro and desktop factory equipment: 1) Small size equipment assisting human operators at the corner of desk 2) Small size equipment forming fully automatic production lines (including line components, modules, and cells) These, and other aspects including visions of potential application areas and business models for system providers, are discussed in detail in this roadmap. To meet the visions presented, some actions are needed. Therefore, this document gives guidelines for various industrial user groups (end users of miniaturized production equipment, system providers/integrators and component providers) as well as academia for forming their strategies in order to exploit the benefits of miniaturized production. To summarise, the basic guidelines for different actors are: • Everyone: Push the desktop ideology and awareness of the technology and its possibilities. Market and be present at events where potential new fields get together. Tell what is available and what is needed. • Equipment end users: Specify and determine what is needed. Be brave to try out new ways of doing things. Think what is really needed – do not over specify. • System providers / integrators: Organize own operations and product portfolios so that supplying equipment fulfilling the end user specifications can be done profitably. • Component providers: Design and supply components which are cost-efficient and easy to integrate to and to take into use in desktop scale equipment. • Academia: Look further into future, support industrial sector in their shorter term development work and act as a facilitator for cooperation between different actors