GEOMETRIC

CASE STUDY

Robotic simulation of a BIW framing line

CASE
The Client

HIGHLIGHTS

Company : Automotive OEM Location : USA Industry : Automotive manufacturing

Automotive production systems, today, consist of a very heterogeneous automation environment in terms of the wide variety of robots, controls, workcells, and equipment installed on the factory floor and production lines. Additionally, automotive manufacturers also have very flexible and agile production systems that can be quickly and efficiently adapted to meet new model production ramp up. A leading global automotive major needed to assess the feasibility of producing a new vehicle model using its existing facilities and resources. The current plant was already manufacturing three variant of vehicles, and the customer wanted to evaluate if the existing BIW framing line could accommodate a new variant of car with uninterrupted production. They wanted an in-depth analysis of the existing BIW framing Line and tasked Geometric to virtually simulate and validate its entire robotic workcell environment. The BIW framing line of the manufacturing plant was very complex. It consisted of:
? 35 stations ? 150 robots doing multiple tasks, like material handling, geo welding, respot welding,

The Objective:
Viability of manufacturing a new vehicle on an existing assembly line

The Solution:
Digital Manufacturing Solution to evaluate and optimize the performance of BIW assembly line

The Challenges:
? the existing simulation Updating

adhesive/sealer dispensing, arc welding, tab bending, etc Simulation of these systems required dealing with a heterogeneous production environment. The customer, therefore, selected Geometric for its six decades of experience in engineering solutions and integrated blend of capabilities in process validation, tool design & validation, plant layout validation, and cycle time validation.

workcells to the match the As-built scenario of the plant like robot/tool location, EOAT mounting, robot home pose configs, existing spot sequence and spot numbers
? Line Balancing through appropriate spot

distribution
? constraints for robot 3D Plant space

The Solution
Geometrics robotic simulation team collaborated with the client to study and understand the layout of robots and field check locations. The simulation study involved developing a computer simulation/animation model of a proposed process. The robotic workcell concepts, developed in DELMIA IGRIP, were studied for the specified process and material handling equipment for robot placement, reach, gripper design , interference check and cycle time. The validation of BIW assembly line consisted of:
? validation Tool design ? Robotic spot welding process sequencing ? sequencing Assembly

envelope
? the plants weekend Supporting

construction list as the priorities of the plant changed every week

Path and ? cycle time optimization Collision ? detection, reachability checks

? Plant layout validation

ENGINEERING SERVICES

Robotic simulation of a BIW framing line

Tooling Validation:
All necessary tooling and robot attachments were modeled and shown in the simulation. Tools like geo fixtures, passing bucks, grippers, pallets and conveyors tools were quite complicated, and same set of tools had to handle multiple car models. These tools had to go through multiple design iterations due to simulation validation like gun access in/out, robot payload, robot reach, tool access, clearance, etc. The tool design team at Geometric created different concepts, which were subesquently checked for clearance, collision, accessibility and approachability by the simulation team and modified, if required. The modified design was again validated on above parameters. This process underwent multiple iterations till an optimized tool design was reached.

BIW Process Validation:

The major challenge in dealing with the processing was to determine the optimized weld sequence and spot distribution between the robots, while taking into account critical factors such as space constrictions, geometric limitations, and welding cycle times. Cycle times were modeled using realistic robot simulation (RRS) modules to validate the system performance. Simulation and OLP were used to validate and ensure reachability to all welding and intermediate points without collision and with minimal cycle time.

Plant LayoutValidation:
The workcell layout was evaluated for robot placement by considering work points and cycle time constraints. The objective was to determine the most efficient arrangement for the robots, cable trays, fence, utilities, light screens and floor trays. Since any physical modification in the plant could interrupt the existing production and incur huge cost, the layout had to be determined taking into account these critical factors of space constrictions and cost. A three dimensional simulation model was constructed and its operation was demonstrated to upper level management in the form of a short video film

Business Benefits:
Around 70% reduction in lead time from design to production ? Reuse of ? existing equipment & setup Increased ? manufacturing quality and accuracy Faster production and time to market ? Detection ? and correction of potential issues before actual manufacturing

Robot downloads for quicker teaching of robots in plant ?

Contact us
Email engineering@geometricglobal.com

About Geometric
Geometric is a specialist in the domain of engineering solutions, services and technologies. Its portfolio of Global Engineering services and Digital Technology solutions for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) enables companies to formulate, implement, and execute global engineering and manufacturing strategies aimed at achieving greater efficiencies in the product realization lifecycle.
02/2011 Geometric Ltd.

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, Geometric was incorporated in 1994 and is listed on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges. The company recorded consolidated revenues of Rupees 5.11 billion (US Dollars 108.1 million) for the year ended March 2010. It employs over 3600 people across 10 global delivery locations in the US, Romania, India, and China. Geometric was assessed as CMMI 1.1 Level 5 for its software services and is ISO 9001:2008 certified for engineering operations.
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