The Reconfigurable Manufacturing System

The advancement in technology has shown us eras with Lathe being called the mother of all machines,the dedicated manufacturing system and the flexible manufacturing system. The dedicated manufacturing system was believed to produce or machine goods in a single line of processes with machines and tools mounted on spindles and the material moving along the path to get machines. The flexible manufacturing system brought in the facility to change the tools on the spindle and moreover it allowed more scope for automation. Yoram Koren introduced the concept of Reconfigurable Manufacturing System wherein the machines are interfaced with the a programming platform (mostly the CNC or computer control). This is widely known as RMS technology and it allows us to feed the program for a set of processes to be carried upon any material in a proper sequence and get the final product in less time. The program once operated is used for a huge number of final products so as to allow mass production. Moreover this system is equipped with power spindles on the tool heads which allows you to change the tool using the same control program and once the process starts, there is no need to interrupt in between for any changes.
The RMS technology works on the principles of 1.Modularity 2.Integrability 3.Customization 4.Convertibility 5.Scalability 6.Diagnosability. The RMS allows the manufacturer to adjust with fluctuating demands from the market. A sudden rise in the demand of any product or a change in the overall process is just a matter of minutes for the RMS.
Now this system also allows the tool to move in all the 3 directions viz. X,Y,Z. This allows the machining in any position and of any object with varying dimensions.The following video shows the functioning of a RECONFIGURABLE MACHINING TOOL:
Source:Youtube.
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The figure above shows the tool head with power spindle arrangements.​

The RIM or Reconfigurable Inspection Machine can create a 300MEga Pixel image for inspecting the surface of material. Mainly engine blocks are inspected under this machine for the surface finish and porosity on the surface at General Motor Corp.
The brain behind such an innovation - Yoram Koren
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