Fagor Arrasate is awarded by VOLKSWAGEN to supply one of the most advances robotized press line of the world

Fagor Arrasate will supply to Volkswagen a new robotized press line that will be one of the most advanced of the World in terms of speed and productivity  . It is a WAVELINE installation , the new concept developed by FAGOR in collaboration with the German robot maker KUKA. While in conventional press lines (tandem lines), the robots and the presses work stopping at each cycle, the new WAVELINE system allows a complete and perfect synchronization between all components of the line, avoiding stops and idle times and allowing increasing the processing speed up to 50% in some cases, an advantage that is obviously very attractive for any car maker.

So Volkswagen has understood it and has honoured FAGOR ARRASATE with an important order to supply a WAVELINE for its facility in South Africa. The new line will have six presses. The first one will be a link drive press with 2100 tons of capacity and a bolster’s size of 4500 x 2400 mm. and a stroke of 1400 mm. This press has also an intelligent programmable hydraulic CNC cushion with 600 Tons of capacity. Then, there are five link drive presses of 1200 tons of capacity and sizes of 4500 x 2200 mm. and stroke of 1400 mm as well. At the beginning of the line, there is a blank destacker able to handle bundles of 15,000 kg with a weight of 50 kg per part. The presses can handle dies of 56 ton in weight and have all kind of quick change systems.

The automation is based on the new KUKA special robot named COBRA that allow the above mentioned synchronized processing. These robots have a very high speed, moving parts of 50 kg at distances of 5 meters in very short times. This permits the continuous work of the press line.