Robotized cell design for part assembly in the automotive industry

Abstract

Today, the automotive industry faces its biggest challenge, which is keeping a constant evolution, accounting for the market needs in what comes to the enormous quantity of parts and systems that go hand in hand with the production of the vehicle, and at the same time, keep up with the quality requirements and deadlines. Throughout time, automation and robotics became the best way to achieve the goals required by the market. In the automotive industry, automation presents itself at a continuous evolution, constantly presenting new solutions, and the production and assembly lines increasingly resort to completely automated processes. This work is based on the needs of an automotive parts’ supplier. In which regards to the injection of plastic, the production is fluent and quick, and to take advantage of such production speed, it is desirable to execute the assembly steps immediately after the removal of the parts from the injection moulds. The proposed work consists of the design of a robotized cell with the goal of inserting metal clips in two different automotive parts after the injection process. The idea is to conceptualize and conceive a completely automated equipment, capable of executing this task using a six-axis robot. To secure the part for clip assembly, the equipment must be ready to ensure the positioning and locking of the part in all axes and, to lighten the robot’s job, it must also be capable of using a feeding system to load the robot’s tool. The results of this project were positive, the equipment was successfully concluded and delivered to the customer, meeting the construction requirements, and, most importantly, the cycle time.