The Opportunity
Our Off-highway OEM customer needed to find an automated solution for the process of applying a bead of sealant to an oil sump prior to assembly to the main engine block. The current manual application process was slow and also resulted in quality and repeatability issues. Additionally, the number of variants of sumps meant a slow changeover time. The main challenge was the quality and repeatability of the applied bead, the dimensions was 3mm wide x 1.5mm high to ± 0.5mm positional accuracy, also to ensure a speedy application time the fluidity of the sealant needs to be consistent.
The Solution
A 6-axis robot offering flexibility, repeatability and high accuracy of bead application was packaged in a compact housing. Fixtures were designed for each variant with an automatic recognition system to identify the oil pan variant and load the appropriate operating program. The fixtures can be changed over in 10 seconds, significantly reducing the previous manual process. A 3D profiler to verify the applied bead with in-process checks. This technology precisely tracks the bead application by monitoring the robot’s nozzle movement and generating a 3D image of the bead for analysis and quality control. The fluidity and delivery of the adhesive is maintained and controlled by a closed loop system incorporating a heater and a servo driven screw pump linked to the 3D profiler. A 15” HMI screen giving a step-by-step process sequence of operation, providing the operator with clear and real-time process information.
The Outcome
The average time for the complete process reduced by a massive 75% (from 300 to 75 seconds)..
75%
Detection of tooling eliminates set-up errors
Live feedback on quality of applied bead
