In Shaoxing, in China's eastern Zhejiang province, Eisenmann is constructing a turnkey paint shop for electric-vehicle startup DEARCC.
The carmaker employs highly flexible, state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies – and ordered a skidless paint shop from plant engineering expert Eisenmann, headquartered in southern Germany. The solution uses VarioLoc conveyors to link individual process steps. The project will be completed in record time: Eisenmann was tasked in the summer of this year, and installation has already begun. The first electric vehicles are expected to roll off the line from late 2019.
Eisenmann's modular VarioLoc conveyors are the heart of the highly efficient, agile smart paint shop for DEARCC. Eliminating the need for heavy skids revolutionizes the movement of car bodies. The individual shuttles (dubbed "Locs") travel along a rail in the floor. Removing skids lays the foundation for far greater flexibility in production – in terms of cycle times, throughput, capacity and vehicle architectures.
In the Shaoxing factory, DEARCC will produce a new E-SUV model named ME7. The new car is the first model under the high-end brand Enovate which was released by DEARCC this November. Enovate ME7 uses a wide-body design while shrinking the window section as much as possible to form an aerodynamic Gulfstream shoulder, lowering the drag coefficient and making the vehicle visually very dynamic.
Moreover, a range of other Eisenmann technologies are to be deployed at DEARCC. The Shaoxing facility will feature a pre-treatment and electrocoating zone equipped with compact, cost-saving E-Shuttle 200 conveyors. Additionally, Eisenmann will supply spray booths and dryers complete with energy-efficient E-Cubes for paint overspray removal – plus work decks, and the ventilation and exhaust air purification systems.
The brain of the paint shop is the E-MES production control system from Eisenmann Industrial Software Company (Enisco). It supports intelligent management in the shape of online planning, material flows control and integrated digital worker guidance – enabling diverse car body types, materials and customer-specific surfaces to be painted within a single facility. "That is Industry 4.0 in action: connected manufacturing, where our flexible hardware and intelligent software solutions are seamlessly linked," explains Bruno Casorati, Senior Vice President, Automotive Systems at Eisenmann. "Eisenmann's integrated, end-to-end approach for a highly flexible and efficient, smart paint shop have proved very popular with our customers. We offer them advanced, market-ready technologies that support Industry 4.0 imperatives. These not only deliver exceptional versatility in manufacturing, but also cut costs and save energy." DEARCC is the second carmaker, after Mercedes-Benz in Kecskemét, Hungary, to take delivery of Eisenmann's rapidly implemented, one-stop, smart and skidless solution for the paint shop of the future.