Automated welding solution to produce Foton Daimler’s heavy-duty truck in China
08 December 2022
Comau has developed an advanced welding solution for Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive Co., which will help support an annual production capacity of 50,000 units.
This solution is a joint venture between Daimler Trucks AG and the Chinese truck manufacturer Foton Motor.
In developing the welding system, Comau is helping support BFDA’s first localised heavy-duty truck for the Chinese market, the “Actros”, which is based on the Mercedes-Benz global platform and uses Daimler’s most advanced truck technology.
Featuring 100 percent process automation, the Comau-designed production line is engineered to be completely flexible, in order to handle complex model management and variable output management.
With a target annual production capacity of 50,000 units, Comau’s welding solution will meet both the customer’s current and future production requirements.
Under the scope of the project, Comau’s engineering team was tasked with mastering the Daimler Integra 6 standard, to create an automated, flexible, intelligent and digital welding line for both the door area and the framework of the instrument panel.
Built to ensure cycle efficiency and streamline workflows, the solution features proprietary Comau products, such as RH-Clean, an automatic cleaning roller device. This can be used with different types of rollers and pre-hemming tools, and a quality-control vision system that uses QUISS camera detection and is equipped with a kick-in/kick-off process to ensure the quality of the parts after glueing.
Finally, the project also leverages virtual commissioning technology to help test and optimise the new production line while shortening the actual commissioning time, reducing labour hours and reducing potential post-site commissioning risks.
“Throughout this successful collaboration, the Comau team has played an important role in improving the competitiveness of our products. We are particularly impressed with their expertise in various aspects such as design, reliability and cost,” mentioned William Sparenberg, Head of Mercedes Benz Truck Factory.
“We are honoured to have been selected by Foton Daimler to work on this milestone which paves the way to localising its first heavy-duty truck. Daimler is a global leader in the automotive industry, not only because of its large volume of business, but also because of its pursuit of technological advancement,” said Gaetano Cantalupo, Comau Head of Countries Cluster APAC.
“Winning this project is a recognition of Comau’s capabilities, expansion of its customer base and expansion into new business modules.”
Mass production of the high-end Actros truck is expected to start in Q2 2023.
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