Baomarc – Unique solution for Jeep Grand Cherokee radiator crossbar line

Customer needs and realized project

The customer needed to merge 2 processes, usually divided, into one: the process of welding elements on the radiator crossbar and the process of milling and inspection with a cycle time of 26 seconds per element.

Following an in-house study, a solution was born with a definitive layout that isolates the CMT welding process into 2 cells, which optimises a double machining process at the same time as the manual loading of the elements: the operator loads the crossbar and the necessary brackets, to take back a single welded piece.

The need then arose to mill the slots that will be used to fit inside the engine compartment, this milling had to have a tolerance of one hundredth. To this end, two machine tools, manufactured in-house by an LCS Group company, were installed inside the island, with centesimal machining to mill the element.

The process

The process involves the 2 operators in charge of picking up the welded parts from the 2 welding cells, placing the elements on pallet conveyors suitable for loading in a symmetrical manner.

Then, the 2 robots placed inside the island pick up the crossbeams and insert them, in a cadenced manner, inside the two milling machine tools, designed and built by SAMIND, a subsidiary of LCS Automation.

At the end of this process, in an alternating manner, the robots pass the element under a brushing and blowing station in order to clean it and make it ready to be measured in the measuring station, on board the robot wrist.

The measuring station is designed to:

1. Reading the QR Code via Datamatrix reader
2. Analysing the length of weld seams by means of 2 profilometres
3. Photograph the 2 slots milled by the machine tool and give an outcome response with centesimal tolerance

At the end of the checks, the part is placed on a central exit belt conveyor if it is considered an OK part, or in an extraction drawer if it is considered a ‘reviewable’ part, so as to give the operators the opportunity to check it.

The machining was designed symmetrical, as the cycle time was to be 26 seconds per element.

The line was first deployed in Italy at LCS Automation’s plant in Rivalta di Torino, then dismantled and installed at the customer’s plant in Mexico.