Product category:
System integration services
News Release from: TMS Produktionssysteme | Subject: Mercedes Benz E-Class production
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 January 2003
Robots packed more closely together on
line
Featuring handling and welding robots operating much more closely together than usual, an underbody line for the Mercedes Benz E-Class car has been commissioned at the Sindelfingen plant.
The underbody of the new E-Class is being built in the same hall in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, as the existing C-Class car, but one floor up The space limitations on the ground floor represented a challenge to the planners
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 20 Aug 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Nevertheless, the engineers from TMS Produktionssysteme (TMS), a company of the French GTIE group, have succeeded in packing all the required production cells, buffer and transport equipment into the planned space provided.
As Friedrich Genger, the TMS welding plant and assembly system project manager explained: "This is the compactest space in which we have ever had to build.
Things were so tight for the E-Class that the collision tests for the robot routing were of particular importance." In this situation, TMS engineers once again played their 'trump card' in the form of simulation (Tecnomatix < www.tecnomatix.com > ).
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This is already the design non-plus ultra as today there is simply not the time to carry out month-long experiments on site.
The use of simulation engineering for the material flow and robot movements means that the viability of planning ideas under practical conditions can be speedily ascertained.
However, that is not all.
Genger said: "In the case of the E-Class project, we programmed the robots off-line on the basis of simulation, thus reducing the levels of on-site programming by around 60%." This procedure was extremely important to the E-Class project because the planning had to be changed, mostly for the parts for the T-model.
Genger added: "We were, nonetheless, able to meet all of the deadlines and the hand-over took place four weeks in advance." This achievement was partly due to the fact that the E-Class project was carried out in tandem by teams from DaimlerChrysler and TMS, which were virtually identical to those, that had already successfully completed the C-Class line.
In addition, both BIW lines have certain similarities derived from the use of the same underbody platform.
Accordingly, as in the case of the C-Class, the Z1 production line for the E-Class underbody was divided into the areas 'front assembly', 'main assembly', 'rear assembly' and 'Z1 overall assembly'.
The positioning of the individual sections could not be realised in this floor.
The production cells for the main assembly and the back wall are on the ground floor, as there, space was available.
It entailed an increased transport requirement, in order to bring the assemblies to the Z1 area located on the first floor.
The back walls were carried to their assembly points in component containers using floor transport vehicles.
Otherwise, everything else runs automatically.
Of the 442 robots in use (Kuka Roboter < www.kuka-roboter.de >), 182 are concerned exclusively with handling.
In spite of the cramped conditions, the production 'islands' have material buffer units that provide transportation and interim storage.
The completed main underbody assembly is transported to the Z1 line on the upper floor by means of lifters and skids.
Conversely, the rear assemblies are completed on one level and then, in perfect synchronisation with the material flow, are transported to the 'complete rear underbody assembly' area through a buffer zone.
The treatment of the front assemblies is different, for although these are located directly adjacent to the Z1 assembly line, they are picked up by 'power and free' hooks and transported under the hall roof to the Z1 line.
Three transport lines suspended beneath the hall ceiling conduct the differing 'W1', 'W2' and 'S' rear assemblies from the 'complete rear assembly' area to the Z1 line using lifters.
At Z1, all the component assemblies are joined and welded to form the finished underbody, before being fed onto skid transporters by lifters for dispatch to the Z2 line.
As the rear assembly of the 'S' type underbody (to be produced during 2003) differs considerably from that of the W2 model, a separate area had to be provided for its production.
The area is located on the ground floor between the 'main assembly' and the 'back wall'.
Transportation to the Z1 line on the first floor will be done by a lifter, which will hand over the 'S' rear underbody assembly to a skid transport system below the hall ceiling.
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