Automobile front and rear wall sub-assembly high-flexibility automatic production line and production method

Abstract

The invention relates to a high-flexibility automatic production line for automobile front and rear wall sub-assemblies and a production method of the high-flexibility automatic production line, and belongs to the technical field of automobile manufacturing. The automatic production line comprises a front and rear wall inner plate assembly station, a front and rear wall outer plate assembly station, a front and rear wall inner and outer plate assembly splicing point welding station and a front and rear wall assembly repair welding station, the front and rear wall inner and outer plate assembly splicing point welding station is located in a central area, and materials are transferred among the stations through a transfer robot; four stations of the automatic production line are each provided with a double-station trolley and a plurality of welding robots for feeding machining, and each double-station trolley is provided with a plurality of welding clamps capable of being applied to different vehicle types. The high-flexibility automatic production line for the automobile front and rear wall sub-assemblies is high in working efficiency, small in occupied space, capable of being suitable for welding machining of front and rear wall assemblies of different automobile types, convenient to switch and flexible in application.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of automobile manufacturing, and in particular to a highly flexible automated production line for automobile front and rear enclosure subassemblies and a production method thereof. Background Art

[0002] The front and rear enclosure assemblies are the most basic components of the vehicle cab, and they are welded together with the floor assembly, roof assembly, left and right side enclosure assemblies, etc. to form the vehicle cab body-in-white. Considering that the assembly itself consists of many parts (depending on the product processing depth), there are many welding points, and the processes of loading, gluing, and gluing before welding are complicated, and the transfer and processing between multiple processes are relatively complicated. Therefore, the assembly and welding workshops of most automobile manufacturers generally use manual assembly and welding lines when producing the front and rear enclosure assemblies.

[0003] The above manual welding lines have low automation levels (almost zero), are equipped with a large number of direct production personnel such as welders, have slow production rhythms, product quality is greatly affected by human factors, have poor line flexibility (can only produce a certain type of fixed sub-assembly or different status sub-assemblies of the same type with little process change), and have large production line footprints.

[0004] For many automobile companies that have not yet popularized highly flexible automated sub-assembly welding lines, how to produce more models and conditions of front and rear assemblies within the existing factory area, improve production rhythm, reduce workers' labor intensity, reduce labor costs, improve product quality, improve the level of automation and intelligence in workshop production, and reduce workshop production costs have always been very important to automobile companies. Summary of the invention

[0005] In order to solve the problems in the prior art, the patent of this invention designs a highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear enclosure assemblies of automobiles to solve the problems of low efficiency, high cost, poor flexibility, etc. in the existing production of the front and rear enclosure assemblies of automobiles.

[0006] The technical solution adopted in the present invention is: the automated production line includes a front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station, a front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station, a front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station and a front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station; the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station is located in the central area; the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station, the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station and the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station are respectively located in three direction areas of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station, and materials are transferred between the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station through a handling robot respectively; the four stations of the automated production line are all provided with a double-station trolley and a plurality of welding robots for loading and processing; the double-station trolley is equipped with a plurality of sets of welding fixtures that can be applied to different vehicle models.

[0007] Furthermore, the middle part of the double-station trolley is a conveyor roller bed, and loading areas are respectively provided at both ends. The two loading areas are respectively provided with a set of welding fixtures that can move along the conveyor roller bed, and multiple welding robots and handling robots are arranged along both sides of the conveyor roller bed.

[0008] Furthermore, the handling robots of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly stations and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly stations are respectively arranged on one side of their respective conveying roller beds close to the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station, and the handling robot of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station is arranged on one side of its conveying roller bed close to the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station, and robot external axes are respectively arranged between the rear side of the handling robot and the destination for the handling robot to move.

[0009] Furthermore, a part unloading trolley is provided at the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station on the side away from the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly splicing spot welding station, and the handling robot of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station is arranged on the side of its conveying roller bed close to the part unloading trolley, and the part unloading trolley is delivered by a single or multiple submersible AGV trolleys.

