Hot robot

Citation

(2005), "Hot robot", Industrial Robot, Vol. 32 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2005.04932faf.001

Hot robot

Hot robot

Keywords: Robotics

Scottish Stampings Limited, one of the country's leading manufacturers of HGV axles, has taken a major step forward with the installation of new high tech “Robots”. The company, which is part of the Scandinavian Ovako Steels Group, have taken this new and exciting step to allow them to compete within today's extremely competitive market.

The installation of an automated twin cell robot line, based on standard Comau NH3 articulated-arm robots has resulted in a significant improvement to the reliability and maintainability of the product manufacturing process.

Simon Deakin, Project Manager, heralded the novel project as a complete success – commenting, “The solution was very much the result of close collaboration between Comau Estil and Scottish Stampings, the `Robots' provided exactly what Scottish Stampings were looking for in terms of flexibility and increased productivity, operating under arduous conditions with the Robot End Effector handling both blank and preformed billets at temperatures exceeding 1,200 degrees Celsius” (Plate 1).

Plate 1 Robot two handling a hot steel billet – already pre-formed – to the second forming stage

The new automated system has replaced the former dedicated process, which relied on a transfer and chain conveyor system. This old system of billet handling had been prone to failure and, from a maintenance aspect, was cramped and difficult to work on, resulting in excessive downtime.

The first of the six-axis, pedestal mounted, Comau NH3 articulated arm robots has been interfaced with an automatic feed conveyor which presents the part to the pick up point following its exit from either one of two induction heaters. The heated billet is then transferred to the hot form rolling mill, which pre-forms the billet ready for the next operation. Following a second pass through the hot form mill the pre-formed billet is handled by the second NH3 robot, which then collects the part from the tongs of the mill and transfers it to a manual station immediately prior to an 8,000 ton forging press. From this point on the process becomes a purely manual operation.

“Most of this development was carried out off-line and away from the production environment. The fact that Comau Estil have the facilities to manufacture and commission systems offline results in a reduction of onsite installation and commissioning time, which in return has a minimum impact on production schedules. The flexibility of the installation has proved itself, with the final cell configurations fully meeting the customers requirements resulting in the reduced downtime and increased productivity considered essential to provide the customer with a return on his investment”, added Simon Deakin.

Scottish Stamping's Engineering Manager, Bobby Gemmell, commented, “Programming is straightforward using the Comau C4G Cell Controller. The machine operates on a batch system, and we are able to process anything from our size range. Seeing all the elements coming together on site interfaced to the existing machines – then running with the hot billets continuously is very pleasing”.