Collaboration with robots in the field of automobile manufacturing will become a major trend

Nowadays, more and more collaborative robots appear on the automobile production line to help manufacturers achieve smarter and more flexible manufacturing processes; create a healthy and safe working environment for employees; and at the same time effectively improve production efficiency, human-machine collaboration will become the future trend. .

Benteler Automotive is one of the world's leading suppliers of automotive components, producing accessories for almost every automotive manufacturer in the world, including front suspension, rear suspension modules, and undercarriage systems.

At Bentler's plant in Schwandorf, Germany, there are nearly 600 robots whose main job is to weld auto parts in a safety fence, except for one robot – the fanucCR-35iA collaborative robot, which does not require a safety fence.

In order to ensure the quality of the products, Bentler will carry out quality inspection of the finished products on the production line as planned, including anti-collision structural parts, in the process of carrying the products from the conveyor and the inspection station. The individual weight of the product is about 14kg. For batch inspection, the manual handling work is very strong. To this end, Bentler introduced CR-35iA for efficient man-machine cooperation, and the CR-35iA completed heavy loading and unloading work, while people completed inspection and labeling work.

To improve efficiency, the CR-35iA uses two modes of operation: high-speed mode and collaborative mode. With a safety laser scanner, the CR-35iA automatically switches between high-speed and cooperative modes of operation. In high speed mode, the robot can move at a maximum speed of 750mm/s.

When a person approaches the robot and the safety laser scanner detects that the person has entered the preset working range of the robot, the robot will switch from the high-speed operation mode to the cooperative operation mode to ensure human safety. In the cooperative working mode, the maximum movement speed of the robot is reduced to 250mm/s. In addition, during the operation, if the robot touches a person or a person touches the robot, the robot will automatically stop the action to avoid harm to the person.

In addition, the robot's hand grip is also equipped with a 2D camera to automatically locate the product to be transported.

In addition to the production of auto parts, the automakers will rarely come to the CR-35iA.

Dongfeng Nissan is one of the earliest automakers to introduce CR-35iA collaborative robots in China. Here CR-35iA is affectionately called “Little Green”. At the beginning of 2016, since the day when Xiaolu was stationed, engineers have given an unparalleled mission – a new attempt to create human-machine collaboration on the production line to improve manufacturing efficiency and precision.

Little Green can have the ability to self-learn and imitate like a person: for example, a simple handling operation, the engineer can hold the handle of the cargo by holding the handle of the small green, and the small green can record it, and the next time there is no need to repeat the teaching. It can move by itself, abandon the repeated programming steps of traditional robots, and the maximum load of the robot reaches 35kg, which is the most loaded collaborative robot in the world today.

In addition, the working precision of the small green is quite high, the repeating precision can reach plus or minus 0.04mm, precision and error-free; coupled with high safety, the operator can cooperate with it without burden, as a working partner, Xiao Green It can be said that it is quite reliable.

In Dongfeng Nissan, in the future, Xiaolu may be engaged in work related to intelligent assembly, handling, auxiliary welding, etc. Currently, handling and auxiliary welding operations have been successfully tested.

Collaborative robots that are safe, efficient, and able to fully utilize their respective advantages will become the future trend. I believe that more and more small greens will appear in your side.