A German car manufacturer relies on application-optimized AGVs (driverless transport vehicles) from DS Automotion in Austria for battery assembly. This makes it easy to adapt production facilities to changing requirements.
The demand for batteries as a key component of electric vehicles is rapidly increasing. At its largest European plant in Bavaria, Germany, alone, a well-known German premium manufacturer is significantly expanding its production capacity. From 2022 onward, this location will produce up to 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
Because complex batteries are often adapted to new models and the technology for storing electrical energy is constantly evolving, battery assembly facilities must be particularly flexible and adaptable. A high degree of standardization and modularity ensures that each production line can produce different variants to meet the growing number of electrified vehicle models.
Rigid lines are too inflexible
However, classically designed assembly lines with fixed conveyor belts lack the necessary flexibility to react dynamically to changing battery assembly requirements," says Kurt Ammerstorfer, department manager for sales, product management, and marketing at DS Automotion. "For this reason, the lines must offer the possibility to easily and quickly make changes to the transport routes within the plant. Only a driverless transport system can provide this flexibility." This means that the routes taken by subassemblies during the assembly process can be adapted to new requirements as quickly as the dwell times at the individual stations.
Expanding capacity in three steps
Between 2018 and 2021, the battery assembly capacity of the Electronic Drive Production Center will be expanded gradually by establishing three production lines. The first of these produces six battery storage units per hour for hybrid vehicles. The second plant is two years younger in capacity and almost twice as large while consuming about the same amount of space. While energy blocks for hybrids are also assembled here, the third plant produces 30 much larger storage components per hour for purely electric-powered vehicles. Although the designs of these plants vary, they have one thing in common: the battery modules are assembled on driverless transport vehicles (AGVs) by Austrian AGV specialists.
Battery assembly takes place in many stations, from preparing the base plate to equipping the battery pack and battery management system, as well as electrically connecting it to the application cover. Many of the stations are designed as enclosed robotic cells, but there are also many work steps in between that are performed manually. Some stations are also multi-stationed in order to parallelize processes whose time requirements significantly exceed the cycle times of other cells, such as the initial charging of energy storage components.
Need for maneuverable vehicles
In automated stations, the battery modules are removed from the vehicle along with the workpiece carriers to ensure that the robot processes at a defined location regardless of ground unevenness. The crowded conditions not only force very narrow curve radii but also require turns at many stations. Therefore, the vehicle must not only be exceptionally maneuverable but must also be able to turn at a standstill.
The FTF, developed by DS Automotion specifically for battery assembly, has become the vehicle type of choice for this application. Project Manager Christoph Salmhofer explains: "FTFs have been used for several years on all of this manufacturer's battery assembly lines worldwide. For the latest applications, they were further developed to ensure maintenance work even when the largest battery modules are loaded."
Navigation via magnetic tape
Navigation is track-guided by means of magnetic tape. This is glued to the floor so that the route can be adjusted very easily if necessary. the AGV charges its batteries through ground contact when staying at the station for longer periods of time. The control computer in the vehicle translates the travel commands from the control system into coordinated movements along with predetermined points.
These landmarks also include junction points. Although 31 and 33 AGVs travel in a closed circuit with a track length of about 300 m on the two production lines for the hybrid battery storage units, respectively, in the second plant there are no fewer than 33 of these turnouts, explains Christoph Salmhofer. : "This gives the plant enormous flexibility in terms of dynamically adjusting the routes. For example, any necessary rework can also be carried out without changing the system within the closed production line".
Ergonomic tilting mechanism
In the latest plant, 50 AGVs of the same type transport the high-voltage batteries of all-electric vehicles through an automated assembly step. Afterward, 19 FTFs of another type automatically take over the battery modules. These vehicles travel on a separate layout between manual workstations. They can use a tilting mechanism to hold the modules upright to ensure optimal ergonomics.
Although it is designed with almost three times as many storage modules and larger storage modules as the above-mentioned installation and contains more than twice as many AGVs, it requires only twice as much space as the latter, says Christoph Salmhofer: "By splitting it into two subsystems, we have managed to combine maximum space utilization and optimal ergonomics for this facility. As a result, it also serves as a best practice example for similar installations in the future".
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