Chrysler Siemens TRANSLINE 2000 & Mitsubishi Electric PLC/HMI

Patti Engineering has been fortunate to be a part of Chrysler’s comeback.  Nicely recovered from bankruptcy in 2009, Chrysler has invested heavily in plant automation and modernization.

Chrysler has been a true success story; rising up from the dust of the Great Recession. The success of Chrysler’s tagline ‘Imported from Detroit’ sums it up, putting a smile on the face of many! Having added more than 10,000 new jobs since it filed for bankruptcy four years ago, Chrysler has hired more than 2,400 new salaried workers, and continues to build an exciting new generation of vehicles for American consumers.

Chrysler was the first domestic automaker to introduce an 8-speed transmission in its models, starting with the 2012 Chrysler 300S and Limited models. Advancing at the forefront of innovation, Chrysler started gearing up for the auto industry’s first 9-speed transmission built in the Chrysler Transmission Plant in Kokomo, Indiana. The new 9-speed front-wheel drive transmissions enhance fuel economy and performance. Patti Engineering teamed with an OEM partner in implementing the equipment to build the new transmission.

Working with other partners and directly with Chrysler, Patti Engineering has been instrumental in a wide variety of projects at the forefront of technology advances in automation. With significant experience and expertise with the Siemens TRANSLINE 2000 and Mitsubishi Electric PLC and HMI programming, Patti Engineering has completed projects for more than a dozen Chrysler plants – engine and transmission plants, as well as assembly plants. In addition, Patti Engineering has provided plant-floor support of the IT data collection systems at those manufacturing plants called ITM.

Patti Engineering’s work has included solutions using Siemens TRANSLINE 2000 which provides the auto industry with optimal machine design in cooperation with machine manufacturers through to the planning and operation of advanced, networked production areas. With TRANSLINE, Siemens offers a fully technical solution and a standardized system kit comprising components such as SIMATIC, SINUMERIK, SINAMICS, PROFIBUS, PROFINET, which can be freely selected to solve the relevant task with productive interaction in tens of thousands of manufacturing operations.

Patti Engineering, a Siemens Certified Solution Partner, provides project management to expedite coordination and implementation of this technology, designed specifically for auto manufacturing, to sustainably reduce costs and increase availability and productivity. Siemens TRANSLINE 2000 provides uniform design, universality and simplicity by using the same hardware design, identical user interfaces, and the same tools for configuring, programming, commissioning and diagnosing complex control systems.

Through a direct relationship with Mitsubishi Electric, Patti Engineering, a Mitsubishi Electric Authorized System Integrator, recently spearheaded the development of a software platform that will provide Chrysler advantages gained by standardization, leveraging the strengths of the Mitsubishi Electric HMI and PLC product line. The project involved developing standardization of the user interfaces to make it easier and more efficient for operators to move from station to station. Direct involvement on the ‘front end’ of development provided Patti Engineering an in-depth look into the Chrysler standard, which furthered Patti Engineering’s knowledge of Chrysler’s powertrain needs.  This knowledge of the ‘front end,’ along with Patti Engineering’s Mitsubishi Electric experience, has helped to further Patti Engineering’s efforts in providing the best system integration results possible for Chrysler and its allies.