Robotic Automation in Automobiles Industry
Published on : Tuesday 11-04-2023
The only way for the automotive industry to be competitive in today’s world is with the help of robotics, says Shivaji Waje.
Today all automotive manufacturers are flush with orders, with high demand. Also, the new electric car segment is growing rapidly. The automobile industry is struggling to fulfil the long waiting list of customer car bookings. There are many reasons for this, the foremost being manufacturing capacity constraints. New investments and installing new plant capacity is both time consuming and cost intensive. Now it is necessary to put robotic automation in place where possible along with manual operations to increase the manufacturing capacity.
Robotic automation in automobile manufacturing will play an integral role in the shift from manual operation of low JPH (Job per Hour) to higher volumes with the help of robotics to meet higher demand and perform new roles while meeting the production demand.
Since the introduction of robots in the automobile industry, there have been many benefits ranging from relieving human workers of heavy, monotonous and dangerous tasks and speeding up production jobs. The various departments in the modern automobile manufacturing plants can simply not run on manpower alone and the benefits of automation are also stretching the limits. So now it is very essential for the automotive industry to go for automation with robotics.
Today’s industrial robots work in a wide range of industries, from pharmaceutical industries, automobiles, metal forging and plastics to packaging. Repetitive operation with consistent quality is the hallmark of robots, especially if the tasks are dangerous or difficult for humans. Robots have been used for high-volume operations but as the technology advances and costs decline more options and opportunities are opening even for medium- and small-sized industries. At the same time robots are helping manufacturers address many of the key challenges they face including skilled labour, vehicle costs, global market competitiveness and safety.
Robots give automobile manufacturing car companies a competitive advantage. This is due to the fact that robotics enhances quality and reduces operation costs, boosts capacity and relieves bottlenecks and protects workers from dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs.
In general, the industry adopts robotics for various reasons, but the end goal is always better productivity and cost efficiency. However, for the automobile industry, the four leading drivers of robotics are quality, consistency, capacity and safety.
Typically the automobile plant comprises different activities: fabrication, press shop, welding shop, painting bay, etc. Robots can be deployed in all these activities and they protect workers from exposure to fumes in the welding and painting jobs, as well as prevent exposure to weld flash and the noise of press shops or stamping presses. For the management, use of robots in such dangerous activities also cuts down accidents and subsequent injury claims.
Advantages of industrial robots for in the automobile sector
1. Quality – Better quality and consistency with consistent result
2. Productivity – Maximise the productive capacity
3. Safety – Zero accidents, no concern of human safety
4. Labour cost – Deploying robots instead of human resource can free up workers so their skills and expertise can be used in other areas
5. Flexibility – This is easy as robots are programmable for any new task, and
6. Multitasking – With change in programming, robots can be utilised anywhere possible to replace human labour.
Robots are most widely used in the following areas of auto manufacturing: Press shop, welding shop, sealing, painting and assembly. Conventional industrial robots as well as collaborative robots, or cobots are used.
Robot in press shop
In the automotive industry, the press shop is the most critical operation in case of sheet metal handling. It involves a lot of safety concerns to handle the metal sheets as also transferring sheet metal panels from one press to another press bed. Also, ergonomically it is very difficult to handle this. If one thinks of executing this operation with human labour, then it is just impossible to maintain the required volume. So most automotive industries today use robotic arm loaders for this application. This work includes loading the sheet metal panels to press moulding operation. Final press quality is also possible to check with a vision based robot system.
Body shop
The body shop involves sheet metal panel handling, loading on welding fixtures and again transfers to the next station. Such extensive handling means more labour force. Also due to excessive sheet metal handling there are more possibilities of damage and rework on the finished product. Robotic applications are possible today in almost all body shop functions and are widely implemented.
In a typical body shop the number of spots required on the sheet metal is in thousands and one can imagine doing this task with manual labour with human efficiency being a fraction of what robots are capable of. There is also the matter of inconsistency of quality and safety issues as cut injuries are rather common in the body shop. For such applications only welding robots is the answer. Now for all jobs in welding shops such as door assembly, floor assembly and hemming application, it is possible to use robots.
Paint shop
The first impression of an automobile even from a distance is the paint quality. Without robots the paint shop will require huge manpower for various tasks like body cleaning, sanding, sealing and painting of the car body. If you take the example of body sealing, it involves excessive skilled manpower.
In any automotive plant if you consider the power consumption, the paint shop is consuming 55% power from the total plant power consumption. High power consumption means more CO2 emissions to the environment. So, it is very essential to optimise the paint shop operation in any automobile industry to optimise operating cost, and paint material consumption.
If we use robotic applications in all areas of a paint shop it will not only increase the efficiency of the paint shop but also consistency of quality, at the same time reducing the operation cost.
Following are the areas where robotics is possible in place of human labour:
Sealing – Body sealing is very essential to avoid water and air leakages. With robotics we get the consistency in sealing bead application.
NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) – Nowadays customer focus has shifted from cost to safety, luxury, and a noiseless car. Presently sound dampener magnetic pads are used. This involves logistics and creation of dust in paint shops. Dust is the main enemy in any paint shop. Now this concern has a solution. Already major auto players have introduced the LASD (liquid applied sound deadener). This application is possible 100 % by robotics. This avoids the sound dampener pad logistics, storage and its handling. This is the major breakthrough technology is coming to India also.
Car cleaning – Car cleaning is a major activity after each manual application which is playing a significant role in car quality. Now robotic car cleaning is done with ionised and deionised concepts with feather duster robots. This gives an excellent effect as compared to manual cleaning.
Painting – A study has conclusively shown that if a car is painted by manual application only 50 to 60% paint is applied on the car body and the balance is wasted. Paint contains volatile substances so harmful to the environment and human beings. This also increases the effluent treatment cost and paint cost. The best solution in automotive is robotic painting. Nowadays 100% interior and exterior painting is possible with the help of robots.
Car assembly – Assembly robots can move faster and more precisely than humans and are easier to implement than some special-purpose equipment. In car manufacturing plants, robotic arms can tackle tasks like screw driving, windshield installation, gluing operation and wheel mounting. They are known to increase output and efficiency while decreasing costs and risks for human workers and relieve workers from ergonomics strain issues.
To sum up, the only way for the automotive industry to be competitive in today’s world is with the help of robotics.
Shivaji Waje has 25 years of experience in automation projects, installation, commissioning and maintenance in Mahindra and Mahindra Limited. During this period he has worked on Robotics, Control Systems, PLC/HMI/SCADA, Industry 4.0, IIoT, Plant automation, SAP PM, MES, Kepware OPC Server, industrial networks and digital transformation activities in Mahindra.
