Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review
    Vol. 54 No. 1 (2017)   M-FET
    Technical Papers

    Advanced Production Lines for Turbochargers

    MASATO KINOUCHI
    YOSHIYUKI MIYOSHI
    KOUICHI YAMATO
    YOSHIKI KON
    DAIKI WATANABE
    NAOHIRO UCHIDA

    In order to cope with the sharp increase in the demand for turbochargers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engine & Turbocharger, Ltd. (MHIET) is pushing forward with the transition of the Sagamihara District Third Plant to a smart factory through the further automatization of facilities and the use of IoT technologies toward the realization of an advanced turbocharger production line. In the present situation, the automatization of the major processes on the production line has been achieved, but for carrying in parts, appearance inspection, equipment operation monitoring, etc., the work is conducted by hand. This report introduces the efforts to develop the component technologies for automatization toward the realization of an advanced production line: (1) the automatization of the carrying in/carrying out of parts with a camera-equipped robot designed to operate autonomously; (2) the automatization of appearance inspection; and (3) the establishment of a smart factory using IoT technologies.