| Abstract | Automotive industry is one of the major drivers of the global economic and a leader in the research and development of advanced manufacturing technologies. Machining and automation are primary processes for product development and production for automotive industry because of their high efficiency and flexibility. Today's automotive products are complex, sophisticated and have a large variation for different models. The demand for these products is mostly in small to medium lot sizes but with large variation. Although computerized numerical control (CNC), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) are well developed today but still fall short in efficiency to produce these products due to a variety of designs and customizations, short lead time and low volume production. In order to address some of these deficiencies, Integerated Manufacturing Technologies Institute (IMTI) of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is working on a number of advanced manufacturing processes. This paper focuses on the new and innovative ideas being developed and IMTI to enhance the performance and flexibility for the manufacturing of automotive products, from the development of parts, moulds, tools and dies to material handling, production, and assembly. In particular, an integrated scheme for the development of a series of machining and automated systems that include automatic CNC programming, online inspection, reference free setup, error detection and compensation, and intelligent monitoring and control will be described. |
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