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Product category: Manufacturing conferences and exhibitions
News Release from: Mike Page - editor's feature articles
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 22 May 2007

Changing automotive manufacturing in
Europe

The European automotive manufactures face many technical and strategic changes in how and where they build cars and trucks, reports Mike Page from a recent German conference.

UK-based technical magazine, 'Automotive Manufacturing Solutions', published by Ultima Media, London, held its Third Europe Conference during February, 2007 Of particular technical interest was a modular, readily expandable assembly line system, which can be shipped by container

There were also papers on metal clinching, alternative metalforming technologies, laser welding of body-in-white (BIW) structures and dual grey cast-iron/tool steel casting of power press (stamping) tools.

The conference was held in the historical, and growing, automotive manufacturing area in the Saxon State of Germany.

Saxony and Leipzig district is a 'gateway' between the established companies in Western Europe and the expanding automotive suppliers - and OEM plants - among the newer European Union member countries.

Saxony itself is a fast growing manufacturing region for automotive OEMs and suppliers alike.

Noted for historically having been the site of Germany's second car manufacturer after Daimler - Horch - the region has always had a close association with vehicle design and manufacture.

Cars built in the region included former East Germany's 'Trabant', with two-stroke IC engine.

* A modular, transportable, line assembly system - The idea of having a 'kit of parts', supplied by container, to build a car assembly line was presented by Frederic de Moliere, global customer director, Durr Systems.

The traditional way of designing and installing assembly lines consists of excavating pits and installing fixed installations, which could hamper capacity expansion or transfer of production to a new location.

Moliere advocated Durr's FASTplant system, which features module kits having interfaces pre-designed and standardised.

The parts are easily transportable by truck, ship and rail.

Moliere said it is possible to install up to eight modules/day and save up to 12 weeks' installation time.

A FASTplant system is able to be readily scaled up by adding more modules - an important advantage in, for example, Russia or India.

Durr installed its pilot FASTplant - of eight modules - at Daimler-Chrysler, Sindelfingen, Germany, in 2004, followed by installations at Toyota, Valenciennes, France in 2005.

Larger systems are now running at BMW India and Audi Neckarsulm, Germany.

The latter was ordered, installed and running in four months, said Moliere.

At the conference, Moliere said that Durr has orders for two 'full size' schemes at Severstal, Russia (31 modules, 80,000 units/year) and one, un-named, for 80 modules.

In summary, Moliere said that costs savings with FASTplant depend upon tooling complexity compared with a conventional line, but the system offers flexibility, scaleability and mobility.

* Enhancing an assembly line in central Europe - Philippe Perrier, vice-president, Body-in-White and Painting Engineering, Renault, described how engineers sought enhancement of a product by using new technology, such as laser welding, while re-using as much equipment as possible.

Equipment re-use saved around EUR 30 million in the Novo Mesto body shop.

Renault's Novo Mesto, Slovenia, plant is now producing its new 'Twingo' car, which is a version of its 'Clio 2' model.

Perrier said that a detailed analysis of re-usable equipment was carried out and results were used to drive product design in order to re-use as much plant as possible.

Some equipment was brought including rear unit re-spot Comau robots from the Valladolid plant in Spain.

Perrier described how door laser welding was introduced to reduce welding flanges - compared with resistance spot welding - and reduce binocular obstruction of the pillar, so gaining 7mm.

There was also some creativity at Novo Mesto, such as using one robot manipulating the underbody pan through one fixed spot welder for tack-welding.

In this way, assemblies could be tack-welded for both models.

Also introduced were roller hemming and trunk door metal clinching.

Perrier said that roller hemming is now standard for new models, based on operational flexibility and quality.

Perrier was also happy with the metal clinching as it also used less energy than spot welding.

An interesting idea at the 'Twingo' prototypes stage was to use plastics models for developing weld design and robot programs as well as teaching robots and operators.

In his conclusion, Perrier said that plant performance had been improved for the Clio 2 and Twingo cars.

