Simulation and programming of joining operations in body-in-white construction
Robots that weld, glue, fold or paint sheet metal parts are a familiar sight in automotive workshops. In body-in-white construction, there has been a high degree of automation for a long time, which these companies have mastered very well.
At present, however, there are a number of areas in which the automation needs improvements.
Three examples of the challenges in body-in-white are:
- The trend today is to enable production of more and varied types of vehicles on the same lines. This reduces the individual lot size while increasing the variance of production to the same extent.
- New materials require integration of new joining processes into production.
- More and more manual processes previously performed by line workers have to be automated. The robot technology required for this tends to be more demanding than that of industrial robots over the past two decades (for example, with regard to tools and end effectors).
The overall direction, though, is clear: Manufacturing industries are moving towards autonomous, self-regulating, flexible and agile manufacturing.
In light of this, what does the IT landscape in production environment look like? That is the question our expert paper is concerned with.
- What is the status quo in simulation and programming?
- How will IT and engineering processes have to evolve so to efficiently support companies in new automatization challenges?
- What orientation should decision-makers seek for development of their IT landscape in production environment specifically?
To download the 9-page expert paper, please fill in the form. The download link will be provided upon completion.

Presenter:
Thomas Flaig, Senior Account Manager - Linkedin