The automobile industry can be said to be the earliest application of mobile robots in China’s manufacturing industry, which can be traced back to 1991, Siasun independently developed the first integrated mobile robot and put it into practical application in Shenyang Jinbei Bus Company, filling the gap in the domestic market. The highly standardized production process characteristics and rich logistics scenarios of the automotive industry provide favorable soil for the rapid development of mobile robots. After more than 30 years of development, it is widely used in auxiliary assembly, traction, latent, bin, forklift and other types of mobile robots for all kinds of material storage, picking, transportation, and online operation scenarios, and the innovation of various mobile robot technologies, products and solutions continues to accelerate.

A6220 Siasun mobile robot is put into use in Jinbei Bus Company

Siasun Robot is a promoter and witness of the development of mobile robots in the automotive industry. In a recent interview, Mr. Lu Yufeng, Executive director of Siasun Mobile Robot BG market, introduced in detail the application and development of mobile robots in the four major automotive processes.

First, in the final assembly workshop

A6220 For automotive automation flexible production, the application of mobile robots in the final assembly workshop is the most mature, and its application scenarios are also the most abundant. In the assembly workshop, the main assembly lines such as interior line, chassis assembly line and final line, as well as the sub-assembly lines such as engine assembly, instrument assembly, front module and front and rear suspension assembly can all use mobile robots as the carrier of assembly workpiece. The mobile robots for material storage, sorting and handling have also been widely used, and the innovation and application of AGV flexible assembly line, which replaces the traditional main line, is particularly noteworthy. For example:

A6220 Chassis assembly. Chassis assembly AGV is the “first show” of domestic mobile robots in the industrial scene, as early as 1991, Siasong independently developed the first magnetic strip-guided AGV car in the automotive industry for engine auxiliary assembly, AGV will lift the hundreds of kilograms of the engine on the assembly line, and then the engine is installed on the car chassis by workers. The AGV chassis assembly system has the highest flexibility and can be flexibly adjusted to the AGV line according to the process needs. In particular, it can meet the needs of the mixed line of various models in the automobile factory. The current chassis integrated AGV product types are rich, according to the number of lifts can be divided into single lift, double lift, three lift, four lift and so on. It has become the preferred way of car chassis assembly.

Siasun chassis assembly mobile robot at a user site in the United States

Material handling, storage, sorting. In the final assembly workshop, the on-line transportation of all kinds of materials is also one of the main application scenarios of mobile robots. In 2010, Siasun developed the traction AGV, which realized the automatic traction of the skip through the tail automatic coupling and tripping mechanism, mainly for the SPS distribution line; After 2013, traction AGV has gradually realized standardization and large-scale application in the automotive industry; After 2015, KiVa-like cars began to appear, mainly used in the storage of materials, warehousing, cargo to person sorting and distribution online, and is gradually replacing traction AGV has become a mainstream application.

Siasun mobile robot at the user site

A6220 AGV flexible assembly line. The traditional automobile assembly line adopts plate chain and drag chain transportation, because the automobile factory assembles different models, the beat changes more, the use of AGV flexible assembly line does not need to carry out civil construction; Production line layout can be flexibly adjusted with model changes; It can record various vehicle parameters, which has advantages in information technology; It can work better with automation equipment such as robots. In the field of passenger cars, the trend of replacing the original interior line and final line with AGV vehicles is obvious. The same is true in the field of commercial vehicles: In 2017, Siasun broke the monopoly of foreign enterprises and provided commercial vehicle users with the first domestic dual-car linkage AGV flexible assembly line. At present, the AGV flexible assembly line has been applied in more heavy truck factories, providing a new assembly solution for the commercial vehicle industry.

Siasun’s two-car linkage mobile robot is carrying out flexible production operations

Two, in the stamping workshop

Stamping is the “leading” process in automobile production, in the stamping workshop, a sheet of steel will complete its transformation to the body parts. At present, the application scenarios of mobile robots in the stamping workshop are mainly divided into three: First, the stamping plate is on the line: it is necessary to transport piles of steel plates to the press, usually weighing tens of tons; Second, after the press presses out the auto parts, the fork takes the truck from the end of the line to the material temporary storage area, and the third is the stamping die maintenance and film change operation, the stamping die weighs tens of hundreds of tons; There are many disadvantages in the traditional operation mode, such as high labor intensity, low transmission efficiency and poor safety.

Siasun’s 20-ton heavy-duty mobile robot completes the loading of the press line and the recovery of empty pallets

As early as 2014, Siasatsu customized 40 AGVs for the end reception of the user’s press shop line, and customized the development of the controller and complex scheduling system to achieve the requirements of high tempo and high reliability. In 2020, the heavy-duty AGV suitable for 20 tons and 60 tons of sheet metal and die handling was customized and developed for the stamping workshop of a German car company. Since then, Siasun has formed a complete intelligent conveying solution for the stamping shop.

Siasun’s 60-ton heavy-duty mobile robot completes the overhaul of the stamping die

In addition, since 2019, many stamping workshops of BMW Brilliance Group have adopted Siasatsu’s trailer AGV to carry out logistics transfers of side walls, door lines, crossbars and other components in jacking AGVs. In particular, the 5-ton trailer AGV realizes the integral transfer of 3 sets of material racks connected with the on-site U-Frame, which effectively improves the related efficiency of component transportation.

Siasun’s 5-ton heavy-duty mobile robot achieves intelligent logistics operations on site

Third, in the welding workshop

A6220 The work of the welding workshop is mainly to weld and assemble the body parts and other plates produced by the stamping workshop into a complete body. The production line of the workshop mainly includes: four doors, frame, front cover, back cover, fender, floor, left and right side girth and other welding lines.

The transfer mobile robot in Siasun welding workshop is under commissioning

The welding workshop has relatively low load requirements, and the beat is fast or slow according to the on-site production needs. At present, the main application scenarios of mobile robots are:

After the four doors, two covers and fours and other parts are welded from the line, according to the demand of the production model, the AGV automatically transfers the parts of the corresponding model to the adjustment line for assembly, and the AGV adopts the form of chute to realize the automatic load transfer of the parts tray, which can realize the demand of multi-model mixed production.

The frame and the left and right side walls and other parts use AGV as the mobile carrier. According to the process requirements, they are transferred at each welding station. After the AGV enters the station, the ground tightens the mechanism to position the tray twice, realizing the automatic grasp of the workpiece by the manipulator.

It is worth noting that similar to the AGV flexible assembly line in the assembly workshop, more and more factories are trying to use mobile robots to carry the fixture to the spot welding automatic station, stud welding automatic station and arc welding automatic station according to the production process, and gradually complete the required process welding, improving the efficiency and level of body sheet metal handling, and then replacing the traditional welding line body.

4. Painting workshop

The painting workshop is mainly the process of coating the paint on the surface of the (base surface), drying into a film, or the operation of spreading the paint on the surface of the coating. The coating process includes cleaning, electrophoresis, paint, varnish and other steps.

At present, the production of the painting shop has been highly automated, and the demand for flexibility is relatively weak, and the AGV applied in the painting shop has high requirements for explosion-proof and reliability. AGV in the transfer, in and out of the spray workshop, it is inevitable to contact the paint, so the AGV needs to have a certain resistance to paint, solvent resistance, easy to clean, keep clean.

In 2020, a car factory in the United States introduced a number of Siasun logistics transfer AGVs, achieving long-distance transportation of hundreds of meters and highly stable docking work. Through the intelligent logistics system for AGV scheduling and management, the painting robot spraying process of accurate and effective docking, can meet the needs of flexible production of multi-variety body to improve production efficiency.