As an important automotive production location in Asia, Thailand has great investment potential. As one of Thailand’s leading automotive parts manufacturers, the Thai Summit Group plays an important role in developing Thailand as an automotive manufacturing and export location. The Thai Summit Group is a sheet metal forming industry leader that offers its customers first class stamping capacities. It attaches great importance to improving the quality of its products and services through the use of state-of-the-art production technologies to ensure that the products it supplies are precisely tailored to the needs and requirements of its customers.
Fully automated handling process between the presses
Thai Summit Automotive Co., Ltd. operates a press line for sheet metal forming at its headquarter. In order to operate the system consisting of six presses fully automatically, the automotive parts manufacturer has been using FIPA gripper systems. The lines are automated from infeed up to the finished part, thus minimizing handling while increasing output at the same time. The presses are operated consecutively connected in a series. The metal is automatically moved through a series of presses and formed into a sheet. Employees no longer have to manually load the metal sheet into the first press. After the pressing process, a robot positioned beside the press and equipped with a gripper removes the sheet and feeds it into the next press. Depending on the number of presses working in the series, this process is repeated until the last press. The entire handling process between the presses is fully automatic and has no need of employees. Due to the high speed, the selection of vacuum cups on the gripper is decisive for the entire system’s process reliability. FIPA’s SM-B series bellows vacuum cups made of a highly wear-resistant and oil-resistant NBR material were specially optimized for highly dynamic gripping processes. Robust anti-slip cleats give the vacuum cups for sheet metal handling extraordinarily high slip resistance – even when the metal sheets are oily. FIPA vacuum and gripper components and the robots’ repeat accuracy ensure that the work-pieces are fed and removed with the highest precision.
Full flexibility ahead
FIPA equipped each of the six robot cells with an automatic tool changer to reduce set-up times: perfect for flexible, cross-tool applications. The grippers can be changed automatically, quickly and easily to process five different car body parts in the same cell or machine. The new fully automated press line allows Thai Summit to process 900 metal sheets per hour compared to only 600 previously.
As a manufacturing service and solution provider, FIPA supports its customers with comprehensive application know-how and an innovative product range.
In the words of Dr. Chatkaew Hart-Rawung, Managing Director of Thai Summit Automotive Co., Ltd.: “FIPA has exceeded our expectations. Thanks to an intensive dialogue between FIPA and ourselves, the project has been both a smooth and collaborative experience.”
