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News Release from: Universal Instruments | Subject: Polaris assembly cells
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 06 October 2005
Assembly cells aid flexible automation
Motorola's new production line for assembly, packaging and in-circuit test of advanced automotive electronic modules uses two Universal Polaris assembly cells.
Universal Instruments and Motorola Government Enterprise Mobility Solutions (GEMS) Automotive Division have successfully developed a complete production line for assembly, packaging and in-circuit test of advanced automotive electronic modules, using two Universal Polaris assembly cells for fast project completion, low NRE and easy scalability The new line, now fully operational at the Motorola Automotive manufacturing site in Elma, New York, USA, performs a total of 30 operations to fully automate the assembly of Motorola's miniaturised hardened electronic modules (MHEMs)
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 17 Jul 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The first Motorola MHEM variant to reach volume production is an automatic transmission controller for cars or heavy vehicles, which can be mounted on or inside the transmission casing to save space and reduce vehicle assembly costs.
The assembly cells, four Polaris Multi-Process and seven Polaris Junior machines, perform all processes required to build complete MHEM assemblies at a rate of 500,000 per year.
These include laser-marking, adhesive and gel dispensing, placement and handling of ceramic and other substrates, various probing and functional testing, placing and securing housings and covers, and final packaging.
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Technical staff from Universal Instruments, working together with Motorola process and automation engineers, developed the line as a turnkey solution, including full integration with Motorola Automotive's manufacturing computing infrastructure to facilitate routing, traceability, and test.
This required development of a custom interface to Motorola Automotive's proprietary computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system, as well as using industry standard SMEMA protocols for basic line traffic control.
"The Polaris assembly cell provides a standard automated cell, incorporating proven subsystems, which can be relatively quickly and cost-effectively customised to create a highly reliable, flexible, scalable assembly automation solution", said Karen Moore Watts, Director Global Marketing, Universal Instruments.
"This high level of standard content is very valuable to businesses who require high up-time, high quality automation, but do not have the time to debug a conventional custom solution".
The use of standard assembly cells also results in a common user interface across all machines in the line, which reduces training overheads, while also easing management, maintenance and spares inventory.
The platform design of the Polaris assembly cell allows line capacity to be scaled by simply adding extra cells as required.
This scalability allowed the line to be designed for a maximum capacity of 1 million units per year, but currently configured for 500,000 units per year.
By replacing select conveyors with additional Polaris assembly cells, Motorola can ramp production up to the intended rate as quickly as market demand increases.
The Polaris assembly cell is also flexible to allow many MHEM variants to be assembled on the same line, as Motorola Automotive penetrates additional applications with its hardened module technology.
Polaris Multi-Process has the ability to perform multiple operations on a single cell by incorporating up to three quick-release, independent tool modules plus a vision inspection or guidance camera.
Standard interfaces allow an array of available of tools to be added or removed on completion of a project or in response to product changes.
The Polaris Junior assembly cell offers efficient, single-process final assembly for low-end robotic and semi-automatic processes.
In the Motorola Automotive MHEMs line, Polaris Junior deals with alignment of the completed module and test fixture, and also oversees in-circuit test.
In the future, Motorola Automotive plans to increase output to around 2 million MHEM units per year by replicating the line at additional manufacturing sites in North America.
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