Cable Assem­bly, Pro­cess­ing and Handling

Automa­tion as a challenge

Labour short­age, ris­ing wage costs, the demand for more dig­i­tal­iza­tion and trace­abil­ity, as well as top­ics such as reshoring and geopo­lit­i­cal chal­lenges pose major chal­lenges for many indus­tries. The solu­tion appears to be the increas­ing automa­tion of pro­duc­tion steps and processes.
The auto­mo­tive indus­try in par­tic­u­lar faces a high pres­sure to auto­mate, as there are also wire har­ness-spe­cific chal­lenges such as the minia­tur­iza­tion of cables, plugs and con­nec­tors as well as a high num­ber of vari­ants due to cus­tomer-spe­cific cable har­nesses com­bined with high qual­ity require­ments set by OEMs.

Robots offer greater flex­i­bil­ity in terms of pos­si­ble appli­ca­tions and changeover than large spe­cial machines, and also offer the advan­tage of man­age­able acqui­si­tion costs and smaller space require­ments. By par­al­leliz­ing processes with sev­eral robot cells, the desired quan­ti­ties and cycle times can also be eas­ily achieved. By means of force con­trol, robots achieve the required sen­si­tiv­ity with high process sta­bil­ity, as they are able to always join or insert pieces with a con­stant desired force, so that even sen­si­tive con­tacts are not damaged.

In addi­tion to the actual pro­cess­ing and assem­bly process, robots can also pro­vide opti­mum sup­port dur­ing cable or wire feed­ing and relieve the strain on humans, e.g. when feed­ing heavy high-volt­age cables.