Paint solutions for electric vehicle factory in China
ABB signed a formal agreement with SAIC Volkswagen to provide robotics painting solutions for the first New Energy Vehicle (NEV) factory of the Volkswagen Group based on the Modular Electric Driver Kit (MEB), an automotive platform specifically designed for the mass production of electric vehicles.
The new 610,000 m2NEV factory is scheduled to open in 2020 in Shanghai with an annual capacity of 300,000 pure electric vehicles from the Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda brands. ABB will install approximately 300 robots to provide painting and sealing solutions on three automated painting production lines. These solutions involve automobile exterior and interior painting, underbody painting, interior cosmetic seam sealing and interior plate wax-spraying. The RMB 17 billion factory is a modern green benchmark factory combining intelligent manufacturing and environmentally-friendly technologies with a special focus on water preservation, energy savings and the reduction of carbon dioxide.
The primerless painting technology employed in the process can improve paint utilization rates and reduce waste. Compared with the traditional painting process, it adopts a dry spray absorption system instead of a water circulation system, which can circulate air and use limestone to absorb the spray, so the use of water is no longer necessary. Some 95 percent of the air can be reused and the limestone can be recycled resulting in energy savings of up to 60%. The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) can also be reduced by 63%. At the same time the total cycle time of the three painting production lines will reach 120 Jobs Per Hour (JPH), the fastest in a single paint shop.
Further information: www.abb.com