Issue26
trends inautomation
Synergies
36
–
37
VolvoCarCorporation
Olofström, Schweden
Areaof business:
Vehiclemanufacture
ABBAB
Västerås, Schweden
Areaof business:
Energytechnology, factory
andprocessautomation
Faster andmore reliable:
Volvo is constantly improving itsweldingprocesses.
“Thesystemproducesan imagewhich
supplies the robot systemwithall the
datanecessary inorder toposition the
electrodes correctly toweld thenext
sheetmetal components,”saysWinberg.
“Thevisionsystem isalsoeasy to
integrateandsimple to commissionvia
parameterisation.”Thesystem includes
not only thesensor system for the
acquisitionof imagedatabut alsoa
completeelectronicevaluationunit and
the interfaces (Ethernet/CAN) required for
communicationwithhigher level
controllers (PLCs). Thevisionsystem itself
isaccommodated inahousingwhich isno
bigger thanaone litre cartonofmilk.
Cycle times reduced toaquarter
Ina fractionof asecond, the image from
thevisionsystemprovidesdataon the
alignment of the contact surface, the
lengthandangleof theelectrodeand the
startingpoint on thesheetmetal. The
visionsystemsends thisdata to the robot
controller,whichsets the robot for the
next spotwelds. “Thishasallowedus to
reduce the cycle times for electrode
milling from35seconds to justnine
seconds,”saysWinbergenthusiastically
about thenewsystem. “Thismeans that
we canalmost achieve thesame cycle
timeasamachining rotary indexing table,
which issixseconds.”Considering that
thereare300welding robots installed in
Olofström, thismarksa furthermilestone
in thehunt for shorter cycle timesand
thushigher productivity.
Photo:©Volvo
is
infoservice
26-05
Safetyengineeringguideline
