Case: Micro-dosing systems

Supporting the reduction of exhaust emission

Vernay Europe
Automotive
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Our customer Vernay operates in a growing market. This growth is mainly caused by European laws and regulations for reducing exhaust emissions. The following case involves automating the assembly of a small automotive micro-dosing system for additives that support the reduction of exhaust emission.

Customer needs and goals

Vernay would like its production capacity to match automotive market demand. They requested to use existing manufacturing processes and asked IMS to support in finding a solution for a number of additional process steps. The resulting production line should be robust and reliable.

Production line for the micro-dosing system

IMS challenges and solution

The challenge included a pre-automation analysis followed by the development and build of an assembly line. Besides integrating a new process, we needed to integrate and validate existing supplier processes. Our pre-automation analysis, which we conducted together with Vernay, led to a better producibility of the product through use of Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacturing (DFM) methods.

The production line enables Vernay to produce over 2 million micro-dosing systems per year, at 10 seconds per product cycle time. The basis of the production line is formed by a standardized automation platform.

The following processes were integrated into the production line:

  • Laser welding
  • Vision check
  • Height measurement
  • Pressure test
  • Water test
  • Flow test
  • Encoding

Tight schedule

At the start of the project, we proposed a tight but realistic planning. Due to the growing product demand, Vernay asked us whether it was possible to speed up the process. As the project was already underway, this required us to shift gear quickly. Through a joint effort between Vernay and ourselves, we managed to find a solution and shortened the delivery time by six weeks. This enabled Vernay to meet demand earlier than expected.

Vernay has expressed their satisfaction with the speedy delivery and employment of the new machine.

The collaborations continue, as we have delivered a total of 5 of these production lines to date.

Results for the customer

With this project and the resulting flexible production line, Vernay has experienced the following benefits:

  • Meeting market demand earlier than expected
  • Further increase of production capacity
  • Stable production processes

"Stable and flexible production"

Hans Velten

Sales Manager

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Sales Manager