Modeling, analysis and effective improvement of aluminum bowl embossing process through robot simulation tools

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses the development of an automated loading and unloading system for aluminum bowl embossing operation on a power press machine. Presently the operation under consideration is manual. The worker manually picks the bowl from the input bin and places it onto a press bed for stamp embossing and after completion, removes the embossed bowl and places it into an output bin. Compared to conventional embossing techniques, bowl embossing includes fewer manufacturing steps and is therefore likely to be better suited for automated production. Automation of the bowl embossing production step is a crucial task in order to lower the manufacturing costs of these aluminum bowls. For studying manual loading/unloading conditions of the worker, a detailed Time and Motion analysis of worker is carried out. On the basis of cycle time analysis results, an alternative to the manual operation, a more sophisticated automated loading/ unloading system is suggested. The viability of the suggested system is checked through simulation and cycle time analysis. A proposed system which uses a robotic manipulator and a feeding system is also developed and tested. The software used for analysis, CAD model development and simulation is Delmia V6. A real case study belonging to aluminum bowls manufacturing scenario is simulated and its embossing process is used as a reference in this paper. From this example, it is shown that considerable production cycle time and manufacturing cost savings can be anticipated compared to manual loading/unloading. The suggested automation method is very flexible. It can be used for the production of aluminum bowls embossed with different shapes, sizes, and with different embossing patterns.