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Robotics welding advance auto quality

Source:Ringier Release Date:2011-07-29 751
Metalworking
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Photo courtesy of Valmet Automotive Inc.

 The automotive industry is one of the biggest buyers of robotics welding systems, and UAE is making great strides as the driving force behind the burgeoning automotive aftermarket in the wider Middle East region.
Welding in the auto industry is one of the more mature robotic applications and one that has a major impact on the quality of components and the finished product. The fact that robots are very repeatable means that weld is always in the right place.
According to Ms. Nassim Saeed Al Mehairi, Senior Manager - Statistics Section, Strategy & Corporate Excellence Department, Dubai Customs, the value of total trade in the automotive aftermarket, which includes imports, exports and re-exports, has grown to Dhs8,478 million (US$2.30 million) for the first quarter 2011, as compared with Dhs5,320 million (US$1.44 million) in 2006 and Dhs7,653 million (US$2.08 million) in 2010.
This marks an 11% increase since last year indicating clear growth in the sector. A large part of this growth is attributed to the growth in vehicle ownership, the prevalence of a large number of vehicles in the region that need maintenance and upgrading and the growing realisation of the benefits of regular servicing and replacement of parts and accessories in terms of reduced costs and increased efficiencies.
Car buyers expect quality, not only in performance and reliability but also in the aesthetics of their vehicles. Customers look for reliability and a good-looking product. Consumers want to know how reliable is the product, how long they can use it without it having problems. They also care about how it looks and feels. Consumers now a day care about how they feel about their product and products must not look cheap.

Robotic welding
Robotic welding has become so commonplace in the auto industry that it's almost impossible to build a car body without robots. Humans can't achieve the same precision and repeatability. The variations are too small. And to achieve the required stiffness of a car body, you have to deal with heavy weld guns, which people can't handle.
In addition, robots are now being used to hold parts for other robots doing the welding, which eliminate fixtures. While that may not directly affect quality, it does save money on fixturing. So instead of turntable with a fixture, advanced users have one robot with end-of-arm tooling that is fixture quality presenting parts to a welding robot.

Material handling
On the material-handling side, a robot can be used for just about any process in which a part is moved from one place to another, such as in and out of a machine tool or press. Robots also are used to reorient parts between processes.
In a lot of assembly processes among suppliers, you have to handle parts automatically even if you don't use robots directly for assembly. Think about the assembly of electronic components or transmissions. You need a lot of parts at precise locations, and the best way to achieve it is using robots. And lately, auto suppliers are starting to use robots to move parts from one job to the next, essentially acting as a flexible conveyor.
As automobile CEMs continue to stress higher quality, and insist on it from their suppliers, the use of robotics will continue to increase in the auto industry. And the benefits, some tangible and some intangible, will continue to accrue.
Robotics helps the auto industry and suppliers be more competitive and meet the growing customer needs, which are growing because we're never satisfied with what we have; we always want something better. Quality is essential to selling your product over your competitor, and robots are absolutely supporting that because they're achieving current and future quality demands of theKids Nike Cortez

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