Konstruktionsförslagför ABB Vision Tower : Konstruktionsförslag för att förbättra ABB VisionTower vid montering och service

Sammanfattning: ABB sees opportunities for improvements in their Vision Tower, which is part of theirFlexLoader 600 and FlexLoader 800 products. ABB's FlexLoader series is designed toautomatically feed a machine with materials or handle finished workpieces. The FlexLoader600/800 consists of a robotic arm for performing the tasks, a control unit for issuingcommands to the robotic arm, and a Vision Tower that scans and identifies the position of thecomponents.ABB has identified issues during the installation and servicing of their Vision Tower. Theyhave identified certain aspects that they consider risky for personnel, surroundings, andequipment. Much of the problem seems to be related to the size and clumsiness of the tower.ABB is seeking proposals for concepts that can facilitate, improve, or eliminate these issues.The purpose of this thesis is to develop a design concept for ABB's Vision Tower to make iteasier to handle during installation and service. To achieve this purpose, three researchquestions were formulated: What does the current design solution for installation and servicelook like? What requirements are needed to develop concepts that enhance the installationand service of the Vision Tower? How can a design change improve the installation andservice of the Vision Tower?The study utilized literature used by Jönköping University as a learning resource. The entirestructure of the product development/improvement process was applied based on the theorydescribed in the book [1], and the majority of the work relied on methods described in thebook. The process consisted of the following steps: pre-study, product specification, conceptgeneration, and evaluation.The first research question was addressed through a pre-study, which involved data collectionthrough qualitative interviews and observations at ABB. A competitive analysis was alsoconducted to explore how others have solved similar problems. This data provided anunderstanding of the current design solution and the installation and servicing processes.During the product specification phase, data gathered from the pre-study was used to create aproduct specification and a Function-Means-Modeling tree. The specification includedfunctional requirements and solution-constraining requirements aimed at improvinginstallation and service. The concept generation phase began with a brainstorming session to generate a multitude ofideas. Subsequently, the majority of the ideas were filtered out or combined with others tocreate more comprehensive concepts. This resulted in the development of four concepts.These four concepts were then evaluated using a Pugh's matrix to rank them based on theVision Tower and the established requirements. Three of the concepts improved bothinstallation and service according to the Pugh's evaluation. The results were presented to ABB, and they chose a concept that was considered easy to implement. Thus, the workconcluded with ABB.As a further development, the next step would involve building a prototype and testing theconcept's functionality to see if it works as intended. It would also be beneficial to measure thetime required to perform various tasks and explore areas such as intuitive design andvibration studies that may require further investigation.