Italian luxury carmaker Alfa Romeo has announced the implementation of new manufacturing lines, which use automated solutions to support the production of its latest Tonale model.
The car company brought in 20 new manufacturing lines to support the production of the body-in-white (BIW – a car body) of the car.
Automation systems developer Comau was contracted to build and deploy five new lines and retool 15 existing lines to support the development of the Tonale model.
The 20 new lines were designed to allow the automaker to assemble the Tonale using one of four different version setups, while also maintaining the needed throughput.
What’s more, Comau claims that the solution is fully scalable and allows the user to produce multiple brands on the same line.
The new model has an SUV chassis far larger than the model of car the line was previously designed for, meaning a new line was desired that would also not hold up vehicle production.
As part of the implementation process, Comau used simultaneous engineering to execute the retooling operation alongside other applications in alignment with its ‘Zero Loss Launch’ policy. Part of this included developing the line during the Alfa Romeo site’s natural downtime to minimise impact on working hours.
The industrial systems provider did this through use of an automated and semi-automated production solution, which made use of suspended robots to enable enhanced agility.
The idea behind this was to support vehicle modifications by Alfa Romeo through adjustments to robot tooling, rather than forcing them to alter the positioning of the bots themselves.
The automated manufacturing lines were also set up to support the introduction of new models in the future with a reduced amount of initial expenditure.
All in all, Comau reports that the entire system features 468 welding robots, 148 of which are completely new and 320 of which have been taken from existing lines. The automation company also claims to have utilised advanced simulation tools during the entire development period to support improved product quality and throughput.
Andrew Lloyd, Comau chief of engineering, says: “In supporting the Alfa Romeo brand in their product expansion, Comau has fully leveraged its longstanding experience in automation and smart manufacturing to deliver an unprecedented level of flexibility.
“This innovative approach to implementing brand new technologies and retooling existing lines and equipment is a direct result of our commitment to offer increasingly scalable and sustainable solutions, helping our customers better meet their objectives today as well as tomorrow.”
Moreover, the solution was designed to function as a fully modular system, meaning it can reportedly be built around standard products that are combined within an expandable design framework.
According to Comau, this means the automaker can rapidly grow its manufacturing environment with less of an impact on existing production schedules.
