Advanced Automation in the Heat Treat Industry

This paper discusses the growing use of automation in heat treating and some of the benefits that have been realized in early applications. It provides examples showing how articulated robots are used to load and unload parts on fixtures, how inline 3D cameras facilitate dimensional and distortion control, and how test coupons placed by robots at strategic locations throughout a load are weighed before and after heat treatment to determine if parts in different areas of the load are likely to be carburized to the same degree. It also includes an example of an automatically generated report and explains how binary codes on base trays can be used to automatically upload recipes for specific heat treatments.