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2014 was a record year for vehicle recalls. The Center of Automotive Management (CAM) in Bergisch Gladbach published a study on 14.01.2015 which discovered that in the past year more vehicles than ever before had been recalled due to safety defects such as leaking brake lines, brake failure and defect airbags. One source for this was the US market where almost 63 million vehicles were recalled to garages due to safety issues – more than twice as many as the previous highest number in 2004.

The factors responsible for this trend are structural causes, such as the increasing technological complexity of vehicles, the increased pressure to keep costs low and the use of modular and common part systems in production. In order to remain competitive in the fierce market the producers must guarantee the highest quality and safety at every single stage of production. DEPRAG supports their customers in this by fulfilling legal requirements for screwdriving systems and tools in the automobile industry and therefore protecting the customer from product recalls which may otherwise occur due to faulty screw connections.

During assembly the most demanding of requirements are those of processing reliability. There are a whole range of factors to consider: The correct screwdriving tool with the optimal tightening procedure must be determined, the order in which screw assembly is implemented and individual processing steps are documented and integrated into the manufacturing execution system (MES).

One approach to fulfilling high quality standards of vehicle production relies upon the selection of suitable screwdriving technology. Intelligent screwdriving systems based on EC technology enable the recording, evaluation and documentation of individual assembly steps. For components critical to the safety of the product, which are common in the automobile industry, the recording and analysis of torque results via an independent sensor system is of enormous benefit. The DEPRAG EC servo screwdriving technology in combination with the use of additional torque systems is the ideal solution for this kind of specification.

Additionally the DEPRAG EC and EC servo technology screwdrivers are extremely precise. Depending on requirements and the programming of tightening sequences they enable torque accuracy of less than ±1% standard deviation or relating to the machine capability study, a Cmk value of ≥1.67 at ±5% tolerance relating to 6 Sigma in accordance with ISO 5393 and thereby the same low error rate of 0.6 per million screw assemblies and all that with a halved tolerance window. EC or EC servo technology also can be offered as a solution when screwdriving systems which can communicate with higher level processing data storage are required, such as operating data acquisition and statistical processing control.


More information: DEPRAG SCHULZ GMBH u. CO.