As an important component of national economic development, the automotive industry is in a critical stage of transitioning from a major automotive country to an automotive powerhouse. How to promote China's automotive industry to enter the mid to high end of the global value chain through innovation in digitalization and intelligent manufacturing, achieve high-quality development of the automotive manufacturing industry, become a strong engine for promoting the transformation and upgrading of the automotive manufacturing industry, and is also the main direction for accelerating the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse.
As the Sales Director of Ant Robotics in North China, Dong Zhiyong has been deeply involved in the field of mobile robots for 16 years, directly participating in hundreds of projects and fully penetrating the application scenarios of AMR in various industries. Based on rich industry experience and deep professional skills, he combines new changes, technologies, and solutions in the automotive industry to deeply share his thoughts, insights, and practical explorations.
Interview Record of Automobile Manufacturing Industry
What is the current situation of the automotive manufacturing industry?
In 2022, the automotive industry was deeply impacted by unfavorable factors such as the high prices of power battery raw materials caused by the impact of the epidemic and the structural shortage of chips. In 2023, the overall recovery of the Chinese automotive market in adversity has shown strong development resilience, especially with the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry in the past two years. The automotive industry has ushered in a new pattern and transformation.
According to the report data, the application of mobile robots in the automotive parts industry accounted for 25% of the overall market in 2022, with a slight increase compared to 2021, especially in the field of new energy vehicles, where demand is stronger.
What are the pain points in the automotive manufacturing industry?
At present, a large number of car companies have pain points in the production process, such as poor connection between the manufacturing and logistics ends, lack of intelligent collaboration between the upper and lower processes, and difficulty in achieving high flexibility and automation operations. These are specifically manifested as:
Dust, sparks, etc. in spraying, welding and other scenarios can cause harm to employees' lungs, eyes, etc., which is difficult for manual labor to meet.
A large amount of manpower needs to be invested to meet the production and distribution rhythm, with high labor costs and low turnover rate
Numerous materials, complex working conditions, compact pace, etc
The segmented application of mobile robots in the field of automotive manufacturing?
The penetration of mobile robots in various aspects of the automotive industry can maximize their value, with application scenarios covering assembly workshops, welding workshops, stamping workshops, painting workshops, etc. The specific application processes include assembly AMR, line logistics AMR, distribution area AMR, unloading area AMR, and factory logistics AMR.
In the stamping workshop, AMR is mainly used in scenarios such as automatic loading and unloading of stamping sheet materials and maintenance and mold replacement of stamping molds. It can support high load mold handling, separation of personnel, vehicles and materials, and safer operations.
In the welding and assembly workshop, AMR mainly participates in line side transportation, self replenishment, complex empty full exchange, and flexible to meet the transportation needs of the production line.
In the painting workshop, AMR can achieve the offline delivery of injection molded parts to the cache area and the online distribution of the spraying line, as well as the multi link transportation of the spraying line offline. In many areas, there is a mixed flow of people and vehicles, and AMR can flexibly transport in complex scenes.
In the final assembly workshop, AMR achieves the relay and transportation of products between different assembly units by connecting the interior line, comprehensive line, front axle and motor, rear axle, battery assembly and installation of the final assembly process equipment.
The product types applied in the field of automobile manufacturing mainly include backpack type, traction type, submersible type, forklift type and other types of mobile robots. By integrating various fixtures or fixtures, they are gradually applied in the assembly, assembly, loading and unloading, and material transportation scenarios of various production lines, achieving digital real-time recording and control of links from material distribution to vehicle production process, quality inspection, and so on.
Discuss innovation and exploration in the automotive manufacturing industry with specific project cases?
The automotive manufacturing industry has a wide variety of products and complex production scenarios. With its rich application accumulation in various industries and enterprises, LOGIANT has developed standardized and customized development solutions for different needs in various complex scenarios. In the field of intelligent manufacturing in automobiles, LOGIANT has successfully delivered multiple intelligent manufacturing projects, including Foton Automobile, Geely Automobile, Zongshen Power, etc., and has created multiple modern automobile intelligent manufacturing factories that are unmanned, flexible, intelligent, and informationized.
Taking the automobile production and manufacturing base in the northwest region as an example, the project covers both indoor and outdoor operating scenarios, and requires high laser navigation for mobile robots. There are also pain points such as complex scenes of mixed pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and high difficulty in traffic control.
LOGIANT has made sufficient and meticulous deployment in the early planning stage, combined with the actual production needs of the project. Through the application of AMR autonomous navigation, path planning, perception decision-making, and visual recognition technologies, it efficiently completes tasks such as material handling, production line operation, and warehouse management, improves production efficiency, seamlessly connects with the customer's logistics execution system, realizes the full chain connection of information, helps to achieve seamless integration of various links in the factory, and completes the upstream and downstream production process information linkage in the automotive assembly process, real-time grasps warehouse operation and production line dynamics, and realizes pull production. 笔记
The development trend of mobile robots in the field of automotive manufacturing?
From the perspective of the development trend of the automotive industry, the growth rate of new energy vehicles will further accelerate in the future, and the demand for mobile robots is still relatively obvious. There is a large demand in the field of assembly, automotive parts, automotive parts transportation, flexible operation of the entire automotive field, and even logistics transportation after the car is taken offline, which is also the main competitive link for domestic enterprises.
Driven by the continuous recovery of automobile consumption and the rapid development of new energy vehicles, mobile robots will become more popular in automobile manufacturing. As a leader in indoor and outdoor full scene mobile robots, we will actively embrace industrial changes, continuously innovate and iterate solutions and technologies, and create long-term value for industry users. To achieve more flexible task allocation, collaborative work, and customized production in the production environment, better respond to the needs and challenges of modern intelligent manufacturing, and help build advanced digital and intelligent future factories.
With the rapid development of technology, digital technology is changing everything, and the world of intelligent logistics is full of infinite possibilities. We will share and summarize the latest technologies, professional industry experience, and other related topics through special interviews, in order to provide reference and reflection for everyone. In the next issue, Xie Jinhua, the Sales Director of the South China region, will share with you a storage and picking solution that combines high-density storage and efficient goods to person picking. Stay tuned!
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