Sensor-equipped robot for automatic pipe marking

Citation

(2002), "Sensor-equipped robot for automatic pipe marking", Industrial Robot, Vol. 29 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2002.04929cab.009

Sensor-equipped robot for automatic pipe marking

Sensor-equipped robot for automatic pipe marking

Keywords: Robots, Pipes

Kawasaki Steel Corp. reports that its Chita works near Tokyo is using a compact dot-spray painter plugged into a robot's wrist so as to accurately, automatically mark medium-diameter seamless pipe. Help to Japan's No. 3 steel firm in ranking came from the Martek Corp., a Tokyo-based venture enterprise, and Fanuc Ltd, a unit of the Fujitsu Co. Ltd. This robot permits high-speed imprinting of the identification code on the inner surface of a pipe that is 150mm or larger in diameter.

The dot-spray painter robot is also equipped with a sensor that lets it locate, without touching the pipe, the exact place for the marking operation. The robotised marking is automatic from start to finish with a process computer which, while tracking the movement of tubular workpieces, keeps the robot informed of the incoming pipe's outer diameter and the wall thickness, as well as the code numbers and letters that should be produced on it.

The major advantage of deploying the robot in tubemaking operations is an anticipated substantial saving in manpower. A second benefit reported from the company's experience stems from the precise tracking of the pipe which the robotised marking renders practicable by assigning a different alphanumeric code to each tubular item.

At the Chita works' seamless pipe mill, the robot is at work in the finishing line upstream of such quality assurance steps as non-destructive tests and threading/ coupling operations.

Imprinting the code figures on the inside of the pipe's end, important as it is to keep them from being rubbed out and also to ensure the visibility when the pipe is stacked in a storage yard, is viewed as such a tedious chore that with manual spray-painting, it was only possible to identify each batch of two dozen or so pipes from the next. Also worth noting are the multiple other capabilities designed in this universal robot. With software changeover, moreover, it is possible to use it in robotising other phases of tube-making.

Kawasaki Steel has plans to install more of these machines at its Chita tubemaking complex's other pipe mills, as a key element in ushering in so-called "factory automation" and streamlining the physical distribution. The company is also working on advanced models to be equipped for automatic marking of non-tubular shapes of finished steel.