Commissioning of two newly engineered production lines for automotive water pump assembly
PIA Automation designed, built, and delivered two production lines for manufacturing water pumps used in battery-powered electric vehicles at its Bad Neustadt site. The customer, an automotive supplier specializing in customized mechatronic drive solutions, uses the systems to produce five different water pump variants. Both identical production lines have now been commissioned at a manufacturing plant in Germany.
In battery powered vehicles, thermal management is a key factor in ensuring quality and energy efficiency. Both the charging and discharging processes generate large amounts of heat. To maintain long term battery performance, the batteries must be kept within an optimal temperature range, which requires effective cooling. Water is generally used as the cooling medium, transported through the battery system by pumps. The coolant absorbs the heat generated by the batteries and transfers it to a heat exchanger. This cooling circuit is a closed and generally maintenance free system. Its water pumps are therefore critical components for the long term safe and reliable operation of electric vehicles.
Since PIA Automation in Bad Neustadt is highly experienced with this product group, the existing customer decided to have its new and complex systems developed by PIA Automation as well. Each system, measuring 26.5 meters by 6.5 meters, manufactures five different water pump variants. These are produced with a high degree of flexibility and fully automated changeovers in batch size 1. The cycle time is 12 seconds for single pumps and 24 seconds for double pumps. Key features of the system design include its high level of automation, as each line requires only one operator, along with the integration of highly specialized processing stations such as plastic laser welding, heat staking, ultrasonic welding, and precise dispensing of thermal paste. The customer specified a technical availability of 95 percent and a reject rate of less than one percent. These values are extremely demanding given the high degree of complexity, yet the systems demonstrate that they meet these requirements.
Both systems were first assembled and commissioned at PIA Bad Neustadt. Using the PIA App Suite and the PIA master computer, which manages recipe and variant control, test runs were carried out during the internal acceptance process (FAT), and the causes of reject parts could be analyzed. The systems were then dismantled and transferred to the customer's premises. During the on site acceptance process (SAT), the PIA App Suite again served as an important tool for preparing reliable and trouble free operation. Integrated into the production process are two testing stations, a Middle of Line station (MOL) and an End of Line station (EOL). These are technically equipped by the customer for functional tests and have been integrated into the system control and the Industrial App Suite by PIA Automation.
The new systems are part of a long-standing collaboration between the customer and PIA Automation. Once again, technical expertise, flexibility, quality, and reliability in project execution convinced the customer to entrust PIA Automation with this demanding assignment.