Aerospace Automated Furnace Manipulator
A jet engine parts manufacturer in Pennsylvania had an aging manipulator on their heat treatment system. To improve safety and reduce downtime, they required a new manipulator built to modern standards to provide automatic operation for their process. Essentially, a manipulator is an automated forklift capable of moving parts to different locations in a given area of the plant.
Corso Systems partnered with the end-user’s furnace manufacturing company who utilized their in-house design, engineering, and fabrication teams to build them a new manipulator and Corso Systems integrated the controls operator interface and safety systems.
Automated Manipulator Solution
Allen Bradley CompactLogix PLC
SEW Eurodrive Servos
Pepperl+Fuchs Encoder
Keyence Safety Scanners
OnLogic Panel PC
Implementation Summary
The process involved four furnaces, a load and unload station, two staging tables for in-process parts, and two quench pits. The manipulator would load parts from the loading station into the furnaces and unload the furnaces to put parts into the quench pits. Then it would place the parts either on the staging tables to grab a new batch, or set them on the unloading station to be picked up for further processing.
The new manipulator required automatic control, so operators could push a button to perform any of the above operations: pick up parts, load/unload furnaces, quenching operations, and then moving parts for further processing. By using Ignition from Inductive Automation as the operator interface and SCADA solution—along with an Allen Bradley CompactLogix PLC—Corso Systems delivered a system to meet the customer’s needs.
Part of the automatic operation required precise positioning of the manipulator in front of each station including the furnaces. The Pepperl+Fuchs encoder installed on the ceiling sending a signal to the SEW Euro Drive servos allowed us to precisely locate the manipulator position to within 1/10 of a millimeter and move between positions automatically.
Safe operation was another requirement for the system, which we achieved using Keyence safety scanners. They scan in the direction of motion of the manipulator and will halt the machine’s movement if anyone is blocking the path of motion.
Results
This project gave the customer a fully functional system to replace their nearly 30 year old equipment. It improved their overall cycle times and significantly reduced downtime. It also reduced overall operator training requirements as the previous unit required operators to locate the correct positions by eye, which would periodically result in machine crashes.
The new manipulator handled all of the motion and operations automatically while giving the operator the ability to manually override the system as needed.
