As the automotive manufacturing industry continues to move towards higher safety standards, the steering wheel, as an important part of the vehicle's steering control system, has a complex and delicate structure that ensures the driver's control experience and safety. The assembly quality and process requirements for steering wheels are becoming increasingly strict. Even the tightening of a single screw is crucial, as any loosening or failure can directly affect the safety performance of the entire vehicle.

Therefore, in the automated assembly process of steering wheels, the precision and stability of the tightening equipment are particularly critical to ensure that the assembly quality meets the standard requirements. This article will share application examples of Danikor's sensor-based tightening tools in the bolt assembly of steering wheels.

Customer Requirements

Increasingly Refined and Diversified

In the field of steering wheel bolt assembly, industry customers' demands for tightening operations are becoming increasingly refined and diversified. Not only do they emphasize tightening processes and quality, but they also require more intelligent functional features. These include the ability to achieve automatic continuous tightening of screws with different target torques, independent control of the tool system for each workstation, and the establishment of a comprehensive data recording and traceability mechanism for subsequent quality traceability and process optimization.

Project Application

Intelligent High-Precision Tightening

Danikor's transducer screwdriver, based on the ISO5393 standard and using self-developed high-precision algorithms, meet the standard deviation precision of ±1.67% within the full range, ensuring precise and stable torque output. They offer a variety of tightening strategies, especially high-level clamping force control strategies, which can automatically identify the contact point and effectively address the issue of floating screws caused by inconsistencies in screws and hole sizes, ensuring that the final clamping force is qualified.

Through the host computer software, tightening tasks (Job) can be set up to achieve continuous tightening operations for screws with different torque requirements within the tool's range. One tool can replace multiple tools, significantly improving assembly efficiency and flexibility. Additionally, the host computer software supports multiple instances, allowing multiple host computer software programs to run on the same computer. Each system independently controls the tool, sets parameters, and records tightening data, including Job results and curve data, providing traceability for the tightening process.

In the automatic tightening station for steering wheels, an automatic screw feeding and tightening system can be used to blow screws directly to the gun head, thereby improving assembly efficiency and stability.

Manual Workstation Error-Proofing Application

In the assembly of steering wheels, some stations require manual screw tightening, making the monitoring of operators and tightening equipment particularly important to prevent human errors from affecting assembly quality and, consequently, the quality of the entire vehicle.

Application Pain Points: The manual tightening operation process is chaotic and disordered, with inefficient process switching and a high risk of incorrect or missed assembly. Tightening data cannot be traced back.

Solution: An assembly guidance system effectively guides workers through standardized and orderly tightening operations. The graphical configuration process is simple and intuitive, enabling control of tightening program switching. Additionally, combined with a positioning lever, the tightening position coordinates can be preset to manage the tightening sequence, avoiding errors such as repeated or missed tightening. This provides quality control throughout the tightening process, improving the assembly quality and efficiency of the product.

Moreover, the system can integrate various devices, such as barcode scanners, positioning joint levers, sleeve selectors, screw feeders, pick-up boxes, and waste boxes. It supports collaborative operation of multiple tools, expandable development, waste management, and easy integration with PLCs and MES systems.