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Steel plant sample preparation automated
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An enclosed cell with CNC machine tools, pick and place robots, conveyors, and laser component recognition and measurement systems automated steel plant sample preparation. Corus' Scunthorpe, UK, integrated steelworks produces of plate and sections, and has a workforce of more than 4,000 employees In order to ensure their products are of the highest quality, a test piece is taken from each production batch and results forwarded to its customers Consequently, producing 250 - 300 sample sets required a total of 450 test pieces to be made each day. A machine shop it Corus' test house produced tight tolerance test pieces on a labour intensive basis. The plant said it was not achieving the required delivery on a daily basis. So Corus called in potential suppliers to see if the processes could be automated. Halifax Numerical Controls (HNC) based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and Agemaspark of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, had had a close association for many years. HNC personnel developed and designed electronic systems and wrote specialist software for Agemaspark's manufacturing cells and special purpose machines. So when managing director of Agemaspark, Paul Stockhill, received an enquiry from Hardinge (one of Agemaspark's principles) for a Test Cell for steel producer Corus, he contacted HNC's managing director, Mike Diskin. Within just a couple of weeks, Stockhill and Diskin offered an outline proposal for a totally enclosed, automated cell. It used Hardinge CNC machine tools, pick and place robots, auto conveyors as well as laser component recognition and measurement systems. Stockhill and Diskin approached Corus with their ideas and an indication of a budget cost. HNC said that the Corus test house manager was so impressed with the scheme that within a comparatively short period of time Stockhill and Diskin were given an initial order to proceed to develop a workable system and prepare a firm price. Within a further couple of weeks Stockhill and Diskin, along with partner Hardinge, went back to Corus with a proposal, and a PC simulation and quotation in excess of GBP 750,000 * Charpy Impact test pieces - the requirement was to build an automated process to produce Charpy Impact test pieces, measuring either 5, 7.5 or 10mm wide x 10mm high and 55mm long. Each had a centrally machined Vee, 2mm deep, machined to an overall maximum tolerance of 60 microns within a time of 9 min for a set of three test pieces. The material sample carried a bar code ID and this was the starting point for Stockhill and Diskin. Their proposal included raw, sawn blanks being loaded into a chute, their bar codes retrieving data from Corus' existing VAX machine and automatically, by way of laser technology checking the overall size. If OK, it then progresses by way of pick and place robot and lightweight conveyor systems for milling the four sides and two ends on a CNC lathe. The CNC lathe received data from the VAX giving test piece size and hardness. After studying the components and carrying out tests, Hardinge came up with the somewhat novel idea of using a CNC lathe for the milling of the test pieces. Hardinge proposed three Hardinge Quest model 6/42 CNC lathes fitted with GE Fanuc 18i CNCs, Eppinger Preciflex driven tool turrets and C-axis spindle control. The CNC lathes were also to feature automatically opening doors to accommodate the robot loaders, the HNC/Agemaspark jointly developed tool breakage monitoring system and an in-chuck mounted cylinder to push the component to a pre-determined position on a turret stop. The operations were as follows. * Each component would then to be faced and centred. * The component would be held between the chuck and revolving centre for the rough and finish milling of the four flats. * The Vee would be milled in the centre. * An ID number engaved. * Component parted off and removed by a parts catcher onto another conveyor. The conveyor fed the machined test piece to a delivery station, where it was collected by an operator and tested with the results forwarded to the customer. Stockhill and Diskin said that Corus was certainly impressed, and formally placed an order for the system, which would be built at Agemaspark's Doncaster premises. * Electricals and electronics - HNC began designing and developing the electrical and electronic systems, and all software, including interfaces for what was to be a PC-operated system. HNC began with the powerful 8-axis GE Fanuc Multipath Powermate i-H controller to run the cell. The system was to be designed to communicate with the four 2-axis loaders and three Hardinge CNC lathes through an Ethernet link and through a GE Fanuc I/O module. HNC's novel approach was to use Admiral Microsystems for Bespoke Controller software, which continually tracks the components symbolically. Then, if at any time during its short manufacturing process there is a problem, for instance hardness or sizing, the system has the ability to reject it, sounding an alarm to the cell operator. Over the following few months the cell took shape with Corus invited to Doncaster for the final 'run off', which was achieved with few teething problems, passing final acceptance, stripped, delivered and reassembled in the Corus test house in Scunthorpe. * About Corus - Corus is Europe's second largest steel producer, with steelmaking operations primarily in the UK and the Netherlands. Corus, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, the world's sixth largest steel producer, provides innovative solutions to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering and other markets worldwide. http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/hux/hux108.html |
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