* A laser welding history in producing BIW structures - Niclas Palmquist, laser processing engineer, Volvo Cars, said that Volvo Cars introduced CO2 laser welding to BIW back in 1988/89.

Since then, the company has applied Nd:YAG quite extensively.

He said today there is more laser welding used in Europe on BIW than, for example, in the USA.

Palmquist gave the example of the C70 car BIW produced at Volvo's Uddevalla plant, where the former fabrication had weighed 390kg (body) and 83.2kg (hang-on parts).

With the latest design developments, BIW weight is now 360kg and hang-on parts, 70.7kg - a total BIW saving of around 50kg.

Volvo now laser brazes the A-pillar cover to the front header and laser welds the A-pillar cover to a hydroformed A-pillar inner.

Also the sill inner is laser welded to the outer.

The rear fender outer is also laser-welded to the sill.

The overlap flange is just 3mm compared with 14-15mm on the former spot-welded assembly.

Palmquist said that laser welding is also carried out on the C70's underfloor, doors, hoods and bracketry.

All laser welding is performed prior to framing.

The plant is producing around 17,000 C70s/year on a 252s cycle.

The Uddevalla plant uses 52 robots and 4288 spot welds and 10.5m of arc welded seams (compared with 4594 spots and 15m on the earlier model).

Laser welded seams total 10.7m and laser brazed seams, 0.2m.

All laser welding/brazing is carried out in one laser station equipped with one 4kW Nd:YAG laser and four laser delivery fibres.

Cycle time is 249s.

* Overviw on BIW fabrication using lasers - Klaus Loeffler, director, Laser Systems, Trumpf Laser Technik, reviewed the progress of lasers replacing traditional joining technologies in cars.

Loeffler showed delegates how laser marking systems could replace labels and pin marking.

Such systems can be introduced onto production lines, or low-cost systems are available to the Tier suppliers.

He also showed how lasers could replace mechanical fastening and electron beam welds, electrical resistance spot welding and seam welding.

On lower volume cars, laser cutting can replace trimming dies.

All-in-all laser equipment and operational costs are steadily falling, making the power sources and systems ever more attractive proposition.

* Casting grey iron and tool steel in one operation reduces press tools' lead times - Christer Svensson, president and CEO, Camito, Sweden, said that traditionally, press tools are built up using a grey cast iron base, onto which are bolted machined tool steel inserts.

Instead, he advocated the use of the Camito composite casting process, in which the tool steel is cast onto the poured grey cast iron.

Svensson said that dies determine time to market for BIW and any reduction in lead-time is of benefit to die maker and customer alike.

Applicable to around 80% of all press tool applications, a Camito composite casting is ready for machining.

If finish machining is carried out with high speed machining cutters, then hand finishing is virtually eliminated.

Manual fitting of machined die inserts is eliminated.

Svensson reported that the Camito technology offers the following time reductions: 15% in die design; 30% manual preparation; 15% casting; 50% machining and 60% or more in hand working.

In all a total time reduction of 30% is realised on design to completion.

Other advantages include better tool steel surface finish, lower coefficient of friction and better hadenability when compared with stock-held tool steel products.

The Camito dies are also weld + heat treat repairable.

The Camito process has been licensed to certified 'partner' foundries along with suites of software (simulation, foundry engineering and process control).

As for cost reduction, Svensson quoted 5%+ depending upon the application.

He said Camito dies had been in production for two years and are going into Volvo, Audi and Saab.

Camito dies are weld-repairable.

* Advances in high strength steels - Nico Langerak, manager, Corus Automotive, said high strength steels offer stiffness and strength, durability and crash resistance.

Describing Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) up to 1000MpA with Corus TRIP products having 30-50% formability, Langerak said Corus Automotive's production Applications Centre in The Netherlands offered a wide variety of techniques to help customers select the most suitable grades.

Most recent developments include tailored roll blanks, where the mill roll is controlled to produce a stepped blank profile in a batch roll process.

Such stepped profile blanks can be used in suspension and crash resistance areas of BIW.

Tubular blanks can also be formed for internal hydroforming processes.

Another development area is advanced surface textures to, for example, improve zinc or magnesium galvanising corrosion resistance and mouldability.

