Handling of car wheels with a KUKA robot

Südrad produces steel disc wheels for cars and various commercial vehicles. After the mechanical manufacturing processes, the wheels are placed on a circular conveyor, where they go through cathodic dip painting and the associated preparatory steps. Previously, the wheels were hung on the conveyor manually by the operators. This task was now to be automated through the use of a jointed-arm robot. The criteria for the robot were short cycle times of not more than twelve seconds, rapid acceleration and precise handling. Another requirement was flexibility, since the diameter and thickness of the steel disc wheels vary. The greatest challenge, however, was to synchronize the conveyor with the robots, which have to hand over the wheels with an accuracy of ± 2 mm.