QUELLTECH GMBH - Precision is our Mission

A client in automotive industry intends to improve the inline glue bead supervision performed when automatically applying glue beads inside body parts. The system to be purchased should be able to monitor position, height and width of the glue bead any time. Until now, the client makes use of a 3D laser system with very complex beam guidance, in order to compensate problems arising from narrow space available. This present configuration however involves difficulties in adjustment, often giving rise to trouble and interruptions. Therefore the client is looking for a safe and less complicate solution. The chellenge in glue bead supervision: While the glue bead is being applied, very complex geometrical patterns are followed; the nozzle for the glue meanwhile does not rotate. Therefore this nozzle must be supervised in the total angle of 360°. This glue bead supervision can only be met by a laser scanner featuring an extremely low form factor.

Four QuellTech Q6 3D- laser scanners are installed, mutually displaced by an angle of 90°. In this configuration, they are able to monitor the complete surface of the cable running through. It is important that the test does not lower the production speed, therefore very high sampling rates are required, supported by convenient data processing. The measured position of a defect is recorded in cable direction.

Particular challenges To correct the effect of the tolerances of the parts, the welding robots path in conventional applications is usually adjusted, by means of a time consuming manual correction (teaching). The warping effect caused by the thermal expansion however cannot be compensated this way. For this purpose, QuellTech offers a perfectly tailored seam tracking solution, which is based on a QuellTech 2D-Laserline Sensor of the Q4 family. The method consists in measurement of the real position and width immediately ahead of the welding process. The laser sensor captures the real dimension of the weld bead, and the software used for this process simultaneously sends the nominal position to the robot. The robot performs a correction movement in X or Z position according to this measurement. This way not only the deviation caused by tolerances, but also the warping effect can be compensated – and the weldment takes place exactly at the required position.