july august 2018

automotive manufacturing solutions

Moving targets
New plants, platforms and powertrains:
PSA sets out its strategic push

Global focus Technology Special report

South American Industry 4.0 finds Sub-system
plants welcome small but crucial gains suppliers join in
a steady recovery in machine tooling EV innovation wave

automotivemanufacturingsolutions.com
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 editor's note

julyÅaugust 2018

Manufacturing the future

J
ust before we went to print with around its fortunes in recent years. Much of this can be
this issue, I attended the FEAL attributed to cutting costs, making the production and sales
Automotive conference in Lille, operations much more competitive, but there are difficult
France. There was some focus decisions ahead for PSA – not least how to best utilise the
on showcasing northern France’s production capacity of the Opel and Vauxhall plants it
credentials as an important automotive gained from its acquisition of GM’s European arm.
manufacturing hub, with representatives The vehicle-maker has to balance expectations that it will
from local government and industrial not compromise production at its French plants while also
trade bodies. However, much of the content was concerned trying to restructure and integrate the loss-making Opel
with the future of the automotive industry, and more operation. There has been much speculation as to which
specifically new mobility solutions (largely from the French plants might be closed, and no doubt some fierce lobbying
automotive industry point of view). on behalf of unions and government trade departments.
Toyota France, Renault and Groupe PSA outlined Additional pressure also comes from poor sales in China,
grand plans for future mobility featuring multi-fuel and where it has been reported PSA will lease
autonomous vehicles; all a far cry from the current transport one of its underutilised plants to Nissan.
solutions and, it seemed to me, some distance from current Elsewhere in the magazine,
manufacturing and business models. with the electrification of
These are high volume producers of steel-bodied, vehicles continuing to dominate
ICE-powered vehicles that, as they all noted, are manufacturing conversations,
now transitioning through stages of developing and some major steel-makers believe
manufacturing various iterations of hybrid and BEVs. It they are well placed to deliver
made me realise the enormity of the task; given the scale the materials to make this
and complexity of current manufacturing operations, happen. We offer some insights
integrating something new poses a big challenge, one into not just what steel types are
which will only get bigger the more divergent the vehicle being developed for the vehicle
technologies become. structures, but also how they
There will be a full review of the conference online and in play a very important part in the
the September-October print edition of AMS. powertrain (p39).
EV powertrains benefit
Grouped together Nick Holt, Editor from steel development
Continuing the French theme, in this issue we have a close
look at Groupe PSA, covering the vehicle-maker’s PACE
strategy, the acquisition of Opel and a report from its Automotive Manufacturing Solutions
Portuguese LCV plant at Mangualde (the feature starts on
p12). It’s partially a success story for the French OEM, with Å Editor Nick Holt nick.holt@ultimamedia.com
the current management team credited with having turned Å Deputy editor Gareth Price gareth.price@ultimamedia.com
Å Assistant editor Michael Nash michael.nash@ultimamedia.com
Å Sub-editor/designer David Fagan
Å Contributors Ian Henry, Nick Gibbs, Steed Webzell, James Bakewell, Mike Farish
Å Publisher and sales Andrew Fallon andrew.fallon@ultimamedia.com
Å Design director Matt Crane matt.crane@ultimamedia.com
Å Designer Steven Singh Bains steven.bains@ultimamedia.com
Å Junior designer Nicole Masterman nicole.masterman@ultimamedia.com
Å Head of marketing Chris Mott chris.mott@ultimamedia.com
Å Circulation & database manager
Justyna Makowiecka justyna.makowiecka@ ultimamedia.com
Å Ad sales support & office manager Kate Rooney kate.rooney@ultimamedia.com
PSA has improved its fortunes but Å Finance manager Piers Marshall piers.marshall@ultimamedia.com
faces difficult decisions regarding
Å Managing director Karen Parks karen.parks@ultimamedia.com
its manufacturing footprint

july-august 2018 03
 contents
technology
cover story OEMs in focus
Machining

12 Groupe PSA 31 Industry 4.0 14 Opel/Vauxhall

A future European giant Heading for the clouds Gaining PACE!
New models and increased market Steed Webzell scrutinises the Groupe PSA’s acquisition of GM’s
share: Ian Henry reports on PSA’s technologies currently available to loss-making European operations
improving fortunes under Carlos assist those wanting to digitise their raised a few eyebrows. Ian Henry
Tavares’ leadership machining processes looks at the plan to turn around the
Opel/Vauxhall brands

16 Groupe PSA Mangualde

A little going a long way
Gareth Price visits a factory with a
famous 2CV heritage and a secure
LCV future
news & data
34 Non-metallic materials
06 Company index The problem with plastics
A complete list of the VMs and With automotive manufacturers
suppliers appearing in this issue. looking at ever increasing levels of
plastic-based materials content,
08 News Steed Webzell examines the
challenges for machine shops
The AMSUL^ZWHNLZVɈLYH
graphical summary of the major
automotive developments around 18 Ford Otosan
the world as well as more in-depth
Collective thinking
coverage of OEMs’ activities within
ZWLJPÄJ[LYYP[VYPLZ Michael Nash
talks to plant
50 Innovations manager
Cem Temel
A bumper round up of the latest (right) about
products and manufacturing Ford Otosan’s
solutions. unique position
to facilitate
54 Next issue manufacturing
improvements
Outlining the features in our
September-October edition.

04 july-august 2018
 july-august 2018

global focus materials

South America Steel
23 A slow return to growth 39 Making a strong case 36 OMNI ID
Vehicle-makers in South America are With the push for powertrain From paper labels to smart
seeing signs of recovery, boosted by LSLJ[YPÄJH[PVUNHPUPUNZ[YLUN[O
growing exports, reports Nick Gibbs producers of high-strength steel are materials
preparing themselves to capitalise, From the Internet of Things to
reports James Bakewell Industry 4.0, manufacturing is
changing. Paper labels no longer
Ä[WYVJLZZJVTWSL_P[PLZ"^OH[PZ
YLX\PYLKPZVW[PTHSÅL_PIPSP[`HUK
quality assurance

production
Heavy vehicles
special report
27 Jack of all trades
Ford Otosan’s Inönü plant houses 42 Get your
an unusual production mix, and is electric
taking on more projects. Michael motor
Nash investigates 45 FOBA
running
Fixture-free marking
Mike Farish
talks to At IMTS 2018, FOBA will showcase
Equipmake’s an innovation in direct-part laser
Ian Foley (right) marking that removes the need to
about the OVSKJVTWVULU[ZPUHÄ_LKWVZP[PVU
development
of a promising
innovation

show previews

46 AMB 2018 48 IMTS 2018

Follow the digital way March of the machines
This year’s Robots and additive
AMB industrial manufacturing
metal working technologies will
show promises arrive in large
to be bigger numbers at this
than ever with years International
digitalisation a Manufacturing
key theme Technology Show

july-august 2018 05
company index

A guide to vehicle-makers, suppliers, organisations and institutions appearing in this issue.

(Page numbers indicate the first page of the article in which a company appears)

Alicona 50 Ford of Europe 27 Opel 10, 12, 39

ArcelorMittal 39 Ford Sollers 8 Opel/Vauxhall 3, 12, 14

Ariel Motor Company 42 Fronius 50 Paul Horn 46

ATI Industrial Automation 48 Gardner Denver 50 Peugeot 10, 12, 14, 16

ATOS 48 General Motors 3, 8, 12, 14, 23 Plastic Turned Parts 34

Audi 8, 23 Gestamp 23 Range Rover 23

BASF 48 GKN 8 Renault 3, 8, 12, 23

BMW 8, 14, 23, 39, 54 Great Wall motors 8 Renishaw 48

BMW Brilliance 8 Groupe PSA 3, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 Rhenus Lub 34

Bosch Rexroth 46 Heller 31, 50 Roemheld 50

Bystronic 50 Honda 8, 10, 23 Scania 23

CGTech 34 Honda Latin America 23 Scanlab 50

Changan Ford 8 Hönle 50 Schaeffler 31

Chemetall 48 Hyundai 8, 23 Schuler 50

Chevrolet 23 igus 50 Shape Machining 34

Cisco 31 Isra Vision 50 Siemens 31

Citizen 34 Jaguar Land Rover 14, 23 Skoda 8

Citroën 12, 14, 16 Kasto 50 SSAB 39

Constellium 8 KOMET 48 Subaru of Indiana 8

Continental 14 Land Rover 23 Suzuki 8

Daimler 23 Lantek 50 Tata Steel Europe 39

Daimler Trucks 36 Lohmann Technologies 50 Tesla 39

Deutsche Edelstahlwerke 50 Lotus 42 Third Dimension 50

DMG Mori 31, 48 Magna 8, 50 ThyssenKrupp 39

Dongfeng 12 Magna Steyr 8 Tornos 48

DS 12 Mahindra 8 Toyota 8, 10, 23, 54

DuPont 50 Makino 31 Toyota France 3

Eaton 27 Mapal 46, 50 Volkswagen 8, 23

EMAG 48 Mazak 31 Volkswagen Group 10

Equipmake 42 Mazda 8 Volvo Cars 8

Fanuc 50 Mercedes-Benz 8, 23 Volvo Trucks 54

FAW Group 10 Mitsubishi 8 Williams F1 42

FAW-VW 8, 10 NanoSteel 39 Yamazaki Mazak 31

Fiat 23 Nidec 12 Zeiss 48

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles 23 Nissan 8 ZF 8, 27

FOBA 45, 48 Novelis 8 ZF 27

Ford 8, 18, 23, 27 OMNI ID 36 Zwickau University of Applied Sciences 34

06 july-august 2018
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news Round-up

Globe at a glance
For all the latest automotive manufacturing news from around the world, go to:
www.automotivemanufacturingsolutions.com
Sweden
• Volvo Cars
increases XC40
capacity in Europe
and China

Canada
• Toyota upgrades
three assembly
plants
UK
• Magna opens
aluminium
casting facility

US
• Changan Ford to make next-gen Explorer
France
• Ford appoints new chief information officer • Groupe PSA establishes
digital factory
• GM combines software and 3D printing
• Groupe PSA increases
• Honda readies Indiana and Ohio plants for EV
SUV capacity
production
• Mercedes prepares
• Honda starts making Acura RDX in Ohio
Hambach plant for EQ
• Hyundai builds new engine plant in Alabama production
• Hyundai starts making new Santa Fe in Alabama • Renault invests in EV
• Nissan’s Canton plant turns 15 production
• Novelis builds new aluminium plant in Kentucky
• Subaru of Indiana starts making Ascent
• Volvo announces Charleston plant manager

Brazil
• 200,000th engine
produced at
Nissan Resende

08 july-august 2018
 Round-up news

Germany
• BMW extends Leipzig plant
to increase output
• BMW makes several
production personnel changes
• Mercedes celebrates 1m
milestone in heavy-duty
engine production
• VW to suspend lines for
WLTP update

Czech
Republic
• Constellium expands
Decin aluminium plant Russia
• Skoda opens
• Ford Sollers
competence centre
starts EcoSport
Netherlands production
• Constellium provides
aluminium for Hungary Japan
Mercedes CLS • Mazda hits 50m
• Audi starts producing new production milestone
engine at Gyor plant
• Mercedes starts Romania • Nissan to increase use
of new steel grade
construction of ‘Full-Flex • Ford spends
Plant’ in Kecskemét • Toyota builds fuel
€200m on
Austria • Mercedes starts making Craiova plant
cell stack and tank
production facilities
• Mercedes G-Class A-Class at Kecskemét plant
production begins
at Magna Steyr’s China
Graz plant Serbia • BMW Brilliance boosts battery
• ZF builds plant output in Shenyang
to make electric • FAW-VW to open three new plants
Pakistan powertrain
• GKN builds electric driveline plant
• Renault builds parts
new plant in • Great Wall Motors constructs
Faisalabad new plant
• Magna and BHAP establish
door module facility
India
• Suzuki passes
20m production
Thailand
mark • Mitsubishi passes
5m production
milestone

South Africa
• Mahindra opens
new assembly
facility in Durban

july-august 2018 09
news In depth

North America
Honda invests in Indiana and Ohio
US – The OEM is spending global debut at the 2018 New
$61.5m to ready its Indiana and York International Auto Show.
Ohio plants for the production “The new Honda Insight
of electrified vehicles. This exemplifies our growing
comes after the company investment in the production of
outlined its goal of ensuring two- electrified vehicles in America
thirds of its total vehicle sales and our associates in Indiana
would be electrified by 2030. are proud to play a key role A new 19,200 sq.m building its 1.5-litre Atkinson-cycle
At the same time as in this initiative,” said Isao was built in Indiana for in-house gasoline engine is produced at
announcing the investment in Matsuzaki, president of Honda assembly of the Insight’s the company’s engine plant in
the two plants, Honda revealed Manufacturing of Indiana. front-end module. The Honda Anna, Ohio.
that production of its all-new “As the lead plant for Insight Transmission Manufacturing of The Insight is now being
2019 Insight has begun at its production globally, we are America plant in Russells Point, assembled on the same
Indiana plant, situated about an committed to delivering the Ohio, received an investment of production lines as the Civic and
hour south-east of Indianapolis. quality and reliability that our $29m to make the twin electric CR-V at the Indiana plant.
The hybrid vehicle made its customers expect.” motor unit for the Insight, while Å www.honda.com

Toyota invests in Canada plants

Canada – The Japanese OEM be the North American hub for
has said it will spend C$1.4 production of the RAV4 and the
billion ($1.08 billion) to upgrade company’s hybrid vehicles.
its three assembly plants in “Toyota Motor Manufacturing
Woodstock and Cambridge, Canada has always had a
Ontario, in order to prepare for strong partnership with the
the production of new models Canadian government,” said
based on the Toyota New Global Fred Volf, president of Toyota
Architecture (TNGA). Motor Manufacturing Canada Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime spend C$500m to establish
These include the all-new (TMMC). Minister, praised the move by a research and engineering
2019 RAV4 and RAV4 hybrid. TMMC’s plants in Woodstock Toyota, and announced that the centre in Ottawa shortly after
Furthermore, the company will and Cambridge are currently government would put aside it had invested C$700m in its
invest C$200m in research and able to produce over 500,000 C$110m to help the OEM with manufacturing facilities across
development in Canada over the vehicles per year. The investment the project. the country. In January 2017,
next ten years. is expected to support over 8,000 The news marks the largest Honda promised to spend
On completion of the plant jobs in the region, and will create of several recent investments in C$492m to modernise its
investment project in late 2019, 450 new jobs as well as 1,000 Canada’s automotive industry. In Ontario manufacturing facilities.
Toyota has said that Canada will new co-op placements. March 2017, Ford said it would Å www.toyota.com

Asia
China – The new plants, which
are being built in Qingdao,
FAW-VW to open three new plants in China
Tianjin and Foshan, will be segments will grow significantly Diess, chairman of the board of VW said it would launch 40
operated as part of the joint over the next few years. management and CEO of VW. new energy vehicles in China by
venture between FAW Group “Chinese consumers today are The production lines at these 2025. Local production will be
and VW Group. They will demonstrating strong demand facilities are being designed with a key part of this plan, and the
house production of SUVs for smart, sustainable electric flexibility in mind, ensuring OEM has said that it will spend
and electrified models, with vehicles as well as fun-to-drive, they can make both pure electric €15 billion ($17.37 billion)
the company suggesting both spacious SUVs,” said Herbert vehicles and those that include alongside its joint venture
an internal combustion engine partners to in e-mobility,
(ICE). autonomous driving and new
The Qingdao plant has started mobility projects.
with the production of the new VW recently announced that
Bora, while the Foshan plant will it would make pure electric
make cars based on both the vehicles in 16 different locations
MQB and MEB platforms. around the world.
The news comes soon after Å www.volkswagen.com

10 july-august 2018
 In depth news

Europe
Groupe PSA announces an increase in its SUV capacity
France – The OEM has said us to meet growing customer In terms of the company’s UK has come under question.
it will bolster the output of its demand for SUVs.” total sales, SUVs accounted for However, Groupe PSA recently
SUVs due to growing demand The announcement was 23% in 2017, with the Peugeot, announced an investment in
for several different models. made soon after Groupe PSA Citroen, DS and Opel brands all its Luton facility ahead of the
It plans to start making the recorded a sharp rise in revenue seeing strong demand. launch of the Opel/Vauxhall
Peugeot 5008 at its plant in during 2017 as well as growth Amid uncertainty surrounding Vivaro. It also outlined plans to
Sochaux once production in in its share of the European the impact of Brexit on the expand its engine and electric
Rennes reaches full capacity. SUV market to 16.9% at the automotive industry, the future motor output in Europe.
Following this, if capacity tops beginning of 2018. of several plants located in the Å www.groupepsa.com
out in both plants in France, it
will then start to assemble the
Opel Grandland X in Eisenach,
Germany.
“These vehicle allocations
demonstrate that economic
performance plays a key role
in ensuring high capacity
utilisation over the long term,”
explained Yann Vincent,
executive vice president,
manufacturing and supply chain
at Groupe PSA.
“Our agile production base,
which has been broadened by
the Opel acquisition, is enabling

Unit 11 Melchett Rd, Kings Norton, Birmingham, B30 3HG

Tel: 0121 389 8332 www.profil.eu
IN THIS SECTION Groupe PSA

GROUPE PSA
12 Global changes
and improvements
OPEL/VAUXHALL
14 Turning round the
loss-making marques
PSA MANGUALDE
16 A compact but
influential operation
FORD OTOSAN
18 New projects to
improve production
processes

A future
European giant? New models
and increased
market share: Ian
Henry reports on
PSA’s improving

W
hen Carlos Tavares arrived at PSA from and, having achieved a
Renault in 2014, he set about turning minimum of €700 (US$817) fortunes under
around the loss-making company. His saving per vehicle by 2018
Carlos Tavares’
plan, embodied under the strapline ‘Back at Peugeot, Citroën and DS,
in the Race’, aimed to restore PSA to the company now wants to leadership
profitability, cut costs and transform its product portfolio. achieve an even higher ratio
Overhauling the company’s offering, notably adding SUVs at Opel/Vauxhall - €1,100
and crossovers of varying sizes, has been key. The company saving per vehicle.
is now rapidly building a presence in segments Peugeot Progress with the new strategy was already clear in PSA’s
and Citroën had been very slow to enter. Prior to Tavares’ full-year 2017 results, which showed a rise from 6% to 7.3%
arrival, PSA’s dire financial status had been boosted in 2013 in recurring operating profits, with revenue climbing to over
with capital injections from both the French government €65 billion. Opel/Vauxhall was still loss-making in 2018, so
and the Chinese company Dongfeng, each of whom took a the group’s profit improvement is especially noteworthy. In
14% share. When Dongfeng became a shareholder, GM felt Q1/2018, the company’s revenue for the quarter was up just
obliged to sell the 7% stake in PSA it had taken through a over 42% at €18.2 billion, versus just under €12.8 billion in
private share placement in 2012. Q1/2017; Opel/Vauxhall alone added just over €4.8 billion
Despite the share sale, long-planned joint vehicle of revenue.
programmes in Europe were retained and, indeed, they Groupe PSA’s results for early 2018 continue to show
have recently been launched. The first of these was the a company in a rude state of health. It also has many
B-segment Citroën C3 Aircross/Opel Crossland X made at challenges to address with the recently acquired Opel/
Opel Zaragosa, followed by the larger Peugeot 3008/Opel Vauxhall operations. Its Q1/2018 results showed European
Grandland X made at PSA Sochaux (although production sales volumes ups 8.7% in the PCD (Peugeot Citroën DS)
of the Grandland X will switch to Opel Eisenach from mid- division, with Peugeot up 11.9%, Citroën up 4.4% and DS
2019 following agreement between PSA and the German up 5.6%; and with a new range of SUVs/crossovers being
unions). launched, Peugeot and Citroën are reportedly the fastest
growing brands in the top 10, with Peugeot claiming to be
Geographically balanced the number one SUV brand in Europe.
With the company returning to profitability, Groupe PSA Comparing Q1/2018 with Q1/2017, PCD reported a
launched a new strategy, ‘Push to Pass’. The following core 6.6% rise in volumes worldwide, but the whole company,
aims are to be fulfilled by 2021: maintainence of automotive including Opel/Vauxhall, could actually report a 44%
operating margin at over 6%, growth of revenue by 25%; volume rise as a result of the acquisitions. Moreover,

