Slide lines

First thing, I wouldn't buy new. There's tons of this stuff out there, the problem is finding the used stuff. One place to look is the SMTnet used equipment sales watteverzits called. Roland knows the name.

Most work bench suppliers [eg, Arlink, IAC, Lista, etc] like to sell add-on doodangs like these things to make you think you weren't ripped-off so bad after buying their products.

Plant automation companies [eg, Bosch, Simplimatic, Flexible, etc] like to sell these things as an entre so they can install conveyors throughout your plant.

Other people call these: * Push * Progressive assembly * Sequential assembly lines. Searching the net on those things will get you beaucoupe hits.

Not quite finally, Flexible Line Balancing V.3 [software] is pretty good. We always used to just put the bins on the line and let the assemblers balance the line, usually based on who was hung-over from the night before, I think. That never worked all that well for moving product. [So, I'd look around and find the one with the fewest bins and talk to him /her until he / she went home for the day at the next break.] Now, they have to get real sneaky when they try to rebalance the line.

OK, finally. Aegis ISC (Circuit CAM) 215.643.3162 has a module for making your station drawings. But a cheaper way [like Steve Gregory once said] is to: * Use a free viewer [eg, View Mate, CamCAD, GC-Prevue, etc]. * Get an image of the board. * Do a screen save. * Paste it into free drawing package, like paintshop. * Edit the image, color the boxes, whatever you do, print it aut an' gotoit.

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