Many different types of axles are manufactured in the automotive industry. Moreover, there are often numerous variations of each of these axles depending on engine strength, gear ratios, etc. Add to this the fact that the various car models now have an increasingly short lifespan, and the complexity of the situation becomes even more apparent.

 

The profusion of article numbers that this entails means that modern manufacturing equipment must be versatile at the same time as it can be quickly converted to turn out a variety of components, both for short series and longer production runs. Over the past ten or twenty years there have been rapid developments in the machines that perform these tasks, with dramatic improvements in both capacity and capability. Even so, measurements and tolerances still need careful checking to guarantee the quality of the final result.

 

To facilitate automatic operation over extended periods of time without the necessity for machine operatives to carry out random calibration checks, automatic calibration is essential. However, in many instances, the investment costs for this have quite simply been prohibitive - especially for short series or labour-intensive adaptations to a variety of different types of axle.

 

To tackle this problem ÅF has developed an elegant and highly flexible solution based on two standard components: an ABB robot and ÅF's MicroLog software. The robot is installed on a sturdy frame that also includes permanently fixed measuring transducers and V-blocks. The gripper is fully adaptable to the component being processed.

 

The photograph shows an ABB140-robot secured firmly in place on a robust frame. In the middle of the picture are two V blocks that provide the delivery point for two components for a portal loader. The measuring point is just visible behind the collision plates on the column on the left. Note the master, which is suspended on the column and which the robot can collect for automatic mastering.