Component Production

Pre-assembly has a new line

The production pre-assembly line of gearboxes has increased product quality, made production more precise and reduced the ergonomic stress on employees

V

he production lines at ŠKODA AUTO are undergoing constant modernisation, such as the one at the pre-assembly of MQ 200 gearboxes in Shop M6 in Mladá Boleslav. The local innovation has accelerated the work cycle of preparing the sets for the main line, is much more flexible than the current process and also contributes to a significant increase in quality.

The original line has been working for about 20 years. Although it has undergone some development, just like the gearbox itself, it has been lagging behind some of the more modern solutions, which are now being deployed in Shop M6. The input and the output shafts are fitted with gears and other parts during the pre-assembly process so that they can be worked on on the main line, where the final gearbox is created. The original pre-assembly consisted of three separate stations. The parts had to be passed between them by hand and were not easy to handle. “The new line has a concatenated arrangement of operations and eliminates the manual handling of partially assembled sets”, says Michal Szmaragowski from PKH/2 – Parts Production and Assembly. In his opinion, workers’ ergonomics has improved, and another advantage is that the robotic handling of sets significantly reduces the risk of damaging them. This has a positive effect, especially on the product quality. 

“Several control mechanisms are built into the line. Cameras, for instance, monitor whether the correct sprocket is mounted on the shaft in a particular step. If not, the line stops the whole step. Other sensors check whether a worker has correctly inserted the conforming part”, says Szmaragowski. Unlike pre-assembly in the past, the new line can also handle the preparation of the six-speed gearbox option. Thus, the assembly line can be supplied with five- and six-speed gearboxes, making it more flexible, and the cycle time has been reduced to 29 seconds. ED