Avoid a Pressing Problem

Jan. 11, 2012

As any factory-floor engineer can tell you, finding solid solutions to the simplest manufacturing problems often can yield the greatest benefits.

This was the case at Silver City Aluminum (www.scaluminum.com), Taunton, Mass., a manufacturer of custom aluminum extrusions and finished parts.

The extrusion process is pretty straightforward. Large rolls of aluminum-called billets-are fed into the extrusion machine, pressed into a die using hydraulic power, and heated. It emerges as a slat, blind, or other shaped-aluminum product.

"Occasionally, after a billet has been cut, the excess fails to fall off," say Silver City's maintenance manager, Larry Johnson. "When this hanging piece hits the die, it can destroy it-to the tune of about $10,000 in replacement costs-or cause the machine to shut down, leading to expensive production losses." The challenge for Silver City was to find an inspection solution that could fit into a space-constrained area, be able to inspect a large area, and perform reliably in harsh environmental conditions while not breaking the bank.

As any factory-floor engineer can tell you, finding solid solutions to the simplest manufacturing problems often can yield the greatest benefits.

This was the case at Silver City Aluminum (www.scaluminum.com), Taunton, Mass., a manufacturer of custom aluminum extrusions and finished parts.

The extrusion process is pretty straightforward. Large rolls of aluminum-called billets-are fed into the extrusion machine, pressed into a die using hydraulic power, and heated. It emerges as a slat, blind, or other shaped-aluminum product.

"Occasionally, after a billet has been cut, the excess fails to fall off," say Silver City's maintenance manager, Larry Johnson. "When this hanging piece hits the die, it can destroy it-to the tune of about $10,000 in replacement costs-or cause the machine to shut down, leading to expensive production losses." The challenge for Silver City was to find an inspection solution that could fit into a space-constrained area, be able to inspect a large area, and perform reliably in harsh environmental conditions while not breaking the bank.

The existing photoelectric sensor solution was unable to perform reliably in this manufacturing environment; it wasn't able to map the entire surface of the billet to determine whether a completely clean cut had been made.

Our February article, "Avoid a Pressing Problem," written by Mike Bray of CPU Automation, the system integrator company that helped Silver City, explains how machine vision was the answer. Read it now.

Sponsored Recommendations

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and programmable automation controllers (PACs) provide viable options for machine control. This Control Design collection explains the differences...
Motion control engineers tend to focus on torque and speed specifications during the design process, but often fail to notice the unique features that differentiate a high-quality...
Covering the basics of choosing the right position feedback option for your application.
This white paper describes advantages of using advanced angle sensor technologies and focuses on best practices for correctly implementing non-­contact and touchless angle sensors...