1. The 1st CIRP-International Seminar on Assembly Systems, 15-17 November 2006, Stuttgart, Germany
Flexible assembly system for hybrid micro systems using integrated
process chains
J.P. Wulfsberg1, A. Kuhn
1
1
Laboratory of Production Engineering
Helmut-Schmidt-University / University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg, Germany
Abstract
Taking a look at the strong growing demand for hybrid micro systems, the requirements for micro parts
made of engineering materials like for example stainless steel increases. To date hybrid micro systems on
stainless steel basis are often built by assembling several single parts. Observing the production of small
and middle sized lots, mainly performed by SMBs, only a little automation level stands out: every step
during the production cycle is designed and carried out separately, since flexible automated manipulation/
assembly systems are barely available for that kind of production. Combining machining and assembly
processes (e.g. building process chains) could lead to cost savings and higher quality. To avoid
transportation caused problems like the loss of reference and complex re-measuring procedures before
performing the next machining or assembly step several processes can be combined in one working area.
If one machine tool provides the working area for several machining operations or processes to be carried
out, integrated process chains are an approach. Adding laser support to the machine would provide an
excellent option for assembling and fixing several parts of one micro system. For micro welding, fibre
lasers are providing the technology for the production of high quality welds.
Keywords:
micro machining, micro assembly, integrated process chains
1 INTRODUCTION
A lot of specifications meanwhile being demanded from
micro systems regarding material and function are
incompatible to semiconductor production processes
known of micro system technology. As consequence
hybrid micro systems, assembled from single
subcomponents, have to be produced with in respect to
material and geometry expanded manufacturing
processes. Therefore assembly operations are essential
and play a major role in the whole production of hybrid
micro systems. Monolithic production is often
theoretically possible, but economically it doesn’t make
sense, since most of those hybrid micro systems to date
(for example systems in medical technology) are
produced in low to midsize volume production. A
modular design is being preferred. Different
functionalities and fields of application lead to a big
number of various products, part geometries and
materials. Those parts are product-specific and they
often cannot be grouped in several part families. For
such products, a high system accuracy is needed to
perform assembly operations [1]. Looking at micro
systems built of high-alloyed steel like they are applied
in the field of medical technology, tolerances are
needed in the lower two-digit micron range (in special
rare cases higher tolerances up to the one micron range
are demanded).
To date, the industrially produced systems are
assembled manually or semi-automatically, a flexible
automated solution cannot be found on the market. In
some cases there are automated assembly systems for
special part families available. Those systems cannot be
applied for more than slightly different parts. They are
relatively inflexible and cause high investment costs.
Flexibility is a requirement for operating automated
micro assembly systems in low to midsize volume
production [2].
The currently available assembly systems for micro
technologies are highly based on the use of accurate
optical sensors, for example laser sensors or camera
based image recognition, providing the necessary
resolution to detect the parts position and orientation
sufficiently. The high resolution comes along with a small
working range of the sensor, for instance a small lens
coverage with low depth of sharpness using cameras.
Such sensor based assembly systems have to be
adjusted and calibrated properly to the application.
Regarding the production of complex three-dimensional
geometries made of high-alloyed steel, these workpieces
are mainly produced by milling and forming processes.
During this processes, the workpieces position and
orientation within the machining centers coordinate
system is well known. This information can also be used
for assembly operations. Removing the workpiece out of
the machines working space, the position information and
the references are getting lost: the workpieces have to be
relevelled applying complex measurement procedures
during the next production step.
A feasible approach to realizing an automated flexible
assembly system for micro parts and systems features
the integration of manipulation devices into machine tools,
known as integrated process chains. The process linking
within in one working space allows the usage of the
already known workpiece position information for further
steps in production without a lot of effort. An intelligent
arrangement of the single systems inside the working
space and a reasonable production strategy could even
lead to parallel execution of production processes [3].
