The reasons driving demand growth are twofold: firstly, consumers' new demands for personalized car purchases; and secondly, the challenges faced by auto parts manufacturers due to increasingly complex production processes and frequent product adjustments under the trends of electrification and intelligentization.
Data source: Gaogong Robotics Industry Research Institute
Market demand and production challenges have accelerated the transformation of automotive production lines towards flexible manufacturing . Collaborative robots, which are flexible in deployment and easy to switch between production lines, have become the best choice for flexible upgrades and have rapidly penetrated into all aspects of automotive production in the past two years.
Yuejiang is actively expanding its presence in the automotive industry and continuing to exert its efforts. Currently, its collaborative robot series products have been applied to multiple processes in automotive parts machining, such as loading and unloading, cutting, screw fastening, appearance inspection, component gluing, and grinding .
Six typical applications in the automotive industry
Scenario 1: Loading and unloading of automotive parts during machining
The machining of automotive parts involves highly repetitive loading and unloading processes, harsh working environments, low worker efficiency, and a high risk of workplace injuries. Fixed automated loading and unloading solutions require significant space, are complex to deploy, and are difficult, costly, and time-consuming to retrofit .
Yuejiang collaborative robots replace manual labor for loading and unloading. A single robot equipped with dual gripper end effectors can complete both loading and unloading in one operation, managing multiple machine tools 24/7 , significantly improving efficiency . For line changeovers, users simply need to store the process data for different models and can switch production lines with a single click , quickly achieving flexible production while significantly reducing production costs.
Scenario 2: Cutting automotive parts
Cutting demands extremely high precision and stability. Manual cutting suffers from uneven speed and poor stability, easily damaging components. Traditional automation solutions lack flexibility , and programming and debugging during line changes are complex and time-consuming. Yuejiang collaborative robots excel in trajectory accuracy and speed stability , ensuring consistent cutting distance and uniform output throughout the entire process, making them suitable for cutting automotive parts such as dashboards.
Scenario 3: Attaching screws to automotive parts
Automobile production requires a wide variety of screws, and manual screw fastening is inefficient and prone to damaging screw holes. Traditional automobile production lines have fixed layouts and limited space for adjustment, making it difficult to deploy industrial robots. Yuejiang collaborative robots, however, occupy little space and can operate flexibly in confined areas, accurately fastening screws of various sizes from M1 to M5 . Combined with screw fastening process packages, deployment is faster , no programming is required, and debugging steps are significantly simplified, meeting the fastening requirements of different automotive parts and rapidly improving production line flexibility .
Scenario 4: Vehicle Paint Defect Detection
Inspecting for defects in automotive paint surfaces is an extremely tedious process in painting workshops. Traditional methods typically involve close-range visual inspection, which is inefficient, prone to errors, and allows defective products to easily flow into subsequent processes. Yuejiang collaborative robots, with their lightweight design and support for both lifting and side-mounting , significantly improve space utilization and save considerable time and costs in deployment compared to industrial robots.
The robot, combined with a 3D vision inspection camera and light source, can be used to build a surround inspection workstation, which has high inspection efficiency, guaranteed quality, and supports the inspection of body panels of various vehicle models .
Scenario 5: Applying adhesive to automotive parts
The adhesive application process for automotive parts demands high standards of sealing, leak prevention, corrosion and rust resistance, and aesthetic appearance. Manual adhesive application struggles to guarantee uniformity and stability, and the adhesive itself may contain harmful substances, posing risks to worker health. Yuejiang collaborative robots maintain stable speed and consistent trajectory accuracy during the adhesive application process, ensuring uniform application and significantly improving quality and effectiveness. With drag-and-drop teaching capabilities, complex trajectories can be easily recorded, reducing import time by 80% . These robots can be applied to adhesive application processes for components such as car windows, transmissions, engines, headlights, and hoods .
Scene 6: Grinding of automotive parts
Some automotive exterior parts have complex and uneven surfaces that require sanding before painting. Manual sanding involves uneven pressure, high work intensity, and generates a lot of dust and noise, leading to serious occupational health problems. An automated sanding method is adopted, integrating force control sensors and sanding heads into a Yuejiang collaborative robot. This allows for control of sanding pressure, maintaining stability, and automatically adjusting posture to ensure a smooth and consistent finish on curved surfaces.
