VDO UK Ltd, based in Birmingham, United Kingdom (UK) produces information systems for dashboards and fuel systems. Their customers include Toyota, Rover, BMW, and Nissan to name a few.  For a number of years, VDO has been using FlexLink products in the assembly and testing process. Now they are implementing the twin track conveyor to automate the assembly and test lines of a brand new fuel system.

“Due to the complexity of this product, we could not sufficiently control all assembly steps without a conveyor concept. In addition we wanted to avoid unnecessary handling of the product during the process and increase the line capacity”, explains Mr. Read of VDO. We already had reliable FlexLink conveyors running here for some time. There is a good partnership between VDO, Alphr Technology and FlexLink. Most importantly we are always looking for new, progressive and reliable production process solutions. Choosing FlexLink was easy and obvious for this application.”

About 200 people work in VDO’s new premises. “Research and development took about three years to define the fuel system of the BMW mini, which will be launched on to the market”, says Mr Cameron Read, Project Engineer at VDO. “During this period, FlexLink launched their newest twin track conveyor for assembly and test purposes and this was was an excellent opportunity for us.”

Tough and reliable ESD handling
Traditionally, the fuel systems are manually assembled. The application is rather difficult, as electrostatic discharge is not allowed (ESD protected environment). Reliability demands on the products are extremely high in the automotive industry and the shapes of the different modules within the fuel system are not easy to handle automatically. 

Three automation loops
VDO decided to install three twin track loops to assemble three parts of the system. The three parts are not connected at VDO. They are connected at the tank manufacturers. At this moment (October 2000), only one of the three assembly and test systems (pump module) is running and the second is under construction (filter element). The third assembly and test system (fuel sender module) will be implemented shortly.

Automation close-up
The key of the assembly solution is the mixture of human, semiautomatic handling and fully automatic handling combined with a specially designed pallet concept. There are twelve stations from the first station, where the pallet is loaded, to the final check, “When working at full capacity, a pallet is unloaded every 25 seconds”, says Mr. Read. A quality check is made on each product within the 12 stations. Five of them are control and testing stations. If any test shows a failure, the pallet will be set apart at the end of the line onto a cross section, from there the pallet will be lifted and rotated before intervention.