A team of Ford's AMTD (Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development) in Detroit initiated four projects, all based around force-controlled robots , and the major breakthrough came as a result of project set up with robot manufacturers Fanuc and Kawasaki whose solutions are based on standard robots that have been fitted with an external force torque sensor on the end-of-arm tooling and given a software upgrade. Fanuc is the supplier of the robot used in Ford's application at the Van Dyke transmission plant where the robot mounts a cluch hub in a clutch plate assembly that is delivered by conveyor to the robot assembly station where it is locked into place while the robot inserts the clutch hub that it has picked up from an other conveyor. Clutch plate assembly alone could provide force-controlled robots with 40 - 50 new applications. And, beyond clutch plates, there are numerous other of potential applications e.g. a triple clutch and its mating planetary gear set, deburring ofv glass and plastics, the load/anload of fragile metal stampings to welding fixtures, bearing liner insertion, and bolt starting.The force-controlled robotic cell at Van Dyke operates with a cycle time of nine seconds, producing more than 1,000 units per shift. Ford is aiming to develop the world's first self-learning forced-controlled robot basing on fuzzy logic techniques.


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    Title :

    Ford pioneers force-controlled robots for transmission assembly


    Additional title:

    Entwicklung und Einsatz von kraftgeregelten Robotern im Montagewerk von Ford in Van Dyke, Michigan


    Contributors:
    Kochan, A. (author)

    Published in:

    The Industrial Robot ; 28 , 6 ; 473-477


    Publication date :

    2001


    Size :

    5 Seiten, 4 Bilder




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English





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