Automatic Assembly Techniques (Hansard, 18 July 1967)

§ Mr. Benn

It is estimated that about a third of the time taken to produce most engineering products is devoted to the final assembly of their component parts. 225W At the present time most machines built for the mechanisation of the assembly process are tailor-made for the special purposes of individual firms. The successful development of automatic assembly techniques and machines capable of application to a range of products would be a major advance leading to substantial gains in productivity and profitability.

My Department will be providing support for several projects designed to further the development of automatic assembly and its application in industry.

A contract has been placed with Staveley Industries Ltd. under which my Department will contribute up to £200,000 over the next 3 years for the design and development of modular assembly mechanisms suitable for incorporation in assembly systems for a variety of products. The company proposes to build a factory at Aberbargoed in Monmouthshire for both development and production work on automatic assembly.

We are also in discussion with the Department of Production Engineering at Nottingham University on the support of two projects to be carried out there. The first is to investigate methods of packaging components for handling by assembly machines; the second is the development of programmed machines for use in assembly, which can be produced at an economic cost for manufacturing industry at large.

It is important that information on present practice in automatic assembly and on new developments should be comprehensively collected and disseminated to industry. My Department is discussing with the Institution of Production Engineers ways in which we can support the production of Data Sheets on Automatic Assembly Techniques and Equipments. These data sheets would be prepared so as to help industry on both the technical and economic aspects of the application of automatic assembly.