Micro-assembly is a key enabling technology for cost effective manufacture of new generations of complex micro products. It is also a critical technology for retaining mdustrial capabilities in high labour cost areas such as Europe since up to 80% of the production cost in some industries is attributed directly to assembly processes. With the continuous trend for product miniaturisation, the scientific and technologi- cal developments in micro-assembly are expected to have a significant long-term economic, demographic and social impact. A distinctive feature of the process is that surface forces are often dominant over gravity forces, which determines a number of specific technical challenges. Critical areas which are currently being addressed include development of assembly systems with high positional accuracy, micro gripping methods that take into ac- count the adhesive surface forces, high precision micro-feeding techniques and mi- cro-joining processes. Micro-assembly has developed rapidly over the last few years and all the pre- dictions are that it will remain a critical technology for high value products in a number of key sectors such as healthcare, communications, defence and aerospace. The key challenge is to match the significant technological developments with a new generation of micro products that will establish firmly micro-assembly as a core manufacturing process.
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