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Shanghai GM is a joint venture between Shanghai Automotive Industry (Group) Corporation and General Motors Corporation of the United States. It is the largest car manufacturer in China. In a very short period of time, the cars produced by Shanghai General Motors occupied 10% of the market share, and the trend continues unabated. It also relies on Siemens technology to ensure process quality.
A distinctive feature of Shanghai GM is its flexible production line. There are four different platform models on the ordinary production line, which can shorten the cycle time of the new model. In order to expand production, in March 2003, Shanghai GM invested in the construction of a brand-new factory, the Shanghai GM South Plant, which produces 200,000 cars every year.
Automation makes quality…
Shanghai GM originally hoped that the automation platform had such conditions: flexibility, simple editing, and convenient maintenance. It has been integrated with fieldbus through third-party components. Originally, Shanghai GM already had a preferred system integrator, and finally switched to Siemens for the new equipment. This can be regarded as a big challenge. However, after witnessing the significant improvement in product quality and Siemens’ comprehensive local technical support and service network, Shanghai GM realized that Siemens meets supplier requirements in the following four aspects: quality, service, technology and price. Moreover, Shanghai General Motors South Plant has extremely high requirements for Siemens’ solution services (technical consulting and on-site services). The painting workshop, BDC (body distribution center) and some assembly workshops of Shanghai GM South Plant all adopt Siemens automation and control technology. And use the Siemens Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) system to identify the car bodies on a very complex product line.
The AVI workbench of the general factory, equipped with Simatic Touch Panel TP 270
Painting workshop
In the factory, the white car passes through the body distribution center (BDC) and enters the painting workshop from the body shop for ELPO (electroplating) coating, welding and painting. After completing these processes, the car body is sent to the overall assembly workshop through BDC for further assembly.
The painting workshop is composed of robots (processing the bottom and top coatings), pre-processing equipment, paint dipping equipment and body drying equipment. In the painting workshop, Simatic controller S7-416/S7-317 provides automation and control functions for the painting system. Connected with the controller are Simatic TP 270 touch-screen panels for work, Simatic ET 200S distributed peripherals, and ASM 452 Moby RFID interface modules, all of which are slave devices of the Profibus network.
“The AVI system is the eyes of the FLEX system of the GM production line. We can know where the car is and what production step it is in, so we can report the production progress to the customer at any time.” said Xiong Wei, an engineer from the IT department of Shanghai GM “In order to improve efficiency, we can even send cars with similar colors from the body distribution center to the painting workshop while painting.” Each AVI system consists of different workstations. One of the stations is responsible for obtaining data from the FLEX/SFE system for initiating production tasks.
The AVI site configuration is as follows: Workbench with Simatic TP270 touch screen panel, portable barcode scanner, Moby I reader ASM452/SLG43, Simatic distributed peripheral signal equipment Simatic ET 200S, portable scanner connector, process status signal light , Transceiver and body recognition sensor. Scanners are installed in some workstations to automatically read the barcodes of vehicles.
Vehicle identification
The AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identification) system of Shanghai General Motors South Plant controls the body shop, body distribution center and painting shop until they are transported to the overall assembly shop. Each AVI system is connected to the FLEX/SFE information system of the whole plant via Ethernet. The AVI system obtains production data from FLEX/SFE, or transmits vehicle information data to the FLEX/SFE system.
Then, these data are recorded on the MDS Moby I data carrier, which is located on the pulling device (anti-slip device, hanger, tray, etc.), or mounted on the car body. The purpose of obtaining data is to control the production process and material flow. Within these circuits, each production unit (welding robot, polishing machine, test unit, etc.) can access these data and use these data to control these devices. Some workstations read the vehicle identification information from the vehicle’s anti-skid device or hanger identification or barcode label, and then send the information to the FLEX/SFE system. Other workstations delete the information on these signs at the end of the transportation cycle. The AVI system uses a Simatic S7-416 DP and two CP 443-1 IT communication modules to access the Ethernet.
AVI system configuration of Haitong South Plant
There are two independent DP buses between the AVI main box and the local workstation. Another DP network is responsible for the signal conversion between field devices and the central controller. The entire structure of the AVI network is connected with the host system FLEX system, and the PR&T system has been completely replaced in accordance with the new standards of the Shanghai General IT Department.
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