Conveyer Assembly

the assembly of products as they move continuously or intermittently according to schedule on a conveyer. Conveyer assembly also includes the assembly of products mounted on a special stand, a platform, or a cart that moves the products continuously at a uniform rate or with periodic stops.

Conveyer assembly is used in continuous production and is instituted to reduce labor consumption in assembly, improve working conditions, and provide a production rhythm. Conveyer assembly requires strict separation of the assembly process into individual operations. Each operation is performed by one worker or automatically. In automatic operations the worker only monitors and controls an automatic assembly machine. The movement of the conveyer during conveyer assembly (continuous or intermittent) is determined by capacity, the time consumed for one operation, the nature of the product being assembled, and production conditions. For instance, intermittent motion is used in machine-tool manufacturing for an output time (rate of production) of 0.3 to 2 hours for the assembly of two adjacent finished products, and continuous motion is used for operations taking less than 0.3 hours. With periodic motion, the assembly operation takes place when the conveyer is stopped. The exact scheduled rate of the conveyer assembly process is an organizing factor of an enterprise’s overall operations. Conveyer assembly is most widely used in large-series and mass production (assembly of automobiles, trucks, and tractors, clock- and watch-making, and so on) and in series production (including machine-tool manufacturing).