12 july-august 2018
 Groupe PSA cover story

Q1/2018 worldwide volumes were just over 1m, suggesting projection, made when the
the tantalising prospect of reaching 4m units worldwide for 2017 results were released, New models boost growth
the full year. could be surpassed. The impressive sales figures and potential for
This impressive picture is increasingly global, with PCD The latest statistics reaching 4m units in 2018 have been aided by
claiming a rising European market share of 25.7%, and from the European a series of new model launches, of which the
following are key:
sales outside Europe growing by 16% year-on-year. Looking Automobile • Peugeot 508 – which will likely form the basis of
ahead, PSA is expecting a broadly stable picture in Europe Manufacturers’ an imminent replacement for the current Opel/
during the rest of 2018 and modest rises elsewhere, e.g. Association Vauxhall Insignia
China (+2%), Latin America (+4%) and Russia (+10%). (ACEA) show that • Citroën C5 Aircross – based on the Peugeot 5008
it will also likely form the basis of a new SUV for
demand for battery Opel/Vauxhall to be made at Russelsheim, from
A twin strategy electric vehicles 2019
What is more, this growth is not just due to cars. For (BEVs) rose by • DS7 Crossback – the new flagship in Europe and
example, the company has a growing manufacturing 34.3% during the China for the DS brand
• And the new Citroën Berlingo/Peugeot Rifter,
footprint for vans, with production of the Expert and Jumpy first quarter of 2018, which will also be made as the Opel Combo,
models recently starting in Uruguay and Russia, while a joint and plug-in hybrid replacing the current Fiat-sourced model.
venture in Uzbekistan is due to start production in 2019. electric vehicle (PHEV)
Elsewhere, PSA is opening all-new factories in Malaysia sales grew by 60.2%.
and Namibia in the second half of 2018, and in Algeria
during 2019. The Malaysian factory will become PSA’s future China and Iran
manufacturing hub for the ASEAN region; firstly producing After a period of strong growth China, PSA went into reverse
the Peugeot 3008, which will be followed by the Citroën C5 in 2015 and 2016; but 2017 saw the beginnings of a rebound,
Aircross in 2019. with H2/2017 showing a 55% improvement in sales volumes
In Africa, PSA wants to position itself to take advantage over H1. Interestingly, full details on China are not included
of the continent’s imminent and overdue industrialisation. in the current financials, with PSA instead grouping Chinese
It is following Renault into Morocco, with a vehicle plant to sales with those for Asia as a whole. This may suggest that,
start production within a couple of years (engine production while some improvements in the company’s performance
will begin there in 2018), making the replacements for the in China have been made, the figures are still not as good
Peugeot 301 and Citroën C-Elysee which were made in as PSA would like. Nonetheless, 2018 should see further
Vigo, Spain in recent years. In addition, production in North improvement in China with the local manufacturing launch
Africa will include a pick-up truck for the local market of two more SUVs - the DS7 Crossback and the long
based on a Chinese design. wheelbase C4 Aircross.
PSA intends to produce almost its entire range – including To oversee the Chinese turnaround, PSA moved its head
future Opel/Vauxhall models – off just two core platforms, of Brazil, Carlos Gomes, to China. This has already had
namely CMP (Compact Modular Platform) for models some impact: PSA sales in China rose by 1.8% in Q1/2018,
of the 208/C3/Corsa size and EMP2 (Efficient Modular primarily due to improvements at Citroën which saw a 41%
Platform version 2) for almost everything else above CMP rise thanks to the launch of the new C5 Aircross. Elsewhere,
models. The new Opel/Vauxhall Corsa will be made on CMP, by contrast, work remains to be done, especially launching
while large models, i.e. Astra and Insignia, will transition to new models that are curently making a mark in Europe. In
EMP2 over the next couple of years. Q1/2018 Peugeot volumes were down 14%, and DS sales –
The two core platforms will also incorporate electric ahead of the Chinese launch of the DS7 (the model seen as
powertrains, with PSA’s future developments in this area the key to moving the brand upmarket in both China and
channelled through a joint venture with Nidec. All core Europe) – were down 60%.
PSA models will be offered in electrified format, either As for Iran, PSA was one of the first western car
plug-in hybrid or full battery electric, by 2025 if not before. companies (alongside Renault) to re-invest in the country
By the middle of the next decade, PSA expects electrified when global investment sanctions were lifted in 2015. The
vehicles to represent 15% of the market in Europe. This company signed deals worth around €700m for production
joint ventures in the hope of re-establishing itself as the
PSA will hope leading manufacturer in the country. Quite what President
for further
improvement in
Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the 2015 deal
China with the means for companies like PSA is currently unclear. A PSA
launch of two spokesman recently expressed the hope that the EU would
more SUVs protect the investments that PSA and others had already
made, or planned to make, in the country.
The EU appears have to have taken an opposing view to
that of US, proposing a Blocking Statute, which would forbid
EU companies from complying with the extraterritorial
effects on US sanctions and allowing them to sue the person/
entity causing any loss for damages. On a broad level, the EU
appears to want to keep Iran on its side and in return help
the Iranian government to be able to receive oil revenues.
For now, however, the situation remains fluid. Å

july-august 2018 13
OEM focus Groupe PSA Opel/Vauxhall

Gaining PACE!

Groupe PSA’s acquisition of GM’s loss-making

European operations raised a few eyebrows.
Ian Henry looks at the plan to turn around the
Opel/Vauxhall brands

A
fter several months of due diligence, the deal
was completed on August 1, 2017. Come
early November, a new strategy, PACE!, was
announced. Having been making a loss for
almost 20 years, PSA wants Opel/Vauxhall to
generate a 2% margin by 2020 and reach the 6% level that
PSA sets as its own base requirement by 2026.
At the heart of the PACE! strategy will be driving down Working the unions
costs, increasing efficiency and the growth of revenues. PSA When the PACE! programme was announced, a brand
has emphasised that Opel/Vauxhall needs to cut its costs new seven-seater SUV, based on the PSA EMP2 platform,
significantly to become competitive against both the rest was allocated to the Eisenach plant, while plans to switch
of the PSA network and the market overall. In particular, production of the Mokka from Zaragoza to Eisenach were
PSA wants to see major reductions in what it sees as Opel/ cancelled. The new PSA-based model was expected to go
Vauxhall’s overmanning and excess labour. A variety of into production in late 2018, followed by a second SUV
voluntary separation programmes have been launched to be built at Russelsheim in 2019. However, in recent
(including around 650 jobs being cut at Ellesmere Port, the months, these programmes have been in doubt, with PSA
UK lead plant for Astra production). facing intense difficulties in getting the German unions to
accept the need to cut costs and change ways of
working at the factories.
“PSA has emphasised how Opel/Vauxhall For example, in April, the new Opel CEO,
needs to cut its costs significantly to become Michael Lohscheller (working closely with
competitive against both the rest of the PSA and under the direction of PSA’s CEO Carlos
Tavares) made it clear that investment in
network and the market overall.” Germany was dependent on major cost-cutting
exercises being seen through to completion.
However, there is now concern that the job cutbacks and Tavares himself has also gone on the record to tell the
redundancies in some areas have gone too far, and that the German unions that management would run the business,
remaining Opel/Vauxhall workforce will end up having one way or another.
been de-skilled. Press reports in May suggested that several In late May of this year, however, PSA and the unions did
key engineers had left Opel, with many experienced people manage to reach an agreement. A year later than planned,
taking the generous redundancy packages on offer and in mid-2019, production of the Grandland X will begin on
then quickly getting new well-paid jobs at BMW, JLR and a two-shift basis at Eisenach. Even so, 450 jobs will be cut at
suppliers such as Continental who continue to grow and the plant.
recruit. By contrast, agreements have been reached with unions
This has led to the fear that Opel, which has been given in Spain and the UK in particular – the Ellesmere Port
specific technical responsibilities going forward for the agreement has included job losses, as noted above, moving
Groupe PSA, could be left short of skills in key areas. As a to a single-shift operation and exiting from low-margin or
result, in May, it was announced that Opel had stopped the loss-making, market share-driven sales.
voluntary separation or redundancy scheme, especially early More specifically, in late April 2018, it was reported that
retirement packages, which have proved popular. Vauxhall workers at Ellesmere Port had agreed a pay deal

14 july-august 2018
 Groupe PSA Opel/Vauxhall OEM focus

with PSA. This provided the workforce with a one-off

Labour agreements
payment of £750 ($995) and a 1.5% pay rise from January have been reached
2019 - the same as a deal reached earlier with the workforce between PSA and
at the Luton van plant. Len McCluskey, head of Unite, said the Opel unions at
the union remained focused on securing further investment Zaragosa
for the UK factories, so there seems little doubt that
accepting the deal is a core part of the union’s strategy for
retaining jobs in the UK.
In the short term, a reduction in output at Ellesmere Port
to less than 100,000 units a year is about the best the factory
and its workforce could expect, especially with a second
under-utilised Astra plant in Poland also facing declining
volumes. Long term, it seems unlikely that Astra volumes
will ever again justify two factories, let alone the four that
were used when Astras were also made in Bochum, Germany
and Antwerp, Belgium as well as in the UK and Poland.
When the Astra is replaced under PSA, it would seem likely
that it will be made in one factory, although any short-
term excess demand could well take place in an existing
PSA factory. What this will mean for the future production
allocations for the UK and Polish plants remains to be seen. Ellesmere Port should help the factory in its bid to win
production of the replacement for the next Astra or another
New investment at Luton model. A decision on this may not be made until 2020,
The seemingly compliant approach of the UK unions although an earlier decision should not be ruled out.
has brought some success; at the beginning of April, PSA
confirmed it would invest £100m in the Luton van plant and Tavares remains optimistic
switch production from the Renault-based Vivaro to new Despite the problems PSA has with the German unions,
vehicles based on the PSA Jumpy/Expert models currently Carlos Tavares remains optimistic that purchase of Opel/
made in France. From the second half of 2019, Luton will Vauxhall will ultimately be a success and that a European
make a new Vivaro based on PSA technology, as well some champion will emerge. It is important to re-emphasise the
Peugeot and Citroën models. Output at Luton is expected underlying logic here: the acquisition was made to transform
to reach 100,000 a year, around 30-35,000 above recent Groupe PSA. Tavares believes that PSA needs to be much
production levels; and the new models are expected to more than just a French company if it is to grow, especially
remain in production for two model cycles through to the in Germany and German-influenced markets. In May this
early 2030s. year, Tavares claimed things are on track, although some
In the meantime, although labour agreements have been analysts have questioned whether sustainable growth and
reached between PSA and the Opel unions in Spain at profitable revenue will be quite as easy as cutting costs.
Zaragosa (where the new Corsa will be made), there is no In recent years, Opel/Vauxhall sales have been dominated
sign of a similar accord between PSA and the unions in by unprofitable channels, especially short-term rentals
Germany. As noted above, PSA wants to launch new SUV but under PSA’s direction, use of these channels is being
crossovers at both German car plants (Russelsheim and reduced. This has led to a fall in sales volumes for Opel/
Eisenach) but will not confirm these officially, nor commit Vauxhall segments, but at the same time, it has helped
further funds here until a German labour agreement is reduce the associated losses which had blighted Opel/
reached. By contrast, the labour agreement and flexibility Vauxhall under GM management.
in terms of working practices and factory operations at The turnaround strategy at Opel/Vauxhall is being
underpinned by a ruthless transformation of its business,
PSA wants to cutting costs, simplifying the product offering (one example
launch new SUV
crossovers at both being that it will have just two steering wheel options
the Russelsheim on the Insignia as opposed to the previous 27 options),
and Eisenach plants adopting common platforms and purchasing teams, sharing
production facilities and a myriad of small-scale moves.
Some of these may seem insignificant on their own, but
are likely to have a major impact on the bottom line when
aggregated together.
It is clear that progress is being made, with the May
agreement over the future of Eisenach and its allocation of
the Grandland X from 2019, as well as the fact that Opel is
pleased to have secured unions agreement for a framework
labour plan through to 2023. Time will tell if this is enough,
or if other measures need to be taken to ensure Opel is a
long-term success under PSA ownership. Å

july-august 2018 15
OEM focus Groupe PSA Mangualde

A little
going a
long way
Gareth Price visits a factory with a famous
2CV heritage and a secure LCV future

E
arlier this year, Groupe PSA announced its plant roundabout at the perimeter of the plant. Likewise, an
in Mangualde, northern Portugal, would take on adjacent roundabout is dedicated to the Citroën DS, known
a third shift for its Peugeot Partner and Citroën to the locals as Boca de Sapo (frog mouth). A stunning,
Berlingo production lines. full-scale granite sculpture commemorates the model that
The move was prompted by strong market Mangualde produced from 1966 to 1975.
demand for light commercial vehicles (LCVs). Around Since the 1990s, however, LCVs have been the mainstay of
53,600 were made in Mangualde during 2017, a rise of 7.8% the plant. The current models are underpinned by the EMP2
from the previous 12 months and a significant contribution compact van platform and the growing volumes suggest a
to the 476,500 group total – all of which added up to a great success is being made of it. The switch to the new K9
record-breaking year for PSA’s LCV production. model will see more self-sufficiency for the plant and further
The original plan for Mangualde was to create the third opportunity to play to its strengths. “For the current vehicle
shift at the end of 2018 but the changes have been brought B9, we receive 50 modules more or less [from Vigo] but for
forward and are already underway. “So, 2017 was the last K9 we are producing the rear doors for the first time,” Covelo
full year of the current model, B9 – we launch the K9 this says. Beside the existing spot welding and MIG welding
year. It wasn’t expected that B9’s last year would be its best techniques, for the new body Mangualde is introducing laser
year, beating our expectations,” explains José Maria Castro welding, an unusual move for the numbers involved.
Covelo, plant manager at Mangualde.
Initially, PSA’s Vigo plant – some 280km north of
Mangualde and over the border into Spain – was to operate
“PSA is producing vehicles
the end-of-life production but it was subsequently decided nearer to our customers
to place that final output in Mangualde, so extra volumes and building more smaller-
arrived. The new version is currently in the pre-sale
production period. According to Covelo, the first sales in
scale plants. The model
France and Germany will take place in October, then it goes for each of those factories
market by market through to January. is often Mangualde.” – JOSÉ
MARIA CASTRO COVELO, GROUPE PSA
Small-scale specialists
End-of-life runs were a specialty of Mangualde due to
its compact scale and proximity to Vigo, the much larger “It’s a laser technology that has been adapted to our
sibling in the region with annual volumes in excess of volumes,” Covelo explains. “Usually, for laser welding, you
400,000 vehicles. The C4 Cactus line at Madrid makes up need a large, closed cabin. Such a cabin can cost €2-3m
the third arm of Groupe PSA’s Iberian Industrial Division. ($2.3m-$3.4m) but I am proud to say we are testing a
Mangualde’s role in the group stretches back more than 50 solution that is not just innovative but which costs less than
years. It was the site of the last 2CV production in 1990. the usual solution.”
The association is marked by a specially-designed traffic As “the most compact factory in the group” Mangualde is

16 july-august 2018
 Groupe PSA Mangualde OEM focus

increasingly being seen as a useful incubator for techniques Describing the approach, Covelo says: “When we started to
across the value chain and the welding initiative is just one construct the Mangualde 2020 programme last year, we first
example of which Covelo is proud. tried to identify the industrial architecture we have in the
“This is the DNA of Mangualde – we have made it, we factory. With logistics at two levels, unfinished arrangements
made it at half the cost. An important characteristic of on full kitting, we saw our opening move was to improve
Mangualde is that it adapts,” he states. that industrial architecture.
The plant’s relationship with the broader company and the “Another point was the move to K9, a new modern
contribution it can boast has evolved significantly since the platform and, in the near future, to be able to answer
LCV era began. Covelo notes that, historically, it was quite demands on hybrid, electric and whatever comes.”
difficult for Mangualde to refer to expertise elsewhere in Covelo sees Mangualde 2020’s aim as being the significant
group as appreciation of how to produce volumes of 12-15 transformation of the plant and he remains optimistic for a
cars an hour was not in abundance. characteristically rapid process, based again on the strengths
“Today the group has changed. Over the last four or the plant has long shown.
five years, with the globalisation of PSA, we are producing It is often said that a little goes a long way. Entering this
vehicles nearer to our customers and we are building more period of major transformations in infrastructure and
and more smaller-scale factories. The model for each of technology, and in a lively LCV sector, the Mangualde team
those factories is often Mangualde,” Covelo proudly declares. are confident of demonstrating just how useful a proving
“Mangualde has become a model for small volumes in the ground the plant can be for Groupe PSA as a whole. Å
group and we get a lot of engagement from experts who
come to learn, and also to improve our solutions.”

