Recently, ABB Robotics and the well-known automotive industry journal ‘Automotive Manufacturing Solutions’ jointly conducted a global survey on the prospects of automotive manufacturing. The survey, involving nearly 600 global industry experts from automakers, management, engineering, and other key professionals in the automotive industry, revealed that supply chain disruptions, rising raw material costs, and shortages of labor and skills are forcing the global automotive industry to reconsider production and manufacturing processes. Continuous investment in automation technology is crucial for improving production resilience, efficiency, and speed in the face of the following three major challenges.
The “just in time” production method has undergone a transformation
Nowadays, supply chain disruptions and rising material costs are leading the global automotive industry to reassess lean manufacturing principles. Manufacturers are transitioning from a “just in time” strategy to a “just in case” strategy, shifting from near zero inventory to maintaining higher inventory levels to prevent unexpected interruptions.
The rising costs and expectations for more sustainable operations have led people to pay more attention to improving operations and energy efficiency through automation. ABB launched the new AMR (autonomous mobile robot) series last year, which can greatly improve the delivery speed of key parts to the Assembly line. At the same time, ABB is also continuously developing innovative solutions such as PixelPaint spray free technology, helping to reduce waste and improve efficiency in automotive painting applications, enabling manufacturers to better manage costs while operating more sustainably.
Labor shortage and rising costs
The rising labor costs and increasingly severe labor shortages are also becoming increasingly important issues for the global automotive manufacturing industry. The workforce urgently needs to learn new skills to adapt to the rapidly changing automotive industry, so skill enhancement and education are key to addressing this challenge.
With the increasing use of intelligent automation, artificial intelligence, and virtual technology in the automotive industry, ABB Robotics is continuously collaborating with schools and universities around the world to develop projects, teaching students automation and software skills, providing more opportunities for young people to interact with robots, stimulating their interest, and attracting more young and outstanding talents to enter the field of automotive intelligent manufacturing.
The comprehensive popularization of electric vehicles still faces multiple challenges
The survey also showed that achieving the full popularization of new energy vehicles within the regulatory deadline still faces concerns about various factors, such as disruptions in the battery supply chain, as well as high investment funds, shortages of raw materials, suitable infrastructure, and insufficient grid capacity.
In response to these problems, ABB Robot accelerated the research and development of robots specialized in the assembly of electric vehicle Powertrain, which fundamentally reduced the manufacturing time, further simplified the production process, and ultimately reduced the production cost. In addition, the integration of ABB’s flexible modular units with AMR also provides a solution for labor shortages, avoiding significant investment expenses. In terms of implementation, ABB’s RobotStudio ® Offline programming simulation software allows users to virtually build, test, and improve their robot settings before deploying a single robot, making production more flexible, efficient, and fast. It supports the introduction of more electric vehicle power systems while producing traditional internal combustion engines.
The automotive manufacturing market is constantly changing, and with the advancement of “carbon neutrality” from global consensus to global action, the continuous transformation, flexibility, intelligence, and personalized customization of new energy vehicles are also affecting a new round of automotive ecology. How to seize the opportunity and grasp the advanced password for future automotive manufacturing? After more than half a century of technological accumulation, ABB Robotics has handed over a sincere answer sheet.
Nowadays, ABB robots can provide a complete product line and innovative solutions for automotive manufacturing, ranging from robots, software, feature packs, open framework platforms, to four major processes focused on stamping, welding, painting, and final assembly. What are the winning strategies for ABB robots in different stages of future automotive manufacturing? How did a car with quality and attitude emerge from the “arm” of ABB Robotics? ABB Robotics recently released a special video on future automotive manufacturing. Your curiosity and questions can all be answered in this video!
Stamping automation
Combining efficiency and flexibility
ABB’s stamping automation solutions focus on every key process step from unstacking to end of line packing, which is the “leading” process in automotive production, to meet the diverse needs of customers. In addition to providing high-speed stamping professional robots, ABB also has an end effector system, StampWare software, continuous mode robot synchronization control technology, etc., which can meet the production requirements of steel and aluminum plates simultaneously. Not only does it help customers significantly increase production capacity, but it also has outstanding performance in safety, flexibility, and stability.
Li Auto: 100% automatic stamping line The full-automatic stamping production line built by ABB robot for the Li Auto includes seven robots, the magnetic unstacking system at the beginning of the line, the six axis robot feeding system at the front of the press, the straight line seven axis robot transmission system between the presses, and the six axis robot receiving system at the end of the line. And through research and development and program control, a highly challenging robot synchronous control stamping automation system in continuous mode of the press has been achieved, reducing the energy consumption of the press by 30% and extending the lifespan of the mold by 20%, injecting infinite energy into this new force of domestic car manufacturing.
