Springs and things

October 26, 2016 3:52 AM

A mesmerising video of industrial robots working together to create a variety of springs.

Produced by Industrial JP, a Japanese factory which assembles custom parts. They have a YouTube channel with more amazing manufacturing processes set to appropriately industrial techo.

posted by Stark (28 comments total)

Many many years ago NYNEX had an ad (part of this series) where you see a bunch of people nodding along to a mechanical noise, totally enthralled by the thing they're looking at. We never see what it is; the ad just cuts away from their mesmerized faces to a yellow-pages entry for "RIVETING MACHINES."

I feel like now I know what they were looking at. This is absolutely hypnotizing.
posted by Westringia F. at 4:46 AM on October 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

Also... seeing the springs on the robot arms themselves is a little disquieting. They're this->||<-close to being able to build themselves.
posted by Westringia F. at 4:50 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Industry is what makes us special, why do we give it away to robots?
posted by any major dude at 5:20 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh yes, imagine those nimble fingers moving in perfect unison to a lovely chant, deftly assembling doodads, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, until death or serious injury.

No thanks.
posted by hat_eater at 5:31 AM on October 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

All of that amazing stuff-all the hardware and the tech and the time to develop and engineer and assemble and maintain it-is more cost effective that the same human or humans to do the same work. We better figure out a basic income for everyone, and fast. Or start giving out lots of birth control and having hard discussions about its use.
posted by nevercalm at 5:44 AM on October 26, 2016

Whereas my reaction to this video is "hello! hello friend! thank you for making all these neat things! do you like your own springs? do you want to make better or different ones? you are really good at that! you have pretty limbs! look these are videos of people dancing in a way that reminds me of you!"
posted by Mizu at 5:59 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Too many favorite springs there to mention them all. I'll just say the ones at 2:33 are quite interesting.

I assume these machines need adjustment and/or repair from time to time. I wonder how many bad springs are made before someone realizes something is wrong.
posted by MtDewd at 6:17 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

NOOOO SPRINGS!
posted by stevil at 6:51 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mod note: A couple deleted. Let's keep Trump discussion in election threads, please.
posted by taz (staff) at 7:01 AM on October 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Humans aren't there just for maintenance and repair. The machines need to be reconfigured for each batch of springs. They don't make just one type of spring, it's always changing. A batch could be as small as a hundred springs (less than that and they probably just make them by hand).
posted by ryanrs at 7:02 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Please note, Not Robots. Industrial machines are incredible, and I'm sure have been increasingly automated for decades but we don't have robots that can adjust the machines or do the retooling to change out the type of spring. The clever robotics demos are (just search youtube) are sortof just tricks, there is a huge gap between the cleverest dancing 'bot and "read these instructions and adjust the third spring setup from the end of the row".

The suggestion that a specialized run of 100 springs is possible twings my "wow, that could be an amazing art project" bone. No AI will be having that "thought" in any realistic time frame.
posted by sammyo at 7:38 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes these are robots. Maybe you are thinking of a different word, like android, or artificial intelligence. But the term robot describes exactly what these machines are.


The suggestion that a specialized run of 100 springs is possible...

I'm sure you can email a cad drawing to a spring manufacturer and buy a single spring if you want. You will pay through the nose, relatively speaking, but it's probably not that much in absolute terms.

For every type of manufactured thing, from springs and motors to iphones and cars, there exists an ecosystem of low-volume shops that make one-off versions of that device. This is because for every device that is designed and manufactured, first you want to make a couple prototypes.

(For the iphone specifically, Apple almost certainly makes their prototypes in-house, because secrecy. But most everyone else farms it out to small local companies.)
posted by ryanrs at 8:00 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

If you like this kind of thing, the twitter account Machine Pix is nothing but short videos of interesting mechanical things happening.

I love this kind of thing, so thanks for the link.
posted by Orlop at 8:44 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I used to work in a candle factory running the votive candle wicking machine. It was from the 30'sor 40's and was entirely driven by cams and followers ,it had a impressive dance beat.
posted by boilermonster at 9:05 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

this is so cool. This reminds me of when I was a kid, I liked to turn paperclips into air planes. Those nasty little wires would pinch and stink my fingertips, but with pliers it was easier.
posted by rebent at 9:40 AM on October 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Eponycharming :)
posted by Westringia F. at 9:47 AM on October 26, 2016

It's my understanding that robots can respond to changes in their environment. These machines cannot. They must be reprogrammed by humans to change their actions, and the programming might not even be by electronic computer, but purely mechanical.
posted by tommyD at 9:49 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's something almost comical about such an enormous, powerful machine making those dinky little springs. The technology bringing all those tools together like a spider's spinneret is very cool though.
posted by lucidium at 11:17 AM on October 26, 2016

So this is getting to be a bit of a derail, but in the context of manufacturing, "robots" and "robotics" does not mean intelligent machine that can retool themselves, or devices that interact and respond to their environment, or any fancy AI stuff. A manufacturing robot is just a machine that makes stuff without a human operator directly controlling the process. The robot/not-robot dividing line is probably something like a CNC machining center, where the machine makes automated tool passes and can automatically switch tools, but a human operator needs to introduce and remove each workpiece. Once you no longer need a human handling each individual part, and the machines are either passing parts among themselves or working in an assembly line, you've got robots.
posted by ryanrs at 11:31 AM on October 26, 2016

The robot/non-robot dividing line is pretty vague and hotly contested.

About a decade ago at Forward Lanes, this guy in my PhD program had an exciting revelation. He pointed down the alley and exclaimed, "the pin machines are Roboter!!"

He was so excited, he'd accidentally slipped back into German, you see. Our gang spent a few frames arguing about it. I don't think it's settled.

(A classic benchmark, controversial and inadequate as any other: is it an actuated physical system that can sense, plan based on its sensing, and act based on the plan? Then it might be a robot.)
posted by tss at 12:55 PM on October 26, 2016

It's my understanding that robots can respond to changes in their environment. These machines cannot. They must be reprogrammed by humans to change their actions, and the programming might not even be by electronic computer, but purely mechanical.

This is a pretty advanced concept of a robot. It's possible there may never be such a robot that meets this description.

It seems that even living creatures cannot match the capability of such a robot. They can only respond so much to changes in environment. They must be reprogrammed to adapt also. Normally, this was done via evolution. If programming is mechanical or even biological rather than electronic, does it not count?
posted by 2N2222 at 1:01 PM on October 26, 2016

It's not nearly as complex as this, but there's a relatively low-cost personal wire bender on the market.
posted by phooky at 2:08 PM on October 26, 2016

On this theme, here's excellent YouTube metalworker This Old Tony, on how to design and manufacture your own springs: Making Springs At Home.
posted by effbot at 5:23 PM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Other than the extension spring near the beginning (0:17) and the compression spring in the battery holder near the end (6:45), it looks like they're all torsion springs. Is that just what people need the most of?
posted by aubilenon at 5:35 PM on October 26, 2016

Well - it's like life vs not-life... People keep saying viruses aren't really alive, but then others argue they're half-alive or some inbetween state. And yet we still say we're alive.

Needs more autechre.
posted by symbioid at 10:44 PM on October 26, 2016

But yes, that was utterly fascinating and mesmerizing to watch.
posted by symbioid at 10:44 PM on October 26, 2016

Sorry a bit for the notrobot derail, important but not especially pertinent to the amazing intricacy of industrial automation. There are several reason that tiny parts are made with huge heavy machines, big heavy strong stuff lasts a long time, breaks down less, and probably easier to reconfigure for a guy with a big wrench. Probably pretty noisy so not conducive to falling into a meditative state, which would not be the the right space around big heavy automated machinery.
posted by sammyo at 1:00 PM on October 27, 2016

it looks like they're all torsion springs. Is that just what people need the most of?

In terms of custom springs, probably. If you just need a garden-variety compression or extension spring, there are off-the-shelf solutions you can easily get in bulk. In that arena you're more likely to find a machine optimized for churning out one kind of spring day in and day out instead of something this sophisticated.
posted by phooky at 1:04 PM on October 27, 2016