Collaboration and transformation

The evolution of the plant is set to continue thanks to a
joint initiative with government and academia in Portugal
aimed at stepping up the factory’s adoption of Industry 4.0.
Known as Mangualde 2020, the programme will bring in
applications on automatic storage on press lines, machine- Mangualde is set for
vision quality control, cobots and a full kitting system further and rapid
distributed through AGVs. transformation

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OEM focus Ford Otosan

Collective thinking

Closer collaboration between product

development and production teams could
lead to significant improvements in vehicle
manufacturing processes. Ford Otosan holds
a unique position, as Michael Nash reports

T
he scenery in Turkey is full of surprises.
A quick car journey can lead to towering
mountains, pristine beaches and lush forests, environment including construction, vehicle design from
while historical ruins and ancient structures scratch, prototype manufacturing, and installation of
pepper the countryside. On the north-western production lines were carried out simultaneously.” As a
side of the country, however, huge industrial factories sprawl result, it was constructed over the course of just 16 months.
for miles across the landscape, churning out everything Although they are situated in a small and rather dated-
from textiles to cars. looking town, both plants are surprisingly modern and well
According to a recent Bloomberg article, Turkey’s equipped. The Yeniköy plant opened in 2014, making it the
economy grew more than China’s and India’s during 2017. first automotive plant established in Turkey in 13 years. In
It suggests that the country has rapidly recovered after a contrast, Gölcük opened in 2001, but has since benefitted
slump caused by a failed military coup in July 2016, and from several large investments. In August 2017, for example,
points to continuous strong demand throughout 2018. Total the company spent $52m to expand its output by 12% and,
vehicle production increased by 13% compared to 2016, since 2013, efficiency at the plant has increased by 23%.
80% of which was exported. One of the companies that took AMS sat down with Cem Temel, head of the Gölcük
advantage of this growth was Ford Otosan. and Yeniköy plants and assistant general manager for new
Its Gölcük and Yeniköy plants are situated in the Kocaeli projects at Ford Otosan, to discuss these improvements as
region, two and a half hours south-east of Istanbul. With well as plans for the future of LCV production in Turkey.
annual capacities of 315,000 and 110,000 units respectively,
they are separated only by a small river that is maintained Its quite unusual for one person to be head of two plants as
by the OEM and runs into the Sea of Marmara. From here, well as a separate ‘new projects’ unit. Can you explain the
the company operates a private port that ships its Transit, benefits of this?
Custom and Courier light commercial vehicles (LCVs) all I took over as plant manager at Gölcük in 2012 and then
over the world. four years later was asked to head up Yeniköy. So, now I am
Gölcük is the only global production base for Transit in charge of both and have two plant managers reporting to
Customs, but it also houses the production of the Tourneo me. I’m also in charge of a ‘new project’ office, which was set
Custom. The plant covers an area of 1,600,000 sq.m, up in 2016. 55 white-collar workers provide data on how to
and includes a tool-and-die centre, a pressing facility, manufacture new models and how much it will cost from a
a bodyshop, a paintshop and assembly area. Central very early phase of a model, even before clay work is done.
maintenance, production planning and quality assurance They make evaluations of each part, give feedback to the
departments are based in separate buildings. product development team, and outline the specifications
The Yeniköy plant is much smaller. It is where the Transit for the tools and facilities needed for the new programme.
Courier and Tourneo Courier are made and, according So the design, manufacturing and engineering all come
to Ford Otosan, it is the only plant in Turkey where under one umbrella, which gives us a considerable amount
“all activities aimed at creating a complete production of flexibility and high information flow.

18 july-august 2018
 Ford Otosan OEM focus

Which of these responsibilities takes up most of your time on Do you think there will be any employees left working on the
a daily basis? production lines in the next five to ten years?
I’d say 25% of my time is being spent on current production In the future, these workers might be spending around
projects and issues, while 75% of the time I’m focused on 70% of their time on production and 30% of their time on
future manufacturing technologies and products. These low-level maintenance. Both sides should interact and work
technologies and products are split in to two groups: the together. We have 6,000 people working here and we can’t
short-term, which covers the next one to two years, and the cut that number, its not possible. So the method is to use
long-term, which covers the next three to six years. lean manufacturing principles, working in parallel
with robots.
How do you prepare the plants for vehicles that may be
introduced to your portfolio in the next three to six years? Are workers worried about losing their jobs to robots?
The plants have a roadmap, which we have defined, and we We have an incentive system whereby employees are paid if
start introducing production technologies and adopting they identify improvements to production processes. They
certain principles as we follow the roadmap. We also carry will receive 4% of the total saving or €800 ($933), but the
out pilot manufacturing projects to verify whether or not it improvement must be physical not theoretical. The employee
is practical to make new vehicles. These projects will often must make the change and show us how it works. Many of
leverage innovative technologies to make sure the process these suggestions lead to an increase to automation levels,
is as efficient as possible, and this gives us a very but if it gives us efficiency gains then
good idea of how to adapt our plants to prepare the workers will be rewarded.
for the future. “Between 2016
and 2018 we
Can you outline the primary method that Ford installed 150
Otosan has used at its sites in Turkey to improve
production efficiency? TAR robots and
The first is having a firm base in automation. we learnt how to
We wanted to increase the number of robots we program them,
use, but cost was a big challenge. We were getting
quotations from European and US companies increasing our
which were very high, so we prepared a so-called automation
‘grey model’, in which we decided to only buy level in body
robots from European countries. And then,
with our in-house engineering, we designed construction from
automation cells. 60% to 92%.”
Between 2016 and 2018 we installed 150
TAR robots and we learnt how to program
CEM TEMEL,
them, increasing our automation level in body FORD OTOSAN What kind of challenges come with
construction from 60% to 92%. increased automation?
One of the major challenges is the growing amount of data
How much money did you save by programming the robots coming from production lines, and finding out how to use
and designing the cells in-house? it positively. A while ago we decided to create a common
We were able to reduce the cost of this kind of investment communication platform to connect each PLC from
by up to 60%, which is huge. So now we have a principle thousands of different robots and machines. With this, our
in place to not invest in any more turnkey solutions. And ‘big data’ journey started, but it failed because we found that
the robots have also allowed us to increase efficiency and the amount of data we collected during each millisecond
capacity by about 23% and 20% respectively between 2013 was so enormous.
and 2018, which has saved us a lot of money. So we started another phase of engineering and lowered
the data requirements. We contracted local Turkish firms to
What impact has this growing level of automation had on the help us and then we put together a team from Ford Otosan
number of people working at Ford Otosan? made up of the workers on maintenance and workers in IT.
We have actually kept all our employees who were It took two years to define the system internally, and it is still
previously working on the manual lines. But as the level of a work in process.
automation on production lines increases, people will have
different jobs and will need different talents. What uses do you think this common platform will have?
We have a technical high school here with a training We are now beginning to analyse the data that we are getting
programme for all of our employees on the maintenance from all the machines, and have started some pilot projects
side. It includes a laboratory with a small production using the data for predictive maintenance. These pilots
cell containing different tools, such as PLCs, sensors, have been going on for the past two years, but honestly, the
software programmes and physical handling units. So the technology isn’t ready yet. We’re testing the software here
maintenance workers can get a really good idea of how in our Gölcük paintshop and body construction along the
increasing digitalisation in the factory will change their roles actual production lines. If we see a big benefit we will decide
in the future. to bring it in, but we haven’t had satisfactory gains yet.

july-august 2018 19
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Mitsubishi Electric automation systems & controls conveyors, handling & robotics KUKA Automotive KUKA Automotive conveyors, handling & robotics

Mitsubishi Electric KUKA

Aktiengesellschaft
Europe B.V.
Zugspitzstraße 140
Factory Automation – 86165 Augsburg
European Business Group Germany
Mitsubishi-Electric-Platz 1
40882 Ratingen Tel. +49 821 797 0
Fax: +49 821 797 1991
e-mail: info@mitsubishi-automation.com e-mail: automotive@kuka.com
eu3a.mitsubishielectric.com www.kuka.com

QUICK FACTS QUICK FACTS

automation systems & controls

conveyors, handling & robotics

assembly & testing

conveyors, handling & robotics

percentage of business automotive -

Mitsubishi Electric Worldwide About 50%
Consolidated net turnover - existing customers -
$37.8 billion US (as of 31.03.2017) As global market leader in automotive
industry, KUKA robots are in nearly every
Employees -
major OEM’s factory worldwide
138,700 (as of 31.03.2017)
annual turnover -
Locations Japan -
2.5 billion EUR (2016) robot family, KR AGILUS series and last the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). recognized the importance of Industry 4.0 3DCAD India Pvt Ltd Cirrus Technologies Limited Intelligent Automation Systems Reinhardt System- und
46 sales offices
location of services - www.3dcad-global.com www.cirrus.com www.intelligent-automate.com/index. Messelectronic
30 factories but not least the lightweight robot LBR IIC is an open, international non-profit for Germany, and assigned it a top priority. php www.reinhardt-testsystem.de
8 research and development laboratories In about 30 countries globally. Production Anglo-Euro Scientific Clouddews
iiwa KUKA demonstrate how safe and organization that regards the Internet of Even today, KUKA is capable of www.angloeuro.co.uk www.clouddews.com Interlaken Technology Corporation Reknown Engineering Ltd
plants in Germany and China
Locations Worldwide (exclusive regional energy efficient robots can be. Things as its main area of activity. For implementing the networking of ArcelorMittal Coherix, Inc. www.interlaken.com www.renown-engineering.co.uk/
market) - The vision of KUKA is to establish the KUKA, participation is an ideal adjunct to production and the digital world that www.coherix.com assembly-testing
www.arcelormittal.com ISRA Vision AG
90 companies in 36 countries Renishaw plc
robot as an intelligent assistant. He shall its own commitment. Furthermore, the IIC is required for Industry 4.0. Automated ARI Conductix www.isravision.com
www.conductix.com www.renishaw.com
assist the people with his high quality work can serve as a platform for us to publicize production facilities have been a reality www.autorobinc.com JG&A Metrology Center
D-Space GmbH www.jgarantmc.com Rood Microtec
and also enable the economic use of robots the standards elaborated in Germany all over the world for many years. The Assa Abloy
www.roodmicrotec.com
www.assaabloyentrance.com www.dspace.de
customisation, and with maximum to small and medium-sized enterprises. more effectively on an international “Internet of Robotics” already exists. Kimberly-Clark Professional
Atlas Copco Tools and Assembly Dow Corning Corporation www.kcprofessional.co.uk S4 Integration
availability. stage. However, there is also movement However, these highly efficient, flexible Systems www.dowcorning.com/automotive www.s4.co.za
Kistler Instruments AG
It’s effectively “batch size one” Industry 4.0 or “the ongoing industrial elsewhere: the VDI (Association of systems have been specific, one-off www.atlascopco.com/tools Dualtec Services Ltd www.kistler.com Schenck
manufacturing, which is a key driver revolution” is the current mega-topic in German Engineers) established the solutions up to now, individually adapted ATS www.dualtec.co.uk/automotive-industry
Klostermann Ingenieurbüro und
www.schenck.co.uk
in the increasing process of digital industry. There are still no comprehensive administrative office of the new “Industry to the particular customer’s requirements. www.atsautomation.com Dürr Systems GmbH Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH Schenck RoTec GmbH
www.durr.com www.Klostermann.com www.schenck-rotec.com
transformation. Mitsubishi Electric standards for it, nor is there a uniform 4.0 Platform – Made in Germany” on If industry succeeds in defining open Automotive Technology Group
see profile page 15
www.automotivetechnologygroup.com Dynalog, Inc Lanco Assembly Systems
understands these challenges implicitly, perspective. Buzzwords such as “smart behalf of the Federal Government; this will communication and data standards and www.dynalog-us.com
Baumann GmbH www.lanco.net Sensor Developments Inc
and is working closely with the factory”, “smart production” or the establish standards in parallel to technical establishing them worldwide, production www.baumann-automation.com/en/ Eisenmann www.sendev.com
Leica Geosystems AG, Metrology
automotive assembly industry and its key “Internet of Things” only describe what development. The Federal Government has processes will become interoperable even branchen/automotive www.eisenmann.com/en/products-
Division Sensor Products LLC USA
and-services/automotive-systems-and-
manufacturing suppliers to address them. the factory of the future could look far beyond the factory gate. Only then Baumer Electric aerospace.html www.metrology.leica-geosystems.com www.sensorprod.com
With a proven track record of working like. What people do agree about, will the “Internet of Automation” www.baumer.com Simufact
Emhart Tucker GmbH Magna Steyr
Bearings Saint Gobain www.simufact.com
with the world’s most successful OEMs is that Industry 4.0 is an important, come into being – a Cloud solution www.emhart.eu/eu-en/products- www.magna.com
see profile page 14
www.bearing.saint-gobain.com services/products-by-category/tucker-
and tier one component suppliers, and possibly decisive, field of future which fully exploits the potential of McKinsey & Company
SMAC Corporation
Beckhoff stud-welding www.mckinsey.com/industries
Delivering today’s factory automation that make each vehicle unique, while also Mitsubishi Electric is also at the forefront activity. After all, companies not just combining comprehensive production www.beckhoff.co.uk
www.smac-mca.com
Expert Tooling & Automation Oxford Vision & Sensor
incorporating new powertrain technology, of development in terms of introducing the consumption of dwindling energy are also having a significant impact on the in Germany but also further afield are data, novel production processes,

K
solutions UKA, with its headquarters in www.expert-amt.com/automotive- Sodecia CT
BFi OPTiLAS BV Technology Ltd
Achieving the highest levels of assembly processes and materials. innovation and new technology. Augsburg, ranks among the world’s resources. Robots replace the rigid and future production concepts of automobile expecting the intelligent networking of flexible networking and responsive www.bfioptilas.nl systems.html www.sodecia.com
www.oxfordvst.com
productivity and quality are the main goals We are providing the control technology In terms of reliability, our reputation for leading suppliers of industrial expensive special machines that were still manufacturers. Last but not least, the issue all production-relevant components to components. BFi OPTiLAS Belgium/ FATA Automation, Inc Sorion Electronics Limited
www.fatainc.com
Parker Hannifin
Luxembourg www.sorion-group.com
for any automotive production line today. to enable this unprecedented level of quality and longevity has seen Mitsubishi robots. Core competencies are development, customary fifteen years ago with highly of global warming means that the overall deliver a quantum leap in productivity, www.parker.com
www.bfioptilas.be GOM GmbH Starline Track Busway
An automation vendor must respond to flexibility – enabling cost-effective Electric achieve and maintain its position production and sale of industrial robots, flexible automation solutions. resource efficiency of the car as a product flexibility and efficiency, thereby Open networking and collaboration www.gom.com Passaponti metal cleaning www.starlinepower.com/automotive
Bobier Tool Supply technology
these essential requirements by providing production, with the capability for mass as the number one global supplier of PLCs controllers and software. The company is is becoming more and more important. safeguarding competitive advantages. are the core ideas of Industry 4.0. This www.bobiermetrologysolutions.com Henkel
see profile pages 12 & 13
www.passaponti.com
solutions that maximise uptime, by volume. Our PLC platforms one of the worldwide leaders in automotive. Industrial robots have been paradigm shift is already underway www.henkel.com/automotive Steinbichler Optotechnik GmbH
Bodycote-Worsleys Perceptron, Inc.
optimise efficiency and guarantee operate seamlessly with multiple KUKA employs about 13,000 people commonplace in the automotive KUKA is the one robot supplier that KUKA, as an active member of at KUKA today, indeed the company Horiba Group www.steinbichler.com
www.bodycote.com www.perceptron.com
availability. CPUs adding motion, safety, CNC worldwide. In 2016, sales totaled 2.9 billion industry for many years, especially has dedicated itself to simplifying every Platform 4.0, launched an initiative in is deliberately forcing the pace. After www.horiba.com TAL Manufacturing Solutions
Broadways Stampings Limited PHD, Inc
HPM Ltd (High Performance Limited
At Mitsubishi Electric, we’ve been and robot control to the likes of Euro. About 30 countries provide a presence in body-in-white production. Yet the dimension of robotics. The company is March 2015 to expand the anticipated all, robots will play the key role in the www.broadwaysstampings.co.uk www.phdinc.com www.tal.co.in
Moulding)
a trusted partner to the automotive human guided operator solutions in the major markets of Europe, America demand for automation solutions is committed to supplying flexible solutions communication standard OPC factory of the future. By taking these Bruel & Kjaer www.hpmltd.com Polytec GmbH TATA Consultancy Services
www.bksv.com
manufacturing industry for to take quality management to the and Asia.” growing constantly. Currently there for all areas of automation. This is made UA (IEC 62541) for mechanical measures, industrial nations – above IES Group www.polytec.com www.tcs.com
decades, and have long delivered next level. The use of industrial robots has are four major trends/keywords in the possible by the innovative products of the engineering with the important real all Germany – will be able to expand Burke E Porter www.iesgroup.on.ca Preh IMA Automation (PIA)
www.bepco.com Teamtechnik Maschinen und
Impact Analytical Evansville (formerly Evana Anlagen GmbH
on the promise of meeting the increased steadily in recent years. For automotive industry which have an Augsburg-based manufacturer. The KUKA time properties. The initiative is their competitiveness and, at the same Automation)
Cal-Comp USA www.impactanalytical.com www.teamtechnik.com/en
essentials. We work closely with the KUKA’s customers, automation “made impact on robotics: As a result of ongoing controller generation makes automation supported by several associations and time, counteract demographic change. www.calcompusa.com www.evanaautomation.com
i

Mitsubishi Electric's Guided Operator Innovativefinishing Solutions Inc Universal Electric Corp
industry to help address current by KUKA” is the decisive key to higher globalization, the cars of the future will easy: easy to plan, easy to integrate, easy companies, including Bosch Rexroth, Consequently, Industry 4.0 is neither a Cellbond Composites Ltd www.innovativefinishing.ca ProMation Engineering Ltd www.uecorp.com
Solutions enable the seamless transfer
and new challenges. This includes of production data from manual productivity and greater cost-effectiveness. be built where the customer is located. to use, easy to maintain and easy to adapt Deutsche Telekom, Festo, Trumpf and Big Bang nor a buzzword that is devoid www.cellbond.com
Integrated Systems Design
www.promation.com see profile pages 12 & 13

the increased flexibility needed to assembly operations to higher-level It improves product quality, reduces cost- Industry 4.0 is calling for factories to to the specific needs of customers. With Harting. Industry 4.0 is at the center of of meaning; instead, it is a sustainable CIMTEK www.isddd.com/automotive- Prud’homme Tranmissions Weiss Umwelttechnik GmbH
enterprise systems. www.cimtek.com component-mfg www.prudhomme-trans.com www.weiss.info
build from extensive options lists intensive use of materials and minimizes become versatile. Demographic changes the KR C4 controller, the KR QUANTEC KUKA’s strategy, so we are also joining investment in our future.

2018 23 xx 2018 2018 xx 2018 11

Organised and searchable by category

• Assembly & Testing • Conveyors, Handling & Robotics

• Automation, Control & Safety • Measurement & Quality

• Lasers & Vision • Paintshop

• Machining & Powertrain • Pressing & Stamping

• Materials • Welding

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 Ford Otosan OEM focus

Aside from predictive maintenance, can you use data from How could vehicle electrification change plant layouts?
other areas of manufacturing to improve your plants? Nobody really knows what the share of electrified vehicles
Quality checks come in many different forms – weld data, will be, but I think the ratio of them could go up to around
paint raw materials, sheet metal quality and so on. These are 30% during the next few years, while 70% of vehicles will
often kept in excel spreadsheets or other people-orientated still only have internal combustion engines. One thing is
systems. We are preparing a digital vehicle identification clear: the demand for batteries will rise dramatically, and
number (VIN) platform for all quality data. If one of our these will need to be assembled in the plants before being
operators enters a VIN, they will get all the quality data for married to the vehicles, not shipped from somewhere else.
each vehicle. It’s a huge project. This will have a big impact on plant layouts, but we are
prepared for it already as Ford previously announced that all
Is it so big because of the amount of data you need to put on models will include electrification in some form, including
the platform? the Transit. The underbody of vehicles will also be made
Yes, because each vehicle is different from the other. We’re differently to account for the heavy and bulky batteries.
starting to put cameras in some production areas that the
vehicle passes through. These are linked to a system that has Will autonomous driving have a similar impact?
a checklist for all the features that the vehicle should have, We don’t yet have much involvement regarding the
such as a painted bumper and a large electrical mirror. The autonomous driving trend at the moment, but it will have a
system is trained to identify what is what, and if the features big impact on the way that electronics and software is built
are all there, the vehicle can pass to the next stage. All of this in to the vehicles. There will also be more severe quality
type of data will be stored. checks during the manufacturing process, because these
systems are safety critical and therefore must be completely
What does the term digitalisation mean to you? robust.
Digitalisation it is not a new concept in the industry, but it
will be for Ford Otosan. Here’s a confession: our production
lines still use paper. We’re going to use digital screens
instead, starting with a pilot project in December 2018.
Each vehicle will be defined on tablets, and the operators
will verify which part is going where on the screen. He or
she can then also confirm the quality of each process with a
signature.

