Robots take over the 'wedding' in Kvasiny
The Kvasiny plant, where the Octavia, Kodiaq and Karoq models are manufactured, has seen one of its largest investments in recent years. The process of joining the body to the chassis – known in production as the 'wedding' – is now fully automated. We travelled to Kvasiny to see how it all works and what the modernisation involved.
Production
Robots Have Fully Taken Over the "Marriage" Process in Kvasiny
The Kvasiny plant has taken a major step towards increasing efficiency and capacity on the ML1 line. The new chassis pre-assembly brings a higher level of automation and flexibility.
Over the course of this summer, employees from the Assembly Planning department, together with colleagues from departments in Kvasiny, completed a major modernisation project on the ML1 assembly line in Kvasiny. It brought a completely new marriage of the chassis and body, a process known in car industry jargon as the marriage. This marriage is now almost fully automated. However, such automation required much deeper changes in Kvasiny: the entire chassis pre-assembly is also completely new, as are the methods of controlling the pre-assembly and, above all, the tightening of joints.
"It is one of the biggest automation and modernisation projects in Kvasiny in more than ten years," points out Jan Chládek, chassis and powertrain assembly planning coordinator. This modernisation brings significant benefits for Kvasiny going forward: it not only increases the capacity of this part of the line, but has also significantly increased its flexibility, which will make it easier to introduce the production of any new models or platforms in the future.
"These benefits will mainly show in the future, but even now, after being put into operation, the line already allows us to produce more cars than before," says Robert Cavos from the PPF-M/1 department, adding that further adjustments and modernisation of the whole line, for which this change has created the conditions, will allow for further possible future increases in the overall capacity of this assembly line (ML1).
At the same time, modern technology reduces the line's dependence on external suppliers and, for some components and solutions, opens up space for competition among more suppliers. This brings significant savings when purchasing equipment or, for example, when changes need to be made to the line.
A completely new chassis pre-assembly
The marriage, meaning the joining of the car's chassis with the body, is one of the most demanding operations in the production of a new car and has a fundamental impact on the line's takt time, and therefore its capacity too. This highly automated joining process places high demands on precision and the overall capabilities of the robots, as a whole range of factors come into play: both the body and the hanger it arrives on, as well as the chassis assembly with the powertrain and its chassis frame, show certain tolerances.
This was one of the reasons why, in addition to the marriage process, the chassis pre-assembly line in Kvasiny was also completely reworked. It is characterised by a high level of automation and has also brought an innovative pre-assembly flow to Kvasiny. Chassis are now built on new base frames, made up of three different chassis pallets, which travel along assembly tables instead of assembly trolleys. Between operations, it is therefore not the trolley that moves but only the frame, from table to table.
An important part of the pre-assembly process is the frame store and the system for preparing them. Frames differ depending on the car model being produced and its specific version. "In the case of the rear frame, we have five types, and these also allow some members to be adjusted so that a single frame can be used to produce both the Octavia and the Karoq," explains R. Cavos. The Kodiaq SUV is also produced in Kvasiny, but the line can, after fairly standard adjustments, also produce other cars. "We planned for a high degree of flexibility, including the introduction of further platforms. What's more, the base frames are, in principle, identical to those used in Mladá Boleslav," R. Cavos adds.
The production of every car in Kvasiny now effectively starts, in terms of the chassis, with the preparation of its assembly frame: this is fully automatic, and the robotic solution also includes backup for individual machines and a handling space that makes it easier to resolve any potential issues. Frames are used in a regular rotation so that they wear evenly, something the automated technology also monitors.
Seven steps instead of three
The joining of the chassis and the body now takes place in seven steps instead of the original three:
1 Joining of the body on the EHB hanger and the chassis on its assembly frame.
2 Automatic tightening from underneath the car combined with manual catching of bolts in the engine compartment.
3 First step of fully automatic joint tightening.
4 Second step of fully automatic joint tightening.
5 Manual step, which provides space for starting any corrective work. Employees also use guided manipulators to tighten joints in the engine compartment.
6 The assembly remains only on the EHB hanger, the chassis frame is disconnected and moves on to the next sequence.
7 Rework focused on any necessary joint repairs.
Info
Demanding preparations
Both the UniSCREW project and the modernisation of the ML1 line in Kvasiny can boast a very fast implementation. In the case of the line, it took only around 18 months, including demanding construction work and preparations carried out right next to the line. Most of the technology was installed while the existing line was still in operation. Final completion then took place during this year's collective holiday, and just 14 days after start-up, the line was already exceeding its originally planned capacity. The UniSCREW project has been implemented in cooperation between the PPD (Production Digitalisation) and PFS-E (Car Production Systems) departments since July 2023, with the preparatory phase having begun two years earlier. The first practical applications of the project were rolled out after just one year. Preparations for the fully automated marriage process and the new chassis pre-assembly in Kvasiny then began in autumn 2025, with testing and fine-tuning already under way since April this year.
UniSCREW Improves Line Control
Increased flexibility and appropriate oversight are also brought by completely new software control of automatic stations. In many cases, pre-assembly and installation now use standardised solutions. This applies both to the line control itself and, for example, to visualisation at the line. The most significant innovation, however, is the involvement of the UniSCREW project, which, led by the PPD department (Production Digitalisation), brought fully automatic control of joint tightening to the installation line using the DCIx system. The solution uses the Group's XML communication standard, which removes the previous dependency on a single supplier. "The deployment of the DCIx system allows us to choose from offers of multiple suppliers when procuring tightening equipment, and the tightening processes, including change management, are then fully under the control of Škoda Auto," says Lukáš Pokorný from the UniSCREW project. Both bring significant savings. Changes to the line control, for example when relocating a joint as part of model updates, as well as other adjustments, no longer need to be carried out by an external supplier. The carmaker's own staff can handle them. However, the savings on tightening equipment are key. Thanks to an extensive Group contract with multiple suppliers, the prices of manual tightening tools are roughly a third of what they used to be. And in the case of the fully automatic solution, which now operates both at the installation line and, for example, at the Triangl tightening station, the savings were even higher. The price was less than a quarter of the previous one, bringing savings of around one million euros compared with the previous solution.