Improving Quality and Guarantee ‘Just in Time’ Manufacture

Automation at SEAT Componentes

Cobots in Grinding and Palletizing Applications Boost Productivity and Free Up Manpower

In Short

Gearbox manufacturer SEAT Componentes needed to automate the unloading of 18,000 machined gears a day at its plant in Spain in order to guarantee the quality of the parts. The company integrated ten collaborative robots from Universal Robots using only internal resources. This formula made it possible for SEAT to keep the company know-how on cobot configuration in-house, eliminating extra programming and maintenance costs. The DIY installation was done without changing existing factory layout, allowing new applications to be configured in less than an hour. As a result, the company has reduced errors, improved worker safety, and now has a team prepared to take on new automation projects.

The Business Challenge

SEAT Components is a manufacturer of gearboxes for the Volkswagen Group plants in Europe, Asia and America. It supplies them for a wide variety of cars made by both Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT S.A. and Skoda.

At its plant in Barcelona, Spain, the company manufactures gearboxes, ranging from casting of the aluminium to assembly of the housing, which contains gears, shafts, synchronizers and the differential gearbox. The company also performs the subsequent quality control. It is a very specialized and sophisticated process in which quality and precision are critical in order to guarantee correct operation and noise reduction of the gearbox.

The process of unloading the parts and making them available for the gearbox assembly process used to be carried out completely by hand with operators unloading and transporting the parts on trolleys. A process SEAT wanted to automate to reduce errors and improve safety. “The aim is to ensure that from the machining process to assembly, the operator touches the part as little as possible,” explains Eduardo Fonseca, Senior Manager Technical Services at SEAT.

SEAT Componentes

Industry Automotive and subcontractors

Country Spain

Number of Employees 1,000+

Cobot used UR10

Components used Robotiq 2F-140 gripper and Zimmer Group Collaborative gripper

How they did it

Taking a closer look at the process and key details for successfully transitioning from manual processes to automation with collaborative robots

Small footprint and ease of use

During this pilot test, SEAT studied the costs and implementation periods of a collaborative robot, the safety requirements that the technology required and the technical feasibility of the operation.

The cobots passed the test. “We decided to use robots from Universal Robots due to their easy programming and integration in the line, and above all because of their low footprint: we were able to install them without changing the existing layouts, allowing the robots to work alongside the operator,” says Francisco Pérez, from the SEAT Componentes Maintenance Technical Office.

No fixed installations

The UR10e cobots currently serve ten different machining lines. They are not fixed installations, but can easily be adapted to model changes. “In less than ten minutes we can adapt a cobot to transfer from unloading one part to a completely different component,” Francisco Pérez points out.

Increased machine uptime

Using the PROFINET protocol, the cobot communicates with the PLC and receives instructions as to when there are already machined pieces so that it can perform the related operation. When that is the case, the cobot unloads the parts onto trays. Once the tray is full, the PLC communicates with the AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) to remove the full tray and insert a new one, thereby minimizing machine stoppages.

Just-in-time manufacturing eliminates surplus stock

The AMR transports the parts to a warehouse that is filled just-in-time according to manufacturing needs, avoiding surplus stock and the costs these entail. Having reached this point, everything is now ready for the gearbox assembly line: the gears are positioned on a special assembly tray and, through a series of automated operations, the remaining gearbox parts are attached. Within this synchronized process, the cobot complies with SEAT's cycle times, to achieve the plant's daily production goals.

Cobot number 11 used for testing and validation

An additional eleventh UR10e has joined the cobot fleet at the SEAT plant. This robotic arm is intended for in-house training and is mounted on a mobile platform in order to

get close to machines and work centers. It allows operators to familiarize themselves with programming collaborative robots. Furthermore, it allows concept tests and validations of new installations to be performed prior to their integration into the line.

3D printing of gripper “fingers

Another key factor in the integration of UR cobots by SEAT is that the plant is self-sufficient in printing the "fingers” of the collaborative grippers, according to each need and the level of protection required to maintain the safety level of the application. This makes it possible to have almost immediate spares without the need for stock, and to perform concept tests in less than 45 minutes.

Know-how kept in-house

“Performing integration in-house has allowed us to keep the know-how of programming and integrating the cobots within the maintenance area, which means that during any stoppages, we can be more decisive and the costs of machine downtime are lower,” says Manuel Gómez, Maintenance Manager at SEAT Components.

Intuitive gripper configuration

This ease when adapting to production is reinforced with the intuitive configuration of the cobots and their peripherals, certified through the UR+ platform. “We have been able to implement applications in less than one hour,” Francisco Pérez emphasizes. Moreover, SEAT Components can implement these changes without having to call upon the services of an integrator, which would increase costs.

Operators upskilled

Another benefit of the application is that the operators have been relieved of manually unloading 18,000 parts a day. “By using collaborative robots, we have managed to ensure that operators can devote their time to tasks that add value to the product, such as quality issues or process improvements,” Manuel Gómez points out. This is why “the operators see the cobots as an extra tool to do their work.”

All in all, SEAT has undergone a change of attitude, allowing its team members to take on future automation projects in-house. “Now, any automation project is conditioned not only by its contribution in terms of profitability, but also because it provides us with know-how that we did not have before,” says Gómez.

To sum up, the project “is profitable, productivity is higher and quality has been consolidated,” concludes Eduardo Fonseca about the automation project that was met with the approval of the SEAT group

Performing integration in-house has allowed us to keep the know-how of programming and integrating the cobots within the maintenance area, which means that during any stoppages, we can be more decisive

Manuel Gómez, Maintenance Manager at SEAT Components

The Solution

The company’s maintenance team based its automation approach on experience gained from an earlier project from 2015 where SEAT installed UR cobots at its shotblasting and washing stations.

This made the company realize that cobots were easy to install, maintain and integrate without needing safety measures such as fencing based on conducted risk assessments.

Since the use of cobots simplified and streamlined the shotblasting and washing process, the team recommended integrating cobots again for the unloading of parts in the manufacture of gearboxes. SEAT decided to integrate ten UR10e collaborative robots to carry out the unloading. A task the company could undertake without needing

the services of an external integrator thanks to SEAT’s previous experience with the cobots. This guaranteed a cost saving both at the time of installation and in future maintenance tasks.

Performing the integration of the UR cobots with SEAT’s own resources involved two stages of training and preparation: firstly, the SEAT Componentes Maintenance team trained within the company, starting with the free UR Academy online training modules. Secondly, they carried out a pilot project in which they integrated an initial cobot.

Automation challenges solved:

Free up workers from having to unload 18,000 gears a day
Communicate with AMR vehicles to transport the parts to the next stage.
Reduce errors and improve worker safety
3D print gripper fingers

Key value drivers:

Integration with in-house resources and personnel
Changes in the applications and continuous process improvement immediately and with no extra costs
Easy to configure: new applications in less than an hour
Cobot installation adapted to existing layout

Tasks solved by collaborative robots:

Unloading parts for gearbox assembly

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