Page 606 - Sensors and Control Systems in Manufacturing

Economic and Social Inter ests in the Workplace

FIGURE 11.10 A dynamic manufacturing operation. 559

Then the data will be fed back to the database and compared with
data for the workpiece that are to be machined, and full dimensional
data on the workpiece will be accessed. The vision sensor will then
scan the workpiece, and its dimensions will be compared with those
of the finished part in the parts library.
The data will then be fed back to the controller, which will instruct
the machine how to start machining, by reference to the database and
not to a specific program. When necessary, the workpiece will be
transferred to other places for automatic heat treatment or grinding,
and later to assembly. In this way, machining without programming
and without manual intervention will be practical. Lathes are unlikely
to need such a control system, and instead, the database would
contain a vast number of programs, the best one being selected