Page 30 - MetalForming February 2022 Special Automotive Issue

A core competency for Kirchhoff Automotive is cross-car beams, which it supplies for the Camaro (shown here) and Traverse-Enclave programs. This aluminum cross-car beam for the Camaro requires 122 arc welds and weighs just 14 lb.
on the Camaro, and in 2017 it also took on the GM C1Y platform—Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave. Plant manager Missy Smith over- sees the facility’s 25 arc- and resistance-welding cells, many of them robotic, designed over four standard layouts to quickly adapt to handle some 80 finished- good assembly/subassem- bly part numbers.
“With our four standard cell configurations,” Smith says, “we quickly can adapt them for new programs and product configurations. This particularly helps as we take on more BEVs, which might only require annual production volumes of 50,000. Here our flexible yet standard cells allow us to start a production run in
as well as at the ends—so that we’re not spending time cleaning slugs from bolsters between changeovers.”
Another area of focus, Czarniowski adds: “Lubrication, ensuring that we don’t over-apply lubricant that requires excess clean-up time between die changes. Here we’ve implemented password-protected settings on our spray systems. In addition, we’re devel- oping standard practices as well as die- specific process recipes for our oper- ators to follow so that they know what to expect once a die is in place, regard- ing stop-block height, tonnage readings and the like.”
As a result, Czarniowski notes that the pressroom has significantly reduced die-change times, “and that’s without leveraging automation. We’ll invest in that technology once we’ve realized every possible opportunity to improve our procedures.”
Finally, the plant recently insourced nearly all of its die-maintenance work by investing in three new CNC machines (two new milling machines and a new wire-EDM machine), to make its maintenance schedules more predictable.
Standardized Weld Cells Foster Flexibility
While the Tecumseh facility also welds plenty of its stampings, thou- sands of stamped parts make their way upstate a few miles to the firm’s rela- tively new welding facility in Lansing. Commissioned in 2015, this BIW-weld- ing facility initially tooled up to work
Standing near a wheelhouse robotic-welding cell at the Kirchhoff Automotive welding facility in Lansing, MI, plant manager Missy Smith (center) reviews the wheelhouse weld map on a sample assembly with assembly technician Sharonda Rush (left) and Josh Forquer, executive vice presi- dent, sales and technical devel- opment. “We refer to the mas- ter sample (the blue assembly) when there’s a question related to the original assembly design,” explains Smith. “And, the weld map identifies every weld, which robot in the cell deposits each weld and the required weld sequence, to enable timely troubleshooting.”
one or two cells and then add cells as volumes ramp up over time.”
Workforce Development Critical
Just as at Tecumseh, Smith works closely with union leadership on work- force-development initiatives, includ- ing a newly formed apprenticeship pro- gram developed using a committee
28 MetalForming/February 2022
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