Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

A new concept in the production of cars

Next we will present a project that can be of great help in the manufacturing process of cars. When changing from one car model to another, the changes in the parts are usually small; but in the factory, the machines for making these parts are different. For example, to make each part of the chassis, a different tooling is required. This greatly increases the manufacturing process.

To address this challenge, the PROFORM project is being developed by 20 European companies, research centres and universities. They have been working on the project for four years, including Mondragon Unibertsitatea. The goal is to use a single machine to make different models of a piece.

Tourists, families, minivans, coupes, convertibles... There are many models offered by a car brand that usually produces each model in different factories with the monetary investment that this implies.

Many parts welded together form the chassis of a car. They all have a similar geometry, but they are all different: some more straight, others curved and perforated or with small flanges. Each piece is made using a specific tooling.

In the PROFORM project, they have focused on being able to make parts for different models using the same tooling. That is, it will be possible to make parts that have the same place and function in cars, even if both are for cars with different characteristics. For example, in a utility or family utility, the dimensions of the roof rib are different and they must use the corresponding tooling in the manufacture of these parts at present. Proform changes that.

In this way, the production time and cost are reduced.

LANDER GALDOS / MU: Today, all this is done through the press, that is, with a large tooling, I don’t know how many euros; and there, for each piece that was conformed, a certain tooling was needed.

This is not flexible at all. What we have done is that what was formerly profiling, that is to say, making only the right parts or profiles, we have modified it to obtain variable profiles. Today, he is making a Ford Focus, a short piece, like this one, for example; tomorrow, familiar, he would make a longer or modified piece without changing the tooling. Only by changing the program of the machine. That's the advantage.

In the system proposed in this project, the material is first cut to the required size by laser.

It is then profiled, i.e. the piece is given a definite shape and dimension.

At present, the rollers of the machines that make the pieces are fixed and all the pieces that make them are the same.

LANDER GALDOS / MU: In the end, they are controlled axes. If the geometry is changed, the movement of the rollers is different. What you do is program the movements through the screen. Only by changing the movements, and by changing the cutting of the initial lasers, is it done.

Therefore, flexibility has been given to the tooling rollers in the project. The rollers are controlled by a informatika.sistema, and by changing the program parameters, other parts of new size or shape can be made.

The details or deformation processes of each piece were carried out until now by stamping; in the project, the electromagnetic field will be used for this purpose.

By means of a variable magnetic field, current is induced in the plate. The sheet emerges from a spool at a high speed and strikes against a die.

With this process geometric shapes can be obtained without the use of punches.

Electromagnetic forming is much faster than conventional processes. A mechanical press cannot exceed a speed of 5 meters per second during the forming of the part, and the electromagnetic field can reach 350 meters per second.

For finishing and error correction, the profile is heated by laser. Geometric defects can be more easily repaired in the hot part.

In addition to the process, Mondragon Unibertsitatea has tested more flexible and resistant materials. In fact, the materials used today are resistant, but do not behave very well with the new technologies. In the future, they will use, among other things, high-strength steels or new generations of aluminum.

LANDER GALDOS / MU: What we achieve is greater strength in the same thickness or in the same weight. Thus, the weight of the car decreases, the consumption decreases, the emissions of CO2 decrease, the cost decreases...

Apart from the chassis, Mondragon University has also been working on another piece that complements the structure of the car, the IntegrAuto project.

Currently, the module located at the rear of the dashboard of cars is made up of many parts. On a support, parts made of different materials are fastened, usually by means of screws. This complicates the manufacturing process and makes the part itself heavy.

The reduction of one-piece components and the connections between them, through the integration of the components in each other, has been another result obtained in this project.

CRIMINAL COURT / MU: At present, another part running to the left and right of this part is made by means of mechanically welded structures, and in the form of an improvement thereof it was proposed to make a part of the whole, and also of aluminum, due to the weight advantage thereof, etc.

That main tubular structure that goes there... to introduce new materials into it, and to invent or develop new processes to transform them. ... And these, of course, require the development of new processes, such as, for example, the deformation of said tube by gas, by inflation or by a fluid, by inflation and transformation by a liquid, etc.

Finally, how to develop or improve the joints of the pieces obtained in the previous ones.

The steps taken in the automotive industry have their first results in Asia. In Korea, the ideas of Proform have already been put into practice, and in India they are also on their way.