Application Story Welding Controls for Land Rover Bosch Rexroth, the European market leader in medium frequency (MF) DC welding technology, is the system supplier of around 400 welding control panels, for Land Rover’s T5 project in Solihull, Birmingham. The contract is based on Rexroth’s latest PS 6000 integrated MF welding controls, comprising inverter, weld timer and I/O board, which are housed in custom-made cabinets. To date, some 200 automatic panels for robot applications and 175 manual panels have been supplied. The all new Discovery is the first example of Land Rover’s new T5 platform strategy, which essentially lets many different body styles share the same chassis and thus, the same production facility. Rexroth gained the £1.8 million contract on the basis of a good working relationship previously established on the L30 project, where 165 PS 6000 MF controls are already used for spot welding the new Range Rover. The reliability of its equipment on that project, its track record of supply to other members of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group (PAG) worldwide, Rexroth’s commitment to ongoing technical and training support and a senior specialist project engineer working permanently on-site at Solihull were all factors involved in winning the order. Rexroth’s UK headquarters is in St Neots and the contract, including panel assembly was handled out of its sales and service centre in Cirencester. Land Rover is the world’s pre-eminent manufacturer of 4WD vehicles and the Range Rover is the original, luxury sports utility vehicle. The company is part of PAG, alongside Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lincoln and Volvo, with Ford as its parent and employs some 11,000 people in the UK, at Solihull and its state-of-the-art headquarters and engineering centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire. Rexroth has supplied PS 6000-based welding controls for use in automated and manual welding stations on the T5 project. Since first receiving an order for 60 medium frequency DC welding stations from Volvo, Rexroth has supplied more than 1,000 such systems to PAG sites worldwide, including Land Rover’s earlier L30 project. Quality-conscious automotive manufacturers such as Ford’s PAG have recognised that MF welding technology is less demanding on plant power systems, allows shorter, more precisely controlled weld times, yields savings on welding consumables and delivers consistently improved quality over AC techniques. Used for controlling spot and projection welding in Land Rover’s new body-in-white manufacturing facility, the PS 6000 systems are all based on 100KVA MF inverters, to allow standardisation of parts and the flexibility to handle different weld applications, incorporate a high level of protection at 1000Hz and employ a common InterbusS fieldbus link for programming and I/O communication.