February 2022 Volume 4

AUTOMATION

required the forging to be precisely timed. The customer’s trim press was equipped with an AB PLC. We had the luxury of relocating the trim press. We moved the press closer to the forge and rotated it such that a forged part could be unloaded through the side window and placed to a hand-off station (by operator). The hand-off station maintained part timing and established location/centerline. A long reach, 6-axis robot was used to pick the pre-staged part and place into the trim press. Our customer handled unloading the trimmer and removing the flash. Since we had to cover a large range of parts, and some of these had to be flipped between forge and trim, we decided to use a larger robot and gripper. The gripper was equipped with a set of “shark bite” fingers to grab the flash. At the same time, the finger geometry supports the part so we can maintain part centerline and successfully load the trim die. The grip feature (engineered flash pad) was standardized across the part family to minimize finger sets.

We supplied a Siemens PLC to match up with press controls. The robots communicate to the cell controller using Profibus. The cell controller controls the robots (3) and take-away conveyor, while communicating to the automatic die sprayer (autonomous) and forge. We supplied a large format color HMI screen which displayed production statistics, robot status, signal status, and faults. The entire cell was surrounded with a safety fence package equipped with multiple interlocked safety doors.

This was a new installation. Without the automation, there simply would not have been a way to manually transfer parts quickly enough to make production. The automation has been optimized recently to trim 10% off the original cycle time.

This automation package eliminated the trim press operator and runs at ten parts per minute. Summary Today’s labor market is forcing many industries to automate to remain competitive. The forging industry is no exception. With proper preparation, you can automate your forging press and gain the benefits of reduced labor costs, improved part quality, and higher production. JimMorris Executive Vice President, Business Development Adaptec Solutions Phone: 607-936-1341 Email: james.morris@adaptecsolutions.com

Case Study #4 This project involved loading a mechanical trim press. Once again, we had to accommodate a large part family and some of the parts

FIA MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2022 32