AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS
Pacemaker for electromobility
Electromobility is a relatively young business segment for the automotive industry, so it is important here to break new ground. For this reason, automation specialist SAR has developed a complete production line for the fully-automatic manufacture of the electronics module – which forms the heart of electric cars – using eleven KUKA robots.
T
he electronics module is the heart of every electric car. The relatively unimposing device is slightly larger than a shoe box and weighs about twelve kilograms; as the central control element in the vehicle, it converts the direct current of the batteries into alternating current. Only then can the motor work with the zero-emission energy, turning it into drive power. Even if electromobility is booming: for the automotive industry, the technology is relatively new in terms of experience in the production and development of car models. Suitable concepts for the intelligent manufacture of electric cars and integration into the production process are thus in demand. Suppliers have a major role to play here. That is because in this case, they not only provide prefabricated and precision-fit components, as has usually been the case in the past, but are also actively involved in the development process. One such company is automation specialist SAR from Dingolfing in Bavaria. Among other things, the company develops and produces manufacturing solutions for the automotive industry and its partners.
The heart of the vehicle is created using KUKA robots
One such example is a production line for the electronics module of electric cars on behalf of a Tier 1 supplier. And – as is customary in the case of heart operations – this is no easy task. “Our goal is to use the robot as a tool to find intelligent solutions that cannot be achieved by a conventional approach,” explains Georg Dullinger, Head of Sales at SAR. In this case, that means setting up an automated production facility that not only assembles components to be installed in electric cars, but also controls and monitors all process steps from the marking of the individual parts, via screw- fastening and bonding tasks, to the testing and inspection of intermediate steps and
34 MARCH 2023 | ELECTRONICS TODAY
ultimately the finished product.
Automation: maximum flexibility as a basic requirement
“It is not sufficient simply to line up a row of robotic cells,” explains Dullinger. “There is no blueprint for these processes, no best practices.” Instead, SAR developed solutions for all stages of automation – and their intelligent combination to form an overall concept – long before the car models of the manufacturers were ready for series production. “The challenge is the high degree of flexibility: throughout the development phase, changes were constantly being made to the final model. Only the installation dimensions of the vehicles were fixed. The inner workings were highly modeled, however.” Even in the productive lines, there are still changes to the car components that need to be addressed quickly. In short: development and production are extremely agile. That is presumably the reason why it is not unlikely for
the Chief Technology Officer of an automotive manufacturer to turn up in person in order to gain an impression of the state of automation. “That is quite unusual for companies of our size,” says Franz Steinbauer, project manager at SAR, smiling.
Industrial robots ensure precise assembly of electric cars
However, it is not only the executive who is convinced by the results of this long development work: 28 robots are used in the current configuration of the production line, 11 of which are from KUKA. They perform all relevant automation tasks in order to screw- fasten, bond and inspect 47 individual vehicle components, and ultimately to marry them with the car. Automation at the highest level. The individual steps of the assembly process sound unspectacular at first: the industrial robots insert various electronic components into the housing of the control unit for the electric cars. They clean and check, segregate
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