Pico-Estil assembly lines use KUKA robots
Pico-Estil assembly lines use KUKA robots
Keywords Assembly lines, KUKA, Robots
More than 180 KUKA industrial robots in the 125 to 150kg capacity range have been delivered to Pico-Estil at Shrewsbury for integration into a major car body assembly line project (Plate 1).
The total capability of the KUKA robot world has been called into play for this project, providing robots of the right size and configuration to match a variety of applications.
This prestigious contract by the Pico-Estil Group involves the design and construction of RH and LH bodyside, framing and respot assembly lines for two major car manufacturing plants in Europe. Each line is first assembled, programmed and tested at Shrewsbury before shipment to the customer.
KUKA's involvement with the project was assured following their international recognition as a full service supplier of industrial robots.
All assembly lines are designed with the full flexibility to build a complete vehicle range including saloon, wagon, van and hatchback variants and are highly automated.
On the bodyside lines for instance, a 150kg robot with a body gripper unit is track mounted so that it can lift a bodyside sub-assembly from a manual load station and locate it in station 1 of the line.
Two KR 125K shelf mounted robots positioned on an angled base to give an extensive reach complete a busy spot weld sequence on the clamped outer panel assembly.
A second handling robot,also track mounted, lifts the panel from this fixture and positions it in a floor mounted angled fixture where several additional components and the outer panel assembly are married together. Dedicated welders are used for the tack welding process.
Two more shelf mounted KR 150 robots, on an angled gantry, finish the spot welding sequence in this station and a third handling robot lifts the completed bodyside assembly from the fixture and lays it flat for visual inspection, enabling the final robot on the line to remove it and place it on a conveying system.
Plate 1 View of bodyside line in final assembly stages, showing seven of the KUKA robots
In the first station on the framing and respot line the tabbed car bodies are clamped firmly in a framing buck while six floor mounted robots and two gantry mounted robots complete an extensive spot weld programme.
The now rigid body progresses down the line with further welding taking place at each station using KR 125 robots equipped with different profiled spot guns to access the more remote areas of the body.
These are the first major robotic assembly lines to be PC controlled relying entirely on a field bus system.
Another unusual aspect is that the robots act as both master and slave with all interactions between the robots and the system peripherals via the field bus network. In addition the robots are connected via Ethernet to each other and to the main line PLCs.
For further information please contact KUKA Welding Systems + Robot Limited, Hereward Rise, Halesowen,West Midlands B62 8AN. Tel: 0121 585 0800.
