Comau, a global leader in advanced industrial automation, is taking a significant step forward in digital-enabled solutions for lightweight vehicle manufacturing with Smart Hemmer, its new robotic ‘roller hemming’ process that is precise, compact and “capable of hemming any complex joint”.

Comau says it offers an ideal solution for the new generation of electric, hybrid and traditional lightweight vehicles, as it allows automotive manufacturers to join dissimilar materials using a cold process.

Smart Hemmer features two ‘flexible rollers’ in which the linear roller can automatically disengage when encountering
obstacles or a curved path, obviating the inflexible fixed anvil used in traditional roller hemming processes.

Smart Hemmer can also maintain a constant hemming thickness, even when encountering multiple layers of dissimilar materials.

Giovanni Di Stefano, head of process technologies, said: “Comau’s newest hemming solution features a revolutionary design that makes it extremely fast and efficient for lightweight and e-vehicle manufacturing.

The Industry 4.0-compliant solution lets automotive manufacturers join components together with full in-process monitoring of the joint.”

Field-tested and validated by major European companies, Smart Hemmer is a standard product that can be applied to all vehicle architectures and complements the complete array of similar technologies developed by Comau in the cold-joining environment.

Headquartered in Turin, Italy, Comau (www.comau.com) has been established over 45 years and has an international network of 32 locations, 14 manufacturing plants and five ‘innovation centres’ that span 14 countries and employ more than 9,000 people.