Automation of microfactories: towards using small industrial robots

Micro and nanotechnology is increasingly important in the industry. The demand for smaller and smaller components and parts increase, but the manufacturing systems for producing these components are conventional and decrease in size at a much slower rate. The idea of a microfactory is to decrease the physical size of the machines making micro-parts so that the complete manufacturing line exists on a small area, for example a table. An area where microfactories could be advantageous is for example the assembly of micro-parts for hearing aid components. Today, this is typically done manually with tweezers under a microscope. This is tedious work for the operators and it is very hard to keep an even quality. This process would be excellent to automate, for example by using small industrial robots. There are mainly two properties that are significant for selecting a robot for micro-assembly: flexibility and accuracy. It is very important that the robot is flexible in order to be able to use it for several different jobs. The accuracy is also critical since the small components require small assembly tolerances (typically less than 0,1 mm). This paper describes a methodology for specifying the requirements for a small industrial robot to be used in a microfactory setup. The methodology is illustrated with a specific case study.