Advanced Materials Research Vols 756-759 (2013) pp 764-767 Online: 2013-09-18

© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.756-759.764

Process Planning and Simulation Validate of Welding Line for BIW

Based on DELMIA
Juguang Lin1,2,a, Dechao Shi1,b, Lei Liu 2,c
1
Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230009, China
2
JEE Automation Equipment Co., Ltd. Hefei, Anhui 230051, China
a
linjuguang@263.net,bshidechaohfgd@163.com,cliu-lei2008@126.com

Keywords: DELMIA; BIW; Welding line; Process Planning; Simulation

Abstract. Welding had always been paid attention to by the automobile manufacturers as one of the
four technologies. This paper does process plan and simulation validate for BIW welding line using
the virtual simulation technology based on DELMIA, including calculate the mainline beats and to
determine the station number and function, simulate according to the layout, and output offline
program at last. Practice had proved that this method can greatly improve production efficiency,
reduce production costs, avoid delaying the progress of the project due to the pre-design problems.

Introduction
Body-in-white welding line, which was the most typical non-standard equipment closely
connected with the process of the product, that was, several assembly, floor, left & right body side,
front wall or top cover was clamped by fixtures, then through the processes of welding, repair
welding, pieces of sub-assembly would be assembled into a body-in-white assembly [1].
Nowadays, the main robot simulation softwares were ROBCAD and DELMIA. DELMIA had
the function of modeling and simulation which can use models generated by CATIA. Therefore,
DELMIA had been widely used in the robot simulation[2].
In this paper, the pre-planning of BIW welding line had been analyzed and beats of stations and
layouts have been determined. A single working station had been simulated in the light of
actual situation, including import models, data of welding points, welding guns design, choice and
distribution of robots, robot teach and welding path plan, analysis of interference, simulation of
stations and analysis of beats. Finally output the off-line programs.

Pre-planning of BIW Welding Line

Beat of line would be calculated according to the welding line technical protocol. We assume
that the actual working days of a production line a year for α, the annual output for β, the classes for
γ, each class work for δ hours, and utilization rate of equipment for η. So the beat of line was:
α ⋅ γ ⋅ δ ⋅ 3600 ⋅ η
T=
β
While we get mathematical models of parts supplied by manufacturers, information of welding
points, areas of welding lines and the requirements of welding, the mathematical models should be
analyzed, and the sequences of components would be determined according to the specific situation
and production assembly requirements; welding orders would be determined according to welding
points information. Thus the number of work stations and the number of welding points in every
work station would be determined at the same time[3]. Fig.1 showed the distribution of underbody
line. After finishing the layout of the welding line, we simulate each station separately according to
the concrete technological requirements of it.

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 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 756-759 765

Simulation of Workstations
Import Mathematical Models. DELMIA can integrate with most of CAD systems, not only
include CATIA,NX,Pro/Engineer, but also other intermediate data formats like IGES,CGR,STEP
and so on. In the simulation module Device Task Definition of DELMIA, 3D models of BIW,
trolley，fixtures, and related ancillary equipments would be imported as the format of Resources.
The distributions of all equipments refer to the layout.
Data of Welding Points. The data of welding points was the core of planning and simulation
for BIW. A key step before simulation in DELMIA was to collate the data of welding points.
Welding points can be expressed as Excel or point clouds in CATIA. When welding points were
imported into working stations, we should distribute them in order to guarantee robots can finish
welding in the beat of working stations according to working stations beat, robots task, distribution
of tooling, structure of welding guns, etc.
Design of Welding Guns. Welding guns were most important tools in a welding line. And it is
particularly important for design of welding line to simulate between welding guns and body parts,
tooling fixtures or other resources.
Welding guns have two types: type C and type X according to their structures. And according to
drive mode, it can be divided into pneumatic drive and servo drive, and according to the power
supply types, it can be divided into intermediate frequency welding guns and power guns. The type
of welding guns (type C or type X) can be determined according to the welding points. In DPM,
parameters of welding guns can be chose through TSA tool bar, such as throat width, throat depth,
large and small distance(servo gun can arbitrarily adjust the torch opening). Fig.2 showed the
design image of a welding gun. In the picture, we can see the interference between body sheet metal
section and welding gun center section. Therefore we come to a conclusion that this welding gun
can meet the requirements of welding.

Fig.1 Distribution of Underbody Line Fig.2 Welding Gun and Welding Points

Choice and Distribution of Robots. There were more than 800 robots in the robot catalog of
DELMIA, such as FANUC, ABB, KUKA, etc. We can choose the suitable robots according to the
need of the project. Welding guns would be fixed into end-effectors of robots finally, which can
bring static pressure to robots arms. On the other hand, welding guns can cause dynamic pressure
when welding. The software KUKA LOAD 5.0 can analyze loads of KUKA Robot conveniently
and quickly. According to practices，this software can reflect the situation of pressure, and can
prevent robots working overload which would damage electrical machines and gears[4]. Fig.3
showed the loads data of robots, and input these data to the KUKA LOAD 5.0. Fig.4 showed the
analysis results of loads which were within load range of the robot.

Fig.3 Loads Data of Welding Gun Fig.4 Results of Analysis

766 Information Technology Applications in Industry, Computer Engineering and
Materials Science

The Robot Teaching and Planning of Welding Trace. Robot teaching means that robot would
complete a series of motions and movements according to commands sent by users. The robot
teaching includes teaching directly and teaching off-line. In this paper, we would discuss robot
teaching off-line which would output off-line programs based on DELMIA.
Planning of robot welding trace refers to turning welding trace into space coordinates of robots’
joints, forming movement trace while generating programs at the same time. In the planning of
welding robots’ tracks, the main target was to keep robots away from joints’ space limitation and
degenerates, and to remain flexibility and stationary of their movements [5].
In the simulation modules of Device Task Definition, the instruction Teach a Device can teach
robots conveniently. Through Teach a Device, we can add points, welding guns motions, IO signals
in the robots’ traces. We can open Jog panel while teaching and every axle’s condition can be
observed. It was generally required that every axle’s maximum angle should be less than the soft
limit or the hard limit of at least 5 degrees in the whole working process (or set the Soft Limit to
detect automatically). There should be at least 100mm allowances from working position to limit
position. The forth axis shouldn’t collinear with the sixth axis to avoid singular points. Fig.5
showed the teaching panel and condition of robot’s six axis.

(a) Teaching Panel (b) Condition of the Six Axis

Fig.5 Robot Teaching Fig.6 Interference Analysis of Body Side Welding

Analysis of Interference. Each station’s space in the welding assembly line was much limited.
Equipments were well-knit, and welding points were concentrated. While doing spot welding,
robots would interfere with body panel, tooling and fixture and trolley which were unavoidably.
There may be interferences between two robots when they were working at the same time.
Therefore, we should take every factors causing interferences into consideration when simulate in
order to avoid accidents caused by interferences in reality. Fig.6 showed the interference analysis of
body side welding.

Station Simulation and Beat Analysis. Station simulation means simulating all the equipments
under combined movements, including robots, welding gun, tooling and fixture, trolley and
conveyor in order to check whether chronological order and signal logic relationships among each
robot’s mission were right. It calculates station beat, checks interferences among equipments in the
whole movement, and instructs actual installation and debugging. Fig.7 showed a spot welding
workstation. Through Open Gantt Chart, the beat analysis diagram of the location can be seen.
When the station beat is less than the whole line’s beat, robot’s task should be adjusted to make the
beats meet all requirements. Fig.8 showed the workstation beat analysis.

Off Line Programming (OLP)

There were two main types of robot programming at present: teaching programming and off line
programming. Teaching staff control the robot’s movement on the teaching machine, and this was
called: teaching programming. When the gun’s TCP reaches the specified point, the pose
information of robot can be recorded and by parity of reasoning, the final program of robots would
be formed. This method was time-consuming, welding quality couldn’t be guaranteed, and the
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 756-759 767

efficiency was low nonetheless. Off-line programming (OLP) generates program in the simulation
software, input them to the robot’s control cabinet and then control the robot’s movement. Off-line
programming (OLP), by contrast, had higher efficiency and higher welding quality, saves the
teaching time at the scene, and was more safe and reliable. Before off-line programming, one needs
to install the Java 2 SDK which had high version than the 1.4.1 to switch the DELMIA XML file
into the robot language. Off-line program can be generated by Offline Programming tool bar in
module Robot Offline Programming of DELMIA. There were two resulting file formed, one file’s
suffix was src, the other was dat. Robot’s program was stored in the src file, while trajectory point’s
coordinates were stored in the dat file. The following was a part of robot program in the src file.
However, due to errors between the workpiece’s position and robot’s position, the installation
errors of welding guns relative to the robot, the rotation errors of robot’s each axis, the actual
situation and DELMIA simulation environment were different, so robot calibration was needed on
the spot.

Fig.7 Station of Spot Welding Fig.8 Analysis of Beat

Summary
In this paper, BIW welding line based on DELMIA had been pre-planned and each station is
simulated in virtual environment before the actual production. We put forward optimized scheme,
shorten production time, reduce unnecessary rework and improve production efficiency.

Acknowledgements
The project is supported by the National Torch Program No. 2011GH041242 and the National
Science and Technology Supported Program No. 2012BAF06B01. And in the paper writing process,
Teacher Wang Jianqiang paid much attention and helped me a lot, thanks for his help.

References
[1] H Ji-Li: The Thirteenth Session of the National Automobile Body Manufacturing Technology
Symposium (2002), p.316
[2] L Ju-Guang and T Dong-Hua: Application of DELMIA in programming of robotic resistance
spot welding workstation for BIW (Machinery Design & Manufacture, 2010).
[3] N Yu,H Ying-Chun and L Yue: Advanced Planning of BIW Welding based on Digital Factory
(Automobile Technology,2010).
[4] L Hai-Jiang and M Fan: Reach of Simulation for Body Side of Car-body in White (Machinery &
Electronics, 2006).
[5] P Xu-Min: 3D Path Planning of BIW Welding Robot Based on GA and DELMIA (Mechanical
Engineering, 2009).
[6] Z Ai-Hong and Z Qiu-Ju: Programming method for robot teaching (Modular Machine Tool &
Automatic Manufacturing Technique, 2003).
Information Technology Applications in Industry, Computer Engineering and Materials Science
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.756-759

Process Planning and Simulation Validate of Welding Line for BIW Based on DELMIA
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.756-759.764