Automated parts assembly?

Has anyone put any thought into machines that can assemble the parts made by the reprap? Seems like this would be an inevitable addition to a project who's goal is a self-replicating machine.

For me its one of the back burner projects, simply too advanced to worry about at this stage.

IMO, it ranks behind getting wiring and electronics into the build, but not very far behind.

Mike

The thoughts and ideas expressed in this post do not reflect those of my employer and are intended only as communications between individuals. Any attempts at implement are at your own risk

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2007 09:18PM by ohiomike.

Machines with that sort of capability do exist; the problem is that they are highly specialized and to be efficient, they must be brought together into large assembly plants with a huge volume output. Of course, this is rather counter to the hobbyist-tinkering-and-making-small-improvements-all-the-time mindset, and for this reason I don't think that it'll be very popular or useful during the initial research and hobbyist phase of the project. However, when/if RepRap ever reaches the mainstream I believe there will be a very real market for RepRap-in-a-box. A well-packaged machine with bundled software that is guaranteed to *work* when you open it is a valuable commodity that many people will be willing to pay a significant premium for This is sort of like how many people are willing to pay $300+ for a proprietary OS because it is a much lesser hassle to deal with, all told. I understand this sentiment because I'm one of those people (I do dual boot Ubuntu, but Windows Vista is my primary operating system).