Wonder

Wonder's need is to have supervisory software for automated end-of-line testing, aimed at testing pressure gauges for the automotive industry.

Supervision software for automated end-of-line testing, aimed at testing pressure gauges for the automotive industry

The challenge

Wonder S.p.A. is the European leader in the production of high-quality pressure gauges for the automotive sector.

In order to improve the productivity of the end-of-line testing phase of all products, laser marking and packaging before shipment to customers, Wonder has created an integrated workstation consisting of several stations:

• 3 end-of-line test stations with leak test and cameras for intelligent quadrant control
• high-performance laser marking system, programmable via network
• multi-buffer palletizer with integrated robot
• packaging label printers
• test certificate printers

All the components of the workstation have been purchased from different suppliers and must be coordinated by software that transmits the information to the testing stations, collects the data of the tests carried out and stores them in the company database, with all the information related to the serial numbers of the different products.

The supervision software must also transfer the information of each product to the laser marking system and coordinate the work of the robot in the palletizer so that different products are managed in the correct way and time.

The supervisor software must have a simple and clear interface to allow personnel to manage the different activities on the workstation.

The solution

To meet Wonder's requirements, the supervision software was designed with the heads of the testing and marking department so that all information was immediately available to the operators.

The communication drivers were developed with the Siemens PLC that controls the palletizer and the data exchange modules with the test workstations and the laser marker.

Together with Wonder's technicians, the data collection database was designed so that Wonder can trace all the information from the pressure gauges in a complete and reliable manner.

The certificate generation module is parametrically designed to allow Wonder to modify the certificate layout according to its needs.

Solution Diagram of the supervision software

Benefits and Results

All the objectives set have been achieved, allowing Wonder to achieve the following benefits:

• Saving of time: the personnel can dedicate themselves to assembling and loading the products on the conveyor belts at the entrance to the workstation. The repetitive testing and marking activities are now fully managed by the robot.
• Production traceability: all data is managed through barcode readers and therefore the company can know in real-time the progress of production and know every data of every pressure meter that entered the automated workstation.
• Efficiency control: with the automated data collection, the production managers can know in detail all the testing and marking phases and define the best strategies to optimize the overall efficiency of the different work phases.
• Cost determination: with the data collected automatically, it is possible to have a precise account of the costs of every single working phase of the workstation (testing, marking, packaging management, etc.).
• Reduction of human errors: data acquisition is automatic, reducing errors due to manual operations.
• Automatic management of certificates and labels: the integration of the printers has made it possible to simplify all the management of the documentation of the labels to be applied to the boxes, simplifying the work of the personnel.

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