A case study on automating a hot forge for manual and robotic operation

This presentation describes the planning and development of an automated robotic forging cell in the Advanced Forming Research Centre at University of Strathclyde. A key issue to be addressed in forge manufacturing is that of the variability introduced by manually controlled methods. Individual fore operators tend to use individualised technique which means that the output varies according to the speed of the operator, the amount of lubricant applied and leads to results which can be inconsistent. Automation of this process, as well as leading to increases in production volume, additionally gives improvements in quality and especially in the consistency of output. For the research investigator, the latter feature (related to stabilisation of experimental conditions) means that the automated process can then itself be used as a process debugging tool, without the confounding that tends to obscure the process improvements obtainable from any particular change. Therefore, the automated system itself can be used to diagnose the process. Where manufacturing operations consist of both manual and automated processes, improvements can be reflected back from the automated to the manual operations in terms of, for example, the application of lubricant.