On the re-configurability design of parallel machine tools

Abstract

The ongoing globalisation and international competition of manufacturing is requiring manufacturers to become more agile to efficiently use production resources. The ability to rapidly reconfigure production processes allows rapid ramp-up and robustness to adapt to unexpected events. In this paper, the reconfigurable machine tools and its characteristics is discussed in detail. Firstly, the basic modules of reconfigurable parallel machine tools are introduced. Then the criteria to form the reconfigurable machine are discussed. Some conceptual examples are illustrated and one case study is conducted. Copyright © 2006 International Federation for Information Processing.