AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY FOCUS


providers who support this complex automation. Within automotive


A vision of the future Earl Yardley, director of


Industrial Vision Systems,


explains how machine vision can be used to enhance production processes in automotive manufacturing


A


utomotive manufacturers are increasingly reliant on machine vision and industrial


robotics technologies to accomplish several levels of automation throughout the production process. In fact the industry continues to be driven by innovative developments in automation which have enabled organisations to create new ways to deploy virtual labour to oversee automated knowledge-based tasks, resulting in savings in labour costs, increased accuracy and higher levels of safety. The automotive industry was one of the


early-adopters when it came to introducing automation in manufacturing and inspection processes – from the production line and robot- supported automated manufacturing to today’s Industry 4.0 flexible manufacturing revolution. Automotive manufacturers place a premium on having a close and trusted collaborative relationship with suppliers and high technology


manufacturing, machine vision technologies are used for such applications as type verification, part defect detection, surface inspection, product traceability, ID and code reading. These methods are also used to precisely


inspect components and for identifying and automatically sorting out defective components. In addition, vision system technology can be used for completeness and type detection for Just-In-Time manufacturing sequencing. As machine vision is faster than a human operator – the algorithms require just milliseconds to detect and process image data – large quantities of products can be inspected automatically at rapid speed, and data stored automatically.


MEETING THE INSPECTION CHALLENGE To reduce costs in vehicle production, automotive manufacturers outsource the manufacture of complex subassemblies to Tier 1 suppliers. One such UK supplier, for example, builds fully assembled front and rear suspension corner modules for a large UK-based vehicle manufacturer. The component parts of the corner modules are assembled in a Just-In-Time process before being shipped to the vehicle manufacturer in the sequence they were ordered. The corner assembly modules comprise a


number of component parts: the drive shaft, the wheel suspension system – including the wheel knuckles and hubs, dampers, springs and lateral and tension suspension arms – as well as the braking systems. To produce the complete modules, the components parts are assembled to form a complete unit as they


sequentially move down a production line on pallets. Once assembled, the corner assembly modules must be inspected to ensure that the correct components have been fitted to each one. To automate the process, IVS engineers


developed a vision system specifically for this. Compounding the inspection challenge was that the corner unit of the automobile presented to the vision system might be designed for the front left, front right, back left or back right of a vehicle. Consequently, the height and orientation of key components presented to the system can vary. The height of a drive shaft for a left-hand corner unit, for example, will be presented to the vision inspection system at a different height to that of a right-hand corner unit. Similarly, the lateral and tension suspension arms for a left-hand unit face in different directions to those of a right-hand unit. One inspection task performed by the system is to check whether the correct size of drive shaft has been installed in each corner unit. To do so, IVS HD digital machine vision cameras capture an image of the length of the drive shaft. The images are then processed to determine the location of the edges of each side of the drive shaft from which its width can then be determined. The unique width can then be correlated with the model type of drive shaft fitted to the assembly. Since the vision inspection station has been


installed, it has replaced the need for the corner assembly modules to be inspected manually by skilled operators. In doing so, it has enabled the supplier to manufacture the modules more effectively, enabling it to build and inspect different variants of the corner modules in a Just-In-Time basis as they are required by the automotive manufacturer.


Industrial Vision Systems www.industrialvision.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44