Do you see any benefit in adopting more advanced digital

tools in the manufacturing process, such as virtual reality?
Today, we have a computer screen on which product
development sends data to be evaluated by the engineering
team. But the engineers can’t see the real production
Ford Otosan has reduced the amount of money it spends on robots by
environment, so we are currently scanning our entire plant designing the software for them in-house
with a high-resolution camera. Once we’ve done this, our
engineers will be able to do everything in this digital plant, What are your thoughts on multi-material vehicle designs and
making sure it all works before spending money on pilot how could they change the manufacturing process?
projects or implementation. If we are still considering electric vehicles, then weight needs
The second stage will be to integrate component data to to be reduced because of the heavy batteries. There will be
the digital plant, which we will be doing in February 2019. boron composites, which are currently under development,
Then the third will be designing manufacturing facilities while aluminium usage will also increase. We do use boron
and testing production technologies in 3D. Once we have all and aluminium today, but the ratio will climb. There will
this, we can make changes to both the plant and the vehicle likely be a trade-off between weight, cost of the material and
to make sure that the production processes are as efficient as then efficiency of using it in production.
possible.
What will the greatest improvement to vehicle manufacturing
Are there any trends in the industry that could play a key role be in the next ten years?
shaping Ford Otosan’s future? There will be a stronger relationship between product
From the product point of view, the entire industry is development and manufacturing. They currently have very
talking about electrification. There’s no doubt that it will different priorities, but they also want to achieve the same
come. Autonomous driving technology is also a hot topic goals. There must be flexibility, and as they learn, they will
and will probably first be introduced with large commercial understand each other and work effectively together. Also,
vehicles that are operating on fixed routes. There will also they can both leverage the digital plant. Engineering will
be more personalised features in vehicles, which means look at it to see what design parameters they have, and the
high complexity from a manufacturing point of view. Many manufacturing team will give them pointers on what is
different parts will need to be fitted correctly to the vehicle. possible. This kind of relationship probably won’t surface
Lastly, customer satisfaction and quality is and will continue until 2025 or beyond, but when it happens it will make me
to be very important, so traceability is crucial. very happy. Å

july-august 2018 21
 2018
Special Supplements

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the global automotive manufacturing industry

Sent with the May-June issue of AMS

Electric Vehicle
• Focuses on the production processes making
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• Exclusive insights into major OEM manufacturing
operations in the US, Canada and Mexico
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 South America global focus

A slow return to growth

B
razil is by far the biggest market in South
America and a decade ago the country had Vehicle-makers in South America are
been drawing in investment far and wide from seeing signs of recovery, boosted by
manufacturers looking to tap into growth growing exports, reports Nick Gibbs
that saw vehicle sales top 3.8m in 2012. Then
came the crash, and in 2016 the market slumped all the way
back to 2.05m. Last year growth returned. It was nothing year. In 2017, Brazil was FCA’s third biggest revenue earner
spectacular, but vehicle sales rose 9.2% to 2.24m (of which after North America and Italy.
1.86m were cars). However, production rose 25% to 2.7m on Meanwhile, GM’s leapfrog into the lead helped it turn
the back of a boom in exports, according to figures from the around a loss in South America and make a profit in 2017,
local manufacturers’ association Anfavea. according to company figures, helped by a 14% increase in
This year the sales growth has been more impressive. sales for Chevrolet across the region. In Brazil last year, GM
Totals were up 20% in the first four months, with April had an 18% share thanks in part to the Chevrolet Onix. Built
growing a whopping 38% – the biggest surge this decade, at its plant in Gravataí, Rio Grande do Sul, the Onix remains
according to sales tracker Bestsellingcarsblog.com. Brazil’s best-selling car by far, beating the Hyundai HB20
The main players are sounding more optimistic again. and Ford Ka into second and third places respectively in the
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which last year lost its long- first four months of this year.
standing number-one position to General Motors after its The previous downturn had been brutal for the region.
share slumped, believes the market will grow 10% this year In 2013, the industry employed 135,343 working directly
to 2.4m. In the long term, FCA believes Brazil will expand to building vehicles – the highest ever. That dropped to
3m by 2022 and is confident the company will once again be 109,530 by 2016, according to Anfavea, and was barely any
making a 10-12% profit margin in the wider Latin America better last year at 109,910. Savage job cuts were the order
region, executives told investors at an event on June 1 this of the day at companies like VW, which announced in 2016
that it was slashing 7,000 jobs across South America – 5,000
Top six South American countries by in Brazil and 2,000 in Argentina.
Revenue from cars sold in 2016 fell to $41.3 billion, down
light vehicle sales, Q1 2018
more than half from a peak of $87.3 billion that was reached
Country Units +/- 2017
back in 2013. Investment by auto parts-makers also fell from
1 Brazil 527,700 +15%
2 Argentina 265,000 +19%
$2.4 billion in 2011 to just $452m in 2016, with several car
3 Chile 97,300 +15% makers putting their developments on hold. For example,
4 Colombia 54,400 -3.3% in 2016, Honda spent $1 billion constructing new plant in
5 Peru 39,000 -7.4% Itirapina – a municipality in the state of São Paulo. It has
6 Ecuador 31,900 +66% capacity to build 120,000 cars, but the plant was idled on
Source: JATO completion. D

july-august 2018 23
global focus South America

Cautious plans for growth number two spot behind GM.

Now, however, there are signs of life again as companies VW spent €660m ($767m) modernising its Anchieta
cautiously plan for growth. Honda announced in April that plant, just south of São Paulo, for the production of the
it will pull the sheets off the production lines at Itirapina Virtus and the new Polo hatchback. In April came news that
next year to start building cars there, beginning with the it would start producing its first SUV in Brazil, the small
Fit B-segment hatchback. But the announcement came T-Cross, at its São Jose dos Pinhais plant in Curitiba, Parana
with caution, as the OEM revealed that it would stop car state. The T-Cross goes on sale in the first half of 2018 to
production at its rival Renault’s Kwid, which was localised at its plant, also in
Sumare plant, Top six automakers by Curitiba, and successfully launched in July last year.
also in São Paolo Meanwhile, on the parts side, Spanish pressed metal
state, and migrate
sales share – Brazil 2017 specialist Gestamp opened its seventh plant in Brazil last
Carmaker Market share
models over to year, in Betim, Minas Gerais state, to serve FCA by supplying
1 General Motors 18%
Itirapina. The parts for the Fiat Palio and Siena. The company said the
2 FCA 17%
Sumare plant 3 Volkswagen 12%
€24.9m plant would employ 82 people by the end of 2017.
will switch to 4 Renault Nissan 11% Gestamp president Francisco Riberas was bullish about
engines and other 5 Ford 9.5% the country last year in an interview with AMS, stating that
components. In 6 Toyota 8.5% Gestamp’s strategy was to keep its nerve in the downturn.
an interview with Source: Anfavea “Some of the competitors are now finished. We kept what we
Globo newspaper, have and we have taken the most important orders for the
Honda Latin America chief Issao Mizoguchi said the growth future. What we need now is for the market to recover,” he
wasn’t strong enough to support two factories. said, adding that he was confident that would happen. “To
Meanwhile Daimler has opened a new production line for get to 3.5m [a year] is logical for a nation of 200m. It’s just a
Mercedes-branded light- and heavy-duty trucks at its plant matter of reducing interest rates,” claimed Riberas.
in São Bernardo do Campo in São Paulo state. The plant
is the company’s largest for commercial vehicles outside 2012 peak was a ‘one-off’
Germany and the new line is 15% more efficient thanks However, Brazil won’t hit the highs of 2012 in the medium
to increased automation and supply chain improvements. or even long-term future, analyst firm LMC Auto predicts. It
It also opened a new proving ground for Mercedes backs FCA boss Sergio Marchionne’s view that the market
commercial vehicles in Iracemapolis, São Paulo state. In will hit 2.4m this year, before making a gradual climb to
fact, 46% of all Brazilian-made vehicles were manufactured 2.7m in 2020 and 2.9 million by 2023. By 2030 it predicts a
in São Paulo state last year, and it is home to 27 automotive total of 3.5m, but that’s it. “We don’t see Brazil reaching the
plants, including for Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Daimler, peak from 2012 again,” Augusto Amorim, senior manager,
Scania, Toyota and Volkswagen. Americas vehicle sales forecasts, tells AMS.
The newly lean VW is also investing in Brazil. In There are good reasons for this prediction. One is that
November last year it announced it would spend 7 billion 2012’s peak was fueled by debt. “Back in 2012, there were tax
reais ($1.9 billion) to bring 20 new models to Brazil by 2020, incentives for several industries. Consumers bought cars, but
starting with a new small sedan, named Virtus, based on the also appliances and furniture. Debt skyrocketed,” Amorim
group’s MQB platform. The OEM promised it would return says. “The government is still trying to adjust its fiscal deficit,
to profitability in South America in 2020, something it’s not so we don’t expect it to offer more incentives to the auto
achieving now. “Over the next few years, we will be doing industry.”
everything in our power to take Volkswagen back to the Another reason could be that those who bought cars in
lead in the largest South American automobile market,” said 2012 are keeping them. “A 2012 used model isn’t that old and
Juergen Stackmann, VW board member for sales. In the first can offer more features than a new, entry-level car,” Amorim
four months of this year, VW had overtaken FCA to take the says. Brazil is a price-sensitive market and the already high

Daimler has opened a new production

line for Mercedes-branded light and
heavy duty trucks at its plant in São
Bernardo do Campo

24 july-august 2018
 South America global focus

Inovar Auto’s replacement, Rota 2030, is meant to offer

incentives based on the vehicles’ energy efficiency rather
than local production, but has been delayed. “Rumour
has it that the lack of incentives is one of the main issues
delaying the announcement of Rota 2030 – companies want
incentives, the government refuses to give them,” LMC’s
Amorim said.

Exports lead the charge

The production jump last year was partially due to a 46%
increase in exports to 784,718, giving hope that they could
grow to beat 2005’s record of almost 900,000. Exports
had slumped in the downturn but not with the same force
Like other premium carmakers in Brazil, BMW is struggling, with its
as local sales, and manufacturers can now be hopeful of
factory in Araquari operating at just 50% capacity another path to reducing excess capacity. The president of
Anfavea, Antonio Megale, in his introduction to its 2017
prices are getting higher. In Brazil an average of 30% of review, credited the government’s new trade agreements,
the purchase price is tax, compared to 17% for the UK and citing as an example the one concluded with Colombia in
6.8% in the US, according to figures from Anfavea. In 2014, December. He also said that Brazil’s safer, more high-tech
tougher legislation killed some of the older, cheaper vehicles. vehicles were a better fit with more advanced markets.
Sales to local markets are increasing. In Chile, for
RIP Inovar Auto example, a country with no automotive industry of its own,
The premium market is in the doldrums. Last year it stood the market share of cars imported from Brazil jumped
at around 45,000, down from 60,000 at its peak. That from 1.2% in 2014 to 8.8% in 2017, Megale said. Exports
wouldn’t be such a problem if the government’s Inovar Auto to Argentina stood at 534,970, with Brazil by far the largest
policy, designed to encourage local manufacturing, hadn’t source of vehicles for its neighbour in 2017 at 83% of all its
persuaded Europe’s premium automakers to set up plants imports. Argentina’s sales figure for all vehicles in 884,000
in Brazil. But they did and those with expensive localised was up 23% on the year before. To give some indication of
manufacturing are feeling the pain. That includes Jaguar size, that was above Thailand and below Turkey.
Land Rover, which in 2014 started construction at Itatiaia, Brazil’s import figure eclipsed Argentina’s production
Rio de Janeiro state, at a cost of 750m reais, aiming for an figure of 473,408, of which 139,967 were exported the other
annual capacity of 24,000. Production started in 2016 with way to Brazil. Vehicle production in the country flatlined in
the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque 2017 compared to 2016, and both numbers were a long way
SUVs, but last year the firm sold just 7,759 vehicles in Brazil, off the record of 828,771 in 2011. Investment is maturing,
of which fewer than 5,000 came from the Itatiaia plant. however. This year Mercedes X-class pickups began rolling
Audi reduced its off the Renault production lines in
investment by building cars Cordoba, while Groupe PSA is in
at VW’s Curitiba plant, and Top-selling cars in Brazil, the middle of modernising its plant
recently installed a new January-April 2018 in El Palomar for the production of
line in the bodyshop there Country Units +/- 2017 new vehicles in 2019. Late last year,
for its A3 sedan and Q3 1 Chevrolet Onix 58,390 +8% meanwhile, VW announced investments
SUV production, despite 2 Hyundai HB20 33,618 +4% of about €560m to optimise processes
disappointing sales. 3 Ford Ka 32,790 +19% at its plant in Pacheco, as well as prepare
However, BMW is feeling 4 Chevrolet Prisma 23,017 +30% the facility for production of a new SUV,
similar pain to JLR. In 2014, 5 VW Polo 23,538 new which is due to start rolling off the lines
6 VW Gol 21,705 +1%
the German marque built a in 2020. Å
7 Fiat Strada 21,461 +39%
factory in Araquari, Santa
8 Renault Kwid 20,303 new
Catarina state. According to 9 Toyota Corolla 19,413 +8%
Helder Boavida, president and 10 Fiat Argo 17,818 new
CEO of BMW Group Brazil, Source: Bestsellingcarsblog.com
it is now operating at just
50% capacity, and the carmaker’s sales in Brazil fell last year
to 11,758. The plant was built in response to Inovar Auto,
which penalised imports with high taxes, but now BMW is
frustrated by the lack of a follow-up industrial policy after
Inovar Auto ended last year and wasn’t renewed, largely
because Brazil lost a dispute at the World Trade Organisation
over high import duties and other discrepancies that
breached its membership rules. “We need clear policy to
have predictability to define our future plans,” Boavida The Chevrolet Onix was Brazil’s best-selling car in the first four months
recently told Bloomberg. of this year

july-august 2018 25
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 Heavy vehicles production

Ford Otosan’s Inönü

Jack of all trades plant houses an

unusual production
mix, and is taking
on more projects.

I
nönü is a small, sleepy town in north-west Turkey. same plant increases efficiency,
The nearest city, Eskisehir, is a 40-minute drive away
and we can leverage the combined Michael Nash
and is populated by young students who attend its two
know-how and experience. We investigates
universities. Aside from an array of dilapidated houses
also benefit from flexible, low
and ancient-looking coffee shops, Inönü is home to avolume HCV production and a
large Ford Otosan plant that opened back in 1982. more automated, higher volume for LCVs. Machines and
But this isn’t any old factory in the middle of nowhere.lines are designed in such a way that they backup each other
It houses an unusual production portfolio, churning out in case of any breakdowns.”
trucks and tractors as well as 9.0-litre and 12.7-litre, six- The HCVs and rear axles are made in one area of the
cylinder engines for heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs), and plant, while the engines are made in another. The four-
2.2-litre, four-cylinder Duratorq engines for Transit lightcylinder and six-cylinder engine production is separated
commercial vehicles (LCV). It is also Ford of Europe’s onlydue to them being different sizes and having different cycle
production centre for rear axles of the Transit models, andtimes – around 225 four-cylinder engines are made at Inönü
will soon feature in-house transmission manufacturing. every day, while just 45 six-cylinder engines are produced.
However, both the nine-litre
“[Producing HCVs and LCVs] in the same plant increases and 12.7-litre six-cylinder
engines are made on the same
efficiency, and we can leverage the combined know- line.”
how and experience. We also benefit from flexible, low As well as benefitting from
volume HCV production and a more automated, higher the unusual production mix,
the plant at Inönü is strategic
volume for LCVs.” – AYSAN HOSVER, FORD OTOSAN INÖNÜ in terms of location. “We’re
a couple of hours away from
Speaking to AMS, plant manager Aysan Hosver outlines our capital, Ankara, just one hour from Bursa, and two
the advantages of making these components and vehicles hours from Istanbul,” Hosver continues. “We don’t have
under one roof. “Although they are used on different types the high costs involved in being in these locations, but can
of vehicles, the components of the engines have similar easily transfer things to and from them. Also, Eskisehir
manufacturing processes,” he explains. “Having both in the is a source for educated engineers and workforce, as D

july-august 2018 27
production Heavy vehicles

well as an important base Change in the body and paint shops

for joint projects with the One example of testing robots and using in-house expertise
universities. When you put is currently taking place in the bodyshop. It was established
this all together, Inönü is in 2017 and is therefore modern compared to some of the
a very wise place to make other areas of the plant, but work is still on-going, and
investments, which is why parts of the bodyshop still house several inactive robots.
we are spending more and “What we are doing here is programming them for welding
expanding.” operations,” explains Mehmet Ercan, Ford Otosan Inönü
plant area senior manager. “After our shutdown period
In-house expertise in August, the robots will be working and we station the
The plant churned human workers that are currently carrying out manual
out around 6,000 welds in other areas of the plant.”
HCVs in 2017, and The idea of programming robots in-house is not unique
Hosver hopes to achieve a 50% to the Inönü plant, but is also taking place at Ford Otosan’s
increase during 2018, with a target Gölcük and Yeniköy plants, in which the Transit, Custom
of 9,500 units set. “Currently we and Courier LCVs are made. By using this strategy, the
have stabilised at about 35 trucks company has managed to reduce investment costs in robots
2.2-litre four-
per day, but we plan to go up to 45-ish by around 60% (see p18).
cylinder diesel by the year end,” he explains. “We have Robots used in the new paintshop at Inönü, which
Duratorq engines a really aggressive plan to go to 16,000 like the bodyshop was established in 2017, are also being
are produced for and 18,000 in a couple of years’ time. We programmed in order to keep costs down. “We designed
Transit models at
Inönü
are also increasing sales of our engines the entire paintshop in-house,” Ercan adds. “Due to the
and rear axles for LCVs, mainly thanks small production numbers, we haven’t introduced robot
to strong demand from the export market which increased applications on the sealing process yet, but in the near future
by 50% between 2016 and 2017. In addition to that, spare we probably will. However, the paint line is fully automatic.
part demand is climbing and is becoming a huge part of our We have three paintshops in Turkey as Ford Otosan and this
business here.” is the most automated one, with roughly 63% of processes

“We designed the entire paintshop in-house. Due to the small production
numbers, we haven’t introduced robot applications on the sealing process yet,
but in the near future we probably will. However, the paint line is
fully automatic.” – MEHMET ERCAN, FORD OTOSAN INÖNÜ

Ford Otosan exported $4.9 billion worth of vehicles in completed by robots.”

