May 2022 Volume 4

AUTOMATION

operator took over andmanually transferred the part to the next die station for net shape deformation. After further research and consideration of several different manufacturers, they decided to purchase a Fanuc robot and hired an integrator to help set it up on the shop floor and work it through sequential trials, etc. “We studied all the various aspects of our first robotic application carefully before we got into production. Although our operator is always in full control of the press line, we found that the robot, operating to repetitive and timed intervals, would set the pace of the press line and improve productivity. Concurrently, our workers were relieved of some repetitive and fatiguing manual tasks, so they were happy with a lighter workload and production increased through the robot’s carefully timed pace. Additionally, the robot, which operates from a protective enclosure, has the ability to communicate with the induction furnace to reject billets that come out too hot or too cold and put them in different respective bins for re processing as necessary,” said Diemer. It took 6-7 months from the time of placing the purchase order to receiving and integrating Presrite’s first robot onto the shop floor. The robot has been up and running since November 2019. Diemer is very happy with his company’s experience, saying, “We now know we can run more efficiently with robots. We presently have four robotic lines in operation in two of our plants. These installations have been well-received throughout the company and we are looking at other areas to automate, including our machine shops.”

One proponent of cobots is Damien Junkulis, Value Add Commercial Sales Manager at Eaton Steel Bar Co. (ESB), Oak Park, Michigan, a supplier of SBQ steels to the forging industry. “We’ve been using traditional robots here for twenty years, but we started with collaborative robots only 10-12 years ago. They are smaller, take up less real estate, are OSHA approved, don’t require caged enclosures and easily replaceable if one goes down,” he says. ESB operates 3 plants in Michigan and still uses traditional caged larger robots, but at their main facility in Oak Park there are 15 cobots which, when set to their ‘collaborative’ mode, can be used in proximity to workers. These are smaller arms used only with light loads (20 lbs maximum) and any contact sensed by the cobot immediately shuts it down and it must then be manually rebooted. Cobots at ESB perform three main functions: pick-and-place cut “slugs” (billets) on a go/no go scale forweighing; pick out parts toundergo further inspections; and the stacking and packing of finished slugs. These cobot functions relieve humans from having to do repetitive tasks and one person can oversee the work of three machines. For weight measurement the cobot and the scale can communicate, and it can separate a failed part and place it in a rejection bin. In this way no failed part ever gets to a customer based on human error. If you need to inspect every fiftieth part of a production run, the robot will keep the count and separate that part for further inspection. And that’s not all. “The cobots plug into a standard 110-V receptacle, and if you take proper care of them their maintenance is minimal. They are interchangeable, so if we need one in another part of the plant they are easily moveable and each cobot is programmed to perform all the applications for which we deploy them,” says Junkulis. And finally, the cobots keep track of themselves and report on what they do. Data is received by ESB’s management on their Ignition software platform, where periodic reports can be generated. The utility of cobots is impressive, and for small- or moderately-sized forge shops, cobots may be a functionally and financially

Traditional robots are kept in enclosures for safety purposes. Courtesy of Presrite Corp.

The robot transfers a cylindrical billet from the furnace to the first die station. Courtesy of Presrite Corp. Cobots Taking traditional robotic automation a step further, one way to make your factory work smarter is to integrate human activity with robotic activity where it makes sense to do so. The industry has coined the phrase ‘collaborative robot’, dubbed cobot, for robots designed for human interactivity. In such a situation, humans are in close quarter with the robot or work directly within its working envelope. This is very much in contrast with more traditional robots, from whose working area humans were typically fenced off for safety reasons. The safety features of cobots may include the use of lightweight construction materials, rounded edges, inherent limits on speed or force used, sensors or software for emergency cut-off, etc.

FIA MAGAZINE | MAY 2022 30