Automatic bead position calculation for hem flange bonding

This article deals with improving the planning of hem flange bonding in the car body manufacturing process. Particularly during the ramp-up of the plant, great effort is put into ensuring that the generated adhesive bond meets the quality requirements. Here, several challenges occur in parallel. This ranges from the specific adhesive design, a result of multi-dimensional and individually curved car body parts, to the multi-stage process chain, where the associated manufacturing equipment is complex. This intricacy is countered by a discrete analysis of the adhesive continuum. Based on an established method, the location where the adhesive must be applied is computed under consideration of contiguous contours, disturbance variables and applicability by the projected dispensing system. For this reason the performance of the involved machines is examined. The results of this new method comprise a robot path along which an application system is guided, and control commands for the latter. Finally, a validation proves that this way, the adhesive application can be designed in a shorter period of time and in high quality at an early stage of plant design.