AutoMOTIVE 5 - (Page 79)
seimens.qxd 24/11/06 11:59 am Page 79 SCHRADER AND SIEMENS ELECTRONICS
ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS TAKE THE PRESSURE By 2008, each of the 16 million new
cars sold annually in the US will have to be fitted with a brand new type
of standard safety device: a remote tyre pressure sensor. Although the end
function of these devices is straightforward enough, they are notoriously
difficult to make in volume. By pooling its expertise with Siemens
Electronics Assembly EA , one leading manufacturer has succeeded. Brian
Quinn reports. The spate of fatal car crashes in the US involving tyre US
sports cars the Corvette C5 and Chrysler Prowler . blowouts focused public
attention on tyre safety in an Schrader was shipping under 200,000 units a
year to the US unprecedented manner. Tyre under-inflation was a key where
it commanded a 100% market share. contributing factor, the profile of a
tyre deformed when With the second generation Gen 2 version of the RTPMS,
under-inflated in a way that put extreme additional stress Schrader set
out to make the sensor much smaller and less onto the tyre walls.
expensive. It also succeeded in making a product with mass- As a direct
result, the US government was under severe market appeal. As a result, the
Gen 2 RTPMS was specified as pressure to prevent such a problem ever
happening again. a standard fit on two mainstream European executive cars:
One of the last things president Bill Clinton did before the Renault Laguna
and the Peugeot 607. This brought with leaving office was to sign what was
called the Tread Act . it a ten-fold increase in order volumes that were
well beyond This made it illegal for any new car to be sold in the US the
capability of the company's existing manual assembly without remote tyre
pressure sensors capable of alerting a line. driver of a dangerously low
pressure. The time frame was It was at that time that Schrader first
turned to Siemens four years and would take the annual US market for such
EA to automate the assembly of the printed circuit boards devices from 8
to 80 million units per year. The only major UK PCBs used in its Gen 2
RTPMS and ramp up production volume manufacturer of such sensors, Schrader
Electronics volumes. It specified a fully automated SMT line built around
Limited, is based in Antrim in Northern Ireland. a Siemens SIPLACE 80-S-15
placement machine and Schrader Electronics part of the Gates group of
Siemens conveyor equipment, and began expanding its companies and owned by
$5 billion manufacturing giant facility from 17,000 to 50,000 sq-ft.
Tomkins PLC has undergone phenomenal growth and the Schrader was at a
manufacturing watershed. The road company 's Antrim site employs around
220 people, map for its Gen 2 RTPMS was 5m units by 2002 since focussing
on the production of the company's Remote Tyre realised in advance orders
and potentially 11m by 2003. Pressure Monitoring System RTPMS , which is
the world's Beyond the automated PCB assembly phase, these volumes leading
system of its type. were well beyond the technical capability of its manual
Yet even before the unfortunate events in the US, and system assembly
process. well before the Tread Act, the company was struggling to
Outsourcing was considered. But although the Gen 2 keep abreast of demand
for its RTPMS product. The first RTPMS was a product family, it had to be
individually generation was sold primarily as a niche, unique selling
customised for each application. As such, there were point option rather
than a major safety feature on two select numerous different permutations
and configurations of the 79
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AutoMOTIVE 5
Editors Note
News
Here For The Long Haul
Halewood. Rebirth of a Car Plant
Safety First
Focus on Flexibility
A Prophet Without Honour?
Chrysler Cuts It Four Ways
A MINI For All Reasons
Porsche Plans Continuous Logistics Improvement
Flawless, Consistent Execution
Ford's European Supplier Parks Deliver Lean Manufacturing Efficiencies
Cheap and Cheerful
Onwards and Upwards
Schrader and Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems Take the Pressure
No Faults Forward
A Long Way From Wheelbarrows and Bath Tubs
A New Era in US/Japanese Cooperation
A Dialogue of the Deaf
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