Robotics & Automation in the Heat Treat Industry
August 10th of this year we had a story entitled “Robots in the Heat Treatment Industry-Wallwork Group” which came from a UK heat treater who recently installed a robot to help with a vacuum braze line. The press release prompted us to look at other examples of automation and robotics in the global heat treatment industry-you can find two other examples at “Robots in the Heat Treatment Industry-Fendt Tractors” and “Robots in the Heat Treatment Industry-Thermetco”.
Another example of an automated heat treat installation can be found at “Lamborghini Gear Supplier Brings Heat Treatment in House”, this is an example which has become quite common-a completely automated “lights out” batch IQ installation. While we say quite common it certainly wasn’t just 25 years ago.
Basically parts are fixtured by hand (or largely by hand) with the fixtures placed in “racks” inside a fenced area surrounding the furnaces, tempers and washers. From here the operation becomes completely automated with a PLC controlled charge car moving the fixtured parts from the “racks” to the furnaces, washer and tempers before being unloaded and moved to a “finished” parts area.
Our first experience with such a system occurred at a Bodycote (commercial heat treating) facility in California, USA roughly 25 years ago-it was a “challenging” installation to say the least. However while this sort of automated system lacks the “sex” appeal of a robot it has become “tried and true” technology that can be relied upon to produce a consistent result.
Lamborghini Gear Supplier Brings Heat Treatment in House
In 1988 gear supplier Tecno-ingranaggi S.r.l., in Capriano del Colle, Italy was founded as a premium supplier of cutting-edge spur gears and transmission parts.
Over the years the firm’s customer base has grown to include such well-known names as Lamborghini, Dana, Caterpillar and Case New Holland to name just a few. In total Tecno-ingranaggi S.r.l., now has 120 employees producing gears for the automotive, agricultural and wind industries.
It turns out the owner of the company Mr. Giuseppe Gilberti has always had a strong desire to bring heat treating in house and with the long turn around times by local commercial heat treaters he made this a reality in 2021 (“The Monty” has always said that the number one reason manufacturers bring heat treating in house is because of long turn around times by commercial heat treaters-obviously there are two side to this story).The end result is that in 2021 the firm installed a Sealed Quench furnace line (batch IQ to our North American readers) which consisted of 2 high heat furnaces, one endothermic generator, one washer and two tempering units all supplied by Ipsen of Kleve, Germany. This installation proved to be such a success that in 2022 the company added another high heat furnace followed in 2024 by one more high heat furnace, one more temper and one more endothermic generator.
Each of the high heat furnaces has working dimensions of 760mm X 1220mm X 760mm (30″ X 48″ X 30″) and a weight capacity of 1,000Kg (2200 pounds)-all of the furnace do strictly carburizing. Each of the furnaces is heated by natural gas although the newest furnace is capable of heating with both natural gas and hydrogen.During a meeting with the owner of the company Mr. Giuseppe Gilberti, it was immediately clear that he is extremely pleased with his decision to bring heat treatment in house, again mainly because of the turn around time and the fact that he now has complete control over every aspect of his manufacturing process.
In house heat treatment is not perfect for every manufacturer but for some it is the correct route to go, in this case it was the correct solution for this gear supplier.
We thank our host for this tour, Mr. Corrado Tomaselli of Ipsen.
Giuseppe Gilberti, President, Tecno-ingranaggi S.r.l., Corrado Tomaselli, Ipsen, Gord Montgomery “The Monty Heat Treat News”
Corrado Tomaselli, Ipsen