Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles will press Schuler line into operation

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2015-10-19 14:47:00

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hanover has now officially taken a new servo press line from Schuler in operation. The facility consists of six single presses and has a total press force of 91,000 kN. It is driven by 15 torque motors with a torque of 600,000 Nm.

Emerge with 17 strokes per minute on the servo press line among other parts for the Volkswagen bus T6. In four parts per stroke, the system comes to a maximum output power of 68 parts per minute.

System components play perfectly together

The high productivity is the result of an optimal interaction of the automation components with the six single presses that make up the line. We start with two robots: refer alternating sheet metal blanks from the stack and place them on a conveyor belt. An optical centering detected by a camera, the exact position of the boards so that they can precisely installed in the first press of the Crossbar Feeder.

Immediately after the tool has opened again after the forming process, slide the crossbar of the next Crossbar Feeder into it, sucks the part and lifts it out - just fractions of a second before the next board falls into the tool. The processes are so tailored that approximate the Crossbar Feeder up to a few centimeters without colliding with each other. In this way, the parts arrive within seconds from one press to the next and get it step by step shape.

The change of tool and tooling to accommodate the parts is fully automated and is completed in just three minutes. The tooling store it on the press at the beginning and end of the line, thereby reducing the space required by the compact system is reduced to a minimum.

High Energy Efficiency

The Schuler line has not only a pause and standby circuit also has a control of the cooling water temperature and a consumption-based compressors control to reduce energy demand. The press operator can thereby detect and control all consumption centrally.

This naturally includes the power consumption. Each press moves the tool at the opening and closing of a mass of more than eighty tons, correspondingly high is the energy requirement of the line. But when the press decelerates the tool on the way down, and energy is released. This braking energy can be caching via a flywheel and then retrieve it when the press has to raise the tool again. This energy consumption and peak loads can be reduced for the power grid.

56 km of cables installed, Schuler employees in the line. Six months had taken the installation of the system with a total weight of 3,300 tons, a width of 24 meters and a length of 94 meters in Hannover in claim - a surface on which you could easily park 215 Volkswagen Amarok.

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