TPV Day of Innovation is a yearly event where the corporation TPV Group presents their innovation actions and achievements made the previous year, and also points out new trends, aspects and findings in the area of innovation. This year, the event took place on Tuesday, February 13, in the new showroom of TPV Group on Kandijska cesta 60. The ceremony was opened by  Mr. Marko Gorjup, Director – President of Management TPV d.o.o., who in the opening speech stressed the importance of innovations which in the increasingly changing environment allow us to adapt to changes and gain competitive advantages. In TPV, they are well aware of this and therefore systematically develop, promote and reward innovations in all levels.

The innovators were virtually greeted by one of the biggest and most famous Slovenian inventors Peter Florjančič, author of about 400 patents. He addressed the innovators with words of encouragement and shared some interesting stories and ideas with the audience about the birth of perfume atomiser and car airbag which he had sketched back in 1957.

Krunoslav Šimrak, the director of research and development division, presented the technology trends in the automotive industry, such as: autonomy, electrification, connectivity and car sharing. The global innovation index for 2017 has revealed that the world’s most innovative countries have been Sweden, the USA, Germany and the Great Britain, where are also located TPV’s biggest customers. The latter attach great importance to innovations and expect their suppliers, among them also TPV, to demonstrate such a commitment.

In TPV Group, innovations have become a significant part of all work processes and employees’ mentality. Last year, a 10.000th innovative proposal was submitted by the employees  representing 2,9 suggestions per employee. The number of innovative ideas is increasing year by year. Last year, the TPV employees submitted almost 3.000 inovative proposals. Among the innovative ideas, the Innovation Committee traditionally selects the most valuable proposal submitted by an individual and a team and they receive an additional award. At the ceremony, the awards and  recognitions for the best innovative ideas  were conferred by the director – president of management, Mr. Marko Gorjup, the director – member of management, Mr. Ivan Erenda, and the director of R&D division, Mr. Krunoslav Šimrak. According to the Innovation Committee, Marko Malnarič was the most impressive innovator with the innovative proposal called »Robotised manufacturing of a product for Range Rover vehicles«. The award for the most valuable team innovation was conferred to Srečko Basarac and Primož Kozan for their innovation called »Feasibility study and implementation of protection in the press tool«.

In accordance with strategic guidelines adopted by TPV Group, the further education of employees is besides the innovation system also a part of  the incentive plan. Therefore, Mr. Marko Gorjup and Mrs. Martina Brec, the HR director, granted recognitions to all employees who finished education last year: Boštjan Piletič, Davor Tramte, Lea Gregel, Bernard Lesica, Borut Čeh, Marko Erjavec, Stefan Cvijanović.

The Martin Sever Award for the best graduate thesis was conferred by Mr. Marko Gorjup and Vladimir Gregor Bahč, the procurator of TPV Group, to Davor Tramte for the diploma thesis called »3D scanning and making of a 3D model based on a point cloud  as a step in  reverse engineering process of a trailing arm” (Faculty of Industrial Engineering Novo mesto).

The ceremony itself was held in an innovative way, as a collaborative robot helped passing the awards. Moreover, Janez Dovč also spiced up the ceremony in an innovative way by playing different instruments from Tesla Coil, the theremin to the laser harp while performing pieces of Tesla music show.

The guests of the event were Vedran Tare from the company Rimac Automobili, who presented a concept of developing an electric car, and Robert Gril from the company Universal Robots, who  pointed out the novelties and tends in the field of collaborative robots.

A proof that our care for innovativeness is not fruitless, are also 10 innovation awards TPV received last year: two silver awards by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Posavje Region, a gold and three silver innovation awards by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Dolenjska and Bela krajina Region, a silver and a bronze recognition by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Štajerska Region, a silver recognition by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, and a gold recognition by the Innovation Association in the municipality of Karlovac, Croatia. In future, the company is going to focus their innovative strength even more intensively on the area of automation and robotization, digitization, cloud management, and innovation platform implementation.

 

TPV Group has only six months since the placement of foundation stone opened a new advanced technology production-logistics center at the business unit Velika Loka with a useable area of  7.300m2.

TPV is an advanced technology company operating as a development supplier in the automotive industry which means they are actively involved in designing, developing and manufacturing most modern vehicles. Over the last few years, they have won several new development and production business. In addition to exceptional development competencies  needed to meet customers’ requirements, developing efficient production and logistics processes also represents a significant concern. This is why they are continuously in search of optimal and innovative technological solutions in the area of automation, robotization and flexibility of production and logistics processes.

All these reasons have led to invest in a new production-logistics center built on the principle of a smart factory.  The production and logistics processes will be automated to the greatest extent by using new robots and automated guided vehicles, while the implementation of a production management information system will provide an on-line connection with other production and business processes within the company as well as our suppliers and customers.

