A Proposal for Generating Good Assembly Sequences by Tournament Tree

Abstract. In seeking further efficiency in production preparation, it is common to examine assembly sequences using digital manufacturing. The assembly sequences affect the product evaluation, so it is necessary to test several assembly sequences before actual production. However, because selection and testing of assembly sequences depends on the operator’s personal experience and intuition, only a small number of assembly sequences are actually tested. Nevertheless, there is a systematic method for generating assembly sequences using a contact-related figure. However, the larger the number of parts, the larger the number of assembly sequences geometric becomes. The purpose of this study is to establish a systematic method of generating efficient assembly sequences regardless of the number of parts. To generate such assembly sequences selectively, a “Tournament Tree, ” which shows the structure of an assembly sequence, is formulated. Applying the method to assembly sequences of a water valve, good assembly sequences with the same structure as the Tournament Tree are identified. The structure of such a Tournament Tree tends to have fewer steps than the others. As a test, the structure is then applied for a drum cartridge with 38 parts. In all the assembly sequences generated from the contact-related figures, the best assembly sequence is generated by using the Tournament Tree