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| DaimlerChrysler AG; Sindelfingen (Germany) | | Seam Sealing Safe and Sound | Profinet Safety in Seam Sealing
DaimlerChrysler AG has developed a new kind of fully automatic application process for body seam sealing in a pilot project. Potential innovations for the company-wide automation standard integraMCG are to be validated and ensured simultaneously for the control-technical implementation of the process.
The aim of the seam sealing robot tower pilot plant at the DaimlerChrysler AG works in Sindelfingen was to demonstrate a production process for fully automatic, smear-free sealing of the up to 80 meter long jointing seams of the vehicle bodies. A two-tier tower architecture was developed for this which enables application robots to work on the top and bottom body halves at the same time.A look ahead: Profinet SafetyBasic problems in the control-technical implementation of the project were to work out a basis for the planned mid-term use of the Ethernet technology (Profinet) for conventional and failsafe automation technology in the production. The ambitious schedule for implementing the plant automatically demanded a split-level implementation strategy for the control-technical equipping of the plant.Profisafe - a safe betTo enable the project team comprising the general manager KUKA welding systems, the control technology supplier Siemens and the DaimlerChrysler designers of PWT-VAS to get off to a quick, trouble-free start, a technological basis was required with a high innovation and future potential but which at the same time promises a high degree of real production capabilities. It was decided to implement an initial architecture based on Profibus with Profisafe technology - but at the same time to take the necessary measures to be able to easily convert to Profinet or Profinet Safety later. The core of the initial architecture is the system and safety control based on a Simatic CPU 416F-2 which controls both the conventional and the safety-oriented plant parts side by side. This solution completely does away with the need for a separate safety control and the installation of a separate safety bus. The connection to all the field components is made throughout by a common bus system, Profibus with Profisafe profile. In the field level, conventional and failsafe distributed IP20 peripheral devices and motor starters of the Simatic ET 200S have established themselves, the IP65/67 periphery scopes are covered both by conventional and failsafe Simatic ET 200eco peripheral devices. A Siemens frequency inverter available from the mid-year is already being subjected to intensive field tests in prototype versions.Profisafe - open to partnersOne of the decisive factors in DaimlerChrysler AGs choice of the Profisafe technology was the extensive integration possibility for the products of other partners. The conventional bus also failsafe linking to neighboring plants is done simply, safely and flexibly with conventional DP-DP couplers.Profisafe - one diagnostics for allBy using the Profibus diagnostics repeater the Profibus with Profisafe profile field-bus system can play out another of its strengths; homogeneous bus diagnostics for all field devices and conventional and failsafe peripheral devices. For this a new kind of Profibus diagnostic software was developed in close cooperation with the developers and maintenance people at the DaimlerChrysler AG which will soon become part of the Siemens product landscape.Industrial Ethernet for vertical integrationA terminal server/thin client principle is being relied on for the first time for operation and monitoring of the whole system. The programs integrated on the server such as Step 7/Graph 7 and other HMI software communicate with their target systems such as the system and safety control, the robot controls and slave technology controls via Industrial Ethernet. The cost-optimized, "zero-administration" thin-client systems integrated locally in the operator stations only send the mouse and keyboard information to the terminal server and receive the screen information from the terminal server via the network for display.A fireworks display of innovations - in time, in budgetThe experience in the implementation phase was exclusively positive according to the coordinating staff at DaimlerChrysler. Despite the large number of innovations in the first implementation stage, all development goals including the integration of the components of third party providers were achieved in just five months and within the budget. The transfer of the new technologies to the planners, operators and maintenance people also worked thanks to the great commitment of those involved in the project. The implemented architecture offers both plant manufacturers and end users a modular system which leaves them freedom of choice between a central or distributed plant structure and leads to provable savings after internal cost analysis.
Move Up 2 / 2004 | |
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