Ford Europe has, for the first time, introduced collaborative robots (cobots) working alongside humans at the Fiesta assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, to ensure each has a perfect paint finish.
The six cobots complete a choreographed sequence to sand the entire body surface in 35 seconds.
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The automaker stressed the initiative “does not replace employees but allows operators to use their time on more complex tasks and avoid suffering the strains associated with performing repetitive tasks”.
“The cobots can feel when more force needs to be applied, just like we can, and they can more easily get to hard-to-reach places, like the centre of the roof,” said Dennis Kuhn, Ford Europe’s senior manufacturing engineer, paint shop.
Each cobot is a UR10, claimed to be the world’s best-seller, from Universal Robots. The same device is used in the audio equipment industry to polish high-performance loudspeaker and subwoofer cabinets.
In the Ford paint shop, they have a 3D-printed soft flexible layer between the robotic arm and the sandpaper that, Ford said, enables the cobot to work with the same precision and dexterity as a human hand.
During the production process, each body is submerged in a bath to provide what Ford claims is “more than 10 years of corrosion protection”.
Afterwards, small flecks can remain on the surface, unseen to the naked eye, but can be felt by hand and could impact the final finish of the vehicle.
The six cobots step in to smooth away these inconsistencies and vacuum any dust left behind.
Final checks are completed by two workers before the body moves along the line for the primer application.
For loudspeakers and audio equipment production with mostly flat surfaces, only one cobot is required but introducing the technology on a moving production line – for a multi-contoured vehicle – required a new approach.
“It took several weeks to install the cobots and program them to move in harmony to smooth the unique contours of a Fiesta, a task made all the more difficult because the vehicle never stops moving,” said Detlev Dahl, CEO, Dahl Automation.
“But that’s where the adaptability of the cobots and our vast experience, as one of the first Universal Robots certified system integrators, came to the fore.
“With the moves mastered, they never miss a beat.”
Ford said it was reviewing further use of cobots at its factories in Valencia, Spain, (Mondeo) and Craiova, Romania (EcoSport, Puma).
The automaker has already introduced other cobots programmed to assist production line workers with complex assembly procedures, such as fitting shock absorbers to cars and spark plugs to engines; and also introduced a self-driving robot called Survival.
See also: Ford pilots ‘exoskeleton’ tech to reduce injuries
