Schneider tightens the screws

Robust, high-performance motion components from Berger Lahr, by Schneider Electric, are being used in a three-axis torque wrench machine for Arvinmeritor.

Arvinmeritor recently embarked on a project to produce an automatic wrench machine for tightening bolts on disc brake calipers for heavy vehicles.

Each caliper has a total of eight bolts and the machine was required to position a single power screwdriver-head over each bolt in turn, following a predetermined sequence, before tightening the bolts to a precisely-defined preset torque.

The machine had to be readily programmable to handle calipers of different sizes, different tightening sequences and to perform multiple passes over the same caliper so the bolts could be tightened in stages.

An x-y motion system transported the floating screwdriver head along the required path between the bolts, complemented by a z-axis slide to allow the screwdriver to be engaged and disengaged with the bolts.

The machine's design team decided that an x-y stage from Schneider Electric's Berger Lahr range best met its requirements.

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