An alternate CED process for low volume BIW manufacturing with single stage vertical dipping

Body in White (BIW) is a major assembly in an automobile. It is made of sheet metal components that are welded together by Resistance spot welding. Assembled BIWs are put through an anti-corrosion process called Cathodic Electrodeposition (CED) and baked to set the CED coat. CED process has an elaborate sequence of rinse cycles and coat cycles. Single stage dipping stations are used for coating large volumes of smaller components. The high-cost multi-stage setup is a commonly used process in large scale BIW manufacturing systems. In the context of small-scale batch production or prototype builds, the extensive setup is not viable. This paper studied the feasibility of CED coating large BIWs in a single stage setup. Multiple process modifications explored to establish single stage setup for BIW coating. Process capability and effectiveness of utilization was studied. The results were analyzed, and the comprehensive process chain was concluded and discussed for implementation.