Renault
Canvas Category OEM : Automotive
Renault Group is at the forefront of a mobility that is reinventing itself. Strengthened by its alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, and its unique expertise in electrification, the Group comprises 5 complementary brands – Renault, Dacia, LADA, Alpine and Mobilize – offering sustainable and innovative mobility solutions to its customers.
Assembly Line
🔋 French battery manufacturing startup Verkor secures €2B
Grenoble, France-based Verkor, a battery manufacturing startup, announced on Thursday that it has secured more than €2B in funding. The funding injection comprises a Series C round of €850M, €600M in bank financing support from the European Investment Bank (EIB), and approximately €650M in French government grants, pending final validation by the European Commission.
The Verkor Gigafactory will have an initial production capacity of 16 GWh/year. Located in the port of Dunkirk, the Gigafactory is expected to be operational by 2025 and will create around 1,200 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs.
🔋 Behind the Scenes at Renault’s New Electric Motor Line
Last summer, Renault hit the start button on a new, highly automated line to assemble motors for electric vehicles at its historic factory in Cléon, France.
The plant has a history of deploying Industry 4.0 technologies. In 2020, for example, the facility installed three fully automated machining lines to produce crankshafts, cylinder housings and cylinder heads. Sensors in the connected machines automatically send alerts to maintenance technicians when, for example, they detect an unusual rise in temperature or abnormal vibration on a bearing.
The plant also employs automated guided vehicles, 3D printing, exoskeletons, collaborative robots and virtual reality training. Digital applications on smartphones make everyday life easier for operators.
🦾 Renault Retrofits Robots at Refactory
The robots that retired from Renault’s plants in Sandouville, France, Maubeuge, France, and Douai are sent to the retrofit unit, which is run by Francesetti Nathalie, head of the tooling department at the plant. In the past, each plant retrofitted its own machines. Now, the Refactory revamps them all so the automaker can reap the benefit of a specialist team pooling their expertise in a dedicated workshop. By 2023, the team will double in size and have eight technicians and a scheduler.
By retrofitting robots, Renault has reduced investments in new projects and repair costs. This operation has also shortened supply chains, which are getting longer and longer for new robots. Ultimately, Renault’s goal is to retrofit more than 170 robots per year to support the company’s shift to producing electric vehicles. The operation will save the automaker some 3 million euros per year.
Renault Group and Atos launch a unique service to collect large-scale manufacturing data and accelerate Industry 4.0
Renault Group and Atos launch ID@scale (Industrial Data @ Scale), a new service for industrial data collection to support manufacturing companies in their digital journey towards Industry 4.0. “ID@S” (Industrial Data @ Scale) will allow manufacturers to collect and structure data from industrial equipment at scale to improve operational excellence and product quality. Developed by the car manufacturer and already in operation within its factories, ID@scale is now industrialized, modularized and commercialized by the digital leader Atos.
More than 7,500 pieces of equipment are connected, with standardized data models representing over 50 different manufacturing processes from screwdriving to aluminum injection, including car frame welding, machining, painting, stamping, in addition to new manufacturing processes for electric motors and batteries. Renault Group is already saving 80 million euros per year and aims to deploy this solution across the remainder of its 35 plants, connecting over 22,000 pieces of equipment, by 2023 to generate savings of 200 million euros per year.
Circular Car Factories
The next big shift will be an environmentally friendly movement dubbed the “circular auto factory.” According to some experts, the circular cars initiative will reshape the auto industry during the next two decades, as OEMs and suppliers attempt to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across the entire vehicle life cycle.
The term “circular car” refers to a theoretical vehicle that has efficiently maximized its use of aluminum, carbon-fiber composites, glass, fabric, rubber, steel, thermoplastics and other materials. Ideally, it would produce zero material waste and zero pollution during manufacture, utilization and disposal.
One of the key elements of a circular car factory is a closed-loop recycling program where disassembly lines are housed in the same facility as traditional final assembly lines. All vehicle components and materials are remanufactured, reused and recycled at the end of life.
Circular Economy 3D Printing: Opportunities to Improve Sustainability in AM
Within the 3D printing sector alone, there are various initiatives currently underway to develop closed-loop manufacturing processes that reuse and repurpose waste materials. Within the automotive sector, Groupe Renault is creating a facility entirely dedicated to sustainable automotive production through recycling and retrofitting vehicles using 3D printing, while Ford and HP have teamed up to recycle 3D printing waste into end-use automotive parts.
One notable project that is addressing circular economy 3D printing is BARBARA (Biopolymers with Advanced functionalities foR Building and Automotive parts processed through Additive Manufacturing), a Horizon 2020 project that brought together 11 partners from across Europe to produce bio-based materials from food waste suitable for 3D printing prototypes in the automotive and construction sectors.