Given that in general all available micro machining
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2. The 1st CIRP-International Seminar on Assembly Systems, 15-17 November 2006, Stuttgart, Germany
centers are equipped with position sensing systems, peripheral devices, a field bus system will be attached to
providing an accuracy within nanometer range, no the superior control program. Field bus systems provide
additional sensors for position recognition have to be several modules like digital and analog input and output
built in. By producing the single micro parts for a micro modules or so called intelligent modules with
system inside one working space, the exact position and functionalities like serial communication or the analysis of
orientation of those parts are known in the range of the strain gauge bridge circuits and more. The possibility of a
machine tools system accuracy and can therefore be field bus controller integration makes an outsourcing of
used for following operations. computing power additionally possible. Simple
computations or supervising functions concerning
particular process variables could be passed to the field
2 CONCEPT bus controller. The architecture therefore becomes
By linking of assembly and production processes, a decentralized.
micro machining center is being upgraded to perform Later on, the superior control program shell provide a
assembly operations. To keep the costs as low as graphical user interface to allow conditional linking of
possible and to achieve the highest flexibility possible, single processes to complex operational sequences. For
off-the-shelf components are being used. By reason that this purpose, it can be assumed, that NC-programs for the
both components, the micro machining center and the micro parts production and corresponding programs for
manipulation system, have their own well developed the manipulation system being used for handling are
control, it is aimed for keeping on using those further on. available. Programs for manipulators as for example
For the purpose of linking both controls, they have to robots can be teached or computed via software
provide an interface to allow remote controlling and simulations using CAD data. Teaching means path
information exchange. An Ethernet interface for example definition by storing several manipulator positions relating
could fulfill those requirements. To ensure the highest to the manipulators coordinate system including the
flexibility possible, the single system components will be orientation. Additionally such manipulators can be
connected using a superior control program, which equipped with sensors, offering the potential to implement
allows the easy usage of different devices and different sensor controlled movements. To date, force torque
combinations (Figure 1). This control program will be sensors as well as optical sensors are mainly used for this
equipped with adequate software drivers providing the purpose.
functionality of bi-directional communication as well as
functions to remote control the attached control systems. Adding a module to the superior control has to be done in
The main functions are the transfer and the allocation of hardware, which means getting all cables and the power
data, the supervision, the control of the operational supply connected, and in software to give the superior
sequences and the handling of status requests [3]. To control program access to the functionalities of the added
perform assembly operations, the simple combination of device: the software drivers make process conform
production and manipulation processes often doesn’t functions of the related devices available to the superior
suffice. For instance it is necessary to perform cleaning control program. Combining several functions of this kind
operations after applying milling processes due to the to a sequence of operations leads to a complex program
use of metalworking fluids during the process. On the for the overall system. The superior control program can
other hand it is required to fix the assembled parts to then execute and supervise those operational sequences.
finish the assembly. Technologies for joining the Currently this approach narrows the production to be
assembled parts definitively have to be integrated. Such carried out using serial operational sequences. Due to the
a technology could be an adhesive dispensing unit to fact that both basic systems (micro machining center and
glue the parts together or an integrated welding laser manipulation system) don’t have to perform actions being
(see section 7). Simple peripheral devices like dependant to each other, the introduction of parallel
dispensing units are operated by rudimental controllers. operations might be possible in some cases. This
Digital or analog signals are mainly being used to enhancement is not subject of the current research,
operate those devices. Sometimes also a serial interface where first of all the single devices are being connected
is provided. For the purpose of integrating such simple via Ethernet.
3 GENERAL MANIPULATION SYSTEM
CONDITIONS
A system suitable for micro part assembly
has to provide the necessary degrees of
freedom and high accuracy concerning the
handling operation. If the working space is
limited, several system conditions to provide
an optimal application arise. Thinking of
micro milling of high-alloyed steel, mainly
three- to five-axis portal-type milling
machines are being used. Those machine
tools have a system accuracy within the
one-digit micron range and a working space
of 0.01 m
3
(300 mm * 200 mm * 150 mm)
and more. Without loss of generality a three­
axis portal-type micro machining center
(“MicroGantry GU” built by Kugler GmbH,
Salem, Germany) will be used as basic
Figure 1: The concept of the superior control program system. Taking another micro machining
center as basis would result in slightly
different constraints for the manipulation
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3. The 1st CIRP-International Seminar on Assembly Systems, 15-17 November 2006, Stuttgart, Germany
system. The “MicroGantry GU” provides a large space
for the installation of peripheral devices and a big
working space. This allows the use of big range
manipulation systems. Simulations showed, that a
standard six-axis articulated arm robot with an arm
length of 600 mm (Figure 2) could be used in this case
The fact that modular optional systems shell be used
and tested leads to the need for a manipulation system
with a working space (range) as large as possible to be
able to serve all integrated subsystems. In many cases,
for example the production of housings for micro
systems, the parts to be produced have complex geo­
metries, which cannot be produced with two-and-a-half­
dimensional milling processes, real three-dimensional
milling processes are required. Those processes cannot
be operated with three-axis milling machines. To
overcome this problem, the manipulation system can
also be used as workpiece carrier extending the two­
and-a-half dimensional milling processes to three­
dimensional milling processes due to the additional
degrees of freedom provided by the robot. Especially for
laser processes this technique is suitable, since the
laser processing result is highly dependent on focus
distance and beam angle towards the workpiece.
