Schuler has received a large order for new production systems by a German premium automotive manufacturer. The company is supplying two servo press lines with a press force of 91,000 kilonewtons each and two servo tryout presses to the Mercedes-Benz sites Bremen and Sindelfingen. The press lines are used to form car body parts from steel and aluminum while the tryout presses are used for optimizing and maintaining the dies required for this. The systems are scheduled to be commissioned at the end of 2018.
The latest generation six-station press lines from Schuler feature an automatic quality inspection system and automatic racking system. “This ensures the reproducibility of high-quality parts, even at maximum stroke rate”, explains Managing Director Klaus Linnig, who is head of the Automotive Division at Schuler. “Not only does the ServoDirect Technology enable a high output rate, it also offers the required flexibility to form steel and aluminum reliably.”
After the last forming station, two robots equipped with special sensors monitor specific spots on the produced trunk covers, engine hoods or doors for any faults. If all quality requirements are fulfilled subsequently to the surface inspection, the last working step is performed without a break in production: eight further robots stack the parts, which are accruing depending on size every second, in the transport container.
Daimler has ordered six servo press lines from Schuler since 2010 in total. The two latest systems are equipped with an intelligent DC system (“Smart DC Grid”), which considerably lowers energy consumption.