Page 30 - MetalForming June 2009

Robotic Press Tending
fed, and a shutdown has negative cost and schedule effects all throughout Ford. Shutdown for automation switchovers also can be costly, but Dively says exces- sive shutdown was no factor in retrofits for Line 8 and other lines.
Speedy Automation Retrofits
“We’ve worked with Fanuc since the early ’90s, and that familiarity pays off when we retrofit,” Dively adds. “Think about pulling off all of that equipment, removing all of the cables from the floor, removing all of the interlocks, placing plates in the floor for mounting robots, locating all of the new inter- locks, running power to the robots and running the control cables. We can do that here in about five days of down- time. Why? Because we receive the drawings quickly, and Fanuc knows that we want to see a fencing layout and floor-plate layout right away. So six months ahead of time we call up the steel company and order the floor plates, take a Saturday and pull out all of
the old automation, pull up the floor blocks, weld the floor plates down, and then place all of the old automation back to run again on Monday. That is all done ahead of time. Then when the robots come in, the floor plates are already installed, as are the new cabling and power, and we remove the old automation and hook up the new robots.”
Automation Upgrades Continue at Ford
The Line 8 success detailed here is just part of the robot revolution under- way at Ford Woodhaven. New robots and controls enable a huge tandem line to spit out 8-ft. truck-bed sides at a mind-boggling rate of 350/hr. Larger Fanuc robots handle those parts press to press, aided by unique automation to handle transport of heavy loads over long distances.
“For robots on this line, higher pay- load is required as is longer reach, and the greater the reach, the less the pay-
load,” Dively explains.” So, the robots ride on air-driven carts that maneuver them in and out for diesetting and posi- tion them near the press centerline for maximum reach and payload capability.”
Fanuc also has supplied state-of-the- art automation on entry ends at Ford Woodhaven.
“New techniques have been imple- mented that allow accuracy and speed in picking blanks off a stack and trans- porting them to the first press opera- tion,” says Fanuc’s Stephan. “A corner- stone of these destackers is the use of intelligent vision systems to determine blank orientation. Using vision systems eliminates the complexity of setup and maintenance for mechanical crowders. Ford Woodhaven boasts several appli- cations of robotic destackers and load- ers used to determine orientation of single and double nonattached blanks. Although throughputs are not greater than with traditional crowding systems, benefits arise from ease of setup during die change.” MF
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