Author name: Jeremy Hughes

A Tier 1 automotive supplier engaged with Mesa Technologies to design and build a fully automatic assembly cell.

Our customer had an existing production line that had been in production for approximately 20 years. The product line was forecast to continue for an additional 10 years. The previous machines had several mechanical and electrical components that had become obsolete and were becoming extremely difficult to replace. The machine ran multiple shifts and could not be taken out of service for refurbishment. The previous machines also required operators to load and unload the workpieces.

Mesa worked with our customers to understand and reproduce the same assembly processes as the previous machines. We modified the design to eliminate the need for the load/unload operator. This allowed our customer to largely justify the capital cost of the new equipment through headcount reduction

• M/C #1 – Housings are supplied from the back of the machine on trays (same as previous). A robot removes a workpiece from a tray and places it on a dial plate/indexer. A laser mark was added for traceability. Components are added to the assembly on the dial plate. The sub-assembly workpiece is unloaded from the dial plate and placed onto an “in-process tray” for curing.
• M/C #2 – The process is repeated, and additional components are added to the sub-assembly.
• M/C #3—The sub-assembly is loaded into the machine on “in-process trays.” A robot transfers the workpiece to a dial plate. The workpiece undergoes a leak test. If no leaks are detected, a protective epoxy is dispensed to complete the assembly. The completed workpiece is then reloaded to an in-process tray and transferred out of the machine.

A Tier 1 automotive supplier engaged with Mesa Technologies to design and build a semi-automatic assembly cell.

The load operator will  load an upper and lower housing to a fixture and affix a customer emblem. A 6-axis robot will transfer the components to a dial plate/indexer station. The dial plate/indexer rotates and advances the part to Operator #2. This operator uses a handheld automated screwdriver to drive several screws, joining the upper and lower housing The indexer cycles again and transfer the workpiece to a clip assembly station where 6-axis robots install retainer clips to the sub-assembly.  After the clips are assembled, a 6-axis robot transfers the sub-assembly to a second dial plate/indexer

The indexer cycles and transfers the workpiece to Operator #3, who installs additional hardware and brackets to the sub-assembly. The indexer cycles again to move the part to Operator #4, who installs a back up camera to the sub-assembly. The indexer then moves the workpiece to Operator #5. This operator removes the completed part from the machine and places on a test fixture. This fixture test the operation of the back up camera and is manually inspected for retainer clip presence.

After inspection, good parts are packed for shipment to their customer, reject parts are collected for rework and/or disposal.

A Tier 1 automotive supplier engaged with Mesa Technologies to design and build an automated assembly / testing machine.

Two components are loaded into a locating fixture by an operator. Cycle start is initiated. A 6-axis robot transfers the two components to an assembly station. The two workpieces are pre-assembled by the robot.  A IAI servo press is then cycled to complete the press fit assembly. The station measures and verifies that force required to assemble the components is within specification. The workpiece is then checked by a Keyence Vision system to verify the two components were assembled correctly. Reject parts are placed in a reject drawer for an operator to retrieve and disposition. Good parts are transferred to a nest to be picked by the next machine.

The following machine consists of 5 electrical test stations. A 7-axis robot picks an assembled workpiece from the previous machine. The robot waits for one of the five testers to finish testing of a previous part. The robot then moves to that tester, unloads the workpiece that has just completed testing and immediately reloads the empty tester with the workpiece from the assembly machine. Workpieces that fail the electrical testing are transferred to a reject drawer near the unload operator for retrieval. Workpieces that pass the electrical testing are transferred to the unload operator at the end of the testing machine