Sodecia is a leading international supplier to the automotive industry. Based in London, Ontario, the company’s Global Tech & Automation Centre (GTAC) delivers highly automated machine lines on which the components are manufactured and assembled. Sodecia GTAC uses PC-based control technology from Beckhoff in its assembly lines in order to achieve high quality while keeping costs under control.
“Our current bread and butter product is our highly successful turnkey robotic weld cell solution,” says Brent Lekx-Toniolo, control system concept developer for Sodecia. “Our largest project to date includes 21 Kuka robots of various sizes, which are used in the assembly of body frame and chassis segments for welding, material handling and sealant applications.” To begin, an assortment of small stampings are welded robotically into sub-assemblies. These are automatically unloaded and transferred to subsequent stages, where the different components are assembled to form the body. From here the process splits into two identical product pipelines. This split creates redundancy and improves throughput. Various sensors carry out comprehensive analyses, for example to ensure that all fasteners are placed correctly on the assemblies. After further assembly steps, the two pipelines merge back into one and the assemblies move on to a final fixture.
To date, the GTAC has built 49 manufacturing lines based on Beckhoff PC-based control, ranging from machines with a single robot to lines with over 20 articulated robots. The current welding cell with 21 robots uses a CP6202 Panel PC with 38 cm screen and Intel Celeron ULV processor. The panel PC also handles robot-to-robot interference detection and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) tracking, while managing overall fault detection and annunciation by acting as the HMI for the machine and integrating all safety aspects of the machinery. The robots are controlled by KR C4 controllers from Kuka. “The TwinCAT development environment and various software libraries reduced the programming time for the robotic cells by a wide margin,” recounts lead controls engineer, Rob Remillard.
EtherCAT also factors heavily in the application. The fast communication system handles all robotic communications, the I/Os and the safety functions via the TwinSAFE I/O terminals. “A total of 228 safety devices are integrated in this line via TwinSAFE,” explains Calvin Wallace, regional sales manager, Beckhoff Canada. “The modularity and scalability of this safety concept is of great benefit for Sodecia GTAC,” adds Lekx-Toniolo. “This way our safety configuration doesn’t change much, whether we design a machine with one robot or a system with 21 robots, as in this case.”
Sodecia even uses the TwinSAFE technology for robot programming. “During teaching and programme verification procedures, TwinSAFE handles robot-to-robot lockout,” explains control specialist, Jon Bysma. “If a robot tech is teaching a robot, all other robots that could move into that operating space are locked out by means of an e-stop signal loss to the other robots.”
Machine-mountable EtherCAT Box I/O modules with IP67 protection are also used throughout the assembly line. These provide additional safety connectivity to switch plates at each safety gate entrance. Various EtherCAT Box modules are also used in non-safety technology settings, connecting to sensors, cylinders, air pressure switches, solenoid valves and measuring devices. “EtherCAT also enabled us to implement all relevant diagnostic functions,” explains Lekx-Toniolo. “We’ve used this information to localise cable breakage right down to the exact cable in the line. Similarly, TwinSAFE offers an abundance of diagnostic information, which we‘ve utilised in the project. We’ve only just scratched the surface with the potential diagnostics.”
Unscheduled downtime in the automotive industry is especially cost-intensive. The new PC-controlled manufacturing line has achieved an average cycle time of just under 50 seconds and can produce 72 complex parts per hour and up to 355 000 parts per year. Sodecia has also been able to reduce time to market significantly – from two months to two weeks – and the commissioning time for the control has been cut by 50%.
Sodecia will standardise on a new multi-touch panel PC from Beckhoff in the near future to incorporate enhanced HMI technologies and functionality in its assembly lines. “We will also evolve our control programming to utilise TwinCAT 3 so we can better harness the convergence of automation technology and information technology,” concludes Toniolo.
For more information contact Kenneth McPherson, Beckhoff Automation, +27 (0)11 795 2898, [email protected], www.beckhoff.co.za
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