Make the best use of automation to maximize benefi

Rational use of automation to maximize benefits

at present, in China, the labor-intensive production mode can still participate in the market competition with great advantages under the condition that the labor force cost is low, but with the rapid growth of the national economy, the advantage of low labor cost will be gradually lost. Therefore, with the rapid development of China's automobile industry, the demand for automation equipment from major domestic automobile companies, especially vehicle manufacturers, will be higher and higher, and the traditional labor-intensive production mode will be gradually eliminated. According to the experience of developed countries, the repeatability of automatic machines is far better than manual operation, and the automation of production process is a necessary condition for producing high-quality products

automation in automobile manufacturing

in automobile body manufacturing 8. In the four major processes after tightening the samples - stamping, welding, painting and final assembly, automation mainly refers to the automation of the operation process, mainly including: transportation between stations; Robot - welding, painting and gluing; Automation of loading and unloading operation, etc. The main purpose of implementing automation is to improve the processability and operability. For example, implementing automation in the painting workshop can avoid bad working conditions, and improving the operability of the process in the welding workshop

although the use of automatic equipment can save labor consumption, speed up production, improve product consistency and manufacturing quality, we should also see that the one-time investment of automation is high, the downtime of production line increases when it breaks down, and there are high requirements for other auxiliary equipment

next, we will take the automation transformation of the stamping workshop and the automation system of the welding workshop as an example to analyze in detail the costs and benefits of using automation equipment in the automotive manufacturing industry

automatic transformation of stamping workshop

1 Comparison of loading and unloading methods in the stamping workshop:

Table 1 shows the comparison of four loading and unloading methods in the automation transformation of the stamping workshop, including manual operation, robot, manipulator and new loading and unloading device, from which we can see:

□ the new feeding device is not suitable for the automation transformation of the traditional stamping line

□ if the robot is applied to the transformation of large stamping lines, the mechanical wear of the robot shaft joints will be aggravated due to the long cantilever, which will correspondingly increase the failure downtime rate and maintenance costs. If it is applied to the automatic transformation of small and medium stamping lines, because the workpiece is small and the cantilever is short, it can give full play to the advantages of high flexibility of the robot, which is an ideal scheme

□ it is an economical and practical scheme to apply the manipulator to carry out the automation transformation: in view of the development of the automobile outer covering parts towards the overall large-scale direction, the large inertia of the workpiece, the large press spacing, and the comprehensive consideration of equipment investment, maintenance, failure downtime and other factors

2. Technical analysis of the rapid feeding device scheme for the transformation of stamping automation:

the multi position press, compact press and servo press appeared at the end of the last century and the beginning of 2004 gradually emerged in the line stamping equipment. The automatic feeding system has also quietly changed, and a new type of rapid feeding device came into being

the biggest advantages of the new fast feeding device are: compact structure, fast speed, which greatly improves the production efficiency of the stamping line; Low failure shutdown rate; The flexibility of the equipment is good; It is suitable for new large stamping automation projects. But at the same time, the new feeding device has strict requirements on the maximum spacing of the press, which must be ≤ 6m; The equipment investment is very high, and the maintenance cost is high and expensive. Generally, the quotation of the whole line including press ranges from 150million yuan to 210million yuan

rapid feeding device of millwangarden

rapid feeding device of Komatsu

rapid feeding device of gudel

rapid feeding device of ATR

at present, the world leaders in the development and development of rapid feeding devices are: millwangarden, Schuler, gudel, ATR, Komatsu, and WIA of South Korea

automation system of welding workshop

the automation of welding workshop should be carried out by stages and departments according to the relationship between effort and improvement. Roughly speaking, the automation of the bus will precede the sub assembly, and on the bus, the skeleton synthesis of the car body will precede other parts. Bus automation will include two parts: body movement and welding. Traditionally, the use of welding robots on the bus is the most centralized

this paper only discusses the skeleton synthesis of automobile body. Since there is no price data, we only compare its functions and floor area, focusing on flexibility. Here are a few examples

1. Characteristics of the automation system of Toyota welding workshop:

□ the fixture clamps the side wall from the inside, and the welding transposition is convenient and the beat is fast

□ it can be mixed with more than 4 models for production

□ it can be switched at will

□ it takes up a small area of the station

□ it can be welded manually, with large welding space and convenient operation

2. Fuji, Japan, Characteristics of the automation system of welding workshops such as Hyundai and Daewoo International:

□ it can be produced by mixing two models, It can also realize the production of 4 models in series

□ it can be switched at will

□ it takes up a small working area

□ it can pre assemble the side wall manually (the products need to have pre buckles)

3. The characteristics of the automation system of KOMA welding workshop:

□ it can mix the production of 4 models

□ it can be switched at will

□ it has large weldable space and simple mechanical structure. The national "1025 plan" clearly puts forward the target list of energy conservation and emission reduction, It only needs to debug the robot

□ the occupied working area is small

□ the side wall can be pre installed manually (the products need to have pre buckles)

the flexible skeleton synthesis device of four models adopted by Fuji, Hyundai and Daewoo International in Japan

the flexible skeleton synthesis device of four models adopted by KOMA

in the above case, if Toyota's automation device saves the transposition time of the welding gun, You can also increase the beat or the number of dots. As the skeleton synthesis device is the most important process for the size control of the body in white, the number and position of spot welding dots at the same beat are the key, as well as an important aspect of evaluation and comparison. Therefore, the automation of the skeleton synthesis device is generally accepted by the industry. Flexibility, quality, safety and efficiency are the main considerations in the automation of skeleton synthesis device

the choice of automation in China's automobile manufacturing industry

due to the low labor cost, China's automobile manufacturing enterprises do not have strong requirements for automation at present, but with the rapid growth of the national economy, the phenomenon of low labor cost will gradually disappear, and the automation of the production process will be an inevitable trend

of course, the high cost of using normal automation equipment is another reason why China's automobile manufacturing enterprises do not have strong requirements for automation, but at this stage, it is still possible to realize part of the automation of China's automobile manufacturing industry. For example, whether the repair welding line adopts robots or not mainly depends on the labor cost. According to rough estimates, if the labor cost exceeds 32000 yuan/year/person, the advantages of robots will be revealed

flexible skeleton synthesis devices of two models adopted by Fuji, Hyundai and Daewoo International in Japan

prospects for automation in the automotive manufacturing industry

1. Automation and flexible manufacturing

automation and flexibility complement each other/contradict each other. Excessive automation and excessive flexibility are not desirable. Flexible automation is our goal and ideal. To realize flexible automation, we have many existing systems that can be used for reference. At present, the famous systems in automotive flexible automation include: Toyota FBL system and GBL system, Nissan flexible system, and general C flexible system. Among them, some have been implemented successfully, and some have many shortcomings, which will not be commented in this article

2. Automation of automobile manufacturing industry is both a quality problem and a cost problem

automation of automobile manufacturing industry is both a quality problem and a cost problem. It will take the lead in regions with relatively high labor costs. Foreign enterprises will have certain advantages and retain the advantages for a long time, but the automation rate of domestic enterprises will also gradually improve, and the difference between the two will gradually reduce. At the same time, the automation of automobile manufacturing will increase with the enhancement of users' requirements for product quality. Therefore, automobile manufacturing enterprises will have higher requirements for the corresponding automation technology

Dr. shazilun, deputy chief engineer of the planning and Design Institute of Chery Automobile Company

originally published in AI magazine automobile manufacturing (end)