Control engineering

 

With more than five years of work experience in the automotive industry, we can safely say that it is our greatest specialty.

And we specialize in the creation of control software for body transport technology through the production process, most often through the paint shop, but we would also mention projects within the BIW (Body In White) area as well as the MFE (Material Flow Engineering) area.

The car body is usually transported on a skid. Depending on the factory, the paint shop is usually divided into several subsystems, i.e. PLC areas, and in each area a certain body treatment takes place.

The largest greenfield project we worked on for two and a half years (software development, commissioning and finally production support) had as many as 16 PLCs, of which we were responsible for as many as 14 of them!

We usually develop the control software within the existing standard of the car manufacturer, however we have also developed our own control blocks in case the client is flexible or does not have his own standard.

The hardware we work with is usually from the most famous manufacturers of industrial automation equipment – Siemens, Schneider, Rockwell Automation (Allen-Bradley), SEW Eurodrive, PILZ, Danfoss, Keyence, Banner, SICK, Leuze…

In addition to control software, we also develop safety software for all safety areas within the PLC area. Depending on the client, sometimes this software is programmed on the same PLC as the control software, and sometimes the client requires a separate PLC just for security purposes.

If you are looking for a partner company that would do the software part of the work for you, commissioning, project planning or everything – you are in the right place! Contact us, and we will guarantee pleasant cooperation and professional service with our experience and quality.

Control stations

Roller Table or Roller Bed (ger. Rollenbahn) is the most commonly used station for horizontal body transport. Depending on where it is located, it can have only one or even several sensors for management. It usually contains one drive motor and the associated frequency converter, and depending on the position, it can have a lot of other accessories, such as cameras for reading bar or QR codes, positioning pins or some other sensors.

A lift station is typically used for vertical transport of car body between multiple floors within a factory and for longer distances. For shorter distances, a scissor lift is usually used. A laser distance meter is usually used for elevator positioning due to its high precision and greater safety. Positioning can also be done using a sensor, which is a cheaper but less secure option.

Cross chain is a complex station that consists of several simple stations, usually a Roller table, an Eccentric lift and, if necessary, a Turn table, which together form a whole. It usually consists of a chain transfer of the car body from one station to another. In order to be able to do this, the Roller table was modified in such a way that the functionality of the lift was added to it, so this station is also called the Eccentric table. It can have three working positions: it is in the upper position above the chain when it has a body on it or if it receives it from a neighboring station; in the middle position, which is positionally just a little below the chain, it is when it accepts the body that comes over the chain; it is in the lower position when the transport is carried out via the CC, i.e. the RT hands over the bodywork to the neighboring RT, which is also on the CC. As can be assumed in the picture below, the Cross chain can be upgraded theoretically infinitely, and we consider the part of the CC that covers one chain as one unit, and the cells within that chain as its part.

Some more important cells that are often used:

 

• Turn table: The station still consists of a Roller table, and when the car body is in position, it can be rotated up to 360 degrees horizontally in special cases, but mostly up to 180 degrees is sufficient for all requirements.
• Stacker: A station consisting of a Roller table, a Scissor lift and auxiliary grippers that usually stack skids on top of each other forming a stack. In this way, space is saved without the need for large buffer areas when manipulating skids.
• Destacker: A station that is the same as Stacker, but with reversed functionality. It separates the stack of skids into individual ones, usually just before placing the body on the skid.
• Workstation: as the name suggests, a station where some work is done – usually factory employees perform some kind of work on the bodywork, and the station must meet high safety standards to prevent human injury.