Automation – Page 163
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ArticleReality check for tech
In 2015, Samsung Electronics set up a team specifically to look at ways of penetrating the automotive industry. The South Korean tech giant was seeking to gain a firm foothold in an automotive electronics market that it predicted would grow to more than $100 billion in the next decade. Towards ...
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ArticleOut now: ATS 2017
In the process of putting together this first ATS supplement, we heard from among the key players in the automotive tier supplier market about shifting customer preference, greater connectivity and the drive to innovate. All recurring themes, common to every OEM in each global region. As we discovered from speaking ...
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Seven key issues for tier suppliers
Taking examples from across the world of automotive tier supply, AMS looks at the seven key considerations from supply base consolidation, vertical integration and outsourcing to the changes that the move to electric, autonomous and connected vehicles might mean for the supplier industry1. Supply base consolidationWhile car companies make most ...
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ArticleA kanban plan
eFlex vice-president George Jewell explores the software development collaboration tools that companies can use in manufacturingAfter working for many years at a vehicle manufacturer, I moved to a manufacturing software company. At first glance, you would assume they have very different processes, but in many ways they are similar. Both ...
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ArticleGet the insight inside
With shorter lead times and constant cost pressures, OEMs are adopting CT scanning to analyse internal structures without the disassembling of countless prototypesToday’s automotive OEMs and suppliers face ever shortening lead times for introducing new products at a lower cost. Consequently, fewer prototype iterations are required and destructive testing is ...
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ArticleThe smooth gear change
As transmission design grows more complex, the challenge for OEMs is to produce a greater range of gears in higher volume while ensuring qualityUp until a few years ago, five-speed transmissions reigned supreme in automotive design but in the last decade gear numbers have increased dramatically. With this change, 9- ...
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ArticleEnsuring global productivity
With low heat input, high welding speed and short weld-to-weld times, laser welding is helping meet the demand for increased output and use of lightweight materialsAs a system integrator of high-end automatic welding equipment, the Dutch company AWL-Techniek has grown into a global partner for its customers with branches in ...
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ArticleParts makers in the driver's seat
Using ABB robots, an IAC Group facility in Sweden has streamlined its production of interior plastic components for VolvoThe town of Skara in south-western Sweden is home to a manufacturing plant that has produced plastic goods since the mid-1930s. “In the beginning, the plant produced household goods, before shifting its ...
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ArticleMetrology meets automation
Portable systems have made high-accuracy measurement possible across all plant areas – the next step in this evolution is the integration of metrology with automationIn years past, automotive manufacturers have been forced to choose between very different paradigms in the search to improve the quality, shorten design-to-launch times and better ...
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ArticleA red e-volution
From NY to KL, cities all over the world are jumping on BYD’s electric bus It looks like any of the other thousands of red double-decker buses proceeding through the loud traffic on London’s streets, but if you listen closely you’ll soon realise that some buses are different. Instead of ...
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ArticleFitting rewards
ArcelorMittal’s stronger hot-stamping grades are ideal for laser-welded blank applications, leading to further weight reductions and increased safetyThe automotive industry faces two major challenges today: emissions reduction and improvement of safety standards. Reducing vehicle weight by using lighter materials is an obvious way to cut emissions, but steel offers unbeatable ...
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ArticleFrom success to excellence
Siemens’ TIA Portal helped Continental Regensburg simplify and interlink its evolving standard cell manufacturing processContinental AG is one of the world’s largest automotive parts suppliers. The group’s automotive division operates from around 200 locations worldwide and at its largest facility, in Regensburg, Germany, around 8,000 people are employed in production ...
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ArticleJust-in-time to fit the perfect wheel
Series production of complete wheelsets in JIT manufacturing operations is one of the decisive process stages in final vehicles assemblyWith its new wheel-tyre assembly line, Schenck RoTec offers both OEMs and main tier one automotive suppliers and tyre wholesalers a flexible, highly scalable and efficient solution for just-in-time (JIT) production. ...
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ArticleNew generation of robots
Dürr’s new seven-axis EcoRP E043i robot features a kinematic system, which the company claims enlarges the work zone and can be used instead of a linear displacement rail system. Dürr says this improves access and avoids collisions with the vehicle, particularly in interior painting.The six-axis EcoRP E/L133i robots can operate ...
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ArticleConnected services for robot systems
Connected Services are a suite of resources designed to help UK manufacturers maximise robot uptime using data access and problem resolution says ABB Robotics. Delivered via the company’s single interface called MyRobot, Connected Services will make actionable data immediately available to plant engineers, maintenance staff and managing directors via smart ...
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ArticleIndustrial Ethernet switches
Siemens says with its new Scalance XC-200 compact industrial ethernet switches users can set up electrical and optical line, star and ring structures in industrial networks. The layer 2 network components can be integrated into both Profinet and EtherNet/IPdiagnostics. For transferring large volumes of data, the company offers the Scalance ...
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ArticleInjecting a dash of insulation
Automotive interiors specialist International Automotive Components (IAC) has further expanded its operations in EuropeIAC's newest production facility, at Prestice in the Czech Republic, will initially be producing the company’s injection moulded inner dash, acoustical insulation product for two major vehicle OEM customers – including trunk trim and dash insulation components ...
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ArticlePloys against noise
Following a joint project with Henkel, BMW is piloting a new generation of sustainable, lighter, liquid-applied sound deadening materials for series productionWind whistle and engine sounds work against the quiet enjoyment that OEMs seek to provide for drivers and passengers. Noise-Vibration-Harshness (NVH) materials placed onto the vehicle BIW structures help ...
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ArticleOperation and cooperation
The working relationship between design and manufacturing departments can optimise processes, reduce costs and make the most of the best ideasGenuine leather, synthetic leather, thermoplastic polyolefins and slush skins have become standard surface materials in cockpit production. These various surface concepts usually call for multiple-stage production processes, requiring specific tools. ...
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Zero tolerance for error
If a single word can sum up the key challenge involved in the manufacture of injector valves for diesel engines it is very likely ‘tolerances’Summing up the high-precision machining operations at Delphi’s Storehouse plant, chief manufacturing engineer for commercial vehicle fuel injection systems Dave Jewell says: “We have got to ...