2017, shipping a record 297,396 units to 89 countries. This Engineers at the plant are not only developing
accounted for 72% of Turkey’s total CV exports and 69% of sophisticated software for robots, but have also drummed
Ford’s CV sales in the whole of Europe. up ideas that have helped to increase production in other,
In order to meet rising demand and hit output targets, less glamourous ways. At one point during HCV production,
companies often outsource engineering or manufacturing, for example, the chassis needs to be flipped and rotated
but that’s not the plan for Ford Otosan. On the contrary, in order to go back down along a production line to be
Hosver is eager to outline the company’s strategy of married to the cab. The company therefore integrated a
maximising in-house production. “When you get a solution unique belt mechanism that cradles and slowly rotates the
from a supplier it is introduced and then forgotten about,”
he says. “But when we design and engineer something
in-house, we integrate it, start using it for production,
and then we keep revisiting it to see if we can make
improvements. This gives us a great advantage in terms of
costs over our competitors, and allows us to make consistent
progress with our facilities.”
The strategy is extremely important in the HCV segment,
he continues, as production numbers are far smaller than
in the passenger vehicle segment. Therefore, paying for
costly outsourced production work has a significant and
continuous impact on profit margins.
As well as upping in-house capability, Hosver reveals that
the company is investing in pilot projects to test the use of
robots in certain production processes. “We are starting to
use robots in some areas of production and doing case-by- A truck chassis is flipped and rotated before it sits back down on a
case studies to see if it makes sense,” he says. production line and is married to the cab

28 july-august 2018
 Heavy vehicles production

giant chassis – an idea that was concocted and then quickly “The drivers also have to operate the vehicles for very
introduced in 2017. long periods of time,” he continues. “If we can leverage
Change is also taking place in the powertrain production autonomous driving technology in the trucks then we
area, with more robots being tested for certain processes. can minimise the possibility of driver distraction, vastly
Yavuz Demir, powertrain manufacturing engineering senior enhancing safety while also improving driver comfort. It
manager at Inönü, highlights the introduction of two new also allows the trucks to be driven even longer, which is
projects, both of which are having a notable impact. important because every time they stop the companies that
“The product development team have been looking at are using them are loosing money.”
ways of reducing the weight of certain components in order As autonomous driving technology trickles into the truck
to make the trucks more fuel efficient,” he states. “They have segment, Hosver thinks that plants like Inönü will need to
come up with a new design for the differential carrier in adapt, both in terms of layout and processes. More sensors
the centre section of the rear axle, so during the shutdown will be added to the vehicles, which means production lines
period this August, we will modify the carrier machining and component storage areas will change. And if these
and other components in the centre section to carry out the sensors start to drastically reduce the amount of road-traffic
new design.” collisions, then more lightweight materials could be used in
After this, the powertrain team at Inönü will be preparing order to maximise fuel efficiency.
for the production of a new transmission. The company “If we really look into the future of autonomous driving
currently outsources its transmissions from ZF and Eaton, then we may not even have a cab at all,” Hosver muses. “The
but, according to Demir, the plan “is to localise the product, implications that this would have on our plant is huge, but
so we will integrate a new assembly line soon. We will we’re already thinking of how we might best adjust to these
probably make the same number of transmissions as engines kind of big changes, so we will be fully prepared when the
here, at 15,000 per year.” time comes.”
Along with increasing efficiency, Hosver believes the
use of in-house expertise can help Ford Otosan to better
meet the varying demands of its customers. “There’s more
of a push for tailormade production because the customer
wants different wheel sizes and different suspension systems,
for example,” he observes. “So this makes the production
process very complex, but by using our own tailormade
automated processes we can manage the demands
accordingly.”

Linking to the future

Lean manufacturing is another key phrase at Inönü.
Although he thinks the plant has come a long way in
recent years, Hosver is confident that many processes
can be streamlined to improve efficiency even further.
In some cases, he adds, certain process could become
entirely redundant: “We are looking to make year-over-
Ford Otosan makes around 15,000 trucks and tractors per year at its
year efficiency improvements. To do that, we need to be Inönü plant
getting rid of all non-value-add processes. We can use our
experience for this up to a certain level, but after that we This vision may be some 20 years away from coming to
need automation and smart digitalisation to guide us.” fruition, according to Greg Roger, policy analyst at the Eno
Connecting numerous systems is a notoriously difficult Center for Transportation – a non-profit, independent think
challenge in car manufacturing. This is because most tank based in Washington, DC. “I think the technology
plants use robots and other tools sourced from a variety to support autonomous long-haul trucking technology
of different companies. However, as Ford Otosan has been will approach maturity in the next five to ten years,” he
using its in-house programming strategy, Hosver thinks commented in a recent PwC report. “However, we’re still ten
it has a head start. “We’re started making sure that our to 20 years off from having fully driverless trucks from being
machines are all linked and talking to each other as well as a common sight on the roads. I think the fear of displacing
the maintenance system,” he notes. “The next step will be human workers and the general public’s initial safety
to link the production system to customers, as customer concerns will keep drivers in the trucks for at least another
demand could have a big impact on our manufacturing decade, maybe two, beyond that.”
processes and applications.” As for the near future, Hosver describes several factors
He refers to the trend of autonomous driving. Like many that will have a big impact on Inönü. “We have an increasing
experts in the industry, Hosver believes that the HCV demand and so we are planning an increasing supply,
segment could become the first to adopt higher levels of expanding our production,” he emphasised. “Inönü is an
autonomous driving technology. This is due to the fact area that Otosan will be willing to invest in, so our aim in
that the routes these vehicles take are fixed and don’t often the future is to expand our current business but also add
change, making it easier for computers to guide the trucks additional businesses, not necessarily in truck, axle and
safely to their destination. engine assembly.” Å

july-august 2018 29
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 Machining Industry 4.0 In this section
DIGITISATION
31 Working towards

M
ajor machine tool OEMs are
upping their game when it comes
the greater efficiency
to digitalisation. “Industry 4.0 of Industry 4.0
(I4.0) is not just a gimmick, as
PLASTIC PROBLEMS
some would have you believe, but
a cornerstone of advanced manufacturing,” states 34 Machining
Matthias Meyer, managing director in charge of polymer-based
Heller’s subsidiary in Redditch, UK. “It allows the materials
last few percent of productivity to be extracted
from an already efficient process, and results in
considerably more benefits in the case of less well
optimised manufacturing environments.”
Some 75% of Heller Group’s business comes
from the automotive industry, and the company
has adopted the name Heller4Industry for
the suite of related modules it offers. Within
the portfolio, Heller4Performance, includes
workpiece-specific analysis for the optimisation
of a process and extraction of real-time data
over the internet, plus evaluation and graphical
display in the Cloud. In practice, the module
could, for example, map tool paths and

Heading for
the clouds Steed Webzell scrutinises the technologies
currently available to assist those wanting
to digitise their machining processes

workpiece tolerances in parts of a cycle where tool wear is actual machining process; and the applications available for
expected. That section of the sequence would be simulated analysis, optimisation and feeding back meaningful results
on the machine without cutting metal, so the paths actually to the control.
traversed by the tool could be recorded and compared with Makino is another machine tool OEM with its own
the workpiece design. The ability of the machine to produce solution for I4.0 strategies. Its ProNetConneX is an interface
the part to the required accuracy could then be determined. that connects, collects and analyses machine data. The
system is intended to provide manufacturers with a built-
Fewer sensors, more data in, instant on-ramp to the IoT, with secure connectivity to
Another module, Heller4Services, focuses on the software management systems via the MTConnect standard.
transparency of digital manufacturing and maintenance. With support for fog-level computing over local networks,
The module forms the basis for evaluating machine data and and Cloud accessibility, this interface is claimed to enable
statistics, which in turn can help to reduce downtime.
This raises the question of the need for additional sensors
in the machine. Heller says it is minimising their inclusion,
“Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is not just a gimmick,
as each additional sensor poses a potential risk of failure as some would have you believe, but a
and compromising machine availability. The company says cornerstone of advanced manufacturing.”
its approach to improving production processes is based
on the possibilities for extracting and evaluating more data
– MATTHIAS MEYER, HELLER
from existing sensors and making better use of it through
additional computing power in the control, and Siemens’ customised and secure transmission of machine information
Sinumerik-Edge technology. across connected devices on the factory floor. The system
Sinumerik-Edge, designed to improve production can be integrated into Makino’s machine controls to
processes, is claimed to have new developments in four enable full MTConnect v1.3-compliant data collection.
interrelated areas: the amount of high-frequency data Additional machine sensors can be installed and added to
that can be collected during machining; the architecture ProNetConneX, thus expanding real-time manufacturing
to process terabytes of that data in minutes; the semantic data collection capabilities based on customer
data model that defines how the information relates to the requirements. D

july-august 2018 31
technology Machining Industry 4.0

Creating a connected factory at Yamazaki Mazak, says: “We can demonstrate that the
At Mazak, recent focus has been on iSmart - a factory-based connected factory of the future is here today. Ultimately, I4.0
concept that utilises the company’s I4.0 infrastructure to is only going to become an ever-more critical element of
help machine users make the step up from automated cell modern manufacturing and Mazak is determined to ensure
manufacturing to a completely connected I4.0 ‘factory of its customers embrace the opportunity and realise the full
the future’. potential of their manufacturing capabilities.”
Mazak’s iSmart Factory is centred on three key pillars,
namely the company’s proprietary Smooth Technology, the Constant status monitoring project
new SmartBox, which is said to provide fast data analysis DMG Mori says it recently equipped one of its DMC 80 FD
with increased security, and the MTConnect standard duoBLOCK machining centres with more than 60 sensors
communications protocol. All elements combine to facilitate that transmitted digitised information on components to
the real-time sharing of manufacturing data between the the Cloud for the purposes of data collection, storage and
production floor and offices.
Smooth Technology, incorporating CNC and ‘Smooth
Process Support’ factory management software, sits at the
heart of Mazak’s I4.0 infrastructure, from where it connects
entire machine shops and provides real-time monitoring
and analysis capability. Newly introduced programs include
‘Smooth Spindle Analytics’ software, which provides instant
spindle vibration reporting and analysis.
Data processing is made possible by Mazak’s SmartBox,
which, utilising
Cisco’s fog-
computing concept,
“Ultimately, Industry 4.0 is only going
effectively extends to become an ever-more critical
Cloud computing element of modern manufacturing.” analysis. Constant status monitoring
closer to where the within the machine was the ultimate
data is produced.
– RICHARD SMITH, YAMAZAKI MAZAK objective. Putting the theory to the
This enables test, a major supplier of bearings to
sensitive data to be analysed and acted upon securely, with the automotive industry, Schaeffler, is working out how to
only selected data sent to the Cloud for historical analysis convert the data into practical machining knowledge (the
and long-term storage. The company says the SmartBox aforementioned DMG Mori DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK pilot
can interface with any machine featuring an MTConnect machine is in operation at the site). Schaeffler considers the
adaptor and older legacy machines can also be connected to opportunities to be highly diverse, ranging from improved
SmartBox with the addition of its new SensorBox. management of the machining process, with greater focus
Richard Smith, European group managing director on tool wear, for example, to lower energy and/or coolant
consumption.
Likewise, on the basis of empirically determined
‘behaviour patterns’, the transferred status data can be used
to make qualified predictions about potential damage to the
spindle.
“With this project, we want to demonstrate that Industry
4.0 is not an abstract, remote vision but that it can make a
contribution to added-value today,” says Martin Schreiber,
president of the production machinery business unit at
Schaeffler Technologies.
The DMG Mori machine at Schaeffler is equipped
with sensors that can record the measurement values for
pressure, vibration or force. Most are integrated in motion
components such as bearings and linear guidance systems.
Valuable data generated at these points is not only saved
in the machine itself but also, in pre-analysed form, in the
Cloud. Communication with central servers takes place via a
secured gateway, which aims to protect against hackers. The
condition of individual components can be viewed at any
time, either using the operating terminal on the machine or
via an Internet-connected device, such as a tablet.
Only when they are linked together can valuable
Schaeffler is working with DMG Mori information be derived from large pools of data, which can
to develop constant status monitoring then contribute towards ensuring manufacturing processes
in its machining operations
are organised more efficiently. In order to clearly categorise

32 july-august 2018
 Machining Industry 4.0 technology

“Setting and inspecting the precise machine loads used to

A meeting of minds be a very complex task,” adds the machine’s operator Gezim
At the EMO exhibition in Hanover towards the end of last year, Siemens Feta. “However, I can select the correct spindle operating
demonstrated the various connection and installation options of its mode and monitor the loads whenever needed via the
MindSphere open Cloud-based IoT operating system for applications in control panel. If a load limit is exceeded, I receive an active
the machine tool sector. In fact, Siemens managed to connect over 240
different machine tools from over 140 manufacturers across the whole warning and can therefore respond immediately. This also
exhibition site using its ‘Manage MyMachines’ app on MindSphere. covers vibration on the machine components. Moreover, I
“The overwhelming willingness of machine tool manufacturers at can check for temperature fluctuations and view the effect
EMO to connect their machines to
MindSphere shows the potential
that the sector sees in cloud-based
digitalisation solutions,” says Wolfgang
Heuring, CEO of the Siemens Motion
Control Business Unit.
Digitalising machine tool operations
by connecting to MindSphere allows
machine manufacturers and operators
to analyse and use large volumes of
machine data, thus helping improve
machine efficiency and productivity.
The open access of the operating
system is particularly important, such
as the use of open interfaces (APIs) to
produce OEM and customer specific
apps, as well as open standards for
connectivity, like OPC UA.

the measured data, each

component manufactured on the
machine receives its own ID. All
data generated during milling
or in the subsequent machining
processes can subsequently
be assigned to a specific component. It is hoped that by on forces using the operating panel.”
comparing the data for individual components it will be Benjamin Wirth, quality manager, is also impressed
possible to quickly recognise deviations, correct them, and with the potential of the machine. “The machine allows
in turn continuously optimise the manufacturing process. all process and quality data for manufactured parts to be
Ronny Hüttner, who is responsible for the introduction traced,” he says. “In the future, data analysers will even
of new technologies at Schaeffler’s Höchstadt plant, sees the make it possible to predict quality results. In other words,
machine as an opportunity: “With this project we are taking machine operators should be able to proactively influence
a clear step towards the digital value-added chain,” he says. the manufacturing process.”
“The decisive question will ultimately be, how significantly The final word goes to Oliver Jung, COO at the Höchstadt
can we increase productivity in practice?” plant: “We want to optimise existing processes digitally,
The answer will soon be known as the machine is already to create new service-oriented processes and consistently
being used by Schaeffler in the volume production of promote the digital interaction of people and IT systems.
precision bearings. Machine condition is transparent at any The clearly defined goal is the permanent optimisation of
time, helping production processes become more efficient production and the supply chain.” Å
and easier to plan.

Removing the guesswork

Avoiding machine downtime makes a big difference to
efficiency. Evaluating the data from the DMG Mori machine
and its 60 sensors, it is possible to accurately schedule
a machine bearing replacement, avoiding a breakdown
situation.
“Recording load data, particularly for the main spindle,
allows potential overloads to be made transparent,” says
Hüttner. “The combination of data recorded by force sensors
on the spindle bearings, and by speed sensors on the feed
screw, allows us to calculate the remaining useful life of the Over 60 sensors are
bearings. We can choose when to carry out the necessary fitted to the DMG Mori
replacements based on the selected level of capacity machine at Schaeffler’s
Höchstadt plant
utilisation.”

july-august 2018 33
technology Machining Non-metallic materials

control problems in producing thousands of

plastic components.
“For us, the development of LFV has
transformed our turn-milling operations, so
we can now confidently operate the Citizen
machine from the start, rather than having
to continually interrupt the cycle to clear
troublesome ‘birds nesting’ of plastic swarf,”
explains managing director Jonathan Newis.
Newis describes LFV as being especially
effective during the drilling of deep holes. “We
have totally eliminated any clogging of the drill
flutes,” he states. “Previously we often had to set
the machine with two or even three drills due
to swarf problems, but we can now go straight
to depth with a single tool and the flutes are
completely clean.”
PTP supplies major automotive
manufacturers with plastic components in bulk
quantities. In addition to PTFE, the plastics-
based materials passing through the machine
shop are wide ranging, including acetyl, Delrin,
nylon, PVC, polypropylene, polyethylene,

The problem
Nylatron, PEEK, graphite-filled PTFE and other
high-performance materials, such as variants
of glass-reinforced plastics. Batch sizes range
between 500 and 10,000.

with plastic With automotive manufacturers looking

at ever increasing levels of plastic-based
materials content, Steed Webzell examines
the challenges for machine shops

R
ecent research suggests that by 2020 the average
car will incorporate 350kg of plastic-based “We have the skills to respond to the demanding nature
materials. As a result, the need for efficient and of some of these materials,” says Newis. On machining
economic machining methods for plastics has polythylene, he describes the material as “being a nightmare”
never been greater; and therein lies a challenge. due to swarf wrapping around the tools and often melting
The lack of rigidity is the principal difficulty when on drills. “However, with LFV it readily chips so we can even
machining any polymer-based material. All cutting tools run unattended for several hours,” he adds.
rely on the rigid nature of the component being machined, The patented LFV process is different to conventional
which is why the inherent properties of metals can be ultrasonic vibration machining; it is fully programmable
leveraged with such good results. In contrast, plastic parts and activated through a G-code, enabling on-demand
tend to ‘bend’ or ‘flex’ away from the cutting tool during application anywhere in the cutting cycle. Importantly, the
machining, usually deflecting back after the cutter has servo axes of the machine drive system are ‘oscillated’ in the
passed, which makes it hard to achieve the specified direction of tool feed in phases that involve tens of microns,
dimensions and tolerances. which are synchronised with spindle rotation.
In a typical car, plastic parts might include bushings, caps, Part of the tool path includes ‘air cutting’, which interrupts
guides, nozzles, spacers and supports, for example, often the cut that breaks the swarf into smaller lengths or pieces.
made from materials such as acetyl, acrylic, Delrin, nylon This process also reduces the onset of built-up edge on the
and polycarbonate, many of which present swarf control tool tip, which is often a cause of premature failure.
issues during machining. It’s possible to program the LFV to tailor the ideal length
of swarf through P1 and P2 codes that set the frequency
Low frequency solution of oscillation. This is a very important benefit as ultra-
Among the companies familiar with the demands of small chips of plastic would simply build up and clog the
machining plastics is Plastic Turned Parts (PTP), based near machine.”
Hertford, UK. PTP was the first company in the UK to install PTP tends to run the machine spindle at 4000rpm with
a Citizen CNC sliding-head turn-mill centre incorporating feed rates of 0.03mm/rev (P1) or 0.05mm/rev (P2). P1 is
patented Low Frequency Vibration (LFV) machining used for general swarf breaking and P2 for small diameter
technology. As a result, PTP has been able to eliminate swarf turning and drilling.

