Industrial robots are ubiquitous in automotive body shops and have enabled significant productivity gains over the past five decades. But the truth is, robotic technology is only as efficient as the conveyance systems transferring the car chassis. And in many automotive plants today, inefficient transfer systems are the major obstacle to improving performance.
The Problem with Conventional Conveyance Technology
Both throughput and flexibility are limited by conveyance technology common in automotive manufacturing. First, existing chain conveyors and roller-beds—and even skillet conveyors—typically run at fixed speeds, and often at fixed pitch. In an automotive assembly plant, this means the entire transfer system is continuously energized and running at the same speed. The carriers cannot accelerate, decelerate, and precisely position a specific chassis based on the completion of a process step.
While some conventional systems allow for variation in “pitch” or distance between the movers, in many situations that distance cannot be easily modified to accommodate multiple model types. In addition, traditional conveyers are based on complex, mechanical designs comprised of chains, belts, rollers, and gears—and sometime hundreds of wear components. These large, complicated solutions are not only difficult to modify, but also prone to maintenance and unscheduled downtime.
Perhaps most significantly, conventional friction-based transfer systems rely on rotary motor technology. Rotary motors intrinsically add inertia in linear applications, introduce multiple mechanical components, and limit improvements in speed and acceleration.
