Air spring assembly machine

An air spring assembly has to be both concentric and correctly tightened. Concentric because the air spring rolls against its own components in service, and correctly tightened because the joint is what holds pressure.

This machine holds the components on a fixture, brings them together with servo-driven motion, and tightens with torque control. The servo gives a controlled approach rather than a slam; the torque control gives a joint that was measured rather than assumed.

Between the air spring holding system and the ram and lower table mechanism, the part is constrained through the whole cycle. Nothing about the result depends on how the operator held it, which is the difference between an assembly step and an assembly process.