Ford F-150 Robots Visit Detroit Auto Show

Part of the robotic assembly line that will eventually produce Ford Motor Co.'s new aluminum-body F-150 pickup truck took an unusual side trip en route to the assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo., where the 2015 truck will go into production later this year.

Six sections of the modular line have been set up on the floor of the Detroit auto show, where visitors can watch the robots and transfer line go through their paces.

The setup isn't a show display. It's part of the actual line and will be trucked to Kansas City, Mo., later this month, reassembled and used to build the pickup.

The hardware is part of a highly flexible system developed by Comau Corp. Dubbed VersaPallet, the line can handle as many as six different body configurations simultaneously. The Italian company, which specializes in high-speed flexible assembly equipment, created the line at its plant in Novi, Mich.

The system consists of an overhead track that moves pallets containing the body fixtures from station to station. The pallets are lowered to the floor, where robots mounted overhead joint the aluminum body panels using self-piercing rivet guns.

The architecture packages the plumbing and control panels overhead, which leaves the floor open between work stations. The design also simplifies the job of moving the line from the factory where it is built to the actual assembly plant.