Reconfigurable machine tool design

Abstract

In today's competitive markets, manufacturing systems must quickly respond to changing customer demands and ever-shorter product life cycles. Traditional transfer lines are designed for high volume production and operate in a fixed automation paradigm. They cannot, therefore, accommodate changes in the product design. On the other hand, conventional CNC-based flexible manufacturing systems may offer flexibility, but are generally slow and expensive because they are not optimized for any particular product or a family of products. © 2006 Springer.