WHEEL-FLIP MACHINE FOR S.U.V. MANUFACTURER

 

WHEEL-FLIP MACHINE FOR S.U.V. MANUFACTURER

 

This is a special-purpose machine that we designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned for a car manufacturer in the North West of England.

The customer introduced a new model vehicle to be built on the same production line as its predecessor, along with a separate current-build production vehicle. This meant re-tooling their production facility to accommodate them all. We were given the challenge of re-tooling many areas of the production process, including the wheel-fit area of the assembly facility.

 

 

THE CHALLENGE

The wheels supplier could not deliver the spare wheel in the correct orientation so the spare wheel needed to be flipped 180-degrees horizontally. This was a serious ergonomic issue if executed manually as the customer fits 600-800 spare wheels in a 24-hour period.

The customer needed to introduce a method of flipping the wheel within their existing facility and Carney UK, experienced in solving difficult problems by providing a bespoke tooling solution, were awarded the work.

 

 

THE SOLUTION

Initially, we supplied a flip-trolley for a logistics associate to use in the unload/sequencing area. This bought us time to design and build an automated solution but the introduction of a new operator in the process across three shifts was costing the business £150,000 per year.

The new vehicles were at their launch stages so there were considerable saving to be made across the lifecycle of the product by manufacturing a bespoke, automated machine.

The system was designed at Carney UK in approximately 3-weeks and the manufacturing drawings were produced.

The machine was manufactured at Carney UK and that took another 4-weeks.

Installation and PLC commissioning were completed over a weekend.

 

The software within the production line PLC (Rockwell) identifies the exact wheel that needs to be flipped but also allows wheels that do not require flipping to pass through.

 

 

THE RESULTS

Carney UK’s solution for an automated system was half the cost of our nearest competitor.

The customer has stated that this is the most reliable machine in their facility with an up-time of 99.9999% based on 250,000 cycles (and counting).

This successful project really boosted our credibility and profile with this customer and our attention to detail regarding the cable management and our rapid response time to some initial teething issues were also noticed and commended.

 

Our team of engineers turned this idea in to a reality in eight-weeks from purchase order to production first use.

Additional technical assistance was provided to us by Festo, WDS Components, and Bearing Boys.

 

 

Simon can tell you more about this machine when you meet him.