RFID applications in automotive Assembly line equipped with friction drive conveyors

Today´s automotive assembly is highly automated, and automatic identification of items could enable an even higher level of automotive assembly automation and more flexibility. For this reason the radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has received serious backing from the automotive manufacturer. In this paper, a new kind of conveyance called friction drive conveyor used in automotive assembly lines is introduced at first, and practical applications of RFID in Painted Body Storage (PBS) and Assembly Shop equipped with friction drive conveyors are described in detail. As a mobile data carrier through a mixed-model assembly line, an RFID tag specifying the car model information is attached to a skeleton car or a carriage, which can enable automatic PBS input/output control and help the assembly operators to achieve better operational efficiency.