[0010] Furthermore, the automated production line is provided with a welding fixture storage area for storing multiple sets of configured welding fixtures. Each set of fixtures is numbered in the fixture storage area, and a submersible AGV is arranged to travel back and forth between the welding fixture storage area and the double-station trolley. According to the number, the welding fixture is carried on the back of the corresponding welding fixture in the welding fixture storage area and moves to the end of the conveying roller bed. The submersible AGV's own lifting function completes the lifting and lowering of the welding fixture, thereby realizing the upper and lower double-station trolleys for the welding fixtures.

[0011] Furthermore, when the inner panel is assembled, the welding fixture of the double-station trolley of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly is always reciprocating at one end of the conveying roller bed, and successively receives the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly and the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly to the welding area of ​​the double-station trolley for assembly and spot welding.

[0012] Furthermore, the welding robots and handling robots of the automated production line are provided with protective isolation doors on their peripheries, the loading area of ​​the double-station trolley is provided with safety gratings on its outer sides, and the exit position of the unloading trolley is provided with a X-ray zone scanning device to ensure that no personnel enter the area.

[0013] Furthermore, line-edge materials are respectively arranged on both sides of the loading area at both ends of the double-station trolley of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station, and are manually loaded by loading personnel.

[0014] Furthermore, each of the four workstations of the automated production line is provided with a storage rack for storing different types of grippers of the handling robot and different types of welding tongs of the welding robot.

[0015] The production method of the above-mentioned highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear vehicle enclosure assemblies provided by the present invention is as follows:

[0016] (1) The loading personnel load materials in the loading area of ​​the double-station trolley of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station according to the production plan. The materials are clamped by their respective welding fixtures and transported to the welding position of their respective conveyor roller beds. The respective welding robots complete the initial spot fixation. After that, the welding fixture is opened and the handling robot clamps the workpiece and grabs it into the air. Then the welding robot performs repair welding in the air. At the same time, the welding fixture is opened and returned to the loading area to continue loading materials;

[0017] (2) The handling robot at the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station places the completed front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly on the welding fixture at the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station. At this time, the welding fixture is located at the side of the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station at the end of its conveying roller bed and is in an open state. Then the welding fixture moves to the middle welding position on its conveying roller bed. At this time, the handling robot at the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station places the completed front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly on the fixture at the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station. The fixture is closed to complete the assembly of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assemblies. After the above assembly work is completed, the welding robot completes the assembly spot welding, and then its handling robot transports the workpiece that has completed the assembly spot welding along the robot's external axis to the welding position of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station;

[0018] (3) After the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station has completed the repair welding of the front and rear enclosure assembly, the handling robot directly unloads the assembly onto the unloading trolley, and the AGV trolley delivers the assembly.

[0019] Compared with the prior art, the high-flexibility automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies designed in the present invention has the following advantages:

[0020] (1) The highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear enclosure sub-assemblies designed by the present invention only requires personnel to load parts at the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly stations and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly stations. No on-site personnel intervention is required for other production processes. Automated line production is carried out using pre-written programs, including vehicle model identification, tooling switching, automated spot welding, transportation, and unloading, which can all be automatically controlled and completed.

[0021] (2) The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear enclosure sub-assemblies designed by the present invention is highly practical and flexible. The production of front and rear enclosure assemblies of automobiles of different models or states can be realized by simply switching welding fixtures and corresponding tooling. For enterprises, it avoids repeated heavy investment in sub-assembly production lines and reduces the burden on enterprises.

[0022] (3) The highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear enclosure assemblies of the present invention can set different numbers of welding robots for each workstation according to the different welding points of the produced parts, and can also increase the workstation according to production needs, with high flexibility and high production efficiency.

[0023] (4) The present invention achieves intensive production, i.e., one automated subassembly line replaces multiple original manual subassembly lines, thereby greatly saving workshop area. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 It is a structural diagram of a highly flexible automated production line for automobile front and rear subassemblies.

