Manual assembly of automotive parts is slow, fatiguing, and often unreliable. To overcome these limitations, the transmission division of Volvo Car Corp. Components AB (Koping, Sweden) shifted from manual assembly to a robot-and-vision-based system that has dramatically boosted the production of front-wheel units for the Volvo S80 (see Fig. 1). Under the direction of the robot-and-vision system, production equipment is assembling 17 wheel components to form a wheel unit within 30 seconds. These wheel units are eventually delivered to the Volvo car factory in Goeteborg, Sweden. Systems-integrator ABB Industries/ Powertrain (Vasteras, Sweden) developed and installed the wheel assembly line. It purchased the vision system used in the Volvo line as a finished subassembly from CVR Vision Control AB (Stockholm, Sweden); CVR has since been acquired by Orbis Corp. (Oconomowoc, WI, USA). Mats Johansson, vice president for the automotive industry at ABB Industries, says Volvo Koping selected his company in a competition, based in part on ABB's previous conveyor-and-robot experience in delivering gearbox assembly systems to the car manufacturer.
展开▼
