A special project for the Schuler Group will be completed in December 2008 with Volvo''s final acceptance of a new line: We will be handing over the world''''s largest automated press line with robots in the Swedish town of Olofström, says project manager Ingo Herrmann of M??ller Weingarten, a subsidiary of the Schuler Group. As the general contractor, M??ller Weingarten had received the order from Volvo in October 2006. The project is one of the first large orders which Schuler and M??ller Weingarten have jointly processed since the integration in April 2007.

M??ller Weingarten in Esslingen, Germany, was responsible for the planning, design and project management of the 80-meter-long and 21-meter-wide press line with a total press force of 9,600 metric tons ?C the lead-off press boasts over 3,200 tons and each of the four downstream presses 1,600 metric tons. The production of the welded assemblies, the machining and the complete inner assembly of the presses was carried out by Umformtechnik Erfurt ?C a further Schuler Group subsidiary. Schuler Automation supplied the necessary blankloader. Together, these elements form a line which has been mass manufacturing outer and inner doors, wheel wells, wings and A-pillar supports for the new Volvo XC60 since September 2008. The line will also be used to produce aluminum hoods for the new model, which went on sale in Europe end of November 2008.

The line''''s technical highlight is its large beds. In combination with the line''''s robot automation system, its dimensions of five by 2.80 meters is unique throughout the world, explains project manager Ingo Herrmann. The entire system with five linked presses is designed for highly efficient production: some dies can produce four parts simultaneously. At a speed of ten strokes per minute, the line can therefore produce up to 40 parts per minute. The press supplied to Volvo also includes two four-point drawing cushions for the lead-off press, four-point parallelism adjustment and two moving bolsters per press, as well as dynamic cylinder switching. Schuler Automation supplied the blankloader for destacking, as well as a blank washing unit and a vision system which helps feed the blanks to the first press in the correct position. With the aid of the fully automatic die-changing system, the die and tooling can also be changed within just three minutes. The press line was also equipped with a complete noise dampening enclosure and an end-of-line system with eight conveyor belts, of which two are 90-degree radius belts. 

A review of the past twelve months of the project makes impressive reading: the rigging of the press line began in September 2007; in February 2008 the turnkey solution was handed over to the customer. Volvo has been mass manufacturing on the line since September 2008.