.png)
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
Customer: Steel Rolling Mill
Industry: Material Handling/Steel Sleeves
Application: Large Part Material Handling
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.