References

More than fifty machines and cells, in nine countries. End customers are named below; the integrators who engaged us are not, since that relationship is theirs to disclose rather than ours.

Three in detail

Porsche bumper assembly lines, E4 and E3

Slovakia · OP Mobility

The machine

Two assembly machines for Porsche front and rear bumpers, covering several models and a large number of production variants on the same equipment. The hard part is not the assembly — it is that every variant needs a different sequence, different fixture positions and different operator instructions, and the line has to switch between them without a changeover stop or a mistake by the operator.

What HAL Automation delivered

Complete machine programs on Siemens S7-1500 with WinCC Unified, automatic variant management so the sequence adapts itself to the model arriving, operator guidance on a second monitor with step-by-step instructions, and coordinated control of seventeen Festo servo drives positioning seventeen independently controlled support pads.

How it was approached

Variant data held as parameter sets rather than branched logic, so adding a model is a data entry rather than a program change — the difference between a machine that survives the next facelift and one that has to be reprogrammed for it.

Key equipment

• Siemens S7-1500 PLC
• WinCC Unified, plus a second operator-guidance monitor
• 17 × Festo servo drives
• 17 × independently controlled positioning pads
• Automatic variant and recipe management

Bonding cell for Audi Q9 tailgates

Bratislava, Slovakia · OP Mobility

The machine

A bonding cell for plastic tailgates on a premium SUV programme, combining five robots with adhesive application, priming, flame treatment and heating in a single sequence, with full traceability required for every part produced. The difficulty is not any one process — it is that five robots, two gluing machines, two flame systems and eleven axes have to share one cell and one cycle without colliding or dropping a traceability record.

What HAL Automation delivered

Cell control program across two Siemens CPUs, robot programs and the safe interfaces between them, sequencing of the process equipment, and integration of traceability so that every tailgate carries a complete process record.

How it was approached

Program structured so each process station could be commissioned and run independently before the full cycle was attempted — which is what keeps a cell this dense from becoming unmanageable on site.

Key equipment

• 5 × FANUC robots — handling, adhesive, primer, flame treatment
• 2 × Siemens PLCs: S7-1517F-3 and S7-1515
• 2 × Delta gluing and priming machines
• 2 × IPROS flame treatment systems
• Leister heating systems
• 11 × SEW drives
• Zenon for traceability and process monitoring

Insert handling for injection moulding, 48 positions

Lyon, France · Saint-Gobain

The machine

Loading and unloading 48 inserts into an injection mould, then handling the finished parts downstream. At 48 positions the problem stops being handling and becomes bookkeeping: every insert must be inspected, its position verified before placement, and the whole set completed inside the mould's cycle or the machine waits.

What HAL Automation delivered

PLC program with Profisafe safety, sequencing of two SCARA robots against the moulding machine cycle, vision integration for inspection and position verification, and coordination of feeding, unloading and downstream conveying.

How it was approached

Sequence built around the mould cycle as the fixed constraint, with insert feeding and inspection running ahead of it so the robots were never waiting on the bowl feeder.

Key equipment

• 2 × KUKA SCARA robots
• Siemens S7-1500 PLC with Profisafe
• 1 × CIRA camera for insert inspection
• 2 × Cognex cameras for position verification
• Vibrating bowl feeder and two feed conveyors
• 2-axis unloading system, three outfeed conveyors
• 8 × Lenze inverters

Every project

Listed newest first. Where a single entry covers several machines of the same type at one plant, the number is given in brackets. OP Mobility was formerly Plastic Omnium.