2007-11-06 - A foundry based in Walsall has doubled its production of castings after automating its grinding processes with the help of ABB
The Chamberlin & Hill foundry produces complex, multi-core castings for the automotive industry. Adam Vicary, the Managing Director of Chamberlin & Hill, was keenly aware of the need to increase output to enable the company to stay ahead of its Eastern European and Asian competitors. To help speed up production times he wanted to fully automate the fettling of a family of multi-core castings for use on turbochargers and oil pumps.
Reduced reliance on manual grinding
Chamberlin & Hill had originally introduced automatic grinding machines to fettle these castings and reduce their reliance on manual grinding. Using these machines required each casting to be manually loaded and unloaded. Initially it was hoped that one operator would be able to operate two machines, but because of the short grinding cycle time this proved impossible. Chamberlin & Hill identified that by automating the loading and unloading of each machine using robots, one operator could keep up with the loading rate even allowing for travelling time between machines.
Working towards the right solution
Chamberlin & Hill worked with ABB for several months to develop and refine the concept, after which ABB designed and supplied two cells, each of which contained an IRB2400,16kg robot, a pair of tray feeders for infeeding the castings and incorporating one of the existing Barinder grinding machines from Koyama; all enclosed within an interlocked safety system. Because of the dusty and abrasive environment the robots were selected with Foundry Plus specification giving IP67 protection to the units. With floor space at a premium, the modular construction of the ABB IRC5 Robot Controller enabled the Drive and Control modules to be mounted side by side beneath the tray feeders saving around 10% on the total footprint area of each cell.
The trays which locate the castings were a joint development between ABB and Chamberlin & Hill and provide an interchangeable, low cost method of accurately presenting parts for robot pick-up. Chamberlin & Hill can produce these trays in-house when new castings are introduced to the cells.
Operators freed up for additional tasks
The full process begins with the castings being loaded into the trays. The quantity of castings that can be loaded varies with the size and according to the tray being used. The robot removes a casting from the tray and places it into the fettling machine. Sensors on the robot ensure that the casting is placed into the machine accurately. The grinding machine then performs the fettling process, which takes about 14 seconds. Once completed, the grinding machine opens its door, the robot removes the casting, carries out a supplementary deburring operation and then outfeeds the part via a chute into a bin. The operator now only has to periodically reload castings into the trays after which he is free to carry out other tasks.
A major impact on production
In only four months, the cell has had a major impact on production. The robots are operated for 22 hours/day during the week, over three shifts. With the robots handling loading and unloading, Chamberlin & Hill can now fettle up to 200 castings per hour. This compares to only 100-120 pieces when human operators load the machines. Overall, this has enabled the company to increase its output of castings from 8-10 tonnes to 23 tonnes per day.
Utilising ABB's training programme
ABB provided robot programming training under the contract for Chamberlin & Hill’s technicians who were also closely involved in the installation and commissioning of the robots on site. This has proved invaluable experience and made Chamberlin & Hill self-sufficient in programming skills.
Robot positive
Chamberlin & Hill has seen positive results from using the cell and is now looking at other ways it can exploit the robot’s capabilities. “Now we’re keen to find other ways that we can apply robots to improve productivity and efficiency in the foundry”, explains Gary Gee, Engineering Manager. “We want to see how we can use the robots to help with management information and supplementary processes.”
“By introducing the cell, we’ve been able to improve our delivery performance”, says Adam Vicary. “Customers can see this, and we expect that orders will increase as a result of our investment. I think that the support we’ve received from ABB built our confidence in robots and with ABB and our own staff working closely together we’ve been able to substantially increase production”.