1967, the Omniline I system was built by White Sunstrand Company of the United States, which consisted of 8 machining centers and 2 multi-spindle drilling machines. Workpieces are loaded in the fixture on the pallet, and are transported and processed between machine tools in a fixed order and at a certain rhythm. This kind of flexible automation equipment is suitable for small variety and mass production, and it is similar to the traditional automation production line in form, so it is also called flexible automation production line. Japan, the former Soviet Union and Germany have also developed FMS.
1976, Fanuc Japan exhibited a Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) consisting of machining centers and industrial robots, which provided an important equipment form for the development of FMS. Flexible manufacturing unit (FMC) generally consists of 12 CNC machine tool and material conveying device. It has an independent workpiece storage station and unit control system, which can automatically load and unload workpieces on the machine tool and even automatically detect workpieces. It can realize the continuous production of limited processes and is suitable for multi-variety and small batch production applications.
With the passage of time, FMS has made great progress in technology and quantity. In the practical stage, FMS composed of 3-5 devices is the most, but there are also larger systems put into use.
1982, Fanuc company of Japan built an automatic motor processing workshop, which consists of 60 flexible manufacturing units (including 50 industrial robots) and a three-dimensional warehouse, with two automatic guided trolleys to transport blanks and workpieces, and an unmanned motor assembly workshop, which can run continuously for 24 hours.
This kind of automatic unmanned workshop is an important step towards computer-integrated automation factory. At the same time, a number of economical FMS with only the basic characteristics of FMS have emerged, but the degree of automation is not perfect, which makes the design ideas and technical achievements of FMS widely used.