Resulting from this possible application a requirement is
a high movability of the manipulator. Six degrees of
freedom (three translational in and three rotational ones
around the machines X-,Y-,Z-axis) are being preferred.
Demanding low tolerances in producing and assembling
micro systems, the manipulation system has to fulfil
special demands. Thinking of endoscopes as hybrid
micro systems in the field of medical technology,
assembly tolerances are in the lower two-digit micron
range but complex assembly movements are required.
Additionally the variety of such systems is huge.
Compared to micro systems engineering, clean room
environments cannot be found in the production of
hybrid micro systems: clean room conditions cannot be
achieved for milling applications. For those processes
metalworking fluid is often necessary and very small
chips are produced. Concerning this, the manipulator
doesn’t have to be in particular clean room suitable but it
has to be non-sensitive to small chips (metal dust) and
spray mist.
Regarding complex three­
dimensional assembly or
workpiece movement, it is
preferable to be able to
allow direct intervention
concerning the current
movement. Such an
interface can be used to
feed the manipulators
control system with sensor
information to superpose
the programmed move­
ment with correction
values computed out of
the sensor data. Real-time
force and torque control as
well as image processing Figure 2: Stäubli RX60 robot
could be realized easily.
4 SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS
Before choosing the optimal manipulation system for the
micro machining center, the complete system
arrangement has to be taken into account. The
configuration presented at the end of this paper is not
the final solution for every machining center on the
market, but it can be done in a similar way.
As basic system for the prototypic system configuration a
micro machining center “MicroGantry GU” built by the
Kugler GmbH, Salem, Germany is chosen. This machine
tool is a six-axis portal-type milling machine, optimized for
micro milling purposes. In addition to the high speed
spindle this machine tool is equipped with a pulsed
Nd:YAG-Laser, mounted in parallel to the milling spindle.
The drives in the XY-plane are high dynamic linear
induction motors with an optical position sensing system
being able to determine the stators position with a
resolution of 10 nm. This results in a system accuracy in
the XY-plane of an one-digit micron range (according to
the manufacturer: ±0.7 micron). The Z-axis is driven using
a high-precise mechanical spindle, reaching a repetitive
accuracy below 2 micron [4].
The “MicroGantry GU” is based on a large granite block
with an area of 1.5 m
2
where the Y-axis is countersunk.
This granite block makes a perfect base plate for the
manipulation system extension, providing a large and well
accessible working space. The already done laser
integration allows combinations of milling and laser
operations in form of process chains within one working
space. Due to the type of laser (currently a Nd:YAG-laser
with rectangular pulse shaping), cutting, graving and
restricted welding and bending processes can be carried
out. Carrying out several milling and laser operations on
one workpiece can now be done without transporting the
workpiece from one machine tool to another – rechucking
is not necessary [5].
At present an extension to the original control software is
made available. This extension is an Ethernet interface
providing all functions giving full control over the micro
machining center including data exchange.
In general two basic arrangements for the manipulation
system and the micro machining center are imaginable.
The manipulation system can be installed inside the
machining center and its working space or outside.
Outside installation is very common for a robot used to
automatically load machine tools with semi-finished
products. Installing the manipulation system inside the
machine tool can only be found in rare situations, for
example special purpose machines where the handling
operations are linked in a particular way with other
operations (tool changing is not being considered).
Manipulator installation outside the working space
Mounting the manipulation system (in the following also
called manipulator) outside the machine tool, the
installation space can be neglected as limiting factor. The
manipulators needed working space to load one machine
tool is much smaller than the working space provided.