[0025] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the workshop layout of the highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear sub-assemblies of automobiles.

[0026] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the operation flow of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly stations.

[0027] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the information process of the highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear sub-assemblies of automobiles.

[0028] In the figure, 1 is the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station, 2 is the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station, 3 is the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly joint spot welding station, 4 is the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station, 5 is the line side material, 6 is the protective isolation door, 7 is the safety grating, 8 is the fixture storage area, 11 is the double-station trolley, 12 is the conveying roller bed, 13 is the loading area, 14 is the welding fixture, 15 is the welding robot, 16 is the handling robot, 17 is the robot external axis, 18 is the unloading trolley, 19 is the AGV trolley, 20 is the X-ray area scanning device, and 21 is the storage rack. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] The present invention is further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described, and the described embodiments are only embodiments of a part of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments in the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0030] like Figure 1 , 2As shown, the patent of the present invention designs an embodiment of a highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear enclosure sub-assembly of an automobile. In this embodiment, the automated production line includes a front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station 1, a front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 2, a front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3, and a front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4. The four stations are arranged in real time, and the positions of the other three stations are arranged with the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3 as the center. The front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 1 is located in the central area, and the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station 2, the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 3, and the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4 are respectively located in three directional areas of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3, forming a "T"-shaped production line layout as a whole.

[0031] The front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station 1, the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 2, the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3 and the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4 are all equipped with a double-station trolley 11, multiple welding robots 15 and a handling robot 16. The middle of the double-station trolley 11 is a conveying roller bed 12, and a loading area 13 is respectively set at both ends. The middle area of ​​the conveying roller bed 12 corresponds to the position of the welding robot 15 as the welding position. Each loading area 13 is equipped with a set of welding fixtures 14. At the same time, in order to meet the processing requirements of the front and rear enclosure assemblies of different models, the automated production line is equipped with multiple sets of different welding fixtures 14, and a special welding fixture storage area 8 is configured on site to store the welding fixtures 14 to be switched on the automated production line, and to encode each set of fixtures. The switching of the welding fixture 14 is the responsibility of the configured switching fixture AGV, which is equipped with an automatic lifting function and is responsible for transporting the welding fixtures from the fixture storage area to the double-station trolley 11 according to the planned route. To facilitate the passage of AGV, the width of the lower bracket of the double-station trolley 11 at both ends should be greater than the width of the AGV itself, and its minimum height should be greater than the height of the AGV body, so that the AGV carrying the clamp can penetrate into the end of the conveying roller bed 12 to complete the welding of the clamp 14 on and off the double-station trolley 11. In addition, line materials 5 are set on both sides of the loading area 13 at both ends of the double-station trolley 11 of the front and rear inner panel assembly station 1 and the front and rear outer panel assembly station 2. Since there are many types of materials used in the loading area 13, it is necessary to configure loading personnel for manual loading. If the subsequent conditions are met (stamping parts are sorted in advance, robot visual recognition technology is mature, and the processing depth of sub-assembly products is reduced, etc.), robots can be used to automatically load parts instead of manual loading.

[0032] The specific number of welding robots 15 at each station is set according to the number of welding points of the workpiece to be performed at the station, and multiple welding robots 15 are arranged along both sides of the conveying roller bed 12. Each station is equipped with a storage rack 21 for storing different types of grippers of the handling robot 16 and different types of welding tongs of the welding robot 15, and the corresponding grippers and welding tongs can be switched in time according to different models or states of the production plan.

[0033] The handling robots 16 of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station 1 and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 2 are respectively arranged on the side of their respective conveying roller beds 12 close to the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3, and the handling robot 16 of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3 is arranged on the side of its conveying roller bed 12 close to the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4, and robot external shafts 17 are respectively arranged between the rear side of the handling robot 16 and the target station to facilitate the movement of the handling robot 16. Among them, the welding robot 15 of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3 needs to avoid the running route of the handling robot 16 of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly station 1 when being arranged, and the welding robot 15 of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4 needs to avoid the running route of the handling robot 16 of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station 3 when being arranged. The handling robot 16 of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4 is arranged on the side of its conveying roller bed 12 close to the unloading area. The unloading area is provided with a unloading trolley 18 for carrying the front and rear enclosure assemblies that have completed splicing and welding, and is delivered by a submerged AGV trolley 19. The AGV trolley 19 can use multiple vehicles for centralized delivery or single vehicles for sequential delivery. The latter only requires increasing the number of AGV trolleys for delivery.

