Robots seal cars

　　Traditional car body seam sealing, soundproofing and under body sealing operations have been transformed by ABB, a leading power and automation technology group. At the Jaguar assembly plant in Castle Bromwich, England, ABB has installed a fully automated six-axis robot-based facility.

　　The investment by Jaguar Cars represents a move away from intensive manual labour-based operations to a robot-based system incorporating eight ABB industrial robots.

　　Fully automated

　　Installation began in February 2005 and the facility, which has a throughput of 43 vehivles per hour, has been in full operation since June 2005. The facility is fully automated with no operator intervention during normal operating conditions and has a high percentage of “no-touch”, which means that minimal post opercentage remedial sealing activities are required, as is normally the case with traditional automated sealing operations.

　　Commenting on the impact of the automated seam sealing and sound deadener facility, ABB senior project manager Robert Low says:”The automation of seam sealing and associated operations is a major investment in the Castle Bromwich plant, and a significant and timely step forward in optimising the efficiency of the Jaguar paint sealing process. The investment has helped establish consistently high levels of quality while almost eliminating what was a labour intensive and unpleasant job.”

　　ABB in the UK, working in close collaboration with colleagues in Germany, was responsible for the full turnkey operation including design, project management , manufacture and installation. This included sourcing and installing the car body conveyor, roller beds , spray booths , robots, track motion, sealant dispensing systems, sealant storage systems, sealant storage system, guarding and control. ABB has also provided extensive ongoing local support including: provision of service parts, training, start-up assistance and a site-resident engineer.

　　Operation of the facility is split into three separate sealing stations. The facility can process the complets range of Jaguar car bodies, including the XK sports car, the S Type and the XJ saloon, both standard and long wheelbase.

　　Flexible robots

　　The skid-mounted car bodies pass through three stations. At the first station,the three seam sealing robots spray a PVC plastisol material at a temperature of 30℃ within the interior and luggage compartment spaces of the body, to seal against water ingress and wind noise. Three IRB 4400 robots, which have a 45kg payload,are designed with an exceptionally long reach, which allows them to enter each car body to access body seams.

　　The robots are mounted on linear track systems to further increase their flexibility. Two of the robots conduct sealing operations from either side of the rear passenger compartment, them move forward along the track and access the forward passenger compartment, while the third robot tracks across the rear of the body, sealing the luggage compartment.

　　After seam sealing, the car bodies are transferred to the next station, where three IRB 4400 robots spray an epoxy-based, solvent-free NVH(Noise, Vibration and Harshness) material ,at a temperature of 60℃, the purpose of which is to reduce noise, vibration and harshness. Spraying the sound insulation material is a breakthrough for Jaguar as previous methods involved the labour-intensive insertion of bitumen pads.

　　After seam sealing and sound insulation operations, the car bodies move on to an under body sealing cell, incorporating two IRB 2400L robots with a 10kg the body moves through the station, the robots carry out a combined seam sealing and under-body coating operation, applying the same PVC plastisol used for internal seam sealing.

　　Once the under-body sealing application and curing is complete, the car bodies move on for the application of primer, base coat and clear coat.

　　Accurately controlled

　　All eight robots are equipped with standard ABB DispensePac dispensing systems that incorporate both material conditioning and flow control. ABB SPA 400(Swivel Pointer Applicator) spray guns are used throughout,each of which is equipped with three separate nozzle types that can be individually selected, depending upon the area to be sprayed. A wide fan configuration may be required for coating areas, while seams may need s very narrow, flat stream, so the robots are able to switch instantly from one nozzle to another, all co-ordinated by the ABB robot controller.

　　Positional accuracy of each car body skid was plus/minus 15mm, which was not sufficiently precise for optimum quality. An integral vision system was incorporated that locates the actual podition of the car body in relation to its ideal datum position, and then sends data to the required onally, the under-body robots are equipped with conveyor tracking software and encoder input, so that they can determine the exact positional accuracy of the carrier as it moves through the station. If the carrier moves faster, slower or stops, the robot will offset its programme to track the movement accordingly.

　　Robert Low sums up:”Jaguar was impressed by ABB’s engineering integrity and the quality of the ABB people involved in the project, and we have contionued to support the project well after the production facility has been a great success and has realised the objectives Jaguar set for it; contributing to the development of the Castle Bromwich site and the paintshop process’ quality and efficiency.”

