Determining the Most Probable Orientation of a Part using Centroid Solid Angle Method

In the current era, the rapid proliferation of automobiles has indeed led to a tremendous competition among the automotive companies and the only pathway to reach the culmination is through innovation. Innovation has long been a catalyst of growth and hence these industries are necessitating enhancement in their performance by systematically leveraging technology to facilitate innovation, with intent to offer world class quality products and services in a quicker phase. The result of such an innovation is the part feeder systems that are utilized in automated automotive assembly lines to segregate and position parts prior to packing. Obtaining the favorable orientation of a part in assembly stations, within the stipulated time at disposal, is quite a tedious task to carry out. To overcome this problem, part feeding system is utilized, where it brings about the segregation and orientation of parts, before passing to assembly. A part feeder is a system in which the parts enter the feeder in random orientations and exit the system in a single specified (favorable) orientation. Having said, our work involves the determining of the most favorable orientation at which a part should align and orient itself before entering the assembly line and this determination is made using the centroid solid angle method. Brake pad being an irregularly shaped component and the component which faces critical orientation issues in automotive assembly units, is taken to be as our specimen for consideration in this work. Thus based on the most probable orientation of a part that we find using centroid solid angle method, an appropriate part feeder system could be designed.