Over the past quarter century, automotive component manufacturer Bosch Group (Stuttgart, Germany) has manufactured approximately 100 million antilock braking systems (ABS). The company also produces a number of related systems, like its antislip control (ASC), electronic stability program (ESP) and electrohydraulic braking (EHB) products. Bosch assembles these systems around the world, in countries like France, the United States, Australia, Japan and China. By doing so the company ensures its products are manufactured close to customers.
During the past 3 years, Bosch has begun creating production lines in these disparate plants using a standardized, module-based component system. In each line, up to 30 independently operating cells with as many as 20 structurally identical six-axis robots from Stäubli Corp. (Faverges, France) perform numerous assembly and feeding operations. The flexibility of the component system is such that it can be used to configure production lines for all generations of ABS, TCS and ESP systems, as well as EHB systems.