At the business unit TPV Velika Loka where the new production-logistics center is located, TPV uses different technologies for mechanical joining of components which are produced by other TPV production sites  or by their suppliers. Most parts produced at this production site are also cataphoresis or powder coated. As these are mostly TPV’s end products, location of the logistics center in Velika Loka is of exceptional importance for the company.

The new advanced technology production-logistics center has 7.300m2 of useable area. The total amount of investment is estimated at 20,3 million EUR and the work will proceed until 2020 when the center will glow in its final image. The investment includes exterior arrangement of the business unit, construction of a new building for production and logistics purposes, advanced technology production lines for new products, manufacturing execution system, system of automated internal logistics and digitized warehouse management system, and digitized connection with suppliers and customers.

 

Recruitment

As Marko Gorjup, Director – President of Management,  said in his opening address »the production-logistics center will, in spite of significant importance of automation and digitization, not involve only robots and machines. The most important are and will always be people. In future, our employment needs will even increase due to new contracts to win, so more than 100 colleagues of different educational levels, profiles and knowledge are expected to join TPV Velika Loka by year 2020.” They will need more and more professionally qualified staff like operators, maintainers, engineers, quality personnel, logistics analysts, production planners, and  project managers.

TPV – a smart factory

With the new digitized production-logistics center, TPV is moving even more decisively in the direction of a smart factory. TPV as a development supplier in the automotive industry, operates in a very demanding and competitive environment. In the automotive industry, a high level of automation and digitization is becoming necesary for the company’s existence and  growth. The industry is developing towards smart factories and TPV Group is becoming part of this trend by upgrading the information and communication technology systems, increasingly automating production processes and smart logistics solutions which are an indispensable part of smart factories. The process of digitization and automation will help them reduce their production costs, increase productivity and manufacturing accuracy, reach higher quality of end products, reduce the possibility of human errors which all leads to a higher competitiveness of TPV on the market.

In the area of smart factories, TPV is not only a follower but an active player. Based on rich experience in automation of production logistics in their own production sites, they developed together with a start-up company IKU their own comprehensive and reliable automation solutions with automated guided vehicles, AGVs, and the automated guided vehicle Optimatic 160 which is distinguished by numerous competitive advantages. These solutions have already been offered to the market. They also wich to be an active partner in implementation of future robotic technologies, advanced production technologies for materials, plasma technology and management technologies.

At the opening ceremony, the ribbon was cut by Mr. Marko Gorjup, Director – President of Management TPV d.o.o., Mr. Vladimir Bahč, Procurator TPV Group d.o.o. and Mrs. Violeta Bulc, the European Commissioner for Transport who also stated that this TPV investment is also important for the EU. »TPV strives for the same development goals as the EU. Our aim is a bigger industrial sovereignty which can be achieved with automation, robotization and digitization,« said Bulc. Beside Violeta Bulc, Aleš Cantarutti, the State Secretary, Franci Povše, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Government of the RS, Mr. Alojz Kastelic, the Mayor of Municipality of Trebnje, Tomaž Kordiš, the director of GZDBK and some leading industrialists from the region also attended the opening event.

 

Yesterday, the Chamber od Commerce of Slovenia conferred the 15th national awards for the best innovations, which is the highest award for innovative achievements made by Slovenian companies and promotion of innovativeness in Slovenia. Twelve gold, one special  and twenty-five silver awards is the outcome of the national finals which involved 182 innovations and 774 innovators at the regional level. This year, they also awarded the innovation of the year, selected by the public.

TPV Group is placed among the most innovative companies as we received a silver award for the innovation called »Innovative, automated guided vehicle Optimatik 160« whose authors are: Janez Sluga, Dominik Rajšelj M.Sc., Robert Simčič, Aleksander Brence, Aleš Ucman, Matej Mikolič, Matjaž Sotler. Congratulations to all innovators for their outstanding achievement.

Slovenia is a country of innovators which is confirmed by the information published by Union Scoreboard 2017 according to which Slovenia is put second in the group of »strong innovators«. Relative competitive advantages of our country in comparison with  other EU countries lie in human resources, research and development investments and innovation-friendly business environment. According to the global creativity index, we are the eighth most talented nation in the world, while the global technology index has placed us among the first fifth of most successful countries. Therefore, TPV Group has confirmed again to be one of the most innovative and successful companies.

