Assembly of TwinAir, the 2-cylinder engine for the Fiat 500, on a line from KUKA Systems.KUKA Systems Assembly & Test, based in Bremen, has produced a new engine assembly line for the customer FPT - Fiat Powertrain Technologies. The system was inaugurated and put into operation in the Polish city of Bielsko-Biała with a ceremony in June.The assembly line covers an area of approx. 7000 square and stretches over two stories. With a cycle time of just 40 seconds, the new low-consumption and low-emission two-cylinder engine for the Fiat 500 and other models produced by the company is assembled in a total of 51 automatic and 75 manual work stations.The individual work stations are connected to one another by means of trans-port and conveyor systems with a total length of over 700 meters. Highly auto-mated assembly processes have been implemented with automatic component feed loading. The manual work stations have been configured as continuous conveyor areas with a variable transport velocity. This offers maximum flexibility for the process sequence and indexing. Material feeding and manual operations have been designed following World Class Manufacturing principles as per FPT standard. Up to 450,000 engines can be manufactured annually in this system that is open to capacity increase in accordance with market demand. “Due to the highly automated technology and the challenging implementation schedule, a major effort was required by the entire project team to complete this system on time,” says Georg Ahlers, Project Manager, KUKA Systems Assembly & Test in Bremen. “We are proud of having successfully completed our first project for FPT - Fiat Powertrain Technologies, which was also our first project in neighboring Poland,” adds Thomas Jagdt, in charge of sales and project management for assembly systems at the KUKA location in Bremen.Fiat unveiled its new TwinAir engine for the Fiat 500 small car to the world’s press at the beginning of July. The car’s designers had followed the current trend towards downsizing to minimize the impact on the environment by reduc-ing CO2 emissions. The TwinAir has two cylinders, a capacity of 0.9 liters and a power output of 65 hp, or 85-105 hp for the turbo variants.TwinAir is the first engine specifically designed with MultiAir electro-hydraulic valve management system created by FPT, in which the intake valve opening and timing is continuously variable to increase performance and saving fuel.KUKA SystemsKUKA Systems is an international supplier of flexible automation systems for the Automotive, Aerospace, Energy and Industrial Solutions segments. Some 3,500 employees worldwide work on ideas, concepts and solutions for auto-mated production and the provision of products and services for virtually all tasks in the industrial processing of metallic and non-metallic materials.In the Automotive business segment, the company offers the entire manufactur-ing automation spectrum for joining and assembling vehicle bodies. Other products include systems for engine, cylinder head, transmission and axle assembly, stamping and forming dies, and solutions for final assembly and test systems.The range is presented and marketed internationally via the subsidiaries and sales offices in Europe, America and Asia. KUKA Systems recorded an order volume of around 615 million euro for the 2009 business year.