There is also ongoing development in organic coatings, for example, to provide additional sealing against flange corrosion.

Partnership and collaboration make these ideas work, through the press shop, assembly and painting, said Langarek.

* Alternative metal forming techniques can lighten transmissions - Christian Harzbecker from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology, Germany, reviewed recent developments in metal forming technology for camshafts, crankshafts and gears.

He described recent development work, which investigated internal hydroforming, using thin-walled tube and machined cams and expanding the tube under 3500 bar pressure to produce camshafts.

This technique reduced camshaft weight by up to 55% and reduced manufacturing costs.

The versatility of the technique depends on the metal specification required and the available control over the hydroforming process.

An alternative hydroforming technique is to form the tube to the whole camshaft profile then, say, high speed flame-coat the cam surfaces with ceramic or titanium carbide materials.

The only machining required then would be the grinding of the cam and bearing surfaces.

At present, coating costs are high - but ongoing development - with results targeted for 2008 - may eliminate coating (An interesting alternative might be to try Hermle's hot stem PM 'microforging' metal coating technique - Ed).

When talking about crankshafts, Harzbecker described a modular fabrication system using fine-blanked webs, tubing and laser welding.

Such a crankshaft has been tested in a VW Polo and on a test bed and revealed the laser welded modular crankshaft to offer improved bending behaviour and equal conventional crankshafts in terms of properties.

Weight reduction achieved was 17% while machining chip volume reduction was 75%.

The laser fabricated crankshaft offers high flexibility of crankshaft configurations, said Harzbecker.

** Conference details - about 130 delegates attended AMS' conference.

Papers were also presented by the following speakers.

* Session one - manufacturing executives, plant managers and location experts debated the choice between using low labour cost regions or adding on more automation in high cost labour areas.

Dr Frank Loeschmann, president and CEO, Volkswagen Sachsen, described how Saxony set out to attract Western OEMs and suppliers.

* Stefan Martin, head of Innovation Management in Purchasing for BMW Leipzig, Automotive Cluster Eastern Europe, He discussed the integration of innovation with production, finding the right supplier 'partners' and exchanging information.

* Hans-Juergen Poerge, director, Euro Engineering, said that 51% of German manufacturing is automotive related.

In the last five years there has been stagnation, and even reduction to 88% compared with 2001.

* Session Two concerned itself with 'Resources - from labour to the environment'.

Rebecca Sprengel, director, International Communications, who, looking at relationships within international teams, said that the main problem with communication is the illusion that communication has taken place.

* Marc Seghers, manager of Facilities, Environment and Safety, Volvo Trucks, described how the Volvo Europa Truck plant at Ghent, Belgium, became the world's first carbon dioxide emissions-free vehicle plant in the world.

* Re-engineering IT - session three began with Chris Norton, programme manager in IT, JCI Automotive Experience reviewing the standardisation of IT applications and global business processes with reference to the supply chain.

* Surviving under global competition - in session four, papers were devoted to global challenges and local solutions.

How to offer one's country as the best place to make an automotive product - in this case engines - and meet world competition was discussed by Andor Paizer, plant manager of General Motors, Powertrain-Hungary.

* Setting plants and collaboration abroad - having identified a lucrative future market for BIW suppliers in the growing Russian market, Stadco has set up a plant there, as described by Dermot Sterne, director of Stadco.

* Making car production 'leaner' - session five moved into the 'Philosophies of production' and Julian Hetherington, director, Manufacturing Business Office, Jaguar Cars and Land Rover described the streamlining of low volume/high variety car manufacturing.

* What a car plant means by 'lean' - Michael Marx, lean management consultant, supervisor, Ford of Europe set out to show how Ford uses 'lean' in plant and with its suppliers.

** About AMS - for copies of the March/April issue of 'Automotive Manufacturing Solutions' visit the Ultima Media Web site .

Editor is Simon Duval Smith .

* Next conference - the AMS Global Conference will be held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dearborn, Michigan, USA, October 1-3, 2007.

Visit .

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