Choosing an intelligent arrangement of one manipulator
and a few machine tools, the manipulator can load all
machine tools due to the small part of the working space
needed to do this operation, but this separated systems
design also has negative aspects. Standard micro
machining centers are vibration isolated, so both systems
wouldn’t be mounted rigidly on one base plate, resulting in
stronger possible relative movements. Displacement is
therefore not only caused by elastic deformation
(swinging/vibrating) of system parts. As a result the
system accuracy can be worse in some orders of
magnitude compared to the single system accuracy. High
accuracy assembling in such an environment can only be
performed by tracking the workpieces current position and
orientation using external sensors. Secondary the
manipulation system being able to load several machine
tools from outside the machine have to have a bigger
working space to take advantage out of the loading of
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4. The 1st CIRP-International Seminar on Assembly Systems, 15-17 November 2006, Stuttgart, Germany
several machine tools than a system mounted inside
(Figure 3). In general a larger working space comes
together with a decreased accuracy, assuming that the
same constructive effort was carried out. Possible
corrections in position and orientation using sensor­
based closed-loop control are depending on the built-in
drives and the kinematics themselves. Correcting the
accuracy by using closed-loop control is pretty good for
stationary positioning, but for the correction of
movements (assembling) such a techniques can only be
used in rare cases (optical tracking during movements
depends highly on the environmental conditions, the
working space and the parts to be tracked).
Figure 3: Configuration with manipulator outside two
micro machining centers.
Manipulator installation inside the working space
Integrating the manipulation system inside the working
space of the machine tool, the manipulation system
doesn’t have to have such a big working space as with
the “outside”-arrangement, and a smaller working space
goes hand in hand with higher system accuracy. Since
the manipulator is located inside the machine tool, it can
not only be inherent in design used for assembling
operations, it can also be used for workpiece handling
during the whole production process. Using this
technique could extend a three-axis machine tool to be
able to perform real three-dimensional milling
operations. At this it has to be noticed that the overall
system accuracy is worse, compared to the single micro
machining center due to the lower stiffness of the
workpiece carrier (the manipulator). This kind of
application has its advantages especially in low force
operations like all kind of laser processes, which could
benefit from the gained degrees of freedom.
Both kinematics (for manipulation and milling) are
mounted on a heavy and stiff base plate with a low
thermal expansion coefficient. Neglecting dynamical
displacements, the overall accuracy can be computed
by simply adding the single system accuracies.
Concerning the high accuracy of the micro machining
center, the manipulation system accuracy is the one that
matters. For assembly operations with tolerances
around 20 micron a manipulator accuracy of less than
20 micron would be sufficient. In such a case, additional
sensors to determine position and orientation of the
workpiece are not essential. Knowing the workpieces
position inside the machine tool (the position is known in
the range of the machine tools system accuracy) leads
to a simple coordinate transformation to get the
coordinates in the manipulators coordinate system. As a
result of thermal displacement and other stationary
displacement causing influences, a reference check
between both machines has to be performed from time to
time. Combining this with system calibration, a technique
for calibrating robot kinematics developed at our institute
can be used. This calibration strategy relies on optical
measurements during small movements around one
measurement point and could be integrated into the
system.
Given the reduction of costs and the gained simplicity due
to the possibility of sensor abdication and the possible
process combinations including assembly processes
(integrated process chains), the installation inside the
machines working space provides more advantages.
Especially the manipulator usage as work carrier extends
the possibilities of the basic micro machining center in an
interesting way. This arrangement provides high flexibility
and makes a modular design realizable (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Simulation of the micro machining center with
integrated articulated arm robot
5 SELECTION OF THE MANIPULATION SYSTEM
For the use as manipulation systems the following
devices can generally come into consideration. Custom­
made products will not be discussed further due to project
constraints:
1) Machine Tool kinematics as manipulation system
2) Custom-made manipulation system
3) Robot as manipulation system:
• Parallel-kinematics robot
• “Pick & Place” system (e.g. SCARA-robot)
• Six-axis articulated arm robot
Looking at the kinematics of a portal-type milling machine
the kinematics are similar to the kinematics needed for
“Pick & Place” operations. Mounting grippers in parallel to
the spindle, the machining center itself can perform
handling operations. The dynamics of this solution are
quite lower than off-the-shelf “Pick & Place” systems,
caused by the low dynamic of the mechanical spindle
used to drive the Z-axis. Handling operations can only be
carried out in sequence to machining processes,
supporting machining processes with additional handling
are not possible as well as parallel processing. On the
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5. The 1st CIRP-International Seminar on Assembly Systems, 15-17 November 2006, Stuttgart, Germany
other hand, the achieved handling accuracy is equal to
the micro machining centers system accuracy.
