Application story /// Application story /// Application story /// Application story ///
Industry: Automotive
Used equipment: Motion Q170M CPU, HMI GT16, Servo MR J3
Automatization of brake
pipes production
TI Automotive is a U.S. company that has been manufactu-
ring components for the automotive industry for almost 100
years. The company employs 18,500 employees in 28 coun-
tries all over the world. TI Automotive’s Polish branch is loca-
ted in the city of Bielsko-Biała and deals with the production
of fuel and brake pipes for leading German and Japanese car
brands.
At TI Automotive Poland, brake pipes are made of steel, and
then coated for corrosion. A key element of the product
technology is the process by which a pipe of the proper
length is shaped into a right angle with an automatic ben-
ding machine.
The company decided to improve the process by applying a
Mitsubishi Electric solution to modernize the bending ma-
chine. Among other equipment used were a stand-alone
Q170M CPU motion controller to control the process, the GT
16 control panel for process visualization, and 9 motors and
MR-J3 servo ampliers (7 bending and 2 forwarding axes).
Mitsubishi Electric equipment is used to manufacture bra-
ke pipes for cars such as the Opel Astra or the Volkswagen
Caddy 4.
The duty cycle of the automated bending machine is similar
to that of a manual bending machine. The main advantage
of the automated machine is the changeover time needed
for retting the production line to another car. In such case,
with only few clicks of the control panel, the bending machi-
ne will automatically load the correct program, which has
the relevant bending angles for brake pipes appropriate for
a particular type of car.
Prepared by: Magdalena Imielska
Thanks to the use of Mitsubishi Electric equipment,
our machine has no downtime and we have
eliminated problems with control issues, failures
in programming, and problems with spare part
availability for the machine.
Sławomir Tokarski
Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. /// Polish Branch /// Krakowska 50 /// 32-083 Balice /// Tel: +48 (0)12 360 47 00
Faks: +48 (0) 12 630 47 01 /// E-mail: mpl@mpl.mee.com /// www.mitsubishi-automation.pl