Manufacturing Automation

Manufacturing Automation Protocol
Manufacturing Automation Protocol was a computer network standard released in 1982 for interconnection of devices from multiple manufacturers. It was developed by General Motors to combat the proliferation of incompatible communications standards used by suppliers of automation products such as programmable controllers.By 1985 demonstrations of interoperability were carried out and 21 vendors offered MAP products. In 1986 the Boeing corporation merged its Technical Office Protocol with the MAP standard, and the combined standard was referred to as "MAP/TOP". The standard was revised several times between the first issue in 1982 and MAP 3.0 in 1987, with significant technical changes that made interoperation between different revisions of the standard difficult.

Although promoted and used by manufacturers such as General Motors, Boeing, and others, it lost market share to the contemporary Ethernet standard and was not widely adopted. Difficulties included changing protocol specifications, the expense of MAP interface links, and the speed penalty of a token-passing network.The token bus network protocol used by MAP became standardized as IEEE standard 802.4 but this committee disbanded in 2004 due to lack of industry attention.

Industrial Automation

Industrial automation is the use of robotic devices to complete manufacturing tasks. In this day and age of computers, industrial automation is becoming increasingly important in the manufacturing process because computerized or robotic machines are capable of handling repetitive tasks quickly and efficiently. Machines used in industrial automation are also capable of completing mundane tasks that are not desirable to workers. In addition, the company can save money because it does not need to pay for expensive benefits for this specialized machinery. There are both pros and cons for a company when it comes to industrial automation.


On the plus side, with soaring healthcare costs, paid days off, vacation time, and other costly employee benefits, companies can save money with industrial automation. While robotic machinery can initially be extremely expensive, the loss of monthly wages for production workers leads to incredible savings for the company. While machinery used for industrial automation can break down, it does not happen often. If it does, only a handful of maintenance or computer engineers are needed to handle repairs and get lines running smoothly again.

As the utility of industrial automation robotics has positively impacted the cost of manufacturing, the size of products that are being manufactured have influenced the size of robotics. The manufacturing of smaller and smaller electronic devices has had a great influence on the size of industrial automation robotics that are used to produce them. Some of the processes that industrial automation robotics are required to do would not be possible if the operations were manual. Consistent insertion of diodes and capacitors onto electronic boards or the insertion of tiny fasteners into assemblies are examples of chores that automation robotics perform very well.

Demands of production that are made on industrial robotics also require that tasks that are accomplished be very fast in addition to being accurate. The combination of speed and accuracy that is required has caused a shift in the use of some types of robots. SCARA robotics have been replaced in some cases by Delta robotics to get the precision and speed that is needed. The characteristic overhead mounting of Delta robotics make them the best for working in a larger area below the robot. Having six axis freedom the Delta robotic has the ability to perform multiple location movements to get parts into a wide variety of positions very quickly. The speed of these robots make them ideal for the assembly of very small electronic units.

There has also been a shift in the capabilities of other robot types. SCARA robots were once the only robot used in the assembly electronic products. Now with the speed increases that are capable of articulated arm robotics these units can effectively be used in soldering and solar cell construction. Articulated arm robots are easier to program and have good flexibility for assembly.

Tabletop articulates are very applicable to the application that assembles mobile phones. This robotic is very useful in taking parts from a vertical orientation to a horizontal. In the assembly and testing of mobile phones the robotic can take an electronic board from the vertical and place it into a testing position at the horizontal. These articulates are also very successful in handling very thin organic products in a vacuum environment with great precision.

What is Automation

The term automation refers to the phenomenon where a job is performed without the help of any human interference. Automation means performing a particular task with the help of machines. Automation has always proved to be an effective idea for most of the industries and companies, which deal with production of capital and consumer goods. Any type of production is readily facilitated by automation.There are several advantages of automation in an industry or even in a company. Automation helps in saving the labor of the workers and thus it also saves

a lot of time for the worker who can be then directed to some other work process. The greatest advantage of using automatic machineries and instruments is that it saves time ad at the same time it also saves costs. In an industry, which is involved in producing heavy engineering goods and services, in the same industry, automatic machineries may perform the task, which was actually being performed by, say, a 100 laborer. The machine would not even take half the time of which the human laborers would have taken to complete a particular task. For this reason lesser amount of human hands are required to perform a particular task in an industry. This saves time and at the same time, the company has to make lesser wage payment to the workers thus saving a lump sum amount out of its profit.


Along with all this, the key advantage of automation is to improve the productivity of the company. An industry, which has installed automatic machines in its production process, has obviously taken a smart decision. The reason is that it is often observed that automation of any production process improves the productivity largely. Hence, by automation of the work culture in a particular company, the company can increase its potential and earn more by investing less.

Automation