evopro ES has completed another successful automation project.

evopro's engineering team was contracted by the German Schnaittman special purpose machine manufacturer to automate and commission two new production lines for ZF Lenksysteme. One of the systems was installed at ZF Lenksysteme's plant in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, while the other in Eger, Hungary. What's unique about these Multi-Line equipments is that the same line can be used to manufacture different types of steering systems thanks to automated switching to model-specific tool sets at each station. Three engineers of evopro have automated the production lines which features 15 PLCs and 2 robots creating ZF power steering systems that can perform automated parking. The steering systems are made mainly for Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volkswagen and Volvo passenger cars. The challenge of the project was to integrate all the various equipment: Siemens PLCs that control Rexroth frequency converters, the motors and their controllers were made by Kistler, the optical units were delivered by Cognex and IFM, the communication network uses Hirschmann switches, the I/O links were made by Balluff, the pneumatic units by FESTO, while the industrial robots are from ABB and KUKA.