Boosting productivity with a new turnkey plant for a major automotive supplier

This renowned client is one of the global market leaders in acoustic and thermal management solutions for vehicles. Their components and systems for noise and heat protection are used by almost every automaker around the world.

Satisfied with the plant for simultaneously producing several insulated inner dashes they ordered from us in 2013, the client relied on us for another similar plant in 2020. This time, however, they requested a higher degree of automation to make their facility even more efficient, and we were prepared to deliver.

We designed this latest plant to be fully automated. It makes use of a 7-axis robot for handling and heating the heavy layer, making the overall process less labor-intensive. The supplied work island comprises a furnace with combined IR and contact heating and two tilting moving platen presses equipped with injection heads fed by a single metering machine.

The robot, centrally placed, moves material from one side of the island to the other, automating the entire process and reducing the cycle time to 150 seconds per part, including 30 seconds for heating the heavy layer and 40 seconds for foaming and curing.

2013 – A turnkey plant with:

• Two mold carriers (presses)
• Mold shuttle
• Mold
• A-compact 100 FC dosing unit
• Two FPL 18 HP mixing heads

2020 – A turnkey plant with:

• Three mold carriers (presses)
• Raw material loading bays
• Centering system by camera
• Hybrid heating bench (contact + IR)
• 7-axis robot
• A-compact 100 FC dosing unit
• Three FPL 18 HP mixing heads