Requirement:

On the production line at the Volkswagen factory in Brunswick (Germany), car axel units are assembled automatically. The axels are assembled in pairs and are transported along the line on a shared pallet. Four brake modules are fitted, one to each end of each axel, and each module is secured by a single central nut. This central nut is fitted manually by a line worker and is very safety critical, if it is missing an accident can occur later. Consequently, there is a real need to ensure this stage of assembly is 100% error free. Volkswagen needed a system to check the presence of this vital nut.

Omron Solutions:

Omron proposed a vision system to confirm the presence of the central nut. After the nuts are fixed, four F150 cameras inspect the pallet with its two axels. Each of the four nuts is viewed by its own camera, and so 2 cameras are mounted on each side of the production line. Because of the difficult light conditions on the production line, the cameras are equipped with IR-ring lights. Only when all four F150-systems are giving out the correct signal can the two ABB robots fix the brake unit covers. These covers, which give protection against dirt and water, cover the central nut thus preventing any further checks.

Volkswagen chose Omron because:

Omron committed time and effort to intensive tests on the production line to ensure the development of a really effective solution. The problem, that oil and color markings on the central nut, may have caused for the cameras was solved by intelligent tool settings specially devised by the Omron application engineer. This system was the first project undertaken at Volkswagen’s Brunswick plant. With the success of this project our vision systems were placed on the Brunswick approval list. Since then we made several projects with different OEM’s and System Integrators’ for VW-Brunswick.