The Automotive main actors are near to an important switch between the endothermic and electric vehicles. After the new European 2035 deadline for cars and vans zero-emissions, it’s clear that in the next 3-5 years a first goal needs to be achieved: every electric car will need to cost exactly the same of a similar range endothermic one.
To reach that important result, most of the main components will need to cost less, much less than now. In this challenge, the opening of several Gigafactories all over the world is only a part of the answer.
In fact, to lower the price of those cars, companies will need to reduce the assembly time for the battery module, maintaining the same quality.
In a filed like the automotive one, now the assembly lines runs up to maximum 3/4 pieces per minutes: if we consider the endothermic motor, for instance the assembly lines was composed of meters and meters of free-pallets systems, to carry the engine’s parts. And every time that an engine components was assembled below one station, there was the necessity to stop the support pallet in position, to lift and lock it with the accuracy required – higher than the chain –
Nowadays, the battery module assembly lines had completely changed the kind of mounting, so for the assembly of the most critical part – the battery module – the available time can be also less than 5 seconds. It means 12 pieces/min – 3 time more than in the past –And in future, surely will be produced more, much more pieces per minute.
For that reason, now the manufacturing is moving to the use of fast Precision Link Conveyors, rigid and accurate – 10 meters length, +/- 0.08 mm of positioning repeatability – with 3 important keys:
- FAST -> up to 2 meters/sec
- RIGID -> the pallets doesn’t need to be stopped in position, but it’s just enough rigid and stable to support 20 kg of load and 150 Nm of tilting moment applied on
- ACCURATED -> the repeatability is below a tenth of millimetre
If powered by a rotary table, surely the Precision Link Conveyor has also the possibility to increase the performance of the machine, like shown in the next image, with a samples of load/unload, plasma, painting, quality control and mounting stations.
The rigidity and reliability of a Precision Link Conveyor is exactly what the automotive market is asking now, after that it had been successfully applied for more than 20 years in other fields like electronics, medical, packaging, manufacturing and many more.
ITALPLANT is supporting this automotive revolutions, with strong collaborations in Europe and US, where the biggest cars makers starts to use their Precision Link Conveyors for fast battery module assembly lines.
Please feel free to visit our website and contact us in order to get more support on your applications for linear and rotary systems.
