Automated Fixture Assembly for a Shallow Water Jet Motor Assembly

A production unit could be claimed successful, only when it increases the likelihood of easy assembling and minimizes unit production cost. In order to undergo mass production methods, their orientation play a major role in enabling the ultimate operational time and cost. To cope up with such methods, the use of jigs and fixtures are facilitated. The paper encompasses the alternative solution for material handling flaws caused in the assembly process. The frequent reasons for the leakage are the improper positioning of the ceramic bushes in the impeller casing unit, owing to the downfall of the motor efficiency. The bushes are placed manually in general, leading to the improper positioning of the bushes, getting in contact with the rotor/impeller resulting in non-uniform wear, leading to water leakage. These defects could be overcome by introducing an assembly fixture for motor placement and using pneumatic cylinder actuation for the accurate bush placement. This indeed includes the reduction of idle lead time in the assembling process by automating the process of manual bush placement and the manufacturing of defect free products. This signifies the reduced lead time to increase the productivity factor and the efficiency of the motors. Lean study was conducted to reduce the lead time and Value Stream Map (VSM) is reported in this paper.