Automated Abrasive Resistant Material Solution

OUR Projects

Automated Abrasive Resistant Material Solution

OUR Projects

Automated Abrasive Resistant Material Solution

The IR4 team engaged with Hastings Deering, Mackay to provide a solution to efficiently apply tungsten additive to their full array of Caterpillar GET’s eliminating costly bottlenecks. One of the objectives was to provide an all-in-one solution that was capable of processing multiple part sizes and shapes.

The system utilises the latest technology for laser ablation, induction preheat and ARM welding. The laser ablation process removes the paint in the locations where the ARM is to be applied prior to being induction preheated. Once the part is at temperature the system then moves the part through to the ARM application stage and welds the ARM coating in the desired locations.

One of the critical goals was to significantly reduce the manual labour input and provide a safe environment for the operator along with an operating system that is easy to navigate for non-trade staff. The system eliminated delays associated with paint removal from the GET’s in the shot blasting booth that was designed to process much larger parts. This ensures a greater availability of the shot blast booth and reduces the lead time on the processing of GET’s along with reduced material management.

Many initial challenges were overcome through the collaborative process with the Hastings Deering team and IR4 design and build teams.

System Flexibility
The Standardised IR4 Robotic ARM Twin Cell Solution can also be easily retrofitted to different configurations and utilised for different applications outside of GET’s.

Robotic Laser Ablation
Part of the ARM system process is Robotic Laser Ablation that has many potential automated applications for removing from metal surfaces:

Paint
Corrosion
Scaling

The quality of finish Laser Ablation provides on metal surfaces is outstanding and proven to be a very effective and clean way of removing unwanted contaminants from surfaces

Robotic Induction Heating
The ARM system operates and automated tool changer to switch from Laser Ablation to a Robotic Induction Heating head. This is seamless with no manual intervention required. Induction heating is a very quick and effective way to apply desired pre-heat safely to components before further processing.

Improved process efficiency
Localised, constant and precise heating
Energy saving
No open flame
Pollution free, fast, and secure technology

Automated Tungsten Feeding System
The IR4 automated tungsten feeding system sits on top of the robot arm and precisely controls the level of tungsten feeding down the delivery hose to the welding arc. The tungsten feeding system offers:

Tungsten volume control,
Ensures optimal Tungsten Chip uniformity
Produce digital tungsten usage report
Auto screening of the reclaimed tungsten
Auto refill on feed hoppers

This system talks to the HMI operating system and generates reports on usage upon call up. The design allows for the tungsten to be fed from the outside of the safety fencing meaning there is no downtime or unnecessary stoppages while topping up tungsten levels, this also increases overall system safety. Prior to being vacuum fed to the delivery module the tungsten is put through an automated vibrating screening process.

Automated Robotic Welding
One side of the ARM system is dedicated to Robotic welding with Tungsten chip automatically applied to the array of GET’s. The system has all weld paths calculated for all parts presented and efficiently welds out the surfaces with precision and repeatable quality. The ARM Robotic Welding Advantages offer:

Repeatable high-quality welds
Precision travel-speed and contact tip to work piece control
Very high Arc-on times compared to manual welding
Safer operation for the operator being fully isolated from hot works
Reduced labour costs
Non-trade staff can easily operate

The quality and productivity of automated robotic welding integrated into a system such as the IR4 ARM system is a highly effective and efficient way to achieve low-cycle times for complex tasks.

THE JOB

Provide an automated solution, removing the operator from the hot works area where the coating is applied, improving safety
Eliminating time consuming processing and integrating a all-in-one solution that significantly improved cycle-times
Integrate Induction Heating and Laser Ablation with best-in-class cleaning and pre-heating solutions

Provides a solution that caters for a wide variety of parts minimising manual handling and operator exposure to hot-works and fumes

Offers an operating system that is easy to use, intuitive and does not require trade level staff to operate
Significantly improve cycle-times increasing productivity
Provides tracking analytics on weld volume applied, tungsten usage, parts processed, cycle times, uptime and many other metrics allowing true job costing to be accurately captured and recorded.

SCOPE OF WORK

Twin-cell system capable of processing parts simultaneously
- System to cater for full array of Caterpillar GET parts
- Quick change over Induction Heating and Laser Ablation
- Fully Enclosed System with operator isolation
- System is to be operator friendly, and no specialised training is to be required by the operator to run the system
- The interface is to be remotely accessible on a web page for remote viewing of the stats and cumulative totals via the web page
- Human Machine Interface touch screen with intuitive system with information rich displays System KPI’s including:
- weld rate, heating rate, system uptime
- Failed ARM’s, System available time
- Logged on-time, loading time
- System downtime, waiting time
- Welding time

THE DELIVERABLES

The project is currently progressing through final system acceptance, the success of the project will be due to:

Significantly reduced cycle-times by over 4X while providing a safe fully isolated working environment for the operator
Incorporated induction heating eliminating the need for gas and flame exposure to operator
Ability to manage a Tungsten granule feeding system elimination of costly overfeeding or underfeeding
costly overfeeding or underfeeding
Met all system KPI’s and in some instances exceeded
All Parameters are stored in the system and easily recalled