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Manufacturing cushions and suspension mats for vehicle seats: a novel cell concept

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Abstract

Productivity is a key-factor for companies manufacturing parts and sets to the automotive industry. Automation plays an important role in this matter, allowing development of entire manufacturing cells without the direct need of workers. Even in countries where the labour cost is relatively low, it becomes necessary to improve the level of automation applied to manufacturing cells and reduce the dependence of the human labour unpredictability, also increasing the quality and reducing the costs. This case study was developed based on an industrial request in order to improve a semi-automatic cell devoted to seat suspension mat manufacturing. The original cell allows several automatic operations but it needs two workers for two specific operations not considered in the initial design. Thus, new concepts of wire feeding and manipulation were developed in order to allow a better material flow throughout the cell. The new cell was designed and built with success, allowing to obtain a full-automated system, which leads to a better productivity and reliability of the manufacturing process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISEP (School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    W. F. S. Araújo, F. J. G. Silva, R. D. S. G. Campilho & J. A. Matos

Authors
  1. W. F. S. Araújo
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  2. F. J. G. Silva
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  3. R. D. S. G. Campilho
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  4. J. A. Matos
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Correspondence to F. J. G. Silva.

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Araújo, W.F.S., Silva, F.J.G., Campilho, R.D.S.G. et al. Manufacturing cushions and suspension mats for vehicle seats: a novel cell concept. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 90, 1539–1545 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-016-9475-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-016-9475-6

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