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Automation and Robotics

Replacement of MML control

 

Client: VW Poznań
Location: Polska, Poznań

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Investor's problem:  Within the wheel mounting area, due to the large number of data queues needed to correctly install the corresponding wheels (left/right, front/rear, spare) on the car, the individual data queues were often out of sync. In order to fix a particular queue, maintenance had to manually set the correct production number of the car according to the data from the FIS system, which was very time-consuming and directly affected production continuity. The sliding data was taken from a SICK scanner that read the barcode of a car entering the body area.

APA Solution

 
 
APA proposed a solution based on dividing an area of 10 production bars into 20 static areas of the Ubisense real-time location system (RTLS). With this solution, it was possible to dynamically identify a car located in a given area and read a package of car data. This solution made it possible to remove all FIFO queues based on data read by the SICK code scanner and replace it with a single master queue storing data for all devices within the area. The principle of the individual wheel manipulators remained the same, only the data source was modified.

 

 

Visualization of a production line including data buffers.

 

 

A - Master FIFO queue synchronization scanner, B - Spare wheel manipulator buffer, C - Bosch screwdriver manipulator buffer - right side, C' - Bosch screwdriver manipulator buffer - left side, D - Wheel conveyor buffer, E - Wheel subassembly sequence control.

 

The design for production workers could be said to have been "invisible." The entire operation of the devices from their point of view remained the same. However, there was major complexity caused by the numerous queue disruption situations due to the introduction of dynamic car data read zones. With the implementation of the new car data aggregation, additional contingency strategies were prepared to quickly restore production continuity when a problem with the RTLS system occurs.

 

 

One of the main requirements of the customer was to prepare a clear visualization, enabling quick diagnostics of the area status in case of problems with the queue. For this reason, a new, intuitive visualization on a Siemens HMI panel has been developed for maintenance services.

 

Details of the assembled car.

 

 

  Visualization of the new production line queue.


This project also included replacing the controllers for the screwdrivers that screw the wheels to the car hubs from the Nexum V2 system to the Nexum V3 system along with replacing the Bosch controllers.

  

 

Benefits

 

  • Accelerated queue repair by operators when RTLS issues arise through clear and intuitive area visualization
  • Reliability of the new solution
  • Customer satisfaction with the end result of the project 😉


Technologies used

 

  • RTLS system (by Ubisense)
  • Bosch BS350 screwdrivers
  • Nexum V3 System
  • Profinet
  • Simatic PLC S7-400
  • TIA Portal (HMI)

 

 

 

 

 

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