Product category:
Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment
News Release from: Kleinmichel | Subject: Adhesive automation systems
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 09 January 2002
Innovative adhesive automation for Ford
Kleinmichel has recently installed an innovative adhesive and automatic installation system for roof strengthener modules for the Ford Focus in Saarlouis plant, Germany.
Kleinmichel has recently installed an innovative adhesive and automatic installation system for roof strengthener modules for the Ford Focus in Saarlouis plant, Germany Modules to be glued are picked from 3 magazines and placed at the glue application station
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 4 Dec 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Each magazine holds about 90 modules, with the current capacity at any one time monitored using sensors.
Adhesive dispensing, by the robot, is achieved with Kleinmichel dosing technology, with a pumping and dispensing system ensuring continuous glue supply, always at the same viscosity.
Up to 3 modules are glued by robots simultaneously, then transported into the car body through the front aperture.
A special inflation system then forces the glued modules up onto the underside of the roof of the vehicle.
In mixed production, different models and variants of the Ford Focus run on one production line.
As such, a model with a sunroof, for example, is fitted with only one module.
However, in a model without a sunroof, two modules are glued, one behind the other.
And in a station wagon, without sunroof, three modules are installed - all simultaneously and with no operator intervention.
The manpower used in the overall process is completely minimised, limited to loading of the modules in the magazines at the front end of the process.
The system in operation has been captured on video, and a copy is available by contacting Kleinmichel.
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