Drives & Controls Magazine February 2023

36 n ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING February 2023 www.drivesncontrols.com Automated cells make riveting progress T he Leicester-based systems integrator DForce Engineering has blue-chip clients in the automotive, nuclear and aerospace industries. A key customer is the automotive supplier, the Sertec Group. Their relationship has evolved from designing jigs and fixtures, to manufacturing, planning and software design, and supplying complete systems. For a new vehicle concept, Sertec needed two automation cells for self-pierce riveting (SPR) and studding of aluminium underbody components as four complete sub-assemblies for its UK production line. The project was commissioned in December 2021 with the completed cells entering service at Sertec in March 2022. It took just eight weeks to design both cells, and another 16 weeks to manufacture and assemble them. As well as offering a rapid design time, DForce wanted to save costs and space. “We proposed using the larger of the cells with the addition of right- and left-hand self-pierce studded assembly parts, running three different assemblies through one cell by using a Fanuc R2000iC robot,” recalls DForce director, Gary Hill. “This essentially cut the cost, floor area and cycle times for Sertec by delivering two cells instead of three.” The first cell has two manual loading and unloading stations, each with a Fanuc R2000iC robot. On one side, two assembly stations fix together two or three components – a process requiring self-pierce rivets of differing lengths and studs. The robots have 210kg Stanley Tucker dual-feed rivet guns attached, and can identify both the correct part and rivets. The robots needed to maintain positional and repeatability accuracies of ±0.1mm despite the weight of the attached rivet guns. After riveting, they move the gun to a dual rivet load docking stand to reload. As the first process is happening, the cell’s second manual loading station is loaded with parts subsequently collected by a second Fanuc robot – an R2000iC/165F. This picks up a completed assembly using a double-sided gripper A Midlands automotive supplier has commissioned a pair of automation cells for producing aluminium underbody components. The cells use robots to ensure accurate and repeatable production of these parts, and to reduce the need for human labour. The second cell incorporates a manual loading and unloading station for two-part variants, as well as rivet bowl feeders for different stud sizes. www.servocomponents.co.uk/product/linear-electric-motors/ 01202 666636 sales@servocomponents.co.uk Comprehensive range of Electric Linear Motors and Servo Drives • CANopen • EtherCAT • Single or Multi-Axis • Expanded Feedback • Safe Torque Off Long stroke, high force, high speed, high accuracy, control flexibility, zero maintenance, quiet operation and XYZ capability are some of the advantages of our direct drive linear electric motor range. www.servocomponents.co.uk