Teamwork Cuts Costs And Boosts Safety For Auto Body Assembly Plant

摘要

KUKA Flexible Production Systems, a leading producer of automated/robotic production systems, was given the opportunity to become a Tier I supplier of automobile bodies to DaimlerChrysler. KUKA was faced with designing a body shop utilizing the DBOOM (Design, Build, Own, Operate, and Maintain) philosophy. KUKA saw that moving from hardwired safety relays to a stand-alone safety programmable logic controller-based method was not enough to minimize costs and complexity. As part of its solution, KUKA chose a Profibus-based processor from Siemens that communicates with all field components via an inexpensive two-wire cable capable of communication speeds as high as 12 MBaud. The second major obstacle for cost reduction was the extensive power wiring to the field for robots, welders, and general control. Siemens introduced KUKA to FastBus, a three-phase bus bar system for power distribution. KUKA was able to realize substantial reductions in components, labor, and space while increasing the flexibility of their robotic safety system.