Initial situation
As part of vehicle manufacturers’ lightweight construction strategies, aluminum exterior parts are increasingly being combined with high-strength structural parts. This makes conventional welding impossible. For this reason, cold joining processes such as roller hemming are increasingly being used. The process requires precise positioning of the vehicle in order to eliminate process errors and rejects. Up to 7 different types can be produced in the customer’s line.
Implementation
Depending on the opening angle of the fold, the system comprises one or two stations, each with four KUKA heavy-duty robots. Each robot is equipped with one of our standardized folding tools. To optimize the robot position, we use our AI° VISIONSCANNER2, which is attached to two robots in the station. These record certain features on one side of the vehicle and calculate a 6D correction for the robots. Each robot retrieves this correction value from the respective sensor. A precise fold is then made.
Customer benefits
Thanks to the high degree of standardization in our systems, no changes need to be made to the hardware after a basic installation of the robots and tools or sensors. Integrations are carried out purely through changes in the software. Compared to conventional systems, up to 90% of the investment costs and implementation time can be saved.
Procedure
Robot-guided roller hemming with double roller hemming tool FW 270. Robot position optimization laser triangulation with VISIONSCANNER2 from AI°.
Parameters
- Cycle time 102 seconds
- Measuring speed 200ms
- Integration of 7 types
