Adapting agile production systems to the needs of automotive manufacturers

On April 10th, the "2nd China Automotive and Parts Manufacturing Technology Forum" sponsored by China Automotive Engineering Society, MC "Modern Parts" magazine and "Mechanical Workers" magazine was held in Beijing from home and abroad. More than 100 representatives from the parts manufacturing and machine tool industries attended the meeting.

Avoid excess capacity from planning and management

The problem of overcapacity that has been occurring in the automotive industry since last year has plagued many entrepreneurs, and how to solve the imbalance between the cost of production inputs and output costs is an almost unchangeable reality for some companies. In fact, it has already started from the beginning of the production line planning.

Li Xirong from Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company's Manufacturing Technology Department put forward that the engine production line should consider the design plan from the perspective of market competition in terms of its production practice for many years, invest in basic capabilities, step-by-step increase in capacity according to production demand, and use production capacity balance to reduce manufacturing costs. the opinion of.

In fact, the reduction of investment costs can also be considered from two aspects. One is a modular production method, that is, a centralized process, which reduces the number of equipment and balances the production processes between processes and processes within the module. This can realize a step-by-step investment to increase production capacity. The other is a fully-utilized production management model that supports production capacity with high reliability. It requires that the equipment has a sufficient starting rate, be adjusted in a local period using production management, and reduce the capacity balance and damage caused by the failure of the shutdown. In order to avoid excessive investment and waste of production capacity.

Li Xilu introduced that Volvo, one of the partners of Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company, has achieved a 20% increase in production capacity through production management.

Agility, flexibility and high reliability are the requirements of market competition

As the current model changes little by little every year, three years changes dramatically, and even when the regulations require a three-year replacement, the product technology of the manufacturer is required to keep up with the follow-up, and the product structure and characteristics are continuously updated. In fact, manufacturing is formed. Difficulties have increased and more stringent requirements have been placed on the production line – agility, flexibility and high reliability.

Taking the typical assembly engine of the automotive industry as an example, on the basis of agility, flexibility, and high reliability, how to select a processing scheme, and how to formulate a technical scheme and a process plan are the key issues to be considered. Wang Yanguo from MAG Industrial Automation Systems in the United States believes that, in terms of process development trends, the parallel process, that is, the multi-station program control machine tool consisting of one or more processing units is the best, which reflects the development of the automotive industry. Flexibility requirements to be achieved; and in the selection of technical solutions, after comparing single-spindle and double-spindle, wet and dry machining, linear motors and ball screws, and other different machine tool technology routes, Wang Yanguo believes that considering With the improvement of ergonomics, reduction of operating costs, reduction of environmental pollution and other factors, the technical solution with a double-spindle structure, a linear motor feed method and a micro-lubrication method has greater potential for development, especially for those in Europe. Maintain a factory with strong capabilities.

For the understanding and response of agile, flexible and high reliability, domestic equipment manufacturers also gave better answers. Taking the LINKS-EXE700, a new generation parallel processing center of Harbin Group, as an example, its parallel mechanism has only 6 joints and its degree of freedom is reduced to 10, which breaks through the limitations of the traditional parallel mechanical working space, and can be used in an effective working space. Achieve 5- to 6-face and all-composite-angle position processing, one-step clamping can be completed multi-faced complex shaped parts and composite angle hole and curved surface processing, its rigidity, dynamic performance and high-speed performance have greatly improved.

"Small" Process to Solve Big Environmental Problems

In today's increasingly stringent requirements for energy conservation and environmental protection, the reduction in the weight of automobiles is not only an effective way to reduce fuel consumption, but also reduces the overall carbon dioxide emissions of automobiles in the manufacturing process. The process with the simultaneous reduction of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide is a shot-peening technique that is generally not well known and applied.

As an expert on shot peening technology, Kobayashi Yukio, director of the Shoto Strengthening Center of Nisshin Industries, Ltd., Japan, introduced that shot peening technology was officially applied to Japan’s automotive industry for more than 20 years, mainly in engine parts and transmissions. Strong durability of important components such as springs, gears, etc. Shot blasting technology is a kind of cold processing. It uses the force of compressed air to spray steel pellets out of the nozzles or use centrifugal force to accelerate the steel pellets and throw them on the metal surface to make plastic deformation of the material surface layer and give residual compression. Stress, thereby increasing fatigue strength and preventing stress corrosion cracking. Shot blasting technology is a technology to increase the strength of a product. Even if the part is made smaller or thinner, it can maintain its proper strength, and it plays an important role in lightening the part.

Kobayashi, for example, said that in general, the development of new materials, the use of heat treatment methods to increase the strength is relatively common, carburizing quenching and other heat treatment as a method to increase strength is considered a very effective method, but its negative factors are large equipment, emissions of carbon dioxide. In contrast, shot blasting is the last step in the product's manufacturing process, and the introduction of simple equipment can achieve the desired effect. Therefore, there is no need to reconsider the entire manufacturing process, and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced compared to reconsidering the entire production line. The “small” process solves the big problem of environmental protection.

Key technologies aim at "high," "precise," and "sets."

As the organizer of the "China Automobile Manufacturing Equipment Demand Analysis and Development Strategy Study" project, Chen Changnian, Director of the Armaments Department of the China Automotive Engineering Society, briefed the participants on the progress of the "High-end CNC Machine Tools and Basic Manufacturing Technology" special project. Chen Changnian said that the automobile manufacturing technology and equipment in the “special project” must be the most advanced automobile manufacturing technology in the contemporary world, that is, key technologies featuring “high efficiency, high precision, and complete sets”. The projects that have already been applied for by the Ministry of Science and Technology include two aspects: one is the high-efficiency, high-precision and complete sets of technical equipment for engines and key components, and the second is the key technologies and equipment for lightweight manufacturing of automobiles. The application projects for cutting-edge technologies and basic theories are formulated as: RMS for engine reconfigurable production lines, and reliability and precision life testing and growth technology for numerical control machine tools for automobile manufacturing.