Innovations are one of key factors having a significant impact on the company’s performance which is also acknowledged by TPV Group. Their innovations are recognized by both their customers, who are offering them increasingly complex development projects, and  professionals. Last week, they were given seven awards for innovation;

Gold award for innovation conferred by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry  of Dolenjska and Bela Krajina (GZDBK) for:

• Innovative automated guided vehicle Optimatik 160
  Authors: Janez Sluga, Dominik Rajšelj, M.Sc.,  Robert Simčič, Aleksander Brence, Aleš Ucman, Matej Mikolič, Matjaž Sotler

3 silver awards for innovations GZDBK for:

• Development of dynamically loaded friction coupling joint  of the shift mechanism
  Authors:  Vili Malnarič, M.Sc. , Jurij Švegelj, Janez Hočevar, Matija Požgaj, Silvester Urek
• Implementation of collaborative robots
  Authors: Toni Kambič, Boštjan Piletič, Mišo Pereško, Nenad Rađenović, Matej Kozan and Jure Filak
• Along with the Faculty of Industrial Engineering Novo mesto we received a silver award for the innovation called 3D scanning and making of a 3D model based on a point cloud as a step in  reverse engineering process of a trailing arm.   

Authors: Davor Tramte, B.S.M.E. at FINI, mentor at TPV: Vili Malnarič,  M.Sc., mentor at FINI:  Tomaž Savšek, Assist. Prof., Ph. D., TPV

2 silver awards conferred by the Regional Chamber of the region for the innovation called:

• Smart cardboard box assembly machine
  Authors: Alen Černelč, Boris Antolovič, Jože Gramc, Peter Pšeničnik, Veljko Goleš, Mišo Pereško, Blaž Stare
• Automated electric resistance welding machine with servo positioner and rotary table
  Authors: Alen Černelč, Miroslav Kuharič, Boris Antolovič, Jože Gramc, Ivan Živič, Matjaž Sotler, Boštjan Piletič, Marko Malnarič, Marko Lozar

Gold medal granted at the innovation exposition iKA in Karlovac for:

• Innovative automated guided vehicle Optimatik 160
  Authors: Janez Sluga, Dominik Rajšelj. M.Sc., Robert Simčič, Aleksander Brence, Aleš Ucman, Matej Mikolič, Matjaž Sotler.

The innovations rewarded reflect innovativeness in the field of autonomous systems, product development, process optimisation and implementation of new technologies. Not only their quality has been recognized by the expert committee, but all innovations rewarded have already been implemented at the customers or in our work processes.

Descriptions od innovations:

Innovative automated guided vehicle Optimatik 160

Authors: Janez Sluga,  Dominik Rajšelj, M.Sc., Robert Simčič, Aleksander Brence, Aleš Ucman, Matej Mikolič, Matjaž Sotler

Automation of internal logistics using automated guided vehicles, AGVs, is important to increase efficiency and reduce production costs, and therefore represents a significant factor in automating production sites and warehouses. AGV is a transport vehicle with a possibility of automatic control. Complexity of the solution is built on a software controlling the AGVs and connecting them to their environment. The TPV concept is based on the company’s own modular and open source central control system. Development of software solutions is the result of cooperation with the development partner, IKU. The TPV approach of logistics process automation is built on two principles. The first principle is the technological knowledge of logistics processes and the second the knowledge related to the automation of such processes. They both ensure that the customers’ needs are understood in the course of the professional interaction with the customer leading to effective and reliable solutions. They have realized that trolley conversion to a bigger height (usually necessary with competitors’ AGVs) constitutes a substantial obstacle in implementing automation of internal logistics using AGVs. Consequently, they developed their own automated guided vehicle called Optimatik 160 which is unique on the market. Its essential advantage lies in its low height. Optimatik 160 is even lower than the standard industrial trolley wheels resulting in no need to convert the trolleys in use. Another advantage is their small width of 420 mm enabling transport of standard EURO pallets without any need of trolley conversion.

 

Development of dynamically loaded friction coupling joint of the shift mechanism  

Authors:  Vili Malnarič, M.Sc., Jurij Švegelj, Janez Hočevar, Matija Požgaj, Silvester Urek

Shift rod is considered an important part of the shift mechanism as it is connected to the joint through the movable coupling joint. The mechanism has to allow a smooth gear shift and also reduce gear lever vibrations. The movable coupling joint is usually used with a bolt made of steel and on both sides backed with a washer and secured with a split pin preventing the bolt to slide out of the groove. In order to reduce weight, a request was made to make all shift mechanism parts of aluminium, while the bolt needs to be secured against sliding only with friction due to lack of space. For the mechanism production, the press-in technology is used for the bolt which goes through the groove inside the joint and then through the groove inside the rod where it functions as a bearing, and at the other end it goes again through the groove inside the joint.

