RFID Automotive Intelligent Manufacturing Management Solution

The application solutions of RFID technology in the field of automobile manufacturing are mainly reflected in intelligent manufacturing. At present, intelligent manufacturing has become a hot topic worldwide, and RFID technology has good application prospects in the manufacturing industry. With the stability and maturity of readers and writers and the decline in the price of tag chips, the application of RFID technology in the manufacturing field continues to expand. It can be applied to warehouse management, process management, distribution supply chain and other links. Through RFID technology, manufacturing enterprises are promoted to achieve standardization and intelligent upgrading, reduce production costs, flexibly respond to market changes, and better meet customer needs. The automatic identification capability of ultra-high frequency RFID technology realizes the accurate and rapid identification of object information, which helps the back-end MES system to make scientific decisions, improve enterprise production efficiency, improve organization, shorten production cycle, and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of enterprises.

In the field of intelligent automobile manufacturing, there are two main reasons for the application of RFID technology:

Policy level: Whether it is Made in China 2025 or Germany's Industry 4.0, policy guidance provides good market prospects and development opportunities for the application of RFID technology.

Internet of Things Technology: With the development of Internet of Things technology, RFID technology has been widely used in warehouse management, production and manufacturing, logistics distribution, supply chain and other fields. The IoT application consists of the perception layer, transmission layer and application layer. RFID technology realizes the aggregation of IoT data through data collection in the perception layer, and transmits data and information to the application layer through the transmission layer network, realizing data and information interaction across departments, industries and regions.

Automobile manufacturing is a precision manufacturing process involving processes such as stamping, welding, painting and assembly.

The automobile manufacturing industry has matured, and the cars manufactured are becoming more and more high-end and their performance is constantly improving. However, there are still some problems and room for improvement in the four main processes of automobile manufacturing.

1. Workshop factors

1. Stamping workshop: As raw materials, the supply and demand balance of stamping parts directly affects the production and productivity efficiency. The lack of effective management methods and accurate inventory data will lead to waste of production resources and even affect the entire production process.

2. Spraying workshop: The working environment of the paint workshop is harsh. Factors such as high temperature, high dust and strong electromagnetic interference are crucial to the judgment of the body color and production process. Therefore, corresponding measures need to be taken to ensure the accuracy of the spraying quality and process.

3. Assembly workshop: At the same Library-borrowing-machine-touch-query-intelligent-terminal-all-in-one-machine.html target='_blank'>workstation, different car types require different parts and even different assembly times. Accurate identification of the current workstation body information is very important for guiding production processes and scientific scheduling to balance assembly time and improve efficiency.

2. Solutions

1. Digital workshop: stamping, welding

In order to solve the problems in stamping and welding workshops, a digital workshop management system is introduced. RFID electronic tags are installed on the material racks for transferring stamping parts, and RFID Readers are installed at key nodes to achieve intelligent communication between products and equipment, and provide accurate data collection and processing for information systems such as MES.

Through the application of RFID systems, corresponding solutions are formulated according to the needs of different workshops. For example, in stamping and welding workshops, focus on the control of the production quantity, inventory quantity and outbound quantity of stamping raw materials. By accurately counting the data flow of these links, data support is provided for the intelligent scheduling and scientific decision-making of the entire production management system.

The basic idea of implementation is to install electronic tags on the racks for transferring stamping raw materials, and deploy RFID reading nodes at the end of the production line, warehouse entry and exit. When the stamping parts are completed and loaded on the racks, the relevant information will be automatically written into the rack tags to complete the information binding. Subsequently, the racks are transported to the warehouse by forklifts, and reading equipment is installed at the entry. The raw material information on the racks is located by reading the RFID electronic tags, and the entry information is recorded. The same principle also applies to the exit.

2. Digital workshop: painting

Install RFID tags on the body sleds, and install RFID Antennas on the roller beds at key locations to identify and track the body. Each RFID antenna is called an AVI station, which is responsible for reading and writing RFID tags, and transmitting the read information to the PLC through the equipment, recording the body information carried on the sleds, including the color to be sprayed, the model, the body batch number and the body serial number, etc.

In the painting workshop, first install the RFID electronic tag on the body sled, complete the entry of the body information when placing the body, and deploy the RFID reading node on the roller bed at the key position. When the sled tranSports the body to the key position, the reading device will read the electronic tag information on the sled, locate the identity information of the body, and transmit the information to the PLC to guide the relevant operations.

3. Digital workshop: final assembly

Before the vehicle goes online, the staff will install the initialized RFID tag on the front hood of the body. In the subsequent frame assembly, chassis suspension, powertrain, interior and exterior integration and other processes, install RFID reading and writing equipment to automatically scan the body VIN barcode when the body arrives at the corresponding workstation to realize production line vehicle monitoring and data collection.

In the final assembly workshop, a welded and sprayed body needs to go through multiple processes, such as frame assembly, chassis suspension and powertrain. In order to guide the process, an RFID electronic tag can be installed at a fixed position of the body (such as the front of the car), and RFID reading equipment can be installed at different nodes to track the entire assembly process of the entire body.

RFID Intelligent Manufacturing Management System Case

In many manufacturing companies, the production line is a common operation process. Raw materials enter from the front end, go through a series of different process combinations, and work in sequence to finally complete the production of the product. The traditional operation method uses paper work orders, manual records or scanned barcodes, which is inefficient and prone to human errors, resulting in stagnation of production progress. In order to improve production efficiency and quality, with the help of RFID technology, RFID electronic tags are installed on raw materials, parts, semi-finished products and work-in-progress, so that production planning managers can quickly locate and understand the consumption of raw materials.

At the same time, RFID technology can also collect and process product information, helping production personnel to easily grasp the operation of the entire production line and speed up the production progress of products.

Due to the read-write characteristics of RFID technology, it can provide real-time updated data streams. Combined with the manufacturing execution system, the information provided by RFID can ensure the correct use of labor, machines, Tools and parts, realize paperless production and reduce downtime, and promote the smooth progress of production logistics. For example, RFID electronic tags can be used as information carriers to replace paper work orders, and RFID collection equipment can be deployed at each workstation of the production line. Through intelligent production scheduling management, information flow can be planned to ensure resource optimization and effective cost control, solve the problem of printing production scheduling and work order scheduling, write all production process information into RFID electronic tags for storage, and display and guide the process through the workstation terminal display device.

These two pictures show an equipment installation diagram at the actual site, representing the application of two different assembly links. Their basic commonality: through a simple automatic identification technology such as RFID, accurate and rapid identification of object information can be achieved, helping the back-end MES system to make scientific decisions, thereby improving enterprise production efficiency, improving organization, shortening production cycle, and improving the overall competitiveness of enterprises.