Wherever cars are built, Dürr is never far away. This also applies to South Africa, the biggest location of the auto-motive industry on the African continent. Most recently, at Mercedes in East London, we have modernized a paint line and equipped it with fully automatic robots. Here is the
chronology of a project that called for many cogs to mesh smoothly in perfect sync.
40 – 45
Text: Heimo Fischer Photos: Ingrid Marais,
Marcus Pietrek, Sascha Feuster
NEW MODEL, NEW PLANT
The Mercedes C class is about to see a model replace-ment. A good opportunity for the South African plant in East London to modernize its paint line. 23 new robots are to replace the old equipment. The recon-struction represents a challenge for Andreas Schmidt (left), who is responsible for the project at Mercedes on site.
November 2012
NE X T LEVEL Precision work
41
NE X T LEVEL Precision work 42
30 containers
50 tons of steel
23 robots 70 specialists
AND THE CONTR AC T AWARD GOES TO DÜRR
In January 2013, two months after the public tender was opened by Mercedes, the bid pre-sented by Dürr is received by the customer.
Sales experts Gino Caparelli (right) and Meinhard Lutsch have calculated the costs.
To do so, they had traveled to South Africa several times. Dürr receives the contract award at the beginning of March. The clock starts ticking. Which supplier will be award-ed the steel construction work? Who is going to take care of the software internally? Who is to keep in touch with Mercedes? How will the project team be assembled?
March 2013
NE X T LEVEL Precision work
43
ALL STATIONS GO
Dürr’s experts analyze the entire project in East London. They establish how control cabinets, booth walls and robots can be ideally positioned. The construction work begins in Bietigheim-Bissingen, with pro-grammers making the necessary software adjustments. Next, assembly work begins on the robots, followed by the pre-commis-sioning of the entire paint line. In the sum-mer, Mercedes inspects and accepts the paint line at Dürr’s headquarters – and is satisfied.
At Dürr, Christian Schmelz (right) is responsi-ble for the robots; he and his colleagues pre-pared this visit from the customer.
ROBOTS IN TR ANSIT
The conversion of a paint line located just under 10,000 kilometers away must be planned with precision. If an important part is left at home, this can be an expensive exercise. 70 meters of booth wall, 50 tons of steel and 23 robots are only part of the cargo shipped en route to South Africa, packed in overseas containers. Four weeks later, the precious material arrives in East London.
May 2013
September 2013
NE X T LEVEL Precision work 44
A SOLUTION TO E ACH PROBLEM There is never a project without complications:
the conversion work is scheduled to begin at the end of October. However, it takes longer than usual to issue the visas for some of the roughly 70 European specialists. It’s full steam ahead on the administrative front. Then a strike in South Africa’s automotive industry throws a spanner into the already tight time schedule. Bernd Scheel (left) knows how to deal with problems of this kind. The project head for conveyor and pro-cess technology finds a solution with Christian Schmelz: additional workers make up the three lost weeks.
CONVERSION IN E AST LONDON The conversion begins with energy-sapping manual labor. Old plant and equipment must be dismantled and transported away.
The critical phase begins: the Dürr crew installs new steel supports, soon followed by the new paint booths and conveyor technology. The robot assembly is the final stage of the conversion project. During the Christmas break automobile production comes to a standstill while Dürr’s work continues unabated: during testing, the robots spray paint for the very first time.
Nothing is left to chance; after all, time is scarce.
When Mercedes resumes production, the system is already fully operational. In mid-January, the first bodies of a preliminary series glide through the new line. The technology is fine-tuned, and the paint jobs are subjected to intense scrutiny by Mercedes. Every minute detail is checked:
is the quality of the car bodies perfect? Does the paint job keep its promises? A few weeks later, there is nothing left to correct: the first new C class leaves the paint shop with a perfect finish.
NE X T LEVEL Precision work
45
THE BIG PR AC TIC AL TEST
When Mercedes resumes production, the system is already fully operational. In mid-January, the first bodies of a preliminary series glide through the new line. The technology is fine-tuned, and the paint jobs are subjected to intense scrutiny by Mercedes. Every minute detail is checked:
is the quality of the car bodies perfect? Does the paint job keep its promises? A few weeks later, there is nothing left to correct: the first new C class leaves the paint shop with a perfect finish.
RELIABLE SERVICE
Meanwhile the Daimler crew is fully up to speed with the new system. If desired, Dürr is avaliable for local service operations at any time.
January 2014
March 2015