For the process of bolt press-in we defined force and velocity of bolt press-in using experimental development. Despite following all requirements, a problem occurred as the bolts started to get out of the groove after the gear box had been in use for some time.  Owing to the nature of assembly, it was, from technology point of view,  impossible to ensure press-in parallelism   which led to a situation with the highest force needed at the beginning and decreased force at the end of press-in. To perform the function of keeping the bolt within the groove, this should be the opposite way around with the press-in force being the highest at the end.  As a consequence, the bolt often blocked during press-in which stopped the process. Should the groove hole increase due to the force, the press-in force shall decrease. In the first case, the defect is immediately apparent. In the other case, a hidden defect occurs and after the gear box has been in use for some time, the bolt may slide out of the groove resulting in a serious failure of shift mechanism.

By doing numerous analyses and tests we developed an efficient lubrication system and an appropriate lubricant to press-in the bolt. In order to facilitate the press-in,  we also developed an innovative shape or geometry of the bolt along with an affordable technology for bolt manufacturing. Using an innovative method we reduced the bolt diameter on the part which is first pressed into the groove and therefore enabled a parralel guidance at the press-in.

The innovative geometry of the bolt along with the innovative lubrication method have resulted in a better force application during the press-in so that the highest force is applied at the end of the press-in process. This allows a good hold of the bolt in the groove and an increased dynamic strength of the coupling joint. We have also significantly eliminated the problem of tribocorrosion fatigue and reached a better smoothness in the area of the movable coupling joint.

The whole process is automated and provides a high series production with a 100 % control of all key steps and parameters. Due to the bolt innovative design and new press-in technology, the scrap has been reduced from 20 % to less than 0,1 % which represents significant  savings on material, energy and time.

 

Implementation of collaborative robots in workplaces  

Authors: Toni Kambič, Boštjan Piletič, Mišo Pereško, Nenad Rađenović, Matej Kozan and Jure Filak

So far, the industrial robots have been used  in the same workplace almost throughout their lifetime and robotisation hasn’t been efficient  and useful in small batches. In classical robotic application, the process was built around the robotic workplace, which  required an appropriate process adjustment and integration of robotisation already at the stage of process design as subsequent  upgrading was no longer possible or even much too costly.

Aiming toward continuous improvements, we have changed this thinking. We have stepped out of established patterns and through an innovative approach, and by means of collaborative robots, we have robotized the existing processes and those whose applications were  not suitable for classical robots. The innovation resulted in improvement in terms of :

• productivity,
• quality,
• ergonomics,
• safety,
• costs,
• internal logistics,
• and environmental impacts.

We have used the advantage of collaborative robots and by means of two mobile robots developped different applications. This has given a new perspective on using robots in the process of sheet metal  forming and  implementing such solutions in other processes.

 

3D scanning and making of a 3D model based on a point cloud  as a step in  reverse engineering process of a trailing arm.  

Authors: Davor Tramte, B.S.M.E. at FINI, mentor at TPV: Vili Malnarič, M.Sc., mentor at FINI:  Tomaž Savšek, Assist. Prof., Ph. D., TPV

This innovation has increased the efficiency of product development process by using reverse engineering enabling 3D modelling of the existing solution. We use the 3D model to make finite element analysis contributing  significantly to a better understanding of the loading issue of the component and to creation of ideas for new design solutions. We can carry out development activities even before we receive the official request for quotation from the customer, which is a time-saving feature compared to competitors. With the innovative use of the existing software by adjusting the analysis process to the hardware capacities we have decreased  the development costs and accelerated the product development process.

 

Smart cardboard box assembly machine  – Authors: Alen Černelč, Boris Antolovič, Jože Gramc, Peter Pšeničnik, Veljko Goleš, Mišo Pereško, Blaž Stare

Machine for assembly of cardboard boxes type  EXO 2.0 KLT 6147 provides an automated assembly and handling of cardboard boxes used for final product packaging. The automated assembly of non-returnable   packaging has resulted in better productivity and reduction in storage space which had been used for storage of cardboard boxes. The machine is user-friendly and provides an automatic operation and communication with users. The system includes a control over the volume of boxes needed for smooth operation. The control over the position of the box components made by the detector enhances process realibility and quality.

 

Automated electric resistance welding machine with servo positioner and rotary table – Authors: Alen Černelč, Miroslav Kuharič, Boris Antolovič, Jože Gramc, Ivan Živič, Matjaž Sotler, Boštjan Piletič, Marko Malnarič, Marko Lozar

Automated electric resistance welding machine with servo positioner and rotary table with infinite rotation is an innovation in the area of automation as it provides a complete control over product and process parameters of the welding cycle for different types of products. The operator can simultaneously make 4 types of related products while the machine automatically identifies the product, its position and orientation, as well as parameters related to different types of products, e.g. the electrode force, welding current and welding time. The machine provides an automatic ejection of the welded parts from the weld nest which relieves the operator whose task is to insert the components and remove only good welded parts ejected by the machine.