Keywords
Citation
(2002), "New robot assembly system by Nissan Motor", Industrial Robot, Vol. 29 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2002.04929bab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
New robot assembly system by Nissan Motor
Keywords: Robots, Assembly, Automotive, Nissan
Japan's Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. has developed a new robot assembly system that is said to have the capability for automatic handling of engines and transmission units of different types, in various combinations. An important feature of this new system is a pair of advanced charge-coupled devices, which form the basis of a visual sensor that may be regarded as the robot's eyes. Together with single work-holding assemblies separately for an engine and a transmission unit, and an articulated robot for bolt-tightening tasks, the system costs about ¥50 million ($360,000 at the roughly yen/dollar exchange rate today).
In operation, the visual sensor first identifies the types of engines and transmission units with which the system is presented. The work-holding assemblies than set one example of each unit to pre-determined positions, within 0.05mm, with bolts then applied by the robot to secure the units together with reset torques.
The system is capable of accepting engines of 40 different types and 15 different transmission units. The time for an assembly operation has been reduced to just one minute from a period of 70 seconds formerly required for an experienced worker to secure the units together by hand.