Welding automation
Modularization becomes a winning weapon
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Body welding is an important link that directly affects the safety and overall performance of the vehicle body. The complete welding automation solution provided by ABB includes highly modular design products such as GateFramer that supports the conversion of different vehicle models during the welding process, FlexProd that optimizes the logistics of components in the body in white workshop, and a special machine system for removing edges for car door cover production, helping major car companies achieve flexible production and reduce costs and increase efficiency.
China National Heavy Duty Truck Corporation: High end traction heavy truck “Yellow River” welding line
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ABB has provided a total of 111 IRB 6700 and IRB 7600 robots, Flexrod production line layout plan, ModulFlex automatic fixture switching library, and FlexPLP flexible programmable linear displacement machine for the welding workshop of China National Heavy Duty Truck Laiwu Intelligent Factory. It has built the first new generation of high-end logistics traction heavy truck “Yellow River” series automation production line of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, with an annual production capacity of 50000 vehicles, Assisted China National Heavy Duty Truck Group in consolidating its position as a cutting-edge technology leader in the field of heavy-duty vehicles in China.
Painting automation
Combination of High Quality and Personalization
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The spraying automation solution provided by ABB robots combines high precision and stability. In the “efficiency first” industrial environment, ABB has also launched two groundbreaking products: a compact body interior spray solution and PixelPaint non overspray spray technology, which help improve process quality and reduce spray costs. At the same time, they also lead the digital transformation, environmental protection trend, and personalized trend of spray technology in the industry.
ABB Builds the World’s First Spray Art Car
When industry collides with art, what sparks will be erased? Personalized customization is becoming a new way for the automotive industry to endow each car with a unique connotation. ABB Robotics utilized PixelPaint, a painting technology that has won the Robotics Automation Invention and Entrepreneurship Award, to create the world’s first art car painted by robots, reproducing a monochromatic vortex painting by an Indian prodigy and a tricolor geometric pattern by a Dubai digital design team on the body. This non overspray spraying technology can also apply 100% of the paint to the surface of the car body, reducing paint waste, meeting the personalized customization needs of users, and reflecting ABB robots’ care for the Earth’s environment and sustainable development.
Final assembly automation
Dynamic environment is also effortless
Traditionally, robots are susceptible to vibrations from automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) or conveyor belts, as well as changes in production line speed, in final assembly applications. Therefore, compared to other processes, the automation rate in automotive final assembly is the lowest. The dynamic assembly package launched by ABB can combine real-time visual cameras on robot fixtures and arms with integrated force control sensors, enabling robots to accurately track the position of the vehicle body when it enters the workstation, and safely, quickly, and accurately handle complex tasks in a mobile production environment, breaking through the bottleneck of automation development in final assembly.
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Engine production
AMR Plus Flexible Logistics
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With the gradual growth of the autonomous mobile robot market, ABB has launched a new image of its autonomous mobile robot product portfolio, Flexley ™ We have also begun to show our strength in major car companies. ABB provided 60 Flexleys for Ford’s engine factory in Valencia, Spain ™ Tug AMR T702 autonomous mobile robot to achieve automation of raw material supply, production line replenishment, and production line end processes. This autonomous mobile robot has strong traction ability, small size, and supports bidirectional motion, making it widely used. It can automatically transport the trolley with raw materials to the processing line, transport the processed and sorted parts to the Assembly line, and transport the finished products to the quality inspection station for later storage in the shipping area.
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The machines in the factory can communicate with AMR Fleet Management System (FMS), and then interact with AMR to achieve fully automated route management. In addition, the operator can input commands to the AMR Fleet Management System through the tablet computer or keyboard to ensure that AMR follows its route and process settings.
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By introducing the AMR system, the factory has fully replaced manual forklifts with collaborative automatic mobile carts equipped with safety equipment, achieving automation of all logistics processes within the factory and greatly improving safety, process, and energy efficiency.
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In addition to robots and specialized equipment, ABB Ability ™ The digital platform can also provide customers in the automotive industry with services such as process optimization, robot management and Preventive maintenance, endow solutions with the ability of self intelligent analysis, and create greater value for customers. In addition, ABB RobotStudio ® Offline programming tools can also allow users to create, simulate, and test a complete robot installation process in a virtual environment without affecting actual production and improving overall efficiency.
From equipment to control, from edge to cloud, ABB has never stopped innovating and is determined to provide customers with high-quality products and services. On the road of car manufacturing alongside ABB robots, any imaginative ideas may come to fruition, and cars can also become masterpieces imbued with the beauty of technology and culture. Seizing automation as the advanced password for future automotive manufacturing can lead to a bolder and better future!
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