34 july-august 2018
 Machining Non-metallic materials technology

Machining composites not least the tendency for delamination and split fibres,
A little further west, in Oxfordshire, Witney-based Shape despite low speed and feed rates. Moreover, cutters are
Machining says its most recent gains in composites under intense stress as composite fibres can cause rapid
machining have come as a result of software investment. wear, resulting in frequent tool changes. To counteract these
This is why the company is now leveraging the benefits of issues, tools made from PCD or cutters with diamond-like
Vericut CNC machining verification and simulation software coatings are generally required.
from CGTech The dry machining of CFRP also raises a number of
Shape Machining was founded by former Formula questions with regard to health and safety. The fine dust
One chief designer Peter McCool to provide carbon- released during cutting is a particular cause for concern. To
fibre composite machined tooling and parts to both the avoid endangering employees, firms must install ventilation
motorsport and automotive industries. Vericut software and filter systems, which are not cheap.
enables Shape’s five-axis programmers and machine
operators to verify their toolpaths for clash and collision Lubricants for composites machining
avoidance. One company working on this problem is Lubricant
“Our programmers have adapted quickly and manufacturer Rhenus Lub, which says it is performing tests
incorporated the running of Vericut into our standard on newly developed coolants assisted by the Research and
operating procedures,” says McCool. “Each time we grow, we Transfer Centre at the University of Applied Sciences in
need to change and adapt. Introducing Vericut is part of our Zwickau.
push to constantly improve.” Tools and workpieces are inspected for wear and
NC programs are now written and verified before jobs are machining quality during suitability tests carried out in a
loaded on to each machine. This strategy gives Shape the production environment. The first fully developed coolants
ability to extend significantly the available machining hours are Rhenus XY 190 FC and XT 46 FC.
in a day, and makes possible the planned introduction of late Due to concern about the potential for coolant to
and night shifts. penetrate the material, interactions between the coolant
Of course, composites such as CFRP and GFRP have a and CFRP were studied in a series of tests carried out under
rule book all of their own when it comes to machining. worst-case conditions. The results were positive: the short
An interesting observation here is that machining these residence time of the coolant during machining did not
materials is usually a dry operation. However, machining change the properties of the CFRP, and there were no signs
composites poses many challenges to production engineers: of the coolant penetrating the material. Å

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Impressive down to the

tiniest detail and imposing
as an entity, the new Tornos
SwissDECO is way more than
a cluster of cutting-edge
technologies brought to
perfection. It represents the
experience and the ingenuity
of the Tornos engineers. This
ultra-performance machine is
able to machine bar stock with
diameters up to 36 mm and
features a 12-position turret
that enables the most
complex workpieces in the
market to be machined.

tornos.com

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We keep you turning
 Sponsored by OMNI ID

From paper
labels
to smart
materials
From the Internet of Things to
Industry 4.0, manufacturing
is changing. Paper labels no
longer fit process complexities;
what is required is optimal
flexibility and quality assurance

F
or 40 years, paper has been a trusted flag in its instructions or trajectory cannot be changed without
manufacturing, providing sequential work significant human resources or costly manual work-arounds.
instructions for operators. This simple visual Neither can it be tracked or communicate with robots or
cue has been the core of a process that balances machines on the line. A next-generation system ideally needs
production and creates more efficient just-in- all these attributes while still retaining the simplicity and
time inventory. It may then be a surprise to many who work reliability of paper.
in the industry to find out that the static, paper-based, or
kanban systems, which have been at the core of material flow Enter the IIoT and smart materials
management for decades, are also the number-one cause of The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been a key
factory inefficiency today. driver to bring new interactive technologies to existing
So, with technology and customisation trends expanding processes like material flow management. This demand
how do factories keep up? Despite the need to change, it’s for technology to make material ‘smart’ has resulted in an
easy to see why other systems have been unsuccessful in innovative combination of e-Paper, RF communication and
replacing traditional paper: it is simple, reliable, visual and simple business logic called ProVIEW.
familiar to the workforce. In most factories, the scheduling team meets in the
However, it is also highly inflexible. Once the paper label mornings to determine the demand for the day and create
is placed onto a container and launched into the process, the jobs and output for the day. The schedule is committed

Common issues that are being solved today using the ProVIEW system
Issue: Rescheduling/reassigning routes for work in process (WIP) Issue: Updating build instructions for WIP
When bottlenecks occur, it is prohibitively expensive for racks to be Updating build instructions, especially during the production process,
tracked down and new labels applied – or operators compensate by is difficult. For instance, if tooling is serviced or updated at any given
ignoring the instructions on the label to bypass issues. The result is station, an extra QA step must be added to qualify the new tool.
chaos on the factory floor. Resolution: Build instructions are easily changed in real time with
Resolution: Using existing systems to know what machines and the ProVIEW system to accommodate for quality or process changes.
operators are available and instantly use this information to send a The view tags are equipped with buttons to provide a means for the
message to the View tags to create optimised routing for each rack or operator to indicate that the QA has been done and is automatically
smart container. notated to the system.

36 july-august 2018
 Sponsored by OMNI ID

“ProVIEW’s Pick Application reduced our

average pick times from 47.5 to 29.2 seconds
and our accuracy on quantity and sequence was
dramatically better with the visual instructions
right at the point of picking. Most impressive for
us is the ease of use of the system. New workers
could jump in and be effective immediately
because of the easy visual cues and instructions.
“Setting up a new picking cell when we
reconfigured lines used to take more than a week.
Using the wireless tags and simple software, last
month we did a changeover in two hours using
just the line operators (no IT team needed). Based
on this success, we’ve added the replenishment
application and are looking at full container
management as well.”
– PLANT MANAGER
TIER ONE AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIER

E-paper directly replaces the paper, fitting seamlessly

into existing process with minimal to no training required
for operators. This system is the first of its kind to provide
paperless, wireless and interactive material flow management
along with end-to-end process visibility.
Every rack, item and container on the factory floor is
to hundreds of paper labels with instructions upon them tracked by its location, state and condition – which can be
and manually affixed to the racks of materials for the day. dynamically changed at any time to accommodate a work
But what if something goes wrong? Will you make the flow change. Repurposing some material for another part of
schedule for the day? the line or staging it to balance flow? No problem. Machine
Instead, a wirelessly updated, e-paper ‘View’ tag can be is down and material needs to be re-routed to optimise
placed on containers routing through the manufacturing output? ProVIEW can take care of that.
process. Unlike paper, the location-aware tags change
instructions along the route to tell operators what to do with Å See how Daimler Trucks and others are using ProVIEW
them next and where to go if there are bottlenecks or other to optimize their Material Flow Management processes at
issues. These ‘smart materials’ also become immediately www.omni-id.com/AMS
traceable in real time.

Issue: Out-of-sequence container or rack delivery Issue: Reconfiguring pick areas

Parts are often hard to distinguish from one another – if installed Setting up to enable optimal picking when a new job is put to the floor can take a
in the wrong sequence it can destroy the value of an entire week or two depending on the installation of shelves, racks, configuring or even
batch. This could result in a costly write-off of the entire WIP. coding the picking software to match the setup. With changes happening more
Resolution: Each view tag ensures that its rack or container is and more often, this wasted time is becoming significant in the overall efficiency.
associated to a specific work process. If it arrives out of order, Resolution: Wireless view tags make it easy to swap out parts or reset a pick
it automatically signals the operator with a message indicating area. View tags can be quickly mounted where they are needed with simple
that they should not use the materials as they have arrived out Velcro tape or snap-in brackets. What took a week can literally take an hour,
of order. making multiple changeovers possible for competitive advantage.

july-august 2018 37
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 Steel materials

Making a strong case

With the push for powertrain electrification

I
n 2017, global sales of battery electric vehicles
(BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)
gaining strength, producers of high-strength
reached 1.3m units, according to Frédéric Painchault, steel are preparing themselves to capitalise,
head of global automotive marketing at steelmaker reports James Bakewell
ArcelorMittal. “This represents a low share of total
vehicles sales – less than 2%,” he explains. “However, the
market is growing quickly – by over 57% compared with region to region. Berkhout says the single biggest influence
2016. Global automakers are reportedly planning to launch remains the Chinese market, where the government has set
approximately 340 BEV and PHEV models over the next mandatory EV production quotas for OEMs operating there
three years. This means sales should reach almost 5m units to reduce tailpipe emissions.
in 2020.” With China being the largest profit market for most
And that’s just the start. Basjan Berkhout, marketing OEMs, the risk of ignoring this is far too great. Another
manager for automotive at Tata Steel Europe, adds: “Tata pressure is improving air quality targets in cities. The
Steel expects electric vehicles (EVs) to make up 90% of tightening of tailpipe emissions in the EU has also now been
vehicle sales [in the European Union (EU)] by 2050.” brought into sharper focus following the fallout from the
recent diesel scandal and the
pending shift later this year to
“Our scenario for 2030 is that each type of vehicle – PHEV, the new WLTP emissions test.
BEV and ICE – will account for one-third of sales. Within 15 Painchault adds: “Uncertainty
to 20 years, non-ICE vehicles should dominate the market.” on Corporate Average Fuel
– FRÉDÉRIC PAINCHAULT, ARCELORMITTAL Economy [CAFE] regulations in
the US may mean that growth
in the NAFTA region is not as
Environmental legislation is the primary motive for the high. In Europe and China, ArcelorMittal is forecasting that
automotive industry’s move towards electric powertrains. the combined number of BEV and PHEV sales will exceed
The EU, for example, has mandated that new cars can emit internal combustion engine [ICE] sales by around 2025.
no more than 130g of CO2 per kilometre travelled. This Most of the growth will come from PHEVs.
target will be lowered to 95g per kilometre in 2021, phased “Our scenario for 2030 is that each type of vehicle –
in from 2020, and is likely to get even more stringent in PHEV, BEV and ICE – will account for one-third of sales.
2030. Within 15 to 20 years, non-ICE vehicles should dominate
The level of take-up of electric drivetrains varies from the market.” D

july-august 2018 39
materials Steel

Gaining a place in the electric future by the weight of the vehicle. “Batteries have much worse
The steel industry is typically bullish about its place in the energy density [Watt-hours per kilogramme] compared
electric future. For instance, in a recent report, Tata Steel said with gasoline or diesel powerplants, so I would say that
increasing demand for ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEV) lightweighting would be even more important,” he adds.
will drive growth in steel supply to the automotive industry Jean-Luc Thirion, head of global research and
by 4.2m tonnes in Europe alone. development for automotive at ArcelorMittal, has a different
In recent years, innovation, not to mention profits, in the opinion: “Reducing mass has a limited impact on extending
automotive materials industry have been driven primarily range. For example, a 100kg reduction in mass only
by the need for lighter and/or stronger products that allow increases range by between 6-11 kilometres. To extend range
carmakers to reduce the mass of their ICE vehicles, thereby it is much easier and less expensive to add more batteries.
lowering their fuel consumption and carbon dioxide The impact of weight saving on top speed and acceleration
emissions. Lightweight materials have been key in early is also negligible. A 100kg mass saving increases top speed
EVs too, such as BMW’s i3 or Tesla’s Model S (carbon fibre- by less than one kilometre per hour and reduces acceleration
reinforced plastic (CFRP) and aluminium, respectively). time by less than half a second.”
With ICE vehicles, consumers are used to being able Berkhout agrees: “All vehicles should be as light and cost-
to drive several hundreds of effective as possible, but with current technology, hybrid and
kilometres before they have to full electric-powered vehicles are 20-30% heavier. A lighter
refuel. To achieve a comparable vehicle will extend the range a hybrid or full electric vehicle
range from a single charge of a can achieve, but at higher costs. Will a vehicle manufacturer
BEV, a very large, expensive and pay significantly more for the additional lightweighting for
heavy battery has had to be used, only a small increase in range?”

“Reducing mass has a limited impact on extending range. For

example, a 100kg reduction in mass only increases range by between
six and 11 kilometres.” – JEAN-LUC THIRION, ARCELORMITTAL

meaning that carmakers have had to cut weight elsewhere in He uses the latest VW Golf as an example. The hatchback
the vehicle. Will this always be the case? is available in petrol, diesel, hybrid and full electric variants,
“Yes, it is likely that electric vehicles have more incentive to with the petrol kerb weight at 1,206kg, the diesel at 1,301kg,
lightweight than ICE vehicles,” states president of automotive and the hybrid and electric at 1,615kg. The electric variant
at NanoSteel, Craig Parsons. “A battery always has a finite has a range of 300km. If 10kg of weight was cut from the
amount of power storage and therefore range, and reducing body-in-white (BIW), it would only amount to a 0.62%
weight equals a direct increase in total vehicle range, which weight saving, which would increase the range of the vehicle
is the largest design hurdle faced by EVs. Batteries are very by just 10km.
heavy and every pound saved in the vehicle will either make Energy recuperation technologies already exist in BEVs,
more room for a longer life battery, and/or a less powerful which help to extend their range. Furthermore, future
battery for the vehicle to travel a given distance.” developments in infrastructure must also be considered.
Jonas Adolfsson, business development manager, A BEV may be charged overnight at its driver’s home,
automotive, at SSAB, concurs. He says that regardless could trickle charge wirelessly during a commute, and then
of the powertrain employed, the physics involved in a automatically charge while parked at the workplace. In this
vehicle’s movement remain the same. The resisting forces scenario, a heavy and expensive battery pack capable of
to motion are acceleration, rolling resistance, gradient and storing enough energy for a 300km journey without the
wind resistance. All but the latter are strongly influenced need for recharging is redundant.

Component packaging and vehicle structures

Should all of this be proved correct, then the steel industry
has an ideal opportunity to re-assert its dominance in
the automotive materials market. The electrification of
drivetrains could create a host of new applications for strong
and formable steels in the body structure of these vehicles.
Berkhout hypothesises that if the ICE is no longer
packaged at the front of the vehicle together with the
radiators, and the position of the front wheels is not dictated
by the engine position, then the length of the front-end can
be reduced. If the front-end is shorter, the length of crash
structure is shorter, but it must absorb the same amount
The packaging of electric motors and
batteries will justify a different approach to of energy in a frontal impact. This could require the use of
the design of vehicle structures a larger section of front rail, made from a higher grade of
steel, and the surrounding BIW structure holding the front

40 july-august 2018
 Steel materials

rail will also have to manage higher loads. Electrical steel

He continues: “With the battery packs mounted under is an essential
the floor, the side impact load will also need to be managed material in the
construction of
differently. Today, in ICE vehicles, we have a sill or rocker
electric motors
reinforcements supported by the seat cross-members;
these support the B-Pillar during impact. If the battery is
positioned in the vehicle where the seat cross-members
usually are, then the battery tray must be able to withstand
side impact load. The Opel Ampere battery unit weighs over
400kg, and 70kg of this is structural battery tray. This also
leads to changes to the rocker panels for supporting the
battery tray and absorbing more load.”
Head of the application technology department at
ThyssenKrupp, Lutz Keßler, agrees that the battery tray
is an ideal place to target with high-strength steels. “The
battery is the heart of an electric car and the most sensitive
and expensive component, accounting for 30-50% of total
vehicle costs. So, it’s all the more important to develop
solutions to protect the battery that do not drive the costs whereas cylindrical cells are packaged within a nickel-
for EVs even higher,” he states. coated ‘can’ and are likely to be the most common, especially
Jean-Luc Thirion adds: “Some products for hot stamping in the immediate future, as they offer cheap energy storage,
available today, such as [ArcelorMittal’s] Usibor 2000, can are reliable, relatively easy to manufacture and possess good
now reach a tensile strength of 2000MPa. Two decades mechanical stability. These are a good candidate when it
ago, the maximum strength was only 340MPa, so this is a comes to the use of electrical steels.
spectacular increase. Martensitic grades for roll forming and Steel producers predict that aluminium and CFRP will
ArcelorMittal’s Fortiform range – the third generation of have a relatively low impact in these vehicles for several
cold-stamped advanced high-strength steels [AHSS] – also reasons. Firstly, they will remain prohibitively expensive.
have very high strengths. These steels allow vehicle designers Secondly, they argue that steel demonstrates better
to protect the cockpit and battery pack in an optimal way.” mechanical properties – that it is stiffer than aluminium, has
Indeed, Tata predicts that European demand for advanced a much higher fatigue strength and is easier to form, join
steels for the structure of these vehicles will increase by and paint over other materials.
approximately 2.6m tonnes by 2050 as manufacturers look “Despite the excellent property profile that steel offers,
to save weight in cost-effective ways. competition between materials will remain challenging,” says
Keßler. “So, steel manufacturers must also continuously seek
Electrical steels for motors new and better solutions. At ThyssenKrupp, for example, we
Another key growth area for steel will be in the powertrains are working to close the gap between hot and cold forming
used in ULEVs, including electric motors and battery cells. by highlighting opportunities for cold forming offered by
Expected by Tata to account for a 1.6m-tonne increase in new ultra-high-strength dual-phase steels in the 1200 class.
European demand for steel by 2050, these components will We have also recently developed a technology that – for
use greater levels of electrical and plated steels, respectively. ultra-high-strength steels in particular – eliminates spring-

“Despite the excellent property profile that steel offers, competition between
materials will remain challenging. So, steel manufacturers must also continuously
seek new and better solutions.” – LUTZ KEßLER, THYSSENKRUPP

Electrical steel is an essential material in the construction back in the press plant, reduces material usage and ensures
of electric motors, and the grades of electrical steel used greater process reliability.”
can alter the performance of these machines. Tata believes Finally, it can be argued that aluminium and CFRP are
this will become extremely important to carmakers as they less sustainable than steel when looking at the full lifecycle,
look to differentiate their powertrains from those of their which could be a major future driver in automotive. “Life-
competitors. Higher performing electrical steels can improve cycle assessment (LCA) looks at total emissions generated
the efficiency of motors, it says, which will help to either during the three stages of a vehicle’s life: production,
extend the range or increase the dynamic performance of drive phase and recycling,” says ArcelorMittal’s Thirion.
the car. Studies show that aluminium emits four-to-five times more
Meanwhile, lithium-ion batteries – the energy storage greenhouse gases than steel over the full life cycle of a
solution currently favoured by most carmakers – are vehicle.”
manufactured in three different battery cell formats: Unsurprisingly, Berkhout reveals that Tata Steel is actively
cylindrical, prismatic, and pouch. Prismatic and pouch lobbying the relevant EU government organisations to
formats are generally packaged in a non-ferrous casing, introduce LCA for measuring vehicle emissions. Å

july-august 2018 41
special report Electric motor development

Get your electric Mike Farish reports on

motor running the development and

manufacturing of a
promising innovation

T
he rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and the version. “We don’t lay claim to inventing the spoke motor,”
need for new, efficient powertrain technologies he says, adding that “there were manufacturability and
has provided smaller companies with an cooling problems with existing designs and we have solved
opportunity to establish themselves as major those” in the form of a water cooling system. “We pump
players – particularly as component or water into the middle of the rotor and it is then routed in
sub-system suppliers – if they can offer genuinely channels around the outside of the rotor and the back out,”
innovative technology. One such company that feels it Foley describes.
fits that bill is Equipmake, based in Hethel, a few miles A key enabling feature of the motors is “a rotating
outside Norwich, UK. water seal” and another important design factor is that
According to managing director and owner Ian Foley, the motor has a hub made from aluminium – a highly
the company offers a highly efficient and compact electric thermally conductive material. So, those two factors have
motor utilising a configuration in which the magnets are been combined in a way that is mutually reinforcing. “We
arranged radially, like the spokes in a wheel (described as have put water channels in the hub to conduct away heat
a ‘spoke motor’). He concedes that the configuration is not very effectively,” he explains. This means that the operating
completely new, but where the company feels it is breaking temperature of the motors can be kept to around 100˚C –
new ground is in its work to ‘productionise’ the design to well below the melting point of aluminium.
make it capable of economical high-volume manufacture. Other benefits of using aluminium include its relatively
Equipmake is not a recent start-up. It has been operating light weight compared with steel as well as the fact that it is
for some 20 years, since Foley decided to set up for himself “easily machinable”. It also allows for the use of the cheapest
after gaining initial experience in the F1 world, including grade of magnetic material – neodymium iron boron – in
a spell with near-neighbour Lotus. The foundations for its the motor. Nevertheless, Foley states, “they are still rare
current activities were laid in 2007 with the development earth magnets.” However, as he explains, when magnets
of an electrical flywheel that featured in the kinetic energy are required to operate at much
recovery system (KERS) used by the Williams F1 team in higher temperatures
the 2009 season. “That flywheel was effectively a high-speed their material
electric motor and we learned a lot from it,” says Foley. composition

Developed for volume production

The company’s initial product of this type, the APM120,
was developed in response to an enquiry from a specific
customer and was produced in low numbers, so a volume
manufacturing capability was not required. Nevertheless,
the performance of the device was good enough to gain
wider interest and in 2016 the first prototype of a derivative
device, the APM200, appeared. Foley says the aim was to
take the performance benefits of the initial device
“but to design it in a way that made it capable of
being manufactured in volume.” The basic
performance figures of the motor are
that it weighs around 40kg, can run
at 10,000rpm and has peak power/
torque of 220kW/450Nm.
Foley notes that the
crucial difference between
the two devices, The use of aluminium means the rotor
apart from general hub is forged, rather than subject
manufacturability, was to time-consuming and expensive
improved in-operation machining that would be required by
the use of a non-magnetic steel
cooling in the newer

42 july-august 2018
 Equipmake’s Ian Foley
gained experience in F1
helping to develop the
kinetic energy recovery
system (KERS)

needs to be augmented with a further rare earth additive

called dysprosium, which can significantly add to their cost.

