SAMARA, August 23. /TASS/. The Togliatti State University's (TSU) Hybridtech advanced engineering school (AES) of hybrid technologies has modernized five automatic lines for ultrasonic welding of car parts at the request of AvtoVAZ JSC, which is already working in three shifts. This allowed the car plant to reduce costs and increase productivity by 1.5 times, the TSU press service told TASS.
"Togliatti State University's Hybridtech advanced engineering school has completed its first major project commissioned by its general partner, AvtoVAZ JSC. Five automated lines for ultrasonic welding of door upholstery and dashboard parts of the Vesta car have been modernized," the report said.
According to TSU, all five lines were equipped with 60 ultrasonic generators and 223 ultrasonic welding heads, 80% of which are domestic components developed by the university. The welding cycle was changed and the line controllers were reprogrammed. The main feature of the TSU scientists' development is that the ultrasonic generators are integrated with the line controller, and the algorithm for detecting resonance frequencies is optimized in a wide range. As a result, a single generator can automatically control several ultrasonic heads. The production upgrade took three weeks, and the project itself was completed in 8 months. TSU students participated in all stages of the development, including the installation of the modernized equipment in the production line.
"The main goal is to increase the productivity of the line and ensure its stable operation in three-shift mass production. <...> After the modernization it was possible to achieve an increase in productivity by more than 1.5 times," the press service of the university quoted Alexander Selivanov, the head of the engineering school.
According to Pavel Erokhin, the head of the automotive engineering department of the AvtoVAZ Car Technologies Directorate, the modernization should lead to a reduction in the repair time due to a decrease in the number of breakdowns, an increase in the productivity of the equipment, and a reduction in the costs of equipment operation time and purchased spare parts. "As a result of the work carried out, the productivity of the current equipment has increased from 28 to 45 cars per hour, and the stability of the equipment has improved from 85% to 95%," the TSU press service quoted him as saying.
The university will start the production of ultrasonic equipment in the first half of 2024 on the basis of its own innovation and technology park, which is part of the structure of the Hybridtech advanced engineering school. AvtoVAZ offered TSU to participate in the development and modernization of production lines, as earlier suppliers of the car plant cooperated with the university in the field of ultrasonic welding technologies for polymer materials, and last year TSU developed and delivered to AvtoVAZ 20 manual ultrasonic complexes.