The Customer:

Johnson Controls is one of the world's leading manufacturer's of cockpit systems for vehicles, with a product portfolio that includes systems for seats, roof trim, instrument panels, stowage areas and electronics. At its plant in Wuppertal, Germany, Johnson Controls Interior GmbH & Co. KG manufactures vehicle pillars.

The Task:

To design a system to injection mould and trim ABC pillars with a decor layer.

The Problem:

Configuration of a system for fully automated production of extremely labour intensive components, paying particular attention to the risk of quality fluctuation

The Solution:

We combined two cutting technologies. Most of the pillar edges are trimmed by a laser cutter capable of very high speeds and relatively easy to implement. The visible edges on the upper part of the component are trimmed by an ultrasonic cutter. This combined system results in a residue-free, high precision cut and all-round sealing.

The Outcome:

An LR 500 linear robot positions decor inserts in the mould of a KM 350-1900 C DecoForm injection moulding machine where they are back-injected with thermoplastic material. Simultaneously with inserting a new decor, the linear robot demolds a finished part and places it on an indexing turntable that moves them successively into a laser cutting cell. Laser robots trim the outer edges, cut the aperture for the seat belt and the aperture for the airbag emblems. The material residues initially remain on the part, in order to avoid contamination in the cutting cell. The turntable indexes on and the part is picked up by an industrial robot which trims the material residues (they drop into a container) and then passes the part to an ultrasonic cutting cell, where the visible edge of the B pillar is sealed. Finally the ready-to-install part is deposited on a conveyor belt and moved out of the production cell. This turnkey solution produces ABC pillars with high surface quality at competitive costs.