FORCE Technology, a Danish technology consultancy and service company, has successfully completed a groundbreaking project in collaboration with Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence and RoboDK. The project aimed to revolutionize the gear repair process, making it more sustainable for manufacturers.
The primary objective of the project was to enhance laser welding procedures and investigate the feasibility of sustainable gear repair using robot toolpath programming, digital twin technology, simulation, and post-processing. By improving the practical application through robot simulation, a sustainable gear repair process was developed, ensuring high-quality outcomes.
The utilization of industrial robots and robot simulation for gear repair offers several advantages, including waste reduction, energy efficiency, and cost savings on component replacement. This application specifically targets the Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) process, focusing on the safe restoration of repaired gears to service.
The project combined the industry expertise of Randers Gears and Villiam Petersen Tandhjulsfabriken Horsens with FORCE Technology's proficiency in laser welding. The technologies employed in the project included Direct Energy Deposition (DED) Technology, which builds up parts in successive layers following a toolpath derived directly from CAD geometry. The DED toolpath was programmed using ESPRIT additive toolpath programming features, a CAM software from Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence.
RoboDK's digital twin and post-processing capabilities were utilized to generate the robot program. The integration of the RoboDK extension in ESPRIT facilitated seamless communication between systems, streamlining the process for end-users.
FORCE Technology utilized a 6-axis KUKA robot arm mounted on a rail (linear axis), a tilting table for rotary operation, and a spindle to produce the gear parts. The project also incorporated a GTV cladding head (powder and laser), enabling additive functions and resulting in an impressive cycle time of just 5 minutes for reloading Steel 4140 parts.
Ivar Dale, Additive Manufacturing Specialist at FORCE Technology, expressed his thoughts on the project, stating, "The project was a significant milestone in standardizing gear repair and achieving the necessary quality assurance and confidence to reintroduce repaired gears into service by the gear manufacturers."
RoboDK's simulation and offline programming tools were commended for their ability to reduce production downtime caused by shop floor programming. Companies can now test a robot's capabilities in a virtual environment using RoboDK.
Dale further emphasized the advantages of the path planner additive solution from ESPRIT/Hexagon and the post-processor from RoboDK. These tools significantly reduced programming time by employing a 1mm positive offset due to the organic shape of the gear tooth. This not only saved time in printing, particularly for larger repairs but also reduced the gear manufacturer's time, as the added material is extremely hard and requires careful CNC machining for every millimeter.
Overall, FORCE Technology employed ESPRIT, Hexagon's "Hybrid" CAM software, to program additive head path planning, while RoboDK resolved kinematics and collisions and generated robot code for creating the toolpath trajectories for Additive Manufacturing.
The hardware setup for the project consisted of a GTV PLC System, a HighYag/Coherent Laser head mounted on a GTV cladding system, a KUKA KR30 Robot, and a Trumpf 16KW laser system.
As for the software setup, the project utilized ESPRIT as the Hybrid CAM software and RoboDK as the Robot Simulation and Programming Software.
Notably, the project aligns with FORCE Technology's commitment to environmental responsibility by emphasizing gear repair over replacement. This approach eliminates the need to discard an entire part, thereby reducing waste and labor costs associated with materials. Furthermore, downtime and costs are minimized since the need for replacement parts is eliminated. The project serves as a successful demonstration of how robot integration can enhance Maintenance, Repair.
