Faster fastener welding: CenterLine adds to its patent file

Highspeed fastener system. PHOTO:CENTERLINE

CenterLine (Windsor) Ltd. has added another patent to its portfolio. The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued 9,895,775 for the Windsor, Ont. company’s High Speed Fastener Welding System.

That makes 82 patents with numerous North American and international patents pending for the automation technology company.

The new high-speed system increases operator throughput and improves the consistency of weld quality. Fastener welding motions and error proofing are optimized and the system quickly reconfigures for new part structures. It also modifies or updates to satisfy new application conditions, as well as completely new projects.

The system uses existing and new product developments including the following:

The SoftMount Gun. This pedestal-mounted fastener welding gun assembly automatically adjusts its position to compensate for part-to-part variations in fastener clearance hole locations. Variations can occur with parts that are hot-stamped and/or have laser cut holes.

Proprietary Quick Fastener Placement Units. They feed fasteners into position for welding.

The PinPoint Solution. It accommodates multiple part configurations and orients each style into positions that enable the robot to grip each part for shuttling through the proper welding sequence.

CenterLine, a privately held company with nine manufacturing and four service support facilities in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Romania, India and China, is about to add another plant to the three it operates in Windsor.

The 85,000 square-foot site on a five-acre lot includes 72,000 square-feet of manufacturing space and 13,000 square-feet of offices. This new division will manufacture several welding and joining products.

The company, which employs more than 1,000 skilled trades and professionals, operates 545,000 square-feet of manufacturing space.

It specializes in advanced automation processes and technologies for resistance welding, fastener welding, metal forming and coating.

Main customers are OEMs and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in the automotive, mass transit, aerospace and defense industries in international markets.

This article appeared in the July-August 2018 print issue of PLANT Magazine.