Automated Assembly

BTI engineers and manufactures a complete line of manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic assembly systems for all part types and sizes, as well as all production rates and levels of automation.

Balance Technology builds automated assembly systems for rotating and precision components — machines that put parts together and then prove the assembly is correct before it leaves the station. Manual, fully automated, or somewhere in between, scaled to the rate the part actually runs at.

We came to assembly from measurement rather than the other way around, and that shapes what we build. An assembly machine from a general automation house presses parts together and counts cycles. Ours presses parts together and then measures whether the result is right, using the same balancing, gaging and test technologies we build as standalone equipment. On a rotating assembly, that distinction matters, because most of the defects that escape an assembly line are defects a press-force curve cannot see.

Assembly Operations We Automate

• Press and interference fits — with force and distance monitored through the stroke, so the signature of a correct press is verified rather than assumed
• Retaining ring and snap ring insertion, with seating verification
• Threaded fastening, with torque and angle monitoring per fastener
• Staking, riveting, crimping and roll forming
• Bearing installation and preload setting
• Shim selection and selective assembly, where a gage measures the stack and the machine chooses the shim
• Heat and cold assembly — induction heating or cryogenic shrink fitting
• Seal and O-ring installation
• Component orientation and phasing, where the angular relationship between parts is functional
• Adhesive and sealant dispensing, with bead verification
• Marking and serialization

Verification Is the Point

Every station on an assembly machine we build is designed with the question of how its result gets proven.

In-process signatures. Press force against distance, torque against angle, insertion depth. A correct assembly has a characteristic curve, and a part that arrives at the right final position by the wrong path is usually a part with a problem.

Presence and orientation. Confirming that every component is present, right side up, correctly phased and of the right variant before the operation that makes the assembly permanent.

Dimensional verification. Gaging the assembled stack — height, end play, concentricity, runout — after assembly rather than inferring it from component measurements.

Functional test. Torque-to-turn, backlash, end play, leak, and other functional and NVH tests that exercise the assembly the way service will.

Balance. For rotating assemblies, balancing the finished product is both a required operation and an extraordinarily sensitive assembly check. An assembly that is unbalanced beyond what its components explain has something wrong with it, and the balancer finds that in the same cycle it corrects the unbalance.

Integrity testing. Resonant frequency testing on a finished assembly detects missing components, loose joints and incorrect fits through the change in dynamic response.

Assemble and Balance in One Machine

The most common configuration we build is assembly feeding directly into balance and test — a single machine that builds the product and then measures it. It is the clearest example of what a combination machine is for.

The argument is simple. Balancing a rotating assembly is a required operation on most of these products anyway.

Doing it on a separate machine means a transfer, a second fixture, a second load station and a second data record. Doing it in the assembly machine means the defect is caught in the same cycle that created it, by the same serial number, with the correction applied immediately — and it means an assembly problem is visible to the person running the assembly machine rather than discovered an hour later in another part of the plant.

Typical products: electric motor rotors, torque converters, clutch assemblies, driveshafts, turbochargers, pump and blower assemblies, fan assemblies, and transmission subassemblies.

How the Machines Are Built

Layout. Single station for low rate or large parts, in-line transfer where operations have similar cycle times, rotary dial for compact high-rate assembly of smaller parts. The layout follows the takt time and the part size, not a house preference.

Part feeding. Manual load, bowl and linear feeders, tray and dunnage presentation, conveyor, or robot. Mixed approaches are normal — a large base component placed by robot while small components arrive by feeder.

Robots where they earn their place: load and unload, part transfer between stations, dispensing, and handling variants that would otherwise need hard tooling changeover.

Error proofing throughout. Sensors that confirm each condition before the next operation, interlocks that prevent a station running on a part that failed upstream, and reject handling that physically separates bad parts from good ones rather than relying on an operator to move them.

Controls and data. A PC-based control system writing one record per serial number containing every assembly parameter and every measurement result. Part programs for each variant, changeover under recipe control where the tooling allows it.

Guarding and safety to current standards, with access designed for the maintenance the machine will actually need.

What We Need to Quote a System

• Assembly drawings and the bill of materials, with the fits and tolerances that matter
• The assembly sequence, if it is fixed, and which operations are negotiable
• What has to be verified, and to what specification
• Rate: parts per hour, takt time, shifts, and expected volume over the machine’s life
• Component presentation — how each part arrives at the machine today
• Variants in the family, and how often changeover happens
• What should happen to a rejected assembly: scrap, rework, or quarantine
• Floor space, utilities, and plant standards for controls, safety and data
• Whether balancing or functional test is required, and to what specification

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you build assembly machines that do not include measurement?
We can, but it is not where we add the most value. If the requirement is purely to put parts together at rate with no verification content, a dedicated automation house may serve you better, and we will say so. Where the assembly has to be proven — balanced, gaged, tested — we are the right supplier.

Can you integrate our existing assembly equipment?
Frequently. Adding a balance or test station downstream of equipment you already own, sharing a control system and a data record, is a common project and a good deal less disruptive than replacing a working line.

Can one machine handle multiple part numbers?
Yes, with tooling and recipe changeover. How quickly depends on how much the variants share. Parts differing only in a dimension the servos can accommodate change over under program control; parts needing different fixtures take longer, and we design the changeover method explicitly rather than leaving it to be discovered at installation.

Can you add balancing to an assembly line we already have?
Yes. This is one of the more common requests we get, and it is usually the fastest way to stop an assembly defect from reaching a customer.

Do you provide the robots?
Yes, integrated and programmed as part of the system. We work with the major robot manufacturers and will use a brand your plant already supports if you have a standard.