Automated Weld Grinding for Automotive Manufacturing

At a glance

 

Customer

A leading new energy car company.

Problem

Ensuring the quality of car bodywork and worker safety while performing weld grinding tasks.

Solution

Flexiv introduced an adaptive grinding solution using the Rizon 10 robot and standard electric grinding tools.

Key Features

Adaptive polishing, user-friendly operations, and adherence to international human-robot interaction safety standards.

Advantages

Cost-effectiveness, improved polishing quality, user-friendly experience, safe and flexible deployment.

 

Overview

 

Welding is critical to the automobile production process; however, due to the nature of the activity, it is common to encounter slag and enlarged weld seams that will seem unsightly once the car body is painted. Although not safety critical, eliminating these imperfections is vital before the priming and undercoating of paintwork.

Case Study Customer

 

A Leading New Energy Car Company (Subject to an NDA)
A leading electric car manufacturer customer wished to introduce automated weld grinding into their production process so that they could guarantee the quality of their car's bodywork. An essential aspect of this project was that the robots would operate within the same area as human workers. Because of this, safety and efficient space utilization was of paramount importance.

Flexiv's Solution

 

Harnessing the Rizon 10's full-body force control, in combination with standard electric grinding tools, Flexiv's adaptive grinding solution was created. By utilizing the robot's inbuilt force control capability, the need for costly and less precise force-controlled end-of-arm tooling was removed, along with the need for specialized robotic grinding tools.

 

The Rizon 10's force control also enabled the introduction of force-controlled height probing. This groundbreaking approach allows the robot to 'feel'exactly when the welds are ground down to the base level of the bodywork. More precise and consistent than humanly possible, this technique substantially raised the overall grinding quality.

Technical Features

Adaptive Polishing
Flexiv's solution automatically employs force-controlled height probing for adaptive polishing to ensure that welds are ground entirely flush with the level of the base material.

 

User-Friendly Primitives
Common grinding primitives, or pre-sets, are included in the drag-and-drop-based Elements programming system. This significantly reduces robot downtime when creating new polishing tasks while eliminating the skill-based barrier to entry for robotic programming.  

 

Safe and Reliable
Flexiv's Rizon 10 robot meets international human-robot interaction safety standards and holds CE and ETL dual safety certifications. This ensures safe and reliable human-robot interactions in shared workspaces.

Solution Advantages

 

Straightforward and Cost-Effective
Flexiv's grinding solution doesn't require additional floating grinding tools or force control systems. This enables significant savings to be made in both initial outlay and maintenance.

 

Improved Polishing Quality
Adaptive positioning technology eliminates the problems caused by over or under-grinding, resulting in a superior surface finish compared to manual techniques.

 

User-Friendly Experience
Deployment is straightforward thanks to the Flexiv Elements graphical programming system. Once a task has been created, modifications can be made on the fly for maximum customizability.

 

Flexible Deployment and Safe Collaboration
Flexiv's grinding solution can be safely and flexibly deployed in fully automated or hybrid automated/manual production lines without requiring extensive line modifications.