Premier Automation Robotics

Large Part Material Handling Robots in Mill Environment

Project Summary and Challenge

A local steel rolling mill approached Premier to improve and update one of their existing robot cells. The original system was installed over 10 years prior, and due to the harsh and unforgiving mill environment the two original robots were nearing their end of life. The system used these robots to place hollow steel sleeves on the coiling reel at the end of the rolling mill. The sleeve would act as a core for very thin gauge material being rolled and reduce the amount of scrap material at the start of each coil.

These aging robots were causing excessive downtime for the mill, as well as increasing the scrap loss at the beginning of each new coil when sleeves were unable to be placed on the coiling reel due to the robots being inoperable.

Objectives:

Replace two robots nearing their end of life with new Fanuc robots
Replace a custom inverted linear rail with a new custom Rollon-IMS RTUi. This rail acted as a 7th axis for an underslung robot in the mill pit
Modify and improve tooling to adapt to new robots
Incorporate operator feedback into the mechanical design and teaching process for the system

Design Constraints:

Spec two new robots and a linear rail unit that will match payload, reach, and fit within the footprint of the existing system
The existing system had incredibly tight space constraints with the customers facility, with one robot operating in a pit and very close to structural beams within the facility

Solution

Premier worked very closely with the steel mill and our vendors to specify the correct replacement robots, design a new custom linear rail to act as a drop-in replacement, and working through improvements to incorporate into the new system. The sleeve handling robot was replaced by a Fanuc M900iB/400L, and the underslung robot was replaced by a Fanuc R2000iB/220U.

A large amount of time was dedicated to sorting through old system documentation, mechanical and electrical drawings, and at the facility to ensure the replacement components would fit perfectly in with the existing facility structure. Ease of installation was a must for this project.

Results and Impact to Customer:

Premier successfully took on this challenge to replace both robots and an inverted linear rail with new equipment for the customer. Each objective for the project was successfully met, and now the customer is currently back to running the mill with the robots at full capacity.