Virtuous circle design strategy

Foley also confirms this approach is now patented.
Without giving too much away, he adds that at least one
aspect of the patent concerns the “detail design of the
rotor” so that it provides sufficient strength to withstand E TENO
the forces generated by high-speed rotation “even though
it is easy to make.” eMobility balanced by Schenck
The use of aluminium means the rotor hub is forged,
rather than subject to time-consuming and expensive
machining that would be required by the use of the eMobility: The new “must have” technology. Extended
conventional alternative of a non-magnetic steel. As such, reach, improved performance, and more stringent environ-
costs, material selection, low operating temperature and mental requirements resulted in greater consumer accept-
ease-of-manufacture are all achieved through an overall ance and therefore demand. Electric drives must feature
design strategy in which they reinforce rather than low vibration, both in prototypes and in mass production.
compromise each other. “It is a kind of virtuous circle,” We know how this is accomplished. We provide you with
Foley suggests. proven industry expertise at every stage of your develop-
The company has also developed some manufacturing ment process – from idea to concept and from planning to
processes to help with volume production. One example is mass production.
a new way of winding the coils for the motors. Foley says
the methodology has not been given intellectual property
Our eteno is a new fully integrated system for the demand-
protection, but will instead be kept an “in-house secret.” This
ing mass production environment. It balances iDrives auto-
is coupled with a pragmatic willingness to buy off-the-shelf
matically, quickly and flawlessly. www.schenck-rotec.com
componentry where it makes sense. “We were keen to make
use of existing manufacturing technology where possible,”
he confirms.
Most electric motors already on the market use a radial
flux design “so that, for things like a segmented stator, we Visit us at the IMTS-2018
in Chicago and see our eteno
can go to existing suppliers and get ones that are very low
for yourself.
cost and very high quality.” Everything, he stresses, “is to East Building - Booth: 135246
our design” but wherever possible established, low-cost
MARKENRAUM

manufacturing techniques are involved. For instance, “the

stator laminations are stamped.” D
RE4062
special report Electric motor development

The end result is a motor that is claimed by Equipmake to addition, Equipmake has been working with an Argentine
be “50% of the size and 80% of the mass” compared to more bus-maker to develop a powertrain utilising two APM200
conventional counterparts. The proviso, Foley explains, is units for that type of much larger but more sedate vehicle.
because direct comparison between different electric motors All three projects, in fact, are due to go into full production
is complicated by the need to take account of whether round about the same time.
continuous or full-load performance is involved. By then, of course, Foley and his team at Hethel will
The importance of this, Foley argues, is that in order have completed their current efforts to turn the existing
to meet the combined targets for performance and prototype production methods into ones capable of
compactness that automotive electric motors must achieve, supporting much higher volume outputs. He envisages that
there really is no feasible alternative to the use of permanent will require a doubling of the current number of employees
magnets. “We have carried out comparisons of our motor and the construction of a production facility housing a mix
and non-magnet counterparts, such as induction or of CNC machining, assembly stations and final testing. In
switched reluctance motors, and whenever we have done so consequence, the hunt is on right now for premises that
those other motors have ended up about twice the size of could house manufacturing operations on the necessary
ours for the same performance,” he states. scale. Foley says something in the order of 20,000 sq.ft will
Even though such motors may avoid the costs of be required, and confirms that the intention is to remain
permanent magnets, Foley says the Equipmake device’s within the local area.
use of the cheapest grades of magnetic material makes that
a much less influential factor than it might be otherwise. Localised supply chain
“The magnets in our device only account for about 15% of Interestingly, Foley adds that, in a slight break with the
the final bill-of-materials by cost, so that is the maximum company’s usual in-house practice, it has turned to an
amount you could save for a device that would be twice the external consultancy service to help plan the projected
size,” he explains. new manufacturing facility in order to leverage specialist
input in areas such as machine layout and process flow. The
necessary supply chain, though, is already established and in
some cases close at hand. “The suppliers we are using now
will be the ones involved in volume supply,” Foley confirms,
adding that the supplier for castings is very nearby in Bury
St Edmunds, while forgings are produced in the UK’s main
automotive city of Birmingham. Meanwhile, the stamping
supplier is identified only as “one of the largest in Europe.”
Those three categories of component are probably
the ones most crucial to achieving the company’s
manufacturability targets. In more detail, Foley indicates
that castings are used for the motor and gearbox housings,
the rotor is forged in two halves and then machined, while
the laminations for the stator and rotor are stamped.
Equipmake employs a team of Within the last couple of months, for instance, the
skilled engineers to support
design, development and
company has taken delivery of its first cast housings,
production of its electric motors replacing the units machined from solid that have been used
previously. The immediate aim, therefore, is to assemble
This has all been achieved through a concentrated focus a small number of motors using components, such as the
on the use of internal resources. Foley says that, though housings and forged rotors, that will be used in volume
the company employs just 22 people, most of them are devices, and then carry out appropriate validation testing.
graduate-level engineers and between them they provide all “We are already building a durability test rig,” Foley
the technical knowledge necessary to develop the motors. confirms, adding that perhaps as many as 40 units may
“We’ve got people skilled in mechanical design, power be required before the end of this year to support the full
electronics, controls and electrical design,” he states. As a testing programme, which will also include test routines
result, “all the development has been carried out in-house. for shock and vibration, salt spray resistance and thermal
But that development has not been carried out in cycling. Operations are expected to stretch well into
isolation from real requirements, and Foley also confirms next year.
that Equipmake has been working with two OEMs in The longer term target, though, is to ramp up
real applications intended for on-the-road passenger manufacturing operations. This will enable the production
vehicles, albeit ‘supercar’, use. The identity of one of them of around “a thousand units a year” by 2020. But that figure
remains strictly confidential and Foley cannot provide any is only likely to meet projected demand from the first three
information about them at all. The other, though, is Ariel customers previously mentioned. When considering the
Motor Company, based in Crewkerne, Somerset, UK. That rising demand in vehicle electrification across the world,
company has chosen the APM200 as the main power source and given what Foley describes as the wider interest the
for a projected hybrid electric supercar, provisionally known APM200 is attracting, he is confident the company will
as the Hipercar, first unveiled last year and due for formal need to be meeting production targets several times greater
launch next year with full production starting in 2020. In within a few further years. Å

44 july-august 2018
 Sponsored by FOBA

Fixture-free marking
At IMTS 2018, FOBA will showcase an
innovation in direct-part laser marking that
removes the need to hold components in a
fixed position

A
s Dr. Faycal Benayad-Cherif, business
manager for software and vision at FOBA
explains: “Today, in 95% of the laser-marking
applications, automotive components must
accurately be fixed to guarantee a proper
alignment of the laser mark to the part.”
With FOBA’s innovative laser-marking solution, Mosaic,
parts can sit in any orientation or position within the
marking field. The new patent-pending software feature
is a powerful advancement in vision-based laser marking.
It speeds up device handling and laser-marking processes
while drastically reducing overhead costs. The technology
brings products up to market over a shorter cycle time while
significantly reducing cost of development and engineering.
inaccuracies of external cameras. Within a second, the part,
Product integrity, reliability and traceability presented in the fixture-less mode of operation, is imaged,
Direct-part laser marking is being deployed for a wide laser-aligned and laser-marked with precision.
range of applications in the automotive industry. Most For automotive, the benefits are significant cost savings in
components must be marked with traceability contents such the design, manufacturing and maintenance of industrial
as data matrix codes, serial numbers and other marks, e.g. fixtures. It also offers faster and more consistent production
decorative elements or illustrative symbols on backlit plastic throughput as parts can be marked accurately regardless of
panels for day-night visibility. their placement under the laser. The ability to run mixed
OEMs depend on marking systems to ensure the safe parts on the same conveyor and a reduction of additional
functionality and traceability of parts and products hardware for re-orienting and repositioning parts also saves
throughout their entire lifecycle. The marking procedure costs. Other advantages include faster reconfiguration of
must be seamlessly integrated into the production process conveyor lines, a reduction or even elimination of fixtures
and ensure highly efficient, reliable and error-free marking. completely and a lower maintenance schedule.
FOBA laser marking systems, mainly based on fibre and
UV-laser technology, offer advantages for an economic and What makes the new feature innovative?
reliable production process. FOBA uses imaging technology FOBA’s mark alignment feature, with its integrated camera,
that covers pre- and post-mark verification as well as solves various marking issues common to the market. To
automated mark alignment. The integrated camera prevents guarantee properly marked parts, the industry has, to date,
marking errors, which is economically significant as parts relied on custom fixtures or custom vision systems designed
get marked at the end of the production cycle, where errors to compensate for part placement inaccuracies. Fixtures are
can prove particularly expensive. notorious for being expensive, due to the extensive design
Dr. Benayad-Cherif answers the most important questions engineering time and maintenance required, and they
about FOBA’s innovative vision-based technology for typically work for one part only.
fixture-less laser marking. Common imaging solutions work well but still rely on
some sort of low accuracy fixtures. Other approaches resort
How can FOBA’s laser-marking innovation best be described? to an external camera pointing at an angle toward the laser-
FOBA uses a concept based on through-the-lens vision marking area to eliminate the motion. Even though fast, this
combined with the tiling of images. The exceptional image approach introduces optical distortions and significant mark
simulates a straight-down view from inside the laser with inaccuracies that can limit its use and flexibility, particularly
an imaging field as large as the laser marking area. The when parts are not flat.
straight-down view is critical as it eliminates the perspective Å www.fobalaser.com

july-august 2018 45
preview AMB 2018

Follow the digital way This year’s AMB

W
ith sales markets and machining utilisation how business and production
showing healthy growth in Europe, processes can be optimised in industrial metal
investment in digitalisation is seen as an very specific terms and what working show
important factor to maximise efficiencies. digital business models are promises to be
As such, exhibition organisers have added available,” explains Kromer bigger than ever
a special show to the 19th edition of AMB, which runs from von Baerle.
with digitalisation
September 18-22 in Stuttgart. “With the new Paul Horn Hall
(Hall 10), the special AMB show, entitled ‘Digital Way’ and Digitalisation with practical a key theme
the related Congress, we have created ideal conditions to relevance
make AMB 2018 even larger and better,” says Ulrich Kromer Current studies are said to indicate that German companies
von Baerle, CEO of Messe Stuttgart. see greater potential in digitalisation, and a group of
Indeed, an additional 15,000 sq.m of space has been surveyed decision-makers are optimistic that Industry 4.0
made available in the new Paul Horn Hall, with this year’s can help them achieve higher sales while simultaneously
exhibition providing a total of 120,000 sq.m for 1,500 reducing costs. According to the organisers, these surveyed
exhibitors to present their latest developments in equipment, companies are expecting an average 10% increase in sales
tooling, systems and software. Organisers say the exhibition and cost savings over a period of three years resulting
aims to act as a platform for providers and users to show from higher productivity among employees and improved
the latest digital technologies. “Everyone is talking about efficiency of machines.
digitalisation – in the Digital Way special show we will show “Mechanical engineering and plant construction in
Germany is one of the strongest national industries, but
also in an international comparison. This position must be
strengthened and extended still further. This objective can
only be achieved through a leading edge in digitalisation
within the framework of Industry 4.0. …,” says Kromer
von Baerle.
“Exhibitors have confirmed to us that capacities in the
industry are currently running at the highest level since
2008. Now would be the right time to make necessary
investments,” adds Gunnar Mey, department director,
Industry, at Messe Stuttgart.
AMB 2018 will be
spread over a total of In addition to an expert conference, which is being
120,000 sq.m developed in cooperation with the Software and
Digitalisation Association in the German Engineering

46 july-august 2018
 AMB 2018 preview

Federation (VDMA), and a supplementary accompanying from now on directly at the Entrance East and in Hall 2 at
exhibition, showcases will demonstrate the interaction the entrance to the trade fair grounds.
between networked processes in companies and explain the
value they add. Focus on flexibility
The accompanying exhibition will feature manufacturers While high-volume production dominates in the automotive
of software solutions in the areas of digital business models, industry, flexibility down to batch size one is the order of the
digital production, digital product development, digital day for commission manufacturers. Universal suppliers who
services and customer service, and software development, as serve all industries with a single product have long since
well as service providers and manufacturers of hardware. become a thing of the past.
Further opportunities for interaction between Digital Way This fact is confirmed by drive and control specialist,
exhibitors, visitors and exhibitors at AMB and conference Bosch Rexroth. As Hansjörg Sannwald, head market and
delegates will be available due to the extended opening product management, CNC Systems, remarks: “A high
hours of Digital Way on the first day of the exhibition, with degree of flexibility is especially important in the automotive
an additional networking event. sector so that smaller batches can also be produced cost-
“Companies want to know how Industry 4.0 and effectively.”
digitalisation of processes can be implemented. What Machine connectivity is the first step towards Industry
providers have already successfully implemented projects? 4.0. Accordingly, open interfaces to common real-
What applications or models are available and are relevant time Ethernet protocols and OPC UA are becoming
to the respective company? The Digital Way special show at increasingly important. “In this connection, we support
AMB 2018 will enable us to bring solution-oriented supply the standardisation of a new OPC-UA-based interface
and demand together,” explains Mey. ‘Connectivity for Industry 4.0’, initiated by the German
Commenting on its cooperation in the Digital Way special Machine Tool Builders’ Association,” he adds.
show, Prof. Claus Oetter, deputy managing director of the
Software and Digitalisation Association in the VDMA, Challenges for toolmakers
says: “Innovation in digitalisation is actually created by Andreas Enzenbach, vice-president, marketing and
the synergy between IT and the software industry, and product management, at Mapal, sees the future in terms of
mechanical engineering and plant construction. In the digitisation requirements and more importantly, aiming
digitalised world only industry can manufacture new for a zero-carbon footprint. In the automotive industry
products which are beneficial to producers and customers. this means hybrid drives and all-electric vehicles, and new
“Digitalisation permits entirely new solutions and challenges. “Due to the high speeds involved in machining
business models for future products and services in industry. the housing for electric motors, maximum precision is
Whether in areas such as usability or user experience, essential,” says Enzenbach
the digital twin for simulation and commissioning, or
machine learning for optimising machining processes and
maintenance, the range of topics is enormous and also helps
to increase customer loyalty.”
The German Engineering Federation will provide
information on the spot about its numerous activities and
will present new technologies during a live demonstration.
These topics will also be examined more closely during an
exclusive conference on digitalisation in production.

