AGV system expanded to meet sports car demand

AGV system to transport painted car body shells are scheduled to the production lines has expanded, following the launch in 2005 of the 'Vantage' two-seater sports car.

Painted car body shells are scheduled to the production lines at Aston Martin's Gaydon factory via temporary buffer storage, the capacity of which has been increased from 30 to 52 positions following the launch in 2005 of the Vantage two-seater sports car.

To cope with the extra volume of bodies being transported, alterations have also been made to the E and K Indumat laser-guided AGV (automated guided vehicle) system, which was originally installed in 2003 to transport painted DB9 shells.

Provision was made at that time to allow for easy reconfiguration of the AGV system to meet the higher throughput when the Vantage came on-stream.

Expansion was completed by EandK Indumat in two phases during the May and August 2005 shutdown periods at Gaydon, so there was no disruption to production.

A further enhancement was the addition of automatic battery charging, whereby each day the AGV automatically travels at 1.30 am to a predetermined position for charging until the production lines start up at 6.30 am.

No operator interaction with the vehicle is now needed, except for occasional battery top-up via the single point filling system, and the vehicle is always ready for work at the start of the morning shift.

The need for buffer storage of car bodies arises partly to ensure smooth sequencing of body shells to the production lines, which run during a single day shift, and so that the correct trim arrives at the same time as the painted body.

The other reason is that, as body shell painting takes twice as long as vehicle build, the paint shop has to be operated over two-shifts and the excess painted bodies held overnight for around eight hours.

Aston Martin had 18 months' experience of operating the AGV system on DB9 production before expansion started, so was able to plan the work meticulously with E and K Indumat to achieve the desired result, which currently involves transporting bodies at 40 minute intervals to the respective production lines during the day.

The existing single AGV was able to handle the doubling of workload.

Body store capacity needed to be enlarged by 22 positions to cope with the increase in production, but limited floor space meant that there was no additional room for extra body storage racking in the production area.

A solution was planned by E and K Indumat whereby the height of each of the original locations was reduced, and a new top level installed, so that body shells could be stored four-high rather than three-high, providing 10 extra spaces.

As 22 positions were needed, the remaining 12 locations were added by utilising space in the paint shop itself, where three new storage bays have been built.

The latter are filled as necessary, with preference given to storing body shells in the external racking nearer the production lines.

Additional work carried out by E and K Indumat to complete the project included relocation of the pick-up point in the paint shop where each trolley-mounted body in turn awaits the AGV, addition of a touch panel call-up terminal at the start of the Vantage line, and reprogramming of the system to take account of the higher number of vehicle movements, new pick-up and set-down positions, and the auto battery charging station.

Back in 2003, the original rationale for using driverless transportation at Gaydon was the high value of painted Aston Martin body shells and the consequent desire to avoid the potential for damage (and incorrect storage) due to lift truck driver error.

The AGV with its associated laser guidance, radio frequency communications and control hardware and software, were supplied as a turnkey package.

Included also were the racking, Windows-based PC and PLC controls, Siemens touch panels, bar-code reader, traffic lights controlling the roller door at the entrance to the paint store, and high-level order management software, plus a dial-up modem link to E and K Indumat for remote diagnostics.

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