2. Classification of assembly equipment

The assemblers currently in use can be divided into two main categories:

• those that transmit forces through mechanical contact, which we refer to as mechanical processes;

• those that ensure metal continuity at the joints, consisting of various autogenous welding processes.

Processes involving cohesion between heterogeneous materials (e.g. bonding) are not analyzed here.

Mechanical processes generally offer the advantage of real disassembly possibilities, with full recovery of the initial components. On the other hand, they often lead to stress concentrations at the contact points, which means that, wherever possible, these stresses have to be diffused using additional parts (joint covers, angle brackets, furring, etc.). This makes the framework considerably...