[0034] In addition, in order to ensure the safe operation of the automated production line, protective isolation doors 6 are provided on the periphery of the working areas of the welding robot 15 and the handling robot 16 of the automated production line to prevent people from entering. Safety gratings 7 are provided on the outside of the loading area 13 of all double-station trolleys 11. When manual loading is required, the safety grating 7 is closed and people enter; after the loading is completed, the people exit and the safety grating 7 is opened. The safety grating 7 is only a form of ensuring the safety of personnel in the human-computer interaction process, and can be optimized and modified as required, such as being set to a physical isolation method of a liftable roller shutter. A ray zone scanning device 20 is also provided at the exit position of the unloading trolley 18 in the unloading area to ensure that no people enter the area.

[0035] Combination Figure 3 , 4 As shown, the highly flexible automated production line for the front and rear vehicle enclosure assemblies disclosed in the present invention is used for production.

[0036] (1) The loading personnel load materials in the loading area 13 of the double-station trolley 11 of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station 1 and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 2 according to the production plan. When the welding fixture 14 opens to the loading area 13, it connects the gas-electric quick plug of the conveying roller bed 12 and opens the fixture. The safety grating 7 is closed. The loading personnel enter and complete the loading work and then exit the safety grating 7 area. After manual confirmation and pressing of the button, the materials are clamped by their respective welding fixtures 14 and transported to the welding positions of their respective conveying roller beds 12. The materials are initially fixed by their respective welding robots 15. After that, the welding fixture 14 is opened and the handling robot 16 clamps the workpiece and grabs it into the air. At the same time, the welding fixture 14 opens and returns to the loading area 13 to continue loading materials. After the workpiece is grabbed and put into place in the air, the welding robot 15 receives the signal to perform aerial repair welding. After the repair welding is completed, it automatically returns to its original position. The handling robot 16 receives the signal and transfers the workpiece along the external axis to the next station.

[0037] (2) The handling robot 16 of the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 2 first places the completed front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly on the welding fixture 14 of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly joint spot welding station 3. At this time, the welding fixture 14 is located at the end of its conveying roller bed 12 close to the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station 2 and is in an open state. Then the welding fixture 14 moves to the middle welding position on its conveying roller bed 12. At this time, the handling robot 16 of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station 1 places the completed front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly on the fixture located at the middle welding position of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly joint spot welding station 3. The fixture is closed to complete the joint work of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assemblies. After the above joint work is completed, the joint spot welding is completed by the welding robot 15, and then the handling robot 16 transports the workpiece that has completed the joint spot welding to the welding position of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4 along the robot's external axis 17;

[0038] (3) After the welding robot 15 at the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station 4 repairs the front and rear enclosure assemblies that have been spot welded, its handling robot 16 directly unloads the parts onto the unloading trolley 18 and is delivered by the AGV trolley 19.

[0039] The above contents are only preferred embodiments of the present invention and cannot be used to limit the scope of implementation of the present invention. That is, any simple equivalent changes and modifications made according to the claims and description of the present invention are still within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies, characterized in that: The automated production line includes front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly stations, front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly stations, front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding stations and front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding stations. The front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding stations are located in the central area, the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly stations, front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly stations and front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding stations are respectively located in three direction areas of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding stations, and materials are transferred between the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding stations through handling robots. The four stations of the automated production line are all equipped with double-station trolleys and multiple welding robots for loading and processing. The double-station trolleys are equipped with multiple sets of welding fixtures that can be applied to different models.

2. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The middle part of the double-station trolley is a conveying roller bed, and loading areas are respectively arranged at both ends. The two loading areas are respectively provided with a set of welding fixtures that can move along the conveying roller bed. Multiple welding robots and handling robots are arranged along both sides of the conveying roller bed.

3. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 2 is characterized in that: The handling robots of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station are respectively arranged on one side of their respective conveying roller beds close to the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station, and the handling robot of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station is arranged on one side of its conveying roller bed close to the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station, and robot external axes are respectively arranged between the rear side of the handling robot and the destination station for the handling robot to move.

4. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 3 is characterized in that: The front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station is provided with a parts unloading trolley on the side away from the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly splicing spot welding station. The handling robot of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station is arranged on the side of its conveying roller bed close to the parts unloading trolley. The parts unloading trolley is delivered by a single or multiple submersible AGV trolleys.

5. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 4 is characterized in that: The automated production line is provided with a welding fixture storage area for storing multiple sets of configured welding fixtures. Each set of fixtures is numbered in the fixture storage area, and a submersible AGV is arranged to travel back and forth between the welding fixture storage area and the double-station trolley. According to the number, the welding fixture is carried on the back of the corresponding welding fixture in the welding fixture storage area and moves to the end of the conveying roller bed of the automated production line. The lifting and lowering function of the submersible AGV itself is used to complete the lifting and lowering of the welding fixture, thereby realizing the upper and lower double-station trolleys for the welding fixtures.

6. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 5 is characterized in that: When the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assemblies are assembled and spot welded, the welding fixture of the double-station trolley always reciprocates at one end of the conveying roller bed, and successively receives the front and rear enclosure outer panel assemblies and the front and rear enclosure inner panel assemblies to the welding area of ​​the double-station trolley for assembly and spot welding.

7. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 6 is characterized in that: The welding robots and handling robots of the automated production line are both provided with protective isolation doors on their peripheries, the loading area of ​​the double-station trolley is provided with safety gratings on its outer sides, and the exit position of the unloading trolley is provided with a radiation zone scanning device to ensure that no personnel enter the area.

8. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 7 is characterized in that: Line side materials are respectively arranged on both sides of the loading area at both ends of the double-station trolley of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station, and loading personnel are deployed to manually load the materials.

9. The highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle subassemblies according to claim 7 is characterized in that: The four workstations of the automated production line are all provided with storage racks for storing different types of grippers of the handling robot and different types of welding tongs of the welding robot.

10. A method for producing a highly flexible automated production line for front and rear vehicle enclosure assemblies as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that: The production method is: (1) The loading personnel load materials in the loading area of ​​the double-station trolleys of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly stations and the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly stations according to the production plan. The materials are clamped by their respective welding fixtures and transported to the welding area of ​​their respective conveyor roller beds. The respective welding robots complete the initial spot fixation. After that, the welding fixtures are opened and the handling robots clamp the workpieces and lift them into the air. The welding robots then perform repair welding in the air. At the same time, the welding fixtures are opened and returned to the loading area to continue loading materials. (2) The handling robot of the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station places the completed front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly on the welding fixture of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station. At this time, the welding fixture is located at the end of its conveying roller bed close to the front and rear enclosure outer panel assembly station and is in an open state. Then the welding fixture moves to the middle welding position on its conveying roller bed. At this time, the handling robot of the front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly station places the completed front and rear enclosure inner panel assembly on the fixture of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assembly spot welding station. The fixture is closed to complete the assembly of the front and rear enclosure inner and outer panel assemblies. After the above-mentioned assembly work is completed, the welding robot completes the assembly spot welding, and then the handling robot transports the workpieces that have completed the assembly spot welding along the external axis of the robot to the welding position of the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station; (3) After the welding robot at the front and rear enclosure assembly repair welding station has repaired the front and rear enclosure assemblies, its handling robot directly unloads the parts onto the unloading trolley, which is then delivered by the AGV trolley.

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