More space, more innovations

With the increase in the exhibition space the topics in the
exhibition areas will be restructured: machining tools and
chucking tools will be presented in the L-Bank Forum
The industry faces a trend towards the use of materials that are
(Hall 1) and Hall 3. Hall 4 and Oskar Lapp Hall (Hall 6)
increasingly difficult to machine and higher standards in surface quality
will focus on lathes and automatic lathes. Hall 5 will feature
grinding machines, tool grinding machines and all related Reiner Wendt, sales director for south Germany at
equipment and services. Alfred Kärcher Hall (Hall 8) will precision toolmaker Paul Horn, says he’s not prepared to
present innovations in sawing and cutting-off grinding make any predictions as to the impact of electric vehicles in
machines, surface technology, marking systems, hardening his industry. While all-electric vehicles reduce the number
and heating machines, lubrication and cooling, and safety of machined parts, hybrid drives actually increase the
and environmental engineering. proportion of parts that need to be machined. However,
Halls 7, 9 and the new Paul Horn Hall (Hall 10) will a trend shared by all industries is “towards materials that
round off the exhibition programme with milling machines, are increasingly difficult to machine, paired with higher
metal-removing process machine tools, measuring systems standards in surface quality, narrower tolerances and
and quality assurance, as well as flexible production cells/ the miniaturisation of parts,” notes Wendt. This calls for
systems, machining centres, gear-cutting machines and completely new solutions. Å
drilling machines. Suppliers of control and drive systems,
CAD/CAM/CAE and production software will also be found For more information visit www.amb-messe.de

july-august 2018 47
preview IMTS 2018

March of the machines Robots and additive manufacturing

E
very other year, the International Manufacturing
Technology Show (IMTS) plays host to over technologies will arrive in large numbers
2,000 exhibitors showcasing their latest solutions at this years International Manufacturing
to around 115,000 visitors. It is dubbed the Technology Show, which takes place in
largest and longest running trade show of its Chicago from September 10-15
kind in the US, and will be marking its 32nd year in 2018.
As well as experiencing new technologies first-hand at the
exhibitor booths, visitors are invited to attend educational The surface treatment global business unit of BASF’s
conference sessions. There will be 69 in total, starting Coatings Division, operating under the Chemetall brand,
on Monday, September 10 and running through to the will be presenting two new products: Tech Cool 35058 and
evening of September 13. They will touch on a wide variety Tech Cool 35037. These are both newly launched, and part
of subjects, from processes such as laser sintering to new of the award-winning Tech Cool line of metal working
techniques that help manage workflow on production lines. fluids for metal fabricators. The company says they exhibit
The key trends from 2016 – additive manufacturing, enhanced water tolerance and increased emulsion stability,
robotics, automation and digitalisation – will likely while in-service cleanliness allows for
dominate the show again. However, one of the changes long-term system life without the
attendees may notice is the size of the additive formation of heavy, tacky, water
manufacturing pavilion. According to the organisers, it will insoluble residues.
be three times larger this year with 56 exhibitors present, up DMG MORI says its NHX
from 21 two years ago. 6300 2nd Generation provides a
solution for flexible and efficient
Exhibitor highlights production in the automotive
ATI Industrial Automation will showcase a variety of sector. The horizontal machining
technologies, such as robotic tool changers, robotic collision centre, which is produced locally in
sensors, utility couplers and compliance devices. It will Davis, California, is equipped
also hold an interactive demonstration of its Axia80 force/ with a standard 12,000rpm,
torque sensor, which enables dynamic contour following in 75hp powerMASTER spindle
a simulated polishing application. The sensor measures all with maximum torque of 595ft/
ATI Industrial Automation
six components of force and torque with high resolution, lbs. There is also a high-speed, will showcase technologies
stiffness and accuracy. According to ATI, this makes it ideal 16,000rpm spindle available and a including robotic tool changers
for robotic assembly, grinding, and polishing applications. high-torque spindle with 1,042ft/ and collision sensors

48 july-august 2018
 IMTS 2018 preview

ScanBox series. For example, an ATOS 5X in the ATOS

ScanBox Series 8 accelerates a process by a factor of four
when measuring and inspecting large and complex objects.
Also on display is Renishaw’s latest SPRINT system with
SupaScan, which the company says offers the world’s fastest
workpiece setup cycles and enables multiple measurement
types to be performed with a single sensor, revolutionising
the viability of on-machine probing. Visitors to the additive
manufacturing pavilion will be introduced to Renishaw’s
latest additive manufacturing system, the multi-laser
Four EMAG machines will RenAM 500Q, which increases productivity in the most
make their debut at IMTS,
commonly used machine platform size.
including the HLC 150 H
In its goal to provide customers with the exact tools
lbs of torque for heavy duty machining. The maching centre they need to increase productivity, KOMET will present its
has space for pallets up to 25 x 25 inches, comes with a extensive portfolio of milling, turning, drilling, reaming
workpiece height of 51 inches and a maximum loading and threading tools. This will include a number of new
capacity of 3,300lbs. developments that help make machining especially efficient.
EMAG will debut four machines to the North American The company says it has development teams permanently
market at IMTS this year, and will showcase several others. working on developing new precision tools and optimising
One of its latest is the HLC 150 H – a new horizontal gear the performance of the its product range.
cutting machine that the German company says can help Renishaw’s high-productivity manufacturing cell,
lower production costs for gears and steering pinions. featuring integrated process control solutions, will
EMAG will also show a new solution for the electro- demonstrate how high levels of automation and connectivity
chemical machining of rotor carriers, called CI 400. Rotor can be incorporated into
carriers are components of electric motor housings for CNC machining operations
hybrid vehicles and are being produced in increasing to improve productivity
numbers. Electro-chemical machining, or ECM, offers and process capability. The
decisive benefits for the production of these parts. With a demonstration reflects closed-
variety of different features and functions, the company’s loop process control techniques,
booth will be evidence of its ability to provide solutions that which Renishaw uses to achieve
fit a large range of applications. consistent, automated and
A new laser marking imaging technology will take centre productive metal cutting in its
stage at the FOBA Laser Marking + Engraving booth own production facilities.
ahead of its official market launch. It makes part fixtures Tornos plans to show a large
redundant, which are usually required to keep the product range of technologies at its
in the intended position, speeding up device handling while booth, from single-spindle
drastically reducing overhead costs. Visitors can experience to multi-spindle lathes, as
live presentations of how the automated mark alignment well as its own ‘Industry 4.0
works with randomly positioned sample parts. The company software’ which is dubbed
will also show its M1000 marking system, which as a 20 Watt TISIS. One of the highlights
fibre laser, and the IMP imaging technology, as well as its from the company will be the
M3000-R with rotary table and an integrated marking laser SwissDECO 36 – a new lathe
especially for precise paint removal on backlit components making its US premiere. The
FOBA’s laser marking machines
for day-night-visibility. company says it is equipped
will be on show at IMTS
with optimised programming
Additive additions and others tools and ergonomics for quicker
As mentioned previously, additive manufacturing has a parts programming and fewer setups, making it suitable for
greater presence at this year’s show. ATOS is one supplier use in the automotive, medical, electronics and aerospace
adding to that presence, as it will showcase two new industries. Three Tornos products will also be represented
high-speed sensors. With an ultra-powerful light source, by Tornos’ distributor, Methods Machine Tools.
the company says both measuring systems achieve high- Finally, Zeiss will be showing its recently expanded
precision data in a short measuring time. The GOM data computed tomography (CT) line, which, according to the
quality is evident in the detail sharpness of the 3D models – company, can allow companies that are active in various
for example, in the precise display of smallest details, rib different industries to substantially improve production
structures, narrow radii and hemmed edges. processes. It will also offer visitors the change to get up-close
Furthermore, both systems can be easily integrated into and personal with its CMM sensors and robotic sensor
production thanks to interference-free data transfer via displays, while also showing its CALYPSO 2018 software – a
fiber optic cables, the independence of the surrounding CAD-based tool that allows users to measure tolerances of
system environment and the sensor-controlled monitoring production equipment on a daily basis. Å
of the calibration status. The systems reach their maximum
efficiency in automated applications, such as the ATOS For more information, visit www.imts.com

july-august 2018 49
innovations

innovations Showcasing the latest technologies

and products in the companies’
own words

3D focus-variation
measuring instrument
Said to be suited to production measurement,
the μCMM 3D focus-variation system offers
users the advantages of tactile coordinate
measuring technology with optical surface
measurement to identify dimensions, position,
shape and surface finish of components with the Compact welding robot
one optical sensor. Designed for manufacturers with compact floor
Alicona says it provides the ability to measure spaces that manage large workpieces, Fanuc says
small surface features with sub-micron accuracy its ARCMate 100iD/10L is suitable for high-batch
and in addition to geometric position, users production lines where the quality and function of
are able to measure surface finish in the same the weld are critical.
measurement cycle. This robot has capacity for 10kg of additional
The spectrum of measurable surfaces is tooling, such as welding torches and offers a
said to include all common industrial materials footprint of 343mm x 343mm. It can be mounted
and composites, such as plastic, PCD, CFRP, either upside-down or at an angle and all cables
ceramics, chrome, silicon and so on, including and welding hosepipes are routed internally.
matt and polished, reflective components. Fanuc says the robot features integrated
Å www.alicona.com software and its R-30iB Plus controller can guide
an operator through set-up and programming.
Å www.fanuc.eu

Scan system for mass production

The excelliSCAN system features a SCANahead
servo control and galvanometer scanners with
precise digital angle sensors, says Scanlab.
It is claimed the scan head is able to
autonomously calculate its own control
parameters and anticipates in real time the
optimal navigation of curves.
The company says that integrated functions
like online status monitoring or acquisition
of operating times and process data allow
integration into networked structures, and also
retrospective process analysis.
Å www.scanlab.de

Improving plant safety with smart plastics

igus has been developing its family of smart
plastics with improved ‘isense’ sensors and
monitoring modules that add intelligence to
energy chains, cables, linear guides and slewing
Tychem personal ring bearings.
The company claims these will measure wear
protection equipment status and alert the user early enough to plan
repair or replacement.
DuPont now offers Tychem
The new modules are equipped with a serial
garments, including gloves,
interface and are claimed to be able to be
to help provide workers with
integrated into a control cabinet. A data logger
the protection required in
allows these values to be stored on an SD card.
hazardous environments.
The company says there are various options
To enable users to select the
for integration into the customer’s own
correct garments and gloves
infrastructure, including allowing the ‘icom’
appropriate to chemical exposure hazards, the
to send the data from the sensors to a PC or
company has its SafeSPEC personal protective
integrate the data via the computer into the
equipment (PPE) selector tool.
customer’s existing software environment and
The Tychem gloves collection consists of 13
intranet solution.
gloves in all.
Å www.igus.co.uk
Å www.dow-dupont.com

50 july-august 2018
 innovations

New door latch to improve quality and feel Robotic materials

Magna says it recently developed the Comfort+ handling for
door latch to improve both the feel of a car’s
door when opening and closing, and the industrial saws
quietness of the cabin.
This design is said to turn sliding friction into Kasto claims it can implement combined storage
rolling friction within the mechanics of the door and sawing systems for its customers in which
latch, reducing the efforts required to open and all processes are automated, from storage of the
close a car door and allowing for the increase raw material to retrieval of the cut parts.
of sealing around the door. The control software can be linked to existing
Magna says it has secured its first production ERP systems offering improved transparency and
contract to supply the new type of latch to a efficiency. Also the sawing can be integrated with
European automaker. other processes like turning or milling within a
Å www.magna.com
digitised, Industry 4.0 production environment.
The company notes that end-of-arm tool
selection is an important factor and users have
a choice of mechanical, magnetic or vacuum
Fibre laser cutting of large sheet material grippers, which should be as compact as possible
to give the robot easy access to the cut parts.
Bystronic says its new BySprint Fibre 12020 time compared with smaller machines and Å www.kasto.com
laser cutting system is capable of processing offers more efficient nesting, resulting in higher
sheet up to 12 metres long by two metres wide. material utilisation.
The company claims the machine is able to cut The machine features proprietary BySoft 7
both large and small components, the smaller software and offers 3, 4 or 6kW laser sources
sheets processed by positioning them next to depending on the intended applications.
each other on the long cutting table. Å www.bysprintfiber.bystronic.com
This can extend uninterrupted production

Slim nozzle torch body

A new torch body for robotic welding devices,
from Fronius, features the MTB 350’s
gas nozzle, which has a diameter that is claimed
New sensors for touch and automate system to be 20% smaller than conventional torches.
The 20mm nozzle allows the welding torch to
reach the interface more easily when working
with challenging component geometries, and
offers a high duty cycle at maximum output,
says the company.
It is claimed the new torch body can be retro-
fitted to TPS and TPS/i robotic welding devices
and it is available in various geometries (22°,
36° and 45°), including a longer torch body
variant suited to the typical design of robotic
welding torches used in Asia.
Å www.fronius.com

Isra Vision says its MONO2½D- and MONO3D to receive updates via Wi-Fi to adapt to their
‘Touch & Automate‘ sensors will now be respective tasks.
equipped with embedded technology to speed The company says that by determining the
up scanning times. The company is preparing object’s distance and its rotation around the
a generation of connective sensors that can be vertical axis (MONO2½D) or all the spatial
navigated with smartphones or tablets and offer dimensions including all rotations (MONO3D),
easy usability. the sensors allow for automated execution of
It is claimed these sensors will also be able to pick-and-place tasks and 3D object recognition.
connect to a sensor network for communication Both systems use contour based detection.
with each other or databases, and will be able Å www.isravision.com

july-august 2018 51
innovations

more innovations...
Triple-edge cutting for small series
Mapal is expanding its triple edged the chance of damage to the cutting edge
Tritan-Drill range, which now includes and, it’s claimed, higher feeds and longer
a new universal version, made from tool life in operation.
HSS, that has been developed for Mapal notes that piloting and centre-
cost-effectiveness in small-series punching aren’t required due to the point
production. geometry of the drill, and that it is available
The company says this tool offers in a diameter range of 8mm-40mm.
stable cutting edge corners, reducing Å www.de.mapal.com

Press lines for EV The LED Spot 100 HP IC has been developed for
LED UV-curing unit all applications requiring intensive UV irradiation
components over a large area, claims Hönle.
The company says applications include
Schuler says it now offers systems for the bonding, fixing or encapsulating of components.
economic serial production of components for At a wavelength of 405nm the unit gives an
E-cars, including body and structural parts, intensity of 2,000mW/cm² and 460nm gives
metal housings for batteries or electric motor 3,000 mW/cm², which is claimed to guarantee
laminations for engines. a reliable and fast cure to speed up the
It has developed a high-speed press to manufacturing process.
produce thinner laminations for the increasingly It features a monitoring function to deliver
complex geometry of electric motor laminations. process stability so that repeatable results on
Schuler says it has also extended the press fully automated production lines can be achieved
bed of its e-mobility press SMARTLINE EV 3.8 even in short cycle times, says the company.
from 3.30 to over 3.70 meters to allow for a The LED Spot 100 HP IC is also available in the
larger die space needed to accommodate bigger wavelengths 365, 385, and 395nm and has an
diameter electric motors. irradiation area of 100mm x100mm.
Å www.schulergroup.com Å www.hoenle.com

Manufacturing execution system

Lantek says its MES Manager manufacturing
execution system allows engineers to
upload a bill of materials for the products
being manufactured, including parts and
subassemblies.
The company claims the full sequence of
operations required for the manufacture of each
part or subassembly is stored within the MES
system.
The system can use standard touch-screen
computers or tablets (via Lantek MES Wos)
for data capture and to provide operators
with details of the sequence of manufacturing employees can log on to jobs and operations
operations. recording the progress of each part around the
Lantek says links to the machines record start workshop.
and finish times for cutting, while for other tasks Å www.lanteksms.com

New five-axis horizontal machining centre

The HF 3500 is a new model to Heller’s five- with a lift-and-rotate pallet changer for series
axis, horizontal-spindle machining centre range. five-sided production, while pallet automation
The company says this machine is intended solutions are available.
for five-sided or simultaneous five-axis dynamic The company says four motor spindle options
machining of medium to large batches of are available with speeds up to 18,000rpm
complex prismatic parts, ranging from small and torques up to 354Nm, and the HF series
workpieces to heavier components up to the machines are equipped with a Siemens
550kg maximum table load. Sinumerik 840D sl control and a double pivoting
An optional Speed Package is said to allow main operator panel with a 24-inch touch
10m/s2 acceleration and rapids of 90m/min screen.
to be achieved. The machine can be equipped Å www.heller.biz

52 july-august 2018
 innovations

Die-cut structural tape for bonding magnets Compact compressors

Gardner Denver says its new oil-lubricated, rotary
Lohmann Technologies says its DuploTEC structural bonding
screw compressors, part of the CompAir L-Series
tape has been specified for the bonding of magnets direct onto
range, are available as 30, 37 and 45kW models,
an oil pump drive shaft and also to bond magnets onto shafts
and are offered with both fixed and regulated
inside electric motors.
speeds.
A pump manufacturer bonded the transducer magnet to
These units are said to be capable of delivering
the shaft, using the company’s DuploTEC 10410 SBF
compressed air in pressure ranges from 5 to 13
(Structural Bonding Film), and found that all the required
bar and volume flow between 1.33 to 8.67m3/min.
shear and tensile strength parameters had indeed
been met, claims Lohmann.
In another application, a manufacturer of electric
motors specified DuploTEC precision die-cuts, again
for mounting magnets onto the end of a shaft, this
time inside one of its new ranges of motor. Particular
attention was paid to durability given the thermally
dynamic environment in which the magnet is used.
Å www.lohmann-tapes.com

Compact, high-precision true colour sensor

Micro-Epsilon’s new range of colour recognition rate (up to 20kHz), which is said to enable the
sensors is designed for high-precision true sensor to reliably detect the finest of colour
colour measurement in industrial applications. graduations, even in high-speed measurement
The new colorSENSOR CFO100 and CFO200 tasks and on low-reflecting surfaces.
true colour sensors are said to be suitable for a Å www.micro-epsilon.co.uk All compressors are powered by an IE4-IP55
range of industrial applications including colour motor and drive system featuring a new, improved
inspection of interior automotive parts. filter design. These new models also feature the
It is claimed the sensors offer high colour new Delcos XL SE touch-screen control system,
accuracy (colour difference CFO100 and are fully integrated with iConn, the company’s
ΔE ≥ 1 / CFO200 ΔE ≥ 0.6), good cloud-based air management platform.
reproducibility (ΔE ≥ 0.5/ / The company says these units can be monitored
CFO200 ΔE ≥ 0.3), high light remotely too, so operators can ensure any
power (>220 lm) and potential issues are quickly resolved.
a fast measuring Å www.gardnerdenver.com/en/industrials

Hot work tool steel

Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW) says it has
developed the hot work tool steel Thermodur
2383 Supercool for press hardening applications
such as those used in the automotive industry.
The company says this tool steel, in quenched
Gapgun solution for and tempered condition, offers a higher thermal
conductivity of 44 W/(mK) at 100°C.
centred countersink As such, a die insert made of this steel is said
to be able to conduct heat from the heated sheet
measurement in a controlled manner within a short time.
A new countersink measurement solution for In addition, it’s claimed to be more resilient
Third Dimension’s GapGun range is said to at consistently high temperatures, which is
calculate the dimensions of a countersink hole expressed by the lack of loss of hardness.
to accurately predict the flushness of fasteners. Å www.dew-stahl.com
The company says this new countersink
inspection system is faster and more accurate
than a mechanical gauge. Tolerance bands
can be pre-set, the measurement is recorded
against these and then the result can be read
onscreen or automatically sent to a PC to enable
comparison and analysis.
Å www.third.com

Vice for cylindrical or prismatic parts

The PC80Z self-centring vice is available in to its conventional role of holding prismatic
a new, two-in-one version that accepts the components. Parts from 17 to 139mm long
manufacturer’s optional round inserts, enabling can then be secured for metalcutting using
cylindrical components or billets from 44 to the 62mm clamping stroke. It’s claimed to be
95mm in diameter to be clamped securely, says suited for use on 5-axis machining centres and
Roemheld. in automated production cells employing pallet
The company says the vice can be magazines.
converted back within a couple of minutes Å www.roemheld.com

july-august 2018 53
next issue

september-october 2018

D
OEM focus – Toyota Toyota recently
said it would
AMS looks at Toyota’s production challenges after the invest $170m in
company revealed plans to bring ten pure electric models its Blue Springs
plant ahead of the
[VTHYRL[I`HUKLSLJ[YPM`P[ZLU[PYLWVY[MVSPVÄ]L`LHYZ
launch of the new
later while also introducing a new vehicle architecture Corolla

global focus – Central Europe We get an inside

look at several
We report back from our travels around Central Europe large plants in the
region, including
during which we gained exclusive access to several vehicle
the Volvo Trucks
manufacturing facilities facility in Kaluga,
Russia

production – motorcycles
We visit BMW’s
motorcycle
production
The latest research from market consultants shows that facility in Berlin,
the global motorcycle market is growing. AMS provides an Germany
insight into production at some of the active companies in
the segment

technology – digital manufacturing Software

programmes are
Rapid prototyping and sophisticated software are playing helping many OEMs
reduce the time
an ever-greater role in the process of making cars and their
between initial
components design and physical
prototypes

environment – recycling & waste Recycling, waste

management
management and renewable
energies are
Vehicle manufacturers are not just looking to reduce tailpipe key to emission
emissions, but are examining ways to make production reductions in
more sustainable and environmentally friendly manufacturing

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