　　参考译文：

　　传统车身焊接密封、隔音和在车身下面密封的操作方法，已被ABB公司改造了。ABB公司是领先的能源和自动化技术集团。在美洲虎位于英国Ccstle Bromwich的装配车间里，ABB已经安装了一个基于自动器械的全自动化六坐标轴设备。

　　美洲虎汽车在这方面的投资意味着从基于人力劳动的操作向基于自动机械的系统转移，这个自动系统是由8个ABB工业自动机械组成。

　　全自动化

　　设备安装于2005年2月开始。设备的生产能力是每小时43辆车，从2005年6月起就一直全负荷运行。设备是全自动化的，在正常生产条件下没有操作者的干涉，有很高的“无接触”的比例，这意味着相对于传统的自动化密封操作的通常情况而言，只需要最小限度的后处理操作来补救密封性。

　　对自动化的焊合密封和隔音材料设备带来的冲击进行评价，ABB高级项目经理Robert Low说：“接缝密封的自动化和相关的业务是在Castle Bromwich工厂的主要投资。它是促进美洲虎密封过程效率最优化的一个重要和及时的步骤。投资已经帮助建立了一贯地高水平的质量，同时几乎完全消除了一份高劳力和不舒适的工作。”

　　ABB在英国和在德国的同事通力合作，为整个操作过程负责，包括设计、项目管理、制造和安装。这其中包括初始状态和正在安装的车身的搬运设备、辊道、喷漆、自动机械、轨道运动、密封剂分配系统、密封剂存储系统、监护和控制。ABB也提供广泛的本地支持，包括：维修零部件的供应、培训、启动协助和常驻的工程师。

　　设备的操作是分离为3个分开的密封的位置。设备可以处理美洲虎车身的全部系列，包括XK运动车系，S Type和XJ系列小轿车，即不仅包括标准轴距，也包括长轴距。

　　柔性自动机械

　　刹车安装好的汽车车身经过三个阶段。在第一阶段，三个接缝密封自动机械在内部和车身的行李车厢空间喷射PVC增塑溶胶材料，温度为30℃.密封防止水的进入和风带来的噪声。3个IRB4400自动机械，有效负荷为45千克，设计时有异常长的延伸，允许它们进入每个车身，接近车身接缝。

　　自动机械安装在直线型的轨道系统上，进一步增加了它们的柔性。两个自动机械管理后排的乘员车厢任何一边的密封操作，然后沿轨道移动，进入前排的乘员车厢，同时第三个自动机械轨道穿过了车身的后面，密封行李厢。

　　在接缝密封之后，车身转移到下一个位置，3个IRB4400自动机械在60℃的温度下喷射基于无溶剂环氧的NVH（噪声，振动和粗糙）材料，目的是减小噪音、振动和粗糙度。相对于从前高劳动强度的插入沥青垫的方法，喷射噪音绝缘材料是美洲虎的新突破。

　　在接缝密封以后和噪音绝缘操作以后，车身转移到底部的密封单元，和两台IRB2400L自动机械组合在一起承受10千克的有效负荷。当车身移动通过这个位置的时候，自动机械完成一个接缝密封和底部被覆的组合操作，在内部的接缝密封上运用了同样的PVC增塑溶胶。

　　一旦底部密封以及修复完成，车身被传送到初级、基础涂层和清洁涂层。

　　精确控制

　　8个自动机械装备有标准的ABB Dispense Pac分配系统，把所有的原料状态和流量控制合为一体。ABB SPA 400（旋转指示应用器）一直被用于喷涂油门，每一个都装备有三个分离的喷嘴型号，可以根据需要喷射的区域，个别地选择喷嘴。涂层区域可能是一个宽的扇形结构，而接缝可能需要非常狭窄的、平稳的喷射流。所以自动机械可以立刻从一个喷嘴转换到另一个喷嘴，被ABB自动机械控制器并列在一个起控制。

　　每一辆车身的刹车位置的精确度是正/负15毫米，对于最优化的质量这不是十分的精确。完整的系统情况是把车身实际位置的所在和它理想数据所在的位置结合起来，然后发送数据到自动机械控制器，通过必需的富裕量来偏置自动机械的位置。除此之外，车身底部自动机械装备有传送带跟踪软件和编码器输入，以便于当车身在移动中通过不同位置的时候，可以测定传送装置的精确位置。如果传送装置移动加快、减慢或者停止，自动机械会相应地偏移它的程序来追踪车身运动。

　　Robert Low总结说，“ABB在工程上的完备性和参与这个项目的工作人员的品质的美洲虎上留下了印记。在产品投入市场以后我们仍一直继续支持这个项目。生产设备是一个很大的成功，已经实现了美洲虎对它设定的目标。它为Castle Bromwich的发展做出了贡献，提高了喷漆车间生产过程的质量和效率。”