Fully automatic spot welding workstation for new energy auto parts is a fully automatic welding station developed by Suzhou Agera according to customer requirements. The welding station has automatic loading and unloading, automatic positioning, automatic welding, and realizes spot welding and projection welding in one station.
1. Customer background and pain points
T Company, an electric vehicle company born in Silicon Valley, is a global pioneer of electric vehicles. It established a factory in Shanghai in 2018, opening a new chapter in the localized production of T electric vehicles. With the increase in the number of domestic and export orders, small assembly The number of welded parts has been increasing rapidly, and the projection welding and spot welding of stamping parts have become new challenges for T Company and its supporting companies. The main problems are as follows:
1. Welding efficiency is too low: This product is a car light and front cabin assembly. There are both spot welding and nut projection welding on the single product. The original process is two machines with double stations, spot welding first and then projection welding, and the welding cycle cannot be achieved. mass production requirements;
2. The operator invested a lot: the original process was two pieces of equipment, one person and one welding machine to complete the cooperation, and 11 kinds of workpieces required 6 pieces of equipment and 6 personnel;
3. The number of tooling is large and the switching is more complicated: 11 kinds of workpieces require 13 spot welding tooling and 12 projection welding tooling, and a heavy-duty shelf is required only for the shelf, and a lot of time is required for tooling replacement every week;
4. Welding quality is not up to standard: Multiple welding machines are operated by different personnel, the process parameters of projection welding and spot welding process layout are completely different, and multiple process switching on site causes defects in different batches of products;
5. Unable to meet the data storage and detection functions: the original process is in the form of a stand-alone machine, without data detection and storage functions, unable to achieve parameter traceability, and unable to meet the data requirements of T company for equipment.
Customers are very distressed by the above five problems and have not been able to find a solution.
Samples of new energy auto parts
2. Customers have high requirements for equipment
T company and its supporting Wuxi company found us through other customers in November 2019, discussed with our sales engineers, and proposed to customize welding machines with the following requirements:
1. Efficiency needs to be improved, it is best to meet the needs of spot welding and nut projection welding of products, and the production efficiency of a single piece needs to be increased to more than 2 times the existing one;
2. Operators need to be compressed, preferably within 3 people;
3. The tooling needs to be compatible with the two processes of spot welding and projection welding, and combine multi-process tooling to reduce the number of tooling;
4. To ensure the welding quality, the system automatically matches the welding parameters for different processes of the product, reducing the influence of human factors;
5. The equipment needs to provide parameter detection and data storage functions to meet the data requirements of the factory MES system.
According to the customer’s request, the existing ordinary spot welding machine can’t realize it at all, what should I do?
3. According to customer needs, research and develop customized new energy auto parts automatic spot welding workstation
According to various requirements put forward by customers, the company’s R&D department, welding technology department, and sales department jointly held a new project research and development meeting to discuss the process, structure, power feeding method, detection and control method, list key risk points, and do one by one With the solution, the basic direction and technical details are determined as follows:
1. Workpiece proofing test: Agera welding technologist made a simple fixture for proofing at the fastest speed, and used our existing spot welding machine for proofing test. After the tests of both parties, it met the welding requirements of T company and determined the welding parameters. , the final selection of intermediate frequency inverter DC spot welding power supply;
2. Robotic workstation solution: R&D engineers and welding technologists communicated together and determined the final robot automatic spot welding workstation solution according to customer requirements, consisting of six-axis robots, spot welding machines, grinding stations, convex welding machines, and feeding Mechanism and feeding conveying mechanism;
3. Advantages of the whole station equipment:
1) The beat is fast, and the efficiency is twice the original: two six-axis robots are used for tooling and material handling, and are matched with spot welding machines and projection welding machines for welding, reducing the displacement and material transfer of the two processes, and through optimization The path of the process, the overall beat reaches 25 seconds per piece, and the efficiency is increased by 200%;
2) The whole station is automated, saving labor, realizing one-person-one-station management, and solving man-made poor quality: through the integration of spot welding and projection welding, coupled with automatic grabbing and unloading, one person can operate at a single station, two The workstation can complete the welding of 11 kinds of workpieces, saving 4 operators. At the same time, due to the realization of intelligent manufacturing and the whole process of robot operation, the problem of poor quality caused by humans is solved;
3) Reduce the use of tooling and place maintenance costs, and save time: through the efforts of engineers, the workpiece is formed into an assembly on the tooling, which is locked by the cylinder and moved to the spot welding and projection welding stations by the robot for welding, reducing the number of tooling to 11 sets, reducing the use of tooling by 60%, greatly saving the cost of maintenance and placing tooling;
4) The welding data is connected to the MES system to facilitate the analysis of quality data and ensure the welding quality: the workstation adopts bus control to capture the parameters of the two welding machines, such as current, pressure, time, water pressure, displacement and other parameters, and compare them through the curve Yes, transmit the OK and NG signals to the host computer, so that the welding station can communicate with the workshop MES system, and the management personnel can monitor the situation of the welding station in the office;
4. Delivery time: 50 working days.
Agera discussed the above technical plan and details with T company in detail, and finally the two parties reached an agreement and signed the “Technical Agreement”, which was used as the standard for equipment R&D, design, manufacturing, and acceptance. In December 2019, it signed a contract with Wuxi company supporting T Equipment order contract.
Fully automatic spot welding workstation for new energy auto parts
4. Rapid design, on-time delivery, and professional after-sales service have won praise from customers!
After confirming the equipment technology agreement and signing the contract, Agera’s project manager held the production project start-up meeting immediately, and determined the time nodes of mechanical design, electrical design, machining, purchased parts, assembly, joint debugging and customer’s pre-acceptance at the factory , rectification, general inspection and delivery time, and through the ERP system orderly dispatch work orders of each department, supervise and follow up the work progress of each department.
Time passed quickly, and 50 working days passed quickly. T company’s customized spot welding workstation for auto parts was completed after aging tests. After 15 days of installation and commissioning and technology, operation, Maintenance training, the equipment has been put into production normally and all have reached the customer’s acceptance standards. Company T is very satisfied with the actual production and welding effect of the spot welding workstation for auto parts. It helped them solve the problem of welding efficiency, improve the welding quality, save labor costs and successfully connect to the MES system. At the same time, it provided them with an unmanned workshop. It has laid a solid foundation and gave us Agera great recognition and praise!
5. It is Agera’s growth mission to meet your customization requirements!
Customers are our mentors, what material do you need to weld? What welding process is required? What welding requirements? Need fully automatic, semi-automatic, workstation, or assembly line? Please feel free to ask, Agera can “develop and customize” for you.
Post time: Feb-22-2023