Robots are available in nearly all imaginable sizes and
design. They are known to be robust and absolutely
reliable systems in the large volume production. Parallel­
kinematics robots have a small working space compared
to the needed installation space. The movability within
the six degrees of freedom (or less if the robot doesn’t
provide this number of degrees of freedom) is limited.
Otherwise the repetitive accuracy can be below
1 micron [2]. Exemplary systems are the HexaGlide and
a HexaPod (Figure 6). As “Pick & Place” systems,
SCARA-robots can be considered without loss of
generality. Normally these robots provide five or less
degrees of freedom and, compared to parallel
kinematics (there are also SCARA-robots available
designed with parallel kinematics), the stiffness is low.
By being able of high dynamic movement, they have a
big working space in relation to the needed installation
space. The serial link design causes the inaccuracies of
the links to sum up. SCARA-robots with non-parallel
kinematics can reach repetitive accuracies up to
10 microns [2]. Looking at six-axis articulated arm
robots, the stiffness is comparable to SCARA-robots of
the same size and working space. The working space is
larger in relation to the needed installation space and
the system allows dynamic movement. Due to the serial
linking of all axis, a high movability is reached in six
degrees of freedom going hand in hand with possible
summing up of inaccuracies in each link and a reduction
of the overall system accuracy. In the market there are
off-the-shelf systems with a repetitive accuracy below
20 microns available [2]. Calibrating those kinematics
can still lead to an improvement of absolute accuracy.
The manipulation system hast to fulfill the following
specifications:
1) Small installation space compared to the
working space (due to the installation inside the
micro machining center)
2) High movability (workpiece carrier function)
3) Accuracy has good as possible, minimum
20 microns repeatability
4) Stiffness as good as possible (the higher the
better)
5) Off-the-shelf system (due to project constraints)
6) Control system with Ethernet interface
(attaching of superior control program)
7) Maximum load approximately 2 kg (gripper and
workpiece for micro parts, 2 kg to be safe)
Given the specifications, a Stäubli six-axis articulated
arm robot with a repetitive accuracy of 20 micron
Figure 6: on the left the HexaGlide [8], on the right a
HexaPod by Physical Instruments [9].
(manufacturers specification) was chosen, see Figure 5.
For the benefit of higher movability less stiffness and
accuracy was accepted.
Figure 5: Micro machining center with the integrated
Stäubli RX60 six-axis articulated arm robot
6 THERMAL AND DYNAMIC CONSIDERATION
Micro production to date is often combined with air
conditioning systems controlling the environmental
conditions to keep them as stable as possible. Operating
the machine tools continually leads therefore to a quasi­
static state after some time of operation. Furthermore
those machine tools are designed for that kind of
application by using low thermal displacement coefficient
materials and linear induction motors: First measurements
without machining operation but operating drives showed
a thermal displacement of less than 3 micron over a
period of 2 days. Taking a look at the robot, a stable
overall system accuracy can be achieved by referencing
the system after reaching the quasi-static state. As a
result, there is a translational and rotational coordinate
correction computed. Changing thermal influences are not
covered with this procedure, but due to the slight change
of environmental conditions in time (air conditioned
rooms), repetitive referencing can limit this influence quite
well. At our institute a suitable referencing / calibration
strategy was developed, which allows a software based
correction of kinematic parameters leading to a better
absolute accuracy of robots or other kinematics [6].
Regarding the robots drives as internal heat sources,
those drives could prevent reaching a quasi-static state
during operation. Normally they are operated with
changing loads and they are switched on and off during
the operations. The chosen robot is designed to keep the
position by controlling the drives instead of using
mechanical brakes. Combined with not necessarily high
dynamic movement – the duration to perform micro milling
operations is high, and the paths to be followed for
assembly are small – the thermal influences caused by
the drives can be rated to be small. This has to be verified
in more accurate measurements, but first measurements
to estimate theses influences are showing this behavior.
Further on dynamic loads are rated to be small. The
robots overall weight is approximately 60 kg including the
gripper and small in relation to the 2 t heavy weight
granite base-plate of the micro machining center. During
operation approximately two thirds of that mass is being
moved as maximum. According to the manufacturer, the
robots mounting plate has to stand a momentum of
maximal 640 Nm [7]. This load is reduced due to the low
dynamic operation and the loads below the robots
specification. Assuming such a high momentum, the
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6. The 1st CIRP-International Seminar on Assembly Systems, 15-17 November 2006, Stuttgart, Germany
granite block would experience a displacement in the
low one-digit micron range – estimated using a
simplified model. Considering the micro machining
centers stiffness and the arising angular accelerations
caused by the robot, a torsion can also be neglected as
first approach. Vibrations of the robot arm on the other
hand have to be taken into account for handling
operations. First approaches with an applied force
control showed good results, even though vibrations
could not be avoided.
7 FIBRE LASER QUALIFICATION FOR MICRO
PART ASSEMBLY
The currently integrated Nd:Yag-laser is optimized for
cutting, and the focus diameter is not the best for micro
assembly. For that reason, a fibre laser was tested
concerning its use in micro assembly. The size and the
easy control of such a laser makes it perfectly usable for
the planned micro production system. Due to its good
beam quality the laser can be focused down to the one
micron range depending on the used optics. Additionally
the beam quality is nearly constant over a long period of
time compared to a laser which uses flash lamps for
laser light generation. The qualification experiments
were done with a SPI SP-100C-0012 100W fibre laser.
The micro parts to be welded were chosen in respect to
a realistic endoscope production. The parts in focus
were high alloyed steel tubes with a wall thickness down
to 50 microns and a substitution part for a lens holder
which is normally attached to the endoscopes tips. In
this case the lens holder was replaced by part which
functions like a metallic cork.
The experiments were performed using tubes with wall
thicknesses of 0.3 mm, 0.2 mm, 0.1 mm and 0.05 mm.
All tubes have been equipped with a lens holder
substitution part to be welded to. Additionally tubes with
a wall thickness of 0.1 mm were welded directly
together. The welding parameters were changed in
power, focus and welding speed. The laser was
operated in continuous wave mode and therefore was
not pulsed. As cover gas Argon was chosen and applied
using two diffusers at the welding spot. In general it was
aimed on getting the weld thickness as thick as the tube
walls (0.4 mm/0.3 mm/0.2 mm/0.1 mm/ 0.05 mm). This
can only be achieved with a deep welding process. The
resulting assemblies have first been checked optically
using a microscope (magnification up to 1000 times) for
weld quality. Additionally the parts were tested for gas
tightness by applying hydrogen with a pressure of
several atmospheres to the tube, while being dipped into
a 130°C oil bath, which is a standard procedure for
testing autoclavable medical instruments.
As result it could be found, that the process stability was
very good over the whole testing period, the weld quality
was stable all the time. Even weld thicknesses of 50
microns and less could be reproducible obtained.
Furthermore the field of parameters which resulted in
good and gas tight welds was big compared to the field
of parameters which could be used with Nd:YAG lasers.
Hence the fibre laser was found to be very suitable for
high alloyed steel micro system production. The easy
interface to the control gives a good opportunity for an
integration into the planned micro production center
described in section 2 sqq. The following picture (Figure
7) show two kind of welds produced in the “MicroGantry
GU” machining center. In these pictures, the difference
between deep welding and heat conduction welding can
be seen. The weld on the left (deep welding) is
approximately 80 microns thick and 0.1 mm deep. The
weld on the right (heat conduction welding) is about 0.2
Figure 7: left - welded tubes (0.1 mm), right - tube
(0.05 mm) welded to lens holder substitution
microns thick and 0.05 mm deep. Both results were gas
tight and fulfilled the needed requirements specified for
medical endoscopes.
8 CONCLUSION
As an approach to build a flexible automated solution for
micro part assembly, a standard micro machining center
was equipped with a manipulation system. Since the
installation space inside the machine tool is limited, a high
movability of the manipulator is demanded. The repetitive
accuracy achievable in the chosen configuration is below
20 microns and is therefore sufficient for assembling the
micro systems at hand. The thermal and dynamic
influences of the added manipulation system is being
neglected at this state of research by performing
referencing / calibration measurements during operation.
Accuracy of path, possibly needed for more complex
assembly, as well as detailed investigation of thermal and
dynamic influences using a more complex model are
subject of the current research. Additionally the
qualification of a fibre laser in assembling of metallic
micro parts was performed. Subject of that research part
were micro parts used in medical endoscopes. In that
field, the requirements for welds are strong. The welds
have to be gas tight, non-sensitive to autoclaving and
non-sensitive to corrosion, which could be obtained in the
accomplished experiments.
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