140ACO03000Tobias Hacker, assembly technical manager, and Martin Demharter, Key Account Manager, Automotive industry, SICK Vertriebs-GmbH, are discussing at the final assembly line. Audi’s production planning, equipment manufacturing and maintenance departments and SICK’s sales and technical departments together form an interdisciplinary team of several members, both of whom are part of the team. Over the years, they have worked together to ensure the safety of employees at this large Audi plant and to ensure smooth logistics processes.
Reliable on-line measurement unit ensures excellent quality
All models manufactured in Ingolstadt undergo final quality checks in this hall, including checking for the best clearance dimensions. In the past, employees performed the same inspection work without electronic AIDS, which was a great challenge for the human eye. With the introduction of handheld measuring devices, robots now take over this task and are equipped with sensors that measure seams and flatness on the vehicle.
“We set up the online measurement unit so that the measured values a140ACO03000re used to continuously support the entire quality and manufacturing process,” explains Daniel Bartolic, specialist planner and project leader for Production planning and Assembly. The vehicle enters an online measurement unit on the complete assembly line, where two robots working simultaneously will check the seams and flatness in seconds. Access protection is provided by SICK’s Safe Portal system, which uses the synchronous protected area assessment feature of the microScan3 secure laser scanner. With two vertically aligned laser scanners at the entrance and exit of the in-line measurement unit, security in hazardous areas is reliably and seamlessly secured through intelligent assessment of eight synchronised protection zones
The scanner works with an infrared laser beam that is fanned out through a rotating mirror, thus creating a virtual protection area across the left and right sides at the exit and entrance of the measuring unit. New TUV-certified functional blocks for Siemens controllers, allowing simultaneous evaluation of two scanners. If the vehicle passes through a protected area defined accordingly, the left and right scanners will work together to detect that it is a material and not a person. Since dangerous situations are eliminated, the robot can perform inspections. Ensuring human safety in this way is the first norm that Audi must follow when using large industrial robots.
Since multiple models with different geometers can be found on the same assembly line at Audi’s Ingolsta140ACO03000t plant, it was a huge challenge to find a safe, reliable and efficient solution for separating people and materials. “We were looking for a safety solution that would cover all existing models and equipment types, as well as implement new models,” said Daniel Bartolic, explaining his initial requirements to Martin Demharter of SICK. The new solution must be flexible, efficient, cost-effective and, more importantly, space-saving, requiring neither swing gates nor costly shielding sensors. Demharter discussed this demanding demand scenario with SICK’s strategic product planning department.
