A review of automation in manufacturing illustrated by a case study on mixed-mode hot forging

Abstract

-This paper describes a review of automation techniques as currently practiced in the forging and forming industry. That industry has been relatively resistant to handling automation because of the severe challenges that are faced by having typically small batch sizes, extremely challenging operating conditions in terms of temperatures and pressures and lighting conditions. The paper discusses how aspects of these difficulties can be overcome and it is hoped that the specific solutions and methodology presented will find general applications in other aspects of manufacturing industry. The concept of the ''Automated Forging of the Future'' is introduced in which advanced handling, rapid tooling-change and flexibility, smart metrology, advanced sensing and intelligent gripping techniques are presented. The paper represents the distillation of work on automated forging based on the authors' implementation of a key theme in forging automation in Advanced Forming

An empirical analysis of supply and manufacturing risk and business performance: a Chinese manufacturing supply chain perspective

“…Table 1 presents a summary of the supply and manufacturing risk and respective performance areas in supply chain literature. Lamarre et al, Be et al, 2015;Hong et al, 2014;Ellinger et al, 2015;Cheng et al, 2012;Jia and Zsidisin, 2014;Li et al, 2015Production Flexibility Hoffmann et al, 2013Isoherranen et al, 2015;Harrison, 2014 Maturity of manufacturing process Hallikas and Lintukangas, 2016;Hoffmann et al, 2013;Ho et al, 2015;Indrawati et al, 2014;Isoherranen et al, 2015HR management Yeung, 2012Cheng et al, 2012 Understanding how China manages and responds to supply and manufacturing risk will have a significant impact on global trading, especially considering that China has been reported to account for one-fourth of the global gains on the import side and 30% on the export side (Hillberry & Zhang, 2018). Athukorala (2011) A plethora of studies have uncovered differences in the cultural and society contexts of…”

“…Furthermore, as asserted by Isoherranen et al (2015) process maturity is vital for manufacturing firms to achieve operational excellence, as the maturity level of processes has significant impacts on risk management. For instance, automation in manufacturing has numerous advantages, such as: improving quality, reducing dependency on labour and improving safety, which reduce the risk of product quality and production disruption (Harrison, 2014). Therefore, we can hypothesise that: the ability to adjust the capacity according to demand and profitability; the ability to alter the production capacity to fulfil product diversity; the capability to shorten lead times or to postpone production as a response to competitors; the ability to allocate the production in different nations or facilities, in order to achieve low cost or avoid risks such as strikes.…”

“…noted that mature manufacturing processes can positively improve firms' operational performance, which include managing manufacturing risks. The maturity of the manufacturing process refers to perfect procedures, adoption of advanced information technology (IT) software and automatic production Harrison (2014). asserts that automation can efficaciously reduce risks from production, such as quality issues, dependency on labour and safety issues.…”

The Impact of the Lubricant Dose on the Reduction of Wear of QRO90 Steel Dies Used in the Forging Process of the Valve Forging Made of High-Nickel Steel

“…Moreover, thanks to the use of manipulators, a fully flexible systems can be built allowing for controlling all important lubrication parameters, such as nozzle position, application time, the composition of the lubricant, etc. [18]. Furthermore, such solutions are fully synchronized with the operation of the forging unit, thus eliminating the human factor [19].…”

Robotic vision system for random bin picking with dual-arm robots

“…Automation has been most successfully used in manufacturing systems, and can be an effective solution in part-packaging processes at industrial sites because such processes are simple and repetitive tasks [1]. To achieve such automation, the solution applied must be able to provide reliable detection for the target parts during the packaging process.…”