Title: Investigation on orientation effects of modified rocker arm for vibratory part feeder in assembly automation

Authors: Mohan Arumugam; Prabukarthi Arumugam; Suresh Mayilswamy; R. Naga Dhatshana

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India ' Department of Robotics and Automation Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India

Abstract: Linear part feeder is used in assembly automation to arrange and orient the parts for assembly, loading, packing, etc. For designing the trap, the natural resting orientation or most probable orientation of the component is to be found initially. The natural resting orientation of the component can be identified by using both theoretical and practical methods. After determining the resting orientation, the trap is designed based on the various gating tool's impact on part transition in motion using the principle of the Markov chain model which is simulated using dynamic simulation software, and part motion time is investigated for the proposed model. In this work, the natural resting orientation of an asymmetric part, the rocker arm is identified, and based on this orientation trap is designed for the linear part feeder. From the study, group C has been identified as the most probable orientation with a probability of 0.62 in the stability method, 0.71 in the centroid solid angle method and 0.61 in an experimental drop test. The dynamic simulation of average part motion time for group A, group B and group C is 14.9 seconds, 11.8 seconds and 8.9 seconds respectively.

Keywords: linear vibratory part feeder; natural resting orientation; assembly automation; rocker arm; orientation; trap module; Markov chain model; dynamic simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSQ.2023.133659

International Journal of Product Sound Quality, 2023 Vol.1 No.1, pp.29 - 45

Received: 29 Aug 2022
Accepted: 25 Jan 2023
Published online: 28 Sep 2023 *