Industrial Automation
 | Industrial Racking - Beam Assembly.Horizontal support beam sections for industrial racking systems are often produced by hand assembling two steel roll formed sections to form a box. This example shows an automated process that accomplishes this. The roll formed sections are continuously produced and cut to length; the machine, placed at the end of the roll former, takes each cut section as it is produced and automatically produces one fully assembled box for every two cut beam sections. A further machine stacks the sections into a waiting stillage. Complete beams can be produced - depending on length - every 15 seconds with roll former line rates up to 90 ft (30m)/min. |
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 | Automatic Beam Welder.Allied to the above example where industrial racking beams are assembled, this shows an application of automatic welding. The pre-assembled beams are positioned and the end 'Clip' is applied to the beam end. Two welding torches are lowered and perform a vertical 'down hand' weld between the beam end and clip. Both ends of the beam are welded simultaneously. The system is configurable to allow welding of various box widths and several Clip types. The configuration is held within the controller software and may be selected as desired. This machine is capable of welding approximately 4 beams per minute using conventional M.I.G welders. Beams are supplied directly from a continuous conveyor and Clips are dispensed from a magazine. |
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Plasma Cutting.
The illustration shows the business end of a machine for producing automotive exhaust components. The machine accepts flat stainless steel strip and forms it into continuous spiral wound tube which is then cut to length on the fly using air plasma. The machine can produce up to four parts per minute on a continuous basis with an accuracy of 0.5mm. The embedded control system holds a database of part types which enables it to be easily set-up as production demands and can also provide statistical information for SPC systems. As with all our equipment the design, manufacture and build was undertaken entirely 'in house' including the strip forming sections. Several variants of this equipment were built and are currently working in South Africa, the USA and Wales producing vibration isolators for vehicle exhausts. |  |
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 | Flexible hose Strip Wound Machines.A.T.L. has designed and built a variety of so called 'stripwound' machines. These machines convert stainless steel strip into flexible steel hoses. Machines have been produced with capacities up to 150mm in diameter with pitch sizes up to 12mm. The flexible hose is used in a number of industries from automotive exhaust systems to underwater submersibles. Our machines use the latest in steel strip control to produce a product having good consistency at high production speeds. Modern user friendly controls and safety systems enable the machines to be used by relatively unskilled personnel. The machines illustrated are currently in use in South Africa, the USA and Wales. |
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Robotic Systems.The example shows a cryo-cleaning system currently in production for a leading aircraft engine manufacturer. This system uses a proprietary Robot manipulator with an in house designed dry-ice cleaning system to automatically clean aircraft engine turbine rotors. Owing to the high value of each turbine rotor and the exacting engineering standards employed, the system holds the complete details for each rotor type and can identify each rotor automatically. Only after extensive checking is the robot allowed to execute the cleaning cycle. All design and planning is done 'in-house' including the robot programming and the design of operating system and software for the overall control system. |  |
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 | Slip Rings.Designed to fill a need in our own equipment for a cost effective means of providing electrical power and control to rotating elements we have developed a range of modular electrical slip rings. Having a basic 9 ring format the units can be used at voltages up to 230V AC for power provision. For signal level use, a range of multiplexers are available to provide up to 48 ways of I/O using only three of the 9 rings. The unit shown also provides a central rotating compressed air coupling. |
| All equipment is produced and tested at our works located in the heart of the English countryside. The photo shows equipment leaving Brede for shipment to the USA |
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