ROME – The profound know-how of Comau, a company in the orbit of the Stellantis group, was decisive for the choice made by Foton Daimler. The joint venture between Daimler Trucks and the Chinese truck manufacturer Foton Motor, i.e. Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive (Bfda), has chosen the Italian company, world leader in the development of advanced systems and products for industrial automation to create a solution state-of-the-art automated welding. Thanks to this project, Comau is thus contributing to the creation of the first heavy vehicle for the Chinese market, the “Actros” by Bfda, based on the global Mercedes-Benz platform, which uses Daimler’s most advanced technology.
The production line developed by Comau, fully automated, has been designed to be extremely flexible and allow the management of complex patterns and variable production. The Comau welding solution offers a production capacity of 50,000 units per year and is capable of meeting both current and future production needs of Bfda. The Comau technical team was commissioned to use the “Daimler Integra 6” standard for the creation of an automated, flexible, intelligent and digital welding line, both for the door area and for the dashboard structure.
The system, specifically developed to ensure production efficiency and streamline workflows, is equipped with Comau proprietary products, such as the RH-Clean automatic roller cleaning device, and quality control visual inspection using Quiss video camera.
The project also uses virtual testing technology to help test and optimize the new production line, while simultaneously reducing operational time, man-hours and any post-commissioning risks.
“During this fruitful collaboration, the Comau team has played an important role in strengthening the competitiveness of our products – underlined William Sparenberg, head of the Mercedes Benz Truck Factory – We were particularly impressed by their experience in various aspects such as design, ‘reliability and costs’.
“We are honored to have been chosen by Foton Daimler to work on this important milestone which paves the way for the location of its first heavy vehicle – said Gaetano Cantalupo, Apac countries cluster manager at Comau – Daimler is a world leader in the automotive sector, not only for its important volume of sales, but also for the continuous search for technological progress. The success of this project is a recognition of Comau’s capabilities, the expansion of its customer base and into new business sectors”. The start of series production of the top-of-the-range Actros truck is planned for the second quarter of next year. (Maurilio Rigo)