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Keywords
Adhesives, Robotics, Welding, Automotive industry
Abstract
With the trend towards lightweight body structures for automobiles, new joining technologies are evolving. This paper highlights the latest application - that of adhesive bonding major components for the Aston Martin DB9 sports car.
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Production of the DB9 sports car is being ramped up at Aston Martin's new and near palatial manufacturing plant at Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK. This car uses the first UK applications of precision robot-dispensed two-part adhesives for bonding aluminium body-in-white (BIW) structures.
There are two cells: one at the Gaydon plant for Class A skin panels, and a second at Tier 1 supplier mayflower vehicle systems (MVS) in Coventry. Both use the same advanced metering technology for the robotic delivery of adhesive chemicals to the components to be bonded.
In the case of the Gaydon installation, the special metering unit, weighing some 25 kg, is mounted on the robot arm; at MVS the metering unit is floor-mounted, leaving the hemming robot free to pick up special tools for adhesive application to major closure components - bonnet and doors.
At Gaydon, the self-contained robot cell in the body shop is adjacent to the area where the complete body shell is assembled and framed around the main aluminium tub, or chassis, supplied by Hydro Automotive of Worcester. This prestigious robot cell was the turnkey responsibility of Automation and Machine Tools Ltd of Coventry. Design Services Engineering Ltd of Nuneaton built the MVS system using Japanese hemming technology.
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Built at an undisclosed cost, the Gaydon facility is the latest car plant in the country suitably designed to impress Aston's discerning worldwide customers. It is possibly the cleanest and quietest in the country, with its own paint shop, metrology room and controlled environment. The plant will produce three models - the first of which is the AM803 DB9 2+2 sports coupe that will also be available as a convertible.
Next to roll down assembly line will be the so-called AM305 "Baby Aston", seen in concept form at recent exhibitions as the AMV8